On the vast land of over 9.6 million square kilometers in China, towns of all sizes are scattered with their own characteristics. The Comprehensive Rural Revitalization Plan (2024-2027) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") issued not long ago clearly stated that "villages and towns should be built into rural governance centers, rural service centers, and rural economic centers." This year, the No. 1 central document also mentioned villages and towns many times, such as "promoting the extension of cold chain distribution and instant retail to villages and towns". What does the town look like today? What roles will they play in the future? Our reporter conducted an interview. According to the statistical data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs for the fourth quarter of 2024, there will be 21463 towns and 7023 townships in China's township level administrative units in 2024, fully demonstrating the development potential of "connecting cities above and connecting rural areas below". Meanwhile, data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that by the end of 2024, the rural resident population will be 464.78 million. The development of Chinese towns and villages directly affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people. In recent years, many institutions have released research reports reflecting the positive changes in townships. The "China Township Comprehensive Competitiveness Report 2024" shows that the high-quality development of the top 100 towns in 2024 presents the following characteristics: strong population adsorption capacity, with a net inflow of about 70% of the population; The dominant industry has obvious advantages, with "specialization and refinement", "uniqueness and strength", and "novelty and excellence"; The acceleration of institutional reform and the further release of institutional advantages; The comprehensive competitiveness continues to improve, with the growth rate of major indicators far exceeding the national average; The regional distribution varies greatly, with strong provinces and regions nurturing distinctive towns. In this report, Yushan Town in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, Shishan Town in Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, Yangshe Town in Zhangjiagang City, Chang'an Town in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, and Shengze Town in Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province are among the top 100 towns. The report released by the Town Economy Research Center of CCID Industrial and Information Technology Research Institute (Group) Sichuan Co., Ltd. last year showed that the high-quality development of China's town economy has reached a new level. Among the top 500 towns in China, there are 17 towns with a GDP of over 50 billion yuan in 2022, 15 towns with a total industrial output value of over 100 billion yuan, and 41 towns with over 300 industrial enterprises. According to the report analysis, as the town economy enters a new stage of high-quality development led by "billion dollar towns" and cities such as Foshan, Dongguan, and Suzhou vigorously develop and strengthen their town economies, regional economic competition has accelerated from urban competition centered on urban areas to a comprehensive competition with "city as the core, county as the support, and town as the base". Town areas have become a new battlefield for regional economic competition in China. Townships are an important component of rural areas, located at the critical node of 'connecting cities above and connecting rural areas below'. They are an important bridge and link for the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and an effective lever for promoting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told our reporter that there are significant differences in the development of townships across the country. Some economically strong towns have fully demonstrated the potential of township economy and played a good driving role. They are not only rural economic centers, but have also become regional economic centers; Some other townships have relatively weak industrial foundations, but have great potential and space in comprehensive services, and should still play an important role in the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. Focusing on education, medical treatment, elderly care, and childcare, and improving public services, towns and villages are not only accelerating their rise on the regional economic map, but also becoming increasingly important in rural governance and services. Currently, urbanization in China is still developing rapidly, with a continuous decrease in rural population and accelerated evolution of village patterns, which is also an objective law of economic and social development. Data shows that in the 40 years from 1985 to present, the number of natural villages in China has decreased by about 1.5 million, and the number of administrative villages has decreased by nearly 500000. Rural construction cannot be evenly distributed Zhu Weidong, Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Commission and Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Rural Work, recently stated that rural construction should do its best and act within its capacity, taking into account local financial resources, farmers' needs, and acceptance levels. The key is to highlight the word "practical" and see what difficulties the people still face in terms of water, electricity, transportation, housing safety, etc., and concentrate efforts to achieve a group of urgent and desirable practical things for farmers. The Plan proposes to build townships into "rural governance centers" and "rural service centers", indicating the direction. From a national perspective, there is still