Completing the Building of a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects
A moderately prosperous society is an ideal society that the Chinese nation has pursued since ancient times. The vision of such a society was raised by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the roadmap for China’s economic and social development was being crafted. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the whole nation, the goal of a markedly improved life for the people had become a basic reality by the end of the 20th century.
Taking this into consideration, in its report to the 16th National Congress in 2002 the CPC Central Committee called for a continued push to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the first 20 years of the 21st century. New and more ambitious elements were subsequently added to this expanded concept at the Party’s 17th National Congress in 2007. In its report to the 18th National Congress in 2012 the CPC Central Committee announced the goal of completing the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the year 2020.
While “a moderately prosperous society” sets the goal for a higher level of social-economic development, “in all respects” requires balanced, sustainable, and properly coordinated development. The toughest and heaviest task is to help rural areas – poor areas in particular – and the most essential and urgent task is to further unlock and develop the nation’s productive forces.
The 18th CPC Central Committee announced the goal of helping all rural residents living below the current poverty line eliminate poverty by 2020. The report to the 19th CPC National Congress described the period between now and 2020 as “decisive” in completing the process.
The goal is the shared aspiration of the more than 1.3 billion Chinese people. This is the first of the Two Centennial Goals, and will be a milestone in the journey toward national rejuvenation.
全面建成小康社会
小康社会是中华民族自古以来追求的理想社会状态。改革开放之初，邓小平首先用“小康”来诠释中国式现代化，明确提出到20世纪末“在中国建立一个小康社会”的奋斗目标。在全党全国各族人民共同努力下，邓小平提出的目标在20世纪末如期实现，人民生活总体上达到小康水平。在这个基础上，中共十六大提出本世纪头20年全面建设惠及十几亿人口的更高水平的小康社会的目标。中共十七大提出全面建设小康社会的新要求。中共十八大对全面建设小康社会目标进行了充实和完善，将“全面建设小康社会”调整为“全面建成小康社会”。全面建成小康社会，“小康”讲的是发展水平，“全面”讲的是发展的平衡性、协调性、可持续性。全面建成小康社会，最艰巨最繁重的任务在农村、特别是在贫困地区，最根本最紧迫的任务还是进一步解放和发展社会生产力。中共十八届五中全会明确提出，确保到2020年中国现行标准下农村贫困人口全部脱贫。中共十九大报告指出，从现在到2020年，是全面建成小康社会决胜期。全面建成小康社会的奋斗目标，是中国共产党向人民、向历史作出的庄严承诺，是13亿多中国人民的共同期盼。这个宏伟目标，是“两个一百年”奋斗目标中的第一个，是中华民族伟大复兴征程上的重要里程碑，是实现中华民族伟大复兴的重要基础、关键一步。今天为全面建成小康社会而奋斗，就是在为实现民族复兴而奋斗。