Rural reform requires sound overall planning and top-level design.

The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to deepening rural reform. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, rural reforms in various areas are being carried out in a solid manner, pilot work on a number of important reform matters is being advanced in an orderly way, and positive progress has been made. At present, China's economic development has entered a new normal, the new type of industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization continue to advance, the rural economy and society are undergoing profound changes, and the interests involved in rural reform are more complex, the goals more diverse, the influencing factors more varied, and the tasks more arduous. Rural reform is highly comprehensive, so we must foster systematic thinking, do a good job of overall planning and top-level design, identify the key link and principal contradiction that, once grasped, will move the whole situation, and further improve the scientific nature of rural reform decision-making. In order to better guide and coordinate rural reforms from an overall perspective and improve the systematicness, wholeness and coordination of rural reform, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council recently issued the Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform (hereinafter referred to as the Implementation Plan), which defines the overall goals, major principles, basic tasks and important paths for deepening rural reform. The Implementation Plan is the general guideline for coordinating and advancing rural reform, and the overall “blueprint” for deepening rural reform. We must, in accordance with the requirements of the Implementation Plan, advance rural reform unremittingly, constantly improve and consolidate the basic rural economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, improve the systems and mechanisms that safeguard national food security, promote sustainable agricultural development and sustained increases in farmers' incomes, strive to remove the institutional obstacles of the urban-rural dual structure, and provide institutional guarantees for accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas with Chinese characteristics. 

I. Hold the bottom line and strengthen the sense of direction in deepening rural reform

Rural reform is a major part of comprehensively deepening reform. To do a good job of rural reform, we must get the direction right in overall terms, prevent rural reform from going astray or off-key, and avoid making irreversible directional mistakes. To deepen rural reform, we must hold to the “three bottom lines”: the nature of public ownership of land must not be changed, the red line of cultivated land must not be breached, and farmers' interests must not be harmed. Land is the foundation of farmers' survival, and reform of the land system involves farmers' fundamental interests and the fundamental system of rural areas. The rural collective ownership system based on collective ownership of land is an important form of realizing socialist public ownership and an institutional guarantee for promoting farmers' gradual achievement of the goal of common prosperity. To deepen rural reform, we must uphold the public nature of land. In promoting rural land circulation, we must prevent some people from leasing large amounts of land in rural areas in the name of agriculture and then carrying out non-agricultural construction or “de-grainization,” infringing on farmers' interests and affecting the protection of cultivated land and food security. Regarding capital going to the countryside, we must establish standardized and effective access and supervision systems and erect a good “fence” to guard against risks. In the course of industrialization and urbanization, we must do a good job of protecting cultivated land, and must not let some people occupy cultivated land in the name of reform; we must resolutely prevent the phenomena of occupying more and compensating with less, occupying prime land and compensating with inferior land, and occupying paddy fields and compensating with dry land. If we falter on this issue, we will make a historic mistake that is difficult to correct, failing our ancestors and failing our descendants. Safeguarding farmers' material interests and democratic rights and protecting and mobilizing farmers' enthusiasm are the basic principles by which the Party correctly handles issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. To deepen rural reform, we must take improving farmers' wellbeing and realizing, safeguarding and developing the fundamental interests of the broad masses of farmers as the starting point and ultimate goal. We must keep the existing rural land contracting relationship stable and unchanged for a long time, implement collective ownership, stabilize farmers' contracting rights, loosen land management rights, protect farmers' lawful property rights, equal employment rights, equal right to education and right to social security in accordance with the law, respect farmers' democratic rights, and never forget farmers' well-being, never infringe on farmers' lawful rights and interests, and never go against farmers' wishes.

