Annual Report of China's Social Development (2013)

The Press Release
Social management and social construction are growing concerns in China. The National Institute of Social Development (NISD), CASS conducted a “Social Attitudes and Social Development Survey” in 2012. Seven thematic reports and the “Annual Report of China's Social Development (2012)” were published based on the survey data, making an immediate impact in the academia.
The second wave named “Social Attitudes and Social Development Survey (2013)”was conducted by the NISD in May, 2013. The population included all urban residents in People's Republic of China. We selected 60 cities/towns and 540 communities/neighborhoods from 31 provinces and 1223 cities by multiple random sampling. The second wave consist 7114 participants. The “Annual Report of Social Development (2013)”was published based on the data, including aspects of Social Climate, social inclusion, public participation, urban public services, social management, life quality and trust in government.
(A) Social Climate Report
The analysis of Social Climate and social confidence showed that:
1. The evaluation score of China’s Social Climate was 62.8 (out of 100, below the same), which slightly increased compared to 2012 (62.2). The research team also did 100 specialists’ interviews besides the national survey. The specialists had similar views with the survey participants on China’s Social Climate, as a support for our survey findings.
2. The score of social confidence was 77.4 in 2013, 2.4 higher than 2012, showing a rising public expectation on social development in the next three years. At the micro level of social confidence, participants were most confident with the following three aspects (according to the percentage of positive expectation): Family relations (80.4% confident), interpersonal relations (73.9% confident) and health condition (67.7% confident). They were not confident with (according to the percentage of negative expectation) life stress (21.0% confident), housing conditions (13.9% confident) and working conditions (12.1% confident).
At the macro level of social confidence, the respondents were confident with the infrastructure (70.1%), health care (60.9%) and education (63.5%), and they were not confident with price (44.8%), food safety (33.8%) and environmental quality (33.1%).Further analysis indicated that improvement of social security would raise public's expectations of the future and enhance the consumer confidence.
3. The analysis of satisfaction: Satisfaction at the individual level was higher than satisfaction at the societal level. The three highest scores of satisfaction were on family relations (63.1%), interpersonal relations (53.7%) and health conditions (50.1%) at the individual level, whereas the three lowest scores of satisfaction were life stress (37.34%), income level (33.5%) and housing conditions (28.4%).At the societal level, the three most satisfying aspects were the infrastructure (56.1%), education (school enrollment, teaching quality, etc.) (44.8%) and public security (39.7%) .The three most dissatisfying aspects were the price (61.5%), food safety (52%) and environmental quality (43%).
4. Further data analysis showed that the impact of economic income on the public satisfaction was polarized. At the individual level, a higher level of income was associated with a higher level of satisfaction. At the societal level, in contrast, a higher level of income was associated with a lower level of satisfaction. Overall, the satisfaction with income was relatively low and an income gap was found. The satisfaction with economic development was higher. The social equity and fairness, price level, food safety and environmental quality were the most dissatisfying social issues. The public satisfaction on the livelihood was low. The coverage of basic public services still needed to improve. Effective community participation can significantly improve the level of public satisfaction.
5. The analysis of government trust: Trust in government departments was scored 65 and trust in the government executive ability was 69.Stratified analysis was performed. Results indicated that public trust in government decreased when the hierarchy of the government descended. Trust in the central government ranked the highest (95). Trust in provincial and municipal governments ranked the second (93), and trust in the county government ranked the third (72).Data analysis also showed that the social participation directly affected the public's trust in the government. Higher level of participation was associated with higher level of trust in government.
6. The analysis of sense of relative deprivation: Public economic income directly affected the public's sense of relative deprivation. Higher income level was associated with a weakened sense of relative deprivation. Moreover, higher social economic status was against the sense of relative deprivation. From the perspective of status inconsistency, a great difference between the individual’s economic status and social status lead to a sense of relative deprivation. Higher social status reduces the feeling of relative deprivation for those who are under same economic status. Further analysis showed that improvement of social insurance reduced social risks, corrected psychological imbalance, and relieved the feeling of relative deprivation for individuals.
The living conditions significantly affected the feelings of relative deprivation. Worse housing situation was associated with stronger feelings of relative deprivation. Housing conditions, personal income and life stress were the most dissatisfying issues for urban residents. Among them, housing was a major cause of income stress and living stress. Statistics showed that 15.6% of the respondents rent homes. The number was 45.4% for respondents below 30 yrs. and 70% for respondents between 30 yrs. to 40 yrs. Young people were facing the shortage of houses, which had a direct impact on the public support and political orientations and attitudes for the young generation.
Public expectation was no longer limited to basic needs; people focused more on the improvement of life quality. The public concern had been transferred to the macroeconomic situation, social and political participation and social justice. Public demand was centered on housing, environmental quality, food safety, price level and other issues concerning people's livelihood and human right protection.
