http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1715078,00.html?gusrc=rss
China
yesterday unveiled ambitious plans to help the 800 million people living in the
countryside catch up economically with people in the cities.
More rural
investment and agricultural subsidies and improved social services are the main
planks of a policy to create a "new socialist countryside", which the president,
Hu Jintao, says is a priority.
According to the World Bank, the policy is a significant shift away from the
previous focus on economic development. Greater weight will be given to the
redistribution of resources and a rebalancing of income.
The policy was drawn up at the end of December as part of the government's
five-year economic plan, but the details were made public only
yesterday.
"Constructing a new socialist countryside is an important
historic task in the process of China's modernisation," says the policy. "The
only way to ensure sustainable development of the national economy and
continuous expansion of domestic demand is to develop the rural economy and help
farmers to become more affluent."
It aims to modernise the countryside, which has fallen behind in China's race
to expand. From this year until 2010, the government promises sustained
increases in farmers' incomes, more industrial support for agriculture and
faster development of public services.
Several measures are already under way. This year, the agricultural tax will
be phased out after hundreds of years, and farm subsidies have been raised.
But millions of peasants still cannot afford basic services, such as
education and health. To improve access, the new policy promises that, by 2007,
rural students will no longer have to pay for books and heating in schools.
Students from the poorest families will receive free textbooks and boarding
subsidies. And the government will also increase subsidies for rural health
cooperatives.
But local governments have been warned that they will be held to account. The
new measures promise greater protection and improved democracy in rural areas,
and local government bureaucracies will be trimmed to cut costs.
In part, the policy is driven by concerns about China's ability to feed
itself. The past 25 years of rapid urbanisation have seen swaths of farmland
turned into development zones, and more than 200 million farmers have migrated
to the cities.
The policy proposes that China should remain "basically self-sufficient" in
grain. It promises increased subsidies for farmers growing grain, as well as
continued revenue "bonuses" for local governments in the grainbelt, and says the
government will continue setting prices for grain purchases.
The shift of focus also reflects the government's alarm at the number of
peasant protests. Last month, the ministry of public security said there were
87,000 protests, riots and other "mass incidents" last year, up 6.6% on 2004.
But the ability of central government to implement the policy is unclear.
President Hu has been promising "harmonious development" for three years, but
many profit-focused local authorities have baulked at the cost of measures to
protect the environment and improve industrial safety.
