Below you can find the translated English version of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Promotion of Revitalization of Rural Areas. The law was issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and became effective on June 1st, 2021.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purposes of fully implementing the rural area revitalization strategy, promoting the comprehensive upgrading of agriculture, the comprehensive progress of rural areas, and the comprehensive development of farmers, accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and comprehensively building a modern socialist country.
Article 2 This law shall apply to the comprehensive implementation of the rural area revitalization strategy, the promotion of the revitalization of industries, skilled workforce, culture, ecology, and organizations in rural areas, the furtherance of urban-rural integration development, and other activities.
For the purpose of this Law, “rural area” means a regional composite with natural, social, and economic characteristics and industrial, residential, ecological, cultural, and other functions, outside the built-up area of a city, including townships, towns, and villages.
Article 3 In the promotion of revitalization of rural areas, in accordance with the general requirements for industrial prosperity, ecological livability, civilized rural customs, effective governance, and affluent life, the construction of rural economy, politics, culture, society, and ecological civilization and the construction of the Communist Party of China (“CPC”) shall be advanced in a coordinated manner, and the unique functions of rural areas shall be maximized in safeguarding the supply of agricultural products and food security, protecting the ecology and environment, inheriting and developing the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, and other aspects.
Article 4 In fully implementing the rural area revitalization strategy, the leadership of the CPC shall be adhered to, the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing shall be implemented, the path of socialist rural area revitalization with Chinese characteristics shall be followed, common prosperity shall be promoted, and the following principles shall be followed:
(1) Adhering to giving priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas, the assignment of officials, the allocation of resources, the guarantee of inputs of money, and the arrangement of public services.
(2) Adhering to the leading role of farmers, fully respecting the wishes of farmers, safeguarding the democratic rights and other lawful rights and interests of farmers, arousing the motivation, initiative, and creativity of farmers, and protecting the fundamental interests of farmers.
(3) Adhering to the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature, coordinating the systematic management of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, promoting green development, and advancing the construction of ecological civilization.
(4) Adhering to reform and innovation, maximizing the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, bringing the government into better play, advancing the supply-side structural reform and high-quality development of agriculture, continuing to liberate and develop social productivity in rural areas, and stimulating vitality for rural development.
(5) Adhering to adapting measures to local conditions, first formulating plans, and gradual progress, conforming to the law of village development and making classified furtherance according to the history and culture, development status, geological location conditions, resource endowments, and industry foundation of rural areas.
Article 5 The state shall consolidate and improve the two-tier operating system based on households’ conventional usufructs for agricultural operations combining centralization with decentralization, and develop and expand the rural collective ownership economy.
Article 6 The state shall establish and improve the systems, mechanisms, and policy framework for the integrated development of urban and rural areas, promote the orderly flow of and equal exchange between urban and rural resources and the balanced allocation of public resources, adhere to the industrial sector’s support for the agricultural sector and urban areas’ assistance for rural areas, and boost the formation of a new relationship between the industrial sector and the agricultural sector and between urban areas and rural areas for the mutual promotion of the industrial sector and the agricultural sector, the mutual complementation of urban areas and rural areas, coordinated development, and common prosperity.
Article 7 The state shall adhere to the guidance of core socialist values, vigorously promote the national spirit and the spirit of the times, strengthen the protection of excellent traditional culture and the construction of a public cultural service system of rural areas, so as to foster and develop the culture of rural areas.
The autumn equinox of the lunar calendar shall be the Chinese farmers’ harvest festival every year.
Article 8 The state shall implement a food security strategy of self-sufficiency based on domestic food production, guaranteed food production capacity, moderate imports, and technological support, adhere to sustainable farmland use and innovative application of agricultural technology to increase farmland productivity, take measures to continuously improve the overall food production capacity, build a national food security industry belt, improve the food processing, circulation, and storage system, ensure basic self-sufficiency in grain and absolute security of essential food, and safeguard national food security.
The state shall improve the food processing, storage, and transportation standards, increase the yield and utilization rate of food processing, and promote food conservation and loss reduction.
Article 9 The state shall establish and improve a working mechanism for the revitalization of rural areas in which the central authorities coordinate efforts, provincial authorities are generally responsible, and the city, county, and township authorities are responsible for implementation.
The people’s governments at all levels shall incorporate the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas into national economic and social development plans, and establish a rural area revitalization assessment and evaluation system, annual work reporting system, and supervisory inspection system.
