People-Centered Development in Action: "Investing in the People"

The basic social unit multiplied by one billion.

It’s one thing to look at a nation’s policy actions and infer what the policy might be called and another when the nation opening says what its policy is. The latter’s the case with China as this republication of a China Daily article by Global Times shows: “How 'investing in the people' benefits the whole society in China: Over 70% of China's fiscal spending now allocated to improving livelihoods.” As I’ve posited for many years now, the political-economies of China and Russia are both built atop the concept of people-centered development, which is a basic communalistic way of social organization. (Yes, there are other names it might be called, mutualism being the favorite of one regular commentator here at the Gym.) Chinese philosophy has long advocated for such a system as it appears to be the best way to attain social harmony over the long run. And when your society consists of 1,4 Billion people, harmony is what you want. Russia has had something similar that operated at the village level amongst the peasantry. Russia’s Peter Kropotkin was an advocate of such a system and in 1902 published a series of papers as Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which can be freely downloaded at the link. Other Russians were thinking along similar lines well before and after the 1905 Revolution and remained influential through the Soviet Era. China, as mentioned, has a very long, deep philosophical tradition related to the proper way to organize and govern society that was eventually wedded to Marxian philosophy and become an ongoing project in the making, which is now reflected by Xi Jinping Thought about which several volumes have been published. Its primary tenets are visible in the six Global Initiatives Xi has proposed over his tenure but is best reflected by the goal of China’s BRI—A Shared Future for Mankind—which implies a mutually beneficial relationship free from strife and thus free from hegemony. This goal is clearly anti-thetical to the remaining major hegemon, so it fights against it without realizing what it’s saying by its actions: People’s well-being doesn’t matter to it whatsoever, which is precisely what we see in its behavior even to its own citizenry. History and contemporary observation prove that the vast majority of humans desire a mutualist type of social organization. China and Russia provide two case studies that such organization can function in today’s world, while there are multilateral organizations that are organized on a similar basis, some being far more successful than others since they lack penetration by the hegemon. Now for our article:

Recently, many friends and I purchased new home appliances. Statistics show that more than 100 million home appliances have been replaced through the consumer goods trade-in program this year. With generous subsidies fueling a consumption boom, could this be the result of the policies centered on "investing in the people"? And how else can such policies benefit the society at large? This is a question posed by a reader on people.cn.

Across China, local governments are launching many initiatives, including vocational training classes, support for childbirth and childcare, and improved healthcare services, alongside new policies to boost domestic consumption. The central authorities have emphasized the need to further safeguard and improve people's well-being, addressing people's concerns through 10 key measures, including expanding overall social security coverage. All these efforts share a major principle - "investing in the people."

The concept, first introduced in this year's Government Work Report delivered to the National People's Congress, has drawn growing attention. In fact, the roots of "investing in the people" run deep in China's development philosophy.

From building dams, highways, and industrial hubs in the past years to expanding high-speed rail network, advancing manufacturing, and fostering new quality productive forces lately, the massive investments in infrastructure and key projects have always aimed to improve people's livelihood, truly reflecting the concept of "investing in the people."

At the same time, efforts to directly improve people's quality of life and enhance their vocational skills have remained steady and consistent. In recent years, more than 70 percent of the government's fiscal spending has been directed toward initiatives that improve public well-being. The more a policy is tested in practice, the clearer its diverse and long-term value becomes.

Improving people's well-being

Issues such as employment, education, medical care, housing, elderly care, and childcare affect millions of households in the country. How can we assuage people's concerns, so that everyone can have leisure time and economic means to fully develop themselves, participate in consumption, and enjoy life? "Investing in the people" is an effective and practical solution.

Starting this year, China has started to subsidize vocational skills training for over 10 million people annually for three consecutive years. In 2025, more than 80 billion yuan ($11.16 billion) of central government subsidies for student aid to local areas have been allocated; many localities are stepping up efforts to carry out old house renovation and urban renewal, promote the expansion of high-quality medical care, and roll out childcare subsidies policies.

A series of "investing in the people" measures has equipped hundreds of millions with growing vocational skills and rising purchasing power. They not only directly bring people a sense of achievement, happiness and security, but also stimulate higher-level demand for a better life.

Stimulating domestic consumption

Raising household incomes and easing their financial burdens can unlock significant domestic consumption potential. To convert this potential into tangible outcomes and drive economic growth, the "investing in the people" concept could also have a direct positive impact on ramping up consumption.

For sure, subsidies have helped energize China's massive market - this year, 300 billion yuan has been allocated to support the consumer goods trade-in program, and the so-called state subsidies have sparked a domestic consumption boom, both online and offline. From 2024 to the first half of this year, the trade-in program has driven 2.9 trillion yuan in retail sales, which have benefited around 400 million people through the preferential subsidy policies.

In a sense, supply also creates demand. Various government departments have launched the 2025 new-energy vehicle (NEV) rural outreach campaign. By promoting and expanding NEV models and extending better services to cover more rural areas, the campaign has tapped into the consumption potential of NEV sales in the vast countryside, successfully stimulating greater consumer demand for NEVs.

And, innovation unlocks new opportunities. Provincial governments across the country have been channeling funds and resources into sectors such as the ice and snow economy, silver economy, and event economy that have fueled consumer market growth and assisted regional development.

Nurturing talent to win the future

"People" refers not only to the residents and consumers, but also to human capital and talent. Investing rising funds and resources to strengthen talent development and improving the country's overall population quality not only support individual advancement but also help the whole country and society accumulate more human resources to drive innovation and win competition in the future.

In the capital city of Beijing, 500 new housing units have been added to a talent apartment complex in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area to support fresh college graduates in their internships and job searches.

In Shanghai, the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center has focused on building a new destination for young entrepreneurs in order to recruit and cultivate more artificial intelligence (AI) talent.

In Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, continuous government investment has been channeled to improve the technological skills of the talented workers. These concrete and targeted initiatives of "investing in the people" increasingly reflect the consensus of the whole society that "talent is the future."

By enhancing people's well-being, boosting domestic consumption, and building new growth momentum, the important development strategy of "investing in the people" works synergistically across areas like improving living standards, fostering people's personal development, and strengthening the country's comprehensive strength, which will ultimately deliver more benefits and opportunities to everyone in China.

The Chinese economy and the whole society now develop with higher quality, bolstered by more tailored and refined government policy measures. The concept of "investing in the people" will keep enriching its content and expanding its scope. It will continue to guide and advance the development of human resources and ensure that the fruits of modernization are shared more broadly and equitably in the country. [My Emphasis]

Gym readers ought to see the many similarities in policy design between Russia and China, which makes sense given their very close cooperation and mutual goals. The vast differences in policy direction compared to the Collective West IMO are quite stark—I don’t think I need to itemize what those are. There’s a very important sentence missing from the vocabulary of Western governments: This is how we intend to improve the wellbeing of our citizenry.

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