China on Thursday reviewed milestones on its path toward all-round moderate prosperity as well as its efforts to advance human rights in the country.

"The realization of all-round moderate prosperity ushers in a new era for the protection of human rights in all respects," said a white paper released by the State Council Information Office. 

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"Building a moderately prosperous society has been a grand strategy since the 1980s," the white paper said, adding that it was designed to realize national prosperity and rejuvenation, ensuring the people's well-being under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

The vision of building a "xiaokang society" (moderately prosperous society) was presented by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in December 1979, it noted. Then the idea was highlighted and enriched in the reports to the 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th and 19th CPC National Congresses in 1982, 1992, 2002, 2012 and 2017, respectively, it said. 

The report to the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 laid out the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, and the report to the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017 pointed out that in order to achieve this goal, China must "strive against all difficulties to promote coordinated progress in the economic, political, cultural, social and eco-environmental fields in light of the current principal challenge facing the country, so that the moderately prosperous society it builds earns the people's approval and stands the test of time," it said. 

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and president of China, declared at a grand gathering marking the CPC's centenary on July 1 that China had realized the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. 

"The route to all-round moderate prosperity coincides with comprehensive progress in human rights in China, which involves all the steps necessary to liberate, protect and develop the individual," the white paper said. 

In order to improve the protection of human rights, China prioritized the right to subsistence, realized the coordinated development of all human rights, and advanced the rights of all people, according to the white paper. 

"A moderately prosperous society takes it as the primary goal to secure adequate food and clothing and protect the right to subsistence and takes further steps to meet the growing material and cultural needs of the people," it said, underscoring China's "visible progress in securing basic needs and remarkable improvements in living standards" over the past decades. 

Meanwhile, the country has built a system guaranteeing social equity with equal opportunities, equal rules and equal rights, in which all can participate in, contribute to, and enjoy development, it said. 

The white paper stressed that the route to moderate prosperity reinforced the groundwork for human rights advancement in China. 

In the process of building a moderately prosperous society, a solid material foundation as well as a solid political and democratic foundation have been laid for protecting and developing human rights, legal protection for human rights has been strengthened, and a culture to respect and protect human rights has been fostered in the society, it said. 

"The process of achieving moderate prosperity helps everyone improve the understanding of their own value, personal dignity and principal status, fostering a culture that respects and protects human rights," said the white paper.