Farmers harvest rosa roxburghii, or thorn pears, at an orchard of over 2,000 mu (133.4 hectares) in Bijie, Guizhou Province. Photo: IC PHOTO

On Dec. 29–30, 2025, the Central Rural Work Conference was held in Beijing. At the conference, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping issued important instructions on advancing work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Guided by these instructions, participants examined new circumstances and challenges in these domains and outlined key tasks for 2026.

In recent interviews with CSST, scholars expressed confidence that the conference has clarified overall priorities and provided fundamental guidance for current and future work, signaling that China’s rural development is moving steadily toward higher quality, greater efficiency, increased fairness, and enhanced sustainability.

Prioritizing food security

Food security is a matter of national importance and a top priority in governance, and it has consistently been a core topic at the Central Rural Work Conference. This year’s meeting called for “stabilizing grain and edible oil output, advancing a new round of initiatives to raise grain production capacity, and improving crop varieties and quality.” These measures underscore the urgency of safeguarding grain and oil supply under new conditions, while clarifying a strategic approach that places equal emphasis on expanding capacity and optimizing structure.

Kong Xiangzhi, a professor from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, noted that China’s grain output has remained above 1.3 trillion jin (650 million metric tons) for nine consecutive years, exceeding 1.4 trillion jin in both 2024 and 2025—an achievement that has drawn global attention. Yet behind these remarkable figures, food security continues to face deep-seated challenges. Structurally, reliance on imports of oilseeds, especially soybeans, remains high, and sources of supply are relatively concentrated, leaving supply chains vulnerable to external shocks such as geopolitical tensions and changes in the international trade environment.

Cao Bin, an associate research fellow from the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, observed that amid intensifying global geopolitical conflicts and policy volatility among major grain-producing countries, the conference’s emphasis on “stability” is aimed at coping with external uncertainties, reducing passive dependence, and strengthening the autonomy, controllability, and security of the domestic supply system.

Integrating regular assistance

2025 marks the final year of the five-year transition period for consolidating and expanding the achievements in poverty alleviation while linking them effectively with rural revitalization. The conference stressed “consolidating and expanding achievements in poverty alleviation, integrating regular assistance into the rural vitalization strategy, and preventing rural residents from lapsing or relapsing into poverty on a large scale.” This signals that China’s efforts to prevent a return to poverty have entered a new stage characterized by deeper integration with the rural revitalization strategy and more normalized implementation, marking a shift from transition-period special measures to long-term institutional guarantees.

Cao pointed out that “integrating regular assistance into the rural revitalization strategy” sends a clear policy signal. On one hand, efforts to prevent a return to poverty will no longer rely on separate or relatively isolated policy tools, but will instead be embedded systematically within the overall institutional design and resource allocation of rural revitalization, enabling better policy coordination, resource integration, and institutional alignment. On the other hand, this reflects a deeper shift in governance philosophy: “Regularization” emphasizes stable institutional provision to strengthen rural industrial systems, employment support, social security, and public services, thereby enhancing the long-term development capacity of low-income rural populations and moving primary-level governance away from ad hoc responses toward more sustained and predictable mechanisms.

Si Wei, dean of the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University, added that China has already put in place a regular assistance system encompassing measures such as developing specialty industries, strengthening employment support, intensifying skills training, and expanding social security, alongside clearly defined responsibility mechanisms involving east–west cooperation, targeted assistance, and broader social participation. Incorporating these mechanisms into the rural revitalization strategy, he said, makes clear that support policies will not be subject to abrupt reversals or pivots, but will instead be optimized and adjusted in a steady, long-term direction to ensure a smooth and seamless transition from poverty alleviation to all-around rural revitalization.

Building a prosperous countryside

The conference also set out key priorities for rural construction, calling for “drawing on the experience of the Green Rural Revival Program, a long-running initiative focused on improving rural living environments, and adopting region-specific measures to build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in.”

Scholars believe this marks a significant shift in both the philosophy and practice of rural construction in China—from an emphasis on creating demonstration models to promoting comprehensive progress and overall improvement; from a focus on basic environment upgrades to the systematic creation of higher-quality living spaces and improved rural livelihoods; and from government-driven initiatives toward approaches that place greater weight on mobilizing endogenous momentum and highlighting the central role of farmers.