Grapes of Wrath: Twisting Arms to Get Villagers to Cooperate with Agribusiness in China Qiangqiang Luo, Joel Andreas, and Yao Li* ABSTRACT In recent years the Chinese Communist Party has moved to scale up, modernize, and com- mercialize agriculture by placing it under the direction of large commercial enterprises known as dragonheads. Although scholars have drawn attention to the rapid advance of capitalist-style farming in China, there has been little investigation into how villagers have been pressed to co- operate with this endeavor. In this article, we examine methods used by local officials to cre- ate a grape production base for a large wine company in Xinjiang, which entailed getting all the peasant households in several townships—many of which were strongly opposed—to shift from cultivating rice and raising fish to growing grapes on contract. In this aggressive cam- paign, Party cadres and influential citizens were mobilized to persuade and coerce villagers, using an array of incentives and disincentives, to join what ultimately proved to be a very risky venture. A gribusiness is transforming rural China. Until recently, Chinese agriculture was almost entirely the domain of small-scale production carried out by tens of millions of rural households. Over the last two decades, however, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government have been moving with increasing determination to scale up, modernize, and commercialize agriculture by placing it under the direction of large commercial firms known as dragonhead enterprises (longtou qiye 龙头企业). These enterprises, with strong support from local officials, have been radically reorganizing land and labor in the agricultural sector. This reorganization has required the cooperation of village households, sometimes to their detriment. In this article, we examine one case in which local of- ficials helped an agribusiness company establish a large production base (shengchan jidi 生产基地) by using aggressive tactics to press reluctant households to shift to contract production. * We thank Anita Chan, Tom Cliff, Mindi Schneider, Jonathan Unger, Shaohua Zhan, and three reviewers for helpful comments on previous drafts. Electronically published September 21, 2016 The China Journal, no. 77. 1324-9347/2017/7701-0002. Copyright 2016 by The Australian National University. All rights reserved. • 27 •