Sun Cunliang and Zhang Feixue: Deeply Understand and Grasp the Rich Connotations and Practical Requirements of "Investing in People"
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "We must respond to the people's expectations for a better life, adhere to the principal position of the people, closely integrate high-quality population development with high-quality life for the people, and closely integrate 'investing in things' with 'investing in people.'" The 2025 Government Work Report explicitly proposed promoting more funds and resources to "invest in people" and serve the people's livelihood, supporting the expansion of employment, promoting income growth and burden reduction for residents, and strengthening consumption incentives, thereby forming a virtuous cycle between economic development and the improvement of people's livelihoods. Deeply understanding and comprehensively grasping the rich connotations and practical requirements of "investing in people" is of great significance for achieving high-quality development and building a modern socialist country in all respects.
1. The Context of the Emergence of the Concept of "Investing in People"
Concepts are representations of historical development. To examine the concept of "investing in people," one must profoundly grasp its distinct temporal characteristics and practical orientation within the process of social development and history, revealing the realistic background and historical necessity of its formation and proposal.
"Investing in people" is an inevitable requirement for achieving the free and well-rounded development of individuals. Marx and Engels attached great importance to people and human development, emphasizing that improving and developing human capabilities is an inherent requirement for promoting the development of individuals and society, noting that "the vocation, destiny, and task of every person is to develop all their capacities in a well-rounded way." People are the most active, dynamic, and positive factor among the productive forces; they are the practical subjects deeply rooted in the network of social relations and the dynamic process of history, and they are the starting point and ultimate goal of development. "Investing in people" no longer views humans merely as "tools" for achieving development; instead, it emphasizes that the realization of human value and the enhancement of well-being are the goals of development itself. By upgrading human capabilities and qualities, guaranteeing basic human rights and interests, and satisfying diverse human needs, it ultimately achieves the well-rounded development of people and the comprehensive progress of society. This transcends the limitations of traditional investment in physical capital, places human development at the core of modernization efforts, and highlights the value orientation [1] of responding to the people's expectations for a better life.
"Investing in people" is an urgent need for moving toward high-quality development. China's economy has transitioned from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. The traditional development model, primarily driven by resource input and factor endowments, is unsustainable; it must shift toward a high-quality development model led by innovation. The key to innovation lies in talent. Only by possessing a high-quality, innovative talent pool can we promote technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and the transformation of the economic development mode. "Investing in people," especially the cultivation of scientific and technological talent, highly skilled talent, and innovative talent, will directly enhance total factor productivity and drive changes in the quality, efficiency, and driving forces of economic development. Against the backdrop of the deepening technological revolution and industrial transformation, only by placing human resource development in a priority position and through continuous investment in people can we solve development problems, strengthen development momentum, cultivate development advantages, and promote a fundamental shift in the economic development mode from a scale-and-speed type to a quality-and-efficiency type, ultimately achieving higher quality, fairer, and more sustainable development.
"Investing in people" is the key support for winning global competitive advantages. Currently, against the background of the accelerated reconstruction of the global innovation landscape and the deep adjustment of industrial and supply chains, competition between countries has shifted from traditional resource endowment competition to competition in innovation capability and talent quality. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The competition of comprehensive national strength is, in the final analysis, a competition for talent. Talent is an important indicator for measuring a country's comprehensive national strength." Investment in human capital will directly enhance a country's discourse power [2] in global value chains. In the grand landscape of global talent competition, only by cultivating and attracting more outstanding talent and building a talent pool with a grand scale, rational structure, and excellent quality can we consolidate the strategic foundation for the country's long-term development and seize the initiative in future development. The concept of "investing in people" is precisely a strategic response to how China can seize opportunities and meet challenges in this era; it is an inevitable choice for achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, enhancing national core competitiveness, and occupying the commanding heights of international competition.
2. The Scientific Connotation of the Concept of "Investing in People"
"Investing in people" is an organic unity of a revolutionary reconstruction of value cognition, a systemic optimization of the investment structure, and a strategic coordination of development goals. By transforming human resources into strategic capital capable of sustainable value-added, it builds an investment system driven by the "twin engines" of "hard skill reinforcement" and "soft welfare enhancement," achieving a win-win symbiosis between the release of individual development potential and the enhancement of social value, ultimately realizing people-centered high-quality development.