Article 10 The agricultural and rural affairs authority of the State Council shall be responsible for the overall coordination of, macro guidance on, and supervisory inspection of the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas across the country; and the other relevant authorities of the State Council shall be responsible for the related work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas within their respective purview.
The agricultural and rural affairs authorities of local people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the overall coordination of, macro guidance on, and supervisory inspection of the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas within their respective administrative regions; and the other relevant authorities of local people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the related work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas within their respective purview.
Article 11 The people’s governments at all levels and their relevant authorities shall adopt various forms to extensively publicize the laws, regulations, and policies related to the promotion of revitalization of rural areas, and encourage and support the participation of the people’s organizations, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions, and other social sectors in the activities related to the promotion of revitalization of rural areas.
Any entity or individual that has made outstanding achievements in the promotion of revitalization of rural areas shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with relevant provisions issued by the state.
Chapter 2 – Industry Development
Article 12 The state shall improve the rural collective property rights system, enhance the development vitality of the rural collective ownership economy, promote the preservation of and appreciation in the value of collective assets, and ensure the benefit of farmers.
The people’s governments at all levels shall adhere to the leading role of farmers and the reliance on the advantageous and characteristic resources of rural areas, support and promote the integrated development of rural primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, promote the establishment of a modern agricultural industry system, production system, and operating system, advance the construction of digital rural areas, and cultivate new industries, business forms, models, and agricultural businesses, and promote the organic connection between small farming households and modern agricultural development.
Article 13 The state shall take measures to optimize the layout of agricultural productivity, advance the adjustment of agricultural structure, develop advantageous and characteristic industries, safeguard the effective supply and quality safety of food and important agricultural products, promote the cultivation of fine varieties, quality improvement, brand building, and standardized production, boost the opening of agriculture, and improve the quality, benefits, and competitiveness of agriculture.
The state shall implement an important agricultural product guarantee strategy, specify the goals of the guarantee by variety, and build a scientific, reasonable, safe, and efficient supply guarantee system for important agricultural products.
Article 14 The state shall establish a classified management system for agricultural land, strictly protect cultivated land, and strictly control the conversion of agricultural land to construction land and the conversion of cultivated land to forest land, garden land, or any other type of agricultural land. The people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall take measures to ensure the non-reduction of the total amount of cultivated land and the improvement of its quality.
The state shall implement a permanent basic farmland protection system, build food production functional areas and important agricultural product production protection areas, and build and protect high-standard farmland.
Local people’s governments at all levels shall advance rural land consolidation and scientific and safe use of agricultural land, and strengthen the construction of farmland irrigation and drainage and other infrastructure, so as to improve agricultural production conditions.
Article 15 The state shall strengthen the protection and utilization of agricultural germplasm resources and the construction of germplasm resources banks, support research on basic, cutting-edge, and applied technologies for breeding, implement intensive research on key technologies for the cultivation and breeding of crops, livestock, poultry, and other fine breeds, encourage the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements in the seed industry and the promotion of fine varieties, establish and implement a national security review mechanism for the seed industry, and promote the high-quality development of the seed industry.
Article 16 The state shall take measures to strengthen innovation in agricultural science and technology, cultivate innovators, establish an innovation mechanism with enterprises playing the leading role, integrating enterprises, education institutions, and research institutions, strengthen the innovation capabilities of higher education institutions, scientific research institutions, and agricultural enterprises, build innovation platforms, strengthen the research and development of new varieties, technology, equipment, and products, increase the protection of agricultural intellectual property rights, advance innovation in the fields of the biological seed industry, smart agriculture, equipment-backed agriculture, agricultural product processing, and green agricultural inputs, among others, build a modern agricultural industry technology system, and promote the innovation-driven development of agriculture and rural areas.
The state shall improve the systems for the review of agricultural scientific research projects, evaluation of talents, and protection of property rights in achievements, guarantee investments in basic and public interest research on agricultural science and technology, and motivate agricultural science and technology personnel to innovate.
Article 17 The state shall strengthen the construction of the agricultural technology promotion system, promote the establishment of an incentive mechanism and interest-sharing mechanism conducive to the commercialization and promotion of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and encourage enterprises, higher education institutions, vocational schools, scientific research institutions, scientific and technological social organizations, farmers’ professional cooperatives, agricultural specialized and socialized service organizations, and agricultural science and technology personnel to innovate in promotion methods and provide the services of promoting agricultural technology.
