Three Rural Modernization Process And Resulting Theory Thinking

The nearly 60 years' practice of economic and social development in China shows that the greatest difficulty in China's realization of modernization is in the rural areas. Issues involving agriculture, the rural areas and the peasants are among the weakest in China's construction of modernization. Therefore, the key to realizing modernization in China is to achieve modernization in these three areas. To resolve problems in these areas is not only of the greatest importance but looms ahead of China's development.This dissertation, guided by Marxist historical materialism, in the backdrop of working to realize modernization in China, strives to make some theoretical exploration and to envisage some possible practical measures for the resolution of the above mentioned problems through reviewing the great practice of China's promotion of modernization in the three areas concerning agriculture, the rural areas and the peasants, and by analyzing the achievements and problems in contemporary China.This dissertation consists of Introduction and another 10 chapters. By reviewing the theoretical discussion and empirical study, the Introduction expounds the necessity and significance of studying the rural modernization and puts forward the issues to be solved and the standpoint of this dissertation.The first chapter reviews the painstaking exploration in the rural modernization from 1949 to 1978, that is, from the founding of PRC to the beginning of reform and opening policy. The second chapter focuses on the successful practice of the rural modernization from 1978 to the turn of the century. Chapter 3 introduces the significant changes in China's rural development strategies at the beginning of the 21st century. Since the founding of PRC, especially after the implementation of reform and opening policy, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in order to solve the three dimensional rural problems, to achieve industrialization and modernization, have adjusted relevant policies for several times, which have brought about historic and profound changes in China's agriculture and the rural areas. Internationally-acknowledged great achievements have been made in the economic and social development of the rural areas, and the peasants' living standards have been greatly improved. However, due to various reasons, the deeply-seated contradictions that restrict agricultural and rural development have not yet been eliminated. A mechanism to secure sustainable and steady growth of the peasants' income in the long run has not been formed. And the fact that the rural economic and social development is lagging behind the overall development on the national level has not been fundamentally changed. What's more, the establishment of adequate systems and mechanisms to coordinate urban and rural development have not been completed, so the most arduous, and onerous task to build a well-off society is in the rural areas. Therefore, in the new century the three dimensional rural issues still stand out among all the issues to be resolved for the CCP to build a harmonious society. Since the beginning of the new century, some major adjustments of policies have been made in these areas. The 16th CCP National Congress set up the goal of comprehensively building a well-off society, among the specific tasks of which is to develop modem agriculture, flourish the rural economy and to increase the peasants' income. The 2003 National Conference on Rural Work officially proposed to give "top priority" of the CCP's efforts to the three rural dimensional issues. Since then, the CCP Central Committee (CCPCC) and the State Council have repeatedly stressed this "top priority", and have successively adopted a series of policies and measures to relieve the grave situation of these three rural dimensional issues. The 16th CCP National Congress, and the Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 16^th CCPCC all proposed that to strengthen the Party's administrative capacity, one of its tasks is "to focus on the weak points, especially the issues involving agriculture, the rural areas and the peasants, in the making of the guiding principles, policies and measures". The Fifth Plenary Session of the 16 CCPCC put forward the major historic goal of building a new socialist countryside, which provides the guidance to successfully accomplish the tasks in rural issues. The Sixth Plenum put forward the scientific concept of development as the guidance to build a harmonious society, to uphold coordinated development in urban and rural areas, and to enhance the building of a new socialist countryside. In 2007 the 17^th CCP National Congress further proposed to coordinate urban and rural development and to promote the building of a new socialist countryside. Since 2004, all the five No. 1 official documents of the year issued by the central government are about the three rural dimensional issues, which shows the CCP's determination to resolve the problems in these areas. All these facts indicate the major strategical change in the development of China's rural issues, and that the development of China's three dimensional rural issues will be directed to a more scientific path.Chapter IV introduces the achievements and the existing problems in the process of China's agricultural modernization, and analyses the causes of the problems and their impact on the modernization. Great achievements have been made in China's rural modernization, but there still exist problems like a low level of agricultural productivity, the widening gap in income and consumption level between urban and rural residents, and the widening gap between the social development of the urban and rural poor, etc. Before 1978, especially after the Eighth CCP National Congress in 1956, misguided by the "leftist" in the guiding ideology, both CCP and the state government committed "leftist" mistakes, and gradually reduced its focus on developing productivity, which should have always been the central task for the Party. This, coupled with the unbalanced strategy of focusing on industry and urban development and some other reasons, imposed too heavy a burden on the peasants. Thus, problems involving the three dimensional rural issues gradually arise and become increasingly serious, which has not only repressed the full play of the rural issues as the basic role in the national economic and social development, but also brought about lots of obstacles to the rural development. After the implementation of reform and opening policy, to liberate and develop productivity once again became the central task, which led to significant progress in rural modernization. However, as no fundamental change was made to the unbalanced focus on industry and urban development, problems in these rural issues existed for a long time and became increasingly serious, which resulted in the serious insufficiency of domestic demand in China, which in turn has hampered the further development of urban productivity and has deeply influenced the ideology of Chinese peasants, restraining them in the petti-peasant mentality. This hinders the development of China's modern ideological civilization and increases the instability in Chinese society.Based on the previous review and analysis, in Chapters V to DC the author makes some theoretical exploration and envisages some possible practical measures to resolve the problems concerning the rural issues. Chapter V mainly analyses whether the major criteria to measure the rural policies truly liberate and develop the rural productivity. Chapter VI maintains that as far as the rural issues are concerned, to stick to people-first approach means to always keep the peasants' interest in mind. The key to resolving the rural issue-related problems is that great emphasis must be attached to promoting growth in peasants' income, raising their educational levels and improving their productivity. Chapter VII mainly discusses how to resolve the problems on our way to modernization through reform and development, specifically how to implement the scientific concept of development in rural issues. Chapter VIII mainly expounds how to implement the guiding ideology in practice that agricultural development is the basis of the national economic development. Chapter IX mainly concentrates on coordinating urban and rural development with the focus on the countryside. The difficulty in building a well-off society and realizing modernization is not in the cities but in the countryside. Chapter 10 is devoted to the discussion on the necessity of developing large-scale agricultural operations.