It was in February 2000, Li Changping, a township leader in Hubei Province, wrote a long letter to Premier Zhu Rongji, telling
him the farmers really hard, the rural areas really poor, and the
agriculture really dangerous. It was a true sound from a basic level in rural areas. In his final annual govemment work report, the outgoing Premier Zhu Rongji made one of suggests for the work of the newly-elected Government to continue to take developing agriculture and the rural economy and increasing farmers income as the top priority of the economic work in 2003.
In a national conference on lightening the burden of farmers, Premier Jiaobao has mentioned 'the law of Huang Zong-xi', named after a prestigious thinker living more than 300 years ago. It says that many of China's ancient imperial dynasties had also tried to introduce fee-to-tax reforms, but owing to the restrictions of the social and political environment at their times, after some initial success, the reforms centuries ago unexceptionally went to their opposite end and the farmers' economic burden became even heavier than before. Premier Jiabao said the Government had the confidence to break the yoke of 'law of Huang Zong-xi', and to resolve the issues on agriculture, farmer and rural work. Since 1993, it has become a convention that once agriculture work meeting being held annually and one
document on agriculture, farmer and rural work being released by the CPC Central Committee. But, in 2003, the first year for Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet, twice agriculture work meeting and two documents were held and issued. Furthermore, the No.1 Document in 2004 is the sixth such document issued by the CPC Central Committee since China implemented agricultural reform in 1978. The previous five documents were annually released from 1982 to 1986. The newly-issued 'No.1 Document'will not only improve farmers' income, but also ensure the safety of their land property and the social status of rural migrant workers in cities, showing that the Government pays much more great attention in a higher attitude in the new stage.