Prioritizing 'sannong': Chinese Wisdom with Global Implications

Seemingly a domestic governance policy, China’s No.1 Central Documents tell an agrarian story with crisis reflections, which is of global significance.

On February 3, 2026, China issuedthe No.1 Central Document (hereafter shortened as “the Document”) for 2026. As the 14th document guiding work related to agriculture (农业nongye), rural areas (农村nongcun) and farmers (农民nongmin), three “nongs” issues, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC, hereafter shortened as “the Party”) and the first such document during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is titled Opinions on Anchoring Agricultural Modernization and Steadily Advancing the All-Round Rural Revitalization.

As the Lunar New Year approaches, Chinese families write the character fu (“福”) on red paper. Overseas students usually understand fu as “May you get richer”, a GDP concept. Actually, fu means far more. It is composed by a sacrificial altar to worship the ancestors (“礻”) at the left side, a mouth and a land (“畐”) at the right side, meaning as long as one has the soil and farming, she or he will not be worried about food and clothing. The alleviation of poverty brings promise to a thriving family, access to education and culture, and harmonious social order. This simple scene reveals a core truth of Chinese agrarian civilization: nong is the foundation of well-being, development, and governance. By placing nong at the top of its policy agenda, China is not only securing its own future, but also offering a new paradigm for global development, one that stands in sharp contrast to that of a industrialism or commercialism based international order, redefining what genuine progress could be like.

The Document lays out 27 opinions focusing on 6 areas, which could be categorized into three dimensions of agrarian governance as follows.

First, how to achieve national autonomy. Realization of autonomy follows distinct paths. In the Western narrative, autonomy often equates to individual independent and rational choices within a free-market framework, where competition determines winners and losers, and the state plays a minimal role. While in the Asian minds, food is the basic and paramount necessity for a state (民以食为天, min yi shi wei tian). An active state government must attach high importance to the sannong issues. According to the Chinese sannong experience, autonomy is not possible only when there is a proactive, development-oriented state, emphasizing collective progress, right to development (RTD), targeted support for vulnerable groups, and the pursuit of common prosperity. By strengthening rural infrastructure, investing in agricultural technology, improving the quality and efficiency of agriculture, and ensuring steady income growth for farmers, China empowers rural communities rather than leaving them to market forces. This “collective autonomy” ensures that no one is left behind, turning “agricultural priority” into tangible lifts in living standards and social cohesion. It is a governance philosophy that puts people’s long-term interests above short-term market gains.

Second, how to achieve real growth. The tradition of writing fu characters encapsulates the holistic vision: True prosperity goes beyond high per capita GDP -- it is about all-round human development. Real growth is not only led by the large-scale profit-making industries, but to start with the grassroot needs, knowledge, and their own agency. In 1989, Robert Chambers, the pioneer of participatory development approaches, and the primary advocate of the “Farmer First” concept, emphasizes that the normal professionalism with elitist top-down blueprints underscores the poorest’s agency and value. Such power relations and order system needs to be reshaped and transformed to hear the local voice, to achieve real growth, by respecting indigenous knowledge. The Document recognizes farmers as the masters of rural development, emboding such a “Putting the Last First” spirit by providing regular and targeted assistance on a normalized basis (常态化精准帮扶, changtai hua jingzhun bangfu). With the efforts made to further stimulate the endogenous initiative of local farming households through context-specific and customized institutional innovation targeted at marginalized groups, social justice will not be an intangible dream by amplifying farmers’ voices and enhancing their capacity, turning “valuing agriculture (重农/农本, zhongnong/nongben)” into a practical philosophy.

Third, how to make the Global South modernized. In people’s mind, modernity reminds the images of Western nations, the industrial revolution-engined growth. However, during Prince Regent George IV in the early 19th century, when the Europe was at its development summit, the architectural style of Royal Pavilion in Brighton shows that in the Europeans’ aesthetic vision of grandeur, the modernest place in the world was in Asia. With the passion and enthusiasm of the modernity in agrarian practices, the wave of “new agricultural practitioners (新农人, xin nongren)” starting businesses in the rural areas shows that China’s modernized agriculture has not only enabled young people to recognize the great development potential, but also gradually drawn in more attracted participants. The capacity building for e-commerce livestreaming sales exemplifies this development trend, both at home and abroad. To build livable, business-friendly and harmonious rural areas demonstrates the national resolution to prosper each corner of its territory. Besides, to strengthen the overall leadership of the Party is reckoned as the precondition to strengthen institutional and mechanism innovation with an unshaken path built on agrarian origins, such as the water, soil, land tenure, and sustainable farming. China prioritizes sannong not only in the sense of economy, but also in politics and security. This commitment is institutionalized in the Document since 1982 to 1984, and continuously from 2004 to 2026, regarded as the bedrock of stability.

As a Chinese proverb puts it: Governing a great country is like cooking delicate cuisine (治大国如同烹小鲜, zhi daguo rutong peng xiaoxian). It requires regular care, urban-rural balance, and bottom-up respect for fundamentals. By prioritizing sannong, China follows this wisdom, building stability from the ground up. This model challenges the one-size-fits-all development discourse, offering a feasible alternative for developing countries seeking food security, rural revitalization, and people-centered progress. In a world facing hunger, inequality, and geopolitical instability, China’s agrarian strategy is more than a domestic policy—it is a global public good.

(Li Li, Associate Professor, College of Humanities and Development Studies/College of International Development and Global Agriculture, China Agricultural University)