Article 18 The state shall encourage the production research and development, promotion, and application of agricultural machinery, advance the mechanization of production of major crops throughout the process, improve the equipment level of equipment-backed agriculture, the forestry and grass industry, animal husbandry, fishery, and the primary processing of agricultural products, promote the integration between agricultural machinery and agronomy and between mechanization and informatization, and boost the adaptation of mechanized production to farmland construction and the adaptation of service models to the appropriate scale of agricultural operations.
The state shall encourage agricultural informatization, strengthen the monitoring, early warning, and comprehensive services of agricultural information, and advance the informatization of agricultural production and operations.
Article 19 The people’s governments at all levels shall maximize the advantages in rural resources and ecology, and support the development of characteristic agriculture, leisure agriculture, modern agricultural product processing industry, rural handicraft industry, green building materials, revolution-related tourism, rural tourism, health care and rural logistics, e-commerce, and other rural industries; guide new businesses in reasonably allocating production factors and promoting the deep integration of rural industries, through characteristic and specialized operations; support the construction of advantageous areas for characteristic agricultural products, modern agricultural industrial parks, agricultural science and technology parks, rural entrepreneurship parks, and key villages and towns for leisure agriculture and rural tourism, among others; coordinate the construction of marketplaces in production areas, distribution areas, and sales areas for agricultural products, and strengthen the construction of backbone networks and cold chain logistics systems for the circulation of agricultural products; and encourage enterprises to obtain internationally accepted certification of agricultural products, so as to enhance the competitiveness of rural industries.
The development of rural industries shall comply with the requirements of national land spatial plans, industry policies, and environmental protection.
Article 20 The people’s governments at all levels shall improve support policies, strengthen guidance services, support farmers and persons who return to their rural hometowns or move to rural areas in entrepreneurship and innovation in rural areas and promote the development of industries and employment of farmers in rural areas.
Article 21 The people’s governments at all levels shall establish and improve a mechanism conducive to the steady growth of income of farmers, encourage and support farmers’ expansion of their income channels, and prompt farmers to increase their income.
The state shall take measures to support the development of rural collective economic organizations, which shall provide work and living services for their members and safeguard the rights of their members to obtain income distribution from collective operating revenue.
The state shall support farmers’ professional cooperatives, family farms, agriculture-related enterprises, e-commerce enterprises, and agricultural specialized and socialized service organizations, among others, to establish a mechanism of close relationships of interest with farmers by various means, so as to enable farmers to share the added value income from the entire industry chain.
Article 22 The people’s governments at all levels shall strengthen the planning and construction of state-owned farms (tree farms, ranches, and fishing grounds), advance the development of modern agriculture in state-owned farms (tree farms, ranches, and fishing grounds), and encourage state-owned farms (tree farms, ranches, and fishing grounds) to play an exemplary and leading role in the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.
Article 23 The people’s governments at all levels shall deepen the comprehensive reform of supply and marketing cooperatives, and encourage supply and marketing cooperatives to strengthen their relationship of interest with farmers, improve market operation mechanisms, strengthen the function of serving farmers, and maximize their role as a comprehensive cooperative economic organization serving farmers.
Chapter 3 – Support of Talents
Article 24 The state shall improve the working systems and mechanisms for talents in rural areas, take measures to encourage and support all sectors of society so that they provide education and training, technical support, entrepreneurial guidance, and other services, train local talents, guide urban talents towards rural areas, prompt specialized talents to serve rural areas, and promote the building of agricultural and rural talent teams.
Article 25 The people’s governments at all levels shall strengthen the coordination of rural education work, continue to improve the conditions of schools in rural areas, support the offering of distance education, improve the quality of rural basic education, increase efforts to train rural teachers, attract graduates of higher education institutions to teach in rural areas by publicly funded teacher education and other means, give preferential treatment to teachers who have been teaching in rural areas for a long time in professional title evaluation and other aspects, guarantee and improve the remunerations of rural teachers, and improve the educational level and overall qualities of rural teachers and the modernization of rural education.
The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to strengthen the construction of rural medical and health teams, support medical and health personnel in counties, townships, and villages in participating in training and further education, establish a career development mechanism connecting counties, townships, and villages, provide preferential treatment for medical and health personnel working in rural areas, encourage graduates of medical schools to work in rural areas, and support physicians in practicing medicine in medical and health institutions in rural areas, opening clinics in rural areas, and disseminating medical and health knowledge, so as to improve medical and health service capabilities in rural areas.
The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to train agricultural science and technology talents, business management talents, legal service talents, and social work talents strengthen the construction of cultural talents teams in rural areas, and train cultural backbones in rural areas.
