If China's robust growth over the past three decades has told a successful underdog story of a developing country amid developed economies, it is time to set in motion a similar course at home. Balanced urban-rural progress is more crucial than ever to the country's sustainable development.

For the seventh consecutive year since 2004, the Chinese government has again focused its first central document of the year on rural development issues. Dubbed the "No 1 Document" that is jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, it is hoped that the new paper will allow rural China to catch up with its urban cousin.

Though last year was deemed the most difficult year so far for the Chinese economy in the new century, Chinese farmers' per-capita net income increased 8.5 percent in real terms to 5,153 yuan ($755).

Clearly, that was largely due to the great stimulus measures that the Chinese government set into motion to effectively arrest the downturn of the national economy in a year that began with some 20 million farmer-turned-migrant workers returning to their rural homes unemployed.

Nevertheless, the rebound of the Chinese economy last year was so powerful that it helped raise the disposable income of urban residents by 9.8 percent in real terms to 17,175 yuan ($2,515), only making the huge urban-rural income gap even wider.

The urgency for rural China to catch up not only stems from the fact that a widening income gap can pose a main threat to the country's future developments. The great potential of the rural market also makes it compelling to raise farmers' income more rapidly.

Thanks to farmers' rising incomes and a slew of stimulus policies, growth of rural consumption expanded 15.7 percent in 2009, surprisingly outgrowing that of the urban market (15.5 percent) for the first time.

By including more rapid urbanization as part of the latest solutions to bridge the urban-rural income gap, Chinese policymakers have obviously come to grips with the importance of the domestic underdog story.

As the worst global recession in decades drastically reshapes the global economic landscape, China can no longer expect to fuel its long-term growth story with once seemingly insatiable overseas demand for Chinese exports.

When looking inward for a new source of growth, China will find no better option than the domestic comeback story that has yet to unfold.

Let the central government's new first document of the year open a new chapter in the ongoing saga of how rural China is catching up.

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