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Government officials this weekend were reviewing proposals for a rural land reform policy that, if adopted, would mark a significant shift away from what has been a hallmark of Communist Party rule -- the collective ownership of farmland, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The policy changes could be announced after the session ends Sunday, scholars and government advisers told the newspaper.

China watchers told the Times the new policy would allow the country's 800 million peasant farmers to buy and sell land-use contracts to other farmers or to agricultural companies, a shift that could lead to more efficient land use and allow much larger farms to develop.

"If all the speculations are true, if senior leadership is going to lift all the restrictions out the door, I'd say this is a great positive", Keliang Zhu, a lawyer with the U.S. land reform group Rural Development Institute, told the newspaper. "It'll free up the dead capital and allow all this wealth to materialize."

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