Summary: This issue publishes an important article by General Secretary Xi Jinping, "Strengthening Public, Basic, and Bottom-Line Livelihood Construction," which emphasizes that in Chinese modernization, the people's livelihood comes first and it is necessary to organically unify economic development and improvement of people's livelihood. The issue includes accompanying articles by Li Changguan, Zheng Gongcheng, Mo Rong, and Yin Baoming, as well as commentator articles on cadre building and using reform to break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand. Lan Fo'an's article explains implementing a more proactive fiscal policy, Chen Gang's article discusses Guangxi's seaward economy, and an interview with Sang Baichuan addresses bottlenecks restricting foreign investment. A set of articles commemorates the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, telling stories of workers on ordinary posts.
Summary: This is a compilation of excerpts from Xi Jinping's important discourses on strengthening inclusive, foundational, and safety-net livelihood construction, spanning from November ́2012 to January ́2026. The excerpts emphasize a people-centered approach, urging officials to uphold the bottom line, highlight priorities, improve institutions, and guide public opinion in livelihood work. Xi stresses the need to do one's utmost within one's capability while acting according to one's ability, avoiding the traps of "welfarism" and ensuring economic development and social security rise together in tandem. The compilation covers topics including employment, social security, education, housing, and civil affairs, with repeated calls to promote common prosperity and the all-round development of the people.
Summary: The article, from Qiushi magazine, discusses consolidating the livelihood foundation of Chinese modernization, emphasizing General Secretary Xi Jinping's guidance on "Strengthening Inclusive, Basic, and Bottom-Line Livelihood Construction." It argues that livelihood is paramount in Chinese modernization, as the people are the "graders" of its results, and that grasping livelihood also means grasping development by boosting consumption and domestic demand. The piece outlines plans to solve the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems in areas like employment, medical treatment, elderly care, and childcare, while adhering to doing one's best according to capabilities. It also highlights the strategic deployment of closely combining "investment in things" with "investment in people" to better benefit people's livelihood.
Summary: Li Changguan, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, authored an article stating that General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that civil affairs work bears on people's livelihood and connects with people's hearts, requiring Party committees and governments to adhere to a people-centered approach. The article notes that as of the end of 2025, elderly care institutions reached 395,000 nationwide, and that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, urban and rural subsistence allowance standards increased by 22.8% and 25.0% respectively. It identifies new challenges from population aging, urbanization, digitalization, and diversified livelihood needs, calling for coordination of livelihood security with economic development, investment in things with investment in people, service supply with livelihood needs, civil affairs development with safety management, and the positive roles of all parties.
Summary: Zheng Gongcheng, President of the China Association of Social Security and Professor at Renmin University of China, argues that while China has built the world's largest social security system, it still faces shortcomings in uniformity, fairness, adaptability, and sustainability. He identifies five key problems, including insufficient institutional standardization, imprecise guarantees for key groups, an underdeveloped multi-level guarantee system, hidden long-term risks, and lagging rule-of-law construction. To address these, he calls for strengthening the unification of key systems, optimizing resource allocation for vulnerable groups, improving the multi-level guarantee system, consolidating the foundation for sustainable development, and accelerating rule-of-law construction. He cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's directive that social security construction should adhere to national top-level design and achieve a unified, coordinated national strategy. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: In this article, Mo Rong and Yin Baoming of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security discuss how to properly resolve employment, which General Secretary Xi Jinping has called "the most fundamental livelihood issue." They argue that employment is crucial for the people's immediate interests, the sound development of the economy and society, and the country's long-term stability, citing China's achievements in achieving relatively full employment. The authors identify real challenges, including external shocks transmitted to the domestic economy, an accelerated reshaping of labor supply and demand due to population changes, prominent employment structure adjustment pressure from technological change, and new challenges to workers' rights in flexible employment forms. To promote high-quality and full employment, they advocate for an employment-first orientation, improving worker quality, stabilizing key groups, encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing income, and holding the bottom line of livelihood through legal and social security reforms.
Summary: The article, authored by Qiushi Magazine Commentator, emphasizes the need to enhance the cadre force's ability to advance modernization as China marks the 77th anniversary of its founding. It stresses thorough study of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and forging a cadre force that is politically sound and capable of leading modernization, addressing shortcomings like insufficient political positioning and outdated thinking. Political ability ranks first, requiring cadres to practice the Two Upholds, strictly observe political discipline, and avoid misconduct; they must also promote high-quality development by solving bottlenecks in markets, technology, and industry, while enhancing risk prevention and serving the people. Practice is key, with cadres urged to adapt to new posts, update knowledge, and become experts, supported by a selection orientation emphasizing practical work and results, alongside strict management and incentives. Finally, cadres must maintain excellent work styles and integrity, resisting corruption while doing solid work, as discipline and rules enable full freedom for effective action.
Summary: The article argues that breaking the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand requires both effective macro policy and forceful reform to strengthen economic momentum and vitality. It attributes the imbalance to deep-seated institutional and mechanistic causes, including an imperfect income distribution system and inadequate social security, which constrain residents' willingness and capacity to consume relative to investment-driven supply expansion. The commentary emphasizes deepening reform to improve long-term mechanisms for expanding domestic demand, correctly handling the relationship between the government and the market, and enhancing the quality and efficiency of the supply system. It calls for coordinating the implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan with the arrangements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party. The piece concludes that maintaining a reform-minded spirit will enable China to break the contradiction and push high-quality development to new heights.
Summary: Lan Fo'an, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Finance, authored an article on precisely and effectively implementing a more proactive fiscal policy. The article outlines how fiscal departments have implemented the Party Central Committee's deployments, including increasing expenditure scales, front-loading policy implementation, and supporting technological innovation and people's livelihood. It emphasizes deepening the understanding of fiscal macro-control laws, coordinating an effective market with a proactive government, and optimizing increments while revitalizing existing stocks. The piece details key tasks such as expanding effective domestic demand, advancing science and technology, ensuring people's livelihood, preventing local government debt risks, and promoting fiscal scientific management.
Summary: Chen Gang, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Autonomous Region, writes that Guangxi must implement Xi Jinping's instructions to efficiently develop the ocean and promote high-quality development of the marine economy. He defines the "seaward economy" as a new concept proposed by Xi Jinping during his 2017 inspection of Guangxi, distinct from "marine economy" and "coastal economy" in emphasizing coordinated river–sea–land linkage across the entire region. The article outlines Guangxi's strategy, including an overall layout of "one axis driving, two wings linking, land–sea coordination, and region-wide seaward orientation," a "leaf-vein" industrial layout centered on the Pinglu Canal, and the construction of a modern seaward infrastructure system. It also details efforts to expand opening-up through the New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor, cooperation with ASEAN, and artificial intelligence initiatives, while prioritizing ecological protection and green development.
Summary: In a Qiushi exclusive interview, Sang Baichuan, Dean and Professor of the China Open Economy Theory Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics, discussed breaking through sticking points and obstacles restricting foreign investment. He argued that attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity is a strategic deployment from the 15th Five-Year Plan, conducive to promoting scientific and technological innovation, the global division of labor in industries, and consumption upgrading. Acknowledging recent declines in actual utilized foreign investment, he attributed hype about "foreign capital withdrawing from China" to misinterpretation, insisting the fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth have not changed. He recommended expanding market access with the service industry as the focus, shifting local investment attraction from preferential policies to institutional environment, innovation ecosystems, and resource allocation capabilities, and supporting foreign-invested enterprises' reinvestment within China.
Summary: The article reports on a joint research group's survey of China's advanced manufacturing, arguing that its rise stems from strategic foresight, the new system of mobilizing resources nationwide, super-large-scale market integration, and high-level institutional opening. It identifies challenges including shortcomings in source innovation, bottlenecks in industrial system coordination, constraints in "AI + Manufacturing," and intensifying external pressures from global production chain restructuring. The piece outlines future directions: deepening scientific and technological innovation, coordinating traditional, emerging, and future industries, pursuing intelligent, green, and integrated development, and improving institutional supply and industrial governance. It concludes that China's path offers a new industrialization model for developing countries, breaking from Western paradigms.
