A scientific summary of the valuable experience of comprehensively deepening economic reform in the new era
Cheng Enfu and Song Xianping
The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization" emphasizes that it is necessary to further deepen reform in an all-round way, summarize and apply the valuable experience of comprehensively deepening reform since the reform and opening up, especially in the new era, and implement the principles of adhering to the party's overall leadership, adhering to the people-centered, adhering to integrity and innovation, adhering to system construction as the main line, adhering to comprehensively governing the country according to law, and adhering to the concept of systems. This is a major achievement of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in deepening its understanding of the laws of reform, and it is also a major principle that must be observed in further deepening economic reform in an all-round way in the new era.
History and practice have fully proved that every scientific combing and comprehensive summary of historical experience by the Communist Party of China has greatly condensed ideological consensus and promoted intra-party unity, which is of great significance for the whole party to strengthen confidence and create the future.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has profoundly summarized the historical experience of economic reform, confronted the outstanding problems and problems faced in the process of economic reform, and put forward a series of institutional, fundamental and long-term measures, providing a fundamental basis for promoting economic development in the new era. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision") adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pays more attention to highlighting key points, highlighting institutional and mechanism reforms, highlighting strategic and overall major reforms, highlighting the leading role of economic system reform, putting forward the principle of further comprehensively deepening reform, emphasizing the summary and application of valuable experience in comprehensively deepening reform since reform and opening up, especially in the new era. Promoting Chinese-style modernization has pointed out the main direction of attack.
Tremendous achievements in comprehensively deepening economic reform in the new era
Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, all regions and departments have conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, comprehensively deepened reform and opening up, made important progress in the construction of a modern industrial system, achieved new breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, promoted reform and opening up in depth, achieved a good economic recovery, consolidated the foundation for safe development, effectively guaranteed people's livelihood, and made solid progress in building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2013 to 2021, the mainland's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the average growth rate of 2.6% in the world and 3.7% in developing economies during the same period. At the average annual exchange rate, the mainland's total economic output accounted for 18.5% of the world economy in 2021, an increase of 7.2 percentage points over 2012, ranking second in the world. From 2013 to 2021, the mainland contributed an average of more than 30% to world economic growth, ranking first in the world. In 2023, the mainland's GDP will exceed 126 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 5.2%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points over 2022.
The year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The 2024 Government Work Report puts forward an expected GDP growth target of about 5%, demonstrating China's strong economic resilience, great potential and vitality. This target is not only higher than the previous IMF and World Bank economic growth forecasts for China this year, but also far exceeds the IMF's growth forecast for the United States and Europe, which contains huge development opportunities. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2024, the mainland's national economy will be generally stable and stable, with a GDP of more than 61 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 5.0% at constant prices. The three industries have grown steadily, and the production situation has recovered well. The "main engine" of consumption played a significant role, the potential of domestic demand continued to be released, and the total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 23 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%. The growth momentum of the high-tech industry is good, and the added value of the mainland's "three new" economy will account for 17.73% of GDP in 2023, and high-quality development will continue to advance. In short, in the first half of the year, the national economy continued to recover and improve, the transformation and upgrading progressed steadily, and the trend from "new" to "green" was obvious.
Valuable experience in comprehensively deepening economic reform in the new era
At every important juncture and juncture, it is important to review history, sum up experience, and draw wisdom and strength from it to continue to move forward. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always had a fine tradition of summing up historical experience, and on the new journey of comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-style modernization, the CPC attaches great importance to summarizing historical experience, is good at applying historical laws, and puts forward corresponding strategies and tactics to move forward firmly along the path of Chinese-style modernization. The "Decision" stresses that it is necessary to further deepen reform in an all-round way, summarize and apply the valuable experience of comprehensively deepening reform since the reform and opening up, especially in the new era, and implement the principles of adhering to the party's overall leadership, adhering to the people-centered, adhering to integrity and innovation, adhering to the principle of system building, adhering to the rule of law in an all-round way, and adhering to the concept of systems. This is a major achievement of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in deepening its understanding of the laws of reform, and it is also a major principle that must be observed in further deepening economic reform in an all-round way in the new era.
