People-first census
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The sixth national population census that started on Monday, by mapping a clearer and up-to-date picture of the world's most populous nation, will provide key information that will help China translate its new blueprint of inclusive growth into reality in the coming years.
To make the once-a-decade tally a success, all residents, both Chinese and foreign, are strongly urged to actively participate in, and cooperate with, the 6-million-odd census takers who are going door-to-door, visiting more than 400 million households across the country.
Meanwhile, to ease citizens' growing privacy concerns, one of the biggest challenges facing the census takers, the Chinese authorities should guarantee that any personal information collected will be kept strictly confidential.
More importantly, they should do their best to ensure the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the results, and pledge to make full use of the census to fine-tune the country's growth model to significantly improve people's livelihoods.
The first decade in the 21st century has witnessed both the rapid rise of China as a world economic power and massive demographic changes in a country of 1.3 billion people.
As the nation is set to roll out a new five-year plan to lay a decisive foundation for building a moderately well-off society in all aspects in the coming decade, the transformation of its growth pattern has become more closely related than ever to the country's demography that is undergoing drastic changes.
It is widely agreed that China's proposed transformation of its development mode, weaning itself off excessive investment and exports in favor of more reliance on consumption, will be hard. But, a growing population, and one that is aging rapidly, with a greater flow of people across provincial borders, has made that task even more urgent and harder to accomplish.
On one hand, China can no longer build its long-term growth miracle on seemingly unlimited supply of cheap manufacturing laborers as it is probably approaching the Lewis Turning Point: The country's industrial wages will rise quickly once the supply of surplus labor from the countryside tapers off.
On the other hand, the country's consumption growth is far from strong enough to serve as a leading engine for sustainable growth as Chinese policymakers are yet to effectively arrest the widening wealth gap among residents. Before most Chinese consumers are both able and willing to loosen their purse strings, it seems unlikely that the country will be able to shift from its dependence on investment and export to consumer-led growth.
A prerequisite for the Chinese government to address these challenges is a better grasp of the country's massive demographic changes. An accurate census will provide much-needed information, allowing policymakers to effectively target needy groups and tilt public finance in favor of the majority of the public.
In this sense, active participation from all walks of life in the sixth national population census can be an initial step to help achieve a great improvement in people's well-being in the coming decade.
