How to clearly define the goal and positioning of urban-rural integration
I recently went to Wencheng County, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, a place with extremely beautiful green mountains and clear waters, where the water and air quality are incredibly good, and the locals look 20 years younger. But according to our current assessment standards, it is an underdeveloped area. Wenzhou city is much richer than Wencheng, but Wenzhou's air and water quality cannot compare with Wencheng's. Therefore, the goal and positioning of Chinese-style urban-rural integration are very important.
Once the goal and positioning are set, there are still several issues to resolve. The first is who will do it. It is impossible to accomplish this by relying purely on the market, because in recent years the degree of marketization has actually been very high, yet the gap between urban and rural areas has widened, and the rapid economic growth of recent years has actually been supported by rural areas. The main actor of urban-rural integration should be driven by the central government, because the biggest gap between urban and rural areas is public services, such as the medical security system. I believe the solution should be to establish a nationwide urban-rural integrated security system, rather than simply reimbursing medical expenses across regions. We need the central government to establish the system and provide unified public services such as medical care, elderly care, and education to both urban and rural residents.
The second is the development model of agricultural modernization. What kind of agricultural modernization do we want to achieve? Israel is a country lacking resources, yet it has been able to build modern agriculture and is a model for the whole world. Israel's rural cooperatives are very well run, integrating agriculture, industry, and trade, and the most advanced agricultural technologies are all implemented in rural areas. What we talk about now is all about productive forces, but rural areas need production relations that are compatible with the productive forces; they need to be organized and change the situation of being scattered and fragmented.
The third is the issue of rural talent. Solving the talent problem requires a change in social concepts. If urban people all change their thinking and pursue health and happiness, urban people might be the first to act and choose to go to rural areas, working "remotely" in an information society, and enjoying rural life will be a new trend.