英文阅读：Messages of hope for working class
For the grassroot masses, the policies-setting report delivered at theonce-every-five-year national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is
probably too multifarious and too macro-sounding to study.
The one passed by the just concluded 17th National Congress of the CPC,
however, contains some encouraging messages that are manifestly new. One of them
is the emphasis on the improvement of people's livelihood. Compared to reports
in previous congresses, a larger part of the policy statement is devoted to the
issue with more explicit wording about what should be done to ensure the
improvement.
The report says that the share given to labor in the primary distribution
of wealth should be raised and that the relationship between efficiency and
fairness be "handled properly". This marked the first ever acknowledgement that
the share of after-production profits laborers obtained as compared to that
garnered by other productive elements was unfairly low.
In the last 20 years of the past century, China took on market-oriented
reform and went all out to ensure a fast economic growth. Counteracting the
previous egalitarianism, which was intrinsically a haven for poor work
performance, the nation accepted the notion that efficiency has priority over
fairness.
The notion was right at that time as it was a sobering stimulant for
Chinese who had become accustomed to the practice of "eating from the same rice
wok". And efficiency did play a vital role in the dramatic growth of China's
national economy since the launch of the reform drive at the end of the
1970s.
The nearly two-digit annual growth of the economy over the past 28 years
has benefited all strata of society - to different extents. Anyone who is
faithful to facts will admit that the living standard of the Chinese people has
been raised by a huge margin.
However, after more than 20 years, people have begun to think if the
"efficiency prioritized over fairness" approach is still justifiable. Every
truth is relative in nature depending on the conditions under which it is
applied. What was right in the past may not be applicable today. When developing
economy and shaking off poverty as quickly as possible was the top demand of the
whole nation, sacrificing fairness to ensure high economic efficiency was the
only alternative for the Chinese people. But now, when the national wealth has
increased to a considerably large extent (ours is now the fourth largest economy
in the world with the largest foreign exchange reserve), a fairer distribution
of revenue among different members of the economy should be put on our agenda,
given the fact that the income distribution gaps have widened remarkably and the
rich-poor disparity has worsened to an alarming extent.
The past practice of compensating laborers in the so-called redistribution
(such as in the forms of poverty-relief funds and individual financial
management) had little efficacy. For most laborers, wage is the only source of
income. An increase in this form of primary distribution is the most substantial
benefit for common laborers.
The decision to raise labor's share in the primary distribution comes just
in time. And there are reasons for us to believe that China is bound to head for
a "fairer society with greater justice" as stated in the Party report. The
belief is based on the fact that in the past five years since the 16th National
Congress of the CPC, a number of policies have been implemented to bring
substantive benefits to rural and low-income urban residents. For instance, the
scrapping of the agriculture tax, the enforcement of free compulsory education
in rural areas, and the several hikes in pensions for retirees of all
enterprises.
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