Teaching Center, Zhejiang Radio & Television University, Hangzhou 310012, China

Abstract The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China formulated a major deployment of the rural revitalization strategy from the overall situation of the national cause, and took the rural revitalization strategy as the general gripper of the work of "agriculture, farmers and rural areas". This has important practical significance for realizing agricultural modernization. Through selecting several typical countries, this paper analyzes and introduces the historical experience of rural revitalization. Finally, it comes up with some recommendations and implications.

Key words Rural revitalization strategy, Experience, Implications, Recommendations

1 Introduction

The issues of agriculture, farmers and rural areas ("three rural issues") are fundamental issues concerning the national economy and the people’s livelihood. At present, the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new period, and the national conditions of socialist construction have experienced great changes. However, it is always necessary to put the issue of solving the "three rural issues" as the top priority of the work of the entire party, and it is necessary to adhere to it for a long term. On October 18th, 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. The president Xi Jinping gave a report to the General Assembly on behalf of the 18th Central Committee. In his report, Xi Jinping proposed the rural revitalization strategy. In the report, Xi Jinping said that "We must prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas. To build rural areas with thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and prosperity, we need to put in place sound systems, mechanisms, and policies for promoting integrated urban-rural development, and speed up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas."[1]On December 28th to 29th of the same year, the Central Rural Work Conference was held in Beijing. The conference comprehensively analyzed the situation and tasks faced by the work of "three rural issues", studied the important policies for implementing the rural revitalization strategy, and deployed the work for agricultural and rural areas in 2018 and in the future. On December 29th to 30th, 2017, the National Agricultural Work Conference was held in Beijing. This conference summarized the work in 2017 and the past five years, studied the implementation of rural revitalization strategy measures, and deployed the key works in 2018. On January 2nd, 2018, the No. 1 Document of the central government, namely, theOpinionsoftheCentralCommitteeoftheCPCandtheStateCouncilonImplementingtheRuralRevitalizationStrategywas promulgated. In order to accelerate the agricultural and rural modernization, it depicted a road map for revitalizing the socialist countryside with Chinese characteristics. In September 2018, the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council specially printed and issued theRuralRevitalizationStrategyPlan(2018-2020), made a specific deployment for the first five years of the rural revitalization strategy. The proposal of rural revitalization strategy has the epoch-making milestone significance in the development of "three rural issues" in China. The promulgation of a series of policy measures has very important practical significance for solving the "three rural issues". In order to implement the rural revitalization strategy, we select several typical countries, introduce the rural construction experience of these countries in the historical process, and come up with some recommendations and implications.

2 Domestic and foreign experience in rural revitalization strategy

2.1ExperienceoftheUnitedStatesofAmericaIn the 1940s, the disposable income ratio of non-agricultural population to agricultural population in the United States of America was 1∶1.66, and it rose to 2 in the 1950s. There is a large income gap between urban and rural residents, and there are huge differences between urban and rural infrastructure and public services. The United States of America has successively formulated, revised and improved more than 100 laws and regulations, such asAgriculturalAdjustmentAct(AAA),AgricultureLaw,FarmSecurityandRuralInvestmentAct, and passed the legislation to clarify the basic status of agriculture and strongly support the agricultural and rural development. Through developing agricultural scale operation, the United States of America encourages farmers to develop economies other than agriculture, increase direct economic subsidies for farmers, and strengthen infrastructure such as rural roads, water and electricity, and markets, as well as education, culture, health, and other social undertakings, for rural development and reduction. These provides protection for urban-rural gap. Besides, in line with the weak occupational skills of farmers, the United States of America implements the "work-study course plan" oriented towards improving skills and quality of farmers. These series of measures have improved the conditions for rural development of the United States of America, enhanced the value of rural development, and promoted the rapid development of the countryside.

2.2ExperienceoftheGermanyIn the 1970s, Germany started implementing the plan that "our villages should be more beautiful." The characteristics of German rural construction are mainly manifested in the following three aspects: (i) Land consolidation brings the scale effect. In 1936, it promulgated theImperialLandReformLaw; in the 1950s, it passed theAgricultureLawandLandConsolidationLaw, allowing land to be freely transacted, promoting land consolidation, and encouraging large-scale farm operation. Until now, the land consolidation in Germany is still continuing. According to the latest statistics of theFederalStatisticalOffice, as of 2016, there are 275 400 farms in Germany that manage 16.7 million ha of agricultural land nationwide, which is 9 600 less than the number of farms in 2013. Land consolidation brings scale effect to farm development and also makes large-scale use of agricultural machinery inevitable. Due to the high level of land concentration and mechanization, the proportion of agricultural workers in the national employment in Germany is as low as 2.1%. However, the quality of the agricultural workers is not low. In Germany, after completing basic education, young people must receive specialized agricultural technology. Training and internships can be used for agricultural production, and farmers or agricultural enterprise owners must also obtain special qualifications. At present, 10% of farmers in the Germany have higher education qualifications. (ii) Urban and rural areas realized equivalent development rather than homogeneous development. In 1965, Germany promulgated theSpacePlanofFederalGermany, which stipulated that rural construction should give rural residents the same living, working, transportation and other conditions as urban residents. At the same time of maintaining the original social structure of the village, Germany increased the construction of infrastructure such as road pipelines, the provision of public services such as education and medical care, and the beneficial complementation between the regions on the premise of the equivalent of urban and rural living standards. This not only makes the countryside attract people, but also allows the countryside to retain people. (iii) Adhering to and keeping the characteristics of countryside culture. After the 1970s, the Germans had started realizing the consequences of the loss of rural culture. TheLandConsolidationLawincluded the "Village Renewal" Plan oriented towards keeping rural original cultural form and stressing ecological development into the provisions. After the 1990s, under the influence of the concept of sustainable development, Germany proposed the rural construction slogan of "village is the future", and it had made huge success in the ecological and cultural values and tourism and leisure industry of rural areas.

