Jia Ruoxiang: Deeply Grasping the Internal Connection Between Chinese-path Modernization and Common Prosperity for All People
“In Chinese-path modernization, the people’s livelihood is of paramount importance.” This profoundly elucidates the development philosophy and value orientation of "people-centeredness" in Chinese-path modernization. Chinese-path modernization aims to achieve common prosperity for all and ensure the people live a happier and more beautiful life. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has deeply grasped new changes in the stage of development, placing the gradual realization of common prosperity for all in a more prominent position. By promoting coordinated regional development, taking vigorous measures to guarantee and improve livelihoods, winning the battle against poverty, and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects [1], the Party has created favorable conditions for promoting common prosperity. Currently, we have reached the historical stage of solidly advancing common prosperity. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress explicitly points out that Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee further required focusing on improving the people's quality of life, perfecting the income distribution and employment systems, improving the social security system, enhancing the balance and accessibility of basic public services, and promoting more obvious substantive progress in the well-rounded development of individuals and common prosperity for all.
In the New Era and on the new journey, we must deeply grasp the intrinsic connection between Chinese-path modernization and common prosperity for all from different dimensions—such as the original aspiration and founding mission of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the essence of socialism, and the basic socialist economic system. We must continuously advance common prosperity on the new journey of Chinese-path modernization, ensuring it adapts to our country's stage of economic development, coordinates with the process of Chinese-path modernization, and yields landmark results at each stage.
Deeply grasping the intrinsic connection between Chinese-path modernization and common prosperity for all from the CPC's original aspiration and founding mission
The original aspiration and founding mission of Chinese Communists is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. The fundamental purpose of the CPC is to serve the people heart and soul. This determines that modernization led by the CPC must always care for the people's lives, focus on the people’s growing needs for a better life in the New Era, strive to advance the interests of the people's livelihoods, and resolve their concerns. The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress explicitly stated that from this day forward, the central task of the CPC is to unite and lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in realizing the Second Centenary Goal [2] of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese-path modernization. This central task aims to realize national prosperity, national rejuvenation, and people’s happiness. Therefore, on the new journey of Chinese-path modernization, we must persist in making the realization of the people’s yearning for a better life the starting point and goal of modernization.
On one hand, we must firmly grasp high-quality development as the primary task for achieving Chinese-path modernization. By developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions and striving to promote high-quality development, we can continuously enlarge and optimize the "cake" of social wealth, laying a solid economic foundation for achieving common prosperity. On the other hand, we must strive to maintain and promote social fairness and justice, resolutely prevent polarization, and continuously promote the equalization of basic public services. Greater emphasis must be placed on slicing and distributing the "cake" of social wealth fairly, so that the fruits of high-quality development benefit all people more extensively and equitably, continuously increasing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.
In the New Era, the people’s needs for a better life are diverse. Beyond basic material needs, there are demands for spiritual culture, democracy and the rule of law, a harmonious society, and the ecological environment. This is closely related to the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan covering economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction. Therefore, common prosperity is not just prosperity in material life, but also encompasses prosperity in spiritual life and other aspects. We must focus on the goal of gradually ensuring that all people attain material abundance, spiritual self-reliance and strength, livable and business-friendly environments, social harmony, and universal public services. We must unswervingly follow a civilized development path characterized by developed production, affluent life, and sound ecology, continuously advancing substantive progress in common prosperity during the process of Chinese-path modernization, and ultimately realizing the well-rounded development of individuals and the all-round progress of society.
Deeply grasping the intrinsic connection between Chinese-path modernization and common prosperity for all from the essence of socialism
The essential requirement of socialism is to liberate and develop productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. The essence of socialism and common prosperity for all belong to the same lineage. Common prosperity covers two core dimensions: one is "commonality," which aligns with the socialist requirement to "eliminate exploitation and eliminate polarization." This aims at current imbalances in development, resolutely prevents polarization, and ensures the "cake" of social wealth is sliced and distributed well to realize the historical aspiration of all people living a happy life, reflecting the superiority of advanced socialist relations of production. The other is "prosperity," which aligns with the socialist requirement to "liberate and develop productive forces." This aims at current insufficiencies in development. By deeply implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, further liberating and developing productive forces, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system, we can continuously promote high-quality development to enlarge the "cake," reflecting the superiority of advanced socialist productive forces.
The essence of socialism achieves the organic unity of productive forces and relations of production from the perspective of development means and goals—i.e., liberating and developing productive forces as the means, and eliminating exploitation and polarization to achieve common prosperity as the goal. Common prosperity, through the two keywords of "common" and "prosperous," achieves this organic unity: "common" addresses the problem of unbalanced development from the perspective of relations of production (gradually narrowing regional, urban-rural, and income gaps), while "prosperous" addresses the problem of insufficient development from the perspective of productive forces (creating greater social wealth through high-quality development). Both the essence of socialism and common prosperity achieve the organic combination of advanced socialist relations of production and productive forces. They integrate the superiority of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the CPC's original aspiration and founding mission, and the common expectations of the masses in the New Era, fully embodying the people-centered development philosophy.
Deeply grasping the intrinsic connection between Chinese-path modernization and common prosperity for all from the basic socialist economic system
To realize common prosperity for all, we must adhere to the basic socialist economic system. The pillars of this system—the primacy of public ownership with various ownership forms developing together; the primacy of distribution according to work with multiple distribution modes coexisting; and the socialist market economy—reflect the superiority of the socialist system while adapting to the development level of productive forces in our country's primary stage of socialism. This system is a great creation of the Party and the people. To promote common prosperity, we must persist in and improve this system to maximize the liberation and development of productive forces to enlarge the "cake," while simultaneously building basic institutional arrangements that coordinate primary distribution, redistribution, and third distribution [3] to slice the "cake" well and avoid polarization.
Regarding ownership structure, we must remain grounded in the primary stage of socialism, ensuring the dominance of public ownership while allowing various ownership forms to develop together. We must unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector, leveraging its vital role in promoting common prosperity. Simultaneously, we must unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector, ensuring all ownership forms use production factors equally according to the law, compete fairly in the market, and receive equal legal protection.
Regarding distribution structure, we persist in the primacy of distribution according to work while allowing multiple distribution modes to coexist. We will improve the primary distribution system to reflect efficiency, increasing the share of labor remuneration and improving mechanisms for reasonable wage growth. We will improve mechanisms where the market evaluates the contribution of production factors—labor, capital, land, knowledge, technology, management, and data—and determines remuneration accordingly, mobilizing the initiative and creativity of all factors. We will refine the redistribution system with an emphasis on fairness, increasing the regulatory intensity and precision of taxes, social security, and transfer payments. Finally, we will improve the "third distribution" system focused on social harmony, encouraging high-income groups to enhance their sense of social responsibility and participate in or establish public welfare and charitable undertakings, building a compassionate society conducive to common prosperity.
Regarding institutional mechanisms, we persist in the socialist market economy. We must properly handle the relationship between a "proactive government" and an "effective market," allowing the market to play the decisive role in resource allocation while better leveraging the government's role. By letting the market determine resource allocation, we break down regional interests and policy barriers, accelerating the construction of a unified national market and maximizing our ultra-large-scale market advantage to create a fairer, more dynamic environment. To better leverage the government's role, we must focus on the weak links and prominent shortcomings in achieving common prosperity, promoting the extension of public resources to the grassroots, rural areas, remote regions, and people in difficulty. We must accelerate the construction of a universal and sustainable social security system, reduce institutional differences in public services between urban and rural areas, and promote all-round social progress, ensuring the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security is more substantial, secure, and sustainable.
(Jia Ruoxiang, Director and Researcher of the Comprehensive Research Office of the Institute of National Territorial Development and Regional Economics of the National Development and Reform Commission)