Summary: The article marks the 90th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March, featuring stories of strivers who embody the Long March spirit in their new-era posts. It includes accounts from a military scientific researcher forging heavy weapons for national defense, a political instructor tracing his company's red lineage, a university professor "planting fire" in young people's hearts, and a former village first secretary on a grassroots Long March. General Secretary Xi Jinping is cited on carrying forward the Long March spirit and walking well today's Long March road. The pieces collectively define the new-era Long March as steadfast dedication in ordinary roles, serving national needs, and continuing the legacy of revolutionary faith.
Summary: Wang Ji, a researcher at the College of Computer Science, National University of Defense Technology, frames his work in national defense science and technology as a continuation of the Long March spirit, linking personal struggle with the nation's needs and the goal of building a world-class military by 2027. He recounts his path from enrolling at NUDT after the "Galaxy-I" supercomputer's success to his focus on high-confidence software technology, a field he describes as a "vital gate" of security where the country's needs and "chokepoint" technologies define the battlefield. Citing President Xi Jinping's 2013 inspection and 2023 congratulatory letter, he emphasizes NUDT's role as a "high ground" for military talent and independent innovation, and he stresses the necessity of basic research and perseverance in breaking through bottlenecks. He concludes by vowing to continue charging forward, ensuring that every line of code and every cultivated student strengthens the reliability of national defense equipment and that Chinese people master core technologies in key software fields.
Summary: Wu Shuai, Political Instructor of the "Red First Company" of a brigade under the 83rd Group Army of the Army, reflects on the red enamel plate used by Mao Zedong during the Long March, which symbolizes equality between officers and men and the company spirit of "obeying the Party's command, working hard and enduring hardship, and maintaining equality between officers and men." Tracing roots along the Long March, he meets veterans like Wang Quanying, whose steadfastness and loyalty resolve his confusion about inheriting the company's legacy. He observes that the spirit lives on in daily military life, from a reformed soldier to an "old yellow ox" squad leader, embodying the ancestors' values through ordinary actions. Inheritance, he concludes, means taking up the original aspiration and walking the new era's Long March, not merely replicating history.
Summary: Liu Yang, a professor at the School of Marxism at Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications, reflects on her decade-plus experience in ideological and political education, using the Long March as a lens to discuss instilling faith in young students. She emphasizes that educators must translate grand principles into relatable stories, addressing students' everyday anxieties and helping them distinguish what is worth believing amid an information-saturated society. Liu recounts her initiative of building "science and technology cottages" for children in impoverished mountain areas, which has involved over 1,800 college students and established more than 60 cottages since 2017. She cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's 2019 May Fourth Movement centenary speech, which affirmed that each generation has its own Long March, as reinforcing her conviction in this work. Liu concludes that the new-era Long March for counselors is to bring the spirit of the Long March to life, plant ideals into students' hearts, and accompany them on their own life journeys.
Summary: Liu Gongli, former First Secretary Stationed in Potou Village, Wangmo County, Guizhou Province, reflects on how grassroots work constitutes the Long March of the new era for youth. Initially viewing the Long March as a distant historical epic, he recounts adapting from office work to village-based duties, facing muddy roads, cautious villagers, and resistance to road construction and relocation. Through persistent fire-pit meetings, repeated negotiations, and trust-building, he helped relocate over 800 villagers and develop an "enclave economy" with ecological fish farming and photovoltaic power. He concludes that this ordinary, patient perseverance in daily tasks—not grand narratives—is the sincere Long March for grassroots cadres, echoing General Secretary Xi Jinping's statement that every generation must walk its own Long March well.
Summary: Li Zhen, Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, argues that "outstanding unity" is a defining characteristic of Chinese civilization, as expounded by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the June 2, 2023 Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development. The article traces this unity through China's territorial integrity, historical aversion to division, ethnic integration, and unbroken civilizational continuity, attributing it to complementary economic exchange, super-large-scale centralized governance, and the cultural tradition of family and state as one. It critiques Western frameworks such as the "conquest dynasty theory" and "New Qing History," as well as the "single nation-state theory," as misreadings that conflate China's inward cohesion with Western imperial conquest. The piece concludes that this pluralistic yet unified character, rooted in the coexistence of diversity, should bolster historical and cultural confidence on the new journey toward national rejuvenation.
Summary: The article, authored by Wang Yingjin, Professor at the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China, discusses the release of the *First Five-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026–2030)*, the first such high-level strategic planning for Hong Kong since its return. The Plan addresses Hong Kong's development shortcomings, including its monolithic industrial structure, housing and livelihood issues, and insufficient applied research, by promoting diversified industries, filling livelihood gaps, and improving mechanisms for transforming scientific and technological achievements. It also focuses on deepening regional coordination with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, designating the Northern Metropolis as a core hub for connectivity. The author argues the Plan marks Hong Kong's proactive integration into the national development overall situation, enhances the SAR government's governance effectiveness, and makes up for the shortcomings of free market regulation while improving risk management systems. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article marks the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation, highlighting its role as a model for the Global South and its progress toward "Greater BRICS Cooperation." It emphasizes General Secretary Xi Jinping's recent summit remarks on BRICS countries serving as vanguards and leading the international order toward greater justice. The piece argues BRICS must uphold international rule of law, practice true multilateralism, advance common development, and jointly respond to global challenges. It notes the BRICS economic aggregate now accounts for about 30% of the world, contributing over 50% to global economic growth. The article concludes by looking ahead to the next BRICS Summit in China, which will open the third "Golden Decade" of cooperation.
Summary: This article explains that persevering in tempering strong Party spirit is a lifelong subject for Party members and cadres, as it is one of the Fourteen Commitments of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building. It contrasts historical examples, such as Zhang Guohua's obedience to Party arrangements versus the Liu Ligong incident, to illustrate the strength or weakness of Party spirit. The piece outlines six basic requirements for speaking of Party spirit, including loyalty to the Party, firm ideals and convictions, and seeking truth from facts, while clarifying that Party spirit and individuality are dialectically unified. It argues that Party spirit cannot naturally strengthen with seniority or position, citing older-generation revolutionaries like Zhou Enlai as models, and emphasizes the need for political cultivation, theoretical study, and tempering in practical struggles. The author, Liu Yuan, Deputy Secretary in Charge of Day-to-Day Work of the Party Committee of the Organs Directly Under the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, concludes that Party members must regard this as a required course and preserve the political character of Communists.
Summary: A letter to the editor argues that cadres should not wait for others to blaze the trail before advancing work, as benchmarking everything against others fosters inertia and uniformity. It stresses that different departments face vastly different conditions, so mature practices may not suit all contexts, and unventured areas are not forbidden zones. The piece calls for leaping out of thinking traps, anchoring on local realities, and concentrating on real work rather than agonizing over precedents or mistakes. The author is Wang Yuxuan of the Organization Department of the Guanyun County Party Committee, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province.
Summary: Young cadres should take the initiative to purify the "three circles" of social circle, life circle, and circle of friends, always maintaining a sense of awe and reverence, exercising self-restraint in speech, and exercising self-restraintin conduct, as a required course for cultivating virtue and self-discipline. To purify the social circle, one must adhere to maintaining appropriate boundaries in social relationships and being upright while remaining proactive, clearly distinguishing official business from selfish social engagements. To purify the life circle, the key lies in persevering with consistency in cultivating one's character and temperament, strictly managing one's family, and consciously establishing a good family tradition. To purify the circle of friends, one should adhere to associating only with good people, distinguishing beneficial, candid, and harmful friends, going down to the grassroots to make close friends among the masses. The article is excerpted from *Party Building*, Issue 9, 2026.
