Chapter 1 The Role of Happiness in People’s Lives 001
Investigating Chinese people’s happiness 001
Who has the fnal say about people’s well-being? 012
New highlights of people’s expectations on livelihood 025
New measures of ministries and departments for people’s livelihood 033
Chapter 2 Tomorrow’s Housing 041
Let “everyone have a place to live in“ 041
Where is China‘s property market going? 048
Where are the construction funds coming from? 059
How to cope with the interest chain 073
How to realize “sunshine” distribution 084
“Twin diffculties” of access and return 090
Chapter 3 In the Sunlight of Equal Education 112
New horizon opened up by education reform 112
Wave of choosing schools — dilemma of inadequate supply 129
Independent recruitment: a battle of cherry picking 141
Why is it hard for a poor family to nurture a successful child? 148
Chapter 4 Chinese-style Medical Reform 161
Implementation plan for medical reform in the 12th Five-Year
Plan period 161
Six issues related to the diffculty and high cost of seeking medical
treatment 176
Breakthroughs are needed in the reform of public hospitals 186
Chapter 5 Sharing the Fruits of Development 198
General plan for income distribution reform 198
Who is in charge of my salary? 208
A white-collar worker’s life of coping with in?ation 220
How to defne the term "middle-income group"? 228
Tax reduction progress in China 233
Chapter 6 Broadening Channels for Employment 253
Prioritize the development of employment 253
Employment discrimination and equality 265
New appeals of the new generation of migrant workers 283
Chapter 7 Building a Social Security System 295
Developing a more equitable social security system 295
How can pensions and medical insurance roam nationwide? 317
How to keep and increase value of pensions 326
Introduction
People’s livelihood and opinions are not a small matter, and even the smallest caring gesture can exert far-reaching influences. In recent years, the Party and the government have adhered to the protection and improvement of people’s livelihood as the starting point and the foothold and attached much importance to people’s livelihood in the financial crisis to boost people’s confidence. As the CPI (Consumer Price Index) goes up, they have continued to focus on people’s livelihood and stabilization of prices; in times of economic transformation, people’s livelihood is not neglected, and their happiness and dignity are valued.
Create a happy tomorrow for people
Take the improvement of people’s livelihood as the starting point and foothold of government work
In 2012, in the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, people’s livelihood issues were of great concern. These concerns include education, health care, employment and other issues difficult to tackle, as well as property market regulation, price regulation, food safety and other main concerns.
“In recent years, our country’s public revenue has mainly been spent on health care, education, insurance and other fields which embody the superiority of the socialist system, and fully demonstrate our ability, confidence, and determination to enable all citizens to share on an equal basis the fruits of reform and development.“
A member of the 11th CPPCC National Committee and the vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, Wan Exiang said: “People have needs, and the government meets them. Every year the government work report should respond to the people’s livelihood.“ Zheng Fan, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (TDSGL) talked about “the specific amount of new rural cooperative medical system, radio and TV — three measures for rural areas... The report explains in detail the specific problems of many people’s concerns rather impressively.”
“Starting point“ and “foothold“ — the two keywords that appear annually highlight the safeguarding and improvement of people’s livelihood in the Party and the government’s work.
? The 2008 government work report put forward: Take it as the starting point and the foothold of government work to effectively realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the most people. Pay more attention to ensuring and improving people’s livelihood, particularly responding to and solving the diffculties of people with low incomes in urban and rural areas, so that all the people can share the fruits of reform and development.
? In the face of the international financial crisis, the government work report in 2009 made the following commitments: to keep ensuring and improving the people’s livelihood as the starting point and the foothold of economic work; to implement a more active employment policy; to promote growth and increase employment closely together with the improvement of people’s livelihood, enabling people to share the fruits of reform and development.
? In 2010, the government work report emphasized: take improvement of the people’s livelihood as the starting point, foothold and lasting power for economic development, strive to safeguard fairness and justice, and ensure that everybody shares the fruits of reform and development, so as to promote social harmony and stability.