A revolution in value cognition from "cost" to "capital." "Investing in people" refers to promoting more funds and resources to serve people's livelihoods, supporting the expansion of employment, promoting income growth and burden reduction for residents, and strengthening consumption incentives to form a virtuous cycle of economic development and livelihood improvement. The essence of "investing in people" is to transform human resources into human capital that can sustainably increase in value by improving people's knowledge, skills, health levels, and social adaptability. Its core lies in transforming human resources from a "passively consumed cost" into "actively value-adding capital." This reflects a focus and optimization of macro-policy orientation from "prioritizing things" to "coordinating people and things," marking a fundamental shift in the value orientation of development. By prioritizing the allocation of funds and resources to aspects related to the well-rounded development of people and increasing investment in livelihood areas such as education, medical care, and elderly care, human development is sublimated from an "instrumental cost" to a "teleological capital," achieving development within the process of benefiting the people and benefiting the people within the process of development. It should be noted that "investing in people" is not the opposite of "investing in things"; rather, it aims to promote a more balanced development of livelihood investment and productive investment, creating new economic growth points while continuously guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods, and ultimately forming a substantial leap in livelihood well-being and overall social progress in the process of promoting common prosperity.
Systemic investment covering both "hard skills" and "soft welfare." The scientific connotation of "investing in people" is essentially a transcendence of the traditional "cost-benefit" analytical framework, aiming to achieve the symbiotic inter-embedding and coordinated advancement of "hard skill" reinforcement and "soft welfare" enhancement through systemic institutional design. In the dimension of "hard skills," this concept emphasizes building a capability development network covering everything from basic education to lifelong learning through paths such as education system optimization, vocational skill enhancement, and digital literacy cultivation, enabling individuals to possess the core competitiveness to adapt to technological changes and industrial upgrading. "Soft welfare" focuses on the subjective needs of individuals, forming a livelihood guarantee and service system that covers the entire chain and the entire life cycle through measures such as improving the social security network, optimizing the allocation of medical resources, and perfecting birth support policies. The accumulation of "hard skills" relies on the basic conditions provided by "soft welfare," while the improvement of "soft welfare" requires the material wealth created by "hard skills" as support. This coordination ensures both the efficiency of the person as a "producer" and the dignity of the person as a "living being," ultimately realizing the unification of human capital at the levels of instrumental value and subjective value, providing sustainable endogenous momentum for social development.
Pursuing a strategic win-win where "individual development" and "social value" promote each other. "Investing in people" transcends the narrow perspective of viewing human resources as a traditional factor of production. It places human capital development within the dynamic balance of individual value realization and social value appreciation, achieving the organic unity of "the well-rounded development of people" and "high-quality economic and social development." Among these, individual development is the source of social value creation, while the realization of social value provides the material basis and institutional guarantee for a higher level of individual development; the two complement and promote each other, forming a people-centered inclusive growth model. The internal logic of this concept is to directly empower people's health levels, cognitive abilities, creative potential, and comprehensive qualities through systemic investment, realizing well-rounded development and the appreciation of intrinsic value. Developed individuals, acting as active subjects in economic activities, will generate significant positive externalities through their enhanced labor productivity, innovation capabilities, and sense of civic responsibility. These effects converge into a powerful force driving economic growth, technological innovation, cultural prosperity, and social harmony, thereby realizing the enhancement of the overall value of society.
3. Practical Requirements of the Concept of "Investing in People"
"Investing in people" is a strategic measure launched based on the new development stage, the implementation of the new development philosophy, the construction of the new development pattern, and the promotion of high-quality development. Only by persisting in basing ourselves on the present while looking to the long term, planning systematically, and advancing as a whole—continuously increasing investment in human capital, optimizing the structure of human capital, and improving the quality of human capital—can we build the most solid and lasting human resource support for the comprehensive advancement of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.
Proceeding from the change in the principal contradiction of society, focusing on the enhancement of livelihood well-being. Against the background of the change in the principal contradiction of our society [3], "investing in people" has become the key path to solving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development and continuously improving livelihood well-being. "Investing in people" points toward the improvement of livelihoods; preferential policies and incremental funds must be prioritized toward livelihood areas, and thinking, planning, and actions must revolve around meeting the needs of the people's livelihoods. We must transcend the short-term development model that "sees things but not people," undertake long-term planning and continuous investment, and further increase investment in livelihood areas such as education, medical care, employment, elderly care, housing, and safety. Through the organic coordination of economic and social policies, the fruits of development can benefit all people more extensively and fairly, continuously improving and developing people's livelihoods and effectively enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.
