China Focus: China eyes stronger push for common prosperity as modernization drive enters pivotal decade

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- For the world's second-largest economy, a new blueprint for development through 2030 is taking shape, with the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan submitted to China's top legislature for examination at its ongoing annual session.

The period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan is widely seen as pivotal, as China enters the final decade of its push to basically achieve socialist modernization by 2035. Beyond that milestone, the country aims to become a great modern socialist country in all respects by mid-century.

As it advances toward modernization, China places strong emphasis on ensuring that economic growth delivers broader and more balanced gains across society -- a principle embodied in the draft plan's call to make solid progress toward realizing common prosperity for all.

The pursuit of common prosperity -- addressing uneven and insufficient development, expanding the middle-income group, and improving access to essential public services for 1.4 billion people -- is presented as a defining feature of Chinese modernization, distinguishing it from Western development models.

Common prosperity also represents socialist China's response to the pressures that have fueled widening income gaps and strained social security systems in many advanced capitalist economies.

The approach reflects the long-standing people-centered philosophy of the governing Communist Party of China (CPC), which places human well-being -- rather than the maximization of capital returns -- at the heart of modernization, said Yin Jun, deputy director of the modernization research center at Peking University.

To reinforce this philosophy, the CPC in February launched a five-month education campaign on fostering a correct view of governance performance, urging Party members and officials to focus on serving the public interest and improving people's livelihoods while rejecting short-termism and showmanship.

Under such a governance philosophy, projects without immediate financial returns can still move ahead if they improve people's lives. In central China, a suspension bridge linking two remote villages across a canyon was built to give residents easier access to the outside world. Today, its dramatic scenery attracts tourists, bringing new income to local villagers.

Such examples illustrate how China's pursuit of common prosperity seeks to ensure that the gains of development reach all.

The draft calls for the basic completion of a more connected high-speed rail network featuring eight vertical and eight horizontal main routes, along with the national expressway system in the new five-year cycle. That would better connect developed and less-developed regions, smoothing the flow of resources and helping spread the gains of growth more evenly.

Contrary to Western portrayals of it as egalitarianism or redistribution that weakens market incentives, the approach aims to expand the economic "pie" while improving distribution.

Since the launch of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, China has advanced this vision by allowing some regions and groups to prosper first, encouraging them to lift others along the way.

Over time, this approach has enabled the country to maintain its position as the world's second-largest economy, cultivate the largest middle-income group globally, and steadily improve living standards.

The draft outlines a clearer path for China to carry forward the momentum in the new planning cycle, with narrowing regional and urban-rural disparities remaining high on the agenda.

Achieving common prosperity in a country as vast and diverse as China presents formidable challenges, said Yin.

Rural areas -- home to roughly 450 million people -- represent the most pressing front. The draft devotes a section to accelerating agricultural and rural modernization and advancing all-around rural revitalization.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), following the milestone achievement of eliminating absolute poverty in 2021, tangible progress has been made in consolidating those gains and advancing rural revitalization, with rural incomes growing faster than those in urban areas.

Guo Qingli, a national lawmaker from Liaoning Province and a vegetable farmer, has witnessed the changes firsthand. "Smart temperature-controlled greenhouses and faster cold-chain logistics now deliver our vegetables fresh nationwide, nearly doubling farmers' incomes over the past five years," she said.

Building on that progress, the draft proposes expanding industry- and employment-based support to foster stronger self-sustaining growth, while upgrading rural infrastructure and increasing farmers' incomes.

China has also emphasized shifting more investment toward human capital alongside traditional spending on physical infrastructure.

By prioritizing investment in people and ensuring material inputs serve human development, China aims to convert its demographic dividend into a talent dividend and unleash the internal driving force behind common prosperity, noted Zhang Rong, a national lawmaker from Fujian Province and Party chief of Xiamen University.

Employment is central to the common prosperity strategy, serving as the anchor of growth, income distribution and social mobility. In 2025, China created 12.67 million new urban jobs, and the surveyed urban unemployment rate averaged 5.2 percent, reflecting overall stability in the labor market.

The draft places "high-quality and sufficient employment" at the forefront of livelihood improvement, highlighting not only job creation but also vocational training systems that support skill development across age groups.

Efforts to shape a more "oval-shaped" income distribution will accompany these policies. Market mechanisms will continue to reward work, skills and innovation, while redistribution through taxation, social security and transfer payments will be strengthened.

Public services feature prominently in the draft plan. Education, healthcare and elderly care are treated as essential public goods. In contrast to systems where such services are heavily marketized, China seeks to maintain a stronger public role, aiming to share development gains more broadly, Zhang said.

From 2021 to 2025, over 70 percent of China's general public budget was devoted to improving livelihoods. The draft plan for the coming years highlights 20 key indicators for economic and social development, seven of which focus on employment, income, education, healthcare, elderly and childcare services, and life expectancy, reflecting a shift from basic provision toward higher-quality welfare. It also outlines major projects designed to address pressing public needs across these areas.

Public services will reach deeper into communities, extend further into rural areas, and prioritize remote regions and disadvantaged groups, the draft says. Social safety nets will offer stronger protection for vulnerable populations, including children and people with disabilities.

Decades of efforts to advance common prosperity have yielded gains in inclusive development. China now operates the world's largest education system, healthcare network, and social security framework, alongside an extensive urban housing support system. Yet demographic shifts, industrial transformation, and rising public expectations require continuous policy adaptation.

"Once China achieves common prosperity, rising incomes and a larger middle-income group are expected to create a vast consumer market, providing sustained momentum for the world economy," said Li Kai, an economics professor at Xiamen University. ■