Livelihood as the Priority: An Important World Contribution of Chinese-Path Modernization

In April 2024, during an inspection of the Democratic Village Community in Xiejiawan Street, Jiulongpo District, Chongqing, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Chinese-path modernization takes people’s livelihood as the priority. All work of the Party and government is aimed at enabling the common people to lead a happier life.” Subsequently, during local inspections and meetings, General Secretary Xi Jinping further stressed: “Livelihood is the priority, livelihood is the essential” and “Adhere to taking people’s livelihood as the priority, and strive to do more practical things for the masses.” The important assertion that “Chinese-path modernization takes people’s livelihood as the priority” highlights the people-centered nature of Chinese-path modernization, expands the breadth and depth of human modernization practice, and makes an important contribution to the innovation of world modernization theory and practice.

2024年4月，习近平总书记在重庆市九龙坡区谢家湾街道民主村社区考察时强调：“中国式现代化，民生为大。党和政府的一切工作，都是为了老百姓过上更加幸福的生活。”此后，习近平总书记在地方考察、出席会议时又强调：“民生为大、民生为要”“坚持民生为大，努力为人民群众多办实事”。“中国式现代化，民生为大”，这一重要论断彰显了中国式现代化的人民性，拓展了人类现代化实践的广度与深度，为世界现代化理论与实践创新作出了重要贡献。

The People Truly Become the Main Force of Modernization, Exploring a New Path for Modernization in a Populous Country

人民真正成为现代化的主体力量，探索出人口大国实现现代化的新路

Chinese-path modernization, adhering to the principle of taking people’s livelihood as the priority, breaks the myth of “modernization equals Westernization” and “modernization equals capitalization,” making modernization a modernization with the people as the main body. Western countries that have already achieved modernization mostly have small populations, with only a few having populations exceeding 50 million. These countries relied on large amounts of social wealth plundered through colonization to achieve so-called primitive accumulation of capital, and on this basis advanced modernization. Although these countries have reached the level of modernization in many indicators such as gross domestic product, per capita national income, and capital returns, under the logic of capital-centeredness, society internally manifests the exploitation and oppression of the lower classes by the upper classes, with huge wealth gaps. The modernization achieved in this way is not the modernization of the entire people, but only the modernization of a minority; only a small number of people enter the ranks of modernization, while the majority of the populace is excluded from modernization.

中国式现代化坚持民生为大，打破“现代化=西方化”“现代化=资本化”的迷思，使现代化成为以人民为主体的现代化。已经实现现代化的西方国家，自身人口规模多数不大，其中只有少数国家的人口超过5000万。这些国家依靠殖民掠夺来的大量社会财富实现所谓的资本原始积累，并以此为基础推进现代化。尽管这些国家在国内生产总值、人均国民收入、资本收益等诸多指标上达到了现代化的水准，但在以资本为中心的逻辑下，社会内部体现出上层对底层的压榨剥削，贫富差距巨大。这样实现的现代化并不是全体人民的现代化，只是少数人的现代化，只有少部分人进入现代化的行列，大部分民众被排斥在现代化之外。

Adhering to taking people’s livelihood as the priority fully demonstrates that Chinese-path modernization follows an endogenous and autonomous development path, takes enhancing people’s well-being and achieving common prosperity as its value foundation, does not depend on, copy, or blindly follow the Western model, breaks free from the capital logic and hegemonic logic of Western modernization, and relies closely on the masses to achieve modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The people are the main body of Chinese-path modernization; we must firmly rely on the people, respect the people’s creative spirit, and pool the wisdom and strength of all the people.” Modernization with the people as the main body fundamentally transcends the Western-centric narrative of modernization, abandons the capital logic of Western modernization, and highlights the people’s logic of Chinese-path modernization. Modernization is created by the people and shared by the people; on the path to achieving Chinese-path modernization, no ethnic group can be left behind, and no individual can be left behind. In measuring the level of modernization, as General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Modernization must look not only at paper-based indicators and data, but also at the people’s happiness and well-being.” We do not pursue data-style modernization or indicator-style modernization, but solidly advance modernization that benefits people’s livelihood. Practice has proven that modernization with the people as the main body provides a reference for developing countries to achieve modernization independently and autonomously, and contributes Chinese wisdom and offers a Chinese solution to the innovation of world modernization theory and practice.

