New Changes in Rural Order Following the Implementation of Rent and Interest Reduction Policies in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region

Abstract

During the War of Resistance, the rent and interest reduction policy in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region represented a significant practice by the Chinese Communist Party to adjust rural production relations and drive social transformation. This paper examines the reshaping of the social structure in the base areas following the policy's implementation, focusing on the evolution of rural order. Through the gradual transfer of land rights, the policy facilitated the flow of land from landlords to poor peasants and farm laborers, expanded the middle peasantry, and shifted the class structure from a “pyramid” to an “olive” shape. Mass organizations like farmers' associations proliferated, dismantling landlord monopolies and reconstructing rural governance systems. Party organizations recruited activists and trained cadres through rent reduction efforts, achieving mass mobilization and organizational penetration. Traditional clan-based authority gave way to a new political authority grounded in class identity. The rent and interest reduction campaign achieved rural social integration on both economic and political levels, laying the foundation for subsequent land reform and regime consolidation. This process remains instructive for contemporary rural reform and rural revitalization.