Wei Fen: Enhancing People's Well-being in the Process of Advancing Chinese Modernization

Leading the people to create a happy life is the unswerving goal of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, focusing on guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods. It has united and led the people in completing the historical tasks of poverty alleviation and the comprehensive buildup of a moderately prosperous society, achieving new results in common prosperity and realizing the First Centenary Goal. Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important expositions ^[1] on guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods, providing a fundamental compliance for continuously enhancing people's well-being in the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization. The 20th Party Congress drew a grand blueprint for building a finished socialist modern country in all respects and comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization, making major deployments for enhancing people's well-being and improving their quality of life. In proposing the general goal of further comprehensively deepening reform, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out the need to focus on improving the quality of people's lives and promoting more obvious substantive progress in well-rounded human development and the common prosperity of all people, making a major deployment to "improve the institutional system for guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods." Deeply studying and grasping Xi Jinping's important expositions on guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods, and summarizing their basic connotations and core tenets, is of great significance for further comprehensively deepening reform, continuing to promote the cause of people's livelihoods, and marching toward the grand goals of basically realizing modernization and comprehensively building a great modern socialist country.

Part 1: Realizing the People's Aspiration for a Better Life is the Starting Point and Ultimate Goal of Modernization Construction

Governing a country has constant principles, and benefiting the people is the fundamental one ^[2]. Creating benefits for the people is the essential requirement of "standing for the public interest and governing for the people" ^[3]. The 20th Party Congress proposed that one of the essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization is "achieving common prosperity for all people," emphasizing that "we must persist in guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods in the course of development, encourage common struggle to create a better life, and continuously realize the people's aspiration for a better life." Enhancing people's well-being is the fundamental purpose of development, and persisting in guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods during development is a major principle of the CPC's governance that must be upheld over the long term.

Guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods is the essential manifestation of the Party's nature and purpose. The CPC is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, and at the same time, the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. It represents the fundamental interests of the broadest possible range of the Chinese people. Since the day of its founding, it has taken seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its original aspiration and founding mission. The Party takes serving the people wholeheartedly as its fundamental purpose for building the Party and always insists that the interests of the people are above all else. The Party's entire task and responsibility is to realize, maintain, and develop the interests of the masses well. Times change and history moves forward, but the Party's nature and purpose will not change. No matter the time, we must adhere to the people's standpoint, persist in the principal status of the people, learn humbly from the people, listen to the people's voice, draw on the people's wisdom, and "ask the people about their needs, ask the people for their advice, and ask the people about the effectiveness of policies" ^[4]. We must take whether the people support, approve, and agree as the fundamental standard for measuring the success or failure of all work. Only by winning the trust, advocacy, and support of the masses can the CPC remain invincible.

Guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods in the course of development is a major task of Chinese-path modernization. The report to the 20th Party Congress clearly put forward the mission and tasks of the CPC on the new journey in the New Era: that is, to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the country to comprehensively build a great modern socialist country, realize the Second Centenary Goal, and comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization. Compared to the modernization of Western countries with relatively small populations, and the social wealth polarization and extreme inequality in the process of Western modernization, Chinese-path modernization possesses Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions. On the one hand, it is the modernization of a huge population. China's more than 1.4 billion people are collectively moving into a modern society—a scale exceeding the sum of the populations of all existing developed countries—presenting unprecedented difficulty and complexity. On the other hand, it is the modernization of common prosperity for all people. It persists in taking the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and ultimate goal of modernization construction, focusing on maintaining and promoting social fairness and justice, promoting common prosperity for all people, and resolutely preventing polarization. Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Whether the road to modernization can eventually be successfully and steadily traversed depends crucially on whether one persists in being people-centered. Modernization should not only look at indicator data on paper, but more importantly, at the happiness and well-being of the people." Chinese-path modernization must not only create more material and spiritual wealth but also realize the material abundance and spiritual enrichment of all people, stimulate the creativity of the whole society, and promote well-rounded human development. These Chinese characteristics dictate that the developmental path and advancement methods of Chinese-path modernization must inevitably have their own characteristics. The CPC upholds the concept of the "supremacy of the people" ^[5], anchors itself to the people's aspiration for a better life, and adapts to the people's longing for civilizational progress, allowing modernization to better respond to the people's various demands and multi-level needs, thus demonstrating the popular and equitable nature of Chinese-path modernization.

Guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods is an inevitable requirement for implementing the new development philosophy. The report to the 20th Party Congress pointed out: "Implementing the new development philosophy is the path we must take for our country's development and growth in the New Era." Seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation is both the starting point and ultimate goal of the Party's leadership in modernization construction, as well as the "root" and "soul" of the new development philosophy. Within the new development philosophy, "shared development" focuses on solving problems of social fairness and justice; its essence is adhering to the people-centered development philosophy, embodying the requirement of gradually achieving common prosperity. Xi Jinping pointed out: "When proposing the new development philosophy, I emphasized that sharing is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must persist in development for the people, development by the people, and development shared by the people, making more effective institutional arrangements so that all people have a greater sense of gain in the process of joint construction and sharing, thereby strengthening development momentum, increasing the unity of the people, and advancing steadily toward the direction of common prosperity." Implementing shared development boils down to two levels: first, mobilizing the strength of the whole people to advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics to continuously make the "cake" bigger; second, dividing the increasingly large "cake" well, so that the superiority of the socialist system is more fully reflected, the masses have a greater sense of gain, and all people advance steadily toward common prosperity. We must never allow a situation where "the wealthy accumulate tens of millions while the poor eat husks and chaff" ^[6]. In implementing the new development philosophy, the greatest beneficiaries are the people, and the greatest momentum comes from the people. If there is no development or if development is poor, the people will not be satisfied or agreeable. Only by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and truly making development results benefit the broadest range of people can we promote the realization of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development.

Guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods is the ultimate goal of promoting high-quality development. The basic feature of China's current economic development is the transition from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, placing it in a key period of transforming the development mode, optimizing the economic structure, and shifting growth drivers. High-quality development is both a stage of development and the primary task for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. In March 2021, while attending the deliberation of the Qinghai delegation at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress, Xi Jinping pointed out: "High-quality development is not just an economic requirement, but a general requirement for all aspects of economic and social development." He added, "We must always keep the fundamental interests of the broadest possible range of people in mind, unswervingly enhance people's well-being, and closely integrate high-quality development with meeting the people's needs for a better life, promoting the organic integration and mutual reinforcement of prioritizing ecology, promoting high-quality development, and creating high-quality life." During the 2023 "Two Sessions" ^[7], while deliberating with the Jiangsu delegation at the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress, Xi Jinping deeply explained the basic principles and priority tasks of high-quality development, pointing out that "the happiness and well-being of the people is the ultimate goal of promoting high-quality development," and clearly putting forward the "Four Musts" requirement, which includes the point that "we must take meeting the people's growing needs for a better life as the starting point and ultimate goal." The positioning of "ultimate goal" and "starting point and ultimate goal" profoundly reveals the intrinsic link between promoting high-quality development and the people's better life. High-quality development is the foundation and prerequisite for guaranteeing and improving livelihoods, while the latter is the fundamental purpose of the former. At the same time, achieving fuller and higher-quality employment, increasing income levels, and improving the social security system helps stabilize social expectations, expand the middle-income group, and form a huge domestic market demand, providing inexhaustible momentum for high-quality development. To promote high-quality economic and social development, we must take guaranteeing and improving livelihoods as the starting point and ultimate goal, highlighting the need to patch up shortcomings, solve difficult problems, and provide a bottom-line safety net ^[8]. We must speed up the resolution of the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, continuously transform development results into quality of life, and ensure all people share the fruits of reform and development.

Part 2: Deeply Understanding the Ideological Connotations of Xi Jinping's Important Expositions on Guaranteeing and Improving People's Livelihoods

Since the 18th Party Congress, Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important expositions concerning the major significance, guiding ideology, principles and ideas, and goals and tasks of guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods. These constitute major theoretical innovations regarding livelihood construction by the CPC in the New Era and are important components of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. They provide the fundamental compliance for comprehensively implementing the Party Central Committee's series of major strategic deployments regarding livelihood guarantee work, for putting the realization, maintenance, and development of the fundamental interests of the broadest range of people into practice, and for advancing the process of Chinese-path modernization.

