ABSTRACT
The amount of public spending on building public facilities, improving compulsory education, providing for public cultural services, social security, and so on has been dramatically lower in rural areas than it has been in urban areas. Improving rural social security and public services systems has vital policy implications. First, social security and public services are the single most important long-term factor affecting people's lives. People can lay a firm and enduring foundation for moderate prosperity in the countryside only by grasping hold of this key endeavor in a meaningful way. Second, increasing public spending on rural manpower, improving rural productivity, and increasing nonagricultural jobs in rural areas will create the engine for driving a unification of urban and rural areas. These things create enduring support for that process, and also safeguard the sound development of urbanization in China. They embody highly significant strategic implications.
