Several Relationships That Must Be Handled Properly in Ensuring and Improving People’s Livelihoods amid Development

“People-centered” is one of the major principles that must be implemented in further deepening reform comprehensively. The “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese-Path Modernization” (hereinafter referred to as the “Decision”), adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, emphasizes that “ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods amid development is a major task of Chinese-path modernization. We must do everything within our capacity, improve the basic public service system, strengthen inclusive, basic, and bottom-line livelihood construction, solve the most immediate and practical problems of greatest concern to the people, and continuously meet the people’s aspirations for a better life.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024. The “Decision” adopted at that session is a key document outlining the reform agenda for the current period. In ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods amid development, several relationships must be handled properly.

“坚持以人民为中心”是进一步全面深化改革必须贯彻的重大原则之一，党的二十届三中全会通过的《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的决定》（以下简称《决定》）强调，“在发展中保障和改善民生是中国式现代化的重大任务。必须坚持尽力而为、量力而行，完善基本公共服务制度体系，加强普惠性、基础性、兜底性民生建设，解决好人民最关心最直接最现实的利益问题，不断满足人民对美好生活的向往”。在发展中保障和改善民生，需要处理好若干关系。

The relationship between top-level design and practical exploration must be handled properly. Top-level design is based on practical exploration; its strength lies in firmly grasping the direction of advance and scientifically formulating strategic plans. Practical exploration is guided by top-level design; it focuses on solving practical problems and summarizing successful experience. In the process of improving people’s livelihoods, the two must be organically combined so that they promote each other and continuously enhance practical effectiveness. On the one hand, ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods is the ballast stone of social stability. Top-level design must be strengthened, the laws of economic and social development must be deeply explored, and the common aspirations of the people must be accurately grasped, so that the plans and policy systems formulated reflect the character of the times, grasp the laws of development, and are rich in creativity. For example, reform of the social security system involves deep-level, diversified adjustments to major interest structures; its complexity, difficulty, and sensitivity are very prominent. Top-level design must be strengthened to weave and tighten the social security safety net, stabilize social expectations, relieve the people of their worries, and lay a solid foundation for economic and social development. On the other hand, advancing Chinese-path modernization is an exploratory undertaking; there are still many unknown areas that require us to boldly explore in practice and promote the development of the undertaking through reform and innovation. Looking back on the course of reform, encouraging spontaneous exploration and allowing localities to conduct differentiated and diversified experiments according to their own characteristics has been an important experience in promoting reform and development. In the process of improving people’s livelihoods, while top-level design must be strengthened to give full play to the advantages of setting goals, grasping direction, and formulating plans, the pioneering spirit of the grassroots and the masses must also be fully respected, ideas and methods for effectively resolving new contradictions and new problems must be sought, and replicable and scalable fresh experience must be continuously created and accumulated.

处理好顶层设计和实践探索的关系。顶层设计以实践探索为基础，其优势在于牢牢把握前进方向、科学制定战略规划；实践探索以顶层设计为指导，重在解决实际问题、总结成功经验。在改善民生过程中，要把二者有机结合起来，使其相互促进，不断提升实效。一方面，保障和改善民生是社会稳定的压舱石，必须加强顶层设计，深入探索经济社会发展规律，准确把握人民群众的共同愿望，使制定的规划和政策体系体现时代性、把握规律性、富于创造性。比如，社会保障制度改革涉及深层次、多元化重大利益格局调整，其复杂性、艰巨性、敏感性非常突出，必须加强顶层设计，织密扎牢社会保障安全网，稳定社会预期，解除群众后顾之忧，为经济社会发展夯实基础。另一方面，推进中国式现代化是一个探索性事业，还有许多未知领域，需要我们在实践中去大胆探索，通过改革创新来推动事业发展。回首改革历程，鼓励自发探索，允许各地根据自身特色进行差异化、多元化尝试，是推进改革发展的一条重要经验。改善民生过程中，既要加强顶层设计，充分发挥设目标、把方向、定规划的优势，也要充分尊重基层和群众首创精神，寻求有效解决新矛盾新问题的思路和办法，不断创造和积累可复制、可推广的新鲜经验。

