Liu Zhichang: Comprehensively Grasp the Core Essentials and Practical Paths of Xi Jinping’s Important Expositions on High-Quality Life
"Chinese-path modernization prioritizes people’s livelihoods." Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered numerous important speeches regarding the guarantee and improvement of people’s livelihoods and the elevation of the quality of people’s lives. The fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China contains a series of important works, including reports, speeches, articles, and instructions issued by General Secretary Xi Jinping between May 27, 2022, and December 20, 2024. The ninth section specifically addresses the important discourse on "implementing the people-centered development philosophy and continuously improving the quality of people’s lives." Earnestly studying and profoundly grasping General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourse on high-quality life—including its significant implications, basic connotations, and practical paths—is of vital importance for advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation in the New Era. This is especially true for creating a high-quality life through the promotion of high-quality development, thereby facilitating the well-rounded development of individuals and comprehensive social progress.
I. Profoundly Understanding the Great Significance of Creating a High-Quality Life
In March 2018, while participating in a deliberation with the Chongqing delegation at the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping first proposed the epochal proposition of "striving to promote high-quality development and create high-quality life." In August of the same year, President Xi Jinping mentioned "high-quality life" again in a congratulatory letter to the first China International Intelligence Industry Expo. The creation of a high-quality life subsequently became a focal point of attention across all sectors of society. Provinces and municipalities such as Chongqing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Qinghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu successively began practical explorations into creating a high-quality life.
Regarding its significance, the creation of a high-quality life aligns with the internal requirements of the shift in the principal contradiction of society [1]. It serves as a major goal for social development following the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society [2] and is an inevitable requirement for upholding the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission.
1. Creating a high-quality life is an inevitable requirement for upholding the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission
First, the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission are to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. The Communist Party of China is the party of the people and a party that serves the people.
"As soon as it was born, the Communist Party of China established seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its original aspiration and founding mission." In modern times, the Chinese nation faced two great historical tasks: striving for national independence and people's liberation, and achieving national prosperity and people's happiness. The former required opposing imperialism and feudal rule to establish a nation-state in the modern sense; the latter required catching up comprehensively with the levels of modern Western countries to achieve modernization. As a proletarian party, the CPC has, since the day of its founding, linked its historical mission with the destiny of the broadest masses of the Chinese people. It has taken seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its original aspiration and founding mission, and national prosperity and people’s happiness as its goals. It has always represented the fundamental interests of the broadest possible majority of the Chinese people, consistently adhered to the fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people, and steadfastly maintained the people-centered development philosophy. It insists that development is for the people, relies on the people, and that its fruits are shared by the people.
Second, the Party promotes reform and development to improve the quality of people’s lives. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal. Pursuing reform and promoting development are, in the final analysis, for the sake of letting the people lead better lives." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, to enable the people to lead happy lives and centering on the goals of national prosperity and people’s happiness, our Party proposed the "Four Modernizations" [3] as the objective of socialist construction. Following the launch of Reform and Opening-up, our Party further proposed the strategic goal of building a modern socialist country. The 13th National Congress of the CPC proposed the "three-step" development strategy: the first step was to solve the problem of clothing and food (the wenbao [4] level); the second step was to reach a "moderately prosperous" (xiaokang) level of living by the end of the 20th century; the third step was for the people to be relatively affluent and for modernization to be basically realized by the mid-21st century. The 15th National Congress made a new "three-step" strategic arrangement for the first 50 years of the 21st century, proposing that by 2010, "the moderately prosperous life of the people should be even more ample." The 16th National Congress further proposed "building a higher-level moderately prosperous society in all respects that benefits over one billion people." The 18th National Congress set the strategic goal of comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society, clarifying specific objectives for the "comprehensive improvement of people's living standards." The 19th and 20th National Congresses made a "two-step" strategic arrangement for the 30 years after 2020: namely, that by 2035, socialist modernization is basically realized; and by the mid-21st century, China is built into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful. This clarified the development goals of "people's lives being more happy and beautiful" by 2035 and "people enjoying a more happy and healthy life" by the mid-21st century.
