Twenty-Character Proposal on Rural Revitalization

I. Several Biases or Misconceptions in Theoretical Understanding of the “Three Rural Issues” [1]1 The “three rural issues” (三农问题, sān nóng wèntí) refers to the problems of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants in China.

一、“三农”理论认识上的几种偏见或误区

First, pinning the hope of solving China’s “three rural issues” on urbanization. Some scholars still have not escaped the trap of urbanization, continuing to haggle over the issue of peasants moving to cities and taking the urbanization rate as an important indicator of modernization. In fact, at a time when real estate development is already severely overproduced, the correct approach should be to replace indicators like the urbanization rate with indicators (a system) for rural revitalization, and to focus efforts on revitalizing the countryside and on integrated urban-rural development.

第一，把解决我国“三农”问题的希望寄托于城市化。当前一些学者仍然没有跳出城市化这个陷阱，还是在农民转移进城的问题上纠缠算账，把城市化率当成现代化的重要发展指标。其实，在房地产开发已严重生产过剩的今天，正确的做法应该是用乡村振兴的指标（体系）取代城市化率之类的指标，在重新振兴乡村和城乡融合发展上下功夫。

To resolve China’s urban-rural dual structure, should we rely on rural labor moving to cities, or on revitalizing the countryside and achieving localized urbanization and agglomeration transformation? The essence here is the issue of urban-rural relations. In fact, the capitalist urban-rural relationship is one of urban domination and plunder of the countryside, where capital annihilates the countryside. China’s urban-rural relationship, by contrast, should essentially be a worker-peasant alliance under socialist conditions. Under China’s socialist conditions, the consolidation and development of the worker-peasant alliance is generally manifested in the urban-rural relationship between industry and agriculture. Initially, it was expressed as agriculture supporting the national industrialization process; later, as cities driving the countryside and industry nurturing rural areas and agriculture. As development continues, on the basis of rural industrialization, with large numbers of agricultural laborers transferring to secondary and tertiary industries, a new internal rural worker-peasant relationship emerges. This new internal rural worker-peasant relationship is one of worker-peasant integration within the collective economic system, self-regulated by rural collective economic organizations. In this way, the entire society forms a two-tier structure: the urban-rural worker-peasant alliance and the internal rural worker-peasant integration, moving toward a coordinated path of urban-rural integration. This is precisely the effect of rural industrialization, i.e., the adjustment of the rural collective economy’s own industrial structure, and the transformation of rural social structure brought about by the development of township (commune and brigade) enterprises. [2]2 “Commune and brigade enterprises” (社队企业, shè duì qǐyè) were rural enterprises run by people’s communes and production brigades during the collective era, the precursors of township and village enterprises (TVEs). Only by passing through this stage of development can the differences between town and country and between workers and peasants ultimately be eliminated.

要解决我国的城乡二元结构，到底是靠农村劳动力进城，还是重新振兴乡村，实现本土性城镇化集聚转型？这里的本质是城乡关系问题。其实，资本主义的城乡关系是城市对乡村的统治和剥夺，是资本消灭农村。而我国的城乡关系，本质上应该是社会主义条件下的工农联盟。在我国社会主义条件下，工农联盟的巩固和发展，一般是表现在城乡之间的工农关系。最初表现为农业支持国家的工业化进程，后来表现城市对农村的带动，工业对农村、农业的反哺。再继续发展则是在农村工业化的基础上，随着大批农业劳动力向二三产业的转移，又产生了农村内部的工农关系，而这种新的农村内部的工农关系，是集体经济体制内部工农一体的关系，是由农村集体经济组织自我调节的。这样，整个社会就形成了城乡之间的工农联盟和农村内部工农一体两层结构共存的关系，并由此走向城乡融合的协调发展道路。这正是农村工业化即农村集体经济自身产业结构调整的效果，是乡镇（社队）企业发展引起的农村社会结构的变革。只有经历这个发展阶段，才能最终消灭城乡差别和工农差别。

Given the actual situation of China’s economic and social development, the issue of urbanization is by no means as simple as peasants moving to cities. It mainly involves three aspects. First, passive urbanization, i.e., how to complete the urban transformation of rural areas incorporated into the planning scope of existing cities as they expand. Second, active urbanization, i.e., how the development of rural township enterprises drives localized urbanization agglomeration. Third, the citizenization transfer of peasants, i.e., how peasants scattered in rural areas who move to cities can successfully settle and complete their transformation into citizens.

