The new regime in China addressed the peasant question by instituting wholesale land redistribution, which was carried out swiftly and ruthlessly.

Answer:

After the Communist victory in 1949, the new Chinese regime treated the peasant question as central to revolution and state-building. Since China was overwhelmingly agrarian, the Communist Party believed that land redistribution was essential to destroy landlord power, win peasant support and transform rural society.

Land Redistribution after 1949

Abolition of landlordism:

• The Agrarian Reform Law of 1950 aimed to confiscate land from landlords and redistribute it among poor peasants and landless labourers.
• Land, animals, tools and rural property were redistributed in many areas.
• This broke the old landlord-dominated rural order.

Peasant mobilisation:

• The Communist Party organised peasants into village meetings and struggle campaigns.
• Poor peasants were encouraged to speak against landlords.
• This created political support for the new regime at the village level.

Swift and Ruthless Character

Violence and coercion:

• Land reform was carried out rapidly and often violently.
• Landlords were publicly humiliated, tried, dispossessed and in many cases executed.
• The process was not merely economic redistribution but also class struggle.

Political purpose:

• The reform destroyed old rural elites and extended Communist control into the countryside.
• It gave peasants a direct stake in the new regime.

However, redistribution was not the final stage. Within a few years, the regime moved towards cooperatives and collectivisation, reducing individual peasant ownership. Therefore, the new Chinese regime addressed the peasant question through swift and radical land redistribution, but it did so through coercive class mobilisation and state-directed transformation.