1.Introduction

In the waves of globalization and modernization, rural revitalization and poverty reduction have become pressing issues for all nations, especially for China, a large developing country needing to address urban-rural disparities, promote comprehensive rural progress, and eradicate poverty. This is not only an economic issue but also a profound social and political one, directly affecting the nation’s stability, prosperity, and sustainable development.

Past poverty alleviation measures often focused on direct financial support and material provision, while rural revitalization emphasized improving economic systems, building infrastructure, and enhancing cultural prosperity. However, these methods alone are insufficient for achieving comprehensive rural progress and complete poverty eradication. Therefore, exploring the close connection between rural revitalization and poverty reduction, and establishing a comprehensive public policy framework, has become crucial.

2.Review of Theories Related to Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization

The poverty alleviation strategy of the new era is a mobilization guide for the entire party and society, central to the people-centric development requirements of the Party Central Committee, and is integral to achieving the "Two Centennial Goals" [1].

"Precision" is the fundamental principle and essential content of our Party's implementation of poverty alleviation tasks in the new era. In 2015, during the poverty alleviation work conference, the Chinese Communist Party formulated a targeted poverty alleviation plan based on foundational research and judgments on China's current situation. The plan, centered around "addressing two worries and three guarantees," abandons traditional broad-brush poverty alleviation methods. It gradually advances a comprehensive strategy that uses "six precisions" as the goals for poverty alleviation and "five batches" as the measures for relief, guiding the poverty alleviation system from top to bottom. This approach has been one of the significant factors in achieving notable success against poverty within a short period.

3.The Organic Connection between Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization

3.1.All Rural Poor Have Escaped Poverty

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the number of people in poverty has significantly decreased, and the basic needs of the poor for food and clothing have been thoroughly addressed. On average, over 10 million people have escaped poverty each year. Simultaneously, there has been a historic transformation in the overall outlook of rural areas. Moreover, the quality of life in impoverished areas has notably improved in education, healthcare, housing, and other aspects. A large number of poor individuals have gained employment opportunities, leading to a significant increase in their happiness index.

Furthermore, the overall development capacity and level of impoverished populations and areas have also significantly improved. On one hand, the infrastructure in impoverished areas has continuously improved, completely transforming their impoverished and backward status. Life in impoverished areas has also diversified. On the other hand, the ability of the poor to become prosperous has continuously strengthened. By 2020, approximately 98.99 million impoverished individuals in rural areas will have escaped poverty [2].

3.2.Substantial Improvement in the Economic Level of Impoverished Areas

The economic strength of impoverished areas has significantly increased, with agriculture gradually transitioning to digital development in the new era, leading to a significant improvement in China's grain production capacity. Meanwhile, the industrial structure in impoverished areas has become increasingly diverse, with emerging integrated industries such as rural tourism, rural homestays, and rural e-commerce.

China has constructed approximately 1.1 million kilometers of new roads and 35,000 kilometers of new railways in rural areas. The coverage of the power grid in impoverished areas reaches 99% of the total area, and the coverage of 4G networks reaches 98% of the total area. Approximately 25.68 million poor households have had their housing conditions improved, and 35,000 households have been resettled. Many old school buildings in mountainous areas have been renovated, reducing the dropout rate in compulsory education [3].

3.3.A New Outlook for People in Impoverished Areas

In addition to the improvement in material life, the spiritual world of the poor in impoverished areas has become increasingly enriched. China adheres to a people-centered development philosophy in poverty alleviation efforts. While implementing many beneficial actions such as support, funding, and policies, China has also made efforts to provide vocational skills education and enriching cultural activities in impoverished areas.

On one hand, as the poor escape poverty, their ideological level has improved, and a new trend of civilization is quietly spreading in impoverished areas. On the other hand, certain old customs and bad habits in impoverished areas have been corrected to some extent. These anti-poverty activities have synchronously and positively improved the material and spiritual lives of the poor.

4.The Inherent Logic between Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization

4.1.Unified Theoretical Logic Internally

The "post-poverty alleviation era" should focus on addressing the issues of unbalanced and inadequate development. As a Marxist political party, the fundamental rights of the people are the core task of our party during implementation. Assisting the people in becoming prosperous is the main value orientation of the poverty alleviation strategy, which also reflects the ultimate goal of the rural revitalization strategy. Therefore, the key points and essence of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization lie in the people, ensuring their prosperity.

