China strives to achieve common prosperity for all
By He Yin
China will bring people’s well-being to a new level and take solid steps toward achieving common prosperity during its 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to the country’s Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.
By 2035, people will lead a better life, and more notable and substantial progress will be achieved in promoting well-rounded human development and achieving common prosperity for everyone, said the document.
The ultimate goal of China’s endeavors to advance reform and opening up as well as socialist modernization is to ensure that development is for the people, by the people, and with people sharing in its fruits.
The people-centered philosophy of China, a major country in the world, and the Communist Party of China (CPC), a major political party, has attracted worldwide attention.
The key to governance of a country is to improve its people’s lives, and common prosperity is the shared aspiration of all Chinese people.
The CPC has always been committed to its original aspiration and mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.
Eliminating poverty, improving people’s livelihood, and achieving common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism as well as important goals of China’s efforts to advance economic and social development.
Through an arduous journey over a long period of time, China has significantly improved the quality of life among the Chinese people and promoted the sharing of development fruits in the society.
In the new era, China determines to pursue shared development, aiming to “make the pie bigger” and divide it fairly at the same time and bring people a stronger sense of accomplishment and gain.
China has won the battle against poverty and completed the daunting task of eradicating absolute poverty. Such a historic miracle of China marks a milestone on the country’s journey to improving people’s well-being and achieving common prosperity.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the country has lifted 98.99 million rural poor residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, removed all of its 832 poor counties and 128,000 poor villages from the poverty list, and resolved overall regional poverty.
It has pulled an average of more than 10 million people out of poverty each year, equivalent to the population of a medium-sized country.
Such achievements in poverty alleviation are considered a tremendous change in the more than 5,000 years of history of the Chinese nation, as well as an unprecedentedly brilliant feat in the history of the world.
“We will work to ensure that growth and development benefit all countries and peoples and that the livelihood of all people, especially those in developing countries, will get better day by day,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping, pointing out the direction for joint efforts of countries.
Over the years, China has always been a contributor to global development, and an active advocate and strong promoter of global poverty reduction.
The country has been engaged in facilitating South-South cooperation, pushing forward the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, and supporting and assisting other developing countries, the least developed ones in particular, in their fight against poverty, shouldering its responsibilities on the path of pursuing common development.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the poverty-stricken population in the world has risen for the first time in many years, which poses challenges to the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN).
Against the background, China has fully shaken off poverty, marched toward comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society, and progressed steadily along the road to common prosperity, which has greatly inspired and encouraged the rest of the world.
China’s magnificent accomplishment in alleviating poverty brings hope and inspiration to international society, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a congratulatory letter to China on its complete victory over poverty.
As China embarks on a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country, it will continue to adhere to its people-centered philosophy, improve people’s livelihood, and promote social fairness and justice, which is believed to bring the Chinese people a stronger sense of accomplishment and gain.
By actively advancing the inclusive development of countries and trying to ensure that the fruits of development benefit people of various countries more thoroughly, China is bound to make great contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