It seems that China’s social development may have reached a “turning point”. From the basic needs of social development-the low income stage to a higher level of needs-the middle income stage. In this new stage, the public demands may be more related to protection of human rights, improvement of life quality, realization of social justice, and a strong willingness to participate in public affairs.
We believe that a most important cause for the turning point was China's long-term accumulation. Through many years of development, China has the basic needs satisfied and is moving toward a well-off and wealthy life. An indicator worth noting is the Engel coefficient. In accordance with the criteria about the Engel coefficient by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, the number above 59% stands for poverty, 50% to 59% stands for adequately fed and clothed, 40% to 50% stands for ease, 30% to 40% for rich, and below 30% denoted the richest¹.
The Engel coefficient²was 37.1% for Chinese urban residents and 40.8% for rural residents in 2012, indicating that China had been transferred from adequately fed and clothed to a well-off and wealth society around 2010.The change of Engel coefficient was reflected in people's social attitudes. We had done a national survey of urban residents in 1987 and found that most people were not satisfied with the inflation³. In this survey, however, we found that people were most dissatisfied with social equality and social justice. It indicated that with the improvement of living conditions, the spiritual pursuit for the Chinese people had been undergoing profound changes.
We also believe that the changing point has a relation with the Chinese’s strong feelings: The public feel the need for changes and reforms out of love and responsibility of participation; the government feels the need for changes and reforms out of seeing social problems and hoping to build a prosperous society. The inflection point inevitably emerged, when the desire for changes was intertwined with anxiety, and when the improvement of living standards was intertwined with increasingly higher level of demands.
To understand the inflection point, the first thing is to understand the public demand at current stage. The second thing is to accurately adjust the social policies, to properly make institutional arrangements and to appropriately encourage development to a new stage.
(B) Social Inclusion Report
The social inclusion in urban areas remained steady in 2013.
1. The score for social inclusion was 66.0 in urban areas, almost equal to 2012. About 27.0% of the urban residents considered that the social inclusion as good, 50.6% as normal, and 22.4% as bad.
2. The satisfaction with public services increased. The infrastructure construction effectively promoted social inclusion. The satisfaction with education, health care and infrastructure reached 67.4, 63.8 and 70.8, significantly higher compared to 2012.
3. Among the five dimensions of social inclusion, community involvement reached a highest score of 68.6. The public services and social safety network were scored 67.6 and 66.0, respectively, higher than the overall social inclusion score. It indicated that the community participation was generally beneficial to the urban residents. The social safety network also produced an important effect.
We also found an obvious binary segmentation in the evaluation of social inclusion.
(1) Household, institution ownership and political identity were important indicators of social inclusion. The members of the Community Party and the Youth League considered the living and working environment more inclusive than non-party or non-league members. Local residents rated higher of social inclusion than migrants, reflecting the migrants’ social exclusion. Employees in nationalized companies rated the society as more inclusive.
(2)The score of the two sub-scales, namely the “Exchange Autonomy” and “Right Protection” scale, was scored lower than the overall evaluation of social inclusion. It suggested that an improvement of social equality and social justice was necessary in the market and in the society. Meantime, reform and improvement of the judicial system requires to be synchronized strengthened.
(3)There were possible loopholes in China’s social safety net. The urban poor residents were to some extent neglected, and the satisfaction of social assistance (65.6) was below the overall social inclusion score.
Statistical analysis showed that “developing opportunities” and “social equality and social justice” remained to be the major factors influencing social inclusion.
(C) Public Participation Report
The research found that:
1. The public’s evaluation of the government increased. Compared to last year, the public evaluation of the government has basically increased. Particularly in the “public service effectiveness”, the positive response rose by 3% to 8%.A slight rise of 1% to 2% was found in other aspects. The evaluation score of public service increased, due to the policy change to focus on livelihood. Overall, the urban residents having higher government evaluation were more likely to report being in a harmonious society. It revealed that the social feeling was highly related to evaluation of the government performance for the public.
2. Evaluation of the government varied among cities. The public were asked to answer if “The government is willing to listen to the people”. The lowest rate of positive attitude was only 11% in one city, compared to the highest rate of 79% in another city. Another example about “government services meet my needs” had the lowest rate of positive attitude (20%) in a city and the highest of 91% in another.
3. The increase in income led to better government evaluation. Controlling for other variables, the per capita income was positively related to better government evaluation, indicating that economic development continued to be an important approach to enhance the public's evaluation of the government.
4. Higher proportion of migrants possibly led to negative evaluation of the government. Large amount of migrants was associated more negative evaluation of the government without controlling of public concerns and social support. Further analysis showed that it was mainly due to lack of public concern and social support in these cities.
