Premier Wen Jiabao said, “Equity and Justice is brighter than the sun.” For more than 30 years, China has maintained a sustained and fast economic growth, with a great improvement in people’s living standard. However, there have also emerged huge rural-urban, regional gaps in terms of income distribution, wealth distribution and basic public services. It can be seen as “One Country, Two Systems” in terms of policy, or “One Country, Four worlds” in terms of regional differences. In order to remove the long-term inequity in opportunity and to promote a harmonious society, we should make efforts to formulate public policy that fosters equitable development.

There are several key points in equitable public policy. Firstly, the policy aims at promoting equal opportunity rather than equal result, although an equitable competitive environment shall reduce unequal results including education and health. Secondly, the quality of opportunity is crucial, which means that the core of public action is rather the distribution of property, economic opportunity and political voice than direct interference in unequal income. Thirdly, equitable policy requires a short-term trade-off between fairness, equity and efficiency.

The Great conception of building a socialist society of harmony as brought up by the Party Central Committee is to build a fair, equal and just society. Three aspects need to be dealt with to build a harmonious society. Firstly, citizens’ rights including economic, social and cultural rights should be guaranteed. Secondly, a cooperative political framework under which the common interests of social community are protected should be established. Thirdly, civil society should be strengthened allowing citizens be organized to address the risks in the market and participate in public policy decision-making in public life of the state. We can strengthen the government's public actions and prepare an equitable environment for long-term development in China by observing the following six principles.

First, Relationship between fairness and efficiency should be handled in a proper way. In encouraging economic growth and using market mechanism, the principle of “giving priority to efficiency with due consideration to fairness” should be followed; while in public services like distribution of income and education resources, job opportunity, health service and social security, the principle of “giving priority to fairness with due consideration to efficiency” should be applied. 

Second, principle of justice should be followed to maximize the benefits of the vulnerable group. The government should place income redistribution high on its working agenda by giving special attention to low-income group and vulnerable people, so that more people could share the achievement of economic growth. During the reform of economic system, equality arrangement in social and economic fields means that the most disadvantaged people may get the maximum part of benefits.

Third, principle of equal opportunity and social assistance should be applied. Wherever people are and whatever their initial status is, all people should have equal opportunity to enjoy the achievement of social development like opportunities of employment, education and healthcare service, or other basic rights and duty given by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. Besides, the principle of social assistance should be applied in a proper way, for it is not only an action for public welfare and fairness, but also an investment in human resource that will generate economic return and increase productivity in the future.

Forth, the principle of “common development, common sharing and common prosperity” should be adhered to. Common development means that the normal relationship between developed and underdeveloped areas is one characterized by common development and mutual support. Developed areas should not seek development at the expense of the development of underdeveloped areas; instead, they should promote and stimulate the development of the latter. Common Sharing means that all people share the achievement of economic growth. Common prosperity, as a basic principle of socialism, is a long-term goal that deserves our unremitting efforts.

Fifth, the principle of economic and political democracy should be observed. Extremely unequal initial distribution leads to inequality in the distribution of economic resources, which in turn lead to inequality in the distribution of social and political resources. In order to ensure that the second distribution can facilitate equitable development, gaps in initial income distribution should not be too wide. Economic democracy is the best way to achieve this goal. In terms of political democracy, as the trade-off between fairness and efficiency involves the distribution of interests, so citizen should be granted with equal voice in decision-making.

Sixth, the principle of “what is taken from the people should be used for the benefit of the people” should be applied in public finance. As a basis for building a harmonious society, public finance policy should be made based on the characteristics of Chinese public finance and public services and adhere to the following five basic guidelines: implementing the principle of “low level, wide coverage and high efficiency”; building multiple financing channels; providing public facilities to all citizens and expanding the coverage; putting the focus of work to rural and central and western areas; and “giving timely assistance” to poverty-stricken areas and poor people.

“Putting people first” is putting fairness as the centre of development. By ensuring that the individual rights, political rights and property rights of every one of the over a billion people (rather than some of them) are guaranteed by the system (which are provided in the Constitution), China can attract more investors and innovators and greatly improve the efficiency in providing services to all the citizens. In the long run, increasing fairness is the key to improve economic growth. It is of vital significance to accelerate poor people’s development for reducing inequity, achieving the 2015 “Millennium Development Goals” as set by the international community and building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.