This press conference covers a lot of information about education, healthcare, employment, and more!

On March 7th, the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress held a press conference at the Media Center in Beijing. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Civil Affairs Lu Zhiyuan, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping, Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli, and Director of the National Health Commission Lei Haizhao answered questions from Chinese and foreign journalists on topics related to education, civil affairs, human resources and social security, culture and tourism, and health.

This is Huai Jinpeng responding to a journalist’s question. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng:

• Last year, the gross enrollment rate for high school education was 92%. A total of 1,300 new or expanded high schools were built or renovated nationwide, adding 1.49 million new student places, giving more children the opportunity to attend high school.
• In the past two years, through expanding quality undergraduate programs, “Double First-Class” universities recruited an additional 38,000 students. This actively responds to the public’s demand for quality higher education. Additionally, over the past five years, 18 regular undergraduate universities and 70 vocational undergraduate colleges were added, increasing undergraduate admissions by 700,000. International cooperation in running schools was promoted, with over 540 new Sino-foreign cooperative institutions and projects at the undergraduate level or above, providing an additional 350,000 degrees.
• We will continue to clean up and rectify illegal schooling, overlong study hours, campus bullying, and other issues, and carry out special governance on “campus meals” and textbook and teaching auxiliary subscriptions.
• A new round of mental health promotion for students will be launched to build a comprehensive mental health education system for all.
• We will deepen efforts to strengthen students’ physical fitness through activities like “show your timetable” to enhance tracking and evaluation, ensuring that primary and secondary students engage in at least 2 hours of physical activity daily and enjoy 15-minute breaks. We aim to create sports classes that students love and that make them sweat, widely hold “three major ball” competitions, and energize campuses with “class super” and “school super” events, so every student masters at least one sports skill and benefits lifelong.
• During the “14th Five-Year Plan,” over 8,600 new undergraduate majors and more than 4,500 master’s degree awarding points were added, with many disciplines and majors aligned with future development and comprehensive human growth.

This is Lu Zhiyuan responding to a journalist’s question. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi

Minister of Civil Affairs Lu Zhiyuan:

• China has initially established a nationwide “one network” for elderly care services covering urban and rural areas. At the county level, there are basic public elderly care institutions serving as “general platforms” and “overall dispatch”; over half of the townships (streets) have regional elderly care centers; urban communities have embedded elderly care centers, and rural areas have neighbor-help points and happy rural homes.
• This year, subsidies for elderly care services are being provided to seniors with moderate or higher levels of disability. So far, 1.72 billion yuan in consumption vouchers have been redeemed, benefiting 892,000 elderly people.
• Over the next five years, efforts will continue to build county-level comprehensive elderly care management platforms, expand the functions of regional elderly care centers, and adapt to local conditions to increase coverage of village (community) elderly care facilities, aiming to establish a three-tier elderly care network at the county, township, and village levels by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
• We will promote the expansion of basic livelihood security from material support to include service assistance and spiritual care. Policies will be developed to support social assistance services, accelerate the improvement of the “material + service” comprehensive aid model; establish full visitation and care systems for empty-nest and living alone seniors; implement special actions to enhance mental health services for vulnerable children; and improve policies for mental health and welfare services for those with mental disorders, deepening initiatives like the “Mental Health Integration Action.”
• We will further improve the welfare protection system for vulnerable children, enhance care services for children with autism, and promote “open-door” operations at children’s welfare institutions.
• This year, the focus is on fully utilizing the social assistance dynamic monitoring information platform to establish a closed-loop management mechanism for government notifications, departmental assistance, and result feedback, promoting efficient “one-stop” social assistance services.

This is Wang Xiaoping responding to a journalist’s question. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi

Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping:

• The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is studying relevant measures, actively leveraging artificial intelligence to create new jobs and empower traditional ones, promoting inclusive development that balances technological progress with improving people’s livelihoods.
• We will strengthen coordinated efforts, implementing actions to stabilize employment, expand capacity, and improve quality. On “stability,” support will be increased for labor-intensive industries like foreign trade, construction, and hospitality to stabilize jobs. On “expansion,” employment potential in digital economy, high-end manufacturing, and modern services will be tapped to support industrial upgrading. On “quality,” mechanisms for adjusting minimum wages will be implemented, market order regulated, and the wage payment security system for migrant workers fully enforced, ensuring rights and improving quality.
• For older workers, the ministry will launch targeted skills training programs, deepen labor cooperation, broaden employment channels for migrant workers, and strengthen employment assistance for those at risk of falling back into poverty, helping them stabilize employment and increase income.
• Since the beginning of the year, relevant departments have organized 31,000 recruitment fairs and posted 22 million job openings. Post-Chinese New Year surveys show that the employment rate of enterprises and the return rate of workers have exceeded 90%.
• The ministry will closely monitor new trends and opportunities, focusing on new productive forces, emerging consumption hotspots, and social services, continuously developing new occupations. It will accelerate the formulation of national occupational standards, improve talent evaluation systems, strengthen training for new professions, and expand employment opportunities.
• The ministry will continue to improve the transfer and continuation of pension insurance, optimize the national social security public service platform, and promote nationwide “one-click” inquiry of social security rights, making employment mobility and social security account management more convenient.
• From September 22 to 27, the 48th World Skills Competition will be held in Shanghai. We sincerely invite media friends and all sectors of society to visit Shanghai during the event, experience over 60 skill competitions firsthand, participate in related activities, and visit the first World Skills Museum to appreciate the beauty of skills and the light of labor.

This is Sun Yeli responding to a journalist’s question. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi

Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli:

• During the 9-day Spring Festival holiday, domestic tourism reached 596 million trips, with spending exceeding 800 billion yuan, setting a new record. By 2025, domestic trips are expected to surpass 6.5 billion, with a year-on-year growth of over 16%, and spending will reach 6.3 trillion yuan, up 9.5%, also a record high.
• The main task moving forward is to focus on building a strong cultural and tourism nation, drafting and implementing the “14th Five-Year” cultural and tourism development plan, proactively aligning with national development strategies, and integrating culture and tourism into the overall national and party development framework to better serve mental cultivation, emotional development, and economic and social empowerment.
• We will strengthen market regulation and rectify chaos in the cultural and tourism markets. For illegal behaviors such as cheating tourists, forced shopping, and other violations, we will maintain “zero tolerance,” enforce strict supervision, and handle violations decisively, including suspending operations when necessary.
• China is actively promoting the facilitation of inbound payments. By 2025, inbound tourists’ mobile payment consumption is expected to reach about 80 billion yuan.
• The Chinese government has introduced policies to boost inbound tourism. By 2025, the number of inbound tourists is expected to exceed 150 million, with a year-on-year increase of over 17%, and spending over 130 billion dollars; among them, over 30 million foreigners will enter visa-free.
• “Becoming Chinese” has become a popular online phrase. Many foreigners want to experience Chinese life—riding high-speed trains, watching drone shows, trying traditional Chinese massage, wearing Hanfu, eating hotpot, and more, becoming standard ways to experience China.

This is Lei Haizhao responding to a journalist’s question. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi

Director of the National Health Commission Lei Haizhao:

• By 2025, the proportion of outpatient visits at primary medical and health institutions nationwide will reach 52.6% of the total annual outpatient visits, with continuous growth in both the number of visits and their proportion over five years.
• The average life expectancy in China will reach 79.25 years by 2025, an increase of 1.32 years from 2020, with an annual growth of 0.26 years.
• To date, 33 million families with infants and young children have received childcare subsidies.
• Over 90% of residents can now reach the nearest medical service point within 15 minutes, indicating significant improvement in healthcare accessibility across the country.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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