面向我国经济社会发展的实际情况，其城市化问题，绝不仅仅是农民进城这样简单，这主要包括三方面问题。一是被动城市化，即在原有城市扩张中被列入城市规划范围内的农村，如何完成城市化改造。二是主动城镇化，即农村乡镇企业发展如何带动本土城镇化集聚。三是农民的市民化转移，即农村地区分散进城的农民如何顺利地在城市落户，完成市民化转移。

In addition, there are also the numerous retained villages on the periphery of small rural towns, and how to complete their modernization and upgrading, i.e., the construction of new countryside or new rural communities in the narrow sense. These different areas and types each have their own particularities and laws of development. Therefore, the simple indicator of peasants moving to cities cannot be taken as an important indicator of modernization.

此外，还有大批农村小城镇外围的保留村庄，如何完成现代化改造提升，即狭义的新农村或新型农村社区建设。这些不同的地区和类型，都有自己的特殊性和发展规律，因此，不能简单将农民进城这一指标来当成现代化的重要发展指标。

Second, biases formed in the reform that overcorrected the collective economic system. Some scholars’ simplistic and total negation of the collective economic system has led to serious misconceptions and limitations in people’s thinking. These limitations manifest in two aspects.

第二，在集体经济体制矫枉过正的改革中形成的偏见。部分学者对集体经济体制简单化的全面否定，使人们形成了严重的认识误区和局限性。其局限性表现为两方面。

On the one hand, the role of the household-based decentralized contract responsibility system has been excessively exaggerated, to the point that the countryside has long fallen into the trap of a scattered small-peasant economy. On the other hand, the necessity of coordinating resources and unified management at the township level, above the village level, has been completely negated. This not only plunges the vast majority of rural areas into the quagmire of each household fighting for itself, but also makes it difficult for the few villages that persist with the collective economy to break out of the pattern of each village fighting for itself. This situation makes it difficult for rural industries to upgrade and develop, to form complete industrial chains, and even leaves key links vulnerable to control by social capital or foreign capital.

一方面过分夸大了家庭分散承包经营的作用，以至于使农村长期陷入了分散的小农经济陷阱；另一方面又全盘否定了在村级以上的乡镇一级统筹资源和统一经营的必要性。这不但使绝大部分农村陷入户自为战的泥潭，而且少数坚持集体经济的村庄，也难以突破村自为战的格局。这种状况农村产业发展升级困难，难以形成完整的产业链条，甚至关键环节易被社会资本或外资所控制。

Therefore, the author believes there are currently two paths: either ultimately break through the bottom line, allowing capital to go to the countryside to annex land and let capital transform the countryside; or return to a genuine collective economic system, developing from a two-tier management system [3]3 The “two-tier management system” (双层经营体制, shuāng céng jīngyíng tǐzhì) refers to the combination of unified collective management and decentralized household management in China’s rural areas, established after the reform and opening up. toward a multi-level, multi-layered composite system.

因此，笔者认为当前出路有两条：要么最终突破底线，让资本下乡兼并土地，让资本改造农村；要么回到真正的集体经济体制上来，由双层经营体制向多级、多层的复合型体制发展。

From a practical perspective, at the current stage, developing the rural collective economy also has two different development approaches. One is to adjust the contractual relationship on the basis of the original village community collective economic organizations, in accordance with the constitutional spirit of collective land ownership, unifying where appropriate and dividing where appropriate, better leveraging the collective’s “unifying” function to develop and strengthen the collective economy. The other is to reorganize a three-in-one (production, supply and marketing, and credit) cooperative system on the basis of the household-based decentralized management. Its main characteristic is to use the organizational form of specialized cooperatives to bypass village community organizations and construct a separate rural industrialization organizational system. However, the difficulty with this proposal lies in handling the relationship between accelerating land transfer and concentration and rural community organizations, and it is also difficult to resolve the contradiction between new entities and collective land ownership.