The relationship between government leadership and multiple forces must be handled properly. With regard to improving people’s livelihoods, the government is certainly the most important main force, but it is also necessary to encourage and guide social capital, charitable organizations, volunteers, and residents to participate together and play their respective important roles. On the one hand, improving people’s livelihoods requires the government to act actively and proactively. In recent years, localities have focused on the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people, changing “the masses run around” into “data runs around,” and changing “running around repeatedly and running to multiple offices” into “at most one visit.” This is a manifestation of the government’s proactive action. On the other hand, an effective government does not mean taking on everything; objective laws should be respected, the role of the market should be given full play, and multiple forces should be actively introduced. For example, charitable undertakings are of great significance for promoting social fairness and justice and advancing common prosperity. The legal and policy system for charity should be accelerated and improved, the relationships among all parties should be straightened out, hub-type, grant-making, and industry-specific charitable organizations should be developed, great attention should be paid to cultivating community-based charitable organizations, a network of charitable organizations covering urban and rural areas should be guided into formation, a culture of charity in which everyone is inclined toward goodness and everyone practices good deeds should be fostered, and efforts should be made to form a consensus in the whole society that charity is a noble undertaking. In the process of improving people’s livelihoods, the government plays a leading role, and multiple forces are important subjects and useful supplements. The work pattern of government leadership and participation by multiple forces should be innovated, benign interaction among the government, the market, and society should be realized, and a strong synergy for improving people’s livelihoods should be formed.

处理好政府主导和多元力量的关系。就改善民生而言，政府固然是最为重要的主体力量，同时也需要鼓励引导社会资本、慈善组织、志愿者、居民共同参与并发挥各自重要作用。一方面，改善民生需要政府积极作为，主动作为。近年来各地聚焦群众急难愁盼问题，变“群众跑”为“数据跑”，变“反复跑、多头跑”为“最多跑一次”，这是政府积极作为的体现。另一方面，有为政府并不代表大包大揽，应当尊重客观规律，充分发挥市场的作用，积极引入多元力量。比如，慈善事业对促进社会公平正义、推动共同富裕具有重要意义。要加快健全慈善法律政策体系，理顺各方关系，发展枢纽型、资助型、行业性慈善组织，高度重视社区型慈善组织培育，引导形成覆盖城乡的慈善组织网络，营造人人向善、人人行善的慈善文化，努力在全社会形成慈善是高尚事业的共识。改善民生过程中，政府发挥着主导作用，多元力量是重要主体和有益的补充。要创新政府主导、多元力量参与的工作格局，实现政府、市场、社会间的良性互动，形成改善民生的强大合力。

The relationship between economic development and improving people’s livelihoods must be handled properly. Economic development and improving people’s livelihoods are a dialectical unity. On the one hand, economic development is the material foundation for improving people’s livelihoods. Only by continuously making the “cake” bigger can there be sufficient financial resources for increasing investment in people’s livelihoods and making up for shortcomings in people’s livelihoods, and can the fruits of modernization benefit all the people more and more fairly. Since the New Era, China’s total economic output has doubled, with gross domestic product growing at an average annual rate of over 6%, and per capita disposable income of residents rising from 16,510 yuan in 2012 to 39,218 yuan in 2023. [2]2 The New Era (新时代) refers to the period beginning with the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017, characterized by the establishment of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding ideology. The world’s largest education system, social security system, and medical and health system have been built; cumulative new urban employment has exceeded 140 million people; basic old-age insurance covers nearly 1.1 billion people; and the number of people covered by medical insurance exceeds 1.3 billion. The achievement of these livelihood results is inseparable from economic development. On the other hand, improving people’s livelihoods is the ultimate goal of economic development. Adhering to a people-centered development thought is the fundamental stance of China’s economic development. The people are both active participants in development and the biggest beneficiaries of development. Grasping people’s livelihoods is also grasping development; livelihood work is an endogenous driving force for high-quality development. Solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people gives birth to new economic growth points. Solving the hot and difficult issues of people’s livelihoods, and achieving at a higher level and higher quality that children are cared for, the young are educated, workers are remunerated, the sick are treated, the elderly are provided for, people have housing, and the weak are supported, can both enhance the well-being of the people and find lasting impetus for economic growth, opening the floodgates of social vitality. On the new journey of the New Era, the dialectical relationship of mutual promotion and mutual conditionality between economic development and improving people’s livelihoods must be fully and accurately grasped, and a virtuous cycle of economic development and improvement of people’s livelihoods must be realized at a higher level.

