Section 3: The leadership of ideological work

Section 2: Ensuring and improving people’s livelihood in the course of development

People’s livelihood is one of the main contents of social construction. The basic people’s livelihood with education, employment, income distribution, social security, medicine and public health, and housing as the main contents is the most direct and realistic issue of interest of the broad masses of the people

In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to continuously guarantee and improve people’s livelihood, realize a virtuous circle between economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood in the process of development, continuously improve people’s livelihood and well-being, and realize people’s happiness and well-being.

1. improving people’s livelihood and well-being is the fundamental purpose of development

Continuously improving the people’s living standards on the basis of economic development is the fundamental purpose of all the work of the party and the state. To test the effectiveness of all our work, we must ultimately see whether the people have really benefited from the benefits and whether their lives have been truly improved. If our development fails to respond to the expectations of the people and to achieve, safeguard and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, such development will be meaningless and cannot be sustained.

Our development is people-centered. We must always adhere to the principle that development is for the people, development depends on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, and on the basis of promoting sustained and healthy economic development, ensure that all the people have a greater sense of gain in joint construction and shared development. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The people-centered development ideology is not an abstract and esoteric concept, which cannot only stop at the verbal and ideological links, but must be embodied in all links of economic and social development.” 1 It is necessary to start by solving the prominent problems of general concern to the masses, think about what the masses think, be anxious about what the masses are anxious about, and solve the difficulties of the masses, do a good job in the construction of inclusive, basic, and thorough people’s livelihood, do one thing after another, work year after year, move forward with perseverance, and continue to make new progress in key areas related to basic people’s livelihood.

What is very important here is to correctly understand and grasp the relationship between economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood. The economy and people’s livelihood are two legs, and they must be coordinated with each other in order to be unified in steps. After decades of leapfrog development, in the process of summing up the lessons learned from economic and social development at home and abroad, we fully realize that GDP is not the fundamental purpose of development, and at no time can we follow the wrong path of only wealth growth without human development, only aggregate growth without fairness and justice.

We also realize that economic development is the premise of improving people’s livelihood and well-being, without economic development, improving people’s livelihood will become a source of water and a tree without roots, so we must firmly grasp the center of economic construction, further expand the “cake” in promoting high-quality economic development, and lay a more solid material foundation for improving people’s livelihood. We also realize that to grasp people’s livelihood is to grasp development. Continuously improving people’s livelihood and well-being can effectively solve the worries of the broad masses of the people, not only mobilize the enthusiasm of the people to develop production, but also enhance social consumption expectations, expand domestic demand, give birth to new economic growth points, and provide a strong endogenous driving force for China’s economic transformation and upgrading. Such a dialectical understanding, embodied in specific work, is to fully grasp the relationship between people’s livelihood and development that affects and conditions each other, not only lays a solid material foundation for continuous improvement of people’s livelihood through economic development, but also creates more effective demand for economic development through continuous improvement of people’s livelihood, and realizes the effective docking, virtuous circle and complementarity of people’s livelihood and development. To improve people’s livelihood, we must do our best and do what we can. It is necessary to persist in seeking more benefits for the people’s livelihood and alleviating more worries about the people’s livelihood from the perspective of safeguarding the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, gradually improving the people’s living standards in accordance with the economic development and financial situation, so that the masses can get visible and tangible benefits, and let the fruits of development benefit all the people more and more fairly. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that improving people’s livelihood “does not sit still, give two comparisons, and do not spend the money that should be spent, nor is it good to be far away, eat too much food, and pay lip service.”1 We must see that China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will be for a long time, and the improvement of people’s livelihood cannot be separated from this greatest national condition. The government should be committed to improving people’s livelihood, but this does not mean that it must take care of everything, the main thing is to ensure the basics, do what can be done under realistic conditions, do more key people’s livelihood work, do not make too many excessive commitments, and must not engage in populism. Some welfare countries in the West have fallen into the vicious circle of excessive welfare, and some developing countries in Latin America have fallen into the “middle-income trap”, which is a wake-up calling.6 It is necessary to give full play to the redistribution function of people’s livelihood work, but also to give full play to the function of people’s livelihood work to stimulate vitality and promote development. “It is not difficult to work hard in the world”, and it is necessary to make all the people realize through various channels that labor is the source of wealth and the source of happiness.