Ideological Guidance: Adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, allowing the fruits of modernization to benefit all people more extensively and fairly. "Development for the people" is the fundamental standpoint of Marxist political economy. Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "Only by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy—insisting on development for the people, development by the people, and development shared by the people—can there be a correct view of development and modernization." The report to the 20th Party Congress explicitly identified "adhering to the people-centered development philosophy" as one of the five major principles that must be firmly grasped on the road ahead. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee listed "adhering to the people-centered approach" as one of the six major principles to be implemented in further comprehensively deepening reform. Regarding how to understand the people-centered development philosophy, Xi Jinping provided a profound explanation, pointing out that this "is not an abstract or cryptic concept; it cannot remain merely as a slogan or stop at the ideological level, but must be reflected in every link of economic and social development." People's livelihoods are connected to the people's hearts; when livelihoods are stable, hearts are steady, and society is stable. Currently, the macro environment and internal conditions facing livelihood work are undergoing changes. From a macro-environmental perspective, China's reform, development, and stability still face many deep-seated contradictions. The triple pressures of shrinking demand, supply shocks, and weakening expectations remain significant, the foundation for economic recovery is not yet solid, and various "black swan" or "gray rhino" ^[9] factors could occur at any time. From the perspective of internal conditions, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has transformed into the contradiction between the people's growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The people's aspiration for a better life is more intense, and their needs exhibit diversified and multi-level characteristics, with expectations for better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory incomes, more reliable social security, higher-level medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, a more beautiful environment, and a richer spiritual and cultural life. Facing new situations, tasks, and requirements, the development of the cause of people's livelihoods must adapt to new changes, understand the needs of the masses in a timely manner, actively respond to their expectations, solve the livelihood difficulties faced in the New Era, and properly address the most immediate and realistic interest problems that concern the people most, thereby continuously satisfying the people's aspiration for a better life.

Action Guarantee: Adhere to the leadership of the CPC and give play to the advantage of the socialist system in "pooling resources to accomplish major undertakings." The key to doing China's affairs well lies in the Party. It is precisely because of the CPC's leadership and the significant advantages of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics that China has been able to create the "two miracles" of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, both rare in the world. Xi Jinping pointed out that...

“Whether we can successfully steer the world's second-largest economy, and whether we can maintain sustained and healthy economic and social development, depends fundamentally on how well the Party’s role as the leadership core in economic and social development is brought into play.” The Party’s leadership is the political guarantee for securing and improving people’s livelihoods. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's national systems and state governance system always represent the fundamental interests of the broadest possible majority of the people, ensure that the people act as masters of the country, and reflect the collective will of the people. This provides the fundamental guarantee for continuously securing and improving livelihoods, ensuring all people share in the fruits of reform and development, and unswervingly following the path toward common prosperity. In the process of securing and improving livelihoods, the CPC sets the direction, plans the overall situation, formulates policies, and promotes reforms. It meticulously carries out top-level design, formulating a series of policies, laws, and regulations to safeguard and improve people's lives. It has led the broad masses in implementing concrete livelihood measures, achieving great victories in the fight against poverty and the comprehensive buildup of a moderately prosperous society ^[10]. It successfully resisted the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to people’s lives, significantly enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security regarding their livelihoods.

The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the institutional support for securing and improving livelihoods. It possesses extraordinary capacity for organizational mobilization, overall coordination, and implementation. It can give full play to the unique advantage of "concentrating resources to accomplish major, difficult, and urgent tasks," serving as the fundamental guarantee for resisting risks and challenges and improving national governance efficiency. Under the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the CPC concentrates the society’s talent, capital, and technical resources, mobilizing the strength of the whole nation to form a shared will across regions, departments, and units. By taking collective action, it ensures that livelihood undertakings continuously achieve new successes. To advance livelihood causes on the New Journey, we must unswervingly uphold the Party’s leadership and leverage the significant advantages of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must unite people of all ethnic groups around common goals for livelihood construction, pool strength from all sectors, and mobilize all resources. With unity of heart and mind from top to bottom, we will accomplish more practical deeds for the people's well-being and continuously push forward the modernization characterized by common prosperity for all. At the same time, in the process of promoting high-quality development, the fields of China's development are constantly expanding, the division of labor is becoming increasingly complex, and the forms of development are becoming more advanced. This places higher demands on the Party’s ability and level of leadership over livelihood undertakings. Whether analyzing the situation, making decisions, breaking through developmental bottlenecks, or resolving issues involving the interests of the masses, the CPC must leverage its political advantages, establish a strategic vision, more consciously apply rule-of-law thinking and methods, innovate the systems and mechanisms of livelihood work, and promptly resolve the practical interest concerns of the masses.

