four priorities 四个优先 sì ge yōuxiān

Following Xi Jinping’s report to the 19th Party Congress calling on officials to give priority to rural development, the 2017 Central Rural Work Conference and 2018 No. 1 Doc. elaborated, outlining four aspects

• assignment of cadres 干部配备
• allocation of inputs 要素配置
• investment of capital 资金投入
• provision of public services 公共服务的安排

The ‘four priorities’ were a key focus of the December 2018 Central Rural Work Conference report, instructing localities to adjust their priorities in the last year remaining to win Xi’s anti-poverty battle, and perhaps admonishing them for failure to reprioritise. In the illustration, rural cadres help themselves to collective assets. Policymakers are seeking to prioritise rural areas in assigning cadres, one of the ‘four priorities’, to improve local governance and combat corruption.