坚持民生为大，充分表明中国式现代化走内生性、自主性发展道路，以增进民生福祉、实现共同富裕为价值底色，不依附、不照搬、不盲从西方模式，摆脱了西方现代化的资本逻辑、霸权逻辑，紧紧依靠人民群众来实现现代化。习近平总书记指出：“人民是中国式现代化的主体，必须紧紧依靠人民，尊重人民创造精神，汇集全体人民的智慧和力量”。以人民为主体的现代化从根本上超越了西方中心主义的现代化叙事，摒弃西方现代化的资本逻辑，突出中国式现代化的人民逻辑。现代化由人民创造、人民共享，在实现中国式现代化的道路上，一个民族不能少、一个人也不能少。在衡量现代化水平上，正如习近平总书记所强调的：“现代化不仅要看纸面上的指标数据，更要看人民的幸福安康。”我们不搞数据式的现代化，不搞指标式的现代化，而是扎扎实实推进造福民生的现代化。实践证明，以人民为主体的现代化为发展中国家独立自主实现现代化提供了借鉴，为世界现代化理论与实践创新贡献了中国智慧、提供了中国方案。

Achieving Mutual Promotion and Progress between Economic Vitality and Social Order, Writing a Chinese Answer to Solving the Difficulties of Modernization

实现经济活力与社会秩序共促共进，为破解现代化难题书写中国答卷

Handling the relationship between vitality and order is a worldwide challenge in the process of modernization. A difficulty encountered by many countries embarking on the journey of modernization is the incompatibility of vitality and order: once the economy is enlivened, society falls into disorder, which in turn constrains the further release of economic vitality, while social disorder intensifies, causing the modernization process to stagnate. This difficulty has severely hindered the modernization process of many countries. General

处理好活力与秩序的关系是现代化进程中的一道世界性难题。不少国家踏上现代化征程遇到的一道难题就是活力与秩序难以兼容：经济一旦搞活，社会就会失序，进而又制约了经济活力进一步释放，同时社会失序加剧，造成现代化进程的停滞。这个难题严重阻碍了很多国家的现代化进程。习近平总书记指出：“中国式现代化应当而且能够实现活而不乱、活跃有序的动态平衡。”中国式现代化坚持民生为大，在以人民为中心的实践中规避了一些国家现代化进程中出现的政治极化、社会撕裂等问题，打破了资本逻辑主导的现代化迷思，有效化解了活力与秩序难以兼容这一难题。

Chinese-path modernization consistently emphasizes the coordinated development of the economy and society. In the modernization process, it stresses the close integration of investment in material things and investment in people; investment in material things must always be oriented toward improving people’s lives, whether in infrastructure construction or technological progress, all to promote the comprehensive development of people. Chinese-path modernization organically unifies economic development and the improvement of people’s livelihoods. It invests not only in the supply of service products for “the elderly and the young,” in education, in human resource development, and in the living environment, but also in people’s health and in meeting people’s needs for secure housing. Government fiscal expenditures maintain an appropriate scale, optimize the expenditure structure, and increase spending on boosting consumption and on safeguarding and improving people’s livelihoods. At the same time, it focuses on key areas such as new quality productive forces, new-type urbanization, and the comprehensive development of people, enhancing the growth momentum of market-led effective investment and raising the proportion of government investment in people’s livelihoods. These investments have indeed improved the quality of people’s lives.

中国式现代化始终注重经济与社会协调发展。在现代化进程中，强调坚持投资于物和投资于人紧密结合，物的投资要始终面向改善人民生活，无论是基础设施建设还是技术进步，都要促进人的全面发展。中国式现代化把发展经济和改善民生有机统一起来。不仅投资于“一老一小”的服务产品供给、投资于教育、投资于人力资源开发、投资于人居环境，而且投资于人民的健康、投资于人民的安居需求。政府财政支出保持适当规模，优化支出结构，加大提振消费、保障和改善民生等方面支出。同时，聚焦新质生产力、新型城镇化、人的全面发展等重点领域，增强市场主导的有效投资增长动力，提高民生类政府投资比重。这些投资也切实提高了人民生活品质。

Chinese-path modernization consistently emphasizes transforming the fruits of economic development into well-being for people’s livelihoods, embedding social order within economic vitality. While the people enjoy the fruits of development, a strong consensus has formed that social stability is the prerequisite for achieving better economic development, and this consensus in turn adds vitality and momentum to economic development. In the process of economic development, as the number and types of market participants increase, new contradictions and new demands have emerged. Chinese-path modernization upholds the concept of putting people’s livelihood first, emphasizes the development of whole-process people’s democracy, correctly handles contradictions among the people under the new conditions, strives to resolve conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level and in their nascent state, and guides the people to express their interests and demands and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through rational and lawful channels. It insists on coordinating development and security, strengthens the overall prevention and control of public security, and ensures that the people live and work in peace and contentment. It attaches importance to satisfying the reasonable demands of the people, especially in social construction and social governance, institutionalizing and making long-term the satisfaction of reasonable demands, so that the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life are continuously met in both quantity and quality, making the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, more guaranteed, and more sustainable.

