Address the People's Most Immediate Concerns

Address the People's Most Immediate Concerns* 

April 28, 2015-December 31, 2016 

I 

The Party and the state must implement a proactive employment policy by creating more jobs, improving the environment and quality of employment, and increasing the remuneration of workers, in particular those working at grassroots level. We should establish and enhance mechanisms for protecting the rights and interests of the people, and focus on such key issues as employment, vocational training, income distribution, social security, and occupational safety and health. We should pay more attention to grassroots workers, migrant workers, and workers in need, and improve measures for removing any barriers preventing workers from taking part in, and enjoying the benefits of development, while helping them realize decent working conditions. Furthermore, we should maintain close ties with the people through frank communication and solid work, make every effort needed to address their gravest needs and problems, and solve their most pressing concerns and those that are essential to their immediate interests. 

(from the speech at a meeting celebrating May 1st International 
Labor Day and commending national model workers, April 28, 2015)

II 

Workplace safety marks a red line that we should never cross in our development. As I have said before, development should never proceed at the expense of human lives. This is a principle that the whole of society should follow. We should be fully aware that workplace safety is an arduous, complex and pressing issue, and we must adhere to the principle of putting people and their lives first. The workplace safety responsibility system should be fully enforced, as should measures on safety management, supervision, inspection, and risk prevention, along with incentives and punishments. We must ensure that all Party committees and governments perform their leadership duties responsibly, that relevant government departments conduct proper oversight, and that enterprises assume the primary responsibility for workplace safety. As regards major risk-prone sites and industries, we should carry out targeted initiatives to strengthen safety and prevent risks by removing the root causes. Our main targets include high-speed rail, urban rail, oil and gas pipelines, urban gas networks, mines, chemical plants, and fireworks factories, as well as high-rises with fire risks and poor urban villages. To consolidate workplace safety, we must improve the mechanism for conducting thorough inspections on a regular or irregular basis without advance notice, and enforce the accountability system to make sure that whoever conducts the inspection takes full responsibility by signing his or her name on the inspection report. We must take strict measures to eliminate every identified risk so as to ensure complete safety. 

 (from the speech at the 23rd group study session of the Political 
Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee, May 29, 2015)

III 

Equality in education is the basis of social equality. We must enable all our people to share fully and fairly in the benefits of educational development, ensuring education equality to enhance social equality. We should increase support for basic education, strengthen preschool education, balance the development of the free nine-year compulsory education in primary and middle schools, and make available high school education for all students. In optimizing the allocation of educational resources, we should take steps to narrow the gaps in educational resources between urban and rural areas, different regions, and different schools. We must increase government aid to basic education in old revolutionary base areas, areas mainly populated by ethnic minorities, remote areas, and poverty-stricken areas. In particular, we should guarantee funds for schools in poverty-stricken areas and improve the grants system for students from poor families. We should also take targeted measures to reduce poverty through education. We will help children from poor families to access education in order to prevent poverty being passed down from generation to generation, and to give all children the confidence and hope they need to create a bright future. 

 (from the speech during a visit to Beijing Bayi School, 
September 9, 2016)

IV 

Public security has been improving over the past few years, with a sustained decrease in violent crimes and a steadily enhanced sense of security among the people. However, some problems remain prominent, and in particular illegal fundraising, information leakage, and cyber fraud are widespread. Today's crimes increasingly relate to information technology, mobility and intelligence. Occasionally there are crimes of extreme violence committed by individuals trying to take revenge on society or spread terror. We are a long way from eliminating crimes of severe violence despite intensified efforts to fight them. 

We should take systematic and comprehensive measures to deal with these crimes in accordance with the law and by addressing their root causes. In order to identify harmful tendencies in a timely manner we should improve the crime prevention and control system, and enhance our analysis and judgment of public opinion, public security developments, and hot and sensitive issues. We should take effective measures to prevent and control risks and protect the lives and property of the people. We should make an all-out effort to prevent and fight terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism, and strengthen our anti-terrorism efforts and international cooperation in this regard. In so doing, we aim to build an impregnable anti-terrorism network. All terrorist activities must be eradicated once identified. We must use legal means to fight the infiltration, sabotage, and subversive activities of hostile forces, and prevent them from becoming real threats to our public security. 

 (from the speech at the second full assembly of the Sixth Plenary 
Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, October 27, 2016)

V 

We must make sure that there is a social cushion in place to meet the most basic needs of the people, and focus on their most pressing concerns, while improving related policies and guiding public opinion to strengthen social security. We should enhance social policies and public services for employment, old-age care, education, healthcare, and environmental protection. We should increase assistance to special groups and people with special difficulties to meet their basic living needs. We should make proper arrangements for workers laid off as a result of eliminating industrial overcapacity, help workers who have been transferred to a new job with a much lower income, and provide for the basic needs of the 40/50 age group [which consists of workers laid-off by SOEs and other enterprises, females above 40 years old, and males above 50, all of whom have difficulty in finding new jobs]. We must adjust the policies for structural reform and employment funds to increase funding for areas with greater difficulties and experiencing fiscal pressure in resettling laid-off workers. In addition, we should improve systems for social development to give the people a stronger sense of gain and thus contribute to social stability and harmony.

 (from the speech at the Central Conference on Economic Work, 
December 14, 2016)

VI 

To solve the real estate problem, we should follow the principle that housing is for people to live in rather than for speculation, keeping on the right track towards the right goal. Through a combination of financial, land, taxation, investment and legislation measures, we should accelerate our efforts to design and establish a basic system and a long-term mechanism, suited to China's reality and the market laws, for curbing real estate bubbles and preventing drastic rises and falls in real estate prices. 

 (from the speech at the Central Conference on Economic Work, 
December 14, 2016)

VII 

As we greet the New Year, my greatest concern goes to my fellow countrymen who still live in poverty. Do they have adequate food and housing so that they can enjoy a happy New Year and Spring Festival? I know that some people are still facing difficulties regarding employment, their children's education, healthcare, and housing, among others. It is the responsibility of the Party and the government to solve these problems. The whole Party and all of society should continue to care for and help people living in poverty and facing difficulties. We will enable more people to enjoy the benefits of reform and development and live a better life. 

 (from the 2017 New Year message, December 31, 2016)

* Excerpts from speeches made between April 28, 2015 and December 31, 2016.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)