Firmly establish the concept of the most glorious labor, the most noble labor, the greatest labor and the most beautiful labor, further rejuvenate the enthusiasm for labor, release the creative potential, and create a better life through hard work, honest labor and creative labor. Correctly handling the relationship between people’s livelihood and development, and achieving the unity of doing our best and doing what we can, is reflected in the idea of people’s livelihood construction, that is, sticking to the bottom line, highlighting key points, improving systems, and guiding expectations. Stick to the bottom line, that is, implement social security that mainly guarantees basic livelihood, and ensure that the people in need are guaranteed as much as possible, so that no one can be left behind. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that in our socialist country, there must be no phenomenon of “Zhumen wine smells of flesh and bones, and the road has frozen bones”, “For the people in difficulty, we must pay special attention, special love, and special concern, do everything possible to help them solve their worries and difficulties, always keep the safety and well-being of the masses in mind, and send the warmth of the party and government to thousands of households.“1 In other words, we must weave a social safety net, give play to the supporting role of social policies, and give hope to the needy people. Highlight the key points, that is, the concept of people’s livelihood should not be too generalized, and should emphasize the basic people’s livelihood with poverty alleviation, education, employment, income distribution, social security, medicine and health and population as the main contents, highlight key areas, key groups, key systems, and highlight equal opportunities. Improving the system means that the construction of China’s social undertaking system should focus on promoting the full coverage, fairness and sustainability of the system, and solve the problems of large regional differences and institutional fragmentation through the establishment and improvement of institutional mechanisms. Guiding expectations means guiding people to form reasonable expectations. While focusing on improving people’s livelihood and innovating social governance, the party and government should also focus on doing ideological and political work to make the level of social security compatible with the current level of economic and social development.

2. Earnestly resolve the most direct and practical interests of the masses

To ensure and improve people’s livelihood in the process of development, it is necessary to carry out institutional innovation in various specific fields of people’s livelihood, and continuously make new progress in such areas as providing education for the young, learning and teaching, earning income from labor, treating the sick, providing care for the elderly, housing and housing, and supporting the weak, so that the people can have more, more direct and more tangible sense of gain, happiness and security

1. Do a good job in running education that satisfies the people.

A strong education is a strong country. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “Education is an important cornerstone of national rejuvenation and social progress, a moral and political project that contributes to the contemporary era and benefits the future, and is of decisive significance for improving the comprehensive quality of the people, promoting the all-round development of the people, enhancing the vitality of innovation and creativity of the Chinese nation, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Education is the great plan of the country and the party.“1 Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the proportion of state financial education funds to GDP has always remained above 4%, laying a solid economic foundation for the all-round development of education. The concept of modern education has been deepened, and the ability of educational innovation has been significantly improved, laying a solid talent foundation for China’s education to achieve modernization and enter the forefront of innovative countries.

We must give priority to education and strive to build a modern educational power. In terms of educational equity, through the tilted allocation of resources, counterpart assistance, the establishment of school associations, special subsidies for rural teachers, etc., we will gradually realize the equitable allocation of deep-level resources such as teachers, and strive to fully realize the equalization of urban and rural compulsory education resources within the county by 2020, and strive to enable every child to enjoy a fair and high-quality education. Further implement the reform of the non-compulsory education system, exempt students from poor rural families from ordinary high school miscellaneous fees, and by 2020 achieve universal high school education, so that the vast majority of junior high school graduates can continue to receive high school education, continue to increase the proportion of candidates in rural areas attending universities, especially key universities, and ensure sufficient social upward mobility. In terms of the quality of education, vigorously develop preschool education so that more preschool children can receive preschool education. Continue to improve the vocational education and training system and form a lifelong vocational training system. Accelerate the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines, do a good job in running ideological and political theory courses, enhance students' sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit, and practical ability, and realize the connotative development of higher education.