General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping has called for solid and localized steps to advance agricultural and rural modernization and guide farmers to build better lives.
The modernization of agriculture and the countryside bears heavily on the overall progress and quality of Chinese modernization, Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, emphasized during an inspection trip on Wednesday to the city of Dezhou, east China's Shandong Province. He was accompanied by Secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee Lin Wu, and Governor of Shandong Province Zhou Naixiang.
The Chinese leader urged efforts to enhance the agricultural sector's overall production capacity, quality, and efficiency, ensure stable supply of grain and other types of key agricultural products, advance the drive to build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in based on local conditions, as well as guide the broad masses of farmers to create an even better life with diligence and wisdom.
The visit came amid the summer planting season, when the fields were bustling with farming activities. In the morning, Xi paid a visit to Dongyujia Village in Bianlin Town, Lingcheng District, where he was briefed on local efforts for the ongoing busy farming season for sowing, harvesting, and field management, and learned about the wheat harvest, corn planting, and flow of agricultural supplies.
Along a farmland irrigation canal, Xi inspected the water-fertilizer integration facilities, then walked into the fields and engaged in cordial exchanges with major grain producers, farming machinery operators, and agricultural technicians. He was very pleased to learn that wheat yield per mu had increased again this year and that corn sowing was progressing quickly without missing the farming season.
Xi stressed that ensuring the stable supply of grain and other important agricultural products is the top priority of agricultural production. It is essential to implement various support policies for grain production, ensure the supply and stable prices of agricultural materials, actively promote advanced and applicable varieties, technologies, and equipment, steadily improve per-unit yield and efficiency, and strive for bumper grain harvests for the whole year. Efforts should be made to improve agricultural infrastructure, ensure the quality of high-standard farmland construction, promote water-saving and efficiency-enhancing agriculture, strengthen meteorological forecasting and disaster monitoring and early warning, and enhance the capacity for agricultural disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief.
Afterward, Xi visited the nearby Xiyujia Village which is honored as a national model village. At the village's public service center, he carefully inquired about the development of the village Party organization and the provision of convenient services for the people, learned about local practices of exploring area-based approaches to promote rural revitalization, and inspected the display of agricultural and sideline products.
Xi expressed his hope that Party organizations at the village level further leverage the role of Party building as a guiding force, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers, and continuously score new achievements in advancing the building of a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in. He called for sustained efforts to reduce burdens on the grassroots-level officials, so that village officials can devote more time and energy to serving the local people and promoting development.
At the home of villager Yu Xinhui, Xi took a look at the household furnishings, and sat with the family for a casual chat. He asked attentively about their jobs and income, the health of the elderly, and the children's education, and inquired in detail whether the Party's policies on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers had been fully implemented.
Xi pointed out that establishing and practicing a correct understanding of governance performance must ultimately boil down to delivering benefits to the people. All Party members and officials should strengthen their awareness as public servants, cultivate a deep commitment to serving the people, do more to bring them benefits, and address their real concerns and solve their difficulties, so as to tangibly enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.
As Xi was leaving the village, local residents gathered to see him off warmly. Xi told them that the 105th founding anniversary of the CPC would soon be celebrated on July 1. Over the past 105 years, the Party has united and led the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in unremitting efforts, achieving great accomplishments worthy of history and the people, he said.
Xi noted that China is now striding forward on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects. He called for concerted efforts to advance along the new Long March and create an even brighter future while continuously meeting people's aspirations for a better life. Xi expressed his wishes that, under the Party's leadership, the villagers would build an increasingly beautiful hometown and enjoy ever-improving lives.
He Lifeng and leading officials of the relevant central Party and state departments also accompanied Xi on the inspection tour.