5. Hierarchy of needs and expectations of the government were increasing. Higher education had a significantly negative relationship with the evaluation of the government. Higher education was more likely to be related to higher hierarchy of needs and higher evaluation standard, which led to more negative evaluation. The development of the economic society, and changes to the hierarchy of needs require government administrations to be adapted
6. The organizational participation was relatively low.
Only 20% of people were engaged in organized activities in community over the past six months. Conversely, nearly 4/5 of them were lack of organizational participation. How to encourage community participation is a complex and urgent issue. Participation rate in the mass organizations and grassroots organizations was the lowest. The rate of participation in traditional mass organizations was 12% (e.g., Labor Union, Communist Youth League), and in social groups and service organizations was 9%.The participation rate of social organization had greatly increased compared with previous data, although it was still not high.
7. Public concerns and social support should be enhanced. The results showed that informal social participation was higher than formal social participation. In measuring social support, 42% of the respondents considered that “I can always get timely help in case of difficulties”, slightly higher than two fifths. More than half (56%) people noted that “I often discuss social issues with my friends” in terms of interest in public affairs.
8. The public concern and social support were the most important factors influencing the government evaluation. Analysis showed that people were more likely to be interested in public affairs, and obtained more social support in cities with better evaluation of the government. The relationship demonstrated a most stable, a most important and a most significant indicator of the government's evaluation.
9. Organizational participation had an indirect influence on government evaluation. The respondents, participating in community and social organizations, evaluated relatively higher of the government, yet not statistically significant. Further analysis showed that organizational participation indirectly influenced government evaluation. The influence was exerted through its impact on public concern and social support.
10. The organizational participation should be rooted in the society. Data showed that the effect of community participation on government evaluation largely depended on the social support in local community. The positive influence of community participation on government evaluation was only found in cities with higher levels of social support. In contrast, community participation had little effect in cities with lower levels of social support.
(D) Inclusiveness of Urban Public Services Report
“China’s urban public services inclusiveness assessment (2013)”assessed three dimensions of urban public services (e.g., infrastructure, public safety, social security, health care, education, and environmental protection), including promoting equal opportunities, guaranteeing basic needs and protecting the disadvantaged, in accordance with the principles.
1. The overall evaluation scores of satisfaction, expectation and implementation for public services were high. People were fairly satisfied with the six areas of basic public services. Among which, people were mostly satisfied with the infrastructure and dissatisfied with the environmental protection. Progress was made in medication and healthcare compared to 2012 (score rising from 58.8 to 64.2), whereas the evaluation of environmental protection and public safety declined slightly. People tended to have positive predictions for the future public services. The expectation of infrastructure was scored 90.4. However, the score of the environment protection fell to 60.The overall score was 68.2 for the implementation of public services, in which “meeting the needs” had an average of 70.9 and “listening to the public” had an average of 64.2.
2. Equality was delivered in the livelihood domains in terms of equal opportunities. The types of public services varied by regions, which influenced the public evaluation. For instance, the evaluation of infrastructure was better in eastern regions than in the middle and the west. The evaluation score of public safety and environmental protection was lower in the eastern regions. Household had an impact on access to certain public services, particularly on social security. About 42.9% of local non-agricultural residents were satisfied, yet only 31.5% migrants were satisfied with social security. No significant differences among social classes were found in public services related to livelihood. There was no difference in satisfaction of social security among income groups. The scores ranged from 65.1 to 65.8. In addition, the respondents with a monthly income lower than1000 yuan had a highest appraisal of medication and healthcare as well as education, showing that the equalization of basic public services was well delivered. People with lower income were moderately satisfied with the social security, medication and healthcare and education.
3. The social insurance coverage remained to be improved for social security. As an important part of “social security net”, the coverage of social insurance remained to be further improved. Only 25.7% of the respondents had unemployment insurance. The awareness and convenience of some basic public services were not satisfying the inspirations. About 47.0% of respondents aged above 56 yrs. were unclear of the local nonprofit pension services, and 11.5% of them considered that it was inconvenient to use. Almost 30% of the respondents were not sure if there was free employment information and training opportunities provided, and up to 55.8% did not know how to obtain or use this service. The satisfaction of clean air, clean water, safe food and other basic needs was generally low, except that the rate of tap water quality was over 60. The air quality and food safety was scored around 50.
4. There is a lack of facilities for disadvantaged groups. Public rental housing was the main task of the affordable housing construction in the “Twelfth Five-Year” Plan. The satisfaction and confidence with the public rental housing were respectively rated 61.0 and 73.0, lower than the average score of social security (66.1 and 85.2, respectively).To prevent social exclusion, inclusive public services should focus on the disadvantaged groups. In evaluation of protection and assistance for vulnerable groups, the respondents suggest that social support for the poor people should be enhanced. There was 15.7% of them feeling dissatisfied with current condition, and 39.7% of them regarded the social assistance level as just ordinary. Additionally, 18.9% of respondents were not aware of the assistance provided to the disabled people, and 49.2% of them were unclear of the usage of this service.
