By Han Jun, Director-General of the Research Department of Rural Economy, the DRC

I. Building a New Socialist Countryside Is an Overall Strategic Plan that Should Be a Universal Guidance for the Whole Country

Building a new socialist countryside is a major strategic decision made by the central government in light of the overall consideration to harmonize urban and rural development and comprehensively build a well-off society. This is a request for the whole country. As China has a vast countryside and as its regions differ greatly in local conditions, their basic conditions for building a new socialist countryside are also quite different. Therefore, different regions should define their moves and priorities in light of their practical conditions. They should refrain from taking same approaches and blindly vying with each other.

The developed regions have the conditions to go faster in improving the overall state of their countryside. They should allocate more financial resources to solve the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and should strive for greater progress in raising the level of agricultural modernization, improving the living environment of the villages, improving infrastructure and public services and establishing a social security system for the countryside. Building a new countryside is a task not only for the developed regions, but also for the underdeveloped regions. Some peopleare worried about the factor that to the central and western regions noted for weak industrial basis and lots of urban problems, it seems premature to request them now to build a new countryside. In these regions, the overall level of their rural development is far lower than that in the developed regions along the sea coast and their urban-rural disparity is far more serious than in the developed regions. Right from their present stage of development, the central and western underdeveloped regions should take the building of a new countryside as a work priority of their Party committees and governments at various levels in accordance with the overall strategy for balanced urban-rural development. They should not neglect agriculture and rural areas or continue to enlarge their urban-rural disparity. Certainly,farmers in the underdeveloped regions are still not rich and the regional governments still have very limited financial resources. Therefore, when push forward the building of a new countryside, local governmentsshould strictly observe the relevant state policies on preventing from increasing the farmers’burdens, preventing the incurrence of new rural debts and earnestly protecting the farmland. They should proceed from reality and do well what they can do. For example, they should place emphasis on the most elementary issues such as improving the basic living conditions of the farmers, diversifying the channels to increase the income of the farmers, and popularizing and consolidating the rural compulsory education. This will help lay a solid foundation for building a new countryside. To the central and western regions, pushing forward the building of a new countryside is both a higher demand and a new development opportunity. In the future, the state will give necessary support to the underdeveloped regions in their efforts to build a new countryside. The financial outlay for building a new countryside and the arrangement of construction projects will be leaning favorably to the underdeveloped regions.

II. Building a New Countryside Should not Be Divorced from the Existing Policies Concerning Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers or Become a Completely New Endeavor

During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, China made major breakthroughs in improving its policies concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. First, the importance of the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers to the overall modernization drive was clearly defined, citing a proper solution of the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers as a top priority of the whole Party and of the work in all fields. This is a definition of great significance. Next, major policies were clearly defined for a proper solution of the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The Sixteenth CPC National Congress emphasized a balanced economic and social development between the urban and rural areas. This is a general guideline put forward by profoundly summarizing our practical experience in handling the urban-rural relations. It charted a clear direction for fundamentally solving the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Then at the FourthPlenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee, the Party put forward an important "two-trends" notion, which clearly charted the guiding principles from the overall and strategic perspectives for solving the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the new period and set the basic tune for China to form a mechanism in the new situation, through which industry back-feeds agriculture and city supports countryside. Third, a series of policies were formulated to promote grain production, ease the farmers’burden, promote migration of surplus rural labor and increase the farmers’income. This has brought real benefits to the farmers. The operation of agriculture and the rural economy during the TenthFive-Year Plan indicated that under the correct guidance of the state’s macro policies, agriculture and the rural economy took a significant turn for the better. Grain output increased by 53.35 billion kilograms for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005, which was hardly seen in history. As a result, farmers’income continued to rise, at a target annual rate of 5 percent. The reform of rural taxes and fees made substantial progress, and the agricultural tax was in the main abolished. In addition, solid progress was also made in diversifying grain market players.

The decision to build a new socialist countryside made at the FifthPlenary Session of the Sixteenth CPC Central Committee is a continuation of the guiding principles of solving the dualistic structural contradiction between the urban and rural areas and emphasizing a balanced urban-rural development formally put forward at the Sixteenth CPCNational Congress for the first time. It is a concrete manifestation of the principle that industry should back-feed agriculture and city should support countryside. Therefore, building a new countryside should not be divorced from the existing policies designed to solve the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. It is by no means a completely new endeavor, independent of the existing policies. In pushing forward the building of a new countryside, it is necessary to earnestly implement the Party’s policies on countryside, stabilize and constantly improve the basic operating systems in the rural areas, give top priority to the development of rural productivity, intensify support to agriculture and the rural areas and protect the material interests and democratic rights of the farmers. The building of a new countryside advocated by the central authorities represents a higher and clearer demand for solving the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers and also a new development opportunity for agriculture and farmers.

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