Simultaneously, the effective implementation of poverty alleviation measures cannot be separated from the leadership of the Party. In the strategy of rural revitalization, in order to eliminate the influence of the dual structure and improve future unbalanced development, our Party also needs strong support for the implementation of this strategy. This determines that eliminating poverty and rural revitalization require a strong political party to support their realization. Therefore, the theoretical logic of the two is internally unified.

4.2.Historical Logic Appears on a Continuous Line

From the perspective of historical development, neither the feudal period nor the capitalist period effectively addressed the poverty issue at its root. In 1921, at the inception of the Communist Party of China, a solution to the poverty issue that had plagued China for thousands of years began to emerge. Although the eradication of poverty and rural revitalization are development strategies proposed in the new era according to the actual conditions of the country, both embody the historical mission of the Chinese party [4].

From a historical perspective, the development of the Communist Party of China, accompanied by the gradual and in-depth investigation of China's poverty problem, is a historical struggle of the reform of the governance system of the People's Republic of China. Therefore, there is a kind of historical logical relationship between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

4.3.The Strategic Significance of Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization

After the reform and opening-up, the market-oriented economic development model reduced China's poverty population to 125 million people. After 1986, China's poverty alleviation and development plans were officially launched. By 2000, the impoverished population in China had dropped to 30 million. In the following decade, measures promoting industrialization and poverty alleviation in agriculture achieved significant results.

After the 18th National Congress, the policy of "targeted poverty alleviation" was gradually implemented. In 2017, not only did the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China establish relevant principles for safeguarding people's livelihoods, but it also formulated the strategy of rural revitalization. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2012 to 2019, China's poverty population decreased by 93.48 million, and the poverty rate also dropped to 0.6%. In 2020, at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it was announced that the poverty-stricken counties declared in 2014 had achieved their poverty alleviation goals, and China's poverty alleviation work was victorious as scheduled.

In order to further consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation, achieve the development plan for the next stage, and realize the second centenary goal, more refined strategic measures need to be taken as effective follow-up to the existing achievements. At this time, the advantages of the rural revitalization strategy are highlighted, which are of great practical significance for curbing the phenomenon of returning to poverty and narrowing the wealth gap.

5.Opportunities and Challenges in the Development of Rural Revitalization and Poverty Alleviation

5.1.Transition from Addressing Absolute Poverty to Addressing Long-term Relative Poverty

After addressing absolute poverty, relative poverty has become the key strategic direction for China's next phase of poverty alleviation. However, unlike absolute poverty, relative poverty lacks obvious external characteristics. It exists in a more hidden and long-term form of poverty, which determines that China needs to shift its strategic focus to gradually address the issue of relative poverty in the medium and long term [5].

The emergence of relative poverty is due to differences in infrastructure, education, and institutions among regions. On one hand, there are certain differences between urban and rural areas, and the urban development model cannot be simply replicated in rural development, posing challenges in eliminating relative poverty. On the other hand, the exchange of personnel and goods between urban and rural areas provides feasible breakthroughs for the governance of relative poverty. Therefore, the existence of the urban-rural dual structure is the key and difficulty in implementing the rural revitalization strategy. The direct effects of poverty alleviation must be transformed into the depth of the rural revitalization process.

5.2.Transition from Passive Handling to Active Innovation

Although China's poverty alleviation efforts have been remarkable, significant human, material, and capital resources have also been invested by the state and government in overcoming difficulties. The influx of substantial funds has, to some extent, propelled the poverty alleviation process. However, this poverty alleviation work lacks corresponding strong internal driving forces and often manifests as passive adjustment.

Active innovation is a practice-oriented approach that gradually implements fine-tuning measures from aspects such as infrastructure construction, ecological environment management, and living conditions to achieve high-quality poverty alleviation. At the same time, this adjustment also reflects in the implementation of local policies based on the actual conditions of different regions to enhance the accuracy of policies and methods, ensuring that the inherent conditions of rural areas are not disrupted.