This issue publishes an important article by General Secretary Xi Jinping, "Strengthening Public, Basic, and Bottom-Line Livelihood Construction." This is an excerpt of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses from November 2012 to January 2026. The article points out that in Chinese modernization, the people's livelihood comes first. It is necessary to strengthen public, basic, and bottom-line livelihood construction, make solid efforts to resolve the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people, and continuously promote new progress in ensuring that children are cared for, that everyone receives education, that workers are remunerated for their labor, that the sick receive medical treatment, that the elderly are provided for, that people have housing, and that the weak are supported. The article emphasizes that attending to livelihood is also attending to development; it is necessary to organically unify economic development and improvement of people's livelihood, adhere to doing one's best within one's power (尽力而为, jin li er wei - "exhaust effort, then act") and acting according to one's capabilities (量力而行, liang li er xing - "measure strength, then act"), handle matters one after another, work year after year, and continuously meet the people's ever-growing needs for a better life. Through studying this important article by the General Secretary, it is necessary to deeply grasp the great significance, goals and requirements, and key tasks of livelihood construction, implement well the various decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee on safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, and make the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, more assured, and more sustainable.
Centering on studying and implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important article, this issue is accompanied by an article from this journal's editorial department, focusing on consolidating the livelihood foundation of Chinese modernization and providing interpretation and explanation from four aspects; Li Changguan's article explains how to adapt to new situations and new changes and handle well the good deeds and practical matters that connect livelihood with the people's hearts; Zheng Gongcheng's article explains how social security can better safeguard people's livelihood; Mo Rong and Yin Baoming's article provides an explanation on properly resolving the issue of employment, the most fundamental livelihood issue.
Striving to write a new chapter in strengthening the Party and the country cannot be separated from a high-caliber cadre contingent capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation. This journal's commentator article provides an explanation on studying and implementing Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and improving the cadre contingent's ability to advance modernization.
At present, the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand is a prominent problem facing our country's economic operation. This journal's commentator article provides an explanation on using reform to break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand.
Lan Fo'an's article explains how to currently implement a more proactive fiscal policy with precision and effectiveness. Chen Gang's article explains Guangxi's exploration of a path toward developing a seaward economy. The "Qiushi Exclusive Interview" column publishes this journal's reporter's interview with Sang Baichuan, discussing how to understand and resolve the bottlenecks and obstacles restricting foreign investment. The "In-Depth Investigation" column publishes an article by a joint research group, analyzing the current status and development direction of our country's advanced manufacturing industry.
Centering on commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, this issue publishes a set of articles, telling the stories of workers in various industries who, being dedicated and conscientious in their work (爱岗敬业, ai gang jing ye - "love post, respect profession") and forging ahead through hardships (砥砺前行, di li qian xing - "grind, polish, move forward") on ordinary posts, are walking well the Long March road of the new era.
Return to TopBy: 习近平
Strengthening Inclusive, Foundational, and Safety-Net Livelihood Construction
※
Xi Jinping
I
Our people love life and long for better education, more stable employment, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher-level medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. They long for their children to grow better, work better, and live better. The people's aspiration for a better life is our goal of struggle. All happiness in the human world must be created through hard work. Our responsibility is to unite and lead the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups across the country, continue to emancipate our minds, uphold reform and opening up, constantly liberate and develop the social productive forces, strive to solve the difficulties in the people's production and livelihood, and unswervingly follow the path of common prosperity.
(Speech at the meeting between the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee and Chinese and foreign journalists, November 15, 2012)
II
Livelihood work must be carried out in accordance with the approach of holding the bottom line, highlighting priorities, improving institutions, and guiding public opinion. "Holding the bottom line" means focusing on guaranteeing the basic living needs of low-income groups and providing living allowances for university students in financial difficulty. "Highlighting priorities" means paying attention to stabilizing and expanding employment, especially encouraging entrepreneurship and employment, creating jobs through multiple channels, and particularly doing a good job in youth employment with college graduates as the focus. We must treat small and micro enterprises well and support their development, strengthen the social responsibility of large enterprises, and maintain overall stability in the employment situation. We must do a good job in employment training, reemployment services, and living assistance for the unemployed. "Improving institutions" means adhering to the policy of full coverage, basic protection, multiple levels, and sustainability, strengthening the construction of the urban and rural social security system, continuing to improve the methods for the transfer and continuation of pension insurance, and raising the level of overall planning. We must continue to strengthen the construction and management of indemnificatory housing and accelerate the renovation of shantytowns. "Guiding public opinion" means fostering a good public opinion atmosphere and social expectations, guiding the broad masses to establish the concept of improving their lives through hard work and prosperity, and making the improvement of people's livelihood both the direction of the work of the Party and the government and the goal of the people's own struggle. At the same time, we must deepen the reform of the income distribution system, reasonably regulate excessively high incomes, steadily expand the proportion of middle-income earners, strive to raise the income level of low-income earners, standardize the order of income distribution, and gradually improve the state of income distribution.
(Speech at the Central Economic Work Conference, December 15, 2012)
III
Toward all kinds of people in difficulty, we must pay special attention, show special care, and extend special concern, always keeping their safety and well-being in our hearts, caring about their suffering, and doing everything possible to help solve their problems (千方百计, qian fang bai ji - "thousand, ways, hundred, ways"). Zheng Banqiao wrote a poem: "Lying in the government study, I hear the rustling bamboo, suspecting it is the sound of the people's suffering. Though we are but petty county officials, every branch and every leaf always touches our hearts." We Communists must have even more of such feelings for the suffering of the people, with benevolence and compassion, paying more attention to people in difficulty and continuously raising the living standards of all the people.
(Speech during an inspection of poverty alleviation and development work in Fuping County, Hebei Province, December 29, 2012)
IV
Grasping livelihood is also grasping development. On the basis of ensuring the effective supply of basic public services, we must actively guide the people's social demands for home services, elderly care services, health services, cultural and sports services, and leisure services, support the accelerated development of related service industries, cultivate and form new economic growth points, and enable the improvement of people's livelihood and economic development to effectively connect and complement each other to enhance brilliance (相得益彰, xiang de yi zhang - "mutually, obtain, increase, brightness"). We must ensure funding for livelihood construction, fully solve the problems of education, employment, income, social security, medical and health care, and food safety that the people care about, and ensure the normal operation of the livelihood chain. Livelihood work directly meets with and accounts to the people; there is no room for the slightest falsehood. We must act actively, but also act according to one's ability (量力而行, liang li er xing - "measure, strength, and, act"), and what has been promised must be fulfilled.
(Speech at a symposium with principal leading comrades of Party committees of some provinces and regions, July 17, 2015)
V
Social policy must provide a safety net, that is, hold the bottom line of people's livelihood. We must make preparations and contingency plans in terms of ideology, funds, and materials, and resolutely hold the bottom line of social stability. When countries advance structural reform, the focus and difficulty lie in social policy. Western countries practice a multi-party system, where each political party represents different interest groups, making it difficult to reach consensus on social policy. For the sake of votes, they can promise anything, and in the end it often comes to nothing. We are under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and are a socialist country; the Party and the state seek benefits for the people. We should better unify our understanding and grasp the right tone in social policy. Some structural reforms will bring about the pain of layoffs, unemployment, and reduced income for some workers. We must better leverage the role of social security as a stabilizer of society, focus on providing a safety net, guarantee the basic living of the people, and guarantee basic public services. We must increase fiscal funds for unemployment assistance, minimum living allowances, and other areas, and make feasible contingency plans that are realistic, differentiated, and tailored to different industries and regions.
(Speech at the Central Economic Work Conference, December 18, 2015)
VI
The fundamental purpose of developing the economy is to better safeguard and improve people's livelihood. Comrade Mao Zedong said as early as 1934: "All the practical problems in the lives of the masses are problems we should pay attention to. If we pay attention to these problems, solve them, and satisfy the needs of the masses, we will truly become organizers of the lives of the masses, and the masses will truly rally around us and warmly support us." At present, the macro environment and internal conditions facing livelihood work are both changing. In the past, having food to eat, a school to attend, and a house to live in were basic needs. Now the people have needs at more levels, including steadily rising income, quality medical services, educational equity, improved housing, a beautiful environment, and clean air. We must adapt to these new changes, follow the working approach of holding the bottom line, highlighting priorities, improving institutions, and guiding expectations, start from the issues of most direct and practical concern to the people, adopt measures that are more targeted, cover a larger scope, act more directly, and produce more visible results, concentrate our efforts on foundational and safety-net livelihood construction, and make overall arrangements for work in education, income distribution, employment, social security, medical and health care, and housing.