Article 26 The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to strengthen vocational education and continuing education, organize agricultural skills training, entrepreneurship and employment training for persons who return to their rural hometowns, and vocational skills training, and train high-quality farmers who are educated, knowledgeable about technology, skilled at operations, and able to exercise management, rural practical talents, and innovation and entrepreneurship leaders.
Article 27 The people’s governments at or above the county level and their education authorities shall guide and support higher education institutions and vocational schools in opening agriculture-related majors, increase efforts to train rural specialized talents, and encourage graduates of higher education institutions and vocational schools to seek employment and engage in entrepreneurship in rural areas.
Article 28 The state shall encourage the flow of urban talents to rural areas, and establish and improve the talent training cooperation and exchange mechanism between urban and rural areas, regions, and schools.
The people’s governments at or above the county level shall establish an incentive mechanism to encourage various talents to participate in the construction of rural areas, build a platform for social work and volunteer services for the construction of rural areas, and support and guide various talents in serving the revitalization of rural areas by multiple means.
Township people’s governments, villagers’ committees, and rural collective economic organizations shall provide necessary work and living services for persons, who return to their rural hometowns or move to rural areas and various talents. Rural collective economic organizations may provide relevant welfare and remunerations based on actual conditions.
Chapter 4 – Cultural Prosperity
Article 29 The people’s governments at all levels shall organize campaigns to practice the values in a new era, strengthen the promotion of the values in rural areas, and continue to improve the civilized level of rural society.
Article 30 The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to enrich the cultural and sports life of farmers, advocate a scientific and healthy way of work and life, maximize the positive role of village regulations and conventions, disseminate scientific knowledge, advance changes in customs and practices, dispense with prodigal events, extravagance, and other shibboleths, promote filial piety, thrift and frugality, and honesty and trustworthiness, boost equality between men and women, create civilized villages and towns and civilized families, and foster civilized rural customs, desirable family customs, and simple folk customs, so as to build civilized rural areas.
Article 31 The people’s governments at all levels shall improve the network and service operation mechanism of public cultural and sports facilities in rural areas, encourage various forms of farmers’ cultural, sports, festivals, traditional, and other events, and make full use of radio, television, audio-visual networks, books, newspapers, and periodicals to expand cultural service channels in rural areas and provide convenient and accessible public cultural services.
The people’s governments at all levels shall support the creation of literary and artistic works on the theme of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and encourage the production of outstanding literary and artistic works that describe the work and life of farmers and the practice of revitalization of rural areas.
Article 32 The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to protect agricultural cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage, explore the profound connotation of excellent agricultural culture, promote the revolutionary culture, and inherit and develop excellent traditional culture.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the protection of famous historical and cultural villages and towns, traditional villages and rural landscape, and villages with characteristics of ethnic minorities, monitor and assess the protection condition, and take measures to prevent and mitigate fires, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters.
Article 33 The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall adhere to guidance by planning and demonstrations by models, systematically build agricultural culture exhibition areas and cultural industry characteristic villages with distinctive characteristics and outstanding advantages, develop characteristic cultural and sports industries in rural areas, promote the revitalization of regional traditional crafts in rural areas, actively boost the construction of smart radio and television rural areas, and vitalize and foster rural cultural markets.
Chapter 5 – Ecological Protection
Article 34 The state shall improve the important ecosystem protection system and compensation mechanism for ecological protection, implement important ecosystem protection and restoration projects, strengthen ecological protection and environmental remediation in rural areas, green and beautify the rural environment, and build beautiful rural areas.
Article 35 The state shall encourage and support agricultural producers’ adoption of water-saving, fertilizer-saving, pesticide-saving, energy-saving, and other advanced planting and breeding technologies, promote the combination of planting and breeding and comprehensive development of agricultural resources, and give priority to the development of ecological recycling agriculture.
The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, advance the reduction of agricultural inputs, clean production, waste recycling, and ecologically sound industry models, and guide the whole society in developing an economical, moderate, green, low-carbon, civilized, and healthy way of work, life, and consumption.
Article 36 The people’s governments at all levels shall implement comprehensive land consolidation and ecological restoration, strengthen the protection and restoration of forests, grasslands, and wetlands, among others, carry out comprehensive remediation of desertification, rocky desertification, and soil erosion, and improve the ecology and environment of rural areas.
