Improving incomes of rural residents key means to vitalize countryside

Now that China has eradicated abject poverty across the country－by lifting some 55 million rural residents out of that dire situation over the past five years－the time is ripe for the government to shift its policy focus to vitalizing the vast countryside. This intent has been reaffirmed in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, as well as the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered at the opening of the National People's Congress' annual session last week.

The recent establishment of the new national administration for rural vitalization, the successor to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, serves to provide an institutional guarantee that efforts at promoting rural vitalization in an all-around way－from modernizing the agricultural sector, upgrading countryside infrastructure, improving public services in rural areas, to raising farmers' incomes－will succeed in the years to come.

Yet the tasks ahead are daunting, given the huge population of around 550 million in rural areas.