Therefore, compared to the passive handling in traditional poverty alleviation measures, active innovation demonstrates greater adaptability to the governance goals of the next stage and the actual national conditions of China. Meanwhile, the adjustment mode of active innovation also requires transforming the traditional single model into a diversified development model, making poverty alleviation measures more proactive and creative.

5.3.Coverage has Transitioned from Specificity to Universality

The "targeted poverty alleviation" proposed targets absolute impoverished families. With the gradual implementation of this policy, the number of absolute poverty-stricken families and regions in China has gradually decreased, and the realization of poverty alleviation goals has become increasingly clear. Its focus is on specific impoverished populations and deeply impoverished areas. According to data, at the end of 2013, the total number of rural impoverished people in China was 82.49 million, decreasing to 5.51 million in 2019, and finally achieving the goal of eliminating poverty-stricken populations in 2020.

The rural revitalization strategy targets relatively impoverished areas. It focuses on the newly professionalized rural class, possessing a certain collectivity, and has a broader scope in poverty alleviation work. It is a development concept based on the needs of the group. The transformation of the key content of poverty alleviation in the new period has strict boundaries and institutional standards. Therefore, in the process of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, it is necessary to address the contradictions between individuals and groups, combining the transformation from specific situations to general issues, posing certain challenges to China's new stage of poverty alleviation.

5.4.Spatial Range has Shifted from Regional to Global

For a long time, the spatial scope of China's poverty alleviation has mainly focused on deeply impoverished areas with poor geographical environments, scarce natural resources, and low levels of infrastructure construction. The limitations of these regions themselves constitute the focal point of poverty alleviation tasks. For example, there are 22 provincial-level poverty-stricken areas and 163 poverty-stricken counties in the western region, while there are almost no poverty alleviation projects in the eastern region. This determines that the core connection of poverty eradication strategy lies in crucial impoverished areas.

With the proposal of the rural revitalization strategy, targeting the relative poverty problem to narrow the urban-rural gap requires a certain degree of comparison and needs to formulate strategies from the overall situation. Therefore, the rural revitalization in the new era needs to incorporate the entire region of China into the scope of revitalization, and then consider the overall level of the "three rural issues". It focuses on more skilled policies and also requires global research and judgment of its working methods. Therefore, the expansion of spatial scope makes the poverty alleviation work in the new era more challenging.

6.Pathways to Achieving Organic Links Between Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization

Persist in a people-centered development philosophy.

In terms of ideology and understanding, we must always remember that the people are the cornerstone of the smooth development of "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" and are also the main body to achieve common prosperity in China. Therefore, in the forthcoming tasks, we need to consider the basic conditions of urban and rural residents, develop diversified products to meet the common living needs of urban and rural residents, and enable everyone to embark on the path of common prosperity.

At the same time, we must also highlight the leading role of the people. In the process of policy formulation and implementation, it is necessary to fully absorb the wisdom of the people, formulate governance policies around the people, mobilize the people's production enthusiasm and endogenous forces, implement accurate policies and classified guidance, and gradually meet the production and living needs of the people. Moreover, it is essential to let the broad masses of the people enjoy the fruits of labor, start from the fundamental interests of the people, consider the happiness and well-being of all people, consolidate the basic systems of people's livelihood security, and achieve an effective combination of rural revitalization concepts, methods, and goals.

7.Conclusion

In the academic exploration of the profound interactive relationship between rural revitalization and poverty alleviation strategies, there is a strong optimism and belief in the prospects of the countryside. This paper thoroughly analyzes the actual environment of the current countryside, rigorously examines the effectiveness of existing policies, and distills a series of novel and practical policy ideas. These ideas aim to strengthen the integrated process of rural revitalization and poverty alleviation work, thereby driving overall progress in rural areas and effectively advancing the process of poverty alleviation. Rural revitalization and poverty alleviation are not isolated concepts; they have a close interaction and influence each other. To ensure the long-term prosperity of the countryside and the effective resolution of poverty issues, a deep integration at the policy level is crucial. Moreover, achieving this vision is inseparable from the close cooperation and joint efforts of the government, all social strata, and individual farmers.