Abstract

The theme of Research Re p ort on China Social Develo p ment 2018 is“Striving to better the people’s life”．This report consists of 1 introduction，12 chapters and 1 appendix with an indepth analysis of the striking inadequacies that affect people’s sense of fulfillment，happiness and security in 12 basic areas．These areas are related to people’s livelihood and wellbeing such as targeted poverty reduction，employment，education，income distribution，medical and healthcare service，elderly care service，housing and housing security，social security，food and medicine safety，culture and sports service，population development and ecological environment．

Since the 18th CPC National Congress，under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core，we have a clearer direction of where people’s livelihoods and well-being are headed，improving institution effectiveness，and the most remarkable achievements．Thanks to constraining objective conditions，there are pronounced problems as unbalanced and inadequate development in the way to improve livelihoods and wellbeing．The 19th National Congress Report has stressed that“we must prioritize the important，address the inadequate and compensate for the weakness”and“strengthen the weakness in the development of livelihoods”．Fundamentally，this requires us to recognize the change of people’s needs from the prospective of development and scientifically understand people’s new needs for a better life．

People-centered development is one of the core principles of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era．It is also a fundamental guide to action for improving social security and people’s wellbeing，as well as strengthening andinnovating social administration and governance．In practice，the key to people-centered development is to put the people’s interests above all else，and make sure that the gains of reform and development are shared among all our people in a fair way．We will make sure that everyone performs their duties and shares the benefits；we will never compromise the bottom line，and we will prioritize key areas，improve institution effectiveness，and guide public expectations．We will improve the public service system，ensure people’s basic quality of life，and keep up with people’s ever-growing needs for a better life．We will continue to promote social justice，develop effective social governance，and maintain public order．With this we should see that our people will always have a strong，selfassured and sustainable sense of fulfillment，happiness，and security．Among these，it is the top priority of practical work to address inadequacies．

The introduction of this report analyzes the historical background，current situation and common causes of inadequacies in improving people’s livelihood and wellbeing．Based on these，we propose several pieces of advice on addressing inadequacies in the process of development and establishing development mode with Chinese Characteristics．As this report points out，we must balance between development and people’s livelihood and wellbeing，the collective and the individual，supply and demand，leading the people and serving the people，so as to exploring a sound universal-sharing mode that both suits with our national context and has Chinese Characteristics．Meanwhile，we should try to avoid various risks that might emerge during the social advancement in the New Era，and keep a watchful eye on the possible negative social effects produced when improving people’s livelihood and wellbeing，“on the discordant development between economic and society”，on social ruptures before breaking the cycle of social exclusion．Besides，we must promote institutional innovation regarding to social security and activate the vitality of market and society．

Chapter 1 focuses on problems in targeted poverty reduction area．Under the top-down pressure，some local governments seek for quick but shortsighted success when trying to complete poverty reduction missions．Some local governments rely too much on orders from the above and ignore the function of market and society，failing to activate the autonomy of poverty population．resources distribution to reduce poverty leads to new social inequality and development disparity．Urbanization’s impact on poverty problems receives no effective countermeasures or responses．To solve the problems above，the author suggests that we should establish or improve longterm poverty reduction system，construct a multiple-administration framework，enhance rural development and coordinate poverty governance between the urban and rural area．

Chapter 2 analyzes the current situation of employment and new targets and tasks in the future．The employment situation nationwide remains stable and full employment has been basically achieved，especially due to the great attention of the Party and the government，economic development and optimized economic structure，and the bonus from the reform and policy as well．However，there are still some acute problems in employment．At the macro level，the ever-growing pressure of full employment co-exists with structural contradictions．At the individual level，some laborers“find it difficult to find a job and even more so to find a goodjob”．The factors that contribute to this situation are complicated and multiple，the economic transformation，the tension between supply and demand of human resources，the lag of social values and beliefs，and a lack of relevant policies to name a few．In the future，our country’s employment should be developed in the direction of“better quality”，which indicates that more efforts should be made on market guidance and policy support．

