Xu Lin:

Thank you, Mr. Wang. Next, the floor is open for questions. Please identify your news outlets before asking questions. As we are joined by many foreign journalists today, simultaneous interpreting will be available throughout the press conference. Questions asked in English will be translated into Chinese. The floor is now open.

CCTV:

China has built a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and is marching toward the second centenary goal of building itself into a great modern socialist country in all respects. What are the challenges facing China in terms of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and achieving common prosperity? How will China cope with these challenges? Thank you.

Xu Lin:

Mr. Han will take this question.

Han Wenxiu:

This is a hot topic. Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism, a key feature of Chinese-style modernization, and the shared expectation of the people. Not long ago, the tenth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs studied the issue of common prosperity. During the meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered key remarks and made comprehensive deployments. As far as I'm concerned, efforts need to be made in the following aspects.

First, what is common prosperity? We have completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. On that basis, we need to succeed in making a bigger pie and dividing it well. We need to promote high-quality development, raise the income of urban and rural residents, gradually narrow the income distribution gap and prevent wealth polarization. The term common prosperity means everyone in the country enjoys a rich life in material and spiritual terms both, rather than only a small portion of the population living wealthy lives, or people being materially well-off albeit spiritually barren. However, it doesn't mean there will be equal division of wealth. Differentiations between individuals will still exist. 

Second, how do we realize common prosperity? Joint effort is fundamental to achieving common prosperity. We should encourage people to earn their wealth through hard work and innovation. We should cheer the people taking the lead in creating wealth who are hardworking, run their businesses in accordance with the law, and have an entrepreneurial soul. Prosperity may first be realized among a small group of people, who will then help the rest get rich as well. We don't undercut the rich to benefit the poor. We should secure and improve people's livelihoods through development and create an inclusive and fair environment for people to get better educated and gain more abilities for self-improvement. We should improve upward mobility and create opportunities for more people to enjoy prosperity. We should do our best to advance equal access to basic public services, but not do things beyond our capabilities in case fall into the trap of welfarism. We can't let people grow dependent on the help of others, idling around waiting for everything being prepared for them. Efforts are needed to make basic systematic arrangements for coordinated primary, secondary, and tertiary distribution. We should further regulate the income gap by utilizing taxation measures, the social security system, and payment transfers, thus expanding the middle-income group and forming an olive-shaped income distribution structure that tapers toward both ends from the middle. Tax policies should offer incentives for tertiary distribution to be realized through charitable donations or other ways, in a voluntary manner, to help improve the distribution structure.

Third, we need to be fully aware that achieving common prosperity will be a long-term, arduous, and complicated task. China is now building a modern socialist country in all respects, pursuing common prosperity after building itself into a moderately prosperous society in all respects and shifting from a middle-income country to a high-income country. Achieving common prosperity requires continued efforts and cannot be done overnight with various goals completed all at once. We need to pursue steady progress with sustained efforts. Step by step, we will promote well-rounded development of each individual and make substantive progress in achieving common prosperity among the entire nation in this new era. Thanks. 

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