Guan Xinping: Constructing a Rational Policy and Institutional System Must Adhere to the Principle of "Livelihood as the Priority" [1]
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "In Chinese-path modernization, livelihood is the priority." A critical component of Chinese-path modernization is the comprehensive improvement of the people's wellbeing. To achieve this, we must both vigorously develop the economy and attach high importance to social policy, perfecting the livelihood guarantee system by optimizing social policies.
Understanding the Significant Meaning of "Livelihood as the Priority" for Chinese-path Modernization Through an Active Development Perspective
Starting from the active development perspective of Chinese-path modernization, the significance of "livelihood as the priority" can be understood on three levels.
First, "livelihood as the priority" is an inevitable requirement for achieving Chinese-path modernization. People’s aspiration for a better life is the goal for which the Communist Party of China (CPC) strives; thus, realizing this aspiration is the starting point and the ultimate goal of promoting Chinese-path modernization. Strengthening and optimizing social policies and improving the policy and institutional system for livelihood guarantees is the necessary path [1] to achieving this aspiration. In contemporary society, labor creation under market mechanisms remains the basic path for the masses to meet various needs and achieve a better life. However, under conditions of economic globalization and rapid technological development, it is difficult to solve the problem of excessive income gaps, cope with practical risks such as unemployment and illness, or meet the needs of the masses in elderly care, childcare, and disability assistance by relying solely on market mechanisms. Therefore, while adhering to the basic principles of the socialist market economy, Chinese-path modernization must construct a complete, balanced, and high-quality basic life guarantee system and basic public service system for all Chinese people through the extensive formulation and implementation of social policies.
Second, "livelihood as the priority" is an inevitable requirement for achieving common prosperity for all people. Following the path of common prosperity requires balancing development and equality. Under realistic conditions, however, it is difficult to effectively overcome the tension between development and equality by relying solely on market mechanisms—especially since technological progress and economic transformation may further exacerbate this tension. Therefore, while perfecting and regulating market mechanisms, it is also necessary to help achieve common prosperity by extensively formulating and implementing social policies and improving the livelihood guarantee system. At the current stage, efforts should focus on building a basic income guarantee system and public service system that reaches conventional social living standards [2]. This ensures that the masses can achieve equal guarantees at conventional living levels in daily consumption, family life, education, health, housing, elderly care, childcare, and disability assistance, thereby realizing the phased goals of common prosperity.
Third, "livelihood as the priority" can effectively assist high-quality development. At present, to solidly promote high-quality development, we must persist in taking science and technology as the lead and foster new quality productive forces. This requires a comprehensive upgrade of the human capital of laborers. Especially in the context of declining future birth rates and a relative decrease in the labor force, the quality of labor becomes even more important for economic development. Through more active social policies, we can further strengthen the construction of livelihood guarantee systems in education, training, health, childcare, disability assistance, and poverty alleviation, more effectively upgrading human capital and laying an important foundation for high-quality development. Meanwhile, efforts to expand livelihood expenditures and strengthen social protection will promote the move toward higher quality and efficiency in domestic consumption, helping to construct the dual circulation development pattern [3].
Finally, "livelihood as the priority" helps create favorable social conditions for the smooth development of Chinese-path modernization. Chinese-path modernization is advancing in a complex internal and external environment, faced with significant uncertainty and various risks on the road ahead. To this end, we need to improve the livelihood guarantee system so that the basic lives of the people can withstand various risk shocks. By providing more sufficient and balanced public services and a fairer distribution of public resources, we can enhance the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security [4], as well as their sense of trust in the government and society. This will result in a more rational social structure, more integrated social institutions, a more positive social mindset, more harmonious social relations, and a more stable social order, laying a solid social foundation for Chinese-path modernization.
Accurately Recognizing the Meaning and Characteristics of Universal, Basic, and "Bottom-line" Livelihood Construction [5]
To implement the requirement of "livelihood as the priority," we must not only attach high importance to social policy and livelihood investment but also to the construction of a rational policy and institutional system. Universal, basic, and "bottom-line" livelihoods mainly refer to the specific methods and categories of providing livelihood guarantees. In providing livelihood guarantees and public services to the people, the government must distinguish between different targets and needs, adopting different provision methods and standards so that public resources can play a more precise and efficient role.
Universal (普惠性, pǔhuì xìng) livelihood guarantees essentially refer to the guarantees and services provided by the government to the entire population or all members of a specific group, including universal social insurance, educational services, and health services. Universal livelihood guarantees have advantages such as full coverage of targets, widespread social benefits, and relatively simple management. Therefore, they should serve as an important foundational institutional model for meeting the universal needs of the masses. In the process of providing universal livelihoods, the government should play a leading role and provide basic resource guarantees, but it can also combine government public resources with market and social resources to mobilize as much capital as possible.
