Even when the "cake" has indeed become bigger, we must cut it fairly. The Chinese people have always had a perception that "inequality rather than want is the cause of trouble." Based on continued development, we should do a better job of promoting fairness and justice, trying our best while being mindful of our limitations so that we can ensure people's access to education, remunerable employment, health care, senior assistance, and housing.
— Speech by Xi Jinping titled "Align Our Thinking with the Guidelines of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, " published in People’s Daily, January 1, 2014
"Baking a Cake" and "Cutting a Cake"
--Keeping in mind both economic development and social equality
Everyone is familiar with cake. Cutting one up and sharing it with friends and family is always a happy occasion. In modern Chinese, "baking a cake" is a metaphor for developing the economy; "cutting a cake" is a metaphor for distributing social wealth.
Xi Jinping used these analogies about cake to explain the importance of maintaining economic growth in order to create more social wealth. When we bake a bigger cake, we can cut it into bigger slices, thus laying a foundation for the material needs of the people. Xi Jinping's analogy also expressed the need to promote a fair and just society, where the economic success brought about by reform and opening up is more equitably shared by all Chinese people, thus achieving the goal of making a bigger cake. There is a saying in classical Chinese that highlights the importance of satisfying our basic physical needs: "Only when silos are filled with enough grain do people understand etiquette. Only when people are well-fed and well-clothed are they aware of honor and shame." There is no doubt that China has achieved incredible economic growth since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978. Yet China still contends with a large population, a weak economic foundation, a shortage of natural resources, and lagging economic development. Areas where China has lagged behind can only be addressed through economic development. As people's transition from simply having their basic needs met to enjoying a comparatively good standard of living, their desire for an even better quality of life has grown. This has put more requirements on economic development. Even though our "cake" is bigger than ever, it pales in comparison to the "cakes" of developed countries. Moreover, the population of China is so large that even the most fairly divided "cake" would be cut into slices that were too small for one person to enjoy. China needs to work on baking a bigger "cake." We have a long journey ahead of us, but we cannot waver from the path that focuses on economic development.
According to another well-known Chinese saying, "Inequality rather than want is the cause of trouble." This means that unfairness is worse than poverty. In contemporary China, due attention should be paid to issues of equality and justice, for a great deal of unfair and unjust incidents still occur in our society. The growing gap between the rich and the poor is just one example. A small segment of the population exploits loopholes in our developing economy or resorts to questionable, sometimes even illegal, schemes to get rich quickly. Many of those who engage in this behavior are wealthy and callous, and are denounced by people.
China is in the primary stage of socialism. Many differences still exist in our society, including professional differences, regional differences, and urban-rural differences. The factors that have contributed to this are complicated, and few expect these differences to disappear soon. However, nothing could be more dangerously damaging to social stability and development, or be more disliked by the general public, than the social inequality created by those who follow the "law of the jungle." They use public office for private gain, exploit their monopolistic positions for the money-grab, and leverage their early successes for unfair competitive advantages down the road.
Inequality and injustice elicit a strong reaction from people, creating an atmosphere that, to a certain degree, incites people to lash out at those who have more money. Indeed, one only needs to open the newspaper to find examples of extreme behavior resulting from fermented anger. Injustice and inequality may be considered major social problems that affect Chinese development. As such, they need to be taken seriously. A failure to resolve these problems will make it difficult to maintain all the success we have achieved through socialism. It could even cause social unrest.
Problems that have been caused by development ultimately hinge on development for their solution. While the primary task of the Party and government is to lead economic and social development, it also shoulders responsibility for defending social equality and justice. This requires following the resolutions of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. We need to comprehensively deepen reforms and maintain our goal of continued development, while at the same time ensuring that all Chinese people live in a fair and just society.
(An excerpt from XI JINPING: WIT AND VISION SELECTED QUOTATIONS AND COMMENTARY, published by FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS in 2015)