(Speech at the Second Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, October 27, 2016)
VII
To safeguard and improve people's livelihood, we must grasp the issues of most direct and practical concern to the people, doing one's utmost within one's capability (尽力而为, jin li er xing - "exhaust, strength, and, act") while also acting according to one's ability, handling one matter after another, and working year after year. We must uphold the principle that everyone contributes and everyone enjoys, hold the bottom line, highlight priorities, improve institutions, and guide expectations, improve the public service system, guarantee the basic living of the people, continuously meet the people's growing needs for a better life, continuously promote social fairness and justice, form effective social governance and good social order, and make the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, more guaranteed, and more sustainable.
(Report at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 18, 2017)
VIII
We must establish a strategic vision, respond to the people's expectations for a high quality of life, adapt to the process of the people's all-round development and the common prosperity of all the people, and continuously promote new progress in ensuring that children are nurtured, the young are educated, workers are remunerated, the sick are treated, the elderly are cared for, the people have housing, and the vulnerable are supported. We must strengthen risk awareness, study and judge the development trends of our country's population aging, the increase in average life expectancy, the increase in years of education, and changes in the labor force structure over the next 5, 15, and even 30 years, analyze the new situations and new problems that social security may face, improve the foresight and initiative of our work, and make preparations in advance for potential difficulties (未雨绸缪, wei yu chou mou - "not, rain, prepare, plan") by taking response measures. We must broaden our international perspective, pay attention to the development of social security in foreign countries, learn from their experiences and lessons, and avoid both blindly pursuing "welfare catch-up" and falling into the "middle-income trap" as some countries have done, and avoid implementing "pan-welfarism" that leads to insufficient social vitality as some countries have done. At no time should we forget one truth: economic development and social security are rising together in tandem (水涨船高, shui zhang chuan gao - "water, rise, boat, high"). In shallow water, small boats travel; in deep water, large ships travel. Going against the laws of nature will result in running aground or capsizing.
(Speech at the 28th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, February 26, 2021)
IX
We must coordinate needs and possibilities, and build the safeguarding and improvement of people's livelihood on the basis of sustainable economic development and financial resources. We must not pursue lofty goals without regard to reality (好高骛远, hao gao wu yuan - "good, high, aim, far"), raise expectations too high, or make promises that cannot be fulfilled. The government cannot take care of everything; the focus should be on strengthening foundational, inclusive, and safety-net livelihood security construction. Even if the level of development is higher and financial resources are more abundant in the future, we must not set excessively high goals or provide excessive protection, and we must resolutely prevent falling into the trap of "welfarism" that raises lazy people.
(Speech at the 10th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs of the 19th CPC Central Committee, August 17, 2021)
X
The country is the people, and the people are the country. The Communist Party of China leads the people in founding the country and defending the country; what it defends is the hearts of the people. In governing a country, there are constant principles, and benefiting the people is fundamental. Bringing well-being to the people is the essential requirement of acting for the public interest as a political party (立党为公, li dang wei gong - "establish, party, for, public") and governing for the people. We must safeguard and improve people's livelihood in the course of development, encourage joint struggle to create a better life, and continuously realize the people's aspirations for a better life.
We must realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, firmly grasp the issues of most direct and practical concern to the people, adhere to doing our utmost within our capability while acting according to our ability, go deep among the masses and deep into the grassroots, adopt more measures that benefit people's livelihood and warm people's hearts, focus on solving the urgent and difficult problems of the people, improve the basic public service system, raise the level of public services, enhance balance and accessibility, and solidly advance common prosperity.
(Report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 16, 2022)
XI
We must adhere to promoting the all-round development of the people and the common prosperity of all the people. To do a good job in population work in the new era, we must respond to the people's expectations for a better life, uphold the principal position of the people, closely combine high-quality population development with the people's high-quality life, closely combine "investing in things" with "investing in people," do our utmost within our capability while acting according to our ability, establish and improve a population service system covering all groups and the entire life cycle, consider marriage, childbirth, parenting, education, employment, medical treatment, housing, and elderly care as a whole, and effectively promote the all-round development of the people and the common prosperity of all the people.
(Speech at the first meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs of the 20th CPC Central Committee, May 5, 2023)
XII
Our goal is grand, yet also simple. In the final analysis, it is to let the people live better lives. The nurturing and education of children, the employment and development of young people, and the medical care and elderly care of the elderly are both family matters and state affairs. Everyone must work together to do these things well. Now, the pace of society is very fast, everyone is very busy, and the pressure of work and life is great. We must create a warm and harmonious social atmosphere, expand an inclusive and vibrant innovation space, and create convenient and comfortable living conditions, so that everyone can be happy, achieve success in life, and realize their dreams.
(2024 New Year message, published December 31, 2023)
XIII
Promoting high-quality and full employment is the new positioning and new mission of employment work on the new journey of the new era. We must adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, fully implement the policy of workers' autonomous employment, market-regulated employment, government-promoted employment, and encouragement of entrepreneurship, take the promotion of high-quality development as the foundation, the implementation of the employment-first strategy as the guide, the strengthening of employment-first policies as the starting point, and the deepening of employment system and mechanism reform as the driving force, continuously promote the effective improvement of the quality of employment and the reasonable growth of its quantity, continuously enhance the sense of gain, happiness, and security of the broad masses of workers, and provide strong support for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
(Speech at the 14th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, May 27, 2024)
XIV
We must adhere to being people-centered, continuously improve the inclusiveness, accessibility, and convenience of public services in education, and let the fruits of educational reform and development benefit all the people more and more fairly. We must optimize the allocation of regional educational resources, establish a basic public education service supply mechanism that is coordinated with population changes, promote the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, strengthen the standardized construction of compulsory education schools, and gradually narrow the gaps between urban and rural areas, regions, schools, and groups. We must strengthen care and concern for left-behind children and children with disabilities, improve the school conditions and management level of boarding schools, run necessary small rural schools well, and build special education schools well. We must promote the universal and inclusive development of preschool education and the diversified development of senior high school education, and explore gradually expanding the scope of free education. We must continue to consolidate the achievements of the "double reduction" policy, comprehensively improve the quality of classroom teaching, and improve the quality of after-school services. We must vigorously strengthen the construction of infrastructure for preschool education and special education.
(Speech at the National Education Conference, September 9, 2024)
XV
In Chinese modernization, people's livelihood is paramount. On the new journey of the new era, Party committees and governments at all levels must adhere to being people-centered, strengthen leadership over civil affairs work, strengthen inclusive, foundational, and safety-net livelihood construction, solve the issues of most direct and practical concern to the people, and continuously promote the high-quality development of civil affairs. Civil affairs departments at all levels must uphold the Party's leadership, strengthen Party building, deepen reform and innovation, improve the policy and institution system, the service guarantee system, the supervision and management system, and the social participation system, focus on advancing the implementation of the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, focus on improving the level of social assistance, social welfare, social affairs, and social governance, actively and proactively do good deeds, practical things, and solve difficult problems for the people, and make due contributions to comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
(Instruction on civil affairs work, October 23, 2024)
XVI
To promote social development, improving people's livelihood is the focus. Over the years, I have repeatedly emphasized the need to organically unify economic development and the improvement of people's livelihood, embedding the requirements for improving people's livelihood into the formulation of economic development policies simultaneously, and simultaneously considering the effects of promoting economic development when formulating livelihood policies. The goals and policy measures in the "Recommendations" regarding improving the quality of people's lives are all concrete and practical, and must be fully implemented.
(Speech at a seminar for provincial and ministerial-level leading cadres on studying and implementing the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, January 20, 2026)
※This is an excerpt of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on strengthening inclusive, foundational, and safety-net livelihood construction from November 2012 to January 2026.
