News Network report (Correspondents: Liu Erpeng, Wang Sheng, Chen Wen)
On 5 December, the Round Table Forum on "Common Prosperity" and the Signing Ceremony of Joint Research by Chief Experts of Major Programs of the National Social Science Foundation of China were held in the Lecture Hall of Wenquan Building. It is one of a series of organised scientific research events hosted by the Department of Scientific Research and the Institute of Social Sciences in conjunction with IIDPF. This forum aims to fully implement the Ministry of Education’s Directives on Strengthening Organized Scientific Research in Universities for High-Level Self-Reliance and the Action Plan for High-Quality Development of University Philosophy and Social Sciences Aiming Towards 2035, to leverage the advantages of the state-sponsored system, to continuously strengthen organized scientific research, to comprehensively enhance the innovation system, to focus on improving independent innovation capabilities, and to contribute to national strategic needs with higher quality and greater contributions.
Leaders and guests, experts and scholars attending the forum include Professor Yang Canming, President, Deputy Party Secretary of ZUEL and Chief Expert of the Major Program of NSSFC "Study on Promoting the Common Prosperity of All People"; Professor Liu Hong of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, the chief expert of the Major Program of NSSFC, "Research on the Statistical Measurement and Governance Mechanisms of China's Rural-Urban Relative Poverty in the Post-Poverty Era"; Professor Zhang Jinlin, Head of the Department of Scientific Research and Chief Expert of the Major Program of NSSFC "Research on the Logic of Financial Theory and Effective Mechanism for Promoting Common Prosperity"; Professor Zhang Kezhong, Dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation and Chief Expert of the Major Program of NSSFC on "Research on the Mechanism of Regulating the Order of Income Distribution and Wealth Accumulation"; Professor Wu Haitao, Dean of the School of Business Administration and Chief Expert of the Major Program of NSSFC "Research on Multidimensional Identification and Collaborative Governance of Relative Poverty in China"; Professor Zou Jinwen, Vice-President of ZUEL; Professor Gong Qiang, Director of the University's High-level Talent Office and Dean of the Wenlan School of Business; Professor Shi Zhilei, Director of the Institute of Social Sciences; Leaders in charge of scientific research in each school; team members from the major programs of NSSFC related to common prosperity; the heads of the newly established national programs in 2023 and more than 300 faculty members and students of ZUEL. The forum was chaired by Professor Lu Yuanping, Deputy Head of the Department of Scientific Research and Executive Director of IIDPF.
Professor Zou Jinwen, Vice President of ZUEL, stressed that common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, an important feature of Chinese-style modernisation, and a must-answer question for every scientific researcher. In the face of the proposition of common prosperity, experts and scholars of ZUEL have actively carried out scientific research and contributed their insights, and have been involved to varying degrees in policy consultation, research, development planning, talent training, etc. of state ministries and commissions and local party committees and governments in promoting the construction of common prosperity. A large number of landmark results have been achieved in such key areas as the promotion of common prosperity by fiscal and taxation policies, the promotion of common prosperity by financial innovations, the optimisation of common prosperity by wealth accumulation, the monitoring and statistics of common prosperity, and the governance of relative poverty in the process of common prosperity, forming the "ZUEL School" and “ZUEL Influence” on common prosperity. As a stronghold of philosophy and social sciences, ZUEL’s leading organised scientific research in the field of philosophy and social sciences is an important form of scientific research and innovation in ZUEL to systematically serve national and regional strategic needs. Professor Zou Jinwen took this opportunity to express his heartfelt thanks to the chief experts who signed the contract for joint research on the major topic of "Common Prosperity", and hoped that the contract would be an opportunity to focus more on the major strategic needs of the country, define the main direction of attack, integrate advantageous resources, concentrate research efforts and carry out joint research.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “common prosperity is a systematic project, featuring long-term, arduous and complexity”. The smooth promotion and goal realisation of common prosperity require systematic research and policy support from multiple disciplines and perspectives. In the round-table forum session, five chief experts of the major programs of the National Social Science Foundation of China, combined with the characteristics of the programs they presided over, launched a lively discussion related to common prosperity.