Finally, promoting the well-rounded development of the individual is our Party's goal. The free and well-rounded development of the individual is the highest realm of human development, the fundamental value objective of Marxism, and the essential characteristic of a communist society. The CPC is a Marxist party that serves the people, unifying the lofty ideal of communism with the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and taking the promotion of comprehensive social progress and the well-rounded development of the individual as its goal. A high-quality life is the basic condition for the well-rounded development of the individual and reflects the value orientation of such development. Without a high-quality life, there can be no well-rounded development of the individual. Marx and Engels pointed out: "People cannot be liberated as long as they are unable to obtain food and drink, housing and clothing in adequate quality and quantity." General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes "continuously promoting the well-rounded development of the individual." He points out that "Chinese-path modernization is a modernization that coordinates material and spiritual civilizations," and that we must "continuously consolidate the material conditions for the happy lives of the people, while vigorously developing advanced socialist culture, strengthening education in ideals and convictions, inheriting Chinese civilization, and promoting the comprehensive abundance of material things and the well-rounded development of people." The 20th National Congress of the CPC explicitly proposed the development goal that by 2035, "more obvious and substantive progress will be made in the well-rounded development of the individual and the common prosperity of all people."
2. Creating a high-quality life is an important goal for social development in the New Era
Improving people’s livelihoods is the focus of social construction, and creating a high-quality life is the new mission for such work in the New Era.
First, high-quality life represents the people’s pursuit of a better life. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the development goals and living conditions of our people have progressed from solving the problem of food and clothing to achieving "overall moderate prosperity" and then to "comprehensive moderate prosperity." High-quality life is the new goal pursued by the people after the elimination of absolute poverty and the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society; it is also a major objective for China's social development in the New Era. With economic and social development, the people’s needs for a better life are growing daily.
In July 2017, in a speech at the opening ceremony of a workshop for provincial and ministerial-level leading officials, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "After nearly 40 years of development since Reform and Opening-up, the level of China's social productive forces has significantly improved; the people’s lives have improved remarkably, and their aspiration for a better life has grown even stronger." In October 2022, during an inspection in Yan'an, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The first of the Two Centenary Goals has been achieved, absolute poverty has been resolved, and our fellow villagers are leading good lives, but we must continue to move forward and make life better and better." General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized the goal of a better life, pointing the direction for social development in the New Era.
Second, China has reached the developmental stage of creating a high-quality life. Creating a high-quality life is a stage-specific development goal of the New Era. According to the strategic arrangements of the 13th National Congress, in 1987, China completed the first step of the "three-step" development strategy, doubling the GNP compared to 1980 and basically solving the problem of food and clothing three years ahead of schedule. In 1995, China achieved the goal of doubling the GNP again, completing the second step of the strategy five years ahead of schedule; on this basis, the goal of "overall moderate prosperity" was realized in 2000. By the end of 2020, China had eliminated absolute poverty. In July 2021, at the ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping declared that we had "comprehensively built a moderately prosperous society on the land of China." In response to the people’s new expectations for a better life, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core clearly proposed the development goal of creating a "high-quality life." High-quality life is the new stage-specific development goal for improving the people's standard of living following the resolution of the wenbao problem and the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society.
3. Creating a high-quality life aligns with the internal requirements of the shift in the principal contradiction of society
As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters the New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved from the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production to the contradiction between the people’s growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. This is a historic change affecting the overall situation, which inevitably brings about a historic adjustment of major tasks and development goals.
First, since Reform and Opening-up, with the continuous improvement of social productive forces and the gradual perfection of the socialist market economy, China's social production capacity has moved to the global forefront in many respects. The era of a shortage economy that existed since the founding of the PRC has ended. The domestic market has moved from scarcity to ease and then to abundance, with a vast total volume of commodities, diverse varieties, and improved quality.
