Livelihoods main concern: poll

More than three-quarters of Chinese are paying close attention to this year's annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), with most interest surrounding proposals related to improving people's livelihoods, a Global Times survey has found.

The survey, which solicited opinions from 1,446 people aged over 18 in seven major cities, was conducted between Thursday and Sunday by the Global Poll Center, an organization affiliated with the Global Times. Respondents were polled from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province; Chengdu, Sichuan Province; Xi'an, Shaanxi Province; Changsha, Hunan Province; and Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

Some 77.1 percent of respondents said they are paying close attention to the 2013 two sessions, with 67.6 percent pinpointing issues related to improving people's livelihoods as being of most concern. Future policies unveiled by China's new leaders are of next greatest interest, 56.3 percent of respondents said, while anti-corruption measures polled next with 53.9 percent. Asked which topics they would like to be brought up during the two sessions, some 41 percent of respondents said they wanted to hear more about measures to increase incomes. Improving the social welfare system, fighting corruption and narrowing the wealth gap also ranked high on the list, polling 34.7, 33 and 31.9 percent respectively.

Dai Yanjun, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the Global Times that the fact people are most concerned about their livelihoods has something to do with China's current status of development. "The survey shows people are worried about the future of their lives. Problems such as unfair social profit distribution, tilted welfare and other unstable factors have created a sense of anxiety," said Dai.

Dai's opinions were echoed by Yang Yang, a political science professor from the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that high housing prices and living costs have created great pressure on Chinese people.

"Despite the fact that the population is aging significantly, people have little confidence in the government's pension system," said Yang, adding that corruption often involves embezzlement of public funds, and that without solving the corruption, people's livelihoods can't improve.

The survey also showed that 40.3 percent of respondents supported continuous reforms. Some 34.4 percent said they want reforms to be "steady and progressive." Only 20.5 called for China's reforms to be "large-scale and more aggressive." When asked their opinion of the significance of government departmental reform, 53.4 percent of respondents said the key was building mechanisms to ensure accountability. Some 24.9 percent believed reforms should break old administrative patterns and deepen political reform.