从现实来看，现阶段发展农村集体经济，也有两个不同的发展思路：一是根据土地集体所有制的宪法精神，在原有村社集体经济组织的基础上调整承包关系，宜统则统、宜分则分，更好地发挥集体“统”的功能，发展壮大集体经济。二是在家庭分散经营的基础上，重新组建三位一体（生产、供销和信用）的合作制。其主要特点是用专业合作社的组织形式，避开（绕开）村社组织，另行构建农村的产业化组织体系。但这一设想的难度在于不好处理加快土地流转集中与农村社区组织的关系，也难以解决新型主体与土地集体所有制的矛盾。

Third, political biases that evade Party leadership and reject the state’s regulatory function. Some people also believe that developing the collective economy or cooperative economy in rural areas can, like the individual and private economies, do without the core leadership role of grassroots Party organizations, and cannot accept the government’s policy guidance and administrative regulation. This is also a liberal bias and a misconception.

第三，关于回避党的领导和排斥国家调控功能的政治偏见。也有一些人认为，农村发展集体经济或合作经济，可以像个体和私营经济一样，离开党的基层组织的核心领导作用，也不能接受政府的政策引导和行政手段的调控。这也是一种自由主义的偏见和认识上的误区。

When discussing the issue of rural revitalization, the political prerequisite of the Party’s correct leadership cannot be set aside. At the same time, this is also a living political economy of Marxism. The political soul and political line are indispensable prerequisites. In academic research, there must be both the leadership role of the Party and the strategic height of urban-rural relations and the worker-peasant alliance, leaving space for the development of the collective economy.

讨论乡村振兴的问题时，是不能离开党的正确领导这一政治前提的。同时，这也是马克思主义活生生的政治经济学。政治灵魂和政治路线是必不可少的前提条件，在学术研究中，既要有党的领导作用，也要有城乡关系、工农联盟这样的战略高度，给发展集体经济留下空间。

Therefore, from the perspective of developing the collective economy or cooperative economy, in basic theory, two major prerequisites are indispensable. First, there must be state guidance and regulation, i.e., state planning guidance. Second, the ultimate development goal of the rural collective economy must be to achieve integration with the state-owned economy. If these two prerequisites are absent, under a market economy, any collective economy or cooperative economy cannot escape the ultimate fate of the “economic commune” of Dühring [4]4 Eugen Dühring (1833–1921) was a German philosopher and economist whose ideas were criticized by Friedrich Engels in *Anti-Dühring*. criticized by Engels, i.e., “they will work bravely and with all their might for the pockets of the financial magnates.” [5]5 This is a paraphrase of Engels’ critique of Dühring’s “economic commune” in *Anti-Dühring*, where he argued that such communes would inevitably fall under the control of financial capital. Engels’ warning has in fact already become reality in some areas.

因此，从发展集体经济或合作经济的角度看，在基本理论上，有两个大前提是必不可少的：一是必须要有国家的指导、调控，即国家的计划指导。二是农村集体经济的最终发展目标，一定要实现与国有经济的融合。若离开了这两个前提条件，在市场经济下，任何集体经济或合作经济都逃不出恩格斯批判过的杜林“经济公社”的最终下场，即“将在金融寡头的控制下，为他们的钱袋勇敢地竭尽全力地工作。”恩格斯的警告实际上在某些领域已经变成了现实。

II. Rural Revitalization Must Adhere to the Twenty-Character Guideline

二、乡村振兴要坚持二十字方针

Regarding rural revitalization, the author believes we must adhere to the twenty-character guideline, namely: “Party leadership, village-level organizations, township-level integration, county-city coordination, urban-rural integration.”

关于乡村振兴，笔者认为要坚持二十字方针，即“党的领导、村级组织、乡镇联合、市县统筹、城乡融合”。

Party leadership. This is not a general political slogan, but a prerequisite. Strengthening Party leadership in rural areas and giving play to the core bastion role of grassroots Party organizations has the fundamental purpose of developing the collective economy and leading the masses toward common prosperity. This should be the realistic and objective need for strengthening Party leadership in rural revitalization. Therefore, adhering to Party leadership and developing the collective economy are mutually dependent and causally related.

