China News Service:

The draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for Economic and Social Development and the Long-range Objectives Through the Year 2035  (referred to as the "draft outline" hereafter) explicitly points out that China will make more active and effective efforts to promote common prosperity. What are the specific measures in this regard? Thank you. 

Hu Zucai:

Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism, a shared aspiration of the Chinese people, and also a goal that our Party has been unwaveringly committed to. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), common prosperity has taken on new implications and secured more solid progress. A significant step is the complete victory in eradicating absolute poverty. Our success in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has also laid a solid foundation for promoting common prosperity. The fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee made major arrangements for the promotion of common prosperity, and for the first time in the history of the plenary sessions of our Party, set the long-range goal of " achieving more notable and substantial progress in promoting common prosperity for everyone" by 2035. Common prosperity itself is an important goal of socialist modernization. As China has embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country, we must attach greater importance to common prosperity and make a more proactive and meaningful effort to fulfill this goal.

Common prosperity has distinct features of the times as well as Chinese characteristics. As far as I'm concerned, we should have an overall understanding of common prosperity from the following four aspects:

First, common prosperity means "prosperity for all." It is not the prosperity for some people or some regions, but the shared prosperity for all Chinese people. It means that all Chinese people share the benefits of development and live a happy and fulfilling life.

Second, common prosperity refers to "comprehensive prosperity," which includes both material and spiritual prosperity. It means not only affluence in life but also confidence and self-improvement in spirit. It also entails a comfortable environment for living and working, social harmony, and universal access to public services. In short, common prosperity is to realize people's all-around development and social progress. 

Third, common prosperity points to "shared prosperity through joint contribution." Common prosperity requires the hard work and mutual assistance of all people. Everyone participates and contributes, and benefits are enjoyed by all. With concerted efforts, we build a better home and live a better life.

Fourth, common prosperity means "realizing common prosperity gradually." Achieving prosperity for all is a long-term and arduous task. It is a gradual process. We must abide by the law of development and act proactively, all the while keeping our feet on the ground and committed to persistent efforts instead of being divorced from reality. We should achieve the goal of common prosperity step by step on the road toward modernization.

The four aspects are my overall understanding of common prosperity. 

The draft outline sets the goal of making solid progress toward prosperity for all Chinese people and puts forward the requirement of making more active and effective efforts to promote common prosperity. These are actually further plans for advancing common prosperity. We should focus on the prominent contradiction of unbalanced and inadequate development; give priority to narrowing the disparities in development between urban and rural areas, and between regions, and in income distribution; and secure solid progress toward common prosperity while furthering high-quality development. In other words, we should both make the cake bigger and share it fairly. We will proactively solve problems such as wealth disparity between regions, between urban and rural areas, and in incomes. We will safeguard and improve people's livelihoods in the course of development, and enhance people's well-being by coordinating advances in employment, income distribution, education, social security, health, housing, elderly and child care, among other areas. We will pay more attention to weighting more toward rural, grassroots and less-developed areas, and disadvantaged groups, to promote social equity and justice. In this way, we hope all the people can enjoy the fruits of development in a fairer way and feel a greater sense of gain through joint contribution and shared benefits. We will pool the tremendous strengths of all the people to build China into a modern socialist country.

According to the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, the draft outline proposes that an action plan for promoting common prosperity be formulated. This is a top-level design, which will clarify the direction, goals, key tasks, pathways and methods, policies, and measures for achieving common prosperity. The NDRC is taking the lead and cooperating with relevant departments for the formulation work. In addition, the draft outline calls for supporting Zhejiang province to build a common prosperity demonstration zone through high-quality development. There, top-level design and demonstration zone construction are both being promoted. Zhejiang boasts relatively good conditions in all aspects, with its urban-rural gap, regional development, and affluence indicators all leading the country. Therefore, the draft outline makes it clear that Zhejiang will be supported to build a common prosperity demonstration zone through high-quality development. The main task is to explore institutions, mechanisms, and systems for boosting common prosperity, gain experiences that can be replicated and applied in other areas, and make solid progress in this regard. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Today's press conference is concluded. Thank you all.

Translated and edited by Duan Yaying, Huang Shan, Xiang Bin, Guo Yiming, Gong Yingchun, Li Huiru, Zhang Liying, Zhang Jiaqi, Chen Xia, Wang Mengru, Zhang Junmian, Xu Xiaoxuan, Liu Qiang, Wang Qian, Zhu Bochen, Yuan Fang, Cui Can, David Ball, Jay Birbeck, and Tom Arnstein. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.