Second, with sustained economic and social development, the living standards of urban and rural residents have leaped forward. Since Reform and Opening-up, China has moved from gradually solving food and clothing issues to entering a moderately prosperous society in all respects, with comprehensive improvements in people’s lives. China's per capita GDP has grown from 385 yuan in 1978 to 95,749 yuan in 2024 (equivalent to 13,303 USD in 2024). Income and consumption levels of urban and rural residents have continued to rise; the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents rose from 343 yuan and 134 yuan in 1978 to 54,188 yuan and 23,119 yuan in 2024, respectively. Per capita consumption expenditures for urban and rural residents rose from 311 yuan and 116 yuan in 1978 to 34,557 yuan and 19,280 yuan in 2024, respectively.
The educational level of residents has continuously improved, life expectancy is higher than the world average, and social security levels have greatly increased. A social security system covering both urban and rural residents has been basically established, and livelihood protection systems such as social assistance and social welfare have become more refined. At the same time, the people’s need for a high-quality life is growing daily. The needs of the masses exhibit characteristics of diversification, multi-layeredness, and multifacetedness. Not only have higher requirements been placed on material and cultural life, but demands for democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment are also growing. The scope of the people’s need for a better life is expanding, and its level is rising. The overall demand is shifting from "whether there is enough" (you mei you) to "how good it is" (hao bu hao). This requires us to adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, focus on solving the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development, continuously improve people's well-being, and sustainedly elevate the quality of people’s lives.
II. Accurately Grasping the Basic Connotation of High-Quality Life
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important speeches centered on a better life and improving the quality of people’s lives.
In November 2012, while meeting Chinese and foreign journalists as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal." In October 2015, in a speech at a dinner hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, President Xi Jinping noted: "What the Chinese people want is a better life." In August 2021, in a speech at the 21st meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, General Secretary Xi Jinping noted the need to "promote high-quality development and create high-quality life through high-level protection, striving to build a Beautiful China where humanity and nature coexist in harmony." In October 2022, the 20th National Congress of the CPC made arrangements centered on "improving the people’s well-being and raising the quality of life." In March 2023, while participating in a deliberation with the Jiangsu delegation at the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "the happiness and health of the people are the ultimate goals of promoting high-quality development." The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese-path Modernization, deliberated and adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, proposed "seven focuses" for further comprehensively deepening reform, one important aspect of which is "focusing on improving the people's quality of life." General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on the "better life" and "promoting high-quality development and creating high-quality life" clarify the fundamental connotation of high-quality life. The Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, clearly identifies "the continuous improvement of the people's quality of life" as a primary goal for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
What kind of life constitutes a high-quality life? From the perspective of measurement, high-quality life is the better life of higher standards that the people yearn for and expect; from the perspective of content, high-quality life encompasses the entirety of life, including material life and spiritual-cultural life, and is the better life created within the process of Chinese-path modernization; from the perspective of evaluation standards, high-quality life is a state of life in which the people’s needs for a better life are fully satisfied, characterized by a strong sense of gain, happiness, and security.
1. High-quality life is the better life that the people yearn for and expect
From the perspective of measurement, high-quality life is the better life the people expect, and is a life that is constantly developing and ascending through the people’s pursuit of excellence. Understood intuitively, high-quality life is "high quality" in that, level-wise, it is a life above general standards or average degrees; in terms of connotation, it is a life where material, spiritual, and cultural needs are fully met. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Our people love life and expect better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher levels of medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. They hope that children can grow up better, work better, and live better. The people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal." The "ten betters" described by General Secretary Xi Jinping depict the better life the people yearn for and clarify the basic meaning of high-quality life. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Public Services, jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, proposed national standards for public services in areas such as "care for the young, education for the studious, pay for the industrious, medical care for the sick, support for the elderly, housing for the living, and aid for the weak" [5]. Simultaneously, it proposed long-term goals of "excellent care for the young, quality education for the studious, generous pay for the industrious, expert medical care for the sick, elegant support for the elderly, pleasant housing for the living, and universal aid for the weak," providing a preliminary blueprint for a better life. High-quality life falls within the category of a "better life"; it is a high-level manifestation of a better life and a relatively clear and concrete developmental goal. Looking at the changes and development in the living standards and quality of life of our people, high-quality life is a superior existence built upon the foundation of a moderately prosperous [6] level of living. High-quality life is characterized by better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher levels of medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. The pursuit and realization of high-quality life is a dynamic, practical process; its standards are not static but change dynamically, evolving alongside economic and social development as a continuously ascending "better life."
