FU Guoqiang, Han ethnicity, is a member of the Communist Party of China. He enrolled in the 2021 Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation programme at Changde Branch, Hunan Open University. He is a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) and currently serves as senior technician at Hunan Changde Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd. His honours include the "National May 1st Labour Medal," "National Tobacco Industry Model Worker," and "National Tobacco Technical Expert."

"We should further improve the social insurance contribution system for flexible employment workers, weave a tight social security 'safety net,' and build an institutional safeguard for them," FU said in an interview on 10 March.

Currently, the scale of flexible employment workers in China has reached 200 million. Flexible employment and new employment forms have become important channels for Chinese workers to obtain employment and increase income. Through his research, FU found that flexible employment workers currently face several difficulties when it comes to social security, including "high thresholds for participation, difficulty in confirming labour relations, and insufficient protection of social security rights."

"This year's Government Work Report explicitly proposed introducing policies to support flexible employment workers and new employment form workers in participating in employee insurance," FU noted. This means that flexible employment workers will welcome better protection of their rights.

FU proposed stronger top-level design and faster revisions to relevant laws, so that the characteristics of labour relations in flexible employment can be clearly defined — along with basic rights in areas such as pay, rest, vacation, and social insurance. He also recommended using the nationally unified social insurance public service platform to enable "one-place authentication, nationwide processing" for tasks like registration, payment, and transfer of benefits.

Besides, FU recommended researching the feasibility of moderately reducing the contribution rate for flexible employment workers participating in employee pension insurance. More flexible contribution methods should be promoted to enhance their ability to cope with income fluctuations. At the same time, innovative protection items should be developed to fill gaps in work injury and unemployment protection. Pilot programmes for occupational injury protection for new employment form workers should be accelerated.

FU also proposed leveraging grassroots service networks to extend social security policy consultation, participation registration, and other services to communities; increasing policy publicity efforts to enhance policy transparency; and ensuring that policies are fully implemented for those eligible.

Source: Xiaoxiang Morning News, People's Court Daily

Published: 23 March 2026