(E) The Social Inclusion and Balanced Development In Regional Societies-A Cases Study of Xishuangbanna
“The social inclusion and balanced development in regional societies-A cases study of Xishuangbanna”, part of the “Social Attitudes and Social Development (2013)” survey, was a qualitative research conducted by the National Institute of social development. The development path, governance pattern and social structures in the local area were explored. In-depth analysis of the crux of social development was conducted, to propose new problem solving ideas and to reduce regional imbalances in the border areas.
Field studies during 2009-2011 indicated that Xishuangbanna was support by agricultural production but not industry. The local government intended to bring a low-cost transformation to the development pattern, utilizing their natural and cultural resources. In 2005, the State Council issued the “Decision of the State Council on Implementing Scientific Outlook on Development and Strengthening Environmental Protection” for the next 5-15 years’ environmental protection. The Ministry of Environmental Protection Administration developed a “National Ecological Village (standard) Trial” under the Decision, and encouraged counties and cities to be engaged. Ancillary funding was distributed to the local government, forming a three-level eco-village application project, from city (county), province to the nation. The project brought opportunities to the local government to reform their economic production pattern.
There were three major plantation economies in Xishuangbanna: Watermelon planting in the flat dam, ancient tea trees plantation and the “rice fish vegetable symbiosis eco-field”. The profits of the first two economic models were higher. The tea was sold at an astonishing price. However, the two models had limitations. The watermelon production was not sustainable, since the fertility of the soil declined every year. The mountain communities prohibited tea trees transfer, land transfer or outsiders employment, to ensure the monopoly profits of the tea trees, which accumulatively compressed the economic energy and may lead to a breakdown in the future. In addition, irrational consumption appeared. Many flourishing villages were indulging in home constructions and gambling. The production mode was heading to an unsustainable society.
In contrast, the ecological field system was a proper and sustainable development approach, although its profits were lower. The paddy fields were dug into ponds after harvest, to storage water and do fish-farming. Vegetables were grown on the field ridges. A three-dimensional ecosystem of rice, fish, and vegetables was formed and well circulated. This eco-industry was adapted to its sociocultural traditions. Faith in Buddhism makes the public believe that life continues to accumulate merit and eliminate karma, for salvation in future life. The life cycle continues and is supported by a sustainable social system. “Ecological fields” is indeed a sustainable production system, and indirectly shapes a sustainable social reproduction system through the labor mechanism.
Reflected in the above case, unbalanced development is ordinary in the regional society. The reason is that the mismatch of economic and social development is no longer brought by weak economy, but was particular brought by the rapid economic growth. The economic growth has accumulated several times of wealth than the past 10 years, yet the economic output is beyond the community can afford. Meanwhile, the social construction doses not keep pace with the economic development. The social and moral constraints haven’t been effectively established.
(F) Social Management Report
According to the “Social management report (2013)”, the fundamental purpose of social management is to “maintain social order, to promote social harmony and to safeguard people”. Therefore, the assessment of social management focused on people’s livelihood and social order.
The assessment of social management was conducted at three levels. The first was the basic social order at the macro level, referring to social security, social equality and social justice, social values, protection of public benefits, standard of right and wrong and social trust. The second was the group relations at the meso level, referring to the coordination of benefits among social groups (e.g., employers and employees, rich and poor, urban and rural residents, cadres and the masses, locals and migrants, etc.). The third was the personal well-being at the micro level, referring to the individual’s livelihood, including family economic status, housing, family relationships, interpersonal relationships, social support, health and future development.
1. The average score was 60.1 for social management. The scores were 61.7 for microscopic personal well-being, 59.9 for group relations and 58.6 for macroscopic basic order in the three dimensions in a descending order. It indicated that in the opinion of the respondents, the social management at the micro level was slightly better than at the meso-level, and at the meso-level was better than at the macro level.
2. The most complex issues about the macroscopic basic order was the “vague standards of right and wrong” and “crisis of social trust” in the subjective evaluation (56.3% and 49.4% of the respondents considered it problematic, respectively). It was the moral anomie brought by the dramatic social changes. Meantime, the “social equality and social justice” and “social values” were prominent issues (29.6% and 26.9% of the respondents were dissatisfied, respectively).The majority were satisfied with “the protection of the public benefits” and “social security” (46.5% and 39.7%of the respondents were satisfied, respectively).
3. In evaluating the group relations, the most prominent issue was centered on the relationship between the rich and poor, with a negative evaluation of 44.4% and much higher than the else. The relationship between the cadres and the masses obtained the second negative evaluation (22.5% negative). The evaluation of the relationship between locals and migrants was moderately good (32.6% positive and 14.8% negative).Additionally, the relationship between the employers and the employees seemed not so bad (15.5% negative).
