Promoting the Modernization of a Large Population Scale through High Quality Livelihood Construction | People | Population

[In-depth study and implementation of Xi Jinping's thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era]]

Author: Li Yingsheng

China's population of over 1.4 billion has entered a modern society, with a scale exceeding the total population of existing developed countries. The difficulty and complexity are unprecedented, and the development path and promotion method will inevitably have their own characteristics. One important aspect is based on the higher standards and requirements of promoting modernization with a huge population size for people's livelihood construction, based on the practical foundation of China's outstanding achievements in people's livelihood construction since the new era, focusing on breaking the constraints of the current national conditions on high-quality people's livelihood construction, and promoting high-quality development of people's livelihood undertakings.

The significant significance of high-quality livelihood construction in promoting modernization with a huge population size

High quality livelihood construction is a key goal in promoting modernization with a huge population. Realizing people's yearning for a better life is the starting point and end result of adhering to the people centered development thought, and promoting high-quality livelihood construction is the specific requirement of the original mission of the CPC in the new era and new journey. The construction of a strong country and the rejuvenation of the nation must ultimately be reflected in the happiness and satisfaction of millions of families, and in the continuous improvement of the living well-being of millions of people. Livelihood well-being is a core indicator for measuring the degree of modernization with a huge population. Common prosperity refers to the prosperity of all people, not just a few. We must adhere to the principle of development for the people, development relying on the people, and development taking the improvement of people's well-being as the starting point, conforming to the will of the people, respecting public opinion, paying attention to people's sentiments, and dedicating ourselves to improving people's well-being, improving people's quality of life, promoting social fairness and justice, and safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods in high-quality development.

High quality livelihood construction provides human resources and development dividends for promoting modernization with a huge population size.The huge population size means a huge advantage in human resources. China has a working age population of 880 million, exceeding the total working age population of all developed countries worldwide. In the context of profound changes in population growth and structure, it is worth exploring how to organically and effectively combine the improvement of people's well-being with the improvement of human capital through high-quality livelihood construction and paradigm transformation, providing inexhaustible human resources and development dividends for promoting modernization with a huge population scale.

High quality livelihood construction provides market space and market potential for promoting modernization with a huge population. A huge population size means vast market space and considerable consumption potential. In large-scale markets, technology and products are more likely to generate economies of scale, which is conducive to promoting technological progress, improving product quality, and forming new business models, consumer brands, etc. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China requires accelerating the construction of a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the main body and domestic and international dual circulation promoting each other. China has over 400 million middle-income groups and a population of over 1.4 billion, with a per capita GDP exceeding 12000 US dollars. The market has vast development space and enormous potential. The market space and potential provided and created through high-quality livelihood construction, increasing the income of low-income individuals, expanding the middle-income group, promoting high-quality and full employment, improving the social security system, promoting the construction of a healthy China, and providing satisfactory education for the people are immeasurable and unique globally.

High quality livelihood construction creates a stable and harmonious social environment for promoting modernization with a huge population. Social stability is a prerequisite for a strong country, and modernization with a huge population cannot be achieved without a stable and harmonious social environment. To ensure national security and social stability, the key is to win the hearts of the people and uphold them. Serving the people is the fundamental path to establish the Party for the public, govern for the people, and uphold the will of the people. We will firmly grasp the most concerning, direct, and practical interests of the people, promote high-quality livelihood construction, do our best and act within our capacity, go deep into the masses and grassroots, adopt more measures that benefit and warm the hearts of the people, focus on solving the urgent and difficult problems of the people, improve the basic public service system, improve the level of public services, enhance balance and accessibility, and solidly promote common prosperity. This is an effective way to maintain a harmonious and orderly social environment, achieve, maintain, and develop the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people, and achieve modernization with a huge population size.

The reality of a huge population poses challenges to the construction of high-quality people's livelihoods in China's national conditions

The huge population size itself poses a huge challenge to people's livelihood construction. The huge population size not only means that the status of people's livelihood construction is crucial, but also means that people's livelihood issues are very complex and heterogeneous. At present, although China has fully built a moderately prosperous society, relative poverty will continue to exist for a long time, and various livelihood problems still exist, involving billions of people, including elderly people, people with disabilities, low-income urban and rural populations, migrant workers facing employment difficulties, and some unemployed college graduates. Each group has a population size of millions or even tens of millions, which is equivalent to the population of a small and medium-sized country in the world. The difficulties and needs they encounter are both similar and different. The institutional design to address their difficulties and meet their needs should reflect both commonalities and differences. This has led to the long-standing contradiction between the integration and differentiation of China's livelihood security system, where integration reflects fairness and differentiation reflects differences. To promote the construction of high-quality people's livelihoods on the new journey, we must not only handle the special protection of special groups, but also address the unfairness issues that arise from institutional differentiation or fragmentation.