There are many difficult problems that rural reform must solve. To do a good job of rural reform, we must focus on innovation in systems and mechanisms. The main goals to be achieved in comprehensively deepening rural reform are: the systems for protecting the ownership of rural collective assets, farmers' land contracting and management rights and farmers' property rights are more complete; the new type of agricultural management system, the agricultural support and protection system, the agricultural socialized service system, the agricultural science and technology innovation system, and the rural financial system suited to the characteristics of agriculture and rural areas are more sound; the systems and mechanisms for integrated urban-rural economic and social development are basically established; the rural social management and rural grassroots organizational systems are more complete; farmers' democratic rights are better safeguarded; agricultural and rural laws and regulations are further strengthened; and the level of the rule of law at the rural grassroots level is further raised. Through the implementation of comprehensive innovation in systems and mechanisms, we must adjust the relations of production that do not suit the requirements of the development of rural social productive forces, inject new vitality into rural economic and social development, raise the level of agricultural modernization and farmers' living standards, and ensure that by 2020 the hundreds of millions of farmers, together with the people of the whole country, enter a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

II. Roll out a “combined punch” and strengthen the sense of wholeness in advancing rural reform

Rural reform covers a wide range of areas, and the various rural reforms are internally and logically interrelated. Rural reform cannot be advanced by isolated moves with attention to only one thing and not others; reform cannot be “fragmented,” with each singing its own tune and shouting its own slogans. We must plan, coordinate and implement rural reform as a whole. Reform in the five major fields of the collective property rights system, the agricultural management system, agricultural support and protection, the systems and mechanisms for urban-rural integration, and the rural social governance system plays the role of the “four beams and eight pillars” for improving the framework of the rural institutional system that meets the requirements of the socialist market economy. We must firmly grasp these five key areas of reform and their mutual relationships from an overall perspective, take into overall consideration agricultural and rural reform and development, take into overall consideration urban and rural reform and development, balance fairness and efficiency, strengthen the connection and coordination among various reforms, and release the comprehensive effects of reform to the greatest extent.

First, deepen reform of the rural collective property rights system. The property rights system is the basic system of the market economy. In the basic rural economic system with Chinese characteristics, there are farmers' household economies as well as collective economies, cooperative economies and the state-owned economy. The rural collective economic system established on the basis of collective ownership of land, working in coordination with the system of villagers' self-governance, constitutes the basic framework of China's rural governance and provides basic support for agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. Since reform and opening up, the total volume of rural collective assets has grown greatly, but the problems of unclear ownership, unclear rights and responsibilities, weak protection and poor circulation of rural collective asset property rights have become increasingly prominent. In many areas, the collective economy lacks vitality for development, it is difficult to preserve and increase the value of collective assets, and the ties of interest between collective economic organizations and farmers are not close enough. To advance reform of the rural collective property rights system is to focus on steadily advancing reform of the rural land system, carrying out reform of the shareholding cooperative system by confirming the rights of rural collective operating assets to households, and exploring effective mechanisms for unified collective operation and management of non-operating assets conducive to improving public service capacity, with protecting the rights of members of farmers' collective economic organizations as the core, with clarifying the ownership of rural collective property rights and giving farmers more property rights as the focus, to explore effective organizational forms and management methods for the rural collective ownership economy under the conditions of the socialist market economy, and ensure that the fruits of collective economic development benefit all members of the collective.

Second, accelerate the building of a new type of agricultural management system. The agricultural management system is the core and foundation of building modern agriculture. With the rapid advance of industrialization and urbanization, the forms of agricultural production organization and management methods are undergoing profound changes, and various new types of agricultural management and service entities keep emerging. “Who will farm the land, and who will build modern agriculture” has become an unavoidable hurdle in the development of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” To accelerate the building of a new type of agricultural management system is to focus on promoting standardized and orderly circulation of land management rights, strengthening the standardized development of farmers' cooperatives, innovating the mechanism of agricultural socialized services, cultivating a professional farmer workforce, improving the supervision and risk prevention mechanism for industrial and commercial capital leasing agricultural land, advancing the reform and development of agricultural reclamation and comprehensively deepening the comprehensive reform of supply and marketing cooperatives, with improving land output rate, resource utilization rate and labor productivity as the core, upholding the fundamental position of household management in agriculture, cultivating new types of agricultural management entities such as family farms, specialized large households, farmers' cooperatives and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, promoting the common development of household management, collective management, cooperative management and enterprise management, and building a three-dimensional and composite modern agricultural management system that suits national conditions and the stage of development, is based on farmer household management, takes cooperation and association as the bond, and is supported by socialized services.