4. In the evaluation of microscopic personal well-being, the majority of respondents reported feeling of physical and mental fatigue (56.5% of the respondents “often feel very tired” and 45.4% “always in a bad mood”). The rate of dissatisfaction was much higher than other livelihood indicators, showing much social burden and psychological pressure. Meanwhile, more than 1/4 of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the family economy and housing. 35.5% of respondents reported lack of confidence or be confused with future development. In contrast, the appraisals of family and interpersonal relationships were good (63.1% and 53.6% were satisfied, respectively), which provided social support to the individuals.
The 18th National Congress highlighted “Party leadership, government responsibility, social coordination, public participation and legal protection” in China’s social management system, indicating three fundamental approaches to improve social management: The top-down executive power (i.e., the party leadership and government responsibility), the bottom-up social participation (i.e., social coordination, public participation) and the legal protection.
The Report assessed the implementation of social management from the three fundamental approaches.
1. The executive power had a most significant positive impact on the social management. The report investigated the impact of executive power on social management, from the satisfaction of government organizations, the satisfaction of government public services as well as trust in the government departments. The results showed: (1) Government organizations had the greatest impact on the macroscopic basic order, and influenced the meso group relations. (2) The government public services had impact on all levels of social management, particularly on the microscopic personal well-being, which was different from the other two aspects of executive power. (3) Trust in government departments only had a significant impact on group relations.
2. Social participation had a significant impact on the social management. Similarly, the report investigated the impact of social participation on social management through from government policy participation, community participation and social organizations participation. Statistics showed that: (1) Government policies participation had a significant positive impact on social management, particularly on the microscopic personal well-being. (2) Community and social organization participation had no influence on social management, and even a negative correlation was found in some questions. The unintended result may be because of the formalism of the community and organization participation, which led to negative emotions and negative responses. In short, participation in the community and social organizations failed to play an active role.
3. Legal protection had a significant positive impact on the social management, slightly below government organization and public services. The influence was specifically at the macro and micro level rather than at meso level, which meant that the construction of group relations required social participation more than legal protection. The legal protection had much impact on micro personal well-being. Protection of safety, property and civil rights were considered the most important protection for personal well-being.
China's social management has remarkable achievements yet there were still shortcomings. The report also emphasized that the problems of social management were the cumulative results of rapid social changes in decades. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Therefore we cannot provide a solution in a short time, even for some urgent issues such as the vague standard of right and wrong or crisis of social trust.
(G) Government Social Responsibility Report
The social responsibility of the government was investigation from the economic development responsibility, social development responsibility, environmental protection responsibility and governance responsibility.
1. The satisfaction with the economic development ranked the highest, and satisfaction with the environment quality ranked the last. There was an increase of satisfaction with the governance responsibility. More than half of the respondents (54.2%) were satisfied with the level of economic development. Only 26.7% of them were satisfied with the environmental quality. More than forty percent (41.2%) of the respondents agreed that “the government is responsible for the public”, 12.2% higher than2012. In the economic development responsibility, the public were most satisfied with the economic growth (52.9%), and they were dissatisfied with the price level (16.2%).In social development responsibility, the public were most satisfied with the infrastructure (57.4%), and they were most dissatisfied with food security (21.6%). In environmental responsibility, the public were most satisfied with the public urban green (49.3%), and they were most dissatisfied with the air and ecological water quality (24.6% and 23.4%, respectively).In governance responsibility, the public were most satisfied with the public consultation (39.4%), and were most dissatisfied with the probity of the civil servants(22.8%).
2. The public were most confident of economic development in the next three years, and less confident with the environmental quality. Their confidence in governance responsibility was improved. There were 66.2% of the respondents believed that the economy would be better, and 42.9% of them believed that environmental quality would be better. Over half of them (53.9%) regarded the government as responsible for people, 8.3% higher compared to 2012. In the economic development responsibility, the public were confident with the economic and income growth (56.9% positive), but less confident about the price level (35.3% positive). In the social development responsibility, the public were more confident about infrastructure, but less confident with social equality and social justice (64.0% and 38.4% positive, respectively).In the environmental protection responsibility, the public were more confident with the urban greening (57.8% positive), but less confident with air quality (40.1% positive). In the governance responsibility, the public were more confident with public consultation (50.4% positive), but less confident with the probity of civil servants (38.9% positive).
3. The satisfaction of government social responsibility was scored 59.8, in the range of moderate satisfaction (40- 60 points). Specifically, the social development responsibility was rated the highest (61.9), and the economic development responsibility was rated lower (57.1) due to the dissatisfaction with the price level. The satisfaction with the environmental protection responsibility was 59.3, and with the governance responsibility was 58.5. The respondents employed in the nationalized companies had higher satisfaction scores. Those who considered themselves having a higher income and social status were more likely to be dissatisfied with the government responsibilities. The respondents from the eastern regions had lower satisfaction scores than their counterparts. This may be explained by the hierarchy of needs. People with higher socioeconomic status are more engaged in to the economy, society, environment issues and tend to have higher expectations to the government responsibility.
