Good progress in talent development. People having professional knowledge or special skills who contribute to society through creative work are highly regarded in China. They are a high-ability and high-quality labor force among human resources. The Chinese Government has drawn up and implemented a series of major principles and policies to advance the building of contingents of people of all kinds for the Party and government, enterprise operation and management, professional techniques, high technology, rural affairs and social work in an all-round way. Through years of efforts, the number of talented people has maintained a stable increase, with improved quality, optimized structure and gradually rising utilization efficiency. By the end of 2008 the total number of such people in China had reached 114 million.

Gradual improvement of income, health care and social security as guarantees for human resources development. With the country's sustained and rapid socioeconomic development, the income of urban and rural residents has maintained a stable growth. The average disposable income of urban residents increased from less than 100 yuan in 1949 to 15,781 yuan in 2008; and the average net income of rural residents increased from 44 yuan in 1949 to 4,761 yuan in 2008. Great efforts have been mobilized to build up the public health system so as to provide guarantee for improving the health of people nationwide. By the end of 2009 there were 289,000 medical institutions nationwide, 5.22 million medical workers and 3.96 million hospital beds in total. In recent years, the Chinese Government has vigorously accelerated the building of the social security system to cover rural and urban residents and to provide basic life assurance for each individual. In 2009, urban basic retirement insurance covered 235.5 million people; the total number of urban employees covered by basic medical insurance, urban residents covered by basic medical insurance and people in the countryside covered by the new rural cooperative medical insurance reached 1.2 billion; unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance and maternity insurance covered 127.15 million, 148.96 million and 108.76 million people, respectively. China implements a subsistence allowance system. By the end of 2009, 23.477 million urban residents and 47.593 million rural residents had enjoyed subsistence allowances from the government. China has implemented planned and organized large-scale poverty relief programs throughout the country. In 2009, the rural population living in poverty was reduced to 35.97 million, with the nationwide poverty rate dropping to 3.6 percent.

II. Legal System for Human Resources Development

Adhering to the strategy based on the rule of law, China actively promotes democratic and scientific legislation to provide legal security for the fair and equal rights of individual development for everyone, and the scientific development of human resources. Through years of development, China has established a human resources development legal system with the Constitution as the essential basis, the Labor Law and the Civil Servant Law as the foundation, the Labor Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law, and the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes as the main contents, and other separate laws and administrative regulations as major components.

Legal system for promoting employment

To achieve the goal of expanding and stabilizing employment, China promulgated the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China in 1994, which expressly states that the state strives to create job opportunities and expand employment through promoting economic and social development. The Employment Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China adopted in 2007 has laid down the principle of "independent job-seeking by workers, employment based on market forces and the promotion of employment by the government," requiring the building of a government responsibility system for promoting employment, the implementing of industry, investment, finance and taxation policies favorable for boosting employment, making an overall plan for balanced employment between urban and rural areas, in various regions and among different social groups. According to this Employment Promotion Law the state will establish an unemployment precaution system, improve the public employment service, vocational training and employment aid systems. The enforcement of these laws has greatly facilitated the interaction between economic development and employment promotion.

The state ensures that workers in China enjoy the rights of equal employment and independent job-seeking in accordance with the law. Since 1988 China has promulgated the Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Disabled Persons, Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Minors, Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers, Provisions Concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Child Labor, Regulations on the Employment of the Disabled, and other laws and administrative regulations. The Employment Promotion Law has a special chapter on equal employment, which stipulates that no employees shall be discriminated against on the grounds of ethnicity, race, gender and religion, and specially provides that rural employees working in cities should enjoy the same labor rights as urban employees.

The state also promotes vocational education and training through legislation. Since 1995 China has promulgated the Education Law of the People's Republic of China, Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China, Law of the People's Republic of China on Promotion of Privately-run Schools and similar laws, and has established a vocational education and training mechanism on the principle of "the market guiding training, and training promoting employment." Based on vocational education institutions and training organizations at various levels, China has improved multi-form and multi-level vocational education, and formed a vocational education and training system connecting education at various levels, and linking vocational education with general education.

