Fang Yi: The Scientific Methodology Contained in the "Green Rural Revival Program"
The "Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation" project (hereinafter referred to as the "Green Rural Revival Program") [1] was personally planned, deployed, and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his tenure in Zhejiang. It is a project for the people's hearts based on the actual historical stage of Zhejiang's development and the greatest demands and expectations of the peasant masses. The "Green Rural Revival Program" not only profoundly interprets the value of people-centeredness held by Communists but also contains a rich scientific methodology, providing valuable lessons for our work on the new journey in the New Era.
First, persist in "seeing the great within the small." In Chinese-path modernization, the people's livelihood is of paramount importance. The "Green Rural Revival Program" began with the improvement of human settlements, which was indeed a small point of entry. However, by starting from the most urgent needs of the common people and the most fundamental issues restricting rural development, it awakened the dormant resources of the countryside. It awakened the sense of pride and belonging of thousands of villagers toward their hometowns; it awakened the passion and dreams of village cadres to start businesses and build careers across the vast rural landscape; and it awakened the longing and attention of the market, social capital, and urban residents toward the countryside. Ultimately, it produced a "great essay" on the integrated development of urban and rural areas. This reflects a grand sentiment and vision, as well as a great cause for the people's livelihood. During a recent inspection in Chongqing, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to study and apply the experience of the "Green Rural Revival Program" to carry out rural construction according to local conditions. He stressed focusing on key practical matters that are strongly demanded by the peasant masses at this stage, which can be grasped and show results within a few years—handling them one by one until they are finished, so that the peasant masses can feel the benefits. Success in the "Green Rural Revival Program" teaches us that to promote comprehensive rural revitalization, we must always adhere to the principle that "we do what the masses want, and the masses decide whether we have done it well." We must take mass satisfaction as the highest criterion for evaluating work effectiveness, never forgetting our original aspiration, and avoiding formalism [2] that harms the interests of the people.
Second, persist in "using key points to lead the whole." This involves first conducting pilot projects to give play to the exemplary and leading role of typical cases, continuously summarizing experiences, and gradually expanding them—avoiding a disorganized "rush to action." At that time, the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee decided to spend five years selecting approximately 10,000 administrative villages from the 40,000 villages across the province for comprehensive renovation, with about 1,000 center villages being built into demonstration villages for a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In practice, once the work began, it immediately created a "catfish effect" [3], putting the entirety of rural Zhejiang in motion. Village cadres who had not yet achieved results could not sit still; sages of the township [4] living elsewhere could not sit still... A competitive atmosphere of "comparing, learning, catching up, and surpassing" formed across the province, with various innovations emerging one after another. This transformed rural Zhejiang from a few scattered "potted landscapes" into a comprehensive "scenic landscape," making beauty the norm. The success of the "Green Rural Revival Program" teaches us that in promoting comprehensive rural revitalization, we must persist in prioritizing pilots, using points to lead the whole, and combining points with the broader surface. We must resolutely avoid being "greedy for the big and complete," blind expansion, or impulsive investment that results in "a floor full of chicken feathers" [5] and high debts. We should fully respect the pioneering spirit of the grassroots and the masses, continuously summarize and deepen our efforts, and strengthen supervision and implementation to ensure that reforms lead to progress and success, further stimulating the vitality of economic and social development.
Third, persist in "advancing in an orderly step-by-step manner." The development of things follows objective laws; any change involves a process of accumulating quantitative changes, without which qualitative change will not occur. From the starting lead of "demonstrating a thousand villages and renovating ten thousand," to the deepening enhancement of "exquisite thousand villages and beautiful ten thousand," to the iterative upgrade of "future thousand villages and common prosperity for ten thousand," the scope of the "Green Rural Revival Program" has continuously extended, its connotations have been enriched, and its results have been magnified. This truly reflects the orderly advancement and advancing with the times from environmental improvement to industrial prosperity and then to comprehensive rural revitalization. Persisting for twenty years as if it were a single day—carrying out the work one term after another and running the race one relay baton after another—is the key to the success of the project. Its success teaches us that to promote comprehensive rural revitalization, we must carry forward the "spirit of driving a nail" [6], unfolding the work step by step, breaking down tasks one by one, implementing them one by one, and seeing results year by year. We must avoid radical impetuousness while also avoiding the tendencies to "set one's own fences," "draw a circle on the ground to imprison oneself" [7], or "be satisfied with a small degree of wealth." On the new journey in the New Era, we must always anchor ourselves to the central government's decisions and deployments regarding agricultural and rural modernization, persevering and persisting over the long term without backsliding or wavering. We must continuously accumulate small victories into great victories, using the "quantitative change" of a steady footprint to achieve the "qualitative change" of rural revitalization.
Fourth, persist in "acting according to local conditions." From the beginning, the "Green Rural Revival Program" recognized that different villages have different resource endowments, cultural heritages, and stages of development. It was essential to follow a path of distinctive characteristics, emphasizing "a thousand villages with a thousand faces" and "ten thousand villages with ten thousand scenes." Based on the specific conditions of different villages, construction models were determined by category, with "one village, one policy" formulated to promote the formation of "one village, one product" and "one village, one charm." We must strictly guard against the "uniformity of a thousand villages," mechanical copying, and formalism. We must not pursue forced uniformity or overstep reality. The success of the "Green Rural Revival Program" teaches us that in promoting comprehensive rural revitalization, we must proceed from reality, classify policies, and scientifically grasp the realities of urban-rural imbalance and large regional differences in rural areas. We must distinguish between developed and underdeveloped areas, suburban villages, and traditional agricultural areas, allowing each to "excel in its own beauty and share that beauty with others" [8]. This allows thousands of villages to find the "optimal solution" for the specific contradictions they face, creating a modern version of the "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains." [9]
Fifth, persist in "organizational guarantees." From its inception, the "Green Rural Revival Program" established a leadership system where the "top leader" personally takes charge, the leaders in charge grasp it directly, and each level manages the level below it, ensuring implementation at every layer. It built a complete set of promotion mechanisms including scientific planning, gradual expansion, investment and construction, and institutional innovation, forming a work pattern of leadership stewardship, departmental coordination, and responsibility divided across levels. This included the implementation of the "Leaden Goose Project." Through methods such as "First Secretaries," [10] "cadres responsible for villages," "resident village work teams," and "village-level organization 'one-shoulder-pole' leadership," [11] the program gave full play to the "lead goose" role of village-level cadres. This ensured the continuous strengthening of village organizations and that all tasks were implemented effectively. The success of the "Green Rural Revival Program" teaches us that in promoting comprehensive rural revitalization, we must persist in the Party's comprehensive leadership over "Three Rural" [12] work. We must gradually establish a "Party committee leadership, government guidance, and villager self-governance" rural governance mechanism characterized by each fulfilling their duties, the farmers as the main body, and market participation for co-construction, co-governance, and sharing. We must resolutely avoid the phenomenon of "a small horse pulling a large cart" (where capabilities and responsibilities do not match or personnel are misallocated), as well as the phenomenon of "half-finished" or "rotten-tail" projects resulting from a lack of capacity in planning, construction, and management. We must resolutely investigate and handle problems such as rent-seeking and "strongman corruption" [13] that damage the image of the Party and the government, providing a strong guarantee for the comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization.