HEIGHTEN PEOPLE’S SENSE OF GAIN, FULFILLMENT AND SECURITY

HEIGHTEN PEOPLE’S SENSE OF GAIN, FULFILLMENT AND SECURITY*

February 2018-April 2021

I

This round of further reform of Party and state institutions focuses on improving the people’s wellbeing in key areas, and aims to make the social security system and access to public services fairer and more sustainable. We will redouble our efforts to reorganize and optimize the setup of the institutions and establish a number of new agencies in areas of public concern such as education, culture, public health, medical insurance, veteran affairs, immigration services, eco-environmental protection, and emergency management. These measures are meant to reinforce government functions in public services and social management, ensure and improve public wellbeing, and provide stronger safeguards for public security. Relevant departments should have a strong sense of purpose, mission and responsibility. They should see improving people’s lives as their greatest achievement, treat people’s concerns and worries as their own, and seek to meet people’s urgent needs. They should quicken their pace to straighten out their functions and activities, so as to form synergies as soon as possible and do a good and solid job for the benefit of the people.

(from the speech at the second full assembly of
the Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC
Central Committee, February 28, 2018)

II

We should give top priority to addressing eco-environmental problems in improving people’s lives. We shall spare no effort to do the smallest things if they benefit the people, and steer clear of even the smallest things that might harm the people. We must fight a tough battle against pollution and secure major victories, concentrating our efforts on resolving prominent environmental problems that directly affect people’s lives. Severe air pollution, black, fetid water bodies, piled-up trash, and a deteriorating rural environment are major and immediate public concerns. These problems, severely disturbing people’s work and life, are the source of many public complaints and can even disturb the social order. We must overcome these problems. We should leverage our strengths, rally all possible forces, and get everyone involved. In this tough battle against pollution, we need to gain one success after another with the support of the people.

(from the speech at the National Conference on
Eco-environmental Protection, May 18, 2018)

III

We should make education available to every individual throughout their life and make study a habit and a lifestyle choice, so that people can study whenever and wherever they want to. We should guarantee equal access to education, trying to make good education available to everyone regardless of gender, region and ethnicity, and whether they are rich or poor, or from an urban or rural area. We should make education adaptable to each individual’s needs, enabling students with different temperament, interests and potential to receive an education suitable to their growth. We should build a more open and flexible education system to offer more choices to students to expand their path for growth and clear the ladder to academic excellence, career advancement, and upward mobility.

(from the speech at the National Education Conference,
September 10, 2018)

IV

The ancient Chinese used to say, “Filial piety is the root of morality.” The Chinese people have always honored filial piety and the value of family, caring for the elderly and the children of others as they care for their own. China is now an aging society. It is a matter of social harmony and stability to ensure care, support, recreation and security for the elderly. The whole of society should respect, care for and support the elderly, and ensure they have a happy life with more and better old-age programs.

(from the speech at a Spring Festival gathering,
February 3, 2019)

V

“For the people, by the people” should always be the principle of cybersecurity work. We must ensure security of personal information and protect citizens’ legitimate rights and interests in cyberspace. We should integrate cybersecurity studies, technology, and the industry, with a view to establishing a sound environment for talent training, technological innovation, and industry development. To coordinate internet development and administration by law, we should promote artificial intelligence, the internet of things, next-generation communication networks, and other new technologies and applications on the one hand, and use laws, regulations and standards to guide the application of new technologies on the other. It is equally important to ensure the internet is reliable and controllable while continuing to be open and innovative. We should maintain cybersecurity on the basis of an open environment and strengthen international cooperation and exchanges, so that the people will have a stronger sense of gain, fulfillment and security in cyberspace.

(directive on the National Cybersecurity Week,
September 15, 2019)

VI

The Chinese nation is a big family; everyone in the family deserves a good life. We cannot have all-round moderate prosperity and modernization if ethnic minority areas are left behind. We should accelerate the development of ethnic minority groups and the areas they inhabit, ensure their equal access to basic public services, and help them turn natural resources into economic gains. The achievements of reform and development should offer greater benefits to people from all ethnic groups in a fair way, so that they will have a growing sense of gain, fulfillment and security.

(from the speech at a national gathering to commend
model units and individuals for contributing to
ethnic unity and progress, September 27, 2019)

VII

When mapping out the 14th Five-year Plan, we must follow the principle that development is for the people and its fruits should be shared by the people. Efforts should be made to improve people’s daily lives and make up for shortcomings while ensuring high-quality development. We must focus more on issues of public concern, take more targeted measures, and ensure effective implementation to solve each and every one of them, so that the people will have a growing, guaranteed and sustained sense of gain, fulfillment and security.

(from the speech at a meeting with grassroots representatives in
Changsha, Hunan Province, September 17, 2020)

VIII

It is up to the people to judge whether they are leading a good life. We should focus on recurring problems of strong and widespread public concern, and use reform and innovation to solve each and every problem concerning employment, education, medical care, social security, housing, elderly care, food safety, the eco-environment, and public security, so that the people will have a stronger sense of gain, a sustained sense of fulfillment, and a guaranteed sense of security.

(from the speech at a gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic
Zone, October 14, 2020)

IX

Common prosperity itself is an important goal of socialist modernization. It cannot wait until modernization is achieved. Instead, we should make constant efforts to accomplish it, step by step, in the process of modernization, because meeting the people’s new expectations for a better life is always our goal in development. We must be proactive about narrowing the gaps between regions and between urban and rural areas, as well as income gaps, and work to guarantee and improve people’s wellbeing through development. We will coordinate our endeavors in employment, income distribution, education, social security, medical care, housing, and care for the elderly and children. We will direct more resources to rural areas, the grassroots, underdeveloped areas, and people in need of help. We advocate social fairness and justice and work to ensure that development offers greater benefits to all the people in a fair way. Common prosperity is a long-term goal that cannot be achieved with haste, but it needs immediate action. We must give greater priority to this task and make it a focus of more active, sustained, practical and effective efforts.

(from the speech at the 27th group study session of
the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee,
January 28, 2021)

X

We must improve quality of life. We should give high priority to employment, pursue a proactive employment policy, and focus on key groups including graduating college students, demobilized military personnel, rural migrant workers, and disadvantaged urban residents. We should improve the social security system so that it supports flexible employment through different channels, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of truck drivers, couriers and food delivery riders. We must fully implement the Party’s education policy, foster virtue and morality through education, and regulate and manage off-campus tutoring services both online and offline. We should further reform disease prevention and control, strengthen community-level public health services, develop new mechanisms for increasing collaboration between hospitals and disease control agencies, and improve community-level prevention, treatment, care and rehabilitation. We should maintain rigorous epidemic prevention and control on a regular basis. We must guard against various risks and challenges, effectively prevent major and serious work-related accidents, and keep up the fight against criminal gangs and organized crime.

(from the speech during a visit to Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, April 25-27, 2021)

* Excerpts from speeches made between February 2018 and April 2021.

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