Li Yuyan: Gathering the Mighty Force of Chinese-Path Modernization through High-Quality Labor Creation

Labor creates happiness, and struggle builds great achievements. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “High-quality development cannot be separated from high-quality labor creation,” and “we must focus on promoting high-quality development, mobilizing and motivating the broad masses of workers and working people to make contributions and innovate and create.” High-quality labor creation runs through the entire process of Chinese-path modernization, deeply aligns with the people-centered value foundation, builds the driving engine for high-quality development, and points toward the realization of common prosperity and the all-round development of the people. At present, China is in a critical period of advancing Chinese-path modernization. Only by taking high-quality labor creation as the link and pooling the drip-like efforts of hundreds of millions of workers can we form the surging mighty force that continuously pushes forward Chinese-path modernization.

High-quality labor creation manifests the essential requirement of being people-centered

A society’s attitude toward labor and laborers essentially defines the nature and boundaries of its modernization. Chinese-path modernization adheres to being people-centered, and its ultimate destination is the realization of people’s free and all-round development. In this context, high-quality labor creation is a vivid practice of adapting the Marxist view on labor to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, achieving the organic unity of the attributes of the labor subject, the quality of the process, and the value orientation.

Labor is the unfolding of the species-essence of human beings, a “free, conscious activity,” while the objectification of the essential forces of human beings reveals the authentic state of labor as the externalization of the subject’s creativity. In the old-style modernization dominated by the logic of capital, labor is often alienated into a mere means of subsistence, leading to the obscuring of the laborer’s subjectivity and the estrangement of the spiritual world. High-quality labor creation in the context of Chinese-path modernization, on the other hand, promotes the return of labor to the authentic state of the objectification of the essential forces of human beings. In terms of connotation, it transcends simple repetitive physical exertion and moves toward the deep integration of knowledge-based, skill-based, and innovation-based labor; in terms of attitude, it discards the old model of rough-and-ready coping and advocates the spirit of craftsmanship that pursues excellence and perfection; in terms of effectiveness, it eliminates ineffective internal friction and focuses on effective output that responds to the real needs of society and promotes overall progress.

High-quality labor creation fully embodies the initiative and creativity of laborers and manifests the dignity of the laborer as subject. It is by no means exclusive to specific positions but is a universal pursuit covering all legitimate fields of labor. Whether it is rural teachers rooted at the podium, community workers deeply engaged in the grid, or workers in new forms of employment shuttling through streets and alleys, they all confirm their own value through professionalized and refined labor practices. This form of labor, which integrates individual value into the overall situation of national development, is precisely the microcosmic reflection of the institutional advantage of “development for the people, development relying on the people, and development achievements shared by the people,” and manifests the distinctive character of Chinese-path modernization that distinguishes it from Western modernization.

High-quality labor creation is the core engine driving high-quality development

From the perspective of political economy, labor is the sole source of value creation, but the value that complex labor can create grows geometrically. The core essence of high-quality labor creation is precisely to promote the transformation of the labor form from factor-input-driven to innovation-driven, achieving a leap in labor quality and efficiency.

At present, new quality productive forces are accelerating their formation. The core hallmark of new quality productive forces is a substantial increase in total factor productivity, and its primary factor is precisely the high-quality workforce of laborers. New quality productive forces do not fall from the sky; they are condensed in the continuous optimization of micro-processes by industrial workers, nurtured in the independent tackling of key core technologies by research teams, and embodied in the intelligent reshaping of algorithm models and industrial ecosystems by digital workers. As the 14th Five-Year Plan draws to a close, the total number of skilled workers in China exceeds 220 million. Facing the structural demands of industrial upgrading, high-quality labor creation continuously bridges the gap between talent supply and technological iteration, providing strong support for leapfrog breakthroughs in fields such as manned spaceflight, deep-sea exploration, and quantum information. In the era of the digital economy, the boundaries of high-quality labor creation are constantly expanding. From the precise operation and maintenance of smart agriculture to the technological iteration of advanced manufacturing, from the brand going global of cross-border e-commerce to the experience upgrading of modern service industries, new forms of labor are achieving a virtuous cycle of “science and technology – industry – talent” through knowledge spillover, technological integration, and organizational innovation.

