President Hu Jintao brought forward a new program of action and guiding principle that is more adaptable to the requests of the times and the wishes of the people in his report delivered on October 15 to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee. Delegates and specialists agreed that the report embodied the top concerns of the average citizen.
Amplifying the connotation of well-off society
The report on the 17th CPC National Congress raised the standard for the attainment of a well-off society that was presented at the 16th CPC National Congress.
The goal of doubling the gross domestic product (GDP) of the year 2000 by 2020 has been changed to doubling the per capita value of the GDP of the year 2000 by 2020. The new requests of reducing consumption and protecting the environment were also added in the report. The guarantee of the rights of the people and fair play of society were enhanced, and the report clearly raises the importance of the socialism core value system being deeply rooted among the people. It stresses that everybody could enjoy the basic life guarantees and basic medical service and puts forward the request of ecological culture for the first time.
Xu Xianchun, the deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said doubling the per capita value of the GDP is a stricter meaning of well-off society, because it considers the factor of the increasing population. To raise the new request of reducing consumption and protecting the environment means the new concept of well-off society is more difficult to reach. All these must bring more prominent and all-round changes to the lives of normal people in the coming five years.
Yu Jiancheng, Secretary of CPC Laiwu Committee in Shandong Province, said, "We have learned a lot of lessons on increasing quantity without developments of quality. The new report concerns more about the people's lives in the economic development of society. "
"Integration" brings more benefits
In the past five years, the Chinese government cut taxes for farmers and handed out subsidies for grain planters, implemented real compulsory education in rural areas and carried out new rural cooperative medical services. Historical changes happened in the countryside of China, which benefited from the government's integration policies of cities and rural areas.
Xu Shaohua, the Party Secretary of CPC Zhanjiang Committee in Guangdong Province, said, "integration" is the key word for rural economy development in the report of the 17th National Congress, so that farmers get more guarantees for their livelihood.
Building a social insurance system, public medical service system, medical insurance system, and medicine accommodation system, covering not only cities but also rural areas, should be accelerated. Many concrete measures are raised by the report and will benefit more than 900 million farmers in China.
Emphasizing common welfare
For the first time, education, employment, income distribution, social insurance, medical service, and social management appeared in the report of the Party Congress as a whole section.
Wang Jun, Vice Minister of Ministry of Finance, said, during construction of the harmonious society, to implement common welfare is to gradually form the public service system covering all people and to solve the problems concerning people's livelihood such as employment, medical service, housing, and education.
To build a well-off society, we cannot forget the poor people in cities and rural areas. The report says the standard of poverty relief will be gradually raised, which will benefit more than 20 million poor people.
Public services are more equalized
Imbalance development is an obstacle for the steady and fast development of the social economy in China. The report says to decrease the gap we must pay attention to the equalization of public services. The gaps of traffic problems, drinking water shortages, education, and medical conditions should be filled first.
Arken Tuniyaz, the Special Commissioner of Hotan area, said the key problem in the development of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was its southern part, in which the most laggard area was Hotan. But after years of effort, the public service establishment changed a lot and local residents live in tenement houses, drink clean water, and are educated in bilingual schools.
With the implementation of the report, the differences between areas will be gradually diminished.
More reform brings more fortune
The report highly evaluates the reform and opening-up policy of China.
Zhang Qingyuan, the director of Henan Provincial Railway Administration, said, "The five units of the Provincial Railway Administration were once facing bankruptcy, but after a series of reforms, they developed rapidly and employees earn more. But the past reform can't help companies make profit forever, so we should keep working on it. The report points out the direction for us."
Better safeguarding basic cultural rights
The report says we should improve the soft power of culture and better safeguard the cultural rights of the people. It shows the party has paid more attention to the cultural requirements of the people.
Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs and delegate to the 17th National Congress of the CPC, said the renaissance of a nation must be supported by the renaissance of culture. People get richer, so their level of culture needs to be enhanced.
Ling Jiefang, a famous writer and delegate to the 17th National Congress of the CPC, said, harmonious culture is the soul of harmonious society and the spirit supporting of the solidarity and development of the whole society.
More concrete democratic rights
The report also emphasizes the continuous development of socialist democratic politics. It said the democracy of the people should be expanded to make sure the people will be the real masters of the country, and the grass roots democracy should be developed to guarantee more concrete democratic rights of the people.
Yu Kongfeng, a delegate, said the suggestion from the report on the same election ratio of delegates between the cities and the rural areas means more voices from the rural areas could be heard.
Fu Xiaoqiu, a delegate from northeast Heilongjiang Province, agreed the importance of the development of socialist democratic politics in safeguarding people's rights.
More equal social environment
The income distribution system is a topic of particular public concern. The report says the distribution system should be deepened and the common people's income should be increased.
There are many measurements mentioned in the report to improve the income of the average citizen, such as increasing the residents' income in the national income and building an increase and guarantee mechanism for employees.
The report says the supporting policy for startup businesses should be improved. Zhou Tianyong, a professor from the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said the income disparity among people is an important problem in the development of society. The public service should be improved to relieve the burden of the poor and at the same time the taxation of high-income classes should be increased.
More beautiful living environment
Without a favorable living environment, people could not enjoy high-quality materials and political and spiritual wealth.
The delegate Ling Jiefang said, he traveled several places in recent years and found the pollution problems were serious in some places. "But with more efforts we've made, I noticed our sky is becoming bluer; our clouds are becoming whiter; and the rivers are becoming clearer."
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin October 17, 2007)