Basic (基础性, jīchǔ xìng) livelihood guarantees are intended to provide basic income guarantees and basic public services to meet the essential needs of the people in various aspects. In providing livelihood guarantees and public services, the government's focus is on fortifying the basic livelihood guarantee system. In practice, the scope of basic livelihood guarantees is quite broad, including basic old-age insurance, social assistance, basic health services (basic medical and health care), compulsory education, housing guarantees, as well as basic elderly care services, child protection, and disability welfare. Basic livelihood guarantees reflect the government’s primary and "bottom-line" responsibilities. Governments at all levels must undertake the basic function of perfecting the basic livelihood guarantee and public service systems. On this basis, supplementary and developmental livelihood guarantee projects can be added according to public resource conditions. One point must be emphasized: basic livelihood guarantee does not mean low-level guarantee; rather, a reasonable level should be determined based on the principle of "doing one's utmost while acting within one's means" [6], considering the level of economic development, the basic needs of the people, and government financial capacity.
Bottom-line (兜底性, dōudǐ xìng) livelihood guarantees refer to those mainly managed by the government to provide basic security for various groups in special difficulty, specifically including social assistance projects and social welfare services. The characteristic of bottom-line guarantees is the concentration of necessary public resources to provide highly targeted protection and services to vulnerable groups, helping them overcome difficulties, return to normal living standards, and enhance their own development capacity. These guarantees are highly targeted, building a safety net for the most vulnerable in a resource-conserving manner to ensure their basic survival.
Profoundly Understanding the Importance of Strengthening Universal, Basic, and Bottom-line Livelihood Construction
In recent years, China has made outstanding progress in these areas, but certain deficiencies remain. First, the supply of universal guarantees and services in social insurance, elderly services, childcare, and disability services is still insufficient. The level of basic public services in education, medical care, and elderly care is not high or balanced enough. Social assistance and service projects for people in difficulty have a narrow coverage, and their social effectiveness in "holding the bottom line," improving life, and promoting development is not yet high enough.
Second, we must rationally choose the structure and level of these guarantees based on economic and social development conditions. Looking at future trends, we should gradually increase the universality of livelihood guarantees and steadily raise the level of basic guarantees, but this process must develop step-by-step. At the current stage, we must rationally choose specific institutional models and levels based on the level of economic development, actual needs, and public resource supply capacity, following requirements of feasibility, effectiveness, and efficiency, so that limited public resources yield greater practical benefits.
Finally, we must attach high importance to the rational matching and institutional connection between various projects in the livelihood field. This will continuously improve the institutional integration and operational efficiency of the entire system, avoiding safety net loopholes caused by poor connections or resource waste caused by institutional overlap.
Further Strengthening and Optimizing Social Policy to Vigorously Promote Livelihood Construction
First, strengthen the top-level design of social policy. In the past, China’s social policy development model was largely reactive to problems, with insufficient overall design for future development. To meet the new requirements of Chinese-path modernization, we must further strengthen top-level design. On one hand, we must strengthen the institutional construction of social policy, including the overall design of subjects, objects, content, resources, and mechanisms. On the other hand, we should rationally construct and periodically adjust the national unified content system and standards for basic livelihood guarantees, further expanding and refining national basic public service standards—especially requirements for quality standards. At the same time, we should strengthen institutional designs for risk response and problem prevention to enhance the resilience of social policy.
Second, enhance the operability of social policy and improve investment mechanisms. Implementing "livelihood as the priority" requires specific designs to enhance feasibility at the operational level and obtain sufficient resource support. Currently, public financial budget expenditures in education, health, social security, employment, and housing—plus social insurance—account for about 17% of GDP. However, faced with livelihood shortcomings and growing needs, the current investment level is still insufficient. Therefore, in the process of implementing a more active fiscal policy, a larger share should be reserved for livelihood investment to both improve guarantee levels and effectively stimulate consumption.
Third, focus on the fair distribution of resources and tilting toward groups in difficulty. We must focus on the integrated design of urban and rural social policies and raise the quality of rural education and health services through fiscal tilting. We must also optimize the arrangement of powers and spending responsibilities [7] between central and local governments, strengthening transfer payments to financially distressed areas. Furthermore, we should bridge existing gaps by increasing pension benefits for urban and rural residents and increasing subsidies for medical insurance. Finally, we must expand the coverage of social assistance for low-income groups and improve the tiered and classified social assistance system [8].
Fourth, effectively executing social policy requires optimizing management and service mechanisms. Public funds must be targeted more precisely at actual social "pain points." We must improve professionalization by developing professional social work and other systems to compensate for weaknesses in community services. We should strengthen and integrate grassroots service systems, establishing a service and management system at the community/village level that combines professionalization with resident self-governance. At the township/sub-district level, a professionalized and comprehensive grassroots public service system should be established to centrally handle basic public services from various government departments, seeking to maximize both service quality and efficiency.
(The author is the Dean of the Research Institute of Social Construction and Management at Nankai University) Source: Study Times (学习时报) January 20, 2025