On May 20, 2021, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's highest state administrative organ, issued a guideline designating the eastern province of Zhejiang as a national demonstration zone for achieving common prosperity. The directive tasked the province with spearheading institutional reform and innovation to narrow urban-rural and regional development gaps as well as income disparities, aiming for substantial progress by 2025 and the realization of common prosperity by 2035.

As the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, 2025 is a milestone for Zhejiang. Through systematic reforms and project-driven initiatives, the province focuses on attaining phased objectives and generating transferable practices.

The Zhejiang demonstration zone has advanced the practical implementation of common prosperity, transforming it from a theoretical concept into a workable institutional model. It validates how an effective market and capable government can balance efficiency with fairness under a market economy. By narrowing development gaps and optimizing income distribution through institutional mechanisms, the zone ensures that growth benefits all equitably, thereby strengthening public fulfillment, wellbeing and security.

Zhejiang has achieved considerable progress. Key indicators show reduced inequality: In the first three quarters of 2025, the per-capita disposable income of rural residents in the province reached 36,383 yuan ($5,152), a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent; the urban-rural per-capita disposable income ratio stood at 1.73, meaning urban residents' disposable income was 1.73 times that of rural residents.

In June 2003, Zhejiang launched the Green Rural Revival Program, with the aim of renovating and beautifying 10,000 administrative villages and developing 1,000 of them into models of moderate prosperity. Awarded the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award in 2018 for transforming polluted areas into green spaces, the program underpins these broader common prosperity efforts. Access to basic public services has improved, and an olive-shaped social structure—with most of the population in a broad middle bracket—is now taking shape, fostering a widely shared prosperity.

The province has comprehensively integrated the development philosophy of common prosperity into the entire process of modernizing provincial governance. These efforts and accomplishments are not only reflected in economic and social data and indicators, but, more importantly, in the establishment of a sustainable and effective mechanism for common prosperity, providing a replicable and learnable model for the whole country.