That the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee held late last month emphasized the increasing importance of protecting people's lives and health, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates the Party's people-centric governance philosophy which puts people's safety and health first.

The plenary session said that national security capabilities will be strengthened and the capacity to deal with traditional and non-traditional challenges increased to better protect people's lives and maintain social stability. In fact, protecting people's lives has been included in the overall national security framework, as the plenum emphasized that the country puts people and people's lives higher than anything else, and the protection of people's lives is put in the first place.

The overall national security concept reflects the Party’s people-oriented policy in the new era, and the concept represents the development of this policy. With the passage of time, this concept is expected to play an increasingly important role in overall governance

Expounding on the overall national security concept on April 15, 2014, President Xi Jinping listed 11 types of security, including political security, homeland security and military security. With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the significance of the security of people's lives as a separate type of security, which is vital to sustaining China's economic and social development through the next five years and beyond, the plenum put forward a comprehensive national security concept, focusing on three specific areas, including protecting people's lives.

As Xi said, life is precious, and we only live once. He said people's lives must be protected whatever the cost.

As such, people's security, which plays an important role in the overall national security architecture, is a natural continuation of traditional Chinese culture.

From the perspective of overall national security, protection of people's lives covers a wide range of issues, although when and what kinds of issues will arise are unpredictable. Such security involves a wide range of factors and is related to multiple social aspects. At the plenum, the authorities elaborated on how to ensure production safety, food and drug safety, water body safety, and how to safeguard against natural disasters while discussing ways to better protect people's lives.

But since it is impossible to predict what kinds of problems society will encounter in the future, often it is difficult to deal with such problems. At the least, an emergency management system at all levels is needed. And accordingly, the plenum proposed that the national emergency management system be strengthened and work on the emergency supply support system expedited. To complete this work, sustained investment and long-term arrangements including organizational power and quality research are needed.

From the perspective of overall national security, people's security is organically related to other types of security. With the risks faced by society increasing rapidly, the security issues faced by people are also rising. But since protecting people's lives is a priority for the Chinese government, it has been integrated into other overall national security framework.

Xi has said that, the organic unity of people's security, political security and national interests should come first. People's security naturally includes protecting people's lives－actually, people's security is the bottom line of all security principles and the ultimate goal of all security policies.

The rapid and smooth transmission of information has enabled people to have a better understanding of life conditions in different parts of the world. Anything that involves people's security will draw the international community's attention. More importantly, many potential threats to people's lives such as plane crashes, tsunamis, earthquakes and disease outbreaks are unpredictable and transnational in nature, and can affect the lives of people in many countries. To deal with such threats, we need a concerted response from the entire international community.

As COVID-19 poses a major health threat to the entire world, the Party and the Chinese government have not only made every effort to better protect people's lives, they have also actively participated in the global fight against the pandemic in order to help build a global community of health for all.

The overall national security concept reflects the Party's people-oriented policy in the new era, and the concept represents the development of this policy. With the passage of time, this concept is expected to play an increasingly important role in overall governance. And under the guidance of this concept, the Party and the Chinese government will work to better protect people's lives.

The author is professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.