Institutional strengths empower China's pursuit for people-centered development

BEIJING -- Meeting the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life has been the goal of the Communist Party of China. Delivering on the promise, however, is anything but easy at a time full of challenges and uncertainties.

A time-tested winning strategy for the political party that governs the most populous country in the world is putting the people first and foremost in the protection of human rights and resolving the most pressing and immediate concerns that affect the people.

Throughout this process, the Party's prominent strategy has been to leverage its institutional advantages to achieve successful outcomes.

A classic example is the fight against poverty, which involves the fundamental human rights of the Chinese people, the rights to subsistence and development, and culminates in a colossal anti-poverty campaign on an unprecedented scale unseen anywhere in the world.

Back in 2012, nearly 100 million Chinese were living below the poverty line. By the end of 2020, China had lifted all the 98.99 million rural residents living below the current poverty line out of poverty after eight years of efforts, declaring the elimination of absolute poverty in the country in February 2021.

China's success in poverty alleviation exemplifies the country's institutional advantage in mobilizing resources for major undertakings and combining forces for optimal output.

STRIVING FOR COMMON PROSPERITY

After accomplishing its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, China's leadership has put common prosperity in a more prominent position, aiming at affluence shared by everyone, both in material and cultural terms.

To achieve this goal, China has been striving to "make a bigger and better cake" and establish a reasonable distribution system that benefits everyone through institutional arrangements.

Concrete efforts have been made in advancing coordinated regional development, optimizing income distribution, promoting rural revitalization and encouraging the healthy development of different types of capital, among others.

For any country that aims to develop its economy and improve people's well-being, it should rely on the continued improvement of productivity, which requires technological innovation and industrial upgrading, noted Lin Yifu, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University.

Development is the foundation and key to solving all problems facing the country, as is reiterated in the government's major development plans and documents, Lin said.

Facing uncertainties and challenges posed by the complicated geopolitical environment and the sporadic resurgences of COVID-19 on the domestic front, China has further strengthened its institutional measures to keep the economy running within an appropriate range.

The country has rolled out a slew of measures to stabilize growth and safeguard development security, including efforts to keep logistics smooth and industrial and supply chains stable, as well as proactive fiscal policies that prioritize employment and economic stability.

FOR BETTER LIFE

As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the primary issue confronting Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.

Focusing on ensuring and improving people's livelihood, China is on a path of higher-quality growth that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable and secure, said Wang Xigen, a professor at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

To ensure people's environmental rights, for instance, the Chinese government has been striving to improve the ecology and environment through rational institutional arrangements and the rule of law.

China has made institutional innovations in ecological conservation. By drawing ecological conservation "red lines" nationwide, which has been selected by the UN as one of the 15 best nature-based solutions around the globe, the country has classified no less than 25 percent of its land area for environmental protection.

China has also enacted or revised 13 laws and 17 administrative regulations covering the prevention and control of air, water and soil pollution, accompanied by meticulous efforts to guarantee the strict implementation of these laws.

To address people's growing demands for convenient and comfortable travel, the country has built the world's largest high-speed railway network, expressway network and world-class port clusters.

A key enabling factor is the country's top-level planning which allows government to play a better role in providing a clear framework for development while ensuring national strategies keep pace with the times.

According to a five-year plan released earlier this year, the country has envisioned "1-2-3 circles" for passenger trips by 2035 which will further enhance travel efficiency, with travel time within cities and city clusters, and among metropolises reduced to one hour, two hours and three hours, respectively.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.