Editor's note: Lu Xia is an associate professor at the School of Marxism Studies and a research fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

On May 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected Nanyang, a city with more than 2,000 years of history located in Central China's Henan Province. A strong signal with the keyword "safety" could be detected with President Xi's inspection, that is, people's safety and social safety.

Traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology – people's safety

As the tight inspection schedule showed, Xi first visited a memorial facility dedicated to Zhang Zhongjing, a famous Chinese pharmacologist and physician in ancient China about two thousand years ago. With the detailed introduction, Xi learned about Zhang's life story and his great contributions to the development and application to clinical treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). 

Though the Chinese authorities have repeatedly emphasized the significance of frontier science and technology development, it also highlighted the indispensable and inseparable roles of traditional Chinese culture in the same cause, with TCM being one of the representing achievements. The TCM industry and related research have experienced booming trends due to the fact that the leadership has been attaching significance to it.

One should not forget that ever since the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic over one-and-half years ago, TCM was proven effective in curing patients with the novel coronavirus disease before effective mass-market vaccines were developed and produced. 

The Lung Cleansing and Detoxifying Decoction or qingfei paidu tang, which was listed among the "three formulas and three medicines" sanyao sanfang, a group of treatments during the early stage of the pandemic, was actually derived from several classic recipes written by Zhang Zhongjing sometime before 220 AD. It has 21 herbal components and is mainly effective in improving symptoms of fever, cough and fatigue, as well as lung conditions in patients. Therefore, it has gained global attention in the medical community. 

Having observed these achievements, Xi called for further promotion of TCM development and emphasized that efforts should also be made to interpret the TCM's mechanism and pharmacology using modern scientific methodology and incorporate both TCM and Western medicine into treatment. With these further development, people's lives could be better protected and saved when facing threats like COVID-19.

Rural revitalization by specialty industries – social safety

President Xi then went on to a theme park on Rosa Chinensis, or the Chinese rose, and a local company producing mugwort products. Xi was interested in and attracted to how the Nanyang local authority employs the flower and the herb to develop its own specialty industries, create more jobs and boost local employment. The Henan authority has spent tremendous energy and resources to cope with challenges and obstacles in the cause of agricultural goods production, rural revitalization and ecological preservation.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has continued to step up its support for rural communities. Issues concerning agriculture, rural development and the well-being of rural residents  are now at the top of the Party's agenda.

In curbing the unsettled urban-rural imbalance and challenges in further rural development, a rural revitalization strategy was thus unveiled in President Xi's report to the 19th CPC National Congress as one of the seven strategies for reaching the goal of building a moderately prosperous society. He emphasized the importance of rural development, including the need to develop rural businesses, create a pleasant living environment, promote civility and effective governance, and improve the living standards of rural residents. 

To this end, mechanisms and policies are needed to promote integrated urban-rural development and speed up agricultural and rural modernization. The key to rural revitalization is to develop rural businesses with local specialties, as represented by the two companies inspected by Xi. With rural businesses booming, there will be rural revitalization, and hence social stability and safety.

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