China's Green Rural Revival Program

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities on Saturday unveiled their No. 1 central document for 2024, stressing the need to utilize the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program in advancing the country's rural revitalization.

The program has provided "successful experience and a practical example for the across-the-board promotion of rural revitalization," according to the key document, which outlines the country's policy priorities for work related to agriculture and rural areas this year.

The Green Rural Revival Program was launched in 2003 in east China's Zhejiang Province, one of the country's richest and most developed regions. The province's GDP ranks fourth in China today, but its rapid industrial development was achieved at a cost for the environment.

The program began with a mission to improve rural living conditions by renovating approximately 10,000 incorporated villages in five years, and by transforming about 1,000 of that number that were classed as central villages into examples of moderate prosperity in all respects. Over the two decades that followed, the program continued to expand and evolve, and it has achieved far more than its original goals.

With the concept of green and sustainable development at its core, the program has greatly improved local living conditions. It has also strengthened rural governance and explored a development path that balances economic growth with ecological benefits.

Since 2003, a significant number of impoverished villages have become greener and more prosperous by utilizing green resources, historic buildings have been renovated, and once-polluted waterways have been transformed into clean rivers with water suitable for drinking.

In 2015, Zhejiang became the first provincial region in China to complete the task of poverty alleviation. The average disposable income of its rural residents climbed to 37,565 yuan (about 5,290 U.S. dollars) in 2022 -- the highest level among all of China's provincial regions.

Today, clean toilets, domestic wastewater processing systems and waste sorting systems have been installed in every village across the province. All villages in Zhejiang are connected by highways, and key villages have 5G and optical fiber network coverage.

New business models like agritourism and rural e-commerce have thrived, injecting fresh vitality into Zhejiang's rural economy and closing the urban-rural development gap in the region.

From 2003 to 2022, the urban-rural income ratio in Zhejiang narrowed from 2.43-to-1 to 1.9-to-1, well below the national average of 2.45-to-1. In 2022, Zhejiang's village-level collective economy had assets totaling 880 billion yuan, accounting for 10 percent of China's total.

In September 2018, the Green Rural Revival Program received the Champions of the Earth award, the United Nations' highest environmental honor, for its transformation of once heavily polluted rivers and streams.

"This exceptionally successful eco-restoration program shows the transformative power of economic and environmental development together," the United Nations Environment Programme said when announcing the award.