At the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, which concluded on Sunday, a decision was approved on major issues concerning rural reform and development. The communiqu issued after the plenum outlined the current rural situations and drafted a program for the country's rural development in the years ahead.

It is well known that China's reform was spearheaded by its reform in rural areas 30 years ago. At that round of historically significant rural reform, which was marked by the adoption of the household contract responsibility system to replace the highly concentrated production teams, production brigades and people's commune-style production and management system, rural productivity was greatly emancipated and farmers' initiatives substantially ignited.

The new rural policy also promoted a remarkable change in the country's agriculture and the vast rural areas and laid a very solid groundwork for reforms to be pushed to cities and wider areas.