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Speakers:

Mr. Zhan Chengfu, vice minister of civil affairs

Mr. Li Baojun, spokesperson of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) and director general of the General Office of the MCA

Mr. Liu Xitang, director general of the Department of Social Assistance of the MCA

Mr. Chen Yueliang, director general of the Department of Local Government Development and Community Governance of the MCA

Mr. Li Banghua, senior official of the Department of Elderly Service of the MCA

Chairperson:

Ms. Shou Xiaoli, spokesperson of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)

Date:

Sept. 8, 2022

Shou Xiaoli:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference held by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. Today, we are holding the 28th press conference under the theme of “China in the past decade.” We have invited Mr. Zhan Chengfu, vice minister of civil affairs, to brief you on the country's civil affairs in the new era and take your questions. Also joining us today are Mr. Li Baojun, spokesperson of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) and director general of the General Office of the MCA; Mr. Liu Xitang, director general of the Department of Social Assistance of the MCA; Mr. Chen Yueliang, director general of the Department of Local Government Development and Community Governance of the MCA; and Mr. Li Banghua, a senior official of the Department of Elderly Service of the MCA.

Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Zhan Chengfu for his introduction.

Zhan Chengfu:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the press, good morning. I am very pleased to brief you, along with my colleagues, on the country's civil affairs over the past decade since the 18th CPC National Congress.

As we all know, civil affairs concerns people's livelihood, is critical for the people and is the basic and fundamental work for social development. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, civil affairs departments at all levels have followed the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, remained committed to making people's lives better, and made continuous efforts in ensuring basic livelihoods, community-level social governance and basic social services with a focus on poverty alleviation, groups with special needs and people's concerns. Through vital efforts, the past decade has witnessed glorious achievements and landmark development, which can be reflected in the following three aspects.

First, ensuring the basic needs of the people has reached a new level, helping groups with special difficulties enter a moderately prosperous society in all respects along with the rest of the nation.

Over the past decade, the social assistance system with Chinese characteristics has basically taken shape. Every year on average, the system provides support for more than 40 million people on subsistence allowances, nearly 5 million people living in extreme poverty, about 10 million people in need of temporary assistance, and more than 2.3 million times to homeless people and beggars.

We have successfully provided support for those unable to shake off poverty through their own efforts while alleviating poverty, lifting 19.36 million registered poor people out of poverty. At the same time, we have constantly improved the mechanism linking price subsidies with price changes, expanded the scope of the subsistence allowance scheme, and dynamically tracked more than 62 million low-income people to provide them with regular assistance and support. By doing so, we have consolidated and expanded the achievements in providing subsistence allowances for those unable to shake off poverty through their own efforts, and aligned such efforts with endeavors to promote rural revitalization in an effective and orderly manner.

Over the past decade, the standard of ensuring the basic needs of people has been constantly increased. From 2012 to 2021, the average subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents nationwide increased by 1.2 times and 2.1 times, respectively. The basic living standard of people in extreme poverty has been 1.3 times or more the standard of local subsistence allowances. The average monthly allowances for orphans in welfare institutions and families that provide temporary care have reached 1,728 and 1,288 yuan per person, up by 77.9% and 83.1% from 2012, respectively.

Over the past decade, the coverage of ensuring basic livelihood has been constantly expanded. De facto orphans have been covered in a support system. A care and service system for the elderly, women and children left behind in rural areas has been established, and a protection system for minors has been set up. A system has been built to provide living allowances for people with disabilities and difficulties, and nursing subsidies for people with severe disabilities, benefiting nearly 20 million disabled people every year.

Charity has thrived over the past decade. Charitable donations exceeded 200 billion yuan in 2020, and 1.86 trillion yuan of welfare lottery were issued between 2012 and 2021, raising 540.8 billion yuan of public welfare lottery funds in total.

Second, solid progress has been made in community-level social governance, helping sustain long-term social stability.

Over the past decade, the system of community-level self-governance under the leadership of Party organizations has become more mature and stable. The channels of community-level democracy have been constantly expanded, forms increasingly diversified, and efficacy continuously improved, which has played a unique and critical role in developing China's whole-process people's democracy.

We have made continuous innovations in urban and rural community governance and strengthened community services. All urban communities and 79.5% of rural communities have been equipped with comprehensive service facilities. More than 4 million community workers have played an important role in serving the people, especially in preventing and controlling COVID-19 over the past three years.

We have strengthened efforts to improve social organizations and promoted their Party building. We have completed the reform of delinking industry associations and chambers of commerce from government as scheduled, and cracked down on illegal social organizations in accordance with the law, further improving the environment for social organizations. At present, the number of registered social organizations nationwide has reached 900,000, an increase of 1.7 times over 2012.

We have continued to expand the group of professional social workers, with the number of licensed social workers nationwide reaching 737,000, up by nearly nine times over 2012. There are also more than 1.29 million volunteer teams, with 220 million registered volunteers, accounting for 15.9% of the country's total population.

Third, basic social services have developed at a faster pace, contributing to the increasing improvement in people's living standards. 

Over the past decade, we have improved and coordinated domestic, community and institutional elderly care services to meet different medical and health care needs. Up to now, there are 360,000 various elderly care service institutions and more than 8.12 million beds across the country, with the number of beds nearly twice that of 2012. We have continued to improve systems for delivering old-age allowances, service subsidies for elderly people, nursing subsidies for elderly people who cannot perform essential self-care, and general subsidies, benefiting nearly 37 million elderly people.

We have abolished marriage registration fees in an all-around way and launched a pilot project for interprovincial marriage registration to contribute to family harmony and happiness.

We have carried out policy upgrading services for funerals and worked hard to address the pressing difficulties and problems of the greatest concern to the people in funeral-related affairs.

We have formulated and promulgated regulations on administrative divisions, revised and issued regulations on geographical names, coordinated and promoted major administrative division adjustments, and provided geographical names to society as one of the public services.

Looking back on the past decade, we are delighted to see encouraging historical changes and sounder prospects for the undertaking of civil affairs, thanks to the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

We should acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We should boost our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership. We should stay confident in the path, the theory, the system, and the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should firmly uphold Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. 

Marching on the new journey in the new era, civil affairs departments at all levels will better perform their responsibilities to ensure people's basic living needs, improve social governance at the primary level, and provide basic social services. We will take stronger measures to work away at issue by issue, year in and year out, to see that our people will always have a strong sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. With such efforts in civil affairs undertakings, we will make new, greater contributions to fully building a modern socialist country and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Next, my colleagues and I will answer your questions.