For the grassroot masses, the policies-setting report delivered at the once-every-five-year national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is probably too multifarious and too macro-sounding to study.

The one passed by the just concluded 17th National Congress of the CPC, however, contains some encouraging messages that are manifestly new. One of them is the emphasis on the improvement of people's livelihood. Compared to reports in previous congresses, a larger part of the policy statement is devoted to the issue with more explicit wording about what should be done to ensure the improvement.

The report says that the share given to labor in the primary distribution of wealth should be raised and that the relationship between efficiency and fairness be "handled properly". This marked the first ever acknowledgement that the share of after-production profits laborers obtained as compared to that garnered by other productive elements was unfairly low.

In the last 20 years of the past century, China took on market-oriented reform and went all out to ensure a fast economic growth. Counteracting the previous egalitarianism, which was intrinsically a haven for poor work performance, the nation accepted the notion that efficiency has priority over fairness.

The notion was right at that time as it was a sobering stimulant for Chinese who had become accustomed to the practice of "eating from the same rice wok". And efficiency did play a vital role in the dramatic growth of China's national economy since the launch of the reform drive at the end of the 1970s.

The nearly two-digit annual growth of the economy over the past 28 years has benefited all strata of society - to different extents. Anyone who is faithful to facts will admit that the living standard of the Chinese people has been raised by a huge margin.

However, after more than 20 years, people have begun to think if the "efficiency prioritized over fairness" approach is still justifiable. Every truth is relative in nature depending on the conditions under which it is applied. What was right in the past may not be applicable today. When developing economy and shaking off poverty as quickly as possible was the top demand of the whole nation, sacrificing fairness to ensure high economic efficiency was the only alternative for the Chinese people. But now, when the national wealth has increased to a considerably large extent (ours is now the fourth largest economy in the world with the largest foreign exchange reserve), a fairer distribution of revenue among different members of the economy should be put on our agenda, given the fact that the income distribution gaps have widened remarkably and the rich-poor disparity has worsened to an alarming extent.

The past practice of compensating laborers in the so-called redistribution (such as in the forms of poverty-relief funds and individual financial management) had little efficacy. For most laborers, wage is the only source of income. An increase in this form of primary distribution is the most substantial benefit for common laborers.

The decision to raise labor's share in the primary distribution comes just in time. And there are reasons for us to believe that China is bound to head for a "fairer society with greater justice" as stated in the Party report. The belief is based on the fact that in the past five years since the 16th National Congress of the CPC, a number of policies have been implemented to bring substantive benefits to rural and low-income urban residents. For instance, the scrapping of the agriculture tax, the enforcement of free compulsory education in rural areas, and the several hikes in pensions for retirees of all enterprises.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/24/2007 page10)