Rural digitalization helps promote common prosperity

Over the past decade, a digital revolution has swept through China's rural areas, promoting common prosperity. Once isolated, village residents today are tapping into e-commerce and smart technologies to boost their incomes and improve their livelihoods.

From online marketplaces that connect farmers even in remote areas with consumers across the country to high-tech tools boosting agricultural productivity, digital innovation is narrowing the urban-rural divide and transforming rural economies.

The central government has put rural digitalization at the core of its agricultural modernization and rural development policies. In 2013, the government launched the "Broadband China "initiative to extend broadband internet across the country by 2020, laying the foundation for the digital transformation of rural areas. Building on this, the "Internet Plus" action plan of 2015 outlined policies for integrating digital technologies with agriculture and rural industries, and the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) emphasized rural e-commerce, big data and broadband expansion as key development pillars.