On 29 April 2021, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Promotion of Rural Revitalization was adopted after the third review at the 28th session of the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top legislature. It provides an overall and systematic legal guarantee in pursuit of the rural vitalization strategy. The law promoting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy through legislation is not only a requirement of the Party Central Committee, but also an urgent call for action.
The law containing 74 articles will come into force on 1 June 2021. It is divided into ten chapters, followed by general rules, industrial development, talent support, cultural inheritance, ecological protection, organizational construction, urban-rural integration, supporting measures, supervision and inspection and supplementary articles.
The Rural Revitalization Promotion Law has established important legal principles and specific systems. Among the legislative purposes stipulated in Article 1 of this law, three aspects are particularly emphasized: to promote the overall upgrading of agriculture, the overall progress of rural areas and the overall development of farmers.
The new law is a typical promotion law, which mainly regulates the duties that the state, people’s governments at all levels and relevant departments should perform around the rural revitalization strategy. In addition, the law also provides a special chapter on the supervision and inspection system, and clarifies the accountability system in terms of assessment, evaluation, reporting, inspection, and supervision, to ensure that the government and relevant departments perform their duties in accordance with the law.
According to the new law, an assessment system of rural vitalization will be built, along with the establishment of an annual work report system as well as supervision and inspection systems.
It establishes a harvest festival for farmers, aims at improving the assessment system for rural revitalization and put forth regulations for farmland protection, investing in educating more people in agricultural work, outlines farmer relocation and an ecological compensation system.
The law stipulates protecting the permanent basic cropland, building a system to ensure a steady increase in rural income, and strengthening the work involving rural talents. The law emphasizes establishing and improving the management system for rural housing safety, and bans the process of merging villages against farmers’ will.
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