Rural Revitalization in China: Reversing Rural Decline and Eliminating Poverty
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Date
2025
Authors
Feng, Z.
Robinson, G.M.
Tan, Y.
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Geography Compass, 2025; 19(7):e70039-1-e70039-14
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Zhongqi Feng, Guy M. Robinson, Yan Tan
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Abstract
Rapid urbanization in China in the last 4 decades was fuelled by a huge out‐migration of people from the countryside, contributing to rural decline in many areas. Recognition of ongoing rural poverty and the need to modernize the rural economy has given rise to a myriad of policies in the last quarter century supporting rural development, notably in two key initiatives: Creating the New Socialist Countryside (2005) and a Rural Revitalization Strategy (2017). The former focussed on creating improvements to the welfare system, health services and education in rural areas, and was subsequently accompanied by concerted efforts to eliminate rural poverty. Rural revitalization has emphasized the need for agricultural modernization and reducing the income gap between the countryside and the cities. Based on an assessment of the implementation and outcomes of the two initiatives, this paper explores the policies and key events in the process of rural improvement and revitalization in China. It summarizes the development stages of the relevant policies over time and examines the key facets of revitalization. It focuses on increased provision of services in rural areas as part of significant reductions in rural poverty, the reorganisation of agriculture via land consolidation, and the growth of new investment in rural‐based industry.
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© 2025 The Author(s). Geography Compass published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.