2.3ExperienceoftheJapanThe oil crisis of the 1970s brought about the world economic recession, and Japan also suffered a lot from the oil crisis. The Japanese government did not have enough financial resources to support rural construction. The "village-creation movement" aimed at revitalizing the rural economy can be carried out without relying on state finance and oil and other energy sources. Therefore, the Japanese village-creation movement is characterized by its spontaneous and endogenous nature. (i) Characteristic of "from bottom to top". Residents are the main body of the movement and play a leading role, but the government only assists in policy and supports in technology. Japanese government does not issue administrative orders, does not provide financial arrangements, to bring into play the autonomy of farmers. (ii) Cultivating talent is the ultimate objective of the village-creation movement. Because it relies mainly on the self-struggle of the masses, this requires extremely high demands on the ability and will of the masses. It requires not only the far-sighted leaders, but also the united masses. Therefore, the village-creation movement is not only a material creation but also a spiritual creation. (iii) "One product for one village" movement. In the village-creation movement, the influence of "One product for one village" movement is most profound and the widest. It has been widely applied by many other countries and regions. "One product for one village" is to fully explore local characteristics, develop characteristic products, and revitalize regional economic development of 1.5 industry under the guidance of the government. Characteristic products include not only specialty agricultural products, but also special tourism and cultural assets. Through more than 20 years of village-creation movement, Japan has basically filled the urban-rural gap, increased farmers’ income, and stimulated the diversification of rural consumption.

2.4RuralconstructionmovementduringtheperiodoftheRepublicofChinaIn the late 1920s and early 1930s, a group of students who returned to China from European and American countries, after comparing the development of China and Europe and the United States of America, believed that the reason for the backwardness of modern China lies in the fact that it was backward in the rural areas. For this, some scholars had made attempt of rural construction. In Zouping of Shandong Province, Liang Shuming undertook various rural construction experiments: built schools, integrated administration and teaching, developed rural cooperatives, promoted agriculture and developed industry, established a rural self-defense organization to maintain rural social stability[2]. Yan Yangchu chose Dingxian County in Hebei Province to carry out rural construction, aiming at enlightening the mind, cultivating the people’s morality and improving people’s livelihood. Taking the rural areas of Beibei in Chongqing as pilot area, Lu Zuofu carried out the rural economic construction movement with the railways, mining, banking and farm construction as the main contents and made remarkable achievements. These experiments have obtained significant achievements in promoting agricultural product improvement, improving agricultural production capacity, eliminating illiteracy, improving the quality of rural population, improving rural public service infrastructure, improving rural public service capacity, as well as improving rural life and ecological environment. Nevertheless, there are very great limitations because these rural construction experiments did not involve the economic system.

3 Implications and recommendations

From the historical experience both at home and abroad, developed countries have successfully realized rural revitalization through economic transformation. However, due to historical restrictions in various aspects, the rural construction movement failed during the period of Republic of China. Now, China stays in a critical period of economic transformation. What is the key to economic revitalization of rural areas? Where should we start? In combination with the previous discussions, we come up with the following implications and recommendations.

3.1MakinginstitutionalinnovationIn revitalizing the rural economy, both the United States of America and Germany provided legal support in agriculture and land. In December 2017, the Central Rural Work Conference proposed the strategic arrangements for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in accordance with the decision of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Besides, it made clear the strategic tasks for implementing the rural revitalization strategy and the time schedule for "three-step" work. The first step is achieving important progress in rural revitalization by 2020. This basically forms the institutional framework and policy system. This measure basically clarifies the strategic deployment of the implementation of the reform of the rural revitalization strategy system. It is a prerequisite for realizing the comprehensive revitalization of the rural areas, strong agriculture, beautiful rural areas and rich farmers.

3.2GovernmentsupportDue to the weak nature of agriculture, in order to effectively control the price fluctuation of agricultural products, government should provide support policy. Most of the rural areas are located in remote regions, and many areas are inconvenient and infrastructure is backward. To realize the comprehensive revitalization of the rural areas and make the farmers enjoy the same services as the urban residents, it is necessary to build roads and improve service facilities, but all of these are inseparable from strong government support.

3.3DevelopingeducationTo revitalize the rural areas, it is recommended to stabilize the sources of farmers’ income, broaden the farmers’ income channels, and help the farmers live without worry, realize the common prosperity. They must innovate rural social governance, stimulate the farmers’ vitality through self-government, guarantee the fairness and justice through the rule of law, and create a harmonious atmosphere through the rule of virtue. At the current stage, agricultural modernization needs improving farmers’ agricultural skills. Farmers should improve their employment ability to increase their income. Rural social governance must be stable and harmonious. It is also necessary to improve the basic quality of farmers, so it is required to develop education. The regional differences in China are obvious. Although the gap between the farmers and urban residents is narrowing in the income level, quality of life, protection of rights and basic public services in recent years[3], the education level in rural areas is significantly lower than that of urban areas, and it is not consistent with the demand of rural education. According to the historical experience of developed countries, developing education is an inevitable path for realizing rural development and improving the quality of farmers.