Article 37 The people’s governments at all levels shall establish a joint construction, joint management, and sharing mechanism involving governments, village organizations, enterprises, farmers, and other sides, comprehensively remediate rural water systems, promote proper sanitation facilities and simple and operable waste sorting according to local conditions, treat waste and sewage in rural areas, strengthen the construction of barrier-free facilities in rural areas, and encourage and support the use of clean energy and renewable energy, so as to continue to improve the rural living environment.
Article 38 The state shall establish and improve a management system and a related framework of technical standards for the construction quality safety of rural residential buildings, and establish a mechanism for ensuring safe residential buildings for rural low-income groups. The construction of rural residential buildings shall avoid disaster-prone areas and comply with earthquake resistance, flood control, and other basic safety requirements.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the management of and services for the construction of rural residential buildings, strengthen the planning and control of new rural residential buildings, and strictly prohibit the construction of residential buildings on illegally occupied cultivated land; and encourage the designs of rural residential buildings to embody regional, ethnic, and rural characteristics, encourage the adoption of new construction technologies and green building materials in the construction of rural residential buildings, and guide farmers in constructing livable residential buildings that are modern, structurally safe, cost effective, green, and environmentally friendly, and fit in with the environment of rural areas.
Article 39 The state shall exercise strict management of agricultural inputs, and take measures to prohibit or restrict the use of extremely toxic, highly toxic, and high-residue pesticides and veterinary drugs. Any producer or distributor of agricultural products shall neither use any pesticide, veterinary drug, or other toxic or harmful substance of which the use is prohibited by the state nor use any pesticide, veterinary drug, fertilizer, feed additive, or other agricultural input in excess of dose or scope in violation of agricultural product quality safety standards and the relevant provisions issued by the state.
Article 40 The state shall implement a system for the conservation, restoration, and fallowing of cultivated land and the recuperation of grasslands, forests, rivers, and lakes. The people’s governments at or above the county level and their relevant authorities shall designate the time and areas for restricting or prohibiting fishing in rivers, lakes, and seas in accordance with the law, and may delimit areas where the exploitation of groundwater is prohibited or restricted, based on the overexploitation condition of groundwater.
The illegal transfer of any industry or enterprise that pollutes the environment or destroys the ecology to rural areas shall be prohibited. The illegal transfer of any urban waste, industrial solid waste, or urban sewage without being treated to up to standards to agriculture and rural areas shall be prohibited. The discharge into agricultural land of sewage or sludge containing any heavy metal or other toxic or hazardous substance in excess of standards, or dredged sediments, tailings, or slag, among others, that may cause soil pollution shall be prohibited; and so shall the use of toxic or hazardous waste as fertilizer or for land reclamation.
The local people’s governments at all levels and their relevant authorities shall take measures to advance the recycling and treatment of used agricultural film and waste packaging of pesticides and agricultural inputs, advance the reclamation of crop straws and livestock and poultry manure, and strictly control cage culture involving the application of feed in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and coastal sea areas.
Chapter 6 – Organizational Building
Article 41 A modern rural social governance system with CPC committees providing leadership, the government being responsible, democratic consultation, social coordination, public participation, legal guarantees, and scientific and technological support and a rural social governance system that combines autonomy, the rule of law, and the rule of virtue shall be established and improved, so as to establish vigorous, harmonious, orderly, and well-governed villages.
The local people’s governments at all levels shall strengthen the building of the social management and service capacity of township and town people’s governments, and build townships and towns into rural governance centers, rural service centers, and rural economic centers.
Article 42 The rural basic organizations of the CPC shall play a comprehensive leadership role in accordance with the Constitution and relevant rules of the CPC. Villagers’ committees and rural collective economic organizations shall, under the leadership of township CPC committees and village CPC organizations, exercise villagers’ autonomy, develop the collective ownership economy, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of farmers, and submit to the supervision of villagers.
Article 43 The state shall establish and improve the training, assignment, use, and management mechanism of the cadre team for agricultural and rural work, select outstanding cadres to reinforce the cadre team for agricultural and rural work, take measures to improve the capability and level of the cadre team for agricultural and rural work, implement the relevant guarantees for remunerations for rural basic cadres, and build a team of cadres for agricultural and rural work who understand agriculture, love rural areas, and care about farmers.
Article 44 The local people’s governments at all levels shall build a simple and efficient basic management system, scientifically establish township and town institutions, strengthen the training of cadres in rural areas, improve the rural basic service system, and consolidate the foundation for the governance of rural areas.
