China’s top legislature adopted in late April a law on boosting rural development and accelerating modernization of agriculture and rural areas, providing a legal foundation in the pursuit of the rural vitalization strategy which is a key engine for the country’s high-quality growth.

In an article published by the Guangming Daily, a national Chinese-language paper, Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, calls for the establishment of a scientific system to effectively gauge the progress of various rural regions across the country.

According to the new law, a system of supervision and inspection will be put in place to review the progress, and local governments at all levels are responsible to draft detailed goals in accordance with the rural vitalization drive. According to Tang, such a scientific system of accountability and evaluation should break down various targets and responsibilities at different levels to stem inefficiency, nonfeasance and heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all methods.

Rural vitalization is a large-scale task featuring multiple prongs, and it requires the establishment of an evaluation system that reflects varied characteristics and situations of different regions. The five major goals of this strategy are thriving industries, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and high standard of living. Under the existing evaluation system, it is not feasible to gauge the overall rural vitalization progress by simply adding up progress in each of these five categories. Different local resources endowment and development levels mean that development indicators from one region should not be compared with another is in absolute terms. A new evaluation system that integrates all these gaps and factors should be set up to faithfully measure any given region’s rural vitalization progress while scientifically comparing the results of different regions.

That is why it is necessary to go beyond conventional indexes which focus on economic output and embrace new concepts that cater to higher standards for a modernized rural region’s output amid the rural vitalization drive. A rural region’s development metrics in this new era will undoubtedly not be limited to traditional goals like grain supplies and income per capita, but extend to performance in additional aspects such as economy, environment, grain, culture, and social governance. The core design of “new rural output” lies in figuring out all elements of rural society that contribute to rural vitalization and set the overall direction under which different rural regions are allowed to pursue their own bespoke development plans in accordance with their advantages.

A new relative evaluation system that takes gaps and different goals among different regions into consideration should be put in place to review their progress under the new rural output framework. First, one dimension of output that most reflects a region’s local advantages should be prioritized as the key aspect for evaluation while progress in other aspects should be maintained at a level required by coordinated regional development. According to the new law, the vitalization strategy should be implemented in accordance with a rural region’s history and cultures, development realities, geographic conditions, resources and industrial foundations. No two villages are alike, and development efforts should be coordinated, in order and allow gaps in progress. No village can excel in everything, and village-level and township-level officials should embrace innovations and exert particular efforts to boost development in areas to local advantages and enhance distinct local styles. Meanwhile, China’s 14th five-year plan requires all regions to provide basic public services and a convenient transport system, indicating that metrics not prioritized should still be maintained at appropriate level to meet local people’s needs.

It is more reasonable to resort to a relative perspective when evaluating key development indexes since each village has its own strength, and some of the outcomes cannot be easily monetized and directly compared. A particular solution is a relative method that regards increment in main output as a key evaluation standard. By breaking down national goals set for long-term development, with 2035 and 2049 as two key milestones, one can determine whether a region’s output progress meets the requirement for rural vitalization and coordinated regional development and high-quality growth. By conducting relative evaluation in comparison to the country’s second centennial goal (2049), it is possible to fully consider different rural regions’ particular situations while making sure that the goals are realistic enough for local people to strive for. In the meantime, a more detailed schedule will come into being for the country’s goals set for 2049.

A scientific evaluation system for rural vitalization will ensure that local regions are properly motivated and encouraged to pursue differential development strategy and contribute to coordinated regional development. It is a must for the full implementation of rural vitalization strategy as well as a key foundation for fully building a modern socialist China.

(The original Chinese-language version of this article was jointly penned by Tang and Cao Baicheng, an accountancy postgraduate at Guanghua.)

About the Author

Dr. Tang Yao is an associate professor in the department of applied economics, a research fellow at the CITIC Foundation for Reform and Development. He holds a PhD. in Economics from University of British Columbia in 2009. He was an associate professor from Bowdoin College in the United States before he joined Guanghua fulltime in 2018. His research interests include monetary economics, international economics, and enterprise strategy. His teaching includes macroeconomics, China in the global political economy, international finance, international trade, and topics on Asian economies.