A burgeoning movement to return forests to farmland and the sudden arrival of heavy-handed rural enforcers are at the center of recent dramatic events in China.
China is making a major push to expand its arable land. The movement reverses years of ecological “farmland to forest” policies and includes the establishment of a new “Rural Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Brigade.”  The agricultural management officers have quickly become unpopular for their thug-like tactics.
The drive to increase farmland and manage China’s rural areas reflects the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) intention to replace market-oriented and diversified agriculture with planned food production, say analysts. It also aims to regain the party’s centralized control over the countryside, which has been a “weak link” for years….