First, decisive progress has been made in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC has made efforts on meeting people’s aspirations to live a better life and overcome difficulties to forge ahead, making historic achievements in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. China has achieved the goal of building a moderately prosperous society across the board, with better achievements than originally expected.  

——In terms of comprehensive development indicators, China's economy has seen remarkable growth. In 2018, its gross domestic product (GDP) topped 90 trillion yuan ($12.7 trillion) and the per capita GDP reached around $9770, ranking among the highest in the middle-income countries. It ranked 86th among 189 countries and regions in the world in 2017 in terms of human development index. Its urbanization rate is nearly 60 percent, higher than the average of level of 52 percent in middle-income countries. 

——In terms of people's living standards, the goal of doubling the per capita income of China's urban and rural residents from 2010 levels proposed during the 18th CPC National Congress can be achieved on schedule. The battle against poverty has made decisive progress. By the end of 2018, there were still 16.6 million poor people in China's rural areas, a decrease of 82.39 million since the end of 2012. China has seen the world's largest middle-income group of over 400 million people of which the annual household income is between 100,000 yuan ($14,142) to 500,000 yuan ($70714). In 2018, the Engel coefficient of China's residents dropped to 28.4 percent. Household appliances and cars have been widely used among Chinese people and housing has been greatly improved. The number of cars per 100 households in the Chinese mainland in 2018 reached 33, higher than those of Singapore and Hong Kong. In 2017, the per capita housing construction area of urban and rural residents was 36.9 and 46.7 square meters respectively, higher than those of some developed countries. 

——In terms of infrastructure and public services, China has promoted nine-year compulsory education and higher education. In 2018, the gross enrollment rate in tertiary education in China reached 48.1 percent. A social security system covering urban and rural residents has been established. The life expectancy of Chinese reached 76.7 years in 2017, 4.2 years higher than the world's average level. All rural residents in China gained the access to electricity in 2016 and that of people who can get access to clean drinking water stood at 95.8 percent in 2015, which are much higher than the world's average level of 87.4 percent and 71 percent. China’s achievements in improving people's well-being have been recognized by the international community.   

Second, areas of weakness need to be improved through targeted efforts.  

-First, the government needs to distinguish overall and local goals. Given unbalanced development between different regions in China, urban-rural, regional and income gaps are within expectations.  

-Second, the absolute and relative indicators of poverty alleviation need to be separated. According to the indicators of absolute poverty, China's rural population living under the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan ($327) in annual income and people in poor counties are expected to shake off poverty this year. Relative indicators such as environment also need to be improved. Third, the government needs to complete the tasks while also improving the sense of gain of domestic residents.  

-Third, the government needs to sort out the major problems for completing the task. Among the rural poor population in China, 40.7 percent and 20.2 percent are poor due to disability, and 18.5 percent are poor elderly people over 65 years old. Problems including not being able to afford medical treatment and education and poor housing remain. More than 1 million poor people in China have not gained the access to clean drinking water. 

Poverty alleviation in "three regions" and "three prefectures"– Tibet, Southern Xinjiang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu remains a hard nut to crack due to bad natural conditions. Some counties in the central and western regions which are mostly old revolutionary base and border regions also see a large proportion of poor people and weak infrastructure. People in domestic regions with fragile ecological environment and weak infrastructure may return to poverty.    

Major problems are still prominent in fields including ecological environment, public services and infrastructure. Risks in fields such as finance also need to be further prevented and resolved. 

Third, efforts are needed to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.  

China needs to complete the task of addressing poverty with consistent, reinforced and targeted efforts to ensure that the task is completed as scheduled.  

-First, it needs to overcome problems such as y manipulation of poverty alleviation data and avoid people from returning to poverty. 

-Second, China needs to solve the prominent problems of environmental pollution in key areas. It is necessary to fight the tough battle of pollution prevention and control and achieve the phased target by 2020 by focusing on air pollution control in key areas such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, improve ecological protection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, regulate enterprises causing severe pollution, promote clean heating in north China, and pay close attention to improving the quality of water bodies, enhancing garbage treatment and addressing pollution caused by industrial and mining enterprises and car emission. It is necessary to improve disposal of rural garbage and promote toilet revolution to improve rural living environment.   

-Third, China needs to accelerate the work on ensuring people's well-being. It needs to increase investment in areas including education, basic medical care, housing and drinking water, care for children and the elderly to address urgent difficulties. It is necessary to improve water, power, communication and transportation infrastructures in rural areas and improve services for left-behind children, women and the elderly in rural areas. It also needs to promote relocation for impoverished people and advance industrial development.    

-Fourth, China needs to improve the social security mechanisms. It needs to improve the systems for ensuring basic living standards and use social security, assistance and welfare measures to support the poor invulnerable groups. The insurance for urban and rural residents on medical treatment needs to be improved to address poverty caused by treating diseases while avoiding increasing lazybones.   

Strengthening areas of weakness in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects is a key task. Local governments and CPC committees at all levels need to fulfill their main responsibilities. Given different development level of domestic regions, the focus of the work needs be to differentiated in line with local conditions. The underdeveloped areas in China's central and western regions should focus on advancing poverty alleviation while other regions with better development need to further sustain the achievements. Regions in east China with high-level development can provide support for the needed regions. It is necessary to keep practical in poverty alleviation and avoid blind competitions.      

At present, China needs to strive for building the moderately prosperous society as scheduled and embark on the journey to building a socialist modernized country. It is necessary to formulate the "14th Five-Year Plan” and make follow-up plans to further achieve the "two centennial goals." 

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Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects 

Per capita disposable income 

China's per capita disposable income in 2019: 30,733 yuan ($4,461.95), up 5.8 percent year on year in real terms. 

Urban and rural per capita disposable income: 42,359 yuan ($5983) and 16,021 yuan ($2263) in 2019, up 5 percent and 6.2 percent. 

Life expectancy 

The average life expectancy of Chinese citizens rose from 77 years in 2018 to 77.3 years in 2019   

China saw a falling maternal mortality rate which dropped from 18.3 per 100,000 in 2018 to 17.8 per 100,000 in 2019 

School enrollment 

China's gross enrollment rate in tertiary education reached 48.1 percent in 2018 

China's gross enrollment rate for senior high education reached 89.5 percent in 2019, up 1.2 percentage points from 2017  

By the end of 2019, the proportion of oversized high school classes with over 56 students had declined to 19.39 percent, a drop by 10.97 percentage points from 2017 

Internet use 

The number of people using the Internet in China reached 900 million as of March, 2020. Among the users, 255 million are from rural areas, with a 46 percent Internet penetration rate, up 7.8 percent from 2018  

Electricity use 

All rural residents in China gained the access to electricity in 2016  

Drinking water 

China spent a record 726 billion yuan ($104.46 billion) on water conservation projects in 2019  

China improved drinking water quality for 54.8 million people in rural areas in 2019   

It addressed the problem of excessive fluoride in drinking water for 6.15 million rural people in 2019  

(Sources: National Bureau of Statistics, National Health Commission, China Education Daily, Ministry of Water Resources and China Internet Network Information Center)