Cementing rural foundation for Chinese modernization

BEIJING -- Time in China is often measured by the arc of grand designs. And the last 13 years have told a story of statecraft success in the country's vast rural areas.

A memorable day was Feb 25, 2021 when Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China had secured a "complete victory" in its fight against absolute poverty.

The "complete victory" capped eight years of arduous efforts to lift the final 98.99 million rural residents living under the then poverty line out of poverty. With this achievement, China met the poverty eradication target set out in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

The Chinese leadership, however, has never seen the eradication of absolute poverty as the end of the road, but rather as a milestone in an ongoing journey.

A five-year transition period was established for poverty-alleviated counties to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and prevent large-scale relapse into poverty, amid a nationwide push to advance rural revitalization and agricultural modernization.

As the country is wrapping up this five-year transition period and embracing the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), cementing rural foundation for Chinese modernization holds particular significance.

"We should still take rural revitalization and the development of the work concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers as the foundation of Chinese modernization," Xi said at the Central Economic Work Conference last December.

ROCK-SOLID SAFETY NET

While the world was impressed by China's feat of eradicating absolute poverty and its contributions to global poverty reduction in 2021, there were concerns over whether this had been a temporary achievement or lasting transformation.

Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has urged efforts to resolutely ensure that "people do not slip back into poverty on a large scale." That bottom line was firmly safeguarded during the past five years.

The per capita disposable income growth among farmers in poverty-alleviated counties has been maintained at a higher rate than the national rural average, and employment of people who have been lifted out of poverty has remained stable at over 30 million for five consecutive years, according to official data.

The achievement is hard-won, as various kinds of difficulties and challenges, including natural disasters, could have threatened to throw fragile groups back into poverty.

On the night of Dec 18, 2023, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Bonan-Dongxiang-Salar autonomous county of Jishishan in Northwest China's Gansu province, causing heavy casualties and property losses.

The government immediately began monitoring risks of relapse into poverty and initiated disaster relief efforts. Working around the clock for more than eight months, more than 17,000 workers repaired homes for 28,927 households, rebuilt 10,080 houses on their original sites, and completed the construction of 10,015 new homes across 13 resettlement areas.

The concerted efforts finally averted a relapse into poverty in the county since it shook off poverty in 2020.

China's fight against poverty and the consolidation of achievements of poverty alleviation fully demonstrate Xi's unwavering commitment to people-centered governance.

"The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the work of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and will definitely take practical and effective policies and measures to respond to the concerns and needs of the people," Xi said when visiting a village in Central China's Hunan province in 2024.

The idea of "targeted poverty alleviation" which changed the fates of hundreds of far-flung counties was first put forward when Xi visited Shibadong Village in the province in 2013. This ethnic Miao village, once isolated and backward, is making steady progress towards all-round rural revitalization.

Just as targeted poverty alleviation helped win the battle against poverty, precision is crucial to efforts for no large-scale relapse into poverty.

China has put in place a mechanism for dynamic monitoring of trends indicating a potential return to poverty and regular checks on key groups, to ensure early detection, intervention and support.

In Daba, a remote village in Southwest China's Guizhou province, local officials learned in April 2025 that resident Yang Xilong incurred unusually high medical expenses due to an eye disease.

Within days, a streamlined process had enrolled the family in targeted support, eliminating the risk of medical-induced poverty.

The aid was so timely because local government officials have been paying close attention to the situations of formerly impoverished households, especially the risks they might be exposed to such as sudden healthcare costs, job loss and crop failure.

During his inspection tours in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces in 2025, Xi stressed that solid work should be done to prevent large-scale occurrence of poverty or relapse into poverty.

THRIVE ON REGULAR SUPPORT

During the transition period, the government has done more than merely preventing return to poverty, but worked to help its rural areas thrive.

"The development of industries is the most important on the rural revitalization agenda," Xi said at the 2022 Central Rural Work Conference.

In October 2024, Xi visited the coastal Aojiao village in East China's Fujian province, where he learned that many seafood products were in high demand and residents' incomes were on the rise, and he urged them to make good use of the sea.

Once relying solely on traditional fishing, Aojiao is now thriving in mariculture, seafood processing, seafood e-commerce and tourism. The blue sea and silver beaches have become invaluable assets for locals.

Over the past five years, each of China's 832 poverty-alleviated counties have cultivated two or three leading industries with prominent advantages and strong driving forces, generating a total output value of over 1.7 trillion yuan (about $245.57 billion).

In the rural policy document issued by China's central authorities last month, a mechanism of regular and targeted assistance to the needy was deployed for the first time, bringing the country's battle against poverty to a new stage after the transition period.

It called for improving regular support policies, strengthening more precise and timely assistance, improving the effectiveness of industrial and employment support programs, and adopting tiered, differentiated measures for underdeveloped areas.

Xi issued important instructions on advancing the work concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers last December. He noted that 2026 marks the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and doing a good job in this regard is crucial.

Offering guidance for local authorities in this regard, he has urged Liaoning province to learn and apply the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program, an initiative originally launched in Zhejiang province aimed to improve the eco-environment of villages and rural residents' quality of life.

He also instructed Jilin province to prioritize the development of large-scale modern agriculture, and Henan province to promote all-round rural revitalization through integrated urban and rural development.

"China should strive to build agriculture into a major modernized sector and basically ensure modern standards of living in rural areas so that farmers can enjoy a more prosperous life," Xi has stressed.