党的领导。这不是一般性的政治口号，而是先决条件。农村加强党的领导，发挥基层党组织的核心堡垒作用，其根本目的是为了发展集体经济，带领群众走向共同富裕。这应该是在乡村振兴中加强党的领导的现实客观需要。因此，坚持党的领导和发展集体经济是相互依赖、互为因果的关系。

Strengthening Party leadership in rural areas is the political prerequisite for achieving rural revitalization, developing the collective economy, and realizing common prosperity. Strengthening Party leadership should first of all strengthen the construction of grassroots Party organizations, using Party building to lead reform and development. Therefore, the phrase “Party leadership” can also be replaced here by “Party building guidance,” because only when the Party organizations themselves are well-built can they truly play their role as fighting bastions. Therefore, Party committees at all levels should strengthen overall leadership over Party organizational work, thoroughly implement the Party’s organizational line for the New Era, promote scientific, institutionalized, and standardized organizational work, comprehensively improve the quality of organizational work, and shoulder the historical mission of the New Era.

在农村加强党的领导，是实现乡村振兴，发展集体经济，实现共同富裕的政治前提。而加强党的领导首先应该加强党的基层组织建设，以党建引领改革和发展。所以，“党的领导”这句话在这里也可以用“党建引领”来代替，因为把党组织自身建设好了，才能真正发挥党组织的战斗堡垒作用。所以，各级党委要加强对党的组织工作的全面领导，深入贯彻新时代党的组织路线，推进组织工作科学化、制度化、规范化，全面提高组织工作质量，承担起新时代的历史使命。

Village-level organizations. Administrative villages or natural villages are the micro-foundation of rural society. Organizing peasants on the basis of the village is the foundational work for developing the collective economy. This type of “village-community integrated” community-based collective economic organization is the form of realization and organizational carrier of rural collective land ownership and collective unified management, and cannot be replaced by other organizational forms. For example, villagers’ committees, specialized cooperatives, companies and enterprises, etc., cannot substitute for the village community as the organizational carrier of collective ownership.

村级组织。行政村或自然村是农村社会的微观基础。以村为载体把农民组织起来是发展集体经济的基础性工作。这种“村社合一”的社区性集体经济组织，才是农村土地集体所有制和集体统一经营的实现形式和组织载体，是不能被其他组织形式替代的。比如：村民委员会、专业合作社、公司企业等等，都不能代替村社这个集体所有制的组织载体。

It must be understood that since reform and opening up, an important objective of some people in promoting privatization in rural areas has been to “deconstruct village communities.” This includes: solidifying land contract rights, carrying out equity-based collective restructuring, corporatizing community collective economic organizations, and then allowing free transfer of equity, capital going to the countryside for mergers and acquisitions, and other steps, dismembering community collectives, causing rural communities to evolve into organizations similar to urban communities, completely losing the economic function of collective asset owner organizations such as land, ultimately hollowing out collective land ownership, dismantling collective economic organizations, and abolishing the function of unified collective management. This is problematic.

要知道，改革开放以来，一些人在农村推行私有化的一个重要目的就是“解构村社”。这包括：把土地承包权固化，进行股权化集体改制，社区集体经济组织公司化，然后允许股权自由流转，资本下乡兼并等步骤，肢解社区集体，使农村社区演变为类似城镇社区一样的组织，彻底失去土地等集体资产所有者组织的经济功能，最终架空土地集体所有权，瓦解集体经济组织，取消集体统一经营功能。这是有问题的。

Village-level organizations are the foundation for re-establishing or restoring the rural collective economic system. Village-level organization can accommodate some cooperative (including joint-stock cooperative) organizational forms, but cooperative organizational forms should not replace the village-community-integrated collective economic organization. As for whether the collective adopts a two-tier management system or develops toward a multi-layered composite system, this should be determined based on actual conditions.

村级组织是重新建立或恢复农村集体经济体制的基础。村级组织化可以兼容一些合作制（包括股份合作制）的组织形式，但合作制的组织形式不应替代村社合一的集体经济组织。至于集体采取双层经营体制还是向多层复合型体制发展，则应视实际情况确定。

Township-level integration. This is an inevitable trend in the development of the rural collective economy. The fundamental reason is that the modernization transformation of China’s traditional rural areas cannot be completed independently on the basis of each village fighting on its own; it is necessary to establish nodes and platforms for the upgrading of industrial economic development and for local economic and population agglomeration at the township level (including county towns) above the village and below the county, so as to allocate resources and develop industrial economy in a more organized and planned manner on a scale larger than the village level, completing the modernization transformation. The essential requirement of this trend is to develop economic communities that transcend village-level organizations, that is, industrial economic joint organizations at the township level, and to rely on this kind of collective economic system to achieve local urbanization agglomeration.

