China Development Research Foundation - Chinas Rural Areas: Building a Moderately Prosperous Society

Series Editor

Peter Nolan

Director, Centre of Development Studies;

Chong Hua Professor in Chinese Development; and

Director of the Chinese Executive Leadership Programme (CELP),

University of Cambridge

Founding Series Editors

Peter Nolan, University of Cambridge and

Dong Fureng, Beijing University

The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality, research-level work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of the Chinese economy, including studies of business and economic history.

57 Chinas Exchange Rate Regime

China Development Research Foundation

58 Chinas WTO Accession Reassessed

China Development Research Foundation

59 USChina Relations in the Twenty-first Century

A Question of Trust

Michael Tai

60 Understanding China

The Silk Road and the Communist Manifesto

Peter Nolan

61 Being Middle Class in China

Identity, Attitudes and Behaviour

Ying Miao

62 Governing the Commons in China

Yan Zhang

63 The Economic Cycle and the Growth of the Chinese Economy

Li Jianwei

64 Chinas Rural Areas

Building a Moderately Prosperous Society

China Development Research Foundation

First published 2017

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2017 China Development Research Foundation

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Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is an essential stage in Chinas modernization drive. In 2002, the 16th National Party Congress of the Communist Party of China made a strategic policy decision to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects within the first two decades of the 21st century. This was then reconfirmed by the 18th National Party Congress in 2012. The entire country is currently engaged in the most critical part of this process. It is deepening reform on all fronts and making a concerted effort to push forward the endeavor by advancing the rule of law. Its efforts represent the primary theme of Chinas current stage of development.

The focus of the effort must be on Chinas rural areas, given the uneven development of urban and rural parts of the country and resulting social and economic disparities. The world has witnessed remarkable advances in China since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, particularly since the reform and opening up process of the past thirty-some years. The rural aspect of the country has changed enormously hundreds of millions of rural people now have adequate food and clothing, which represents an historic achievement. At the same time, however, it is hard not to recognize that China is still a developing country and still in the initial stages of socialism. Achieving overall modernization will take several more decades of hard work. This is true particularly in the countryside, where progress is clearly lagging behind urban areas and the goal of a moderately prosperous society for all is far from being realized. Whats more, many new issues have emerged in recent years in the countryside, given the rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization and the dual issues of the massive migration of rural labor into cities and the aging of the overall population. New challenges include the fact that the amount of arable land in the country is declining, and the number of people actually farming is also declining. Rural towns are being hollowed out, while ecosystems are being destroyed by environmental pollution. The call for a moderately prosperous society in all respects was first put forward over a dozen years ago, but since that time not only has Chinas economy grown, but its social structure has changed in epic ways. More than half of the population is no longer engaged in farming, and that percentage is rising. The economic contribution of Chinas rural areas to GDP has notably fallen and continues to fall. At the same time, however, Chinas real economic power as a country has grown enormously, giving it greater ability to support rural development initiatives. This situation has been the motivation behind the comprehensive research program described in this volume. The program has sought to address the question, Given new conditions, how can we make sure that we arrive at our goal of a moderately prosperous society for all in the smoothest possible way? This is a very large topic, requiring concerted attention and conscientious proposals. It forms the subject of this Report.