Gong Yun: Continuously Fulfilling the People’s Aspiration for a Better Life
"Governance has its constants, but benefiting the people is the fundamental root." [1] Creating happiness for the people is the essential requirement of building a party for the public and exercising power for the people. We must persist in guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods through development, encourage collective struggle to create a beautiful life, and continuously realize the people's aspirations for a better life.
The section regarding "people's livelihoods" in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC is the part to which every Chinese person pays exceptional attention, and "the quality of people's lives" was written into it for the first time. From the 19th National Congress report's proposal to "improve the level of guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods" to the 20th National Congress report's proposal to "enhance the wellbeing of the people and improve the quality of people's lives," there is both a consistent and unwavering stance for the people and the original aspiration for the people, as well as new requirements and deployments of new measures based on the characteristics of the new stage of development, painting a new landscape for the people’s beautiful life.
The distribution system is the foundational system for promoting common prosperity. The report lists the improvement of the distribution system as the primary item in livelihood work, fully reflecting the important status of the distribution system in the New Era and on the new journey; within this, there are several new formulations and requirements. For example, the report proposes building a coordinated institutional system of primary distribution, redistribution, and third distribution [2]. It emphasizes striving to increase the share of personal income in the distribution of national income and increasing the share of labor remuneration in primary distribution, using these methods to "properly slice and divide the cake." The report proposes for the first time the regulation of the wealth accumulation mechanism, which is strongly problem-oriented [3]. In the context of promoting common prosperity, it is necessary to regulate the wealth accumulation mechanism, enhance the fairness of wealth distribution, and narrow the wealth distribution gap.
In the process of advancing common prosperity, social security, medical care, education, and housing are all important fields that play a role in providing a social safety net. The report specifically mentions "improving the social security system." Compared to the 19th National Congress report’s proposal to "strengthen the construction of the social security system," the shift from "strengthen" to "improving" reflects a higher level and higher requirements. Particularly addressing the current problem of an aging population in Chinese society, the report proposes improving the national unified management system for basic old-age insurance and developing a multi-tiered and multi-pillar old-age insurance system. Regarding the housing issue that the masses are concerned about, the report emphasizes accelerating the establishment of a housing system with multiple suppliers, multiple channels of support, and simultaneous emphasis on renting and purchasing, pointing the direction for the steady and healthy development of the real estate market and the improvement of the housing security system. It can be seen that the various work deployments made in the report fully reflect the requirements of the times and the expectations of the people, combining goal-orientation with problem-orientation, with clear directionality and extremely strong relevance and precision.
When reading the report of the 20th National Congress closely, "the people" is the main thread running through it from beginning to end. To grasp the worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, one must first persist in putting the people above all else; among the major principles that must be firmly grasped on the road ahead is persisting in the people-centered development philosophy. When the report deploys future tasks, it is divided into different fields and sections, but one can see the internal interconnectedness among them. For instance, accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and focusing on promoting high-quality development are ultimately aimed at continuously bringing a higher quality of life to the people. In studying the report of the 20th National Congress, one must fully appreciate the "people sentiment" [4] within it, profoundly recognize the close connection between development and stability, development and livelihoods, and development and the "hearts of the people," and promote the fruits of development to benefit people's livelihoods and coalesce the hearts of the people.