Return to TopBy: 《求是》杂志编辑部
Consolidating the Livelihood Foundation of Chinese Modernization
Qiushi Magazine Editorial Department
From the fields and villages to the bustling cities, from the daily necessities of daily life to the beautiful expectations of ten thousand households' lights, livelihood construction carries the people's happy life and is the solid support for maintaining social harmony and stability and underpinning the nation's vigorous development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has always been concerned about the people's safety and well-being, attached great importance to safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, delivered a series of important expositions, deployed a series of major tasks, and effectively promoted the development of livelihood undertakings and the significant improvement of the people's quality of life. The article "Strengthening Inclusive, Basic, and Bottom-Line Livelihood Construction" is an excerpt of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions from November 2012 to January 2026, scientifically answering the directional and fundamental questions of the great significance, goals and requirements, and key tasks of livelihood construction, and providing important guidance for promoting the high-quality development of livelihood undertakings on the new journey of the new era. We must deeply study and implement the spirit of this important article by General Secretary Xi Jinping, continue to increase efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihood, enable the people to live better lives, and continuously consolidate the livelihood foundation of Chinese modernization.
Chinese Modernization: Why Is Livelihood Paramount
The Minzhu Village community on Xiejiawan Street in Jiulongpo District, Chongqing, was once a well-known "old, broken, and small" area, with poor housing, old pipe networks, heavy sewage, and lacking supporting facilities. In recent years, through the implementation of livelihood projects such as renovation and upgrading, the people's lives have seen tangible improvements. In April 2024, when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the area, he pointed out clearly: "In Chinese modernization, livelihood is paramount." These simple words contain profound meaning, articulating the important position of improving people's livelihood in Chinese modernization and demonstrating our Party's people-centered value orientation.
The fundamental purpose of Chinese modernization is to enable the people to live better lives. Chinese modernization is a socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China, not any other kind of modernization. The Party's nature and purpose, original aspiration and founding mission, faith and convictions, and policies and propositions determine that when we consider problems, make decisions, and handle affairs, we must always take improving the people's lives and enhancing their well-being as the starting point and ultimate goal. From "overthrowing the local tyrants and dividing up the land" during the Agrarian Revolution period to solve the people's survival difficulties; to consolidating basic livelihood after the founding of New China and steadily improving the people's basic living conditions; to respecting the people's pioneering spirit and fully unleashing social vitality after reform and opening up, encouraging the people to increase income and become prosperous through hard work — the people's lives have undergone tremendous changes. Especially since entering the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, taken effective measures to safeguard and improve people's livelihood, enabled the fruits of modernization to benefit all the people more and more fairly, and made the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, more tangible, and more sustainable. Looking back on the journey, why do the people wholeheartedly support our Party? Why can Chinese modernization gather the mighty force of hundreds of millions of people? The answer is written in the course of struggle in which generations of Communists have worked with heart and soul to accomplish practical livelihood matters and enable the people to live happy lives.
The people feel the progress and results of Chinese modernization most keenly and have the most say. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The times are the examiners, we are the ones answering the questions, and the people are the graders." Gold cups and silver cups are not as good as the people's reputation; only when the people say it is good is it truly good. To test the results of Chinese modernization, the people have a scale in their hearts — it depends on whether livelihood pain points can be practically resolved and whether life has become smoother. Nowadays, when going out, there are more and more pocket parks and riverside greenways in cities, blue skies and clear water have become ordinary scenery, and tangible ecological dividends are right at the doorstep; "face-scanning" medical treatment, online appointment registration, and direct settlement of medical expenses across regions save people from long queues and running back and forth, high-quality medical resources are sinking to the grassroots, and people can see a doctor at their doorstep; government services and daily consumption can be handled and paid for with a light tap of the finger, so people run fewer errands and save more effort. These "livelihood bills" that many people once saw have now become the "happiness lists" of the people's daily lives. "Fewer troublesome matters, more convenient matters, more tangible benefits, and a more secure and comfortable life" — the people's simple and sincere words are precisely the most genuine praise from the "graders" for the livelihood answer sheet of Chinese modernization.
Chinese modernization is a process of continuous advancement; safeguarding and improving people's livelihood has no finish line, only a series of new starting points. With the rapid economic and social development, the people's needs for a better life are constantly showing new characteristics. At present, people's needs for a better life are broader and more diverse, more prominently reflected in "whether it is good," not only pursuing individual quality of life but also putting forward higher requirements for democracy, rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment — shortcomings or deficiencies in any aspect may affect actual feelings. The 15th Five-Year Plan makes systematic arrangements for safeguarding and improving people's livelihood as an important task for realizing Chinese modernization. Among the 20 major indicators set, livelihood and well-being indicators account for 7, more than one-third of the total; among the 109 major engineering projects, livelihood projects account for 25, refining the people's expectations for a better life into development goals that can be implemented, assessed, and advanced. Since the beginning of this year, various regions and departments have advanced the identification of low-income populations and dynamic monitoring and early warning work, carried out activities such as the "Quality Service at the Grassroots" initiative, and made positive progress in promoting bottom-line assistance for low-income groups and the sharing of high-quality medical and health resources. We must persist in handling matters one by one, working year after year, striving to resolve the major and minor matters around the people, enabling the people to smile more and feel warmer at heart, and making the livelihood foundation of Chinese modernization more vivid.
Why Is Grasping Livelihood Also Grasping Development
Economic development is the material foundation for improving people's livelihood, and enhancing people's well-being is an important support for promoting high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "grasping livelihood is also grasping development," that "doing a good job in safeguarding and improving people's livelihood can enhance social consumption expectations and is conducive to expanding domestic demand," and that it is necessary to achieve "effective alignment and mutual reinforcement between livelihood improvement and economic development." These important expositions profoundly elucidate the dialectical relationship in which development and livelihood are mutually intertwined and mutually conditional. We must effectively safeguard and improve people's livelihood, making livelihood improvement a powerful engine for expanding domestic demand, smoothing circulation, and promoting development.
Livelihood improvement requires investment, and at the same time becomes an important source of power for economic growth. From the internal logic of economic development, the national economic cycle is essentially the unified movement of the four links of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption in social reproduction, and consumption is the end point and most direct driving force of the economic cycle. This means that grasping livelihood well itself contains huge consumption potential and investment opportunities and can inject strong momentum into economic development. Only when income levels rise and worries about education, medical care, and elderly care are resolved will the people enhance their willingness and ability to consume, thereby promoting social consumption, effectively expanding domestic demand, promoting the optimization of supply, continuously stimulating innovation, and constantly giving rise to new economic growth points. In recent years, from the new market demand generated by the renovation of urban shantytowns and dilapidated urban and rural housing, to consistently placing employment priority, education quality improvement, Healthy China, and social security in prominent positions, we have both resolved issues of immediate concern to the people and cultivated a huge consumer market, given rise to a large number of new industries, new business forms, and new products, and formed a virtuous cycle of livelihood improvement, consumption upgrading, industrial upgrading, and economic development. Since the beginning of this year, China's service consumption, experience consumption, and holiday consumption have shown many highlights. In the first half of the year, total retail sales of consumer goods nationwide reached 24.872 trillion yuan, and service retail sales increased by 5.3% year-on-year; domestic residents' total tourism spending reached 3.21 trillion yuan, demonstrating enormous consumption potential. Practice shows that new economic growth points are contained in the needs of more than 1.4 billion people pursuing a better life. The stronger the livelihood security, the stronger the people's willingness and ability to consume, and the more abundant the endogenous driving force for economic development.
Improving people's livelihood must adhere to doing our best according to our capabilities and acting within our means; otherwise, it will constrain economic development and in turn affect livelihood. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "we must proceed from reality; income increases must be built on the basis of improved labor productivity, and improvements in welfare levels must be built on the basis of sustainable economic and fiscal growth," and that "even when development levels are higher and fiscal resources are more abundant in the future, we must not set excessively high goals or engage in excessive security, and must resolutely prevent falling into the trap of 'welfarism' that raises lazy people." This is an important conclusion drawn on the basis of scientifically summarizing domestic and international experience and lessons. The important reason why China has been able to effectively improve people's livelihood while continuously and forcefully promoting economic development is that we have always adhered to scientifically coordinating needs and possibilities, focused on strengthening inclusive, basic, and bottom-line livelihood construction, gradually raised the level of livelihood security, and achieved mutual promotion and progress between grasping livelihood and grasping development. We must recognize that although China's economic strength and development level continue to improve, there is still a large gap compared with the level of developed countries, problems such as unbalanced and insufficient development, large urban-rural, regional, and income distribution gaps remain prominent, and China is still the world's largest developing country. Improving people's livelihood must be based on this greatest reality, maintain historical patience, proceed step by step, make unremitting efforts, do as much as possible under existing conditions, accumulate small victories into big victories, and continuously make new progress.
