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Next big push

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-10 07:43

Two days into the Third Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China's 17th National Congress, the one thing we know for sure is that it is about reform and development in rural areas. And that expectations are high on it.

A brief review of recent newspaper headlines:

"Third Plenums shape China's course - Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao.

"Tone-setting task for third plenum of 17th CPC National Congress" - United States-based World Journal.

"Third plenum of 17th CPC National Congress, looking forward to a new turning point" - Hong Kong-based Chinareviewnews.com.

"Central leading collective to face major test at third plenum" - Hong Kong-based Ming Pao.

Even on the traditionally reserved mainland, one can sense unusually high anticipations. "Party history shows third plenums are most likely to produce major course-changing decisions," goes a headline of the Southern Weekend. Which is correct in a technical sense, at least since the late 1970s.

The significance of the third plenum of the 11th CPC National Congress is self-evident. China would not be where it is, were it not for its historic decision to reform and open up. The third plenum of the 12th CPC National Congress decided to conduct all-round reform of the country's economic systems. The third plenum of the 14th CPC National Congress set cornerstones for the socialist market economy. And the third plenum of the 15th CPC National Congress put forward the "new socialist countryside" initiative.

Now, everybody seems to be looking to the ongoing CPC meeting for another milestone.

It has to be. The earth-changing reforms in this country first started in the countryside 30 years ago. The miraculous changes maneuvered with the contract-based responsibility mechanisms not only permanently transformed the nation's rural economic landscape, but also inspired ever-broadening reforms ever since.

Yet yesterday's bellwether has lagged far behind. Some of the once-prosperous township industries are nowhere today, some of the remaining ones are now causes of environmental concerns. Hundreds of millions have risen above the line of abject poverty over the decades. But prosperity remains a distant dream for most working their plots. And it continues to be a national challenge to substantially raise farmers' incomes.

The CPC leaders' high-profile inspection trips to rural communities immediately before the meeting, Hu Jintao's visit to Xiaogang village in Anhui province, in particular, gave the impression that they had something big in mind. Xiaogang was the birthplace of the household responsibility system, a core content of rural reforms three decades ago.

Thirty years later, Xiaogang and the rest of rural China need a new push. We hope the current CPC meeting will deliver it.

(China Daily 10/10/2008 page8)