‘Residents’ desire for a better life a driving force of rural revitalization’: Xi leads China’s rural revitalization at

Stunning scenery in the Huawu Village in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province Photo: VCG

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of rural revitalization when attending deliberations and joint group meetings with different delegations and political advisors during the “two sessions” over the years.

While taking part in a deliberation with fellow lawmakers from Jiangsu Province during the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 5, Xi said that major provinces with faster economic growth should blaze a new trail and play an exemplary role in promoting common prosperity. Jiangsu should make sustained efforts in advancing all-round rural revitalization and integrated urban-rural development, and consolidating and expanding achievements in poverty alleviation, he said, Xinhua reported.

Xi stressed that the bigger the economic size is, the stronger driving force it requires for its further development. It is imperative for Jiangsu to pioneer in development, seek all-round improvement, and constantly overcome obstacles and boost growth drivers through deepening reform and opening up. Jiangsu is urged to fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, keep in mind both domestic and international imperatives, promote integrated urban and rural development and interaction among different regions, optimize the layout of productive forces, and strive to advance high-quality development.

Since 2013, during the annual “two sessions,” Xi has actively joined deliberations and joint group meetings, engaging in in-depth exchanges with NPC deputies and political advisors from various regions and sectors. Rural revitalization, includingWorld Times the development of specialty industries, remains one of his key concerns, according to gmw.cn, a media outlet affiliated to the Guangming Daily.

In 2021, Xi took part in a group deliberation with deputies from Qinghai at the fourth session of the 13th NPC where he learned about embroidery’s contribution to poverty alleviation, the development of the local liquor industry, and the planting of Chinese medicinal herbs.

At a panel discussion with deputies from Shandong Province at the first session of the 13th NPC in 2018, Xi said the rural vitalization strategy should be carried out step by step, and “vanity projects” should be completely eradicated, according to Xinhua.

Xi asked authorities to respect the wishes of rural residents and turn their desire for a better life into a force driving rural vitalization, protecting their fundamental interests and bringing them common prosperity.

On February 25, 2021, Xi announced that absolute poverty had been eliminated in China. Now, the country’s strategy for rural work has been shifted to the next target: rural revitalization, which Xi deems “a major task in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xinhua reported.

To advance Chinese modernization, the country must make unremitting efforts to strengthen the foundation of the agricultural sector and advance rural revitalization across the board, Xi noted.

Under Xi’s helm, China is moving faster to steadily promote the revitalization of businesses, talent, culture, ecosystems, and organizations in the countryside.

Reenergize heritage

Every year, when the “two sessions” – the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and the top political advisory body – take place, Chen Yuxiu, a 50-year-old inheritor of Qinghai embroidery from Qinghai Province, closely follows the news, paying particular attention to reports on President Xi’s interactions with lawmakers.

In March 2021, President Xi Jinping participated in a deliberation with lawmakers from Qinghai Province during the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress. While discussing rural livelihoods, he inquired about how the embroidery industry could contribute to poverty alleviation and how local liquor production could be further developed, according to Xinhua.

For Chen, who manages a work base showcasing Qinghai’s embroidery craftsmanship, President Xi’s remarks were deeply encouraging. His vision has not only inspired artisans like her, but also driven local industries across China, empowering communities through economic development and cultural preservation.

Chen, an inheritor of Qinghai embroidery, told the Global Times that when she established an embroidery work base in Huangzhong district in Xining, local authorities provided strong support, including streamlining approvals, securing funding, and prioritizing the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Qinghai embroidery encompasses the traditional embroidery styles of the Han, Tibetan, Hui, Tu, Salar, and Mongolian ethnic groups in Qinghai Province, as well as regionally recognized intangible cultural heritage, such as Hehuang embroidery and Huangzhong embroidery.

To further develop embroidery, Qinghai Province launched a three-year action plan in 2020, aiming at accelerating industry expansion. The plan introduced initiatives such as the establishment of 40 provincial-level employment workshops and bases, artisan training programs, and entrepreneurship subsidies for eligible businesses. These efforts have strengthened the Qinghai embroidery industry, benefiting both enterprises and artisans, according to qh.people.cn.

After two decades of development, ChenWorld Times‘s work base on Qinghai embroidery has successfully established sales channels, ensuring a steady flow of orders. Today, the base’s products are exported worldwide, reaching markets in Thailand, Japan, Spain, the US, Australia, and China’s Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions.