At present, China's economy is in a critical period of accelerating the conversion of old and new growth drivers and transforming the development model, and the demand for promoting the linked development of the economy and people's livelihood is becoming increasingly urgent. On the one hand, in the first half of this year, the contribution rate of domestic demand to economic growth exceeded 80%, and the contribution rate of consumption approached 50%, with its leading role becoming increasingly evident; on the other hand, from the perspective of market fundamentals, the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand remains prominent, especially the need to further stimulate residents' consumption capacity and willingness. At the same time, it must be recognized that consumption is a slow variable that requires long-term cultivation and sustained effort. The "15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption" released in July this year closely integrates benefiting the people's livelihood with promoting consumption, focusing on residents' consumption upgrading needs in elderly care, childcare, culture and tourism, and health in institutional arrangements. It is the first national-level special plan in the consumption field and will surely promote the formation of a higher-level, more dynamic consumer market. We must implement the policy measures proposed in the plan, adhere to the strategic basis of expanding domestic demand, while expanding government public expenditure, make effective institutional arrangements in reasonably guiding consumption and investment, and better realize the virtuous cycle of economic development and livelihood improvement.
How to Solve the People's Urgent, Difficult, and Anxious Problems
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has always placed the people in the highest position in his heart and treated the people's affairs as the most important matters. From the loess plateaus to the snow-covered plateaus, from the depths of the Taihang Mountains to the Wuling Mountain area, General Secretary Xi Jinping braved wind and snow, endured scorching heat, and trod through mud, visiting all 14 contiguous destitute areas; from visiting and comforting disaster-affected people and repeatedly urging cadres to "be sure to arrange the people's production and livelihood well," to chatting warmly with villagers about daily life, inquiring about their warmth and cold, calculating income and expenditure, and discussing rural revitalization — each concern and each instruction is filled with the people's leader's deep affection for the people and his constant worry about the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems.
The people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems are not abstract concepts but specific and realistic difficulties they face every day. How should children's childcare and schooling problems be solved? How can parents' medical treatment and elderly care be balanced? These worrying, troubling, and distressing matters are the most direct and realistic interest issues of greatest concern to the people. Although we continue to achieve results in solving the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems, with the rapid economic and social development, the people's expectations and standards for a better life are also continuously rising, and new and old problems are intertwined and numerous. From the various daily matters handled by the 12345 government service convenience hotline, such as noise disturbance, property management, and parking management, to common expectations such as "attending good schools," "living comfortably," and "receiving good medical treatment," higher requirements are placed on solving urgent, difficult, and anxious problems. The "Opinions on Further Safeguarding and Improving People's Livelihood and Focusing on Solving the People's Urgent, Difficult, and Anxious Problems" issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council in 2025 makes arrangements in enhancing the fairness of social security, improving the balance of basic public services, expanding the inclusiveness of basic livelihood services, and improving the accessibility of diversified social services, providing strong support for focusing on solving the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems and promoting livelihood construction to be fairer, more balanced, more inclusive, and more accessible. We must implement the Party Central Committee's deployments, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, and coordinate the resolution of livelihood pain points that the people strongly reflect and are imminent, as well as livelihood bottlenecks that have accumulated over a long period and are complex and difficult to resolve.
Employment concerns the people's rice bowls and is the foundation of people's livelihood. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the annual new urban labor force is expected to remain above 15 million people, with sustained aggregate pressure, and the structural employment contradiction of "some people have no work, and some work has no people" is becoming increasingly prominent. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation represented by artificial intelligence is accelerating breakthroughs, with substitution effects, creation effects, and transformation effects on employment superimposed. We must implement the policy measures proposed in the recently issued "Action Plan for Stabilizing, Expanding, and Improving the Quality of Employment," while stabilizing existing employment positions, cultivate and tap more high-quality employment positions through expansion and quality improvement, continuously optimize employment public services, improve workers' skill levels, and strive to achieve "being able to find employment, finding employment easily, and finding good employment." Medical treatment concerns people's health and is a matter on everyone's mind. The problems of insufficient total quantity and unbalanced structure of China's high-quality medical resources remain prominent, especially the need to further enhance the capacity of grassroots medical and health institutions. "Receiving good medical treatment, receiving convenient medical treatment, and receiving reassuring medical treatment" remains the people's simple expectation. We must follow the deployments of the "National Health 15th Five-Year Plan" and the "National Universal Medical Security 15th Five-Year Plan," grasp the key of the grassroots level, accelerate the construction of a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, strive to build a high-quality and efficient medical and health service system, and continuously improve the inclusiveness, accessibility, and capacity of medical services. Difficulty in elderly care is a major livelihood matter of concern to thousands of households. As China's population aging deepens, the pressure of providing for the elderly continues to increase. We must improve the three-tier urban and rural elderly care service system, improve the basic living, basic medical, and basic care security systems for the elderly, prevent and resolve risks such as living difficulties, frequent illness, and disability and cognitive impairment faced in old age, and continuously improve the level of health and elderly care services. The high cost of childcare is a difficult matter on the minds of many young parents. We must anchor the goal of high-quality population development, vigorously develop the inclusive childcare service system, coordinate the promotion of inclusive childcare and the integrated development of childcare and kindergarten, focus on increasing the proportion of inclusive childcare places, implement the childcare subsidy system and various birth support measures, effectively reduce the cost of family childbearing and childrearing, and strive to build a birth-friendly society.
Investing in People: How to Better Benefit People's Livelihood
In 2023, at the first meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission of the 20th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed "closely combining 'investment in things' with 'investment in people.'" At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping further proposed adhering to "closely combining benefiting people's livelihood and promoting consumption, and investment in things and investment in people." This is a major strategic deployment based on China's development reality and coordinating high-quality economic development with high-quality improvement of people's livelihood, and has important practical significance for enhancing development momentum, expanding domestic demand, and safeguarding and improving people's livelihood.
Over the past few decades, through large-scale investment in raw materials, infrastructure, factory buildings, and equipment, China has promoted sustained and rapid economic and social development and also laid a solid material foundation for safeguarding and improving people's livelihood. However, with changes in the development stage and conditions, the marginal returns of traditional investment in things have been continuously diminishing. From 2008 to 2023, China's incremental capital-output ratio rose from 2.84 to 9.44, indicating that the amount of capital investment required to increase gross domestic product by 1 yuan is several times more than before. At the same time, there is still great space for investment in livelihood fields such as education, medical care, childcare, elderly care, and health in China. Moreover, as the people now pay more attention to quality of life, development opportunities, physical and mental health, and self-improvement, and put forward higher requirements for the equalization, inclusiveness, and convenience of basic public services, the importance and urgency of investing in people are becoming increasingly prominent. The 15th Five-Year Plan makes arrangements for investing in people based on the overall situation of Chinese modernization. The 2026 Government Work Report, on the basis of emphasizing in 2025 the promotion of more financial resources and funds being invested in people and serving people's livelihood, further lists "the comprehensive development of people" as one of the three major priority investment areas for the whole year, further clarifying the direction and focus of investing in people.