Proactive efforts have been made by the state to standardize the management of professional and technical staff. Since 1993 China has promulgated the Teachers Law of the People's Republic of China, Law of the People's Republic of China on Medical Practitioners, Law of the People's Republic of China on Lawyers, Law of the People's Republic of China on Certified Public Accountants, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Certified Public Architects, and other related laws and regulations. These laws and regulations stipulate the qualifications and certificate standards of professional and technical staff, and their right to receive continuing education as well as their professional ethics, thereby standardizing the employment requirements for professional and technical staff and improving the quality of professional services.

Legal system for public human resources management

In 1993 China promulgated the Interim Regulations on Civil Servants, which launched the civil service system. The Civil Servants Law of the People's Republic of China went into effect in 2006, since when a series of related regulations have been issued concerning the employment and training, assessment and award, appointment and removal, promotion, demotion and transfer, punishment and appeal, resignation and dismissal of civil servants, penalties for violating civil service entrance examination rules, and appointment and ranking of new recruits. Over 1,000 regulations have been issued, covering the major components of public human resources management, including the wages and welfare of employees in government departments and public institutions, human resources management in public institutions, personnel mobility management and macro-control of human resources.

Legal system for human resources rights protection

In the mid-1980s China started the trial implementation of the labor contract system, which was officially established through the promulgation of the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China in the 1990s. The Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 2007, and the later Regulations on the Implementation of the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, have further improved the labor contract system, specified the rights and obligations of employers and employees, the rules for signing, implementing, revising, canceling or terminating labor contracts and corresponding liabilities, and, taking into account the trend toward diversified forms of employment, made provisions about how to regulate labor dispatch services and part-time employment, and other aspects.

Collective consultation, together with a collective contract system, is being actively implemented in China. The Labor Law of the People's Republic of China and the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China both prescribe a collective contract system, encouraging enterprises to adopt collective consultation and to sign collective contracts. The framework of the collective contract system with collective enterprise consultation as the main body, and with regional and trade collective consultation as the supplement, has been gradually formed. In recent years, the coverage of the collective contract system has been continuously enlarged with increasing effectiveness. A collective labor relations coordination system characterized by equal consultation between trade union or employee representatives and enterprise or enterprise organization representatives has been basically established.

For the fair and timely settlement of labor disputes, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes was adopted in 2007, stipulating the scope, procedures, organizations, personnel and mechanism for labor dispute mediation and arbitration. In addition, a tripartite labor relations coordination mechanism has been established, comprising government departments, trade unions and enterprises, so as to better mediate and arbitrate labor disputes and give better legal redress for the timely and appropriate settlement of labor disputes and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant parties. The Regulations on Labor Security Supervision have been issued and put into effect, specifying the functions, implementation and legal liabilities of labor security supervision, thereby providing significant legal support for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of employees.

III. The Government Shoulders Human Resources Public Management and Public Service Responsibility

In recent years the Chinese Government has played an active role in public management of and public service for human resources, accelerated the transformation of its functions, and improved the government accountability system, to create a favorable policy and social environment for workers to work with dignity and for talented people to excel others.

Implementing an active employment policy

Long facing the difficulty that supply of labor outstrips demand, China always has the arduous task to secure stable employment and create more jobs. The Chinese Government always makes employment promotion the top priority for economic and social development. To fully develop and make effective use of human resources, it implements a strategy that promotes job creation and a policy that actively increases employment, and strives to help urban and rural workers enhance their overall qualities, gradually expanding employment. The government is shouldering more responsibilities in promoting employment, and government investment has been increased to provide equal employment opportunities for all. By intensifying its efforts in offering employment assistance such as occupational skill training courses, the government helps zero-employment families and people who have difficulty finding employment land jobs. A unified labor market has been set up to provide equal opportunities and services for both urban and rural workers. Relying on policy support and market orientation, the government has solved the re-employment problem for over 30 million workers laid off by state-owned enterprises, and incorporated subsistence allowances of laid-off workers into their unemployment insurance. From 2005 to 2009, over 50 million new jobs were provided in urban areas, and nearly 45 million surplus rural workers were transferred to non-agricultural sectors. At the end of 2009 the number of registered unemployed persons in urban areas was 9.21 million, with an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent.