Tang Liru： Building the Socialist Core Values of the People

　　Democracy: Highlighting the People’s Subjective Position

　　The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform is to improve and develop the Socialism with Chinese characteristics system and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity". Understanding and expounding "democracy" from the perspective of "state governance" is not only an innovative development of socialist democratic politics theory, but also a brand-new requirement for socialist democratic politics construction.

　　The first is to improve the democratic system. Strengthen the construction of socialist state system and polity, ensure that the people are the masters of the country as the foundation, adhere to and improve the system of people’s congresses, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the system of grassroots self-government, and develop more extensive, full and sound people’s democracy.

　　The second is to improve the democratic mechanism. The essence of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s administration is to lead, support and ensure that the people are masters of their own affairs. In today’s China, actively and steadily building socialist democratic politics means organically unifying the leadership of the Party, governing the country according to law and the people being the masters of the country, further deepening the reform of the political system, accelerating the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of socialist democratic politics, and building a socialist country ruled by law.

　　The third is to enrich the forms of democracy. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed that deliberative democracy is a unique form and advantage of China’s socialist democratic politics, and an important embodiment of the party’s mass line in the political field. Under the leadership of the Party, we will conduct extensive consultations in the whole society on major issues of economic and social development and practical issues involving the vital interests of the masses, and insist on consultation before and during decision-making. Deliberative democracy is the enrichment and development of democratic forms.

　　Equality: safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people

　　"Equality" is the common value of unity and development in China today. Since the founding of New China, we have creatively practiced the Marxist concept of equality, eliminated class exploitation and oppression, and ensured the equality of people’s basic rights. However, in the process of socialist market economy transformation, differences between workers and peasants, urban and rural areas still exist, regional disparities and polarization between the rich and the poor can not be ignored, and people’s basic rights such as education, medical care, employment and housing are still unsatisfactory, and inequality has become a social problem that the whole nation has paid wide attention to. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that "people’s yearning for a better life is our goal". We should start with the most direct, realistic and most concerned problems of the broad masses of the people, ensure people’s rights of equal participation and equal development, meet people’s growing material and cultural needs, and let people live with more dignity.

　　First, adhere to equal rights. The state protects the economic property rights and legitimate interests of all forms of ownership, ensures that all forms of ownership use production factors equally according to law, participates in market competition openly and fairly, and is equally protected by law, and supervises all forms of ownership according to law.

　　The second is to adhere to equality of opportunity. Ensure that all ownership economies use production factors equally according to law. Abolish unreasonable regulations on various forms of non-public economy, eliminate various hidden barriers, and formulate specific measures for non-public enterprises to enter the franchise field. Let all the vitality of labor, knowledge, technology, management and capital compete in generate, let all the sources of creating social wealth fully flow in, and let the fruits of development benefit all the people more fairly.

　　The third is to adhere to the equality of rules. Establish fair, open and transparent market rules, ensure that enterprises operate independently and compete fairly, participate in market competition openly, fairly and justly, be equally protected by law, and supervise various ownership economies according to law. Reform the market supervision system, implement unified market supervision, clean up and abolish various regulations and practices that hinder the unified market and fair competition in the country, prohibit and punish all kinds of illegal preferential policies, oppose local protection, and oppose monopoly and unfair competition.

　　The fourth is to adhere to the equality of subjects. The dual structure of urban and rural areas is the main obstacle to the integration of urban and rural development. We must improve the system and mechanism, form a new type of relationship between workers, peasants and urban areas, and let the peasants participate in the modernization process on an equal footing and share the fruits of modernization; Promote the equal exchange of urban and rural factors and the balanced allocation of public resources, safeguard the rights and interests of farmers’ production factors, ensure that migrant workers receive equal pay for equal work, and ensure that farmers share land value-added benefits fairly; Implement the party’s ethnic policy, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic minorities, and consolidate and develop socialist ethnic relations of equality, unity, mutual assistance and harmony.

　　Justice: promoting the interests and well-being of the people.

　　Justice is related to people’s hearts, and people’s hearts are connected with interests and well-being. Properly solving the problem of social justice has become a major issue that China has to face in its reform and development. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward the general guiding ideology of comprehensively deepening reform, demanding that "promoting social fairness and justice and enhancing people’s well-being should be the starting point and the end result", and efforts should be made to open up broader prospects for Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s cause.

　　The first is to strengthen economic justice. Focusing on making the market play a decisive role in resource allocation, we will deepen the reform of the economic system, adhere to and improve the basic economic system, accelerate the improvement of the modern market system, macro-control system and open economic system, accelerate the transformation of economic development mode, accelerate the construction of an innovative country, and promote more efficient, fairer and sustainable economic development.

　　The second is to adhere to judicial justice. Deepen the reform of the judicial system, speed up the construction of a fair, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system, safeguard people’s rights and interests, and let the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.

　　The third is to implement social justice. Focusing on better safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood, promoting social fairness and justice, we will deepen social system reform, promote institutional innovation in the social field, promote equalization of basic public services, solve the most direct and realistic interests of the people, and strive to provide diversified services to the society, better meet people’s needs, and achieve more and fairer development results to benefit all people.

　　The fourth is to promote fair distribution. Reform the income distribution system, promote common prosperity, and form a reasonable and orderly income distribution pattern. Improve the redistribution adjustment mechanism with taxation, social security and transfer payment as the main means, and increase tax adjustment.

　　Harmony: the spiritual strength of the people.

　　Harmony is the measure of the progress of human civilization. The value of "harmony" has realized the transformation of China’s tradition in the times, is a breakthrough and transcendence of traditional cultural harmony thought, and is also China’s unique contribution to the world value concept, which will be recognized and accepted by more countries, nationalities and people.

　　The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee built the values of "harmony" with the times according to the strategic deployment of comprehensively deepening reform, endowed it with brand-new ideological connotation and made a major strategic deployment.

　　One is to build a peaceful China and promote social harmony. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "to innovate social governance, we must focus on safeguarding the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, maximize the factors of harmony, enhance the vitality of social development, improve the level of social governance, comprehensively promote the construction of a safe China, safeguard national security, and ensure people’s livelihood and social stability and order".

　　The second is to build a beautiful China and promote ecological harmony. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee called for "deepening the reform of ecological civilization system around the construction of beautiful China, speeding up the establishment of system of ecological civilization, improving the system and mechanism of land space development, resource conservation and environmental protection, and promoting the formation of a new pattern of modernization with harmonious development between man and nature".

　　The third is to build a China ruled by law, to ensure social harmony, to standardize the behavior of the subject, to adjust the conflict of interests, to safeguard fairness and justice, and to achieve social harmony. To build a China ruled by law, we must adhere to the rule of law, rule by law and administration by law, and adhere to the integration of a country ruled by law, a government ruled by law and a society ruled by law. The "harmonious" value of China’s traditional culture is bound to glow with vigorous vitality in the new historical period and become another bright achievement of human civilization.

　　The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee has sounded the clarion call for deepening reform in an all-round way, stood at a new historical starting point, cultivated and practiced the socialist core values of "democracy, equality, justice and harmony", constantly enhanced Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s road confidence, theoretical confidence and institutional confidence, consolidated the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field, consolidated the common ideological foundation of the United struggle of the whole party and people of all ethnic groups, and made positive contributions to building a well-off society in an all-round way.

　　(The author is the deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Government Administration of Peking University.)

　　Editor/Liu He

　　Note: This article is an original article of People’s Forum magazine. Please sign the author’s name and indicate the words "Source: People’s Forum Magazine" for online reprinting. For written reprint, please contact 010-65363752 or email to rmlt@rmlt.com.cn.