Chapter 3 analyzes the acute inadequacies in education area．It has been 40 years since the reform and opening-door policy was launched．Our country’s education has made remarkable achievement．Meanwhile，we encounter prominant problems of unbalanced and inadequate development，including“inaccessibility to quality kindergartens”，the“school-choice craze”during the compulsory education stage（which is becoming more and more prevalent in medium and small cities），severe rural education problems，difficulty for rural migrant workers’children to“go to urban school”，for instance．Insufficient supply of education resources，unbalance distribution of high-quality education resources and inequality of institutions are the main reasons of those problems mentioned．To address inadequacies in education area，efforts should be made to promote education equality andimprove education quality．

Chapter 4 analyzes striking problems in our country’s income distribution area．Firstly，income gap on the whole is still too wide and the Gini Coefficient remains a relatively high level in the world．Secondly，residents fail to sense the slowly-falling Gini Coefficient in recent years，thus they have a relatively strong sense of social injustice．Thirdly，to some extent，stagnant income fluency has emerged in rural and urban area．Fourthly，middle income group which is small in proportion have a strong sense of relative deprivation，and therefore a low social-status identification．Differences in individual’s income sources and talents，inequality in government’s redistribution and household differences in human and social capital investments all lead to inequality of income distribution．It is suggested that we should promote education equality，enhance the function of government redistribution and enlarge middle income group．

Chapter 5 analyzes problems existing in national health service area．Problems of“being difficult and expensive to see a doctor”have not been fundamentally solved yet．Demand for community-level medical service is not satisfied．Conflicts between 4 doctors and patients are still serious．The public still lack a scientific health knowledge．Imperfection of medical care security system，failure of medical insurance policy，ineffective reform of medical administrations，disordered industry supervising and lack of migrant perspective in distribution of medical resources lead to problems mentioned above．In the long term，to improve national health care system，we need to aim at“BIG HEALTH”strategy and rethink health service from three macro perspectives，which are life-course，progress-of-health-care service and whole-population．Besides，we should handle the relationship between“government”and“market”properly in order to achieve effective distribution of medical resources．

Chapter 6 focuses on the development of our country’s elderly care service．Currently，we are facing“three thorny issues”，thatis，“the difficulties of elderly care”by the family，“of operation”by the market，and“of being administrated”by the government．Aging population，incompatibility between development of elderly care service and social values on elderly care，social-economic characteristics of“becoming aging before getting rich”andimperfection of elderly care policy are all the main causes of these problems．This proposes new requests on top-level design and institution improvement to elderly care service．It is also suggested that long-term elderly care system be established and social environment of elderly care be built．Besides，we can develop E-elderly-care with the help of information technology．

Chapter 7 focus on problems of housing and housing security，which is people’s very big concern．The principle of our country’s housing advancement in the New Era is that“A house is for dwelling，not for speculation”．Currently，we are still facing so many challenges in housing area，such as people’s lack of confidence on housing prices control，imperfection of renting market，insufficient support for housing policy，failure to meet the public’s demands for government-subsidized housing，et.al．Growth-focused mission and bargain between central and local governments have weakened the effectiveness of price control．Weak market supervising and unequal rights for housing purchase and renting have limited the development of renting market．The policy system of housing security and flaws of supply system have weakened the function of government-subsidized housing．To solve these problems，it is urgent to establish a housing system that ensures supply through multiple sources，provides housing support through multiple channels，and encourages both housing purchase and renting．

Chapter 8 analyzes acute problems of social security．Firstly，unbalanced and inadequate development on the whole remains pronounced，the different original designs for different categories of institutions have resulted in the great disparities in welfare．For example，there are relatively huge differences of basic pension schemes between employees，rural and nonworking urban residents and employees of public institutions．So is the case of the differences between free medical care，basic medical insurance for urban employees and rural and non-working urban residents．Secondly，the fact that pension schemes remain a low level under national unified management not only violates the basic principle of social insurance with a negative impact on the efficiency of that institution，but affects free flows of people with talents and labor force as well．Thirdly，the postponed retirement age policy has not been executed yet．Fourthly，there are inadequacies in subsistence allowances system，including inaccurate identification of low income people，repeated social welfare，disconnection from one institution to anothers．To promote social security system，we need to deepen reform in the system，based on the wishes of people and consensus．