For some time now, various regions have actively implemented relevant deployments, and "closely combining investment in things and investment in people" has increasingly become a consensus, with positive results achieved in practice. We must further comprehensively and accurately understand the connotation and requirements of investing in people, follow the deployments of the 15th Five-Year Plan and the Government Work Report, grasp the entry point for closely combining investment in things and investment in people, and promote the implementation of investment in people in relevant fields. We must increase investment around pain points in education, medical care, and "the elderly and children" in the social livelihood field. For example, in response to the increasing demand for elderly care, support the quality improvement and renovation of public elderly care institutions, implement equipment renewal in elderly care institutions, and strengthen the age-friendly and barrier-free renovation of public facilities. We must increase investment around scientifically and orderly promoting the citizenization of agricultural transfer populations, optimize the supply of affordable housing, promote more cities to include eligible non-registered resident populations in the scope of public rental housing security, and better safeguard the rights of children of migrant workers accompanying their parents to receive equal basic education at their places of residence. We must increase investment around developing the cultural tourism industry, improve the public cultural service system, accelerate the construction of tourism infrastructure, strengthen skills training for cultural tourism practitioners, and continuously enrich the supply of high-quality cultural tourism products. We must increase investment around the focus of high-quality urban renewal, advance the renovation of old pipe networks and dilapidated and dangerous housing, steadily implement the renovation of urban villages, improve the living environment, and effectively enhance residents' housing and quality of life. We must establish and improve a long-term mechanism for investing in people, improve assessment, evaluation, and incentive mechanisms, mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, and promote investment in people to better benefit people's livelihood and continuously enhance people's well-being.
Return to TopBy: 李常官
Handle Well the Good Deeds and Practical Matters That Bear on People's Livelihood and Connect with People's Hearts
Li Changguan
Enhancing people's well-being is the fundamental purpose of development. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the work of safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, and has made a series of important expositions on increasing efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihood and enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security, emphasizing that "in Chinese modernization, people's livelihood is the foremost concern," pointing out that "civil affairs work bears on people's livelihood and connects with people's hearts," and requiring Party committees and governments at all levels to adhere to a people-centered approach, "strengthen the construction of inclusive, basic, and bottom-line livelihood programs, and properly resolve the issues of the people's most direct and realistic concerns." General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions scientifically answer the major theoretical and practical questions in the field of social livelihood, and provide the fundamental guidance for making every effort to solve the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses and for safeguarding and improving people's livelihood in the course of development.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has responded to the people's new expectations for a better life, consistently adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, adopted a series of solid measures to enhance people's well-being, and continuously promoted new progress in ensuring that children are cared for, that people receive education, that workers are remunerated, that the sick receive medical treatment, that the elderly are provided for, that people have housing, and that the weak are supported. As of the end of 2025, the number of elderly care institutions and facilities nationwide reached 395,000, with 7.679 million beds, and various subsidies and allowances such as old-age allowances, service subsidies for elderly people in financial difficulty, and nursing care subsidies for disabled elderly people benefited 53.538 million people. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the average standards for urban and rural subsistence allowances nationwide increased by 22.8% and 25.0% respectively compared with 2020, the standards for the two subsidies for persons with disabilities increased by 34.58% and 25.09% respectively, and the basic living security standards for orphans raised in institutions, orphans raised in society, and children in de facto orphanhood increased by 28.5%, 35.7%, and 35.2% respectively compared with 2020. The level of livelihood service guarantees for "the elderly and the young" and other areas has been continuously improved, and the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security has become more substantial, more assured, and more sustainable.
While recognizing the tremendous achievements, we must also clearly understand that, with the development of China's economy and society and the changes in the principal contradiction in society, especially the new trends in population structure and urban-rural and regional development, and the profound changes brought by the new round of technological revolution represented by artificial intelligence to people's modes of production and life, livelihood construction is facing many new situations and new problems.
From the perspective of changes in population structure, China has shifted from a stage of population growth to a stage of population decline, and population development is showing trend-based characteristics such as an aging population, fewer children, and divergent population growth and decline across regions. At the end of 2025, the population aged 60 and above nationwide exceeded 320 million, accounting for 23% of the total population. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is estimated that the average annual net increase in the population aged 60 and above nationwide will exceed 13 million, the degree of population aging will continue to deepen, and the task of responding to population aging will be complex and arduous. At the same time, China's family size continues to shrink; in 2025, the average number of people per household nationwide was 2.52, a decrease of 0.58 compared with 2015. Changes in family structure have led to a weakening of intergenerational support for elderly care and child-rearing, and the traditional approach of relying on the family to prevent and resist risks has been challenged.
From the perspective of the urbanization process, China's urbanization is currently at a critical stage of shifting growth gears and improving quality; in 2025, the urbanization rate of the permanent resident population nationwide was 67.89%, and the urbanization process will continue during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. On the one hand, a large number of people flow across regions for employment and life; currently, the national floating population reaches 358 million, and the number of flexible workers exceeds 200 million, with a prominent phenomenon of separation between household registration and actual residence. It is necessary to grasp the objective laws of population mobility and promote the movement of relevant public services along with the people. On the other hand, with the flow of urban and rural populations, the permanent resident populations in some rural areas are mainly elderly people, women, and children, and they live scattered, coupled with relatively weak institutional facilities and service capacity, which brings challenges to elderly care services and the care and protection of left-behind children.
From the perspective of the embedded impact of science and technology on society, modern information technologies represented by big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing are increasingly integrated into all fields and the entire process of economic and social development, profoundly changing people's modes of production and life and methods of social governance. By the end of 2025, the number of Internet users in China reached 1.125 billion, the Internet penetration rate exceeded 80%, and the number of generative artificial intelligence users reached 602 million. Through digital and intelligent empowerment, livelihood service matters such as "the elderly and the young," "the needy and the disabled," and weddings and funerals have been handled online and "at the fingertips." However, it must also be noted that among groups such as people in difficulty, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and children in difficult circumstances, there is still a digital divide to a certain extent, and it is necessary to popularize the dividends of digitalization and intelligence with more refined and targeted services.
From the perspective of the growth of livelihood needs, the people's livelihood needs are showing characteristics of diversification, multi-levelness, and multi-facetedness, with higher-level needs such as self-development and value realization becoming increasingly prominent, and there are relatively large differences in the needs of groups of different ages, health conditions, and cultural backgrounds. Livelihood work is work that serves people, and it must focus on people's needs. However, in actual work, the supply of comprehensive and diversified services still needs improvement, and the multi-subject coordinated supply pattern and multi-level service supply system still need to be perfected.
To adapt to the new situation and new changes facing livelihood work, the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan makes a series of arrangements and deployments for increasing efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihood, and the 15th Five-Year Plan for the development of civil affairs undertakings puts forward a series of specific measures for thoroughly implementing the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, securing, securing accurately, and securing firmly the bottom line of people's livelihood, improving the level of social welfare guarantees, optimizing the management and services of social affairs, and strengthening and innovating related social governance work. We must adhere to a problem-oriented approach, firmly grasp the issues of the people's most direct and realistic concerns, apply systematic policies and comprehensive efforts, and effectively promote continuous new progress in livelihood work.
Coordinate livelihood security and economic development well.
Livelihood security and economic development are mutually reinforcing and mutually conditional. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly revealed the relationship between the two, pointing out that "economic development and social security are a relationship in which as the water rises, the boat rises with it (水涨船高, shui zhang chuan gao - "water, rise; boat, high")", and emphasizing that "grasping people's livelihood is also grasping development." In recent years, on the one hand, the tremendous progress in economic and social development has provided a solid foundation for improving people's livelihood; on the other hand, China has continuously strengthened livelihood security, creating a harmonious and stable social environment for economic development, and also effectively promoting consumption and expanding domestic demand, providing momentum for economic growth. However, some comrades' understanding of livelihood construction serving and promoting economic development is not yet accurate and sufficient enough, and there are still problems such as insufficient ideological emancipation and path dependence to a certain extent in promoting civil affairs work to better integrate into the overall situation of economic and social development.
To promote the mutual reinforcement of livelihood security and economic development, we should broaden the overall perspective, strengthen industrial thinking, and achieve a positive interaction between the upgrading of public services and industrial development. Grasp the characteristic that low-income groups have a high marginal propensity to consume, adhere to the combination of benefiting people's livelihood and promoting consumption, improve service guarantee standards, and enhance the effect of converting fiscal investment into actual consumption. Orderly advance the construction of inclusive livelihood programs in the civil affairs field, and promote the transformation of civil affairs work from mainly filling gaps to balancing gap-filling and inclusiveness. Further improve the management system for science and technology social organizations, standardize the governance of industry associations and chambers of commerce, and give play to the important role of social organizations in serving scientific and technological innovation and promoting economic development.
Coordinate the close integration of investment in things and investment in people in the livelihood field.
