Anyone who follows China affairs will know that the country has embarked on a path toward building a harmonious society. To help clarify the concept of a harmonious society, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has issued the Resolutions on Major Issues Regarding the Building of a Harmonious Socialist Society after a plenary session in October, as a guide to the process. Below we have two commentaries by Ji Li, a commentator with Study Times and Professor Gu Yumin from the Marxism School of Fudan University, on the “Resolutions” document-one from the perspective of people’s rights and interests and the other involving narrowing the income gap. The excerpts first appeared in the Study Times and Wen Hui Bao, respectively.
　　
　　People’s Rights an Intrinsic Part of Harmony
　　
　　By JI LI
　　
　　The Resolutions of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Regarding the Building of a Harmonious Socialist Society adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee propose the goals and major tasks for the realization of a socialist harmonious society by 2020. Its focus on tangible respects and guarantees for people’s rights and interests are a clear reflection of modern socialist politics. This is actually the essence of a modern civilization. There are three major issues in this document to take cognizance of.
　　First, stressed here is the concept of rights in modern civilization. While society is undergoing a transformation toward modernization, the market-oriented reform of the economy and improvement of social systems mean the promotion of people’s independence and self-determination and also an increase in mutual reliance. The modern social relationship is also based on rights.
　　Second, what is emphasized is the democratic spirit of a modern civilization. Rights are related to independence and people should be able to exercise the right to choose on their own, as without independent choice, rights bring no tangible benefits. Therefore, people’s rights and interests are closely related to democracy. The interests are realized when people are making use of their extensive rights in economic, political, cultural and social areas. This is a democratic process, as by performing their own rights, people become masters of their own fate, able to plan their lives by themselves. In this sense, people’s rights actually mean democracy for the people. Respecting people’s rights fully reflects the modern democratic spirit of socialism, which is more progressive than the awareness of “making decisions for the people,” because no matter how well-intentioned, the latter practice belongs to the past.
　　Third, what we must pay attention to is the spirit of the rule of law of modern civilization. When confirmed in the form of legal documents (from Constitution to a set of laws), people’s interests actually become rights that are explicit, specific and institutionalized, rather than being obscure, abstract and uncertain. Moreover, when the rights and interests are expressed in the form of citizens’ legal rights, especially constitutional rights, the boundaries and accountabilities to others and to society become explicit, specific and institutionalized too. As a result, the whole social rights system becomes orderly. Rule of law is the basic guarantee for people’s rights and also for social harmony. The CPC Central Committee has proposed a series of arrangements for the development of rule of law and for the construction of a system to ensure the implementation of rule of law, which is of far-reaching significance.
　　
　　Closing the Wage Gap Will Bring Social Harmony
　　
　　By GU YUMIN
　　
　　HARMONIOUS COMMUNITY: In a harmonious society, people have full freedom to choose the way they live
　　Nowadays, the increasing gap in people’s income has become a problem threatening social harmony. The three factors that most contribute to this situation are: system, market and policy.
　　In terms of the system factor, the income gap results from the present system being based on multiple economic sectors. However, in the present stage of development, the coexistence of multiple economic sectors will help to stimulate people’s creativity and promote productivity and social progress, laying a solid economic foundation for the realization of a socialist harmonious society. At the same time, the public ownership still remains dominant in the country’s basic economic system and the state sector plays a leading role. Against this backdrop, the buildup of a harmonious economic relationship must be based on a socialist economic system.
　　The rule of a market economy is another factor that leads to a widening income gap. In a market economy, the rule of survival of the fittest and equal competition is dominant, but the same equal rule will produce unequal results owing to people’s different capabilities, which is shown in the form of the expanding income gap. However, the natural selection process and income gap will help to promote the efficiency of economic activities. Based on this understanding, we must try to build a harmonious economic relation on the precondition of a socialist market economy.
　　The phasing-in of equity-based wealth distribution policy is also partly responsible for the increasing income gap. At present, the income gap is widening between different social groups, with farmers and urban laid-off workers living with relatively low income. Due to the difference in the factors that produce wealth among various social groups, a widening income gap becomes an unavoidable result of this policy.
　　The above factors are different in nature, although all are responsible for the increasingly widening income gap in China. Among the factors, some should be attributed to objective economic conditions, some to systems and some to policies. At this moment, to narrow the income gap and achieve a harmonious economic relationship, the priority is to adjust the current wealth distribution policy. The overall policy is composed of preliminary distribution and redistribution mechanisms. The policy must be adjusted so that it can effectively bring about a more balanced distribution of wealth and help reduce income gap-related conflicts. Hence, the government’s distribution policy should play a major role in narrowing the increasingly widening income gap.
　　First, to increase the income of the low-paid group should become an important objective of the wealth redistribution mechanism. China still has a large low-income population, of different backgrounds and engaging in different trades. There is no panacea for their diversified needs. This is an important cause of the widening income gap. As the market mechanism is incapable of solving this problem, the government is expected to help this group to gain some income in a non-market-based way by offering them preferential policies and relief materials.
　　Second, efforts should be made to raise farmers’ income. For quite a long time, the wealth redistribution policy did not cover the farmers. The disadvantaged status of agriculture compared with various other industries has meant a setback for farmers. If we depend on market forces to improve the current situation, surely it will take time. The government’s double favorable policies of tax exemption and increased financial subsidies are able to produce good results during a short period of time.
　　Third, the regulation of rich persons’ income should be covered under the wealth redistribution policy. It’s a common practice globally to narrow the social income gap by regulating high incomes, so it’s necessary to adopt this policy in China. Apart from more reasonable policies on personal income tax, special taxes should be imposed on certain monopoly industries so as to pinch the pocketbooks of high-income earners.
　　In the primary stage of socialism, owing to the low comprehensive national strength, imperfect administration and uneven development in many aspects, the efforts to coordinate people’s economic interests are expected to last for some time. Most importantly, the achievement of a harmonious relationship in terms of economic interests should be based on a harmonious social environment.
　　

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