China Rural Work Meeting: That 60s Show

Farmland protection and upgrades, food supply diversification, science and technology, disaster prevention and recovery, and preventing poor areas from falling back into poverty were the "clear requirements" ordered by Xi Jinping for 2024 at China's "rural work meeting" for 2024 held last month in Beijing. Xi Jinping's effort to present himself as Mao's successor can be detected in the meeting's revivals of Mao-era approaches to reconfiguring the countryside and keeping it under control.

The meeting celebrated "overcoming" "serious" natural disasters last year, producing another record grain crop, rapid income growth for farmers, and harmonious, stable rural society. That probably means none of those things actually happened and communist leaders are worried that the countryside could spin out of control. 

Working for food self-sufficiency was a clear theme. The meeting demanded that officials at all levels pledge to prevent farmland from being converted to other uses, called for restoring fertility in the once-rich black soil of the northeast, designing a system to promote agricultural science and technology, building productive and resilient farm fields, and monitoring poor regions to prevent recurrence of poverty. Last year's new ambition of making China an "agricultural powerhouse" was regurgitated. 

Animal husbandry officials study important directives issued by Xi Jinping at the 2023 rural work meeting.
Source: National Animal husbandry station.

Like Mao did during his reign, Xi is pushing fanciful programs to reconfigure China's countryside. 

A "Thousand Village Demonstration and Ten Thousand Village Rectification" (千村示范、万村整治) project to redesign villages and knit them together was prominent in the description of the rural work meeting. This project was promoted in Zhejiang Province when Xi was in charge there. The "thousand-ten thousand" campaign aims to redesign entire villages and to integrate multiple villages in a network of fields, infrastructure, and industry chains. Designs are made by university architects and planners to upgrade and relocate housing, make the village look scenic, concentrate farm fields, install roads/irrigation, include ecological ‘circular agriculture’ features, and integrate agriculture with industry. The project smells like the Mao-era "in agriculture learn from Dazhai" and the disastrous "Great Leap Forward" makeover of multiple villages into giant communes with common fields, dining halls, and industrial facilities. Examples of picturesque villages in Zhejiang--China's richest province--illustrating the project would be impossible to replicate nationally.

The "1000-10,000 project" aims to create picturesque, productive and
environmentally friendly villages designed by smart professors.

The rural work meeting also featured a "Maple Bridge Experience" project--a Mao-era initiative to settle disputes and conflicts at the village and township level. Xi endorsed the "Maple Bridge" approach to governing rural areas--named after a village in Zhejiang where it originated--as a national initiative. According to the description of Xi's endorsement during a visit to the countryside in November 2023, the "Maple Bridge" governance approach demands that conflicts be resolved on the spot in order to reduce the number of arrests and maintain public security. Its goal is to "vigorously promote the socialist rule of law culture", give full play to government legal advisors and public lawyers in drawing up legal documents and resolving administrative disputes. The initiative aims to change rural customs and inculcate respect for social order as a "rule of virtue." In other words, the communist party wants to quash any threats to its dominance of rural governance and smack down any uprisings among unhappy villagers before higher level officials have to deal with them. 

In another hyperlink to the Mao era, Xi Jinping's "New Journey" (新征程) slogan recited at the rural work meeting, is surely meant to evoke Mao's "Long March" (长征程)--the Chinese phrases differ by only one character.

Xi Jinping hopes to emulate Mao and his fanciful "Da Zhai road" for farmers. 

"Modernization" has long been a watchword of Chinese communists, but it has morphed into Chinese-style modernization (中国式现代化) as the objective of rural work. Adding "Chinese-style" evokes Xi's nationalistic outlook and probably reflects China's new efforts to sell its governance style as transferable to other developing countries. 

Mao's "In agriculture learn from Da Zhai" left behind a dilapidated countryside
that had to be rescued by Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening." Yet there are 
signs Xi Jinping wants to revive the principles of Mao's unrealistic approach.