乡镇联合。这是农村集体经济发展的必然趋势。根本原因在于：我国传统农村的现代化转型，不可能在村自为战的基础上独立完成， 必须在村以上、县以下的乡镇环节（含县城）建立产业经济发展升级和本土性经济、人口集聚的节点和平台，以便于在比村级更大的范围上有组织、有计划地配置资源和发展产业经济，完成现代化转型。这一趋势的本质要求是发展跨越村级组织的经济共同体，即乡镇一级的产业经济联合组织，并以此种集体经济体制为依托实现本土性城镇化集聚。

Such a union must be established on the basis of industrial development, with practical needs for industrial upgrading and expansion, especially the practical needs of agricultural industrialization development, making it the main form for village-level collectives to extend industrial chains and allocate collective resources on a larger scale.

此种联合体一定要建立在产业发展的基础上，有产业升级扩张的现实需求，特别是农业产业化发展的现实需求，使其成为村级集体延伸产业链条，在更大范围上配置集体资源的主要形态。

Various forms of township-level integration can be explored: there can be forms where multiple villages establish township-level unions, with the union running companies; or forms where multiple villages directly establish limited liability companies, that is, the joint venture company model. Of course, where conditions permit, the form of a general union running companies can also be adopted.

可以探索乡镇联合的多种形式：可以有多村组建乡镇联合社，联社办公司的形式；也可以采取多村直接成立有限责任公司的形式，即联营公司模式。当然，具备条件的地方也可以采取总社办公司的形式。

County and city-level coordination. This mainly refers to the coordinating function of county-level and above city governments toward rural areas. It mainly includes: regional industrial spatial layout in rural areas and planning regulation of the village-town system, extension and completeness construction of agricultural industry chains, guidance and control of leading enterprise links in industrialization, and integration of the rural collective economy with urban collective and local state-owned economic forms.

市县统筹。这里主要指县级和县以上城市政府对农村的统筹功能。主要包括：农村区域性的产业空间布局和村镇体系的规划调控、农业产业链条的延伸和完整性建设、产业化龙头企业环节的引导控制、农村集体经济与城镇集体和地方国有经济形态的融合等。

County and city-level coordination must be considered from two perspectives: first, from the perspective of being conducive to optimizing regional industrial layout and structural upgrading, vigorously cultivating regional leading industries, constructing complete industrial chains, and driving the sustainable development of the entire regional economy. Second, according to the needs of urban and rural industrial development, constructing an industrial organizational system linking urban and rural areas, achieving the connection and integration of the rural collective economy with the urban state-owned economy. These strategic development trends cannot be fully realized by relying on the market mechanism alone; they must also be accomplished through policy regulation by local Party committees and governments. County and city Party committees and governments must not abandon their leading role in rural economic and social development, and county and city Party secretaries must not shift responsibility to the market and social capital.

市县统筹。必须从两个角度来考量：一是从有利于优化区域产业布局和结构升级的角度，大力培育区域主导产业，构建完整的产业链条，带动整个区域经济的可持续发展。二是根据城乡产业发展的需要，构建链接城乡的产业化组织体系，实现农村集体经济与城市国有经济的对接和融合。这些战略性的发展趋势不可能完全靠市场机制来实现，还要靠地方党委和政府的政策调控来完成。市、县党委和政府绝不能放弃对农村经济社会发展的主导权，市县委书记绝不能把责任推给市场和社会资本。

Forms of county and city-level coordination include both administrative and economic means. Administrative means include planning regulation by land and construction planning departments, support and guidance from fiscal and financial policies, and administrative management and services by functional departments; while economic means include exploring the leading role of local state-owned economic organizations (companies, fund platforms, etc.), promoting the integrated development of large collective ownership system companies and enterprises of the county and city supply and marketing cooperative system with the rural collective economy, and also exploring county and city-level joint venture companies funded by various townships.