2. High-quality life is the better life created in the process of Chinese-path modernization
From the perspective of content, high-quality life is built upon a foundation of objective living conditions; the quality of life is closely related to the degree of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological-civilizational development. "Life" refers to the "various activities conducted by humans or organisms for survival and development." From the perspective of life's arenas, high-quality life encompasses the entirety of life, including both private and public spheres; from the perspective of life's domains, high-quality life includes all aspects—material life, spiritual-cultural life, and more. High-quality life is a life of both material abundance and spiritual wealth. It refers not only to the improvement of material living standards but also inherently involves the richness of spiritual life and the satisfaction of spiritual pursuits. It must satisfy the people's high-level material and cultural needs, as well as their high-level needs for equity, justice, social respect, self-actualization, and well-rounded development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The needs of the masses exhibit diverse, multi-level, and multi-faceted characteristics; they expect better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher levels of medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, a more beautiful environment, and a richer spiritual and cultural life." This exposition clarifies the primary content of the high-quality life the people pursue. Regarding living conditions and environment, high-quality life is built upon the conditions created by Chinese-path modernization. It is a modernized life created during the pursuit of goals such as high-quality development, high-efficiency governance, and high-quality employment. It is a material, spiritual, green, healthy, and "smart" life created through the coordinated advancement of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological-civilizational construction [7] in the process of Chinese-path modernization. It reflects the quantity and level of the final results of economic and social development—centered on various forms of people's well-being—that the people are able to enjoy.
3. High-quality life is a better life with a strong sense of gain, happiness, and security
From the perspective of evaluation standards, high-quality life refers to a state of life where the people's needs for a better life are fully satisfied; it is the people’s wonderful subjective experience of their objective living conditions and environment. While high-quality life is established on objective material foundations, it also manifests as the people's subjective feelings toward those conditions, embodied in the masses' continuously strengthening sense of gain, happiness, and security. In other words, both the better living conditions created by Chinese-path modernization and the people's positive perception of those conditions are essential components of high-quality life.
On March 5, 2023, while participating in the deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation at the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must take satisfying the people’s growing needs for a better life as the starting point and the ultimate goal, continuously transforming the fruits of development into quality of life, and constantly strengthening the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security." The "sense of gain" can be understood as the satisfaction an individual feels after obtaining a certain benefit or achieving a certain goal; "happiness" is an individual's level of satisfaction with their own state of life, the degree of happiness subjectively felt; "security" is an individual's stable expectation of whether their needs for survival, development, and emotional fulfillment can be met—a feeling generated based on an individual's assessment of external risks. The sense of gain, happiness, and security are subjective psychological experiences; they are an individual's perception and evaluation of their own state of life based on the objective conditions in which they find themselves, reflecting people’s overall satisfaction with life.
III. Comprehensively Advancing the Practical Path for Creating High-Quality Life
Creating high-quality life is a continuously advancing practical process. it requires us to always adhere to the people-centered philosophy of development, firmly grasp high-quality development as the primary task, strive to promote high-quality population development, work hard to improve the people's well-being, solidly promote common prosperity, and continuously enhance the people's quality of life amid the promotion of overall social progress and well-rounded human development.
1. Firmly grasp high-quality development as the primary task; create high-quality life through high-quality development
High-quality development is the primary task in comprehensively building a modern socialist country. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must firmly grasp high-quality development as the primary task and comprehensively advance Chinese-path modernization." The shift of our economy from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development is a scientific judgment made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on changes in the global economic environment and domestic factor conditions. What is high-quality development? General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "High-quality development is development that can well satisfy the people’s growing needs for a better life; it is development that embodies the New Development Philosophy; it is development where innovation is the first driver, coordination is an endogenous feature, green is the universal form, openness is the only way, and sharing is the fundamental purpose."
