For many developing nations, a persistent question is: How can a populous country with limited resources achieve widespread and lasting improvements in the quality of life for its people?
Over the past century, China has provided the answer. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the country has moved from widespread poverty and food shortages to building a moderately prosperous society and is now pursuing common prosperity.
China”s path may not be a blueprint for others to copy, but the principles behind it offer valuable lessons for countries facing similar development challenges.
A consistent focus on improving people’s livelihoods has been a defining feature of China’s development journey. In the early years of New China, the priorities were straightforward: restore production, stabilize prices and secure basic livelihoods.
With the reform and opening-up, poverty reduction became a central mission. Over several decades, large-scale poverty alleviation programs transformed living conditions across rural China.
From 2012 to 2020, all 98.99 million rural residents living below China’s current poverty line had been lifted out of poverty, and all 832 designated impoverished counties had shed that label. Absolute poverty, a problem that had plagued China for centuries, was eliminated.
The scale of the transformation is reflected in everyday indicators. Life expectancy has risen from about 35 years in 1949 to more than 79 years today.
The Engel coefficient — a measure of the share of household spending devoted to food — has fallen below 30 percent, placing China in a category generally associated with relatively affluent societies according to standards used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
China’s poverty reduction efforts, notable for both their speed and scale, have received widespread recognition from international organizations, including the UN and the World Bank.
Yet China’s ambitions extend beyond eradicating extreme poverty. In recent years, the focus has shifted toward common prosperity — a concept often misunderstood abroad.
It does not imply absolute egalitarianism, nor does it imply that everyone becomes wealthy. Rather, it seeks to ensure that the benefits of growth are more broadly shared while maintaining incentives for innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity.
The significance of common prosperity lies in the institutional arrangements supporting it. China’s approach combines three layers of distribution.
Primary distribution relies on markets and economic activity to create wealth. Redistribution, through taxation, social security and transfer payments, helps narrow excessive disparities. A third layer consists of voluntary contributions from businesses and high-income groups to support broader social development.
Equally important is the effort to expand access to basic public services. A nationwide compulsory education funding system, medical insurance coverage exceeding 95 percent of the population and a pension system reaching virtually all citizens have helped translate economic growth into tangible improvements in daily life.
At the same time, regional development strategies and rural revitalization programs seek to reduce geographic inequalities.
The experience of Zhejiang province, China’s pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity, offers a notable example.
Through measures ranging from stronger village-level collective economies to coordinated regional development, Zhejiang has reduced the urban-rural income gap ahead of schedule.
The broader relevance of China’s experience lies more in the principles underlying its policies than in specific measures.
First, lasting improvements in living standards require strong political commitment and effective state capacity. In many developing countries, social progress is constrained not only by scarce resources but also by limited ability to mobilize those resources or implement long-term policies.
Second, gradual reform often works better than abrupt transformation. China’s social security system was not built overnight. From rural subsistence assistance to basic medical insurance, catastrophic illness coverage and long-term care insurance, reforms were introduced incrementally, tested locally and refined over time.
Third, development and distribution should advance together. Some countries have struggled with unsustainable welfare commitments introduced before sufficient economic foundations were established.
Others have experienced deep social divisions after prioritizing growth while neglecting equity. China’s approach has sought a middle path: promoting growth while steadily expanding social protection and preventing excessive inequality.
Fourth, improving people’s livelihoods is not solely the responsibility of the government. Public institutions provide the foundation, markets deliver diverse services, social organizations contribute additional support, and families and individuals remain active participants.
This balance helps avoid both welfare dependency and the fiscal burdens associated with excessive state intervention.
This does not mean China’s experience can be transplanted elsewhere. Every country faces unique political, economic and social conditions.
Nations with different political systems will need different coordination mechanisms.
Countries still struggling with extreme poverty may need to prioritize clean water, basic healthcare and food security before pursuing broader goals of equal access to public services.
For this reason, China has consistently emphasized sharing experience rather than exporting models.
Today, the world faces overlapping challenges: the lingering effects of the pandemic, mounting debt pressures, climate change and geopolitical tensions.
Across many countries, livelihoods are under strain. Against this backdrop, China’s century-long journey — from securing basic subsistence to pursuing common prosperity — offers a simple but powerful insight: improving people’s lives is not merely the outcome of development; it is also its purpose and driving force.
Large-scale improvements in human welfare are neither automatic nor easy. But with political commitment, pragmatic reforms and strategic patience, they are achievable.
The challenge for other countries is not to replicate China’s path, but to draw experiences from it while forging development strategies suited to local realities.
In that shared search for more equitable, sustainable and dignified development, there is much that nations can learn from one another.
Sun Jingying is deputy chief of staff at the National Institute for Global Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and Zhang Yuyan is a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The views don’t necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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