Population structure changes pose challenges to people's livelihood construction. According to the data from the Seventh National Population Census, the population aged 60 and above accounts for 18.70% of the total population. It is estimated that during the 14th Five Year Plan period, the total population of elderly people aged 60 and above will exceed 300 million, accounting for over 20% of the total population; Around 2035, the population aged 60 and above will exceed 400 million, accounting for over 30% of the total population. According to the Statistical Bulletin on National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China in 2022, the total number of births and deaths in 2022 was 9.56 million, with a natural growth rate of -0.60 ‰. The changes in the natural structure of the population have made the demand for elderly care and childcare very prominent. Providing care for the elderly and having a comfortable life for the elderly are inevitable requirements, and nurturing and nurturing young children is a major measure related to the future and sustainable development of families, society, and the country. These areas have become the focus of China's livelihood construction on the new journey.

The contradiction of imbalanced and insufficient livelihood construction. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that there is still a significant gap in regional development and income distribution between urban and rural areas in China; the people face many difficulties in employment, education, healthcare, childcare, elderly care, housing, and other aspects. The problem of imbalance and inadequacy in people's livelihood construction is an old one, and it has shown a series of new characteristics in the context of the main contradictions and changes in Chinese society. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China regards the modernization of material civilization and spiritual civilization, and the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature as the Chinese characteristics of Chinese path to modernization, which enriches the connotation of people's livelihood construction and common prosperity of all people on the new journey. To promote the construction of high-quality people's livelihoods on the new journey, not only should efforts be made to improve the distribution system, implement the employment priority strategy, improve the social security system, and promote the construction of a healthy China, but also to promote common prosperity in material life. It is also necessary to reflect and enrich the spiritual life of all people from multiple dimensions, and promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

The contradiction between developing the economy, expanding the cake, improving people's livelihoods, and distributing the cake well. Currently, China remains the world's second largest economy, but any indicator calculated based on population average is still below the world average or even the world average. For a country with a huge population, developing the economy, expanding the cake, improving people's livelihoods, and distributing the cake well are all important. At present, China has a middle-income population of about 400 million, and by 2035, the size of the middle-income population will reach 800 million, forming an olive shaped social structure. To achieve this goal, on the one hand, we need to build a new development pattern and promote high-quality economic development; On the other hand, it is necessary to continuously improve the income level and social welfare level of the middle and low-income population, especially the low-income population.

The Promotion Path of High Quality Livelihood Construction on the New Journey

Taking social policy reform and innovation as the basic lever to promote high-quality livelihood construction.These important statements are requirements for implementing shared development and promoting high-quality livelihood construction, and also indicate the role space and role of social policies. Currently, in order to meet the practical needs of high-quality livelihood construction on the new journey, China's social policy and system reform and innovation have entered a stage of emphasizing and emphasizing system integration and collaborative efficiency.To this end, it is necessary to follow the general law of improving the development of people's livelihood construction, carry out top-level design and optimization innovation of social policies, govern in accordance with the law, strictly constrain, finely manage, and digitally empower, and coordinate the high-quality development of people's livelihood construction.

Emphasis is placed on improving the basic institutional system of social policies and addressing issues related to people's livelihoods in a comprehensive manner; We should also pay attention to solving prominent contradictions, and meet the needs of the people for a better life by addressing the imbalance and inadequacy of people's livelihood construction. Currently, "one elderly and one young" social services have become a prominent issue and a top priority in social policy reform and innovation on the new journey; After the five-year transition period of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and effectively connecting with rural revitalization, relative poverty governance will become a long-term goal in the future. There is no precedent in China, a country with a huge population, to promote high-quality livelihood construction. Whether it is to solve the urgent needs of the people or promote common prosperity, the complexity and difficulty are unprecedented. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to the combination of system improvement and key breakthroughs, and promote the continuous progress of people's livelihood security.

Handle the relationship between making and distributing cakes well, and do our best and within our capacity to promote high-quality livelihood construction. Economic development and expanding the cake are prerequisites and foundations for promoting the guarantee and improvement of people's livelihoods. Therefore, the relationship between social policies and economic development must be well handled. The innovative development of social policies in the new era must highlight the investment in human capital of the people, increase education, employment training, employment positions, and people's income. The policy orientation should particularly emphasize the support of intelligence, determination, technology, empowerment, and empowerment, leveraging the enthusiasm, initiative, enterprising spirit, and creativity of policy objects, enhancing their human capital, social capital, and economic capital, and continuously opening up the path of benefiting people's livelihoods and economic development. We must have a clear understanding that high-quality livelihood construction should be done to the best of our ability and within our capacity.On the new journey, improving people's livelihoods is a gradual process and cannot be achieved overnight. Work one thing after another, year after year, steadily and gradually improve.

To promote the construction of high-quality people's livelihoods, we must adhere to the leadership of the Party and leverage the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Practice has proven that under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, leveraging the significant advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in concentrating efforts to accomplish major tasks, the people of all ethnic groups in the country can gather various forces, mobilize resources, work together, and efficiently and effectively accomplish major tasks related to people's livelihoods around the common goal of improving people's livelihoods. On the new journey, we must unwaveringly adhere to the leadership of the Party, leverage the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, promote the continuous progress of people's livelihood security, achieve high-quality development of people's livelihood security, and continuously advance the modernization of the huge population scale.