A comprehensive analysis of China's rural reforms, this book links local experiences to national policy, showing the dynamic tension in the reform process among state policy, local cadre power and self-interest, and the peasants' search for economic growth. Twelve articles, ranging from personal on-site observations of early resistance to reform by suburban cadres and farmers in Nanjing to field research in export-oriented communities on the Yangzi River in 1991-92, cover key topics: the responsibility system, privatization and changing property rights, industrialization, social conflict, cadre corruption, urban-rural relations, conflict over land, rural urbanization, and the impact of globalization. A useful introduction integrates the themes found throughout the book, and the concluding chapter focuses on current and future problems in rural China.