Xi calls for earnest implementation of rural vitalization strategy

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday the rural vitalization strategy is the leading agenda for government work on agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents.

Local authorities should have a profound understanding of the strategy's importance and necessity and implement it earnestly, Xi said as he joined a panel discussion with deputies from east China's Shandong Province at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress.

The quality of a moderately prosperous society and socialist modernization is determined by agricultural competitiveness, rural environment, and rural incomes, said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.