市县统筹形式包括行政手段和经济手段两种。行政手段包括土地和建设规划部门规划调控，财政金融政策的支持导向，职能部门的行政管理和服务等；而经济手段包括探索发挥地方国有经济组织（公司、基金平台等）的带动作用，推进市、县供销联社系统的大集体所有制公司企业与农村集体经济的融合发展，也可以探索由各乡镇出资组建的市、县级联营公司等等。

Urban-rural integration. Fundamentally, the “three rural” issues [6]6 “Three rural” issues (三农问题) refers to the interrelated problems of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants (farmers) in China. or the rural revitalization issue is actually an issue of urban-rural relations and the worker-peasant alliance, and it is necessary to return to the track of urban-rural integration and coordinated development. This is not only the general trend of urban-rural relations in China’s modernization development, but also the future development trend of the rural collective economy. From a long-term trend perspective, in terms of productive forces development and industrial upgrading, only by using cities to drive townships and industry to support agriculture, and curbing the one-way outflow of rural production factors, can rural industrial economy be revitalized on the basis of organization. Therefore, the integrated development of urban and rural economies is precisely the new economic foundation for the worker-peasant alliance under the conditions of socialist modernization.

城乡融合。从根本上讲，“三农”问题或乡村振兴问题其实是一个城乡关系和工农联盟的问题，需回到城乡融合、协调发展的轨道上来。这既是我国现代化发展中城乡关系的总趋势，也是农村集体经济的未来发展趋势。从长远趋势看，在生产力发展和产业升级方面，只有以城带乡、以工哺农，遏制农村生产要素的单向外流，才能在组织起来的基础上重新振兴农村产业经济。所以，城乡经济的融合发展，才是社会主义现代化条件下工农联盟新的经济基础。

Adhering to urban-rural integrated development, attention should be paid to exploring the following three aspects: First, industrial layout or productive forces layout should be decentralized, especially to key townships at and below the county level, avoiding excessive concentration of resources in large and medium-sized cities. Second, the “going to the countryside” of urban resources such as talent, technology, finance, credit, and information, injecting new “blood” into rural areas. For example, introducing measures related to Bijie City, Guizhou Province’s “Four Leavings” [7]7 “Four Leavings” (四个留下) is a policy slogan from Bijie, Guizhou, aimed at ensuring the sustainability of poverty alleviation outcomes by retaining organizational, economic, and governance capacity in villages. (“Four Leavings” refers to the work objectives proposed by Bijie City, Guizhou Province for cadres sent down during the poverty alleviation campaign: leaving behind a work team that never leaves, leaving behind a batch of vibrant village-level collective cooperatives, leaving behind a substantial amount of village-level collective assets, and leaving behind an efficient and effective rural governance system). Third, promoting the integrated development of rural collective economic organizations with the urban state-owned economy (including urban large collective enterprises), studying and summarizing the institutional issues from the village level to the township and county-city levels, and constructing a new and harmonious urban-rural relationship.

坚持城乡融合发展，要注意探索以下三个方面：一是产业布局或生产力布局要下沉，特别是县及县以下的重点乡镇，避免资源过度集中于大中城市。二是城市的人才、技术、财政、信贷、信息等资源的“下乡”，给农村输入新的“血液”。例如出台像贵州省毕节市的“四个留下”等相关措施（“四个留下”是贵州省毕节市在脱贫攻坚过程中对下派干部提出的工作目标，即留下一支永远不走的工作队，留下一批活力强劲的村集体合作社，留下一份殷实厚重的村集体资产，留下一套高效管用的乡村治理体系）。三是推进农村集体经济组织与城市国有经济（含城镇大集体企业）的融合发展，研究总结村级、乡镇到市县的体制问题，构建新型和谐的城乡关系。

Under the new historical conditions, only by grasping rural revitalization from the direction of urban-rural relations and urban-rural integrated development can the “three rural” issues be ultimately resolved and the great goal of common prosperity achieved.

在新的历史条件下，只有从城乡关系和城乡融合发展的方向把握乡村振兴，才能最终解决“三农”问题，实现共同富裕的伟大目标。

(Author: Former Director and Researcher, Beijing Suburban Economic Research Institute)

（作者：原北京市城郊经济研究所所长、研究员）

Online Editor: You Heng

网络编辑：有恒