4. The confidence of government’s social responsibility was scored 77.4. Specifically, the confidence score of the social development responsibility ranked the highest (79.4). The scores of the economic development responsibility, the environmental protection responsibility and the governance responsibilities were 76.6, 76.7 and 78.1, respectively. The confidence scores of the employees in nationalized companies were higher. The respondents considered themselves with higher income and social statuses were less confident than their counterparts. The respondents from the eastern region had lower confidence scores.
(H) The Life Quality Report (2013)
The “China's life quality of urban residents report (2013)”highlighted an improvement of life quality. The urban residents seemed to be fairly confident with the future. The satisfaction score was 64.18 and the confidence score was 75.33 in terms of urban life quality. The public’s demand structure was undergoing a major transformation. The public required an increasingly higher life quality, that is, to focus more on value realization, social equality and social justice, social participation and social morality.
Price level and food safety were the most critical problems of life quality. According to statistics, 52.5% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the price level, compared to 65.4% in 2012.52.7% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the food security compared to 53.9% in 2012. A large amount of respondents (72.6%) believed that the situation of the price level would not change or would deteriorate, and 62% of the respondents had the same feeling of food security.
The respondents were increasingly dissatisfied with employment. Statistics showed that the score of dissatisfaction was improved compared to 2012, ranking from the fifth place in 2012 to the third place in 2013. There were 29.3% of the respondents were dissatisfied with employment situation, and 63.8% of them believed that the situation would not change or would deteriorate.
The respondents were not satisfied with their personal development; they reported lack of information on future accomplishment. Self-actualization had the lowest score of 58.76 in terms of satisfaction, whereas self-achievements had the lowest score of 60 in terms of confidence.
Some respondents were dissatisfied with the income levels and housing (34.3% and 28.6% were dissatisfied, respectively). In the age group between25 and 34, 31% of respondents were dissatisfied with the income level and 29.2% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the housing condition.
The middle income group had the highest life satisfaction (65.2) and the high-income group had the lowest satisfaction (64.59). For the low-income group, the average score of life satisfaction was 62.97.
The urban and rural areas were more integrated. The income gap was narrowed, but the imbalance of public services was increasingly prominent. The satisfaction with the income for urban residents was almost the same with the rural residents. However, the satisfaction with housing, social security and medication for rural residents was significantly lower than the urban residents.
We found an institutional discrimination for migrants. The satisfaction of income for the migrants was higher than local residents. However, their satisfaction with housing, social security and medication was significantly lower than the local respondents. The equalization of public services needed to be further improved.
There was an obvious trend of social stratification and social structure solidification. A significant positive correlation among income, education and occupational prestige was found, indicating a remarkable social stratification and social status consistency. It would further lead to insufficient social mobility and social changes, as well as much social conflicts.
The respondents had strong subjective feelings of social inequality and insufficient social mobility. The satisfaction and confidence of the public was associated with the subjective feeling of social structure and socioeconomic status. The problem of social inequality was prominent. Higher level of perception for social inequality and insufficient mobility may contribute to greater likelihood of outbreak of social conflicts.
As a basic life pattern and life content, network improves communication and promotes social trust. 65.8% of the respondents reported to access the internet more than one hour every day. Network becomes an important way of information dissemination, consumption and social interaction. Statistics showed that regular internet users had higher satisfaction with the government departments than their counterparts (i.e., “Sometimes” or “never” use the internet). The scores of trust in government were 71.06, 73.65 and 75.07, of interpersonal trust were 52.67, 54.86 and 57.4, and of the government trust were 56.62, 57.29 and 58.43, respectively.
We found the vagueness of social norms and moral values. There were 9.3% of the respondents rated the social morals as “very vague”, 45.1% of them rated as “vague”, 29% rated as ordinary, 10.8% rated as “clear” and 2.4% rated as “very clear”. There were 26.4% of the respondents were satisfied with the social norms, 45.5% of the respondents considered it as ordinary, and 27.1% were dissatisfied with the social norms.
The urban residents were generally satisfied with their life quality and confident with the future. The satisfaction of social life quality was higher than personal life quality. However, the confidence with improvement in social life quality was lower than in personal life quality. Present situation requires and is the basis of social reforms and social development. For instance, the public’s satisfaction and confidence of self-achievement was lower than other life quality domains, indicating the life demands were changing. Constructing an open, inclusive, harmonious and equitable social structure, making institutional arrangements contributive to the majority, implementing justice, fairness and transparency, praising virtue and punishing vice, and promoting equal opportunity and equal participation is substantial approaches for the growth and development of a healthy social system.
