China plans law to make reviving rural areas a priority in modernisation push
- Lawmaker Chen Xiwen says committee is drafting legislation to set out status of Xi Jinping’s campaign to develop countryside
- Rural areas, where incomes and living standards are significantly lower, have been left behind in China’s urbanisation drive
Beijing is drafting a law to underpin an ambitious campaign to revitalise its rural areas – part of President Xi Jinping’s plan to make China a strong modern country by 2050.
The campaign, initiated by Xi when he started his second term in 2017, marks a shift in focus for the ruling Communist Party – prioritising the country’s rural areas over the urban development that has fuelled breakneck economic growth for decades.
Xi’s vision is for rural areas that have prosperous industries and farmers with raised living standards, but not at the expense of the environment, by the time 2050 rolls around. The ultimate aim is for the party to “build a modern, socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious” by the time the People’s Republic of China marks its 100th anniversary in 2049.
Speaking in Beijing on Saturday, Chen Xiwen, a National People’s Congress lawmaker for agriculture and rural affairs, said the new law would set out the priority status of developing China’s rural areas.
He said Xi had made rural revitalisation a top priority for the party and vowed to address the gap between agriculture and industries, and between urban and rural areas, and improve the system to advance rural development.
“All these guiding principles need to be stipulated in legislation,” said Chen, a former deputy director of the central agricultural work leading group.