Strengthen systemic investment and build a comprehensive support system. The strategic practice of "investing in people" requires following the principles of systems theory to build a multi-level, full-cycle supportive ecosystem. It emphasizes the coordination of resource allocation, avoiding the fragmentation of investment through inter-departmental policy linkage; it emphasizes the complementarity of support measures, allowing various types of investment to generate synergistic effects; and it emphasizes the continuity of development paths, ensuring the effective connection of investment at all stages. In the vertical dimension, a continuous investment mechanism covering the entire life cycle of the individual should be established: from scientific intervention in early childhood education to the quality improvement of basic and higher education, and then to the continuous empowerment of vocational training and lifelong learning. This forms a complete chain of human capital accumulation, avoids the attenuation of overall effectiveness due to missing or weak investment at specific stages, and ensures the coherence and sustainability of human capital accumulation. In the horizontal dimension, a multi-party collaborative support network should be constructed, coordinating government, market, and social resources through policy linkage. This includes institutional supply and policy guarantees at the macro level, organizational innovation and platform construction at the meso level, and personalized services and capability development at the micro level, providing three-dimensional replenishment for individual development.
Innovate investment methods and enhance investment efficiency. Practicing the concept of "investing in people" requires a shift from "scale-oriented expansion" to "quality-oriented optimization," building a modernized investment system characterized by dynamic adaptability, technological empowerment, and industrial synergy. First, optimizing the investment structure is the foundation of quality improvement. Investment priorities must be adjusted based on economic and social development trends and the direction of industrial transformation. Investment in strategic emerging industries and key core technology areas should be strengthened to achieve a structural tilt of resources toward high-potential areas, enhancing the foresight and scientific nature of the investment layout. Second, innovating investment models is the key to a leap in efficiency. Digital tools such as big data and artificial intelligence should be fully utilized to build talent demand forecast models and capability maps, achieving accurate identification and intelligent matching of resource allocation, and effectively improving the precision and efficiency of investment. Finally, promoting the deep integration of industry, academia, and research is the core path to enhancing investment effectiveness. A collaborative education mechanism between schools and enterprises should be established to promote the strategic alignment and standardized docking of university research directions, enterprise technical needs, and talent cultivation goals, improving the industrial adaptability of talent investment and enhancing the focus and effectiveness of investment.
Create a favorable environment to stimulate endogenous motivation. Creating a social environment conducive to the accumulation of human capital [4] and the release of its efficacy requires the construction of a systemic environmental guarantee system through the linkage of enhancing cultural identity, optimizing institutional systems, and cultivating a learning ecology. First, we must focus on fostering a socio-cultural ecology where "labor is glorious, skills are precious, and creation is great." Through value guidance and cultural construction, we should strengthen the consensus within the whole of society regarding the importance of investing in human capital, forming a social atmosphere that respects knowledge, advocates innovation, and encourages exploration. Second, we must strive to improve institutional guarantee and incentive mechanisms. This involves establishing and improving a competency-oriented talent evaluation system and compensation distribution system. We should establish a multi-dimensional evaluation index system that highlights actual contributions, innovative value, and social recognition, and create a compensation system that coordinates with the supply-and-demand relationship of the talent market and matches value creation, thereby fully stimulating the creative vitality and innovative potential of all types of talent. Third, we must comprehensively promote the construction of a learning-oriented society and a learning-oriented powerhouse. Relying on digital technology to promote the open sharing of educational resources, we should create scenarios where "everyone can learn, everywhere can be a place of learning, and learning can happen at any time," constructing a modernized education system that covers the entire populace and persists throughout life, and promoting the normalization and institutionalization of knowledge updates and skill upgrades.
Improve evaluation and feedback to achieve dynamic optimization. "Investing in people" is not a one-time input; rather, it is a dynamic management process that requires continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment. It demands the establishment of a scientific evaluation index system and flexible feedback adjustment mechanisms to ensure the effectiveness, precision, and sustainability of the investment. On one hand, we must construct a multi-dimensional evaluation system encompassing indicators such as knowledge and skills, innovation capacity, and social adaptability. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods—and utilizing technical means such as data analysis and in-depth interviews—we can accurately measure and scientifically evaluate the effects of human capital investment, forming a panoramic diagnosis of individual competency structures, developmental potential, and degrees of organizational contribution. On the other hand, by establishing regular and irregular feedback cycles, we can calibrate individual performance with organizational goals, identify development opportunities and competency gaps, and formulate personalized intervention measures. This ensures that the allocation of human resources continuously interfaces with strategic requirements, allowing "investing in people" to be continuously optimized in accordance with the needs of economic and social development. This facilitates a "spiral rise" [5] of synergistic development between the individual and the organization, continuously strengthening organizational resilience and sustainable competitiveness.
(Authors: Sun Cunliang and Zhang Feixue are both researchers at the Beijing Center for the Study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; they are respectively the Dean and an Associate Professor of the School of Marxism at Beijing Posts and Telecommunications University) Source: Guangming Daily (October 21, 2025) Web Editor: Hui Hui