In 2002 the 16th National Congress of the CPC (Communist Party of China) put forth the strategy of "coordinating the economic and social development of urban and rural areas." In 2003 the Third Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee pinpointed the establishment of a system that would facilitate the gradual deactivation of the dual urban-rural structure as a main priority in its work of improving and perfecting the socialist market economic system. Later, at its fifth plenary session,