Complete the Building of a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

全面建成小康社会

(Quan Mian Jian Cheng Xiao Kang She Hui)

A moderately prosperous society is a strategic idea of China’s economic and social development proposed by Deng Xiaoping in 1979. As the ultimate goal of Chinese modernization, a moderately prosperous society is a stage where people have adequate food and clothing but which is not yet a well-off society. Its goals include people’s livelihood, and economic, political and social development. As the nation progresses, the connotation of a moderately prosperous society is constantly enriched. By the end of the 20th century, China had entered a moderately prosperous society in general. However, it was still low-leveled, non-comprehensive and unevenly-developed. In this context, the Communist Party of China (CPC) put forth in the report to its 16th National Congress a higher standard of “building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.” In the Report to the 18th CPC National Congress launched in 2012, the term was revised as “complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.”

China started its policy of reform and opening up in 1978. In the 30 years that followed, China’s economy took off. Now it is in a new era of rapid economic development and modernization. China has gone through a series of challenges such as international financial crisis, and adapted to the “new normal” of economic development. As a result, China has seen great progresses in the past five years, becoming the world’s second-largest economy with per capita GDP increasing to US$7,800. At present, as compared to the period when reform and opening up began, China’s main objective is a bit different, i.e., “building a moderately prosperous society” in “ all respects,” which means that it will benefit not only sections of the population, but all of the country’s 1.3 billion people. Bidding farewell to the stage of “letting a part of people get rich first,” China is now moving towards common prosperity.

The next five years (by 2020) are described as being decisive for building a moderately prosperous society in the CPC Central Committee’s Proposal on Formulating the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020) on National Economic and Social Development. The proposal requires medium-high economic growth and aims to double China’s 2010 GDP and per capita income of both urban and rural residents by 2020. The proposal also lists attaining higher living standards, achieving poverty alleviation under the prevalent poverty line and creating a better eco-environment as targets for the next five years.

The proposal says that agriculture is the foundation of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and that helping the rural population out of poverty is the most arduous task in realizing this goal.

Excerpts from the proposal are:

Vigorously promote agricultural modernization. Accelerate the transformation of the growth model of agricultural development, and develop moderate-scale agricultural operations in diverse forms as the leading force of modern agriculture construction.

Construct a policy system to foster new types of agricultural business entities. Nurture new-style professional farmer. Deepen reform of the rural land system. Perfect the rural collective property right and interest. Deepen rural financial reform, and promote the develop­ment of the agricultural insurance sy­stem.

Ensure abundant and quality farm production. Explore the establishment of functional food production areas and protection zone for important agricultural products. Strengthen comprehensive agriculture benefit.

Promote agricultural standardization and IT application. Improve the quality and safety of the regulation system during the full process of agricultural production, technological innovation and promotion system for modern agriculture, and the agricultural social service system. Increase the level of agricultural mechanization. Improve the agricultural subsidy policy. Improve the storage system for grain and other important agricultural products. Strengthen the construction of facilities for the flow of agricultural products and the market.

Implement poverty alleviation project. Take targeted measures for poverty alleviation and shaking off poverty. Implement corresponding tactics according to different situations to improve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation. Provide support according to different classification of poor families. Implement the subsistence security system and poverty alleviation to guarantee insurance for the poor.

Published in the ISSUE 3 of CHINA-INDIA DIALOGUE