China's No. 1 central document for 2024 charts roadmap for rural revitalization

BEIJING -- China unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2024 on Saturday, outlining the priorities for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization this year.

The document encompasses six parts, including ensuring national food security, forestalling any large-scale relapse into poverty, improving rural industries' development, strengthening rural construction, enhancing rural governance, and strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party of China on work regarding agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

As the first policy statement released by China's central authorities each year, the document is seen as an indicator of policy priorities.

To promote Chinese modernization, it is essential to consolidate the foundations of agriculture continuously and push forward rural revitalization comprehensively, the document said.

It also highlighted the need to study and apply the Green Rural Revival Program's development philosophy, working methods and advancement mechanisms.

On China's new journey in the new era, the focus should be on promoting rural revitalization across the board while carrying forward work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, the document said.

A people-centered development philosophy should be upheld to deliver tangible benefits to the people and to make substantial progress.

To fully realize rural revitalization, the country should hold the bottom line of safeguarding national food security and avoiding a large-scale return to poverty, and focus on enhancing rural industrial development, rural construction and rural governance, the document noted.

Efforts need to be made to strengthen the role of reform and the role of sci-tech development in promoting rural revitalization, and to facilitate various means by which rural residents can increase their incomes, the document said.