中国式现代化始终注重把经济发展的成果转化为民生福祉，在经济活力中内嵌社会秩序，在人民群众享受发展成果的同时，形成了社会稳定才能实现经济更好发展的强烈共识，这一共识又为经济发展添活力增动力。在经济发展过程中，随着市场参与主体数量增多、类型多元，产生了一些新矛盾和新诉求。中国式现代化秉持民生为大理念，注重发展全过程人民民主，正确处理新形势下人民内部矛盾，努力把矛盾纠纷化解在基层、化解在萌芽状态，引导人民群众通过理性合法途径表达利益诉求、维护合法权益。坚持统筹发展和安全，强化社会治安整体防控，确保人民安居乐业。重视对人民群众合理诉求的满足，特别是在社会建设和社会治理中，把对合理诉求的满足制度化、长效化，让人民日益增长的美好生活需要不断得到数量和质量上的满足，使人民获得感、幸福感、安全感更加充实、更有保障、更可持续。

Better satisfying the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, effectively promoting the resolution of the principal contradiction in the modernization process

更好满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要，有效推动解决现代化进程中的社会主要矛盾

The contradiction between the socialization of production and the capitalist private ownership of the means of production is the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society. This fundamental contradiction has always existed in both developed capitalist countries and developing capitalist countries. In some developing capitalist countries, this fundamental contradiction manifests itself more sharply in the modernization process, mainly in the following ways: insufficient political participation by the people, unbalanced sharing of the fruits of development, inadequate capacity for employment absorption, and untimely governance of the ecological environment.

生产社会化与资本主义生产资料私有制之间的矛盾是资本主义社会的基本矛盾。这一基本矛盾始终存在于发达资本主义国家和发展中的资本主义国家。在一些发展中的资本主义国家，这一基本矛盾在现代化进程中更加尖锐地展现出来，主要表现为：民众政治参与不充分，发展成果共享不均衡，就业吸纳能力不充足，生态环境治理不及时。

Chinese-path modernization is rooted in the socialist system, institutionally avoiding the fundamental contradictions of capitalist society. The fundamental contradiction of socialist society remains the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure. In the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, this is concretely manifested in the principal contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. Focusing on resolving this principal contradiction, our Party upholds the people’s livelihood as the top priority, consistently adheres to the people-centered principle, promotes high-quality development, and effectively resolves problems in development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “High-quality development is development that can well meet the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. It is development that embodies the new development philosophy, with innovation as the primary driving force, coordination as an endogenous feature, green development as a universal form, openness as the only path, and sharing as the fundamental goal.” [1]1 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,” October 18, 2017, in Xi Jinping: The Governance of China High-quality development achieves development that conforms to the will of the people. We develop whole-process people’s democracy, improve the system of grassroots democracy, and perfect the working mechanisms for soliciting public opinion and pooling public wisdom, ensuring that the people manage grassroots public affairs and public welfare projects in accordance with the law. High-quality development achieves development with feeling. Realizing the people’s aspiration for a better life is the starting point and ultimate goal of Chinese-path modernization. We focus on strengthening inclusive, basic, and safety-net livelihood construction, and strive to do more practical things for the people. High-quality development achieves development with employment. We deeply implement the employment-first strategy, improve the employment promotion mechanism, build an employment-friendly development model, and promote high-quality and full employment. High-quality development achieves development with a future. Green development is the distinctive background of Chinese-path modernization. Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. In building a modern socialist country, “beauty” is both an important goal and an important support. These important features and advantages of high-quality development provide important insights and references for countries around the world, especially developing countries, in advancing their modernization.

中国式现代化植根于社会主义制度，从制度上避免了资本主义社会的基本矛盾。社会主义社会的基本矛盾仍然是生产力和生产关系、经济基础和上层建筑之间的矛盾，在中国特色社会主义新时代具体表现为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾这一社会主要矛盾。着眼于解决这一社会主要矛盾，我们党坚持民生为大，始终树牢人民至上理念，推动实现高质量发展，有效解决发展中的问题。习近平总书记指出：“高质量发展，就是能够很好满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要的发展，是体现新发展理念的发展，是创新成为第一动力、协调成为内生特点、绿色成为普遍形态、开放成为必由之路、共享成为根本目的的发展。”高质量发展实现的是符合民意的发展，我们发展全过程人民民主，健全基层民主制度，健全吸纳民意、汇集民智工作机制，保障人民依法管理基层公共事务和公益事业。高质量发展实现的是有情的发展，实现人民对美好生活的向往是中国式现代化的出发点和落脚点，注重加强普惠性、基础性、兜底性民生建设，努力为人民群众多办实事。高质量发展实现的是有工作的发展，我们深入实施就业优先战略，健全就业促进机制，构建就业友好型发展方式，促进高质量充分就业。高质量发展实现的是有未来的发展，绿色发展是中国式现代化的鲜明底色，中国式现代化是人与自然和谐共生的现代化，建设社会主义现代化国家，“美丽”既是重要目标，也是重要支撑。高质量发展的这些重要特征和优势，为世界各国尤其是广大发展中国家推进现代化建设提供了重要启示和借鉴。

Promoting more balanced, inclusive, and sustainable global development, demonstrating China’s global vision and major-country responsibility in livelihood construction.