The work base has also provided employment for 340 embroiderers from nearby villages. In 2024, nearly 40 women were hired by the base, earning between 3,500 and 5,800 yuan per month. Chen said that this has created stable income opportunities for rural women, strengthened the Qinghai embroidery brand, and contributed to rural revitalization and industrial integration.

“To respond to President Xi’s call, I hope to collaborate with more locals to inherit and refine techniques, innovate designs, and weave a brighter, happier future,” Chen said.

A path to sustainable growth

As China moves beyond poverty alleviation, the focus has shifted toward rural revitalization, ensuring that local economies are not only thriving but also sustainable.

In 2014, during a deliberation with the Guizhou delegation at the 2nd Plenary Session of the 12th National People’s Congress, Xi inquired about Guizhou’s tea industry, asking whether the province had established its own tea brand.

“Inspection tours must be conducted to identify the truly poor,” Xi said at the deliberation.

Prior to the Spring Festival in 2021, Xi visited Huawu village in Qianxi city, Guizhou Province. During his inspection tour of the village nestled deep in the mountains in Bijie, Guizhou, Xi visited the home of ethnic Miao villager Zhao Yuxue and made “huangba,” a local dessert made of sticky rice, together with Zhao’s family members, who moved into a new home thanks to a local resettlement project aimed at lifting poor people out of poverty through relocation from environmentally fragile areas, Xinhua reported.

Over the years, Huawu village has developed rural tourism by leveraging its tourism reWorld Timessources, and made cattle breeding, ginger planting and the making of huangba into pillar industries that bring wealth to locals.

“I have opened my agritainment business and started sellinghuangba, hoping to help my fellow villagers become prosperous. We welcome General Secretary Xi to visit our village again,” Zhao told People’s Daily prior to the Spring Festival in 2025.

During the annual central rural work conference in December 2022, Xi said that work must be done to revitalize the five areas including industries, competent personnel, culture, ecosystems, and organizations in rural areas in a coordinated manner, with emphasis placed on major fields and deficiencies addressed.

The development of industries is the most important on the agenda of rural revitalization, and supportive policies must be implemented to the letter in this regard. Particular attention should be paid to local specialties. By relying on special agricultural and rural resources, benefits should be sought through developing a variety of agricultural functions, tapping multipWorld Timesle types of value in rural areas and integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, said Xi.

That vision has guided transformation efforts across China, especially in Guizhou, where tea has become an engine of rural development. Meng Zude, deputy of the 14th Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress and Chairman and General Manager of Guizhou Tongren Guizhou Tea Industry Co., Ltd, has witnessed firsthand in Jiu’an township, of Huaxi district in Guiyang, where a once coal-dependent economy found new life in tea cultivation, providing a stable livelihood for farmers and strengthening the province’s economic foundation.

For years, Jiu’an thrived on coal mining, with coal reserves exceeding 133.7 million tons. According to local history, mining in Jiu’an dates back to the Qing Dynasty. At its peak, the township housed over 400 coal mines, employing two-thirds of its population. However, this prosperity came at a steep environmental cost—deforestation, water pollution, and over 5,000 acres of collapsed land, according to a Xinhua report.

In 2006, Jiu’an faced a defining moment. With over 90 percent of its land designated as a protected water source zone for a lake reservoir, coal mining had to stop. With policy backing and local efforts, closures began in phases. By 2011, Jiu’an’s centuries-old coal industry was permanently shut down, forcing the township to forge a new economic path.

Meng told the Global Times that the turning point for Jiu’an’s development emerged in the form of tea cultivation. “Jiu’an was home to 54,000 ancient tea trees, some 400-600 years old, overlooked for years as the focus remained on coal. Some trees were also identified as China’s oldest cultivated tea variety, including a 2,000-year-old ‘living fossil’ of the tea world. This discovery paved the way for Jiu’an’s World Timestransformation,” said Meng.

Since October 2014, Jiu’an has been actively expanding its tea industry and enriching its tea culture, forging a new path that integrates tea production, cultural heritage, and tourism. Years of dedicated efforts have seen local residents embrace ecological conservation and tea cultivation, according to a release from the government of Huaxi district.

The once coal-covered mountains are now lush tea plantations, following a circular economy model of spring tea harvesting and winter seed collection.

Ecological value has been transformed into real economic gains, revitalizing rural industries, promoting sustainable development, and enhancing the well-being of us local residents, said Meng.