In February 2021, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) officially announced it had eradicated absolute poverty in 2020. The PRC has a long, successful record of poverty reduction. The dramatic drop in absolute poverty was roughly equivalent to 850 million people, or some 70% of poaverty reduction worldwide over the period. However, persistent urban–rural income disparities continue. Agriculture, farmers, and rural areas (three nong) comprise the core government policies for the country to become a moderately prosperous society (xiao kang) by closing the income gap. Since 2010, rural policy has gradually shifted to a more integrated and balanced approach to improve economic, social, and environmental welfare in rural areas. The 2018 Rural Vitalization Strategy adopts a wider approach to promote integrated rural development.

The PRC successfully adjusted rural development policy to fit rapidly evolving socioeconomic conditions in rural areas. The policy focus has evolved from boosting food production to a more integrated and balanced approach to improve economic, social, and environmental welfare of the country's vast rural population. Institutional innovations have been introduced in encouraging scale operations such as the emergence of farm mechanization service providers and cooperative organizations. The PRC has invested heavily in the network infrastructure in rural areas including roads, the telephone system, and internet, integrating small-scale farms to wider value chains. The multidimensional evolution of rural development policy provides important policy implications for preparing integrated and balanced development strategies in ADB’s developing member countries. This report is developed to facilitate South-South knowledge sharing in rural development.a