By LI Xiubin

China is undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization, which substantially increase pressure on farmland resources, environment, and peasants’ life as well. During the past two decades, some 4 million ha of farmland has been occupied by non-agricultural sectors. It is estimated that more than 50 million rural people lost their farmland in this urban sprawl process. It puts tremendous stress on these people considering that China has not yet established a nation-wide social security system covering all peasants in rural areas. Such a land conversion is regarded as the major contribution to the miracle of China’s economic growth, but the author argues that peasants’ rights to land has been abused in the process which is also a threat to sustainable use of land resources. The underlying reason for this abuse is the poor institutional scheme of land titling. The paper provides a review of literature on the extent of the land conversion and impacts of the conversion on peasants’ life.