Decade of people-first development: China Daily editorial

Years from now, history will record how much unfair criticism China has received in sticking to its dynamic clearing policy to fight the still raging, but intentionally ignored by some countries, COVID-19 pandemic, and the countless lives that have been saved by doing that.

The commitment to putting people's lives and health first is a testament to the people-first principle that has been the touchstone for the country's development over the past 10 years. There are plenty of data from the past decade that tell the same story of how development has boosted people's income, improved their livelihoods and created jobs.

From 2013 to 2021, China's gross domestic product grew at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent, higher than the average of 2.6 percent for the world and 3.7 percent average of developing economies in the same period. China now ranks among upper-middle-income countries and is close to the threshold of high-income countries as classified by the World Bank.

China's economy accounted for 18.5 percent of the world economy in 2021, up 7.2 percentage points from 2012, and China's average contribution rate to world economic growth over the past decade has exceeded 30 percent.

Last year, China's average per capita GDP reached 80,976 yuan ($11,329), an increase of 69.7 percent over the figure in 2012. This represented an average annual growth rate of 6.1 percent after deducting price factors. And the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents was 35,128 yuan, an increase of 18,618 yuan over 2012, representing an average annual real growth rate of 6.6 percent and 0.5 percentage points faster than the average annual growth rate of per capita GDP in the same period.

In particular, nearly 100 million rural residents were lifted out of abject poverty over the past decade through a national poverty alleviation campaign that was seamlessly docked with ongoing rural vitalization efforts aimed at narrowing the urban-rural development gap. The number of employed people in the country has remained stable at more than 740 million over the past decade, with more than 11 million jobs created each year.

At the same time, the country has accelerated the construction of its multi-level social security system, and built the world's largest social security system. By the end of 2021, the number of people covered by basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance had reached 1.03 billion and 1.36 billion, respectively.

That the average life expectancy in China has increased from 35 years in 1949 to 78 last year speaks volumes of the remarkable achievements the country has made in implementing its people-first development policies.

The upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will prove to be another historical springboard to carry on that development philosophy and adapt it better to the fast changing circumstances of the times.