Adhere to the party's overall leadership. The policy logic of the CPC's leadership of China's economic development stems from the original mission of the CPC, which is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Communist Party of China has always represented the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, shared weal and woe with the people, and depended on them for life and death, without any special interests of its own, and has never represented the interests of any interest group, any powerful group, or any privileged stratum. Only in this way can the Communist Party of China (CPC) be able to maintain the coordination of economic interests without getting lost, and to continue to move towards victory in the face of twists and turns, difficulties, and complex development processes and environments. At the same time, with the continuous advancement and deepening of reform and opening up, the diversification of stakeholders, and the increasingly complex contradictions and differences, adhering to the party's overall leadership is conducive to giving full play to the party's overall planning, coordination and mobilization capabilities in economic modernization, effectively improving the mechanism for resolving economic contradictions and disputes, preventing the crisis of social trust caused by information asymmetry, maintaining social harmony and stability, and realizing the interactive pattern of high-quality development and high-level security.
Adhere to the people-centered. In the new era, the fundamental driving force for the reform of the economic system comes from the contradiction between the people's growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The Communist Party of China adheres to the people-centered development philosophy, regards improving people's well-being and promoting all-round human development as the starting point and end point of development, is good at unifying the strengthening of top-level design and insisting on asking questions of the people, fully absorbs the experience of the grassroots level, the wisdom of the masses and the social demands of the people in the process of economic reform, and pays attention to identifying the force and breakthrough point of economic reform in the areas of employment, income increase, education, medical care, housing and pension that are closely related to the lives of the people. At present, it is necessary to give full play to the main role of the people in the reform and promote the participation of the people in the process of further deepening the reform in an all-round way to solve the problems of stuck points and blockages that restrict the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development, the pain points and difficulties in the field of development environment and people's livelihood, the focus and hot issues that are contrary to social fairness and justice, and how to effectively prevent and resolve major risks. At the same time, it is necessary to let all the people share the fruits of reform and opening up, as pointed out in the "Decision", "to promote all-round human development and common prosperity for all people to achieve more obvious and substantive progress".
Adhere to integrity and innovation. Since the beginning of the new era, the Party and the country have led the people of the whole country to uphold integrity and innovation, and created great achievements in socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. On the one hand, we should unswervingly adhere to the position, viewpoint and methodology of the basic tenets of Marxism, and adhere to the direction of socialism with Chinese characteristics with strong determination. On the other hand, it is necessary to closely follow the needs of China's social reality, carry out historical changes, systematic reshaping and overall reconstruction of the specific form of the socialist economic system, refine the theoretical approach of Marxism based on Chinese practice, Chinese wisdom and Chinese experience, and promote the continuous development and improvement of the basic socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics. Only by upholding integrity can we firm up the direction and not make mistakes of principle, and only by innovating can we benchmark ourselves with reality and lead the times, and the Chinese path to modernization is an important achievement of integrity and innovation in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics over the past 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Only by continuously improving the overall efficiency of the national innovation system and activating the powerful kinetic energy of new quality productivity can we form a multiplier effect to promote high-quality development and demonstrate the socio-historical effect of Chinese-style modernization in creating a new form of human civilization.
Adhere to the system construction as the main line. Reform in the new era requires top-level design, comprehensive overall planning, and strengthening the leading role and consciousness of the party and the government in economic reform. In satisfying the people's pursuit of a better life, the party and the government have designed systems from the perspective of realizing social fairness, justice and a better life, persisted in emancipating and developing the social productive forces, adhered to the direction of socialist market economy reform, and promoted sustained and healthy economic development. The "Decision" lays out the overall goal of further deepening reform in an all-round way, pointing out that it is necessary to "continue to improve and develop the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity". Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has attached great importance to the reform of the socialist market economy system. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated: "Let the market play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and give better play to the role of the government." The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China regarded the socialist market economic system as the third basic economic system after "public ownership as the mainstay, the common development of economies under various forms of ownership, distribution according to work as the mainstay, and the coexistence of various modes of distribution". The "Decision" clearly proposes to "focus on building a high-level socialist market economic system", and lists it as the first of the "seven focuses" in the "overall goal of further deepening reform in an all-round way". At present, the main task of comprehensively deepening the reform of the economic system is to improve the incentive and restraint mechanism for promoting high-quality development, shape new momentum and new advantages for development, adhere to and implement the "two unswerving", build a unified national market, and improve the basic system of the market economy.