Goal of Struggle: Continually Promoting More Obvious and Substantive Progress in Achieving Common Prosperity for All People.

“The way to govern a country begins with enriching the people” ^[11]. Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism and an important feature of Chinese-path modernization. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has grasped new changes in the developmental stage, placing the gradual realization of common prosperity for all in a more prominent position. By promoting coordinated regional development, winning the battle against poverty, and comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society, they have created favorable conditions for promoting common prosperity. Completing the building of a moderately prosperous society and shaking off the "poverty label" is not the finish line, but the starting point for a new life and a new struggle. The "Proposal" for the 14th Five-Year Plan adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, when discussing the 2035 Long-Range Objectives for basically achieving socialist modernization, proposed that "more obvious and substantive progress be made in the common prosperity of all people." When discussing improving the quality of people’s lives, it highlighted "solidly promoting common prosperity" and put forward several important requirements and major measures. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress profoundly expounded on five aspects of the Chinese characteristics of Chinese-path modernization, one of which is "the modernization of common prosperity for all people." It included "achieving common prosperity for all people" as one of the essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization and made "more obvious and substantive progress in well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all" a key part of China's overall development goals for 2035. We have now reached the historical stage of solidly promoting common prosperity.

Entering the new stage of development, to solidly promote common prosperity, we must always take meeting the people’s new expectations for a better life as the starting point and end goal of our development, and resolve this issue continuously and gradually throughout the process of modernization. Xi Jinping has pointed out that achieving common prosperity is not only an economic issue but also a major political issue concerning the Party's governing foundation. We must holistically consider both needs and possibilities, proceeding step-by-step according to the laws of economic and social development. We must consciously and proactively resolve regional disparities, urban-rural gaps, and income gaps, while continuously enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security. In the process of achieving common prosperity, greater emphasis must be placed on tilting resources toward rural areas, primary-level communities, and underdeveloped regions, as well as toward groups in difficulty. This will promote social fairness and justice, ensuring that the fruits of development benefit all people more extensively and equitably. At the same time, we must soberly recognize that common prosperity is a long-term goal that requires a process. Because the development foundations and conditions vary across regions, not everyone will become wealthy at the same time, nor will all regions reach the same level of affluence simultaneously. Different groups will not only reach different degrees of prosperity but will also do so at different times. There will still be certain differences in the degree of affluence between regions; it is impossible for everyone to advance at the same pace. We must have a full understanding of the long-term, arduous, and complex nature of this task. This is a process of forward movement in dynamic equilibrium. We must persist in gradual progress, deeply study the goals for different stages, encourage various localities to explore effective paths based on local conditions, summarize experiences, and gradually expand implementation.

Principles and Ideas: Properly Handling the Relationship Between Economic Development and Securing Livelihoods; Doing Our Utmost While Acting Within Our Means.

To persist in securing and improving livelihoods during the course of development, we must maintain development as the "top priority" ^[12], effectively mobilizing various elements of economic development to provide a solid material foundation for livelihood construction. At the same time, securing and improving livelihoods is conducive to expanding internal demand, accelerating the construction of the "dual circulation" new development pattern, and promoting development that is higher quality, more efficient, more equitable, and more sustainable. Xi Jinping noted, “High-quality development requires high-quality laborers. Only by promoting common prosperity, increasing the income of urban and rural residents, and upgrading human capital can we improve total factor productivity and consolidate the dynamic foundation for high-quality development.” Livelihoods are linked to development; focusing on livelihoods is also focusing on development. Given the current situation of increasing downward pressure on the economy, we must fully recognize the importance of securing and improving livelihoods for stabilizing the economy. We must earnestly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and employ greater efforts and more substantive measures to secure and improve livelihoods, keeping economic operations within a reasonable range.