Article 45 Township and town people’s governments shall guide and support the well-regulated and institutionalized construction of rural basic mass autonomous organizations, improve the democratic decision-making mechanism of villagers’ committees and the public disclosure system of village affairs, and strengthen villagers’ capability for self-management, self-education, self-service, and self-supervision.
Article 46 The people’s governments at all levels shall guide and support rural collective economic organizations in playing their roles in managing collective assets in accordance with the law, reasonably developing collective resources, serving collective members, and other aspects, and ensure the independent operation of rural collective economic organizations.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall support the development of various businesses such as farmers’ professional cooperatives, family farms, and agricultural enterprises, and improve the agricultural and rural socialized service system.
Article 47 The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall take measures to strengthen the construction of basic group organizations, support, regulate, and guide the development of rural social organizations, and bring into play the role of basic mass group organizations and rural social organizations to unite, contact, and serve the public and other aspects.
Article 48 The local people’s governments at all levels shall strengthen the building of basic law enforcement teams, encourage township and town people’s governments to establish the office of legal adviser and public lawyers as needed, encourage regions where conditions permit to establish public legal service studios under villagers’ committees, conduct the work of publicity and education about the rule of law and the people’s mediation in depth, improve the mediation and resolution mechanism for rural conflicts and disputes, and advance the building of rural areas under the rule of law.
Article 49 The local people’s governments at all levels shall improve the rural social security prevention and control system, strengthen rural police work, and promote the construction of safe villages; and improve the rural public security system, and strengthen rural public health, work safety, disaster prevention and mitigation, and relief, emergency rescue, emergency broadcasting, food, drug products, transportation, fire protection, and other security management responsibilities.
Chapter 7 – Integration between Urban and Rural Areas
Article 50 The people’s governments at all levels shall coordinate the advancement of the implementation of rural area revitalization strategy and the new urbanization strategy, formulate overall plans for the development of urban and rural areas, scientifically, systematically, and holistically arrange ecological, agricultural, urban and other functional spaces, optimize the layout of development of urban and rural industries, infrastructure, and public service facilities, gradually improve the basic public service system covering all the people, inclusive, shared, equally available to urban and rural areas, accelerate the integrated development of county-wide urban and rural areas, and promote the high quality and high efficiency of agriculture, the livability and favorableness to businesses of rural areas, and the affluence of farmers.
Article 51 County people’s governments and township people’s governments shall optimize the layout of the development of rural areas within their respective administrative areas, arrange the layout of villages according to local conditions on the principles of respecting the wishes of farmers, facilitating the public in work and life, and maintaining the functions and characteristics of rural areas, prepare village plans in accordance with the law, advance village construction by classification in an orderly manner, strictly regulate the cancellation and combination of villages, and strictly prohibit the abolishment cancellation and combination of villages against the wishes of farmers or in violation of legal procedures.
Article 52 The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall holistically plan, construct, manage and maintain urban and rural roads and waste and sewage treatment, water, electric power, gas, logistics, passenger transportation, information and telecommunication, radio and television, fire protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, and other public infrastructure and new types of infrastructure, promote the interconnection of urban and rural infrastructure, satisfy the demand for energy in the development of rural areas, safeguard the safety of rural drinking water, and satisfy the needs of farmers in work and life.
Article 53 The state shall develop rural social causes, prompt public education, medical care and health, social security, and other resources to be weighted in favor of rural areas, improve the level of rural basic public services, and advance the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas.
The state shall improve the public convenience service system in rural areas, improve the digital and intelligent level of public services in rural areas, support the improvement of village-level comprehensive service facilities and comprehensive information platforms, develop service institutions and social service organizations, improve service operating mechanisms, boost the effective connection between public services and self-service, and enhance the function of work and life services.
Article 54 The state shall improve the social security system taking into account urban and rural areas, establish and improve a security mechanism, and support rural areas in improving the level of social security management services; and establish and improve a mechanism for determining basic pension insurance benefits and normal adjustment of basic pension standards for urban and rural residents, so as to ensure that the basic pension insurance benefits of urban and rural residents gradually increase with economic and social development.
The state shall support farmers in enrolling in basic pension insurance and basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents in accordance with regulations, and encourage eligible flexibly employed persons and agricultural industrialization employees to enroll in basic pension insurance, basic medical insurance, and other social insurance for employees.
The state shall advance the coordinated development of the urban and rural minimum living security system, raise the level of social assistance such as the support for persons in extraordinary poverty in rural areas, strengthen the care services for left-behind children and women, the elderly, the disabled, and children in plight in rural areas, and support the development of inclusive elderly care services and mutual help elderly care in rural areas.