处理好经济发展和改善民生的关系。经济发展和改善民生是辩证统一的关系。一方面，经济发展是改善民生的物质基础。只有不断做大“蛋糕”，才有足够的资金资源用于加大民生投入、补齐民生短板，才能让现代化建设成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。新时代以来，我国经济总量翻了一番，国内生产总值年均增长6%以上，居民人均可支配收入从2012年的16510元增长到2023年的39218元。建成了世界上规模最大的教育体系、社会保障体系、医疗卫生体系，累计城镇新增就业超1.4亿人，基本养老保险覆盖近11亿人，医保参保人数超过13亿人。这些民生成就的取得，跟经济发展密不可分。另一方面，民生改善是经济发展的最终目的。坚持以人民为中心的发展思想是我国经济发展的根本立场，人民群众是发展的积极参与者，也是发展的最大受益者。抓民生也是抓发展，民生工作是推动高质量发展的内生动力，解决好人民群众的急难愁盼问题，孕育着新的经济增长点。破解民生热点难点问题，在更高水平、更高质量上实现幼有所育、学有所教、劳有所得、病有所医、老有所养、住有所居、弱有所扶，既能增进民生福祉，也能为经济增长找到持久动力，打开社会活力的闸门。新时代新征程，要全面准确把握经济发展和改善民生相互促进、互为条件的辩证关系，在更高水平上实现经济发展和民生改善良性循环。

The relationship between focusing on the present and taking a long-term view must be handled properly. The present and the long term are dialectically unified and complement each other. Focusing on the present means making livelihood work more pragmatic, firmly holding the responsibility of “success must have me,” keeping feet on the ground and working in a down-to-earth manner, and concentrating efforts on doing the current things well. For example, employment is the greatest livelihood. The problem of employment must be solved in the course of development; employment opportunities in grassroots medical and health care, elderly care services, social work, and other fields should be deeply tapped; and the scale of policy-based posts for college graduates should be stabilized. Traditional industries should be transformed and upgraded, emerging industries should be cultivated and strengthened, future industries should be laid out and built, the modern industrial system should be improved, and efforts should be made to create more jobs to meet employment demand. Taking a long-term view means taking a longer-term perspective, with the broad-mindedness of “success need not be with me,” always keeping in mind the “greatest concerns of the state,” and adhering to “carrying out a blueprint to the end.” [3]3 “The greatest concerns of the state” (国之大者) is a Party idiom referring to the most fundamental and overarching issues of national interest that Party officials must keep in mind. “Carrying out a blueprint to the end” (一张蓝图干到底) is a common metaphor in Chinese political discourse for maintaining policy continuity and strategic persistence across successive leadership terms. For example, the population issue is a major issue affecting the overall development situation; population changes have the characteristics of long cycles, slow variables, and deep impacts. The trends of population development and change should be anticipated prospectively, strategic layout should be strengthened, relevant policy measures should be dynamically optimized, a population service system covering the entire population and the entire life cycle should be improved, high-quality population development should be promoted, and the initiative in work should be ensured. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized “focusing on the present and taking a long-term view,” which requires us to pay more attention to unifying current development and long-term development, and to take this as an important method of thinking and working. In handling the relationship between the present and the long term, we must both base ourselves on the present, giving priority to solving the most urgent, most direct, and most common problems, and take a long-term view, continuously improving the institutional system and long-term mechanisms, and统筹 solving long-term and potential problems.