High-quality development and high-quality life are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. First, high-quality development is the foundation of high-quality life, providing the objective conditions for it; high-quality life is the goal of high-quality development, containing its teleological value. "Grasping reform and promoting development is, in the final analysis, for the sake of letting the people lead a better life." Second, the upgrading of demand and consumption and the accumulation of human capital brought about by high-quality life are important drivers of high-quality development. Conversely, the growth in income and the improvement in the quality of goods and services brought about by industrial upgrading and green transformation through high-quality development constitute the basic path to creating high-quality life. Creating high-quality life is the process of moving the people's lives from "whether it exists" [quantity] to "whether it is good or excellent" [quality]. The New Development Philosophy "has answered a series of theoretical and practical questions regarding the purpose, power, mode, and path of development." Guided by the concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing, high-quality development—in the process of completing the transition of drivers, the shift in modes, industrial upgrading, and structural optimization—will also demonstrate the purpose and value of development: creating high-quality life in the process of satisfying the people's growing needs for a better life.
Creating high-quality life within high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out the need to "strive to promote high-quality development and create high-quality life." In the New Era and on the new journey, striving to promote high-quality development and create high-quality life means adhering to the New Development Philosophy as a guide, accelerating the construction of the new development paradigm [8], and focusing on promoting the transformation of development modes, the optimization of economic structures, and the transition of growth drivers. It means always grasping, measuring, and promoting development through the internal unity of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing. This involves using innovation as the primary driver for development, using coordinated development to promote sustained and healthy economic and social growth, using green development to achieve sustainable development, using open development to promote national prosperity, and taking shared development and the improvement of people's well-being as the fundamental purpose of our nation's development. It means taking high-quality life as the starting point and the ultimate goal of high-quality development; increasing residents' income levels and enriching the supply of high-quality material-cultural products and public services through industrial upgrading, technological innovation, green transformation, and digital-intelligent empowerment, thereby transforming the fruits of high-quality development into high-quality life. It involves the coordinated advancement of the "Five-Sphere Integrated Plan" and the "Four Comprehensives" strategy, pushing material, political, spiritual, social, and ecological civilizations to new heights, and continuously raising the standards of material, spiritual, green, healthy, and "smart" living.
2. Use high-quality population development as a lever to enhance quality of life by promoting well-rounded human development
High-quality population development is a major strategy for population development in the New Era. High-quality population development is a scientific judgment made by General Secretary Xi Jinping regarding the current state of China's population development and is a strategy proposed to adapt to the "new normal" of population trends. The goal of high-quality population development is to "shape modern human resources with excellent quality, sufficient quantity, optimized structure, and rational distribution." Advancing high-quality population development requires that "population work shift from primarily regulating quantity to improving quality, stabilizing quantity, optimizing structure, and smoothing mobility," so as to promote the formation of excellent population quality, a moderate population size, an appropriate population structure, and a rational population distribution.
Promoting high-quality population development is an inherent requirement for promoting the all-round development of the individual. Marxism holds that human beings are the subjects of social practical activities, and the essence of social development is human development. Human development is not only an internal requirement of social development but also its ultimate manifestation. The highest realm of human development is the free and all-round development of the individual [9], which requires that, on the basis of satisfying basic needs, the multi-dimensional abilities, personality, and social relations of the individual be promoted in a synchronized manner. High-quality population development has a rich connotation: the focus is on maintaining appropriate fertility levels and population size; the core is improving the overall quality of the population. It constitutes high-quality development throughout all stages of life from birth to death; it is the all-round development of all people; and it includes development in scientific and cultural literacy, health, and ideological and moral standards. It is the unity of the entire life cycle, the entire population, and all dimensions of quality, embodying the Marxist value orientation regarding human development.
High-quality population development and high-quality development of people's lives are mutually reinforcing. High-quality population development is an important component of high-quality development. High-quality population development and high-quality lives are closely linked and mutually beneficial, internally unified within the process of high-quality development. High-quality population development is the basis and prerequisite for achieving a high-quality life; a high-quality population group is the subjective force that creates and enjoys a high-quality life, influencing the overall situation of modernization and determining the degree to which a high-quality life for the people is realized. A high-quality life is the driving force and safeguard for promoting high-quality population development; meeting the needs of the people for a high-quality life is the fundamental impetus for promoting high-quality population development. People's aspirations for a better life inspire individuals and society to invest in human capital, thereby promoting an increase in population quality. Simultaneously, a series of public policy instruments in areas such as fertility, education, employment, healthcare, and elderly care—which promote high-quality population development—can both effectively enhance human capital and directly improve people's well-being and the quality of their lives.