Adhere to the rule of law in an all-round way. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "'Reform and the rule of law are like the two wings of a bird and the two wheels of a car', and we must persist in promoting reform under the rule of law and improving the rule of law in the process of reform." The "Decision" points out that "the rule of law is an important guarantee for Chinese-style modernization", and puts forward important tasks such as deepening the reform of the legislative field, deepening the administration according to law, improving the judicial system and mechanism of fair law enforcement, improving the mechanism for promoting the construction of a rule of law society, and strengthening the construction of foreign-related rule of law. Profoundly expounding the effective connection and interaction logic between comprehensively deepening reform and comprehensively governing the country according to the law will provide important theoretical support for ensuring the legitimacy of the reform and the modernity of the rule of law, and point out the direction and path for adhering to the comprehensive rule of law and advancing the construction of the rule of law in China. When studying economic reform plans and measures, it is necessary to simultaneously consider the legislative issues involved in economic reform, put forward legislative needs and suggestions in a timely manner, and improve various laws and regulations. At the same time, legislation should take the initiative to meet the needs of economic reform, make corresponding adjustments in a timely manner in accordance with the party's economic reform policy, ensure that major economic reforms have a legal basis, persist in guiding the process of economic reform through legislation, persist in removing obstacles to economic reform through legislation, persist in reserving space for economic reform through legislation, and persist in confirming the results of economic reform through legislation.
Adhere to the system concept. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that the reform "should focus on enhancing systematic, holistic and synergistic, so that various reform measures can cooperate, promote and complement each other". Further deepening reform in an all-round way is a long-term and complex systematic project, which is by no means just an abstract logical deduction or a one-way system construction and implementation, but a three-dimensional picture drawn by the actions of different subjects. The "Decision" pointed out: "Adhere to the concept of systems, properly handle the major relationships between economy and society, government and market, efficiency and fairness, vitality and order, development and security, and enhance the systematic, holistic and coordinated nature of reform." "It is necessary to strengthen the system integration of different levels, different contents and different spatio-temporal factors of economic and social operation, so that system factors can play a special and positive role in integrating resource allocation and maintaining the cooperative relationship between various economic entities, properly handle the full linkage and cohesion of various economic measures, fully release the vitality of system integration, and provide impetus for high-quality development. In addition, in view of the new changes in the international situation, it is necessary to build a national strategic hinterland and a backup of key industries, and accelerate the improvement of the national reserve system.
It is of great significance to scientifically summarize the valuable experience of comprehensively deepening economic reform in the new era
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Today, we look back on history, not to seek solace from success, let alone to lie on the merits and find excuses to avoid the difficulties and problems we face today, but to sum up historical experience, grasp the laws of history, and enhance the courage and strength to forge ahead." "History and practice have fully proved that every scientific combing and comprehensive summary of historical experience by the Communist Party of China has greatly condensed ideological consensus and promoted intra-party unity, which is of great significance for the whole party to strengthen confidence and create the future.
First, it is conducive to the innovation of the theoretical system and the enhancement of the historical initiative of the development of the cause of the party and the country. A comprehensive review and in-depth study of the internal logic and historical experience of the Communist Party of China in promoting economic theory innovation, enhancing historical self-confidence and clarifying the historical mission in the logic of economic development at present and in the future, is not only conducive to giving a profound answer to why China's development is possible and why China's miracle happened, but also conducive to providing a useful reference for the construction of China's independent economic theory system, so as to further grasp the law and general trend of historical development, and always grasp the historical initiative in the development of the cause of the Party and the country.
Second, it is conducive to the improvement of the working mechanism and the systematic, predictable and creative nature of practical work. The CPC's summing up of historical experience not only means that it has innovated its theoretical system on major historical issues, but also contains its self-confidence in applying and continuously improving its ability to analyze and solve practical economic problems using Marxism. The condensation and summarization of historical laws should return to practice, play a guiding role in practice, take history as a mirror, touch on similar aspects, promptly elevate experience into a working mechanism, carry out popularization, application, and improvement, shift from problem forcing to active decision-making, and demonstrate a profound insight into and conscious application of the laws of social and economic development.
Third, it is conducive to the sharing of successful experiences and the expansion of the international influence of China's governance. The socialist economic construction of the People's Republic of China over the past 70 years has fully proved that Chinese-style modernization is not only a condensation of consensus on independent modernization, but also a window to create a new form of human civilization and dialogue with the world. With the modernization of China's national governance system and governance capacity, more and more new discourses, new concepts and new models will be summarized and extracted from the practical experience of China's reform and development.
(This article was originally published in the 3rd edition of China Education News on August 1, 2024)