The great rejuvenation of China

2. Grasp the people’s new expectations for a better life

A better life is the foundation of people’s happiness and social harmony. Satisfying the people’s expectations for a better life is the essential requirement of the CPC’s adherence to building the party for the public and ruling for the people. The Party’s efforts in revolution, construction, and reform are all aimed at enabling the people to live a better life. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Serving the people wholeheartedly is the fundamental starting point and foothold of all our party’s actions.“1 To test the effectiveness of all work, we must ultimately see whether the people have truly benefited from the benefits, whether the people’s living standards have been truly improved, and whether the people’s rights and interests have been truly guaranteed. To grasp the people’s new expectations for a better life in the new era, we need to pay attention to its salient characteristics. First, the area of demand has expanded considerably, and needs that have already been met give rise to new needs. Marx and Engels pointed out: “The first need that has been satisfied, the activities that have been satisfied, and the tools that have been acquired to satisfy the need give rise to new needs.“2 With the entry of socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new era, people’s needs for a better life have become more and more extensive, not only putting forward higher requirements for material and cultural life, but also increasing requirements in democracy, rule of law, fairness, justice, security, environment and other aspects. When meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists by members of the Standing Committee of the 18th Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out with deep affection: “Our people love life and look forward to 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, and hope that children can grow up, work better, and live better.“3 Compared with “material cultural needs,”

The content needed for a better life of the people undoubtedly covers a wider range, more levels and a wider range of fields, involving economic, political, cultural, social, ecological civilization and other aspects. Human needs not only include the survival needs of maintaining life activities, but also include the development needs of pursuing self-realization and free and all-round development, and the enjoyment needs of pursuing a happy life have also been put forward as never before; people not only pursue objective life needs, but also incorporate subjective needs such as a sense of gain, happiness, security, and dignity into the scope of a better life. Second, the specific difficulties of specific groups of people in cities and towns need to be focused on and effectively resolved. Specific groups include urban subsistence allowances, the elderly, migrant workers, university graduates and urban registered unemployed persons, etc., because of their own characteristics, these groups face different difficulties, and the solutions must also be focused. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “We have about 18 million urban subsistence population, for them, we must ensure basic living by improving various security systems; It is necessary to increase the supply of old-age services and enhance the convenience of medical services for the more than 300 million elderly people over the age of 65; gradually and fairly enjoy basic local public services for the more than 200 million migrant workers in cities and towns; suitable living conditions for the tens of millions of college graduates and other permanent residents employed in megacities; and professional skills for the more than 9 million registered unemployed in cities and towns, so as to achieve stable employment and stable income; and so on. “1 In short, we must adhere to the people-centered development thinking, focus on the specific difficulties faced by specific groups of people, do more things to help them solve practical problems, and promote sustained and healthy economic development and social harmony and stability.

Third, “good life” is positioned as a new standard of life. In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the people are no longer satisfied with their basic living needs such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, but should pursue democracy and rule of law in political life, spiritual civilization in cultural life, fairness and justice in social life, and beautiful China in ecological civilization. The satisfaction of material needs has laid the foundation for people’s happiness, but the people not only hope to obtain higher quality social public goods, but also look forward to a safe, stable, harmonious and green living environment, a social environment in which “people can make the best use of their talents, the land can make the best of their benefits, the materials can make the best use of their resources, and the goods can flow smoothly”, a democratic and orderly political environment with fair law enforcement and clean rivers.

In this way, people can really continue to get more “good” feelings.