We must promote the synergetic development of high-quality population development and the creation of high-quality lives. High-quality population resources are an important driving force for social development. Currently, "our country has, on the whole, shifted from a stage of incremental population growth to a stage of decreasing growth" [10]. In the New Era, we must adapt to and lead the "new normal" of population development, optimize population development strategies, improve the population development support and service system, and comprehensively enhance population quality. We must use high-quality population development to create high-quality human resources, promoting the transition from a "population quantity dividend" to a "population quality dividend." We must persist in a people-centered approach, "closely combining high-quality population development with high-quality lives for the people, and closely combining 'investing in things' with 'investing in people.'" We must promote high-quality population development through reform and innovation, establishing and improving a population service system that covers the entire population and the entire life cycle. We must establish a fertility support policy system, deepen reforms in education and healthcare, optimize the allocation of human resources, and implement the national strategy for actively responding to population aging. Considerations for marriage, birth, child-rearing, education, employment, medical treatment, housing, and elderly care must be integrated as a whole. We must promote high-quality population development and create high-quality lives through the improvement of public services. We must coordinate the benign interaction between the population and the economy, society, resources, and the environment, effectively promoting the all-round development of the individual and common prosperity for all, and driving both all-round human development and comprehensive social progress.
3. Improving the quality of people’s lives while enhancing their well-being, and continuously strengthening the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security
First, prioritize the development of education and build a leading country in education. Education is of fundamental importance to the country and the Party. Building a leading country in education is a foundational project for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. We must insist on placing education in a priority position, deeply implement the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, and accelerate the construction of a high-quality education system. We must deepen comprehensive educational reforms and coordinately advance reforms in methods of cultivation, schooling models, management systems, and safeguard mechanisms. We must improve the mechanisms for "fostering virtue through education" [11], promote the integrated reform and innovation of ideological and political courses [12] across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, and improve the comprehensive cultivation system encompassing moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education. We must accelerate the high-quality, balanced development and urban-rural integration of compulsory education, strengthen the inclusive development of preschool and special education, and persist in the diversified development of senior secondary schools. We must promote the integration of vocational and general education, the integration of industry and education, and the convergence of science and education, optimizing the categorical positioning of vocational education. We must optimize the layout of higher education, advance the reform of universities by category, accelerate the construction of "double first-class" [13] universities and disciplines, and realize the intensive development of higher education. We must promote the digitalization of education and build a learning society and a learning nation where lifelong learning is available to all.
Second, implement the employment-first strategy and promote high-quality full employment. Employment is the foundation of the people's livelihood. At the macro level, high-quality full employment is characterized by "sufficient employment opportunities, a fair employment environment, an optimized employment structure, efficient matching between people and positions, and harmonious labor relations." At the micro level, it is characterized by "laborers not only having work to do, but also having stable jobs, reasonable income, reliable protection, and occupational safety." Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has persisted in placing employment work in a prominent position in the governance of the country, achieving relatively full employment and providing important support for the improvement of people's livelihoods and economic development. The 20th CPC National Congress scientifically grasped the new changes in the employment situation and made major deployments to promote high-quality full employment. Currently, the pressure to stabilize growth and employment persists, and improving employment quality is an urgent desire of laborers. On the new journey in the New Era, we must take high-quality full employment as our goal and the employment-first strategy as our guide. Based on new trends in economic and social development and the people's new expectations for a high-quality life, we must develop new points of employment growth and push high-quality development to drive an increase in the quality and volume of employment. We must promote the connection between the supply and demand of human resources and resolve structural employment contradictions. We must improve the public employment service system, enhance the employment support system for key groups, and strengthen the "bottom-line" [14] assistance for groups in difficulty. We must $deepen the reform of employment systems and mechanisms, improve systems and mechanisms that promote equality of opportunity, clear the channels for social mobility, improve the consultation and coordination mechanisms for labor relations, and strengthen the protection of laborers' rights and interests.