Development must respond to the people's expectations and allow the masses to obtain actual benefits. Of course, livelihoods divorced from economic development are a castle in the air; livelihoods that exceed the stage of economic development are even more unsustainable. We must grasp the dialectical unity between livelihoods and economic development to achieve a virtuous cycle between the two. Regarding how to realize a virtuous cycle of economic development and livelihood improvement, Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: “We must both continuously increase the intensity of securing livelihoods on the basis of economic development and avoid making promises that are difficult to fulfill by departing from our financial capacity.” He added, “We must both do our utmost and act within our means, doing those things that can be achieved under realistic conditions so that the masses receive visible and tangible benefits. We must never write 'empty checks,' and we must also prevent whetting the people's appetite too much, otherwise we will lose the people's trust.” This suggests that improving livelihoods requires handling the dialectical relationship between doing one's utmost and acting within one's means. On the one hand, we must do our utmost to improve livelihoods to the maximum extent possible within the bearable range of economic development, using greater force and more substantive measures so the masses have a greater sense of gain. On the other hand, we must act within our means, respecting the inherent laws of livelihood improvement and economic development themselves. We must prevent the issuance of "empty checks" that intentionally whet the masses' appetite and avoid falling into the "high-welfare trap." China remains in, and will long remain in, the primary stage of socialism ^[13]. The securing and improvement of livelihoods cannot set excessively high goals that depart from this greatest reality. We must follow the work approach of "guarding the baseline, highlighting key points, perfecting systems, and guiding expectations." The focus should be on strengthening basic, inclusive, and "bottom-line" (safety net) livelihood security, doing more key livelihood work that "provides charcoal in the snow" ^[14], and guiding and encouraging the masses to improve their lives through diligent work and achieving wealth through labor.

Part 3: Coordinating the Promotion of Key Livelihood Tasks

To better meet the expectations of the masses and to effectively realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest possible majority of the people, we must take Xi Jinping's important expositions on securing and improving livelihoods as our guide. We must deeply implement the people-centered development philosophy, adopt more measures that benefit the people and warm their hearts, and focus on resolving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems that the masses worry about. We must coordinately advance work in key livelihood fields such as income distribution, employment, social security, and medical care. Continuous efforts should be made in ensuring that "children have childcare, students have education, workers have rewards, the sick have treatment, the elderly have care, residents have housing, and the weak have support" ^[15]. On the New Journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, we will continuously fulfill the people’s aspirations for a better life.

Perfecting the distribution system and consolidating the foundational system for promoting common prosperity.

Institutional issues are more fundamental, holistic, stable, and long-term. Xi Jinping pointed out, "The distribution system is a foundational system for promoting common prosperity." To achieve common prosperity for all people, we must first "make the cake bigger and better" through the collective struggle of the nation's people, and then "cut and distribute the cake well" through rational institutional arrangements and the construction of a reasonable distribution pattern. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress clarified the goals and requirements for perfecting the distribution system, stating: "We will persist in distribution according to work as the mainstay while allowing multiple distribution modes to coexist, and build an institutional system in which primary distribution, redistribution, and tertiary distribution are coordinated and integrated." The systems of primary, redistribution, and tertiary distribution have different functions and roles in promoting common prosperity, and the three are both closely linked and distinct from one another. Specifically, primary distribution is the foundation, redistribution is the guarantee, and tertiary distribution is the supplement. The coordination of these three levels of distribution creates a "three-wheel drive" involving the market, the government, and society to achieve common prosperity.

Currently, to solidly promote common prosperity by perfecting the distribution system, we must: First, reform the primary distribution system to raise the income levels of low- and middle-income groups. We should give play to the foundational role of primary distribution, striving to increase the share of resident income in national income distribution and the share of labor remuneration in primary distribution. We must persist in "more pay for more work," encourage wealth through diligent labor, promote equality of opportunity, increase the income of low-income earners, expand the middle-income group, and strive to form an "olive-shaped" distribution structure that is large in the middle and small at both ends. We will improve the policy system for distribution based on factors of production, distributing based on the contributions of labor, land, capital, and data in the production process, exploring multiple channels to increase the factor income of low- and middle-income masses and increasing the property income of urban and rural residents through various channels. Second, perfect the redistribution system to implement the concept of shared development. We will increase the intensity of redistribution through taxes, social security, and transfer payments. We will perfect the personal income tax system, promote the equalization of basic public services such as elderly care, medical care, housing, and social assistance, perfect the transfer payment system, regulate the order of income distribution, regulate the mechanism for wealth accumulation, protect legal income, adjust excessively high income, and ban illegal income. Third, give play to the regulatory role of tertiary distribution. We will establish and sound the mechanisms for tertiary distribution, guiding and supporting enterprises, social organizations, and individuals with the will and capability to actively participate in public welfare and charitable causes. We will create a favorable environment for the development of charity, ensuring the concept of common prosperity is deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Implementing the employment-first strategy and promoting high-quality, full employment.

