Editor's note: Zheng Haizhen, a special commentator for CGTN, is an assistant researcher at the Department for Global Governance and International Organization Studies, China Institute of International Studies. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited primary-level officials and residents in Beijing during a two-day inspection tour from Monday to Tuesday, extending Spring Festival greetings to Chinese people at home and abroad ahead of the festival. In China's approach to governance, high attention is always paid to the improvements in the daily lives of its people.

When 'development' is no longer just about growth figures

Globally, development has become a question that is repeatedly asked yet increasingly difficult to answer. Over the past decades, many countries have achieved rapid economic growth while simultaneously experiencing widening social divisions and declining public perceptions of well-being. The growing disconnect between growth and happiness has weakened the persuasiveness of development narratives themselves.

Against this backdrop, China's development practice stands out. As a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, vast regional disparities and highly uneven stages of development, China's rapid rise has attracted worldwide attention. Yet China has not equated development simply with fast economic expansion. Instead, it has consistently sought to translate macro-level strategies into improvements that ordinary people can directly experience in their daily lives.

From 'the people as the foundation of the state' to 'people-centered development'

In China's political context, the concept of people-centered development is not merely a slogan but a governing philosophy with deep historical roots, continuously reshaped and developed in modern state governance.

In traditional Chinese political thought, ideas such as "the people are the foundation of the state," "good governance rests on winning the people's support," and "to govern a country, enriching the people comes first" emphasized that ensuring the people's well-being was central to political legitimacy and social stability. These ideas were not abstract moral appeals, but practical principles that linked governance directly to people's livelihoods.

In modern times, this tradition has adopted new meanings amid profound social change. From striving for national liberation during the revolutionary period, to ensuring that the people run the country after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and to the reform and opening-up era's emphasis that development is for the people and depends on the people, China's political narrative has consistently placed the people at its core. While priorities have varied across stages, the underlying question has remained the same: What problems should development ultimately solve, and for whom?

In the early years of reform and opening-up, China's development task focused squarely on solving the problem of basic subsistence. At that time, China was still a country with low per capita income, a weak industrial base and severe shortages of consumer goods. Under such conditions of material scarcity, liberating and developing productive forces became the most realistic and urgent choice. The people-centered approach was reflected not in advanced welfare systems, but in institutional reforms aimed at rapidly expanding supply and meeting basic needs.

China began with rural reforms, introducing the household responsibility system that dismantled highly centralized production arrangements and returned land management rights to farmers. This greatly boosted agricultural productivity and alleviated food shortages, laying the foundation for food security.

The government then gradually eased controls over prices, circulation and market entities, allowing multiple forms of ownership to develop. Light industry and daily consumer goods production were prioritized, and long-standing phenomena such as rationing and long queues for basic items gradually disappeared.

By the 1990s, as industrialization and urbanization accelerated, China's economy entered a phase of rapid growth. Material production capacity expanded significantly, and living standards rose from meeting basic needs to achieving a moderately prosperous level.

For ordinary families, this stage of development was most visibly reflected in greater access to durable goods, improved housing conditions, expanding employment opportunities and more stable expectations about the future.

Over the long term, China's development path has not been about pursuing economic scale alone. By releasing productive potential and expanding overall supply, it sought to create the broadest possible foundation for basic living security. This approach reflects a development philosophy that prioritizes meeting fundamental needs before improving quality, with people's well-being at its core.

As material foundations strengthened, people-centered development evolved from an implicit objective into an explicit governing principle embedded in national strategies and policy frameworks.

Development goals began to look beyond GDP growth to focus more on employment stability, income growth, public service coverage and social equity. Policy design increasingly emphasized inclusiveness and accessibility alongside efficiency. Evaluation of development outcomes paid greater attention to whether ordinary people truly benefited and felt tangible improvements in their lives.

Through this transformation, people-centered development moved from value declaration to institutional practice, laying the groundwork for sharing development gains across material conditions, rights protection, social welfare and cultural life.

Quantifiable well-being for Chinese people

For a country of China's scale, well-being cannot remain an abstract concept. It must be translated into outcomes that are measurable, sustainable and perceptible.

For a long time, food expenditure accounted for a large share of household spending in China, reflecting the primacy of basic survival needs. This was especially true in the early reform period, when incomes were limited, goods were scarce and households were highly vulnerable to risks. Whether one could eat enough and dress warmly was the primary benchmark of living standards.

With sustained economic growth, expanding employment opportunities and industrial upgrading, this situation changed fundamentally. Consumption structures improved, the share of food spending declined and spending on development-oriented and quality-of-life goods increased, signaling a shift from survival to better living.

Income stability improved significantly as household income sources diversified. Wages became the main component, supplemented by business income, property income and transfers. As a result, household income became less dependent on weather conditions, single industries, or short-term market fluctuations. For ordinary workers, income became increasingly linked to skills, job stability and institutional protections, strengthening resilience against risks.

The widespread adoption of durable consumer goods also reshaped daily life. Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and private cars shifted from rare luxuries to everyday necessities. By the end of 2025, China had 52.9 private cars per 100 households, and major household appliances were nearly universal. These changes, accumulated over time, reduced the physical and time burdens of daily life and transformed household routines.

Housing improvements offer another vivid example. From cramped and poorly equipped dwellings in the past, urban and rural housing conditions have improved markedly, with water, electricity, gas and internet access becoming standard. Housing now represents not only shelter, but also stability, asset accumulation and a foundation for intergenerational development.

Rights protection: Legal rights safeguarded in everyday life

Assessing development outcomes requires looking beyond economic aggregates to whether citizens' lawful rights are protected in practice. With respect to the rights to health and life, China has established a basic medical insurance system that covers approximately 1.33 billion people, with participation rates stable at around 95 percent. This broad coverage has significantly reduced households' exposure to catastrophic health expenses.

