Issues of China's rural development and policies

Purpose – China's economic and social structure are changing quickly since the start of the new century and how to balance the urban‐rural development has become a key point of the further development of the whole economy. Based on a brief review of rural policies since the new century, the paper aims to investigate whether these policies are successful and discusses what the government should do next as well as how to improve the reform and development of rural economy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the framework of China's rural policy since 2000 in the first section. Then, the impact of the financial crisis on rural development is analyzed. In the third section, this paper discusses the new issues of current rural reform and development. Findings – The current rural polices are successful and have improved rural economic and social development greatly in the past six years. However, new problems have appeared such as insufficient funds for rural public services, inefficiency of agricultural subsidies, and unfair treatment of rural migrant workers and so on. The impact of the financial crisis on rural development is not as bad as anticipated. Originality/value – The paper reviews the main policies of China's agriculture and rural development and points out the new issues during the rural reform. The impact of the financial crisis on rural development is discussed also. The paper's findings are very important for future policy making.