significant room for improvement in the 'governance' and 'service' aspects of townships. We need to further leverage the characteristics of townships directly facing rural areas and farmers, and strengthen relevant functions according to local conditions, "said Li Guoxiang. On the one hand, ensuring and improving rural livelihoods. Nowadays, the vast majority of rural infrastructure 'hardware' has been significantly improved, and the gap is more prominent in the 'software' of public services. The No. 1 central document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also actively responds to the concerns of the people's livelihood with regard to the prominent problems of farmers' schooling, medical care, old-age care and childcare. In terms of education, the focus is on optimizing the allocation of regional educational resources, running boarding schools and necessary small-scale schools well. In terms of medical care, we will focus on promoting the sinking of medical and health personnel and services, and run central township health centers to make it more convenient for farmers to seek medical treatment. In terms of elderly care, the focus is on addressing the increasing trend of rural aging and improving the rural elderly care service system. For example, more and more township comprehensive elderly care service centers are being built and put into operation, supporting the villagers' "sunset red". On the other hand, strengthen and improve grassroots governance. We need to empower the grassroots while reducing their burden. Zhu Weidong stated that it is necessary to comprehensively establish a list of responsibilities to be fulfilled by townships, strictly control the supervision, inspection and assessment of grassroots, and enable grassroots cadres to focus their main energy on contacting and serving the masses. Experts say that as grassroots administrative units in China, townships are the "key needle" that crosses the line of people's happiness index, and achieving high-quality development of townships is crucial. Improving the system and mechanism for integrated urban-rural development, narrowing the urban-rural gap, international five-star hotels settling in county towns, coffee and tea beverage chains entering thousands of townships, and the policy of "trade in" for consumer goods being implemented in village towns... On the one hand, the township market is attracting more and more attention; On the other hand, the construction of townships is also being further strengthened. Recently, the "Implementation and Management Measures for Township Land Spatial Planning in Beijing (Trial)" were issued, achieving full coverage of planning and management in rural areas. Behind the plan is a map of the capital city: Beijing covers an area of approximately 16400 square kilometers, of which about 13000 square kilometers are rural areas, accounting for 80% of the total urban area. It includes 120 townships and covers over 2500 villages. This is the main battlefield for coordinating urban-rural integration development and comprehensive rural revitalization, an important barrier for safeguarding the ecological security of the capital, an important hinterland for undertaking suitable functions in the central urban area, and an important window for showcasing the historical context of the capital, "said Yang Jun, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources. Looking at the development trend, China's new urbanization is still deepening, and the urbanization of farmers entering cities and agricultural transfer populations is the trend. By 2024, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population will reach 67%. At the same time, a portion of rural labor flows between urban and rural areas, which is a phenomenon that will exist in China's current stage and even for a longer historical period. Improving the institutional mechanism for integrated urban-rural development is to promote better integration of this group into the city, while also striving to narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas, "said Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director in charge of daily work at the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Commission and Director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group. How to build good towns and promote comprehensive rural revitalization? ——Strengthen the guarantee of relevant elements. We will prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas, strengthen the use of industry to supplement agriculture and cities to support rural areas, promote the organic combination of comprehensive rural revitalization and new urbanization, regard counties and rural areas as a whole, integrate industrial development, infrastructure, and public services, and achieve optimized allocation of resource elements. ——Increase financial support. We will give priority to ensuring general public budget investment in agriculture and rural areas, and increase support for major projects in agriculture and rural areas from investment in the central budget, ultra long term special treasury bond and special bonds of local governments. Guide more financial resources to be allocated to agriculture and rural areas, and promote the use of various advantageous factor resources for comprehensive rural revitalization. In Li Guoxiang's view, in order to build townships into rural governance centers, rural service centers, and rural economic centers, particular attention should be paid to the role of people, and the personnel allocation in townships should be strengthened to allow more outstanding cadres and young people to join the cause of comprehensive rural revitalization. With the guarantee of manpower and funding, the development of township undertakings will definitely be greater. (New Society)