Xi Story: Fueling China's rural revitalization through speciality industries

BEIJING -- In Jiayu county, Central China's Hubei province, vast expanses of vegetable fields stretch as far as the eye can see, infusing the air with a sense of freshness and vitality.

Jiayu, one of Hubei's major vegetable production areas, received a special visitor on Tuesday -- President Xi Jinping, who was on an inspection tour to Hubei.

Walking in the vegetable field, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, checked the growth of vegetables and inquired in detail about the variety, planting techniques and sales.

In Xi's view, vegetable farming is an "industry that enriches the people," and it needs further development to help more people increase their income through technological empowerment, quality improvement and brand building.

In Jiayu, vegetable cultivation began as early as in the 1980s. With favorable climate and soil conditions, Jiayu has become a leading vegetable producer in the province, generating an impressive annual output of 1.27 million tonnes that is sold across the country and overseas.

Thanks to the vegetable industry, the county's per-capita disposable income of rural residents nearly doubled over the past decade to more than 24,000 yuan (about $3,360) in 2023.

To advance Chinese modernization, efforts must be made to accelerate rural revitalization, Xi said while visiting the county, encouraging the villagers to boost the economic returns of specialty industries and make their villages more beautiful.

The success of Jiayu's development stands out as a prime example of how specialty industries have driven China's rural revitalization, which Xi attaches great importance to.

In February 2021, Xi announced that absolute poverty had been eliminated in China. The country's focus of rural work has since shifted to rural revitalization.

Xi has emphasized on various occasions that to advance rural revitalization, local industries must be developed. He encouraged each region to leverage its unique strengths and find a path toward revitalization that aligns with its specific conditions.

During an inspection last month in Dongshan county in the city of Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian province, Xi learned about the sale of dried seafood and the fishing harvest at a village, calling for efforts to capitalize on advantages and make good use of local marine resources.

Xi, who visited the village 23 years ago, said he was delighted to see that the village has undergone tremendous changes, adding that China's countryside will surely enjoy brighter prospects on the new journey in the new era.

In September, he toured an orchard in the city of Tianshui, Northwest China's Gansu province. The trip marked his first inspection trip outside Beijing after the conclusion of the reform-themed third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in July.

There, he talked with apple growers and agricultural technicians under trees laden with ruby-like Huaniu apples, a specialty fruit of Tianshui that has been developed for decades, and encouraged the locals to aim for greater success in developing the apple industry and live happier lives.

Like Tianshui, the city of Yan'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province has a decades-long history of apple cultivation. Today, apples are a signature product of the city's rural areas, which played a crucial role in Yan'an's eradication of absolute poverty in 2019.

In October 2022, Xi visited the city, shortly after the closing of the 20th CPC National Congress. When visiting an orchard in Nangou village, he praised local apple growers for their use of drip irrigation and refined management practices.

"This is agricultural modernization," said Xi. "You have found an industry development direction that suits you best."

Across China, many rural areas have cultivated industries well-suited to their local conditions, effectively boosting rural revitalization through their development.

Like vegetables from Jiayu and apples from Tianshui, specialty products like oranges from Ganzhou in Jiangxi province and strawberries from Dandong in Liaoning province have gained popularity in the market, significantly contributing to local social and economic development.

These thriving local industries help ensure food security, consolidate the country's poverty reduction achievements and promote integrated urban-rural development.

As Xi stressed during the Hubei inspection trip, development is the top priority. He emphasized that engaging in agriculture can also lead to prosperity as there are great potentials in the agricultural sector.