3. adhere to the people-centered work orientation To take the people’s yearning for a better life as the goal of struggle, we must adhere to the people- centered work orientation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has always adhered to the people- centered development thinking, always adhered to the people-centered work orientation, taken the benefit of the people as the greatest achievement, shouldered the responsibility of reform and development, implemented a large number of measures to benefit the people, promoted more and fairer development results to benefit all the people, and continuously met the growing needs of the people for a better life at a higher level. In this regard, there are the following characteristics. First, highlight the focus of work. In any era, the interests of the people are often multifaceted, and these problems range from light to heavy, slow and urgent; we must not grasp the eyebrows and beards at once; we must hold the “bull’s nose” and persist in combining overall advancement with key breakthroughs. Without focus, there will be no clue and no rules; without focus, there will be no policy and no proposition. To solve the problem of interests that the people are concerned about, it is not possible to advance by leaps and go hand in hand; it is not possible to advance in unison with excessive weight and weight; nor can it exert equal efforts and advance at the same time; it is not possible to rush forward in a rush, nor can it talk about troops on paper. To solve the most direct and realistic interests of the people, it is very necessary to grasp the following key points. First, strive to do a good job in running education to the satisfaction of the people. Education is the cornerstone of national rejuvenation and social progress, which is related to the future of the country. It is necessary to implement the fundamental task of cultivating morality and cultivating people, cultivate socialist builders and successors with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor, and provide strong talent guarantee and intellectual support for economic and social development. The second is to make precise efforts to grasp employment work. Servitude is the foundation of people’s livelihood. It is necessary to adhere to the employment priority strategy, implement a more active employment policy, create more jobs, focus on solving structural employment contradictions, encourage entrepreneurship to bring employment, and achieve relatively full and high-quality employment. The third is to promote a more reasonable and orderly distribution of income. Income distribution is the source of people’s livelihood, and it is the most important and direct way to improve people’s livelihood and realize that the fruits of development are shared by the people. The fourth is to establish and improve a fairer and more sustainable social security system. Social security acts as a social stabilizer. It is necessary to implement the universal participation plan and strengthen policy convergence.

Improve the insurance system for basic old-age care for urban workers, basic old-age pension for urban and rural residents, basic medical care in urban areas, unemployment, work-related injury, and childbirth, improve the social assistance system, and raise the level of social welfare. Fifth, improve the people’s health. Without universal health, there can be no overall well-off. It is necessary to put people’s life safety and health first, adhere to the people’s first and life first, and promote the construction of a healthy China. Sixth, promote balanced population development. Adhere to the basic national policy of family planning, further release fertility potential, alleviate the pressure of population aging, and ensure population security.

Second, keep the bottom line of people’s livelihood. The bottom line is an insurmountable warning line, a critical point at which things change. “Bottom-line thinking” is to be in awe of the bottom line and keep it. As far as people’s livelihood work is concerned, the bottom line is the lifeline, safety line, and hope line of the people, and it is the boundary line that can be retreated and must be defended. Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that the work of people’s livelihood must guard the bottom line and firmly establish the bottom line, and the fundamental truth is here. Adhere to the social policy to support the bottom, in accordance with the requirements of everyone’s participation, everyone’s efforts, and everyone’s enjoyment, and strive to ensure the basic people’s livelihood. On the premise of adhering to this principle, it is particularly necessary to do more work to help people in distress, pay special attention to the masses in difficulty, always keep their safety and well-being in mind, show concern for their welfare, and do everything possible to help them solve their worries and difficulties.

Third, improve institutional design. System building is fundamental and a strong guarantee for people’s livelihood. The key to adhering to the people-centered work orientation is to make more effective system design and institutional arrangements, gradually establish an institutional system with equal rights, fair opportunities and fair rules as the main content, and strive to create an institutional environment that guarantees fairness and safeguards the bottom line. In the final analysis, people’s livelihood issues such as education, medical care, narrowing the income gap, environmental pollution control, judicial justice, and anti-corruption must be implemented through systems; with a fair and just system, there is a solid foundation for solving the most direct and realistic interests of the people.

Fourth, reasonably guide expectations. Expectations are expectations and prospects for the future. Good expectations for people’s livelihood can often be transformed into a calm social mentality and healthy and orderly social actions, so that people have motivation, patience and confidence to actively seek solutions to practical problems. People’s livelihood expectations are unstable, which is bound to be pessimistic and disappointed in society, and there will be panic and impatience and negative emotions, resulting in risk accumulation and challenges to social harmony and political stability. Especially in the context of a more complex domestic and international environment and increasing downward pressure on the economy, it is even more important to reasonably guide expectations.

Only by rationally viewing the hot and difficult issues in economic and social development and fully understanding that it is impossible to make up for the shortcomings of people’s livelihood can we gather the confidence and strength to overcome difficulties and better safeguard the overall situation of reform, development and stability.