Lei Ming

Summary

• Rural revitalization can be understood as, raising the quality and competitiveness of agricultural products; fostering high-quality and localized personnel; inheriting and advocating the ‘good family culture, civilized rural culture, and humble folk culture’; promoting and practicing green development, enhancing the governance of local rural governments.

• Rural revitalization strategy aims at achieving industrial development, environmental-friendly living, civilized culture, effective governance, and abundant life for the rural sector.

• The mechanisms of rural revitalization are five mechanisms for vitalization, five entities for cooperation and five relationships for coordination.

• The policy systems of the rural revitalization include rural industrial policy system, rural environmental policy system, rural cultural policy system, rural governance policy system, and social security policy system.

• To achieve the objectives of rural revitalization, we need to follow the path of urban-rural coordination, the path of common prosperity, the path of high-quality agriculture, the path of green development, the path of cultural promotion, the path of improved governance, and the path of rural revitalization with Chinese characteristics.

What is rural revitalization?

Rural revitalization can be understood as, raising the quality and competitiveness of agricultural products; fostering high-quality and localized personnel; inheriting and advocating ‘the good family culture, civilized rural culture, and humble folk culture’; promoting and practicing green development, enhancing the governance of local governments.

The key to rural revitalization strategy lies within revitalization. Sequentially, the revitalization is the continuation and advancement of the worked related to ‘agriculture, rural areas and farmers’. Spatially, rural revitalization requires not only the coordination between urban and rural areas towards modernization, but also creation and total reconstruction with a global perspective. Revitalization emphasizes the discovery of rural value and the promotion of the free transaction of production factors between the rural and urban sectors. Globally, rural revitalization is a strategic consideration to enhance competitiveness and international status in the global governance system.

What are the goals of rural revitalization?

Rural revitalization strategy aims at achieving industrial development, environmental-friendly living, civilized culture, effective governance, and abundant life for the rural sector. These five aspects are integrated, with underlying logical links. Hence, policy makers should bear in mind the interconnectedness of these five objectives. Specifically, ‘abundant life’ is both the starting point and the ultimate goal of rural revitalization, it is also the direct consequence of 'industrial development'. In addition to ‘abundant life’, ‘civilized culture’ and ‘environmental-friendly living’ are the two other aspects of rural revitalization. ‘Environmental-friendly living’ and ‘industrial development’ are closely related, such that a good environment presupposes the development of organic farming, tourism, and health & wellness industry. ‘Effective governance’ and ‘civilized culture’ reinforces each other.

Through what mechanisms can we achieve rural revitalization?

The mechanisms of rural revitalization are five mechanisms for vitalization, five entities for cooperation and five relationships for coordination. Specifically, the five mechanisms for vitalization are market vitalization, entity vitalization, factor vitalization, policy vitalization and corporate vitalization. Farmers should be at the center of the five entities for cooperation, which are guided by the central and local governments, led by firms, supported by technology, with the participation of the wider society. The coordination between the rural and urban, government and market, immigration and emigration, fundamentals and appearances, and short-term and long-term is the prerequisite of a well-paced trajectory of rural revitalization.

What are the policy systems required for rural revitalization?

The policy systems of the rural revitalization include rural industrial policy system, rural environmental policy system, rural cultural policy system, rural governance policy system, and social security policy system. Rural industrial policies should focus on improving production capacity, enriching participating entities, providing more financial support, broadening channels of sales, and promoting industrial upgrading. Rural environmental policies should focus on restoring polluted environment, maintaining the balance between environment protection and agricultural development, and improving living conditions. Rural cultural policies should focus on moral advancement, rural education, traditional culture promotion and the provision of public services. Rural governance policies should focus on upholding party leadership, rule of law, public services, and motivations for rural officials. Rural social security system should include policies on infrastructure, social security, and income and employment.

How to achieve the objectives of rural revitalization?

We need to follow the path of urban-rural coordination, with top level design of a coherent development between urban and rural sectors. The path of common prosperity emphasizes the importance of harnessing the operation and management of rural entities and protecting the right of farmer and public ownership. The growing consumer demand for higher-quality agricultural products calls for more efficient use of resources in the rural sector. Green development is at the core of an eco-friendly path of revitalization. Raising human capital is the essence of cultural promotion for rural revitalization. An improved rural governance with better social environment can help achieve rural revitalization. Rural revitalization with Chinese characteristics is needed to solidify the eradication of absolute poverty.