Xi urges further upgrading of rural roads

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping has urged unremitting efforts to upgrade rural roads to facilitate rural development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a new instruction on work related to rural roads.

In recent years, the Ministry of Transport and other central and local authorities have made notable achievements in improving rural roads, boosting the sense of fulfillment, happiness and security of rural residents, Xi said.

Better rural roads will provide solid support to bring common prosperity to rural residents, facilitate rural revitalization, and accelerate the modernization of China's agriculture and countryside, Xi said.

Vice-Premier He Lifeng conveyed Xi's instruction on Wednesday at a conference on building high-quality rural roads held in Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang province.

Ten years ago, Xi issued instructions on rural road construction to eliminate the traffic bottlenecks restricting rural development, and to facilitate poverty alleviation work in the countryside.

He ordered that rural roads be built well, managed well, maintained well and used well. For this reason, these roads have become known as "Four-Wells Rural Roads," or "Sihaonongcunlu" in Chinese.

Official statistics show that these roads have played a fundamental role in improving livelihoods in China's vast countryside.

From 2014 to 2023, a total of 2.5 million kilometers of rural roads were built or renovated, and 70,600 villages were connected by paved roads. By the end of 2023, the aggregate length of China's rural roads stood at 4.6 million kilometers.