Liu Xu and Fan Xianwei: Firmly Grasp the Starting Point and Ultimate Goal of Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed that further comprehensively deepening reform must "take the promotion of social fairness and justice and the enhancement of people's wellbeing as the starting point and end point." This not only clarifies the logical point of departure for further comprehensively deepening reform but also elucidates its fundamental purpose. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Only when reform is for the people does it have meaning; only when it relies on the people does it have momentum." To deeply study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, further comprehensively deepen reform, and advance Chinese-path modernization, we must firmly grasp the starting point and end point of further comprehensively deepening reform. This ensures that the original intention, process, and results of reform align more closely with the expectations and needs of the people, continuously promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing.
Deeply understanding the great significance of promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing
The people are the creators of history and the fundamental force determining the future and destiny of the Party and the country. The fundamental purpose of our Party in uniting and leading the people to carry out revolution, construction, and reform is to enable the people to live a good life. Since the New Era began, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has integrated social development as an important component of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan. It has deepened reform by focusing closely on promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing, maintaining continuous efforts in ensuring that "the young receive childcare; the students receive education; the workers receive remuneration; the sick receive medical treatment; the elderly receive care; the residents receive housing; and the vulnerable receive support" [1]. A series of major reform measures have been introduced in areas such as income distribution, employment, education, social security, medical and health services, and housing security, making the people's sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security more substantial, better guaranteed, and more sustainable. Taking the promotion of social fairness and justice and the enhancement of people's wellbeing as the starting point and end point of further comprehensively deepening reform is a necessary requirement for upholding the fundamental purpose of serving the people whole-heartedly. It is an internal requirement for advancing and expanding Chinese-path modernization and manifests the value orientation of further comprehensively deepening reform.
A necessary requirement for upholding the fundamental purpose of serving the people whole-heartedly. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "The question of 'for whom' is the touchstone for testing the nature of a political party and a regime." Serving the people whole-heartedly is the fundamental hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other political parties. The reason our Party has gained the people's favor, and the reason socialism with Chinese characteristics has gained the people's support, is precisely because it has brought benefits to the people. The reason our Party has been able to develop and grow, and the reason socialism with Chinese characteristics has been able to continuously advance, is precisely because it has relied on the people. Seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation is the original aspiration and founding mission of Chinese Communists, as well as the original aspiration and founding mission of reform and opening up. In further comprehensively deepening reform, we must take seeking happiness for the people as the criterion for testing the effectiveness of reform, ensuring that the fruits of reform and development benefit all people more extensively and fairly.
An internal requirement for advancing and expanding Chinese-path modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese-path modernization is the undertaking of all Chinese people; we must rely closely on the people and pool the infinite wisdom and strength hidden among them." Whether the road to modernization can ultimately be successfully navigated and remain stable depends crucially on whether we adhere to a people-centered approach. By responding to the people’s yearning for a better life and striving to achieve material prosperity, clean politics, spiritual enrichment, social stability, and pleasant ecology, and by ensuring the achievements of Chinese-path modernization benefit all people more extensively and fairly, we can consolidate the majestic power to comprehensively build a modern socialist country. Further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization inevitably require pooling the infinite wisdom and strength hidden among the people. We must start by resolving the interest issues that most concern the masses and are most direct and realistic [2]. We must focus on creating a more fair and just social environment and use more reform achievements to enhance the people's wellbeing, providing Chinese-path modernization with its most reliable, profound, and lasting source of strength.
Manifesting the value orientation of further comprehensively deepening reform. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "Grasping reform and promoting development is, in the final analysis, to let the people live better lives." "For whom" and "on whom to rely" are major questions concerning the value orientation of further comprehensively deepening reform. The fundamental reason why reform and opening up received the heartfelt support and active participation of the broad masses is that we rooted the cause of reform and opening up deeply among the masses from the very beginning. Practice fully demonstrates that by firmly grasping the value orientation of reform and ensuring that reform always persists in being for the people and relying on the people, we can lead the people to push reform forward. Only by taking the promotion of social fairness and justice and the enhancement of people's wellbeing as the starting point and end point can we maintain a firm hold on our value orientation, achieve everything for the people and everything by relying on the people, ensure that "the reform responds to what the people call for" [3], and guarantee that reform is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people.
Promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing requires handling several relationships well
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must implement reform with the spirit of driving a nail [4]. We must be proactive yet steady and sound, clarify priorities, grasp the timing, degree, and effectiveness, do our best while acting within our means [5], and not deviate from reality." Further comprehensively deepening reform is a complex systematic project; promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing requires advancing reforms across all dimensions, processes, fields, and levels. In this process, we need to handle the following relationships well:
Handling the relationship between doing one’s best and acting within one’s means. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Persist in doing one's best and acting within one's means, go deep among the masses and the grassroots, take more measures that benefit people's livelihoods and warm their hearts, and focus on solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems people face." Livelihood work directly meets the people and must be settled with them; there is no room for falsehood. We must be proactive in our actions while acting within our means, fulfilling whatever promises are made. Promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing requires the dialectical unity of doing one's best and acting within one’s means. For prominent problems strongly reflected by the masses, we must exert great effort to "gnaw on the hard bones" [6], resolutely and immediately implementing reforms with greater intensity and practical measures to give the people a greater sense of fulfillment. At the same time, we must base our actions on China's basic national conditions, coordinating needs with possibilities, and building the enhancement of people's wellbeing on the foundation of economic development and financial sustainability. We must not deviate from reality or make promises that cannot be fulfilled.