Third, improve the agricultural support and protection system. Agricultural support and protection is an objective need for developing modern agriculture. All countries in the world, especially developed countries, subsidize and protect agriculture. In recent years, national fiscal investment in “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” has grown rapidly, the scope covered by agricultural subsidies has become ever wider, and a relatively complete agricultural support and protection system suited to China's national conditions has initially been established. Agricultural support and protection policies have effectively promoted increases in grain output and farmers' incomes and achieved obvious results. However, because China's agricultural development has a weak foundation and there are many arrears in investment in agricultural infrastructure, the current level of support and protection still cannot meet the objective needs of developing modern agriculture. In recent years, China's domestic agricultural production costs have risen rapidly, the prices of major agricultural products are generally higher than those on the international market, and the comparative efficiency of agriculture is relatively low. To ensure that our rice bowl is firmly held in our own hands, ensure the security of the agricultural industry and enhance China's agricultural competitiveness, we must further strengthen support and protection for agriculture. As the growth rate of fiscal revenue slows and agricultural subsidies increasingly approach the upper limit of “Amber Box” subsidies committed by China upon accession to the World Trade Organization, agricultural support and protection policies also need adjustment and improvement. To improve the agricultural support and protection system is to focus on establishing a mechanism for stable growth of investment in agriculture and rural areas, improving the price formation mechanism for agricultural products and the market regulation system for agricultural products, improving the agricultural subsidy system, establishing a new mechanism for the construction and management of farmland water conservancy, deepening reform of the agricultural science and technology system, establishing a mechanism for sustainable agricultural development, and accelerating innovation in the rural financial system, increasing support and protection for agriculture, improving the agricultural production incentive mechanism, enhancing the effectiveness of agricultural support and protection, and accelerating the formation of an agricultural support and protection system that is comprehensive in coverage, clear in orientation, prominent in priorities, matched in measures and simple to operate.

Fourth, improve the systems and mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development. Promoting integrated urban-rural development is the fundamental way to solve China's “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” issues. In recent years, the state has adopted a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers. As the most core part of public resources, public finance has continuously expanded the scope of its coverage of rural areas, gradually extending from pure public goods to quasi-public goods, basically changing the pattern of “farmers' affairs are handled by farmers themselves.” Major changes have taken place in the supply mechanism of rural social undertakings and public services, and the distribution relationship between the state and farmers has achieved a historic major turn from taking less, taking nothing, to giving more. Since 2010, the income gap between urban and rural residents has narrowed for five consecutive years, and major strides have been made in coordinating urban and rural development. However, the problems of lagging rural development and an excessively large urban-rural development gap remain prominent. China is in a critical period of accelerating the removal of the urban-rural dual structure. To improve the systems and mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development is to focus on improving the planning system for integrated urban-rural development, improving the mechanism for investment in rural infrastructure construction and for construction and management, promoting the formation of systems and mechanisms for equalizing basic public services between urban and rural areas, accelerating reform of the household registration system, and improving the system for equal employment of urban and rural workers, coordinating the advancement of urbanization and new rural construction, accelerating the removal of the interest barriers of the urban-rural dual structure, promoting equal exchange of urban and rural factors and balanced allocation of public resources, and accelerating the formation of a new type of worker-peasant and urban-rural relationship in which industry promotes agriculture, cities support the countryside, industry and agriculture benefit each other, and urban and rural areas are integrated.