Third, improve the social security system and fortify the social safety net. The social security system is a safety net for people's livelihoods and a stabilizer for society. We must further improve a multi-tiered social security system that covers the entire population, coordinates urban and rural areas, is fair and unified, is secure and standardized, and is sustainable. We must improve social security systems for people in flexible employment, migrant workers, and those in new forms of employment, expanding the coverage of unemployment, work-related injury, and maternity insurance. We must completely abolish household registration restrictions for participating in social insurance programs at the place of employment and improve policies for the transfer and continuation of social security relations. We must improve the national unified management system for basic old-age insurance and promote provincial-level unified management for basic medical, unemployment, and work-related injury insurance. We must improve the national unified social security public service platform. We must accelerate the development of a multi-tiered and multi-pillar old-age insurance system, expand the coverage of annuity systems, and implement the private pension system. We must promote the orderly connection of multi-tiered medical protections, improve systems for serious illness insurance and medical assistance, establish a long-term care insurance system, deepen the reform of medical insurance payment methods, implement the settlement of medical expenses incurred away from home, and strengthen the supervision of medical insurance funds. We must improve the mechanisms for raising funds and reasonably adjusting benefits for basic old-age and basic medical insurance, and gradually increase the basic pension for urban and rural residents. We must give play to the supplementary role of various types of commercial insurance. We must improve a stratified and categorized social assistance system. We must improve the social security system and care service system for persons with disabilities to promote the comprehensive development of undertakings for the disabled.
Fourth, advance the "Healthy China" initiative and improve the health level of the entire population. People's health is an important hallmark of a flourishing nation and a strong country. We must persist in implementing the health-first development strategy, strengthen the construction of the public health system, and promote social co-governance, the synergy between medical care and disease prevention, and their integration. We must enhance the system for major epidemic prevention, control, and treatment, and improve emergency response capabilities. We must deepen the reform of the medicine and healthcare system, promoting the coordinated development and governance of medical insurance, medical services, and pharmaceuticals. We must promote the expansion and downward extension of high-quality medical resources and their balanced regional distribution, accelerating the construction of a tiered diagnosis and treatment system. We must deepen the reform of public hospitals oriented toward public welfare and establish a pricing mechanism dominated by medical services. We must standardize the development of private hospitals and innovate medical and health supervision methods. We must develop and strengthen the ranks of medical and health personnel. We must promote the preservation, innovation, and development of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We must deeply carry out the "Healthy China" action and the Patriotic Health Campaign, advocating for civilized and healthy lifestyles.
Fifth, improve the human settlement environment and raise the quality of housing. Moving from "having a place to live" to "having a high-quality place to live" is both a common expectation of the masses and an important foundation for a happy and beautiful life for the people. On the new journey in the New Era, we must persist in the positioning that "houses are for living in, not for speculation." We must accelerate the establishment of a housing system with multi-subject supply, multi-channel support, and simultaneous rental and purchase. We must build "good houses" in accordance with the national standards of the "Residential Project Code." We must continuously promote urban renewal actions, strengthen the construction of urban infrastructure, and effectively solve difficult problems such as installing elevators, parking, and charging. We must promote the renovation of "villages in cities" and dilapidated houses, transforming old houses into "good houses" and old communities into "good communities," creating livable, resilient, and smart cities. We must continuously promote the improvement of rural housing quality and safety as well as energy-saving renovations, improving the living environment for urban and rural residents, creating high-quality living spaces, and constantly meeting the expectations of the masses for better living conditions.
Improving the people's well-being is a process that is always "underway" and never "finished"; improving the quality of people's lives is a "comparative" process with no "superlative." We must both do our utmost and act within our means, focusing on improving the quality of people's lives and pushing the sectors of livelihood—such as fertility, education, labor, medical care, elderly care, housing, and assistance—to upgrade from "availability" to "excellence." We must enrich the multi-tiered and diversified supply of life services so that the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security is more substantial, better safeguarded, and more sustainable.