推动全球发展更加平衡、包容、可持续，彰显我国在民生建设上的全球视野与大国担当

The Communist Party of China is a political party that seeks progress for humanity and common good for the world. Chinese-path modernization clearly embodies this sense of responsibility. Chinese-path modernization has not only solved the problem of absolute poverty but is also committed to promoting the common prosperity of both the material and spiritual life of all the people. In November 2024, President Xi Jinping pointed out when attending the 19th Summit of the Group of Twenty: “The poverty problem in developing countries can be solved, and weak birds can fly first and fly high. China can succeed, and other developing countries can also succeed. This is the global significance of China’s successful victory in the battle against poverty.” [2] In just over 40 years, lifting 770 million rural poor out of poverty, the miracle of poverty alleviation created by China is of great significance to global development. It fully proves that the key to solving the people’s urgent, difficult, and anxious problems lies in the ruling party truly serving the people and insisting on the people’s livelihood as the top priority.

中国共产党是为人类谋进步、为世界谋大同的政党，中国式现代化鲜明体现了这一责任担当。中国式现代化不仅解决了绝对贫困问题，而且致力于推动全体人民物质生活和精神生活都富裕。2024年11月，习近平主席在出席二十国集团领导人第十九次峰会时指出：“发展中国家的贫困问题是可以解决的，弱鸟是可以先飞、高飞的。中国可以成功，其他发展中国家同样可以成功。这是中国成功打赢脱贫攻坚战的世界意义。”在短短40多年的时间里实现7.7亿农村贫困人口脱贫，中国创造的脱贫奇迹对全球发展具有重大意义，充分证明了解决人民群众急难愁盼问题的关键，在于执政党真正服务于人民、坚持民生为大。

Chinese-path modernization correctly handles the relationship between the improvement of its own people’s livelihood and the improvement of other countries’ people’s livelihood. China upholds the concept of the people’s livelihood as the top priority to fulfill its major-country responsibility. By jointly embarking on the path of modernization, building the Belt and Road Initiative with high quality, and other means, China promotes the improvement of people’s livelihood in other developing countries. Taking China-Africa cooperation as an example, as early as 2021, China and Africa jointly formulated the “Vision for China-Africa Cooperation 2035” and decided to jointly implement the “Nine Projects,” [3] which include the poverty alleviation and agricultural benefit project. This project is not only about “blood transfusion” but more about “blood creation.” By helping African countries build a more solid agricultural foundation, strengthen professional personnel training, and other measures, it aims to reduce the poor population in African countries. In promoting the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, China emphasizes the “Three Coordinations,” [4] one of which is to coordinate the promotion of major landmark projects and “small yet smart” livelihood projects, so that more “small yet smart” livelihood projects directly benefit the people of countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. A series of actions by China to improve people’s livelihood and fulfill its major-country responsibility show that adhering to the people-centered development philosophy, taking the path of independent development, and advocating the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits are of great significance for developing countries to take the path of modernization and for promoting better world development. This fully demonstrates the global vision and major-country contribution of Chinese-path modernization.

中国式现代化正确地处理了本国民生发展与他国民生改善的关系。中国秉持民生为大的理念践行大国担当，通过携手同行现代化之路、高质量共建“一带一路”等，促进其他发展中国家民生的改善。以中国和非洲国家合作为例，早在2021年，中非双方共同制订了《中非合作2035年愿景》，决定共同实施“九项工程”，其中就包括减贫惠农工程。这项工程不仅是“输血”，更多的是“造血”，通过帮助非洲国家构建更加坚实的农业基础、加强专业人员训练等措施，实现减少非洲国家贫困人口。在推动共建“一带一路”高质量发展过程中，中国强调“三个统筹”，其中之一就是统筹推进重大标志性工程和“小而美”民生项目建设，使更多“小而美”民生项目直接惠及共建“一带一路”国家的民众。中国改善民生并践行大国担当的一系列行动表明，坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，走自主发展之路，倡导共商共建共享的全球治理观，对于广大发展中国家走好现代化之路具有重要启示，对于推动世界更好发展具有重要意义，充分彰显了中国式现代化的世界胸怀与大国贡献。

(The author is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者为中国社会科学院习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员）