context: The National People's Congress passed the Rural Collective Economic Organisations Law on 28 June 2024, which comes into effect on 1 May 2025. Despite historic progress in poverty alleviation over the last few decades, rural revitalisation still faces several hurdles, such as addressing relative poverty, preventing relapse into poverty and ensuring sustainable development for low-income groups.
Two major contributors explained the new Rural Collective Economic Organisations Law in an interview with Rural TV Network on 3 August.
He Baoyu 何宝玉 NPC (National People's Congress) Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee director, headed up the law drafting team. Xiao Peng 肖鹏 China Agricultural University College of Humanities and Development professor, is an expert consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
He and Xiao highlighted that the law establishes a robust framework to promote rural economic development, ensuring fair management and distribution of resources and profits.
- Rural Collective Economic Organisations structure
- general assembly
- civilians who decide on major issues
- board of directors
- acts as executive body
- implements resolutions
- manages daily operations
- acts as executive body
- board of supervisors
- responsible for internal supervision
- members' representative assembly
- for larger villages
- can exercise some powers of the general assembly
- major decisions still require two-thirds general assembly approval
- participation
- allows online participation and proxy voting
- conflict of interest
- no two close relatives to sit on board of directors
- must resign from post if taking governmental role
- general assembly
- New Rural Collective Economy high-quality development
- high-quality development is a primary objective
- development paths
- resource contracting
- collective property leasing
- intermediary services
- including land transfer
- operational asset participation
- engaging in business operations with collective assets
- managing associated risks
- engaging in business operations with collective assets
- Rural Collective property
- resource property
- land, forests, mountains, wasteland and beaches
- operational property
- production facilities and enterprises
- including equity in investment enterprises
- production facilities and enterprises
- public welfare property
- property for ag, education, science, culture, health, etc.
- resource property
- management and operation
- quantified management of collective operational assets
- collective property is owned by members
- cannot be divided into individual stakes
- detailed provisions for managing public facilities and land
- ensuring adherence to legal requirements
- requires establishing systems for property registration, management and use
- enhancing management efficiency and transparency
- profit allocation
- rghts to profits from operational assets are quantified into shares for each member
- applies specifically to profit rights from operational assets, not all collective property profit rights
- sequence
- profits are used to top up public reserve funds for loss compensation and expanding production
- distributed according to members' shares
- determined based on factors like population, labour years, individual contributions, etc.
- rghts to profits from operational assets are quantified into shares for each member