Handling the relationship between reform, development, and stability. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Correctly handle the relationship between reform, development, and stability." If the intensity of reform is too great or too small, or the speed too fast or too slow, it will affect the pace of development and the degree of social endurance. To deeply implement the strategic deployments of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, we must unify the intensity of reform, the speed of development, and the degree of social endurance, taking the improvement of people's lives as the important link for correctly handling the relationship between reform, development, and stability. In promoting social fairness and justice, we must be enterprising and act immediately on what is said, identifying what the masses think, expect, worry about, and need urgently, and formulating targeted reform measures. Simultaneously, we must grasp the big picture, size up the situation, consider all factors, and implement reforms scientifically to avoid impetuous advances, handling one task after another and working year after year.
Handling the relationship between overall advancement and key breakthroughs. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that further comprehensively deepening reform "must continue to work hard on being 'comprehensive,' ensuring reform measures fully cover the prominent problems that need to be solved to advance Chinese-path modernization; it must also continue to apply force on 'deepening,' highlighting the key area of the economic system, and focusing on breaking through deep-seated institutional barriers and structural contradictions." In any work, we must apply both the "two-point theory" and the "key-point theory" [7], focusing on both overall planning and grasping the "ox's nose" [8]. Promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing involves all aspects of work; we must persist in the mutual promotion of overall advancement and key breakthroughs. We must adhere to systemic thinking, coordinating all aspects, levels, elements, and groups. We should plan reform ideas and formulate measures based on the overall, fundamental, and long-term interests of the people, being adept at "calculating the big account, the total account, and the long-term account" [9] to enhance the systematic, holistic, and synergetic nature of reform. At the same time, we must seize the key points, identifying the focus and breakthrough points for reform from the urgent needs of the people, starting from what the masses most desire and reforming where they are most dissatisfied, thus resolving the interest issues that most concern the masses and are most direct and realistic.
Ensuring the fruits of reform and development benefit all people more extensively and fairly
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "In the process of comprehensively deepening reform, when encountering complex interest issues that are difficult to weigh, we must seriously think: what is the actual situation of the masses? What exactly are the masses expecting? How can the interests of the masses be protected? Are the masses satisfied with our reform?" On the new journey, the difficulty and complexity of reform and development are unprecedented. The needs of the masses are characterized by diversification, multi-level nature, and multiple aspects. The situation for promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing is more complex, and the tasks are more arduous. We must deeply implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, find the focus and breakthrough points of reform from the focal points of public concern and the difficulties of people's lives, and transform the "problem list" of what people urgently need into a "responsibility list" and "task list" for reform. We should launch more reform measures that the people's livelihood urgently requires and that their hearts yearn for, solving problems for the masses in a down-to-earth manner, and effectively improving the accuracy, relevance, and effectiveness of reform.
Persist in reform for the people. The reform responds to what the people call for. To further comprehensively deepen reform with the starting point and end point of promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people's wellbeing, we must follow the Party's mass line in the New Era, ensuring that reform ideas and measures align with the wishes and demands of the masses. We must adhere to the principle of "from the masses, to the masses," maintaining the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the people at all times. We must understand the conditions of the people, grasp their will, and take the "greatest common denominator" of public opinion as the important basis for further comprehensively deepening reform. By implementing reform measures that the people identify with and support, we ensure the scientific, fair, and feasible nature of reform measures, allowing reform to take deeper and broader root among the masses and always advance in the right direction.
Persist in reform relying on the people. The masses are the true heroes, the source of our strength, and the main subject for advancing reform. To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must unswervingly rely on the masses, respect the people's principal position and pioneering spirit, and fully mobilize their enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity. We must stimulate the people's passion for participating in reform, smooth the channels for their participation, and improve the mechanisms for their involvement. We should timely summarize the fresh experiences created by the masses, drawing nutrients from their practice and wisdom to build the broadest consensus for reform and stimulate the greatest strength for reform, continuously injecting strong momentum into further comprehensively deepening reform. We must persist in taking whether the people "support, approve, are happy with, or agree to" [10] as the basis for formulating reform policies, letting the people evaluate the effectiveness of reform.
Persist in sharing the fruits of reform with the people. The plan for people's livelihood lies in bringing peace, wealth, and joy to the people. To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must follow the laws governing the development of livelihood undertakings, always keep the safety and well-being of the masses in mind, improve the system of basic public services, and strengthen the construction of inclusive, basic, and bottom-line livelihoods. We must catch, accurately target, and firmly hold the basic bottom line of people's livelihoods, focusing on narrowing regional, urban-rural, and income gaps, and continuously promoting the equalization of basic public services. We must improve the income distribution system, the employment-first policy, and the social security system. We should deepen the reform of the medical and health system, improve the support and service system for population development, continuously expand the scope of reform beneficiaries, and solidly promote common prosperity, so that the people have a greater sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security, continuously satisfying their yearning for a better life.