4. Solidly advancing common prosperity and raising the level of high-quality life through the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilizations
In creating a high-quality life while advancing common prosperity, we must persist in "grasping with both hands, with both hands being firm" [15]. We must promote the coordination and mutual reinforcement of material civilization and spiritual civilization, so that the masses are not only materially wealthy but also spiritually rich, realizing all-round human development and comprehensive social progress in the process of promoting common prosperity.
"To shake off poverty has been the millennial dream of the Chinese nation. Common prosperity is the common aspiration of the Chinese people." Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed the gradual realization of common prosperity for all people in a more important position. It has taken the promotion of common prosperity for all as the focus of seeking happiness for the people, uniting and leading the people to win the battle against poverty. This historically resolved the problem of absolute poverty, created a miracle in the history of human poverty reduction, achieved the historic accomplishment of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects [16], and embarked on a new journey of solidly advancing common prosperity.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We are committed to common prosperity, so that every Chinese person can live a beautiful life." "The common prosperity we speak of is the common prosperity of all people, the prosperity of both the material and spiritual lives of the masses; it is not the prosperity of a few, nor is it a rigid, uniform egalitarianism." Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and its realization is a long-term historical process. To solidly advance common prosperity, we must encourage prosperity through hard work and innovation, persist in the basic economic system, and adhere to doing our utmost while acting within our means, proceeding step by step.
We must persist in promoting common prosperity through high-quality development, continuously raising the material living standards of the people. Development is the foundation and key to realizing common prosperity; the quality of development determines the efficacy of common prosperity. In the New Era and on the new journey, we must take high-quality development as our guide, taking the satisfaction of the people’s new expectations for a better life as the starting point and end point of development. We must continuously satisfy the people's growing needs for a better life and continuously improve the quality of people's lives. We must implement major regional strategies and regional coordinated development strategies, strengthen the coordination of industrial development, support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promote development that is more balanced, coordinated, and inclusive. We must construct a foundational system of coordinated arrangements for multi-tiered distribution, establishing a fair, reasonable, and efficient distribution system and mechanism to provide institutional norms and guidance for promoting common prosperity, and drive the formation of an "olive-shaped" [17] distribution structure. We must broaden the channels for farmers to increase their income and become wealthy, comprehensively promote rural revitalization, and promote common prosperity for farmers and rural areas.
We must focus on building spiritual civilization and continuously enrich the spiritual and cultural lives of the people.
"Chinese-path modernization requires not only the immense enrichment of material wealth, but also the immense enrichment of spiritual wealth, alongside self-confidence and self-reliance in thought and culture." Both history and reality have demonstrated that the improvement of material living conditions does not automatically bring about the enrichment of the spiritual world or an elevation in the quality of life. While improving the people’s material standard of living, we must also persist in the forward direction and goal of spiritual prosperity. Guided by the people’s increasing spiritual and cultural needs, we must develop advanced socialist culture and produce more excellent literary and artistic works to "ensure that all people always possess the ideological foundation for united struggle, the proactive spirit for forging ahead, and healthy, upward value pursuits." In the process of building a leading socialist cultural power, we must promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization, continuously enriching the people’s spiritual world, elevating the spiritual realm of high-quality life, and promoting well-rounded human development.
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on high-quality life comprehensively elaborate upon the era-defining background, basic foundations, essential connotations, and practical paths of high-quality life. They profoundly answer the questions of "why we must create a high-quality life," "what kind of high-quality life to create," and "how to create a high-quality life." These expositions represent an important theoretical innovation by our Party in the New Era, applying the worldview and methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. They hold major and far-reaching guiding significance for creating a high-quality life through high-quality development on the new journey, for better advancing the construction of Chinese-path modernization, and for realizing the people’s aspirations for a better life.
About the Author: Liu Zhichang is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and a Researcher at the Institute of Marxism Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Capital Development Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Source: Marxism Studies (《马克思主义研究》), Issue 12, 2025. Editor: Hui Hui