PR100122

BEIJING, June 5, 2023 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

In September 2021, a Beijing resident called a city hotline to report there

were no bus routes near a newly built school in the Beijing

Economic-Technological Development Area.

CGTN: Why is people-centered development crucial to China?

Two months later, a new bus route was launched.

The Chinese capital, a metropolis housing over 20 million people, has adopted a

new approach to city management since 2019. It now works with 49 state-owned

public service enterprises and institutions to offer a major hotline service of

the city.

A total of 750 lines receive questions and complaints related to public

services from local residents 24 hours a day.

"We find the most frequently reported city problems or demands, based on all

the hotline calls we receive, and then take action," said Geng Yu, chief of the

reform division of "Handling A Complaint Upon Receipt" at the Beijing Municipal

Administration of Government Affairs Services. "We put the people at the center

no matter whether it is about urban governance or providing services to the

people."

The approach city managers take to solve residents' problems reveals a lot

about a government's mindset regarding urban management and the way it treats

its people.

There's an old saying that's well known in China: "The water that keeps a ship

afloat can also overturn it." Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general

secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, once quoted

it to describe the relationship between the people and the Party. In this case,

water refers to the people while the boat refers to the Party's leadership.

The saying suggests that only by taking good care of the people's needs can the

CPC win their support. That's why the CPC has made it a basic principle to

serve the people wholeheartedly.

Xi has urged that "tackling problems that prompt the strongest public reaction

and that threaten to erode the very foundation of the Party's governance" must

be prioritized.

In the report Xi delivered to the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022, he said

"we must protect the people's fundamental interests, improve their well-being,

and work tirelessly to ensure that development is for the people and by the

people and that its fruits are shared by the people. We must do a better job of

seeing that the gains of modernization benefit all our people fairly."

Xi also stressed the significance of a basic principle: "The aspirations of the

people to live a better life must always be the focus of our efforts. We must

keep on striving with endless energy toward the great goal of national

rejuvenation."

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-06-03/Why-is-people-centered-development-crucial-to-China--1kkmnFUe74Y/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcDsr0qk5NM

SOURCE: CGTN