White paper details journey to prosperity

"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), China will continue to control and narrow the gap. We'll make bigger cakes and divide them more fairly," he said.

The prosperity has been reflected in box office and tourism revenues. Xu Lin, head of the State Council Information Office, said at the news conference that China has over 80,000 screens, the most globally. National box office income topped 60 billion yuan ($9.3 billion) in 2018 and reached 64.2 billion yuan in 2019, the second highest globally.

China grossed 20.4 billion yuan at the box office－the most in the world－last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic-induced disruptions and remained at the top in the first eight months of this year, with 32.8 billion yuan. In 2019, Chinese tourists made more than 6 billion visits and generated 5.7 trillion yuan in tourism income, he said.

"Common prosperity is not only material wealth, but also spiritual prosperity," said Xu, who also is deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

"All-around development of people and all-around progress of society are being realized," he added.

Xu said that the success of Xiaokang means that China has hit a major target in its modernization and national rejuvenation drives, but he conceded that development remains unbalanced and incomplete.

He said that working hard is the only path toward prosperity for the world's largest developing country, with 1.4 billion people.

"The Chinese people cannot wait for good days to arrive on their own, nor ask others to make it happen," he said. "To work hard is the only way."

The white paper said China's national GDP has grown by 9.2 percent on average each year since 1979, compared with a global average of 2.7 percent during the same period. It was also the first country to contain COVID-19, reopen its economy and achieve economic recovery.

Since 1978, China has managed to pull 770 million residents out of poverty in accordance with the World Bank's poverty threshold, representing 70 percent of global progress, it said.

China's success has boosted the "confidence and strength" of other peoples who are grappling with poverty, given that global poverty reduction efforts have been regressing in recent years, it said.