Ｔｈｅ Ｃｈａｎｇｉｎｇ Ｃｏｕｎｔｒｙｓｉｄｅ

ＺＨＡＮＧ　ＺＨＩＰＩＮＧ

China has traditionally been a big agriculture power. Although its rural population has been reduced by one third in the last 30 years, it still accounts for 56 percent of the counlry's total popula-tion. Agriculture, the countryside and farmers are still strategically significant to the country's overall reform and opening up as well as its economic and social development. But they also have posed longstanding problems during the course of China's moderniza-tion.