To keep this engine running continuously, high-quality labor creation must be placed in a prominent position in the national strategy. First, we must deepen the integrated reform of the systems and mechanisms for education, science and technology, and talent, and take vocational education as the foundational project for cultivating master craftsmen of the nation. Second, we must extensively carry out labor and skill competitions, improve the mechanisms for training, using, evaluating, and incentivizing skilled personnel, and smooth the channels for the growth of technical workers. Third, we must improve the income distribution mechanism that reflects the value of innovation factors such as knowledge and technology, so that “those who work more, those with higher skills, and those who innovate more get more” becomes an institutional norm. When every laborer can refine their skills and release their potential on a professional track, the endogenous driving force for high-quality development will surely continue to emerge.

Promoting the all-round development of people and achieving common prosperity for all the people cannot be separated from high-quality labor creation

Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics and an important feature of Chinese-path modernization. Without high-quality labor creation, there can be no sustainable sharing; without the general improvement of laborers’ capabilities, it is difficult to achieve genuine common prosperity. High-quality labor creation is precisely the realistic path that connects wealth accumulation with reasonable distribution and realizes material abundance and spiritual enrichment.

From the dimension of wealth generation, the entry of a super-large-scale population into a modernized society as a whole imposes systematic requirements on the scale, structure, and quality of wealth creation. In recent years, China’s labor productivity of all employees has maintained a steady increase, which is a direct confirmation that high-quality labor creation provides a solid foundation for the growth of residents’ income and the resilience of the macroeconomy. High-quality labor creation pushes the mode of production to climb toward high-value-added links, accumulating a more substantial material foundation for common prosperity.

From the dimension of distributive justice, the foundation of common prosperity lies in “common,” and its root lies in “co-building.” Adhering to the principle of distribution according to work as the mainstay and increasing the proportion of labor remuneration in the primary distribution essentially recognizes the differences in labor value, allowing laborers who create greater social wealth through high-quality labor to receive matching returns. China has continuously improved the vocational skill level system and explored new mechanisms for the salary distribution of technical workers. This has not only effectively expanded the size of the middle-income group but also stimulated the endogenous driving force of the whole society to strive for upward mobility and goodness through institutionalized value feedback, forming a virtuous cycle of “creation – sharing – re-creation.”

More deeply, high-quality labor creation points toward the all-round development of people. Chinese-path modernization emphasizes the coordination of material civilization and cultural-ethical progress, and high-quality labor creation is precisely the core field for cultivating professional ethics, shaping the spirit of struggle, and realizing spiritual enrichment. In the practice of overcoming technical difficulties and in the exploration of optimizing service processes, laborers not only update their knowledge structure and enhance their professional skills but also temper their will and elevate their realm in the process of value creation. From ordinary skilled workers growing into chief technicians, from “new farmers” to “prosperous farmers,” laborers achieve self-transcendence while contributing to society. This simultaneous resonance of “enriching the pocket” and “enriching the mind” lays a deep and lasting spiritual foundation for realizing common prosperity for all the people.

Chinese-path modernization is achieved through hard work, not by waiting. With its distinctive value foundation, strong dynamic effectiveness, and clear goal orientation, high-quality labor creation constitutes a solid support for advancing the great cause of building a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. On the new journey, we must vigorously promote the spirit of model workers, the spirit of labor, and the spirit of craftsmanship, improve the system for protecting laborers’ rights and interests, and foster a social atmosphere of respecting labor, valuing skills, and encouraging innovation. Let high-quality labor creation become a prevailing trend across society, so that every laborer can pursue excellence in ordinary posts and anchor their coordinates in the torrent of the times, gathering the contributions of hundreds of millions of people into an irresistible mighty force advancing Chinese-path modernization.

(The author, Li Yuyan, is a professor at the School of Basic Education for Military and Political Affairs, National University of Defense Technology.)