Establishing an inclusive financial system with comprehensive and accessible services in rural areas is increasingly promoted as a crucial element for socio-economic development both in China and globally. Yet, in existing research on China's agricultural and rural development, relatively less...

Key to China's plans to promote rural development is the de-marginalisation of the countryside through the incorporation of rural areas into the urban-based market-oriented financial system. For this reason, Chinese development planners have turned to microcredit - i.e. the provision of...