(by Professor Zheng Changzhong on the Way to the Opening Ceremony of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Mayors’ Forum on the Morning of May 23, 2025)
Good morning, journalists!
Due to rainfall, today’s rural inspection program has been temporarily canceled. However, I believe it remains essential and significant to deeply introduce the development history and current status of rural China to you.
Looking back at China’s economic and social development, we have achieved an organic unity of development and order. Behind this lies a series of scientific mechanisms and strategic arrangements, a crucial aspect of which is the precise grasp of development priorities in different historical periods and the high emphasis on regional coordinated development. This coordination covers not only the overall planning of physical spaces such as the eastern, western, and central regions but also the collaborative progress between urban and rural areas. Today, I will focus on the coordination of urban and rural development.
China was once rooted in a splendid farming civilization that prospered for thousands of years. However, in modern times, the traditional development model became difficult to adapt to the needs of modernization. Modernization requires industrialization and urban construction, while at that time, China’s wealth mainly originated from rural areas. As a peace-loving country, China could not complete primitive accumulation through foreign plunder like some Western countries. Therefore, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we chose a path of accelerating industrial and urban development, with agriculture and rural areas fully supporting industrial and urban construction.
During this process, Chinese farmers made indelible contributions. Thanks to the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and the profound sense of family and country among the people, farmers actively participated in national construction. Additionally, most urban residents had rural backgrounds, and everyone worked together to support urban and industrial development, strongly promoting China’s modernization process.
Under the government’s overall planning, with the development strategy of rural areas supporting cities and agriculture supporting industry, China successfully completed the tasks of the basic stage of modernization. Thereafter, while continuing to develop the economy, we quickly turned our attention to agricultural development. We abolished agricultural taxes, vigorously promoted new rural construction, and fully assisted rural poor populations… Adhering to the concept of “letting some regions and people get rich first to drive others,” we launched a decisive battle against poverty.
This campaign focused on families living below the poverty line due to illness, disasters, and other reasons. The central government comprehensively solved their food and clothing, housing, education, employment, and other challenges through multi-dimensional measures in economic, social, and cultural fields. In 2021, on the historic occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we solemnly declared that the task of poverty alleviation had been successfully completed, and absolute poverty had completely become history in China! This feat ensured that there were no more homeless people in urban and rural China, and many problems related to poverty and disease were effectively resolved during the poverty alleviation process.
After solving absolute poverty, the focus of rural work shifted to rural revitalization, injecting new momentum into promoting urban-rural modernization together. Rural revitalization focuses on five core areas: industrial revitalization aims to cultivate rural characteristic independent industries and consolidate the foundation of economic development; talent revitalization is dedicated to cultivating and gathering professional talents in science, technology, management, etc., to strengthen rural development; cultural revitalization adheres to the “two-handed approach” to material and spiritual civilization, continuously enriching farmers’ spiritual and cultural lives; ecological revitalization deeply practices the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” and strengthens rural ecological environment protection; organizational revitalization relies on efficient and powerful organizational strength to integrate various elements and ensure the steady progress of rural revitalization.
In recent years, not only rural areas in coastal regions have achieved remarkable development results, but those in inland and western regions have also made significant progress. I once accompanied foreign friends to visit many rural areas, and at first, they could hardly believe their eyes, even thinking they were “scenic spots” arranged on purpose.
I have introduced the situation of urban-rural coordination, poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization here. China has a vast territory, and the problem of unbalanced regional development objectively exists. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we have always regarded promoting balanced regional development as an important mission. In the future, I also look forward to having the opportunity to elaborate on the relevant content of inter-regional coordinated development for you.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.