(I) Chinese Society-still at a Relatively Early Stage of Development
China’s social development stage and its position in the world are important questions in governance and social development research. Based on the United Nations Human Development Index, the National Institute of Social Development, CASS creates a composite social development index, incorporated with Chinese social values and perspectives, to examine the social development of China and other countries.
The index includes four dimensions of well-being, equality, inclusion and sustainability, covering the fundamental objectives, basic requirements, implementation mechanisms and preconditions of social development. Specifically, the composite index uses the “per capita GDP” and “per capita consumption “to measure well-being, uses the “Gini coefficient “to measure equality, uses “unemployment rate” and “intensive public expenditure rate” to measure inclusiveness, and uses the “average years of education”, “public education expenditure ratio” and “energy consumption per unit output value” to measure sustainability. This comprehensive index can be used for international and historical comparisons, and to effectively evaluate the developmental trajectory and development stage of Chinese society.
To understand China’s social development stage and its position in the world, the research group selected 23 countries, 9 districts and unions for comparisons, according to the development stage, demographic and geographic characteristics. The research group used and calculated data of China and the other countries from the World Bank and other international authoritative institutions from 1999 to 2012, and finally constituted the social development index database.
The results showed that China has made a dramatic progress in social development, yet is still in a relatively early development stage. It is because the economy of China used to fall at the end in the past. The social development index of China is about the same to other countries in the Third World.
1. China has promoted a rapidest development after the reform and opening up. The development index increased from 0.072 (ranked the last) in 1990 to 0.254 in 2012. It rose by as much as 0.181 and was much higher than other countries. From the perspective of the Three Worlds Theory, China’s social development index ranked the last in the Third World in 1990. China caught up with Indian in 1991, with Pakistan in 1995 and with Indonesia in 2006. In2012, China ranked the first in the Third World .The gap to the second world is further reduced.
2. The social development index in all 23 countries has a clear increase. However, the gap between developed and developing countries still exists, due to the significant differentiation and immobilization in global social development. The 1990-2012 trend of the social development index divided the 23 countries into three worlds. The first world was Japan, Sweden, USA, Germany, Finland, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and France. The second world was Hong Kong, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Korea, Singapore, Poland, Mexico, Russia, Romania and Brazil. The third world was South Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, India and China. Countries in the Third World have made ​​considerable progress of social development for the last twenty years, among which China was the rapidest. However, the gap among countries still exists, and has an immobilization tendency.
3. China’s social development is still in its infancy. In the selected countries, Germany ranked the first (0.616) and Pakistan (0.151) ranked the last in of the social development index in 2012. China’s social development index was at the downstream level (0.257) accompanied with Third World, just above Indonesia, India and Pakistan but much lower than Germany, Sweden and the United States. China’s social development is still in an early stage. China's social development index was 0.257, much lower than U.S. scored 0.595 in 2012.
A well-off society and national rejuvenation require the understanding of China’s initial development stage. At the macroscopic national governance, the formulation of strategy and policy should be centered on the personal well-being. The government should establish equitable, inclusive, sustainable mechanisms, to promote social development to a higher stage.
(J) Trust in Government Report
The “Social Attitudes and Social Development Survey (2013)” implemented by the National Institute of Social Development, CASS explored the trust in government from two aspects: Trust in different government departments and trust in government at different levels. Data analysis showed that:
1. The urban residents generally trusted the government. The trust in government varied among departments for urban residents. The trust in Public Security Bureau/police station, court, industrial and commercial/tax administration, social security administration were scored 58.2%, 47.3%, 38.2% and 44.1% respectively, higher than other departments. Department of Petition and Urban Management received less trust than the previous four departments (31.5% and 24.0%, respectively). The rate of trust in the central government, provincial and municipal and county governments reached 74.5%, 63.4% and 46.4%, respectively.
2. People registered with different households shared some similarities. Trust in the central government was rated as the highest, and the Urban Management Department was rated as the lowest. The trust in central government ranked the highest for both agricultural and non-agricultural residents (76.6% and 76.7%, respectively). The trust in the Urban Management Department was the lowest for both groups (23.3% for agricultural residents and 23.5% for the non-agricultural residents). The major difference between the two groups was in trust of Public Security Bureau/police station. There were 60.3% of the non-agricultural residents claiming trust in the Public Security Bureau/police station; however, the number was 11% lower for agricultural residents (49.3%). Comparatively, the difference in trusting the central government between the two groups was only 0.1%.
3. The eastern region had the highest score of trust. For the trust in government departments, the eastern region had the highest score, followed by the western region and the central region. For trust of government at different levels, the eastern region still ranked first and the western region was the lowest. The distribution of trust in government at different levels was basically the same for the eastern, central and western regions. For the three regions, the score of trust in the central government was the highest (77.8%, 77.7% and 71.4%), and of the Urban Management Department was the lowest (21.7%, 23.6%, 27.9%).
