DURING THE TWENTY YEARS from 1958 to 1978, the framework for rural development throughout China was provided by the people's commune, a structure with a three-level system of ownership with the production team as its basis. In the vast majority of communes, the ownership of land, labour, basic farming-implements, and animals was vested in the team level, a unit with an average population of fewer than 170 people.' The team managed the farming tasks and formed the unit of account for calculating and dividing income. At successively higher levels of organization, the brigade and the commune provided inputs of larger machinery and water resources, general management, and overall planning. Depending on the quality of leadership and available resources, the latter two levels also accumulated the funds to invest in infrastructure, subsidiary undertakings, and small industries. In addition, the commune formed the basis for governmental administration in the countryside. It absorbed the functions of the old xiang (township) and took most of the responsibility for the provision of welfare services, education, public security, and so forth.2 At different times during those twenty years, there were variations in the emphasis placed on different aspects of this structure and on the extent of peasant activity outside it. There was never, however, any