Child health indicators clearly illustrate this progress. In 2024, China's neonatal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate fell to 2.5 per thousand, 4.0 per thousand and 5.6 per thousand, respectively. Vaccination coverage under the national immunization program has remained above 90 percent, demonstrating institutionalized protection of basic health rights.

Education rights have also been expanded and seen more balanced protection. By 2024, the gross enrollment rate for preschool education reached 92.0 percent, the nine-year compulsory education completion rate stood at 95.9 percent and senior secondary enrollment reached 92.0 percent, approaching levels in high-income countries. Shrinking urban-rural and regional gaps mean that access to education increasingly depends less on family income and more on public provision.

Labor rights protection has advanced through coordinated employment policies and strengthened labor inspection, arbitration and judicial remedies. Urban unemployment rates surveyed have remained around 5 percent, reflecting overall stability amid complex conditions. This stability is underpinned by systems such as minimum wage standards, wage arrears enforcement and occupational injury insurance, ensuring that employment also means rights protection.

Through institutional expansion and effective implementation, lawful rights have increasingly shifted from formal entitlements to lived realities, reinforcing everyday perceptions of fairness and security.

Social welfare: A safety net against uncertainty

Modern risks often stem not from poverty alone, but from shocks such as illness, unemployment, aging, or accidents. Social welfare systems provide a buffer against these uncertainties.

China has built one of the world's largest social security systems. Basic pension insurance covers more than one billion people, while unemployment insurance, work injury insurance and minimum livelihood guarantee continue to expand coverage.

Support for vulnerable groups has improved in both scope and accessibility. In 2024, 8.67 million people with disabilities received basic rehabilitation services, 1.55 million received assistive device support and barrier-free home renovations were completed for over 1.22 million households with severely disabled members, ahead of planning targets. These measures aim not at high welfare, but at preserving basic dignity and functionality.

Poverty alleviation represents the most emblematic social welfare achievement. Between 2013 and 2020, China lifted 98.99 million rural residents out of poverty, with all 832 designated poor counties and 128,000 villages removed from the poverty list, resolving absolute poverty under the national standard. This was achieved through integrated measures including industrial development, employment support, education and healthcare, marking a shift from relief-based to development-oriented poverty reduction.

Poverty alleviation has not been treated as a one-off outcome. From 2021 to 2024, per capita disposable income in formerly impoverished counties grew at an average annual real rate of approximately 7.8 percent, exceeding the national rural average, indicating the emergence of endogenous growth momentum supported by ongoing social policies.

Cultural and spiritual life: Searching for the meanings of life

As material conditions and basic security improve, Chinese people increasingly seek fulfillment beyond survival, placing greater emphasis on cultural and spiritual life.

Public cultural infrastructure has expanded steadily. By the end of 2024, China had 7,046 registered museums, over 3,300 public libraries, and approximately 40,000 cultural centers. Active library cardholders reached approximately 110 million, indicating that cultural resources are increasingly used rather than built.

Cultural consumption has risen in parallel. In 2024, per capita spending on culture and entertainment reached about 955 Chinese yuan (around $137.78), more than 60 percent higher than in 2013, with a growing share in household consumption. Cultural participation has expanded from urban cores to ordinary households. The widespread popularity of domestically produced films, such as the animated movie Ne Zha, illustrates how cultural products resonate across cities, smaller towns and counties alike.

Digital culture has become a major platform for cultural engagement. By the end of 2024, China had over 1.07 billion online video users, 750 million online music users and 570 million online literature users. Digital platforms have lowered barriers to participation, making cultural access more inclusive, especially in less-developed areas.

As basic needs are secured, people's focus increasingly shifts toward fairness, dignity, social recognition and emotional fulfillment. Cultural and spiritual life now forms an integral part of China's development outcomes alongside material conditions and social welfare.

What does China's experience reveal for global development？

China's development story is not merely one of economic growth but also of how a large country has continuously translated development gains into improvements in everyday life. This experience speaks directly to the global challenge of why growth so often fails to translate into well-being.

The United Nations Development Programme noted in its 2023–2024 Human Development Report that post-pandemic recovery of the Human Development Index has been slow, with more than half of countries experiencing stagnation or regression, and a growing disconnect between income growth and people's sense of security and well-being.

Against this backdrop, China's experience highlights three distinctive features. First, development outcomes are systematically reoriented toward the general population. Since the reform and opening-up period, China has linked development targets to livelihood indicators. The Engel coefficient fell from 57.5 percent in 1978 to about 29.3 percent in 2025, reflecting a shift from survival to development-oriented consumption.

Second, poverty reduction has been treated as a core public governance task. According to World Bank and Chinese data, nearly 800 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty since the reform and opening-up period, accounting for more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction over the same period. After eliminating absolute poverty, China established mechanisms to prevent a return to poverty.

Third, state capacity has been institutionalized in development. While many countries face weakening public services and fragmented welfare systems, China has built broad-coverage, basic-level systems, including medical insurance for over 1.3 billion people and pension insurance for about one billion. These systems are not high-welfare models, but they effectively reduce household vulnerability and enhance overall stability.

In a world marked by rising inequality and development anxiety, China's experience offers a widely relevant insight: Development gains lasting legitimacy only when they genuinely improve people's lives.

In his 2026 New Year message, President Xi emphasized that the Chinese government cares deeply about the happiness and hardships of "every home," emphasizing that "of all the jobs in front of us, the most important is to ensure a happy life for our people." China's development practice shows that this commitment is being translated into observable, measurable and widely felt realities. Placing people's well-being as the ultimate benchmark of development has become a defining feature of Chinese modernization.

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