Chapter 9 focuses on our country’s food and medicine safety problems．The food and medicine safety concerns the health and living quality of people and thus receive much attention．Problems in this area include failure of some food and medicine to reach the quality standard，pesticides and veterinary drugs residual or heavy metal on edible agricultural products exceeding the limits，disorder in health food industry，rumors of food and medicine safety discouraging consumers and controversies on the security of GMF（genetically modified food）．Difficulty and inadequate effort on supervising，lack of experience to supervise“Internet-plus”industry and prevailing local protectionism are main causes of existing problems．Supervising system needs to be improved，especially to adapt to the development of“Internetplus”industry and sharing economy and to put the supervision work into practice．

Chapter 10 focuses problems in culture and sports area．Firstly，shortage of supply，structural imbalance and inadequate management lead to insufficient public sports and cultural facilities．Secondly，there exists imbalance distribution of facilities and resources，such as the tendency of facilities being concentrated in urban and central areas．Thirdly，irregular management of facilities tends to hold the principle of“Construction First，Management Second”，limiting the function of those facilities．The monotonous source of funding，insufficient government investment，irregular policy execution，outdated management institutions and cultural industry’s failure to recognize the relationship between economic and social benefits are the main causes of the problems above．It is suggested that based on the principle of“increasing supply”and“activating available resources”，we should specify government accountability，improve management institutions，introduce social forces through verified channels，strengthen the“execution”of policy，establish scientific evaluation standard and institutions of cultural products and promote“Internet-plus public cultural and sports service”．

Chapter 11 focuses on our country’s challenges of population development．In general，our country’s population development has come to the New Normal state since 1990s．The population gross remains an inertial growth and the growthis slowing．Great improvement can be seen in national health quality and the average life expectancy has increased．The level of population urbanization is steadily rising and the population mobility is growing．Low birth rate and structural imbalance are the main challenges of population development in our country，which stands out as the accelerating aging issue that affects traditional household function．To achieve balanced and sustainable development of population in a long period is a long-term goal in our country．As a result，we should make proper strategies based on empirical research，with raising birth rate and reshaping g household lying at the heart．

Chapter 12 focuses on significant problems in ecological environment area．After 4 decades of reform and opening-up，rapid development has been achieved in different aspects of socioeconomic in our country，but“extensive”development modes in the past have brought about lots of environment problems．In recent years，air pollution（smog mainly）and water pollution have become biggestenvironment concerns．Besides，the process of ecological advancement is facing extra challenges from some internal flaws in management institutions of environmental protection．To solve these problems，we should figure out solutions to each specific problem，starting from institution building，improve the management institutions of environmental protection．

The appendix shows the results of Survey on the Sense of Development Fulfillment and Satisfaction of livelihoods and Wellbeing in 2017，which was conducted by National Survey Research Center at Renmin University of China．The results show that most people have sensed and approved the development of wellbeing areas in recent years．People’s sense of happiness，fulfillment and confidence has increased．Nearly 80％interviewees felt happy in their life，86％considered that development in recent years had raised level of their material life and 86％felt confident to the future．Meanwhile，we should bear in mind that problems of imbalance and insufficient development have become the main difficulties and obstacles in current process of wellbeing development．Gaps between the urban and rural area are still wide，social and and reginonal disparities are still large．The gains of reform and development therefore should fairly shared among different regions in our country and different social groups in our society．The imbalance and insufficient development in wellbeing area exert negative impact on people’s everincreasing needs for a better life and on the improvement of people’s sense of fulfillment．We should put more efforts in wellbeing advancement that is inclusive，fundamental and helpful to those most in need．We should make the gains of reform and development in wellbeing area palpable so that people’s sense of fulfillment，happiness and security can be strengthened．