Professor Yang Canming explained the logical relationship between the three basic economic systems, the four distribution systems and the common prosperity of all people. In his view, the three basic economic systems have properly resolved the relationship between "distribution of production conditions" and "distribution of production results", fundamentally ensured the universality of the distribution process and results, stimulated and guaranteed the enthusiasm of the people to obtain the corresponding social wealth through hard work, and ensured that the construction of the market economy serves the essential socialist goal of common prosperity. Considering the systematic, long-term and complicated nature of the strategy of common prosperity, Professor Yang Canming originally proposed that it is necessary to further improve the system of distribution order consisting of the initial distribution in the market, redistribution by the government, the third distribution by charities, and the fourth distribution within families and clans, so as to push forward the implementation of various policies of common prosperity in a coordinated manner by maximising the cohesion of distribution consensus.
Professor Liu Hong indicated that "raising the low, expanding the middle and limiting the high" is the core path to achieving common prosperity for all people, and the prerequisite for "raising the low" (i.e., raising the income of the low-income group) is to accurately define and monitor the connotation and extension of the low-income group. The monitoring of low-income groups in the context of common prosperity should follow the principles of dynamism, multi-dimensionality, secondary nature and development, and continuously strengthen the construction quality of micro-databases related to common prosperity. The process of "raising the low" should focus on urban low-income groups, the middle-aged and elderly, and other vulnerable groups.
Combined with the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference, Professor Zhang Jinlin shared his views on the financial theoretical innovation and effective mechanism to promote common prosperity. He believed that finance is the core of modern economy, and its function of creating liquidity and expanding social welfare is indispensable to consolidate the economic foundation of common prosperity. The financial work in the process of common prosperity should closely follow the three key tasks of "grow the economic pie", "divide the economic pie equally" and "maintaining the economic pie", and at the same time, special attention should be paid to financial risk prevention, control and governance, safeguarding the security of residents' wealth, and strictly supervising and regulating the income distribution gap brought about by finance.
Professor Zhang Kezhong pointed out in his speech that he quite agreed with President Yang Canming's reference to the important role of the income distribution order system in realising common prosperity, and that, in this process, clarifying the dynamic conversion relationship between income and wealth, and constructing a benign closed-loop of "growth→income→wealth" was an important prerequisite for regulating the order of income distribution and the mechanism of wealth accumulation. At the same time, the design of redistributive policies needs to be compatible and balanced with incentive policies, so as to avoid the "Sowell trap" of improving the pattern of income distribution at the expense of a decline in economic output.
Professor Wu Haitao suggested that the focus and difficulty in realising the common prosperity of all people lies in the rural areas and farmers. The fundamental way to promote the prosperity of agriculture and the common prosperity of farmers lies in rural revitalisation. Through the effective connection between rural revitalisation and poverty eradication, absolute poverty in rural areas can be eliminated. At the same time, rural revitalisation shares the same theoretical basis, the same goal guidelines and the same policy content as common prosperity in the rural areas, and both are key components of common prosperity for all people. In the process of promoting the common prosperity of rural areas and farmers, it is important to focus on the coordinated efforts of the institutional system, the economic system, the natural system, the technological system and the cultural system.
At the signing ceremony of joint research, five chief experts of major programs of the National Social Science Foundation of China, on behalf of their groups, signed the framework agreement of joint research on the major topic of "common prosperity", and agreed to carry out joint research and study on the major topic of common prosperity by means of sharing resources, complementing each other's strengths, and closely cooperating with each other, so as to strive for the output of more high-level, landmark major achievements, and to put forward the “ZUEL proposal” for the promotion of common prosperity in a solid manner.
In the subsequent Q&A session, the audience asked and exchanged questions on socialism with Chinese characteristics and common prosperity, science and technology finance and common prosperity, rural revitalisation and common prosperity, culture and accumulation of wealth, etc. to the chief experts of the major programs of the NSSFC, and the chief experts of the major programs of the NSDF answered the questions in detail, and the academic atmosphere at the scene was enthusiastic.
It is reported that the successful holding of the signing ceremony of the major programs of NSSFC is one of the important initiatives of ZUEL to continuously strengthen the organised scientific research series, and it is also the first time for the national philosophy and social sciences sector to serve the major national strategic needs in the form of joint research of many major programs of NSSFC, which has centrally demonstrated ZUEL's outstanding ability and significant advantages in serving national strategic needs by systematic integration and synergistic innovation with high quality in the field of philosophy and social sciences.