olicy changes had to be implemented. Reform was begun in the rural sectors of the country. The communes were broken up. The peasants were given leases to agricultural land with requirements to pay taxes and sell their production quota at a set market price. Any excess production could then be marketed by themselves at whatever price the market would bear. Hunger was alleviated and the peasants' income rose. The percent increase in value of the crop has been calculated at between 15 percent and 62 percent (Stavis 373 and McMillan 781). These impressive gains were lost in the years following 1984. Peasant unrest and uncertainty caused by the government lowering prices and raising the costs of necessary resources led to declines in agricultural production.
In 1993, warnings of trouble in the peasant class were again heard (Binyan, 1994, p. 243). Local officials were buying agricultural products with paper script instead of cash and forcing the peasants to pay extra taxes on various pretexts whenever the local governments needed extra funds. The peasants were the group least able to defend themselves from the corrupt officials. Prices for agricultural production remained low and farm equipment and fertilizer prices rose. As many as 100 million peasants have been displaced, and the fields they worked taken out of production. The long-term results of this are yet to be felt.
The chaotic social conditions that began in the late 1970s have never disappeared. At times, they have become suppressed, only to flair up in a different setting. The demonstrations, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, were indicative of the frustrations of the population. The demonstrations began in 1976 (Binyan, 1994, p. 241) and continued off and on at intervals of a couple of years until 1989. In the beginning, the demonstrators were treated lightly, and only mild crack-downs occurred. Political reform occurred at a slow but steady pace between 1...