? In 2011, the government work report put forward: take a people-oriented approach to ensure and improve people’s livelihood as the starting point and foothold of all work, resolutely pursue the road of common prosperity
to ensure that the benefits of development are shared by everybody.
? This year’s In 2012, the government work report reiterated the promise: adhere to ensuring and improving people’s well-being as the fundamental starting point and the foothold, and to promoting social fairness and justice more prominently, to benefit people. People’s livelihood and opinions are by no means a small matter, so even the smallest caring gesture can exert far-reaching influences.
In recent years, the Party and the government have adhered to the protection and improvement of people’s livelihood as a starting point and foothold, attaching importance to people’s livelihood in times of financial crisis to boost confidence; as the CPI rises, they still focus on people’s livelihood and price stability; in economic transformation, people’s livelihood is not neglected, and their happiness and dignity are valued.
Wang Linxu, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and vice president of Minzu University of China, said, "From the fve government work reports, we can see not only the responsibility and mission of the times but
also the deep concerns about people’s livelihood. Taking people’s livelihood as the starting point and the foothold is no empty talk, but down-to-earth action and measures.
Place the promotion of social fairness and justice in a more prominent position
In January 2008, Hu Xiaoyan, a migrant worker, was elected as an NPC deputy. Over the past four years, she has made a number of recommendations, including optimizing migrant workers’ living and employment environment, improving the education of left-behind children, and gradually providing legal basis for migrant workers to be treated the same as urban residents. These recommendations have attracted much attention from the Party and the government.
“Migrant workers have made a great contribution to social development but cannot enjoy the same social welfare and treatment. That’s not reasonable,“ she said.
From the law to ensure migrant workers are paid in full and on time in 2008, to the formulation and implementation of migrant workers’ endowment insurance in 2009; from the improvement of conditions for migrant workers and urban and rural labor employment capabilities put forward in 2010, to changing the status of a certain number of migrant workers living in cities and towns with stable labor relations for a certain number of years gradually into urban residents put forward in 2011, and then to strengthening care and service for migrant workers in 2012, much effort has been put into solving the practical problems facing migrant workers in employment services, social security, access to education for their children, housing tenure and other practical problems.
In the 5th government work report, issues concerning workers were discussed in greater length. There are more employment policies on improving their living conditions with ever wider application.
Hu Xiaoyan said that in her opinion, to eliminate the differences between rural and urban areas for all people enjoy the same treatment meant the meaning of happiness and the dignity of life.
Adhere to reform and development; always bear in mind to benefit people and make them rich.
As the state pays more attention to optimizing the structure of fiscal expenditure, stressing key points, attaching more importance to people’s livelihood, and strengthening weak links in the process, migrant workers and more other groups as well have received the benefts.
Many members said the arrangements in the government work report fully re?ect the determination of the government to promote social fairness and justice to help poor people in impoverished areas. Housing is a livelihood need. An NPC deputy, Ma Yuanzhu, said in 2012 the construction of 7 million low-income housing units will be started, which will, in addition to the 10 million units under construction since last year, help solve the housing problems of some migrant workers and urban underprivileged. This highlights the great efforts the government is making to help the “sandwich class“ in the cities.
Employment is the basis of people’s livelihood. “In the government work report, the employment problem has been repeatedly mentioned, including the employment of graduates, and migrant workers specifically. Now, the difficulty lies not only in employment but also in recruitment. Once the government intervenes, such structural contradictions will be relieved,“ said Fujian NPC deputy Gao Xiaoming.
Social security is the foundation of social stability. NPC deputy and Renmin University professor, Zheng Gongcheng thinks China’s social security system will achieve complete coverage this year, so the aspiration to make the security system accessible to everybody will be realized. Therefore, people pay more attention to the system of fairness, to narrowing the gap between different groups, so that the whole society can develop soundly towards fairness, justice and shared values.
In a review of the measurements for people’s livelihood in the 5th government work report, many deputies said that everybody must be able to share the fruits of reform and development, highlighting the fact that the government pays more attention to promoting social fairness and justice, and the determination and power of the government to help the underprivileged and impoverished areas.