Employment affects the lives of thousands of households and is the largest livelihood project, "heart project" (project involving winning the people's hearts), and foundational project. Doing a good job in stabilizing employment is vital to the people's well-being and social stability, and is related to economic development and the modernization process. The 20th CPC National Congress made important deployments for employment work, clearly proposing...

"Employment is the most fundamental aspect of people's livelihoods," which places a higher requirement on employment work to "promote high-quality and full employment." This is a goal and requirement clarified by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on a firm grasp of the periodic characteristics of our country's development and the new situation and tasks. Full employment requires exhausting all possible means to create more job opportunities and expand employment capacity. For full employment to be of high quality, we must enhance the suitability and stability of employment, steadily increase the wage income of laborers, safeguard the rights and interests of workers, and provide more reliable social security. In stabilizing employment, the primary task is to expand employment and increase the number of job positions. We must strengthen the employment-first policy, promote a virtuous cycle in which high-quality development and the expansion and improvement of employment reinforce each other, coordinate the urban and rural employment policy systems, break down institutional and mechanistic barriers hindering the mobility of labor and talent, and eliminate unreasonable restrictions affecting equal employment, so that everyone has the opportunity to achieve personal development through diligent labor.

In stabilizing employment, optimizing services is the key. We must improve the public employment service system, refine the employment support systems for key groups such as college graduates, demobilized military personnel, and migrant workers, strengthen bottom-line assistance ^[16] for groups facing difficulties in finding employment, improve labor laws and regulations, refine the mechanisms for consultation and coordination of labor relations, enhance the system for protecting the rights and interests of laborers, and strengthen the protection of rights and interests for those in flexible employment and new forms of employment. Stabilizing employment also requires focus on alleviating structural contradictions in employment. We must comprehensively improve the capacity of laborers for employment and entrepreneurship, accelerate the construction of a high-quality education system, improve the system for lifelong vocational skills training, promote the resolution of structural employment contradictions, refine the guarantee system for promoting entrepreneurship to drive employment, and support and regulate the development of new forms of employment. Deepening the integration of the digital economy and the real economy will catalyze more new industries, new formats, and new business models, nurturing diversified and multi-level employment demand and driving more laborers toward employment and entrepreneurship.

Improve the multi-tiered social security system to provide more reliable and sufficient protection for the masses.

Social security is the basic institutional guarantee for protecting and improving people's livelihoods, maintaining social fairness, and increasing people's well-being. It is an important institutional arrangement for holding the bottom line of people's livelihoods and allowing the broad masses of the people to share in the achievements of reform and development, playing the role of a safety net for livelihood protection, a regulator of income distribution, and a shock absorber for economic operations. Our country has basically completed the construction of the world's largest social security system with social insurance as the main body, including systems for social assistance, social welfare, and social preferential treatment ^[17], laying a solid foundation for the people to create a better life and creating favorable conditions for promoting common prosperity. The report to the 20th Party Congress clarified the main objectives and tasks of our country's development for the next five years, which include making the "multi-tiered social security system more robust" and making strategic arrangements for improving the social security system. It requires "improving a multi-tiered social security system that covers the entire population, integrates urban and rural areas, is fair and unified, secure and regulated, and sustainable," pointing the way for promoting the high-quality development of social security undertakings on the new journey.