The results indicated that the public trust in some government departments needed to be further improved. Improvement of the governance ability and awareness of social participation, creation of a good social atmosphere, and establishment a fair social security system in terms of rights, opportunities, rules and allocation are contributive to win trust of the public to the government.
(K) Environmental Satisfaction Report
The construction of ecological civilization concerns individual’s well-being and long-term development. It is vital to respect, to live harmony with nature and to protect nature. Ecological civilization has to be placed in a prominent position and embodied into economic construction, political construction, cultural construction as well as the overall social construction. To build a beautiful country and to achieve a sustainable development, accelerating the construction of ecological civilization is the direction for the government. The Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC issued a strategic decision of “Vigorously Promote the Construction of Ecological Civilization” standing on a historical point. The construction of ecological civilization highlights a continuous improvement of satisfaction on environment. It is a consensus that the environment satisfaction reflects the public’s life satisfaction. It is also a measure of social development. The assessment of the environmental satisfaction includes air quality, water quality, ecological water quality, urban greening, and garbage disposal.
The report mainly assessed the environmental satisfaction from the individual’s subjective feeling. We designed the Likert Scale according to the above five dimensions, to measure subjective judgments by add up the scores. The indicators were based on the public intuitive feelings. We divided the indicators into five tiers and got a total score of environmental satisfaction by adding them up. To convert the score into percentile, we had the total scores of five scales divided by 5, and hence completed the percentile measurement of environmental satisfaction from 5 dimensions.
1. The urban greening was the most satisfying aspects of environmental satisfaction. The overall satisfaction score was 59.53 in five dimensions. The urban greening got the highest score of 68.36. There were 48.8% of the respondents satisfied with the urban greening and only 14.3% of them were dissatisfied with it. The garbage disposal ranked the second and was scored 62.47. About 36.5% of the respondents were satisfied with the garbage disposal. The score of tap water quality just passed 50.03 and the ecological water quality was scored 54.43. The lowest score was 52.19 for the air quality.
2. There were differences in group cognition in term of environmental satisfaction. The age group of 16-29 gave the lowest satisfaction rating on the environment (58.17). With the growth of age, the public evaluation of the environmental quality continued to improve. The highest evaluation score was by the 0-59 age group (61.67). The appraisal slightly dropped for people above 60 (60.73). The married group rated higher than the unmarried group. The Han scores higher (59.60) than other ethnic minority groups (56.04).The religious group (57.08) was significantly lower than non-religious groups (59.76). The respondents engaged in the Youth League gave the highest rating (59.72), followed by the masses (59.70). The communist group ranked the third (57.54) and the Democratic Party members evaluated the lowest (56.35). Those with a higher education had the lowest score (56.17) and those with an education of junior and senior high education level had the highest score (60.58). The score for the lower education level group was 58.26, and the score for those with junior college education was 59.35. The score in the eastern region was the lowest (59.33), followed by the central region (59.52), and the highest was in the western region (59.97) in the evaluation of environmental quality.
3. The findings of confidence in environmental quality showed: The respondents were holding the highest confidence in urban greening. Respondents had the highest confidence in the improvement of the urban greening in the next three years. 58.3% of respondents believed that it would get better in future, and only 4.2% considered it would deteriorate, which was the lowest expectation of deterioration in the five dimensions. 32.2% of the respondents considered no change, and the remaining 5.2% “cannot tell”, which was also the lowest in the 5 dimensions.
Overall, the respondents were lack of confidence in the improvement of environmental quality in the next three years. From the view of the five dimensions, the percentages of “getting better” were all below 60%. The respondents holding the attitude of “cannot tell” on the improvement of environmental quality was relatively high (about 10%). Half of the respondents believed that the situation of garbage disposal would get better. The confidence in the garbage disposal improvement for the next three years was relatively high. There are 49.6% of the respondents believed that the situation would get better and only 6.3% of the respondents considered that it would deteriorate. Respondents were not optimistic about the improvement of the quality of tap water. 40.3% of the respondents believed that there would be no change in tap water quality in the next three years, and only 37.9% of the respondents believed that the tap water quality would be changed for better. 12.7% of the respondents believed that the water quality would deteriorate and 9.1% of the respondents held the “cannot tell” attitude.
 
¹ Quoted from Li Xiaojun: Digital Reading China 60 years. Social Sciences Academic Press, 2009, pp. 217.
² http://wenku.baidu.com/view/e5f83b795acfa1c7aa00ccb8.html; http://wenwen.soso.com/z/q424549603.htm;
³ Li Hanlin, Qu Jingdong: The anomie effect of Danwei organizational change process in China. Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2005, pp. 235.