Fifth, strengthen and innovate rural social governance. Since reform and opening up, along with the rapid advance of marketization, industrialization and urbanization, the social mobility of the rural population has become stronger and stronger, the proportion of the rural labor force that works away from home all year round and is completely detached from agricultural production has become larger and larger, and more and more people have moved out with their whole families and are completely detached from rural areas. The trends of agriculture becoming a sideline, rural aging and the hollowing out of villages have become more and more obvious, and the scale of left-behind children, left-behind women and left-behind elderly people is huge. As rural social relations rapidly differentiate and regroup, the rural social structure is accelerating its transformation from closed to open and from single to diverse, rural social strata are becoming more diverse, farmers' interest demands are becoming more diverse, and rural social governance faces new problems. To strengthen and innovate rural social governance is to focus on strengthening the building of rural grassroots Party organizations, improving the rural grassroots democratic management system, strengthening rural spiritual civilization development, innovating the systems and mechanisms for rural poverty alleviation and development, and deepening reform of the rural administrative law enforcement system, uphold Party and government leadership, farmer principal status and social coordination, improve the level of rural grassroots governance, give full play to the leading core role of rural grassroots Party organizations, improve the democratic system of villagers' self-governance organizations, and form a standardized, orderly and vibrant rural governance mechanism.

III. Strengthen guidance and coordination and strengthen the sense of action in deepening rural reform

In building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the most arduous and heaviest tasks are in rural areas. At present, China's agricultural and rural development is at an important turning point, facing a more complex environment and increasing challenges that must be met. Many contradictions and difficult problems in agricultural and rural development cannot be solved without reform, farmers' material interests and democratic rights cannot be safeguarded without reform, and the fundamental way out for strengthening the “short leg” of agriculture and filling the “short board” of rural areas lies in reform. Party committees and governments at all levels must, in accordance with the overall arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, effectively enhance their initiative and conscientiousness in leading, organizing and supervising rural reform work. We must adhere to a problem-oriented approach and make great efforts to solve the interest issues that farmers are most concerned about, that are most direct and most realistic. We must improve the leadership system and working mechanisms by which Party committees and governments at all levels advance rural reform, and improve and implement the responsibility system. Principal responsible comrades must personally take charge of rural reform work, grasp the direction and path well, strengthen guidance on rural reform work, ensure that reform achieves results and makes progress, and improve the broad masses of farmers' sense of recognition and sense of gain regarding reform.

To ensure that rural reform is implemented in practice, first, encourage and support local areas in bold exploration and innovation. Setting principles and drawing bottom lines for rural reform is by no means intended to tie the hands and feet of local areas, but to point out the direction for reform and achieve rapid progress with steady steps. The levels of rural economic and social development vary greatly from place to place, and the contradictions and problems that exist differ from one another. Developing modern agriculture and advancing new rural construction will inevitably involve differences in starting points, differences in the speed of progress, differences in levels, and differences in priorities, and there can be no unified model. We must give full play to the enthusiasm of both the central and local levels. We must attach importance to top-level design, overall consideration and high-level advancement, and also leave sufficient space for grassroots exploration and innovation, letting grassroots cadres and the broad masses of farmers boldly break new ground and explore. Only in this way can we handle rural reform at a higher level. Second, carry out reform pilots in a solid manner. We must formulate scientific and standardized reform pilot plans, clarify tasks and priorities, strengthen responsibilities, clarify divisions of work, and propose testable forms of results and timetables. We must promptly summarize and distill experience from reform pilots that can be replicated and promoted. Third, form a joint force for advancing rural reform. Rural reform at the current stage has shifted from adjustment of interests within rural areas to adjustment of the pattern of interests among industry and agriculture, urban and rural areas, and various sectors of the national economy, and the interests involved are broader and more complex. The independence of rural reform has been greatly reduced, and the interconnectedness of urban and rural reform has been greatly strengthened. To advance rural reform, we must strengthen overall coordination and form an overall joint force for advancing rural reform. Fourth, do a good job of reform supervision and inspection, and strive to ensure that the reform measures introduced take root. We must establish a reform early-warning and monitoring mechanism, conduct comprehensive and scientific assessment of reform effects, and effectively improve the quality of reform. Fifth, do a good job of linking rural reform decision-making with legislation, accelerate the work of enacting, amending, abolishing and interpreting relevant laws and regulations, and ensure that major rural reforms have a legal basis. (Han Jun, Vice Minister of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs and Vice Minister of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group)