Quality growth for quality life for all

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Within a 10-minute walk south from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is located a fairly new commercial complex. The political vibes coming out of the nearby Great Hall of the People, where China’s top annual political event is underway, have merged seamlessly with the local buzz of tourists and shoppers, leaving little trace.

The Spring Festival holiday season has now given way to the Two Sessions. The frenzy that gripped Tiananmen two weeks ago has almost subsided now, allowing for a cozier stroll on a crisp morning – in contrast to the busy atmosphere inside the political avenue.

A sculpture at the Beijing Fun shopping center in central Beijing, February 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

Beijing Fun is the name of the commercial zone, which reveals instantly what one can look forward to here. Fancy bookshops, cafes and restaurants greet you inside the structure of four stories, promising some “quality fun”, along with the numerous designer brands and their shiny window displays .

"Fun" here may mean more than quality food or coffee. As the mysteriously shaped post-modern sculpture sitting next to the entrance suggests, this is a place for some "quality leisure" shrouded in an elusive aura often associated with the urban life of abundance, or in economic jargon, middle class.

Traffic jam in Beijing, September 30, 2017. /VCG Photo

Shopping and entertainment centers of similar kind are everywhere in China now, representing a "quality lifestyle" that local people have long wakened up to.

As “quality” ascends ever higher on Chinese people’s agenda, their government has finally realized that the old growth model may no longer be relevant to their new needs.

What used to drive the world's second-largest economy might have started putting shackles on it.

Greedy manufacturers have polluted the environment and wasted natural resources. A relatively primitive industrial structure has restricted the expansion of growth sources, leaving the country relying a bit too much on housing and car sales for revenue, which in turn led to jammed roads and rising household debt levels that threaten to scupper consumption.

This realization has paved the way for the term "quality growth" to be included in the central government’s work report this year.

As a new description of the country's economy, it is intended to mark a shift from the previous model of China as the "world’s factory". Smoke-chugging plants helped create an economic miracle, but brought into existence risks that could undo any success.

As far as the general public is concerned, "quality growth" will have to guarantee a "sense of gain", translated in the realization of the long-anticipated “quality lifestyle” that doesn’t just stop at cash.

Daily life of a household in Liangshan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, one of the least developed areas in China, December, 15, 2017. /VCG Photo

Yet this is not an easy task. To begin with, the huge infrastructure gap between urban and rural areas means that people’s visions for “quality lifestyle” vary significantly, or even worse, some of them may come in conflict with each other.

While the urban population is calling to stop the sacrifice of the environment for growth, their rural counterparts need to rely on the national and regional economic expansion to feed their families. With the urbanization campaign going forward nationwide, the free movement of labor has brought migrant workers into direct competition with the city-dwellers over limited natural and welfare resources.

To safeguard people’s "sense of gain" the government must step in to mediate where uneven development brings about division because of conflicting interests.

Bonus is delivered to the villagers who have been participating in a cooperative farming scheme in Fuyang, east China's Anhui Province, January 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

Switching to "quality growth" also requires an alternative measurement, which is still in the making in China.

“The lower growth target of 6.5 percent doesn't mean lower pressure on the government," said Qian Yingyi, an economist and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body.

"GDP alone is not enough to measure ‘quality growth’", Qian added.

A piece of good news for Chinese people is that the absence of a comprehensive assessment methodology hasn't stopped the central government from starting off at the possibly simplest means to increase the “sense of gain”.

On March 5, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced plans to cut income tax by raising the threshold for taxable earnings.

No matter what the extra money end up being paid for, the benefit will be felt clearly – one more cup of quality coffee a day in big cities or more meat on the dining table of a poor household every month.

The idea behind income tax cuts is simple and should guide all government policies that will follow in enhancing the "sense of gain": To give every citizen in the country the means to realize their definition of quality life should be the only end of the "quality growth".