Rural work is the most arduous task and the most extensive and deepest foundation for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and achieving national rejuvenation of China.

Starting 2021, China will enter the 14th Five-Year Plan period and embark on the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.

With China at such a historical juncture, the convening of the central rural work conference is of great importance. The meeting sends a clear signal that solving issues related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers is the top priority for the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the society.

In an important speech delivered at the meeting, President Xi Jinping, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, summarized the great achievements China has secured in the work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

Expounding on major issues concerning the acceleration of rural work, Xi also made major arrangements for consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation, comprehensively promoting rural vitalization, and accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

The speech is of great and far-reaching significance for the whole Party to realize the importance and urgency of doing a good job in rural work, for the whole Party to place issues related to rural work as a top priority, and for the whole Party and society to take all-out efforts to promote the revitalization of the countryside, and push for the efforts made to promote the efficiency and quality of the agricultural sector, make rural areas suitable to live and work in and ensure that farmers are affluent and well-off.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has taken poverty alleviation as a landmark project for building a well-off society in an all-round way, launched a poverty alleviation campaign that has no precedent in terms of the scale and efforts made, and benefits the most people, and propelled China’s rural areas and agriculture sector to achieve historic achievements and undergo historic changes.

China has maintained an annual grain output at 650 billion kilograms for six years in a row, and more than doubled farmers’ income compared with 2010. Farmers’ livelihood has improved significantly, and rural areas have taken on a new look. Meanwhile, earth-shaking changes have taken place in poverty-stricken areas, and historic achievements have been made in tackling absolute poverty.

All this has made major contributions to building a well-off society in all respects and laid a solid foundation for starting a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.

As China is about to enter a new stage of development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it faces changing and complicated domestic and international environment.

With the country at a historic juncture of marching toward its second centenary goal and having achieved its goals for poverty alleviation, and with the world experiencing great changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the task of consolidating and extending the achievements of poverty alleviation, pushing forward all-round rural vitalization and accelerating the modernization of the agricultural sector and rural areas is a major issue essential to the overall situation that deserves the high attention of the whole Party. All Party members must deeply realize that rural revitalization is the premise for national rejuvenation.

Although China has made notable achievements in rural work, it still sees an unstable agricultural foundation, and uneven development of urban and rural areas, and faces social contradictions manifested by insufficient rural development.

Consolidating the foundation for agriculture, rural areas and work relating to farmers is "the ballast" for the country to tackle the changing situations and open up new prospects.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the Party's overall leadership of the rural work, improve the Party's organizational system, institutional system, and working mechanism for leading rural work, and improve the Party's comprehensive leadership of rural work in the new era.

Cadres at all levels should keep in mind the overall strategy of national rejuvenation and the great changes in the world that have not been seen in a century, stay united and take concrete efforts to do a good job in rural work, so as to strive to achieve the efficiency and quality of the agricultural sector, make rural areas suitable to live and work in and ensure that farmers are affluent and well-off.

China has met the goals for poverty alleviation after decades of efforts, especially in the latest eight years.

Now, the mission is to comprehensively promote rural revitalization. This is a historic shift in the focus of the rural work. To do a good job in the rural work, it is necessary to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, connect the achievements of poverty alleviation with rural rejuvenation, improve dynamic monitoring and assistance mechanisms for preventing people from falling back to poverty, ensure the smooth transition of various policies, and continue to promote rural revitalization in areas that have been lifted out of poverty.

Efforts should be made to ensure food security and strengthen food production year by year, and the country must retain a "red line" of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land.

The country should build high-standard farmland, become self-reliant in agricultural technologies, accelerate the tackling of core technologies related to agriculture, increase farmers' passion for growing grain, and stabilize and increase subsidies for crop planting.

It is also necessary to comprehensively promote the implementation of rural revitalization, accelerate the development of rural industries, strengthen the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, expand the construction of rural ecological civilization, deepen rural reform, implement rural construction, promote the development of urban and rural integration, and strengthen and improve rural governance.

The year 2021 is the first year of implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan, the first year for the country to embark on a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, and also the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.

All work must be carried out so as to set a good start. The whole country should unite more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi as the core, strengthen the consciousnesses of the ideology, the whole, the core and the line, be confident in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and firmly uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position in both the Party Central Committee and the Party as a whole, and firmly uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership.

We should work together to forge ahead, celebrate the founding of the Party with excellent achievements, make unremitting efforts to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way and realize the Chinese dream of great national rejuvenation.