Preface

Equality is a sacred word.For thousands of years, it has inspired ordinary people to pursue a better life.As early as the end of the Qin Dynasty（221BC—206 BC）, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang called on peasants to overthrow the autocracy with the slogan“do those gentry certainly have blue blood? ”In the Southern Song Dynasty（1127—1279）, the rebellion leaders Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao brought forward the slogan“no respecter of persons”.At the end of the Qing Dynasty（1616—1911）, the Taiping Rebellion（Taiping means“peace”in Chinese character）drew up the social programme advocating“shared farmland, shared food, shared clothing, and shared money to achieve universal egalitarianism and subsistence”.In recent history, western enlightenment philosophers enriched the concept of equality and engraved the word as a universal value into people's minds.Equality is also the core socialist value.The book Utopia of the 16th century described an ideal society without exploitation or suppression, where political equality is realized and everyone works.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, founders of the scientific socialism, revealed the economic cause of the capitalist social inequality.They proposed for all human beings a communist society without any exploitation or po larization.With Marxism as the guideline, the Communist Party of China（CPC）incorporates equality into the core values of socialism with Chinese characteristics.China develops in a scientific way and the Chinese people are striving to eliminate exploitation and to realize common prosperity.

Equality is part of superstructure.It has specific features and historic backdrop, and various classes have various understandings of equality.China is still in the primary stage of socialism, so equality in China is first of all the citizens'rights and duties prescribed by the Constitution and the law.No organization or individual is privileged to be beyond the Constitution or other laws.Secondly, all people are equal in personality.In the modern society, although there exists wealth gap and knowledge gap, there should be no gap for personality.The Chinese citizens, at any place and at any time, are entitled to fundamental rights—the rights to life, health, name, portrait, reputation and privacy.Besides survival rights, equality also means the right to develop.Against the backdrop of building a well-off society, the essence of equality is to ensure that each person has the opportunity to participate, to choose and to compete equally.So long as all the people have the opportunity to succeed, realize their dreams and benefit from the development of the country will the socialism with Chinese characteristics be sustainable and healthy.

Equality is the core socialist value and is indispensable to the socialism with Chinese characteristics.It is also an important element of the perception of socialist equity.Only when each person enjoys his/her deserved rights, implement his/her obligations and has equal access to the well-earned benefits, can we say that the society embraces equity and justice.Equality is prerequisite for free development.Karl Marx once said, “The free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” With the abolition of privileges and the realization of universal equality, people can protect the free development of themselves and the others.Equality is a precondition for rule of law, which is the fundamental principle for the socialism with Chinese characteristics.Rule of law is based on the concept“all equal before the law”, without which, the law can be misused for defending the powerful and in the end lose its authority.Therefore, China should campaign for equality and stick to the principles of equality so as to promote rule of law, safeguard freedom for its people and ensure socialist equity and justice.

In the process of building a well off a society and obtaining new achievements for socialism with Chinese characteristics, equality as the core value is interpreted differently at different levels in China's political, legal, economic and social systems.In general, the major tasks of the present stage are to realize equal political rights, equal economic distribution and social substantive equality, cultivate equity and justice, and work for a socialist harmonious society which encourages equal participation, equal choice and equal development.