Xinhua (February 25) reported that China had officially established a National Rural Revitalization Bureau on February 25 on the former site of the defunct State Council Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Beijing. Wang Zhengpu, a longtime Communist Party member who has held a string of senior posts in provincial governments and the agriculture ministry, is the first Director of the National Rural Revitalization Bureau.

(Comment: The NPC and CPPCC sessions are expected to give a lot of importance to revitalisation of the rural sector and raising rural incomes.)