Article 55 The state shall promote the formation of a human resource market with equal competition, well-regulated, orderly, unified in urban and rural areas, and improve public employment and entrepreneurship service system that is equal in urban and rural areas.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall take measures to prompt farmers who have stable employment and life in urban areas to move to and obtain household registration in cities on a voluntary and orderly basis, and shall not condition farmers’ movement to and obtainment of household registration in cities on the surrender of their conventional usufructs on rural land for agricultural operations, homestead use rights, or collective income distribution rights, among others; and advance the accessibility of basic urban public services to farmers who have obtained residence permits and their accompanying family members.
The state shall encourage private capital to develop projects in the relationship of interest with farmers in rural areas, and encourage urban residents to travel, have leisure vacations, and receive health maintenance and elderly care, among others, in rural areas, without prejudicing the ecology and environment in rural areas or the lawful rights and interests of rural collective economic organizations and their members.
Article 56 The people’s governments at or above the county level shall take measures to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural industries, improve the incentive mechanism for cooperating with and assisting farmers on the basis of ensuring the leading role of farmers, and achieve the diversification of the economy in rural areas and the development of agriculture throughout the industry chain.
Article 57 The people’s governments at all levels and their relevant authorities shall take measures to encourage farmers to work in cities, fully implement equal employment and equal pay for equal work for urban and rural workers, and ensure the payment of wages and social security entitlements to migrant workers in accordance with the law.
Chapter 8 – Support Measures
Article 58 The state shall establish and improve an agricultural support and protection system and implement a financial investment guarantee system for the rural area revitalization strategy. The people’s governments at or above the county level shall give priority to guaranteeing financial investment for the revitalization of rural areas, and ensure that the investment continues to increase in intensity and total amount, and is commensurate with the goals and tasks of the revitalization of rural areas.
The people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government may issue government bonds in accordance with the law for the construction of modern agricultural facilities and rural areas.
The people’s governments at all levels shall improve the permanent mechanism for the overall integration of agriculture-related funds, strengthen the supervision and management of government grants, fully exercise budget performance management, and improve the efficiency of the use of government grants.
Article 59 The people’s governments at all levels shall take measures to enhance the intrinsic development capacity of regions liberated from poverty, establish a permanent mechanism to assist the rural low-income population and underdeveloped areas and continue to advance the development of regions liberated from poverty; and establish and improve a dynamic monitoring, early warning, and assistance mechanism for the population prone to falling back into or being caused to fall into poverty, and achieve the consolidation and expansion of the effective connection between the achievements in the poverty alleviation combat and the revitalization of rural areas.
The state shall increase its support for the implementation of the rural area revitalization strategy in former revolutionary base areas, ethnic areas, and border areas.
Article 60 The state shall build a new type of framework of agricultural subsidy policies oriented to high-quality green development on the principles of increasing total amount, optimizing existing amount, and improving efficiency.
Article 61 The people’s governments at all levels shall adhere to the principle of using levies on agriculture mainly for agriculture, adjust and improve the scope of use of income from the assignment of land use rights in accordance with relevant state regulations, and increase the proportion of investments in agriculture and rural areas, with a focus on spending on the construction of well-facilitated farmland, farmland irrigation and drainage construction, the improvement of the modern seed industry, the guarantee of water supply in rural areas, the remediation of the rural living environment, the comprehensive consolidation of rural land, the protection of farmland and permanent basic farmland, the construction, management, and maintenance of public facilities in villages, rural education, rural culture, and fostering of values, the ecological protection and restoration of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, and deserts directly related to agriculture and rural areas, and the construction of work-relief projects, among others.
Article 62 The relevant special grants and funds established by the people’s governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the support for the revitalization of rural areas in accordance with regulations.
The state shall support the establishment of rural area revitalization funds in a market-oriented manner, and focus on supporting industry development and public infrastructure construction in rural areas.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall optimize the business environment in rural areas, encourage innovation in investment and financing methods, and guide private capital in investing in rural areas.
Article 63 The state shall comprehensively use fiscal, financial, and other policy measures to improve the government financing guarantee mechanism, improve the functions of assets in rural areas to be mortgaged as security in accordance with the law, and improve and strengthen financial support and services for revitalization of rural areas.
The agricultural credit guarantee institutions formed with government grants as capital contributors shall mainly serve businesses engaged in agricultural production or directly related to agricultural production.
