A scene of the event Photo: Zhu Gaolei/CSSN

On July 22, Beijing hosted the launch event for China’s Rural Development Report (2025) alongside an academic symposium on rural development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030). Li Xuesong, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and member of the leading Party members’ group at CASS, attended the event and delivered remarks.

Li noted that the 15th Five-Year Plan period marks a critical stage for China as it advances toward the goal of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and achieving the Second Centenary Goal. As the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) approaches its conclusion and planning for the 15th Five-Year Plan is actively underway, the release of China’s Rural Development Report 2025 is both timely and of great significance. Featuring a strong strategic orientation, theoretical depth, and a forward-looking perspective, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the objectives, overarching approaches, key tasks, and policy measures for rural development in the upcoming period. It serves as valuable reference for innovating rural development approaches, strengthening reforms in key areas, achieving breakthroughs in crucial domains, as well as accelerating rural modernization and comprehensive rural revitalization.

Li emphasized that China has now embarked on a new journey of building a great country and moving toward national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization. In this context, it is imperative to accelerate efforts to address weaknesses in rural modernization, promote integrated urban-rural development, and make steady solid progress toward achieving common prosperity. This requires developing new quality productive forces to drive agricultural and rural modernization, deepening market-oriented reforms in production factors to forge new pathways for integrated urban-rural development, and coordinating a range of initiatives focused on “expanding the middle-income group and raising the income of low-income earners” to advance shared prosperity among farmers and in rural areas. These efforts are key to supporting the holistic, systematic, and coordinated advancement of Chinese modernization.

Li expressed hope that the release of the report would inspire more experts and scholars specialized in issues related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers (“three rural issues”) to root their academic work in the land of the nation and craft solutions that truly resonate with rural residents, thereby transforming scholarly wisdom into practical efforts that strengthen agriculture and enrich farmers—collectively composing a new chapter of comprehensive rural revitalization in the new era.

Ji Weimin, Party Committee Secretary and president of China Social Sciences Press (CSSP), noted that since its first edition in 2016, the China’s Rural Development Report series has continued to receive positive public feedback, standing out as one of the most prominent among the CSSP’s many annual think tank publications. The 2025 edition carries forward the series’ strong academic tradition, focusing on major theoretical and practical issues regarding China’s rural socio-economic development. By presenting comprehensive, in-depth analysis and policy recommendations, the report not only represents cutting-edge research on the “three rural issues” by Chinese scholars at CASS and other institutions, but also constitutes an innovative academic contribution to the comprehensive deepening of reform and the advancement of Chinese modernization.

Wei Houkai, chief editor of China’s Rural Development Report (2025) and director of the Rural Development Institute (RDI) at CASS, and Du Zhixiong, chief editor of the report and Party Committee Secretary of the RDI, chaired the meeting separately. Yu Fawen, deputy editor of the report and research fellow at the RDI, presented the main findings of the report.

The 2025 report evaluates the achievements of China’s rural development in the 14th Five-Year Plan period. It finds that during this critical period of strategic opportunity, a range of supportive policies from both the central and local governments at all levels—aimed at strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural communities and enriching farmers—has yielded fruitful results. While effectively maintaining the two fundamental baselines of ensuring domestic food security and preventing large-scale poverty recurrence, China has substantially improved the quality and returns of agricultural development, steadily advanced key tasks in rural development, construction, and governance, as well as considerably enhanced farmers’ well-being in terms of income and living standards. Meanwhile, China’s rural development still faces complex challenges such as population aging, the “hollowing-out” of villages, and regional disparities, highlighting the need for innovative development approaches and stronger policy support.

The report recommends that China’s rural development prioritize the following areas to ensure substantive progress in all key tasks during the 15th Five-Year Plan period: strengthening overall coordination and fostering policy synergy; deepening area-specific, categorized urban-rural reforms and enhancing policy precision; refining modern agricultural management systems to stimulate endogenous growth momentum; developing diversified investment and financing mechanisms to improve the quality and efficiency of fiscal and financial support for agriculture; innovating mechanisms for land conservation and efficient land use to strengthen land security; building a talent cultivation system conducive to the development of new quality productive forces and strengthening the foundation for emerging talent; and refining rural property rights transaction mechanisms to unleash the vitality of resource factors.

During the academic discussion session, the following experts each delivered a speech and exchanged their views on the trends, significant transformations, and major issues in China’s agricultural and rural development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period: Chen Bangxun, Director-General of the Department of Development Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Zhao Changbao, Director of the Rural Economic Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Qiu Tianchao, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Rural Economy, National Development and Reform Commission; Zhang Guanzi, President of the National Academy of Chinese Modernization, CASS; Zhang Yunhua, Deputy Director of the Department of Rural Economy Research, Development Research Center of the State Council; and Lan Haitao, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.

Participating scholars contend that effective planning for rural development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period requires integrating goal-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, aligning immediate needs with long-term vision, identifying trends and patterns, highlighting strategic priorities, innovating policy measures, and strengthening implementation efforts. The academic community should focus on the supply-demand structure of grains and other essential agricultural products, the structures and production modes of agricultural business entities, the forms of rural settlements and village layouts, as well as changes in urban-rural relations and development patterns. Scholars should closely examine the impact of advances in agricultural technology on production modes and accurately identify emerging trends and policy needs, thereby providing well-informed recommendations and intellectual support for accelerating agricultural and rural modernization as well as advancing comprehensive rural revitalization.

The event was co-hosted by the Rural Development Institute, China Social Sciences Press, and the Think Tank for Integrated Urban and Rural Development, all affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.