处理好立足当前和着眼长远的关系。当前和长远是辩证统一、相辅相成的。立足当前，就是要把民生工作做得务实一些，坚定“功成必定有我”的担当，脚踏实地、真抓实干，集中精力办好当前事。比如，就业是最大的民生，要坚持在发展中解决就业问题，深挖基层医疗卫生、养老服务、社会工作等就业机会，稳定高校毕业生政策性岗位规模。改造提升传统产业，培育壮大新兴产业，布局建设未来产业，完善现代化产业体系，努力创造更多就业岗位，满足就业需求。着眼长远，就是要把眼光放得长远一些，以“功成不必在我”的胸襟，始终牢记“国之大者”，坚持“一张蓝图干到底”。比如，人口问题是关系发展全局的重大问题，人口变化具有长周期、慢变量、深影响的特点。要前瞻把握人口发展变化趋势，加强战略性布局，动态优化相关政策举措，健全覆盖全人群、全生命周期的人口服务体系，促进人口高质量发展，确保掌握工作主动。习近平总书记多次强调“立足当前、着眼长远”，这要求我们更加注重把当前发展和长远发展统一起来，将其作为一个重要的思维方法和工作方法。处理好当前与长远的关系，既要立足当下，优先解决最迫切、最直接、最普遍的问题，也要着眼长远，持续完善制度体系和长效机制，统筹解决远期的、潜在的问题。

Handle well the relationship between overall advancement and breakthroughs on key points. Improving people’s livelihoods is a systematic project; it requires both overall planning and coordinated advancement, and also grasping key points and implementing targeted measures. Livelihood work involves a thousand threads and touches every aspect; these aspects interweave and interact with one another, and the results of construction in one area directly or indirectly affect other areas, making comprehensive overall planning and coordinated advancement necessary. For example, medical reform is a major livelihood project that touches every household. Since the New Era, China has placed the protection of the people’s health in a strategic position of priority development and has continuously deepened the reform of the medical and health system. The average price reduction for drugs selected in centralized procurement exceeds 50 percent, the average price reduction for consumables in centralized procurement exceeds 80 percent, and the cumulative savings amount to approximately 300 billion yuan. At the same time, in livelihood work we adhere to the unity of the theory of two points and the theory of emphasis [4]4 The “theory of two points” (两点论) and the “theory of emphasis” (重点论) are Maoist dialectical concepts: the former holds that any contradiction has two aspects that must be considered simultaneously; the latter holds that among multiple contradictions or aspects, one is always primary and must be given priority., ensuring that primary and secondary aspects are distinguished and key points are clear, and we are adept at opening breakthroughs from key links, key areas, or special groups. Taking the issue of elderly care as an example, by focusing on home-based elderly care, on guaranteeing the basic needs of the most vulnerable, and on combining medical care with elderly care, we improve the elderly care service system, with emphasis on meeting rigid demands such as medical treatment, meals, and care, thereby solving the problem of elderly care services. This is not only a concern for and a focus on key areas and key groups, but also a microcosm of starting from “small entry points” to make a “big article” of livelihood work and handle the “matters close to the people’s hearts.” General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes: “On the basis of overall advancement, grasp the principal contradiction and the principal aspect of the contradiction, strive to make the overall situation and the parts complement each other, combine addressing both the symptoms and the root causes, and link gradual progress with breakthroughs, so as to achieve the unity of overall advancement and breakthroughs on key points.” Only by making breakthroughs on key points can we drive progress from point to area and stimulate forward momentum; only by advancing overall can we coordinate and balance the overall situation of high-quality development. To handle this relationship well, we must both enhance the integrity of reform and take key areas as breakthroughs, distinguishing priorities and urgency, acting with a sense of urgency while steadily and solidly advancing.

处理好整体推进和重点突破的关系。改善民生是一项系统工程，既要统筹兼顾、整体推进，也要抓住重点、精准施策。民生工作千头万绪，涉及方方面面，这些方面彼此交织、相互作用，某一方面的建设成效会直接或间接影响到其他方面，需要全面统筹、整体推进。比如，医改是涉及千家万户的重大民生工程，新时代以来，我国把保障人民健康放在优先发展的战略位置，持续深化医药卫生体制改革。集中采购中选药品价格平均降价超50%，耗材集采平均降价超80%，累计节约费用约3000亿元。与此同时，在民生工作中坚持两点论和重点论的统一，做到主次分明，重点清晰，善于从关键环节、重点领域或特殊人群打开突破口。以养老问题为例，通过抓居家养老、抓兜底保障、抓医养结合，完善养老服务体系，重点满足就医、就餐、照护等刚性需求，破解养老服务难题。这既是对重点领域重点人群的关切和聚焦，也是从“小切口”入手，做实民生“大文章”、办好群众“心头事”的一个缩影。习近平总书记强调：“在整体推进的基础上抓主要矛盾和矛盾的主要方面，努力做到全局和局部相配套、治本和治标相结合、渐进和突破相衔接，实现整体推进和重点突破相统一。”重点突破，才能以点带面、激发前进动力；整体推进，才能统筹协调、把握高质量发展大局。把握好两者关系，既要增强改革整体性，又要以重点领域为突破，分清轻重缓急，既只争朝夕，又稳步扎实推进。