Article 64 The state shall improve the multi-level capital market, promote the equity financing of agricultural-related enterprises through multiple channels, develop and regulate the bond market, and promote the financing of agricultural-related enterprises by using various methods; and increase agricultural product futures, and maximize the functions of the futures market in price discovery and risk diversification.
Article 65 The state shall establish and improve a multi-level, wide-ranging, and sustainable rural financial service system, improve the evaluation and assessment mechanism of financial support for the revitalization of rural areas, promote the development of rural inclusive finance, and encourage financial institutions to allocate more resources in accordance with the law to the key fields and weak links of development of rural areas.
Policy financial institutions shall provide credit support and other financial services for the revitalization of rural areas within the scope of their business, and increase support for the revitalization of rural areas.
Commercial banks shall, in light of their own functional positioning and business advantages, innovate on financial products and service models, expand the coverage of basic financial services, increase the scale of credit extended to farmers and agricultural businesses, and provide financial services for the revitalization of rural areas.
Small and medium-sized rural financial institutions such as rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, and rural credit cooperatives shall mainly serve local agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and mainly use newly increased loanable funds for the current year for local agricultural and rural development.
Article 66 The state shall establish and improve a multi-level agricultural insurance system, improve the policy agricultural insurance system, encourage commercial insurance companies to conduct agricultural insurance business, and support farmers and agricultural businesses in carrying out mutual aid and cooperative insurance in accordance with the law.
The people’s governments at or above the county level shall take measures, such as insurance premium subsidies, to support insurance institutions in appropriately increasing the types of insurance, expanding the coverage of agricultural insurance, and promoting the development of agricultural insurance.
Article 67 The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall advance conservation and intensive use of land, improve the efficiency of land use, take measures in accordance with the law to revitalize the existing rural construction land, activate rural land resources, improve the guarantee mechanism for new rural construction land, and meet the reasonable needs for land use of industries, public service facilities, and farmers for residential buildings.
The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall guarantee the land for industry use in rural areas, weight construction land indicators in favor of the development of rural areas, give priority to using newly-added cultivated land indicators within counties first to offset the construction land indicators needed for industry development in rural areas, and explore new flexible and diverse methods of land supply.
For collective commercial construction land determined by the national land spatial plan to be for industrial, business, and other commercial uses and registered in accordance with the law, the landowner may permit an entity or individual to use the land by transfer, lease, or other means in accordance with the law, with priority given to the use for development of the collective ownership economy and industries in rural areas.
Chapter 9 – Supervisory Inspection
Article 68 The state shall implement a target responsibility system and an evaluation and assessment system for the implementation of the rural area revitalization strategy. A higher-level people’s government shall evaluate the completion of the targets of implementation of the village area revitalization strategy by lower people’s governments, and the results of the evaluation shall be an important part of the comprehensive evaluation and assessment of local people’s governments and the persons in charge thereof.
Article 69 The State Council and the relevant authorities of the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall establish indicators and statistical systems that objectively reflect the progress of revitalization of rural areas. The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall assess the implementation of the rural area revitalization strategy within their respective administrative areas.
Article 70 The people’s governments at or above the county level shall report to the people’s congresses or their standing committees at the corresponding level on the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas. Township and town people’s governments shall report to the people’s congresses at the corresponding level on the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas.
Article 71 The local people’s government at each level shall report to the people’s government at the next higher level on the work on promoting the revitalization of rural areas every year.
The people’s governments at or above the county level shall regularly conduct supervisory inspection of the work of the lower-level people’s governments on promoting the revitalization of rural areas.
Article 72 The development and reform, finance, agriculture and rural affairs, audit, and other authorities of the people’s governments at or above the county level shall supervise the implementation of the mechanism on giving priority to guaranteeing investments in agriculture and rural areas, the use of funds for revitalization of rural areas, and performance, among others, with their respective purview.
Article 73 Where the people’s governments at all levels and their relevant authorities fail to perform, or inaccurately perform, their duties in the work on promoting the revitalization, they shall be held accountable in accordance with laws, regulations, and the relevant provisions issued by the state, and the directly responsible person in charge and other directly liable persons shall be subjected to disciplinary action in accordance with the law.
For any violation of laws and regulations related to the quality safety of agricultural products, ecological and environmental protection, and land management, among others, an appropriate authority shall impose a penalty in accordance with the law; or hold the violator criminally liable, if the violation is criminally punishable.
Chapter 10 – Supplemental Provisions
Article 74 This Law shall come into force on June 1, 2021.