Currently, our country has embarked on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and has entered a historical stage of solidly promoting common prosperity. We must take enhancing people's well-being and promoting social fairness as the fundamental starting point and goal for developing social security undertakings, continuously meeting the multi-tiered and diversified needs of the masses. First, we must expand the coverage of social security. We should increase the intensity of redistribution, strengthen the function of mutual aid and solidarity, bring more people into the social security system, and further weave a dense social security safety net. We must improve the social security system for people in flexible employment and expand the coverage of unemployment, work-related injury, and maternity insurance. We must refine insurance assistance policies for groups in difficulty, striving to ensure that all who should be insured are insured and that the statutory population is fully covered. We should develop a multi-tiered and multi-pillar old-age insurance system, striving to ensure that the elderly have access to care, can be productive, and can enjoy their lives. Second, we must coordinate the construction of urban and rural social security systems. We should explore urban-rural integrated social security policies that adapt to large-scale population mobility. We must strengthen the connection between urban and rural social security systems, gradually narrow the gap in funding and benefit levels between employees and residents and between cities and the countryside, and gradually increase the basic pension levels for urban and rural residents. Third, we must enhance the fairness and unity of the social security system. We should give full play to the important function of social security as an income distribution regulator and improve the national coordination system for basic old-age insurance. We must improve the funding and benefit adjustment mechanisms for basic old-age and basic medical insurance and promote provincial-level coordination for basic medical, unemployment, and work-related injury insurance. We must accelerate the improvement of a unified national social insurance public service platform and enhance the level of equalization and convenience of public social insurance services. Fourth, we must improve the regulatory system for social security funds. We must severely crack down on illegal acts such as insurance fraud, illegal claims, or the misappropriation and embezzlement of various social security funds, safeguarding every cent of the "pension money," "life-saving money," "assistance funds," and "charity funds" of the masses.

Promote the "Healthy China" initiative to provide all-round, lifecycle protection for people's health.

Xi Jinping pointed out that "the most important indicator of modernization is the health of the people, which is the foundation of a happy life for the people." Since the 18th Party Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed the protection of people's health in an even more prominent position, elevating "Healthy China" to a national strategy and focusing on solving the global problem of medical reform. The framework for a basic medical and health system with Chinese characteristics has been basically established, and the health status of the people and the fairness and accessibility of basic medical and health services have continued to improve. With the continuous improvement of economic and social development levels and people's living standards, the masses have attached more importance to the quality of life and health security, and health needs have begun to exhibit diversified and differentiated characteristics. The masses not only demand access to doctors and good medical treatment but also hope to avoid illness or fall ill less frequently, to feel more comfortable when seeking medical treatment, and to have more attentive services. They hold higher expectations for the government to guarantee people's health and provide basic hygiene and health services.

At the National Health and Wellness Conference, Xi Jinping proposed the goal and task of "accelerating the promotion of the Healthy China initiative and striving to provide all-round, lifecycle protection for people's health." The "all-round, lifecycle" concept is a major innovation in health management. It emphasizes taking the human life cycle as the main line, providing continuous health management and services for different stages from infancy to old age, and conducting comprehensive governance of factors affecting health. It requires preventing and controlling major diseases from the source, achieving a shift from being "treatment-centered" to "health-centered."

To protect people's health in an all-round, lifecycle manner, we must implement the principle of "prevention first" and innovate mechanisms and working methods. Targeting the main health problems and influencing factors of urban and rural residents, we should focus on key populations, optimize prevention and control strategies for major diseases, extensively carry out health actions jointly built and shared by the whole people, advocate for civilized, healthy, green, and environmentally friendly lifestyles, emphasize mental health and psychological hygiene, and promote the inheritance, innovation, and development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), utilizing its unique advantages in "treating diseases before they occur" ^[18]. We must use reform and innovation as a driver to continuously deepen the reform of the medical and health system and promote the coordinated development and governance of medical insurance, medical services, and pharmaceuticals. We must promote the expansion of high-quality medical resources and their balanced regional distribution, strengthen the health management of major chronic diseases, and improve the disease prevention, treatment, and health management capabilities at the grassroots level. We must deepen the reform of public hospitals with a public-interest orientation and regulate the development of private hospitals. We should expand and strengthen the medical and health workforce, focusing the priority of work on rural areas and communities. We must take safety as the bottom line and weave a dense public health protection net. We should innovate mechanisms for coordination and integration between medical treatment and disease prevention, improve the public health system, and strengthen the construction of major epidemic prevention and control systems and emergency response capabilities. We must aim for an elderly-friendly society and actively respond to population aging. We should implement the national strategy for actively responding to population aging, develop elderly care undertakings and industries, optimize services for solitary and widowed elderly people, and promote the realization of basic elderly care services for all seniors. Finally, we must optimize the strategy for population development, establish a birth support policy system, and reduce the costs of childbirth, parenting, and education.