Handle well the relationship between doing one’s utmost and acting within one’s capacity. The “Decision” [5]5 The “Decision” refers to the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-Path Modernization,” adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in July 2024. emphasizes that ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods amid development “must adhere to doing one’s utmost and acting within one’s capacity.” Doing one’s utmost is the Party’s and government’s sense of responsibility and proactive action; it emphasizes adopting more positive and effective measures to help the masses solve problems and increase their well-being to the greatest extent possible. Acting within one’s capacity is a method and wisdom; it emphasizes proceeding from reality in everything, not setting overly ambitious goals, and not making promises that cannot be fulfilled. We must follow the livelihood work approach of “holding the bottom line, highlighting key points, improving institutions, and guiding expectations.” On the one hand, we adhere to doing one’s utmost, effectively transforming the sense of responsibility of “always being unable to rest easy” [6]6 “Always being unable to rest easy” (时时放心不下) is a phrase frequently used by Xi Jinping to describe the Party’s constant vigilance and sense of responsibility toward the people’s welfare. into the action power of “having confidence in everything,” doing our utmost to solve the masses’ urgent, difficult, and anxious problems, neither shirking because the task is difficult nor neglecting because the matter is small, working year after year and pushing forward steadily. On the other hand, we adhere to acting within one’s capacity, respecting objective laws, fully considering the level and capacity of China’s economic and social development, and basing the guarantee and improvement of people’s livelihoods on sustainable economic development and financial resources, preventing unrealistic elevation that departs from the economic base and material constraints, avoiding falling into the “high-welfare trap,” strengthening inclusive, basic, and safety-net livelihood construction, and solving the interests that the people care about most, are most directly concerned with, and are most realistic. We must strengthen ex ante argumentation and risk assessment, concretely quantify livelihood projects, spend every cent wisely, strengthen fund supervision, and improve fund performance. Doing one’s utmost and acting within one’s capacity are dialectically unified in development, jointly testing the degree and level of high-quality development, and ensuring the gradual realization of common prosperity for all the people.

处理好尽力而为和量力而行的关系。《决定》强调，在发展中保障和改善民生“必须坚持尽力而为、量力而行”。尽力而为是党和政府的责任担当和主动作为，强调的是采取更为积极有效的举措，最大限度地帮群众解难题、为群众增福祉。量力而行是方法是智慧，强调一切从实际出发，不定好高骛远的目标，不作无法兑现的承诺。要遵循“坚守底线、突出重点、完善制度、引导预期”的民生工作思路。一方面，坚持尽力而为，切实把“时时放心不下”的责任感转化为“事事心中有底”的行动力，尽最大可能解决好群众的急难愁盼问题，不因事难而推诿，不因事小而不为，一年接着一年干，踏踏实实往前推；另一方面，坚持量力而行，尊重客观规律，充分考虑我国经济社会发展能力和水平，把保障和改善民生建立在经济发展和财力可持续的基础之上，防止脱离经济基础与物质限制的不切实际的拔高，避免掉入“高福利陷阱”，加强普惠性、基础性、兜底性民生建设，解决好人民最关心、最直接、最现实的利益问题。加强事前论证和风险评估，将民生实事项目具体量化，花好每一分钱，加强资金监管、提高资金绩效。尽力而为和量力而行，两者辩证统一于发展之中，共同检验着高质量发展的程度和水平，确保逐步实现全体人民共同富裕。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