Promoting the close integration of investment in things and investment in people is a major change in investment philosophy. For a long time, "investment in things" in the livelihood field has continued to accumulate, laying a material foundation for improving the quality of people's lives, but the investment structure is not sufficiently optimized, situations such as emphasizing construction over operation still exist, and the marginal benefit of investment in things is diminishing. It must be recognized that there is still great potential for expanding investment in livelihood fields such as "the elderly and the young," and if the shortcomings in these fields are not made up, they will not only become pain points for people's livelihood but also constrain the release of domestic demand potential. Strengthening the close integration of "things" and "people" is conducive to better giving play to the leveraging effect of investment in the livelihood field, which can achieve significant results with a small amount of force (四两拨千斤, si liang bo qian jin - "four, ounces; push; thousand, jin"), and while continuously safeguarding and improving people's livelihood, create new economic growth points.
In terms of investment in things, the focus is on filling shortcomings, optimizing layout, and strengthening functions. In response to the problem of gaps in facilities in some regions, accelerate the filling of shortcomings such as care facilities for severely disabled persons, mental health welfare facilities, and public welfare funeral service facilities; in response to changes in service recipients in some fields, optimize the layout of institutional facilities in fields such as child welfare and assistance management, and promote integrated development; in response to situations where some institutional facilities have aging hardware, incomplete functions, and safety hazards, accelerate renovation and upgrading, expand service functions, and effectively strengthen the bottom-line guarantee for people in difficulty. In terms of investment in people, coordinate guarantee and development, combine the different characteristics of people in difficulty, the elderly, and special groups, develop service-type assistance in a targeted manner, and help service recipients improve their self-development capabilities. At the same time, based on serving the entire life cycle of people, strengthen the organic coordination of various fields such as aging work, social assistance, social welfare, social affairs, and social governance, forming an overall effect.
Investment in things and investment in people are integrated; achieving their close integration means emphasizing the optimization of the investment structure, focusing on the pain points in the social livelihood field, increasing the proportion of government investment in livelihood, improving the comprehensive benefits of investment, and better giving play to the role of investment in meeting livelihood needs.
Coordinate service supply and livelihood needs well.
With the continuous improvement of the level of economic and social development and the people's standard of living, the relationship between supply and demand in the civil affairs field has undergone profound changes: in some fields, the total supply is insufficient; in some fields, the quality of supply is not high; and in some fields, there is still a mismatch between supply and demand and an unreasonable structure. Taking child welfare guarantees as an example, with China's economic and social development, in recent years, orphans and children in de facto orphanhood have been effectively guaranteed, but care services for migrant children and left-behind children still need to be further strengthened. Another example is elderly care services: inclusive elderly care beds are "hard to find" in the central urban areas of some large cities, while in some remote areas, beds are vacant. To respond to these new situations, it is necessary to deepen the reform of systems and mechanisms, promote better coordination and adaptation between service supply and demand, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and coordinate the advancement of inclusive, basic, and bottom-line livelihood construction in the civil affairs field.
In terms of inclusiveness, expand service recipients, steadily advance the expansion of assistance and support for people in difficulty to more groups in need of assistance such as low-income populations, those with increased rigid expenditures, and those encountering temporary difficulties, expand elderly care services to all elderly people, and expand child welfare to all children in difficult circumstances in need of help; improve the affordability of service prices, increase government support, promote enterprises to reduce costs and make reasonable concessions through methods such as public construction and private operation, government purchase of services, and implementation of tax and fee preferences, improve the inclusive price formation mechanism, and enable more people to afford services; improve the diversity of service types, support civil affairs service institutions in providing "one-stop" comprehensive services in light of actual conditions, and provide the people with more selectable and high-quality service items.
In terms of basic services, focus on promoting the equalized and accessible development of basic public services such as elderly care, marriage, and funeral services. For example, promote the implementation of the national list of basic elderly care services, improve the three-tier elderly care service network in urban and rural areas, vigorously develop embedded community elderly care service facilities, strengthen support for family elderly care and nursing, and promote the reform of elderly care institutions by category. At the same time, in light of local conditions, develop affordable and sustainable rural elderly care service models, and strengthen the supply of elderly care services "at the bedside, by the side, and in the vicinity" of the elderly.
In terms of bottom-line guarantees, in the face of practical problems such as insufficient effective domestic demand, difficulties in the operation of some enterprises, and pressure on employment and income growth, strengthen the dynamic monitoring of low-income populations, orderly advance the provision of assistance services according to permanent residence, strengthen and improve temporary assistance, and enable people in difficulty to receive timely assistance. For example, for the assistance and support of children in difficult circumstances, achieve accurate investigation, accurate filing, and refined services, and focus on establishing and improving six major systems such as mental health care services and legal guardianship responsibilities, to improve the level of welfare guarantees.
Coordinate the development of civil affairs undertakings and safety management well.
Civil affairs service recipients are special, the nature of funds is special, there are many service institutions, and the management chain is long; it concerns the safety of people's lives and is closely related to the legitimate rights and interests and vital interests of the people, with many trigger points and a low ignition point. In recent years, the order of the civil affairs industry has improved markedly, but the complexity and arduousness of supervision work remain prominent. For example, the comprehensive supervision mechanisms in fields such as social organizations, charity, and funeral services are not yet sound. The soil for the emergence of illegal social organizations still exists, and some public welfare and charitable organizations still have irregular behaviors. Some local civil affairs service institutions have exposed shortcomings in fire safety, flood prevention and disaster preparedness, and emergency evacuation. Corruption around the people, such as the misappropriation and diversion of social assistance funds, still occurs. In some fields, top-level design still needs further improvement, in some fields there are still legislative gaps, and some laws and regulations are lagging behind.
In response to these problems, effective measures must be taken. In terms of supervision, accelerate the construction of a penetrating, all-round supervision system, focus on promoting cross-departmental comprehensive supervision, seize the opportunity of implementing the Charity Law and the Funeral Management Regulations, promote the introduction of comprehensive supervision systems in various fields, make good use of coordination mechanisms in civil affairs-related fields, promote industry competent departments, business supervisory units, territorial management departments, and relevant institutions to clarify responsibilities, perform responsibilities, and fulfill responsibilities, and improve supervision efficiency around strengthening the non-profit nature of social organizations and enhancing the credibility of charitable organizations. Improve the whole-process supervision mechanism for fund approval, allocation, and use, and resolutely prevent and resolve fund management risks. In terms of institutional development, adhere to the combination of "large-scale" and "small, fast, and agile" legislation, improve the civil affairs policy and institutional system, promote the introduction of overarching policy documents such as those on high-quality development of social assistance and deepening the reform of the social organization management system, accelerate the establishment and improvement of legal systems in relevant subdivided fields, solidly carry out the revision of administrative regulations for social organizations, foundations, and social service institutions, research and formulate a number of mandatory national standards involving fire safety, food safety, and building safety, and form a good situation in which people and affairs are managed by laws, regulations, institutions, and standards. In addition, always keep the string of risk prevention taut, deeply implement the special action to tackle the root causes of safety in production, comprehensively investigate and rectify safety hazards, and accelerate the filling of shortcomings in facilities, personnel, and technology.
Coordinate the positive roles of all parties well.
Livelihood construction and civil affairs undertakings are the common cause of the whole society and require the coordinated efforts of the government, the market, society, families, and other parties. From the perspective of practical development, in some fields such as rural elderly care, there are still phenomena such as a hot government, a cold market, insufficient social participation, and insufficient support for families, and the problem of weak grassroots civil affairs service capacity has not yet been fundamentally solved.
To solve these difficult problems, we must adhere to the close integration of a promising government, an effective market, a caring society, and responsible families, improve the social participation system, smooth participation channels, and attract more talent, funds, resources, and projects to gather in the livelihood field. The government should neither be absent nor overstep its role, fulfill its responsibilities of top-level design, policy supply, and industry supervision, and play the role of bottom-line guarantees and guidance and promotion for bottom-line and basic service supply that cannot fully rely on the market. Guide and support the development of business entities in the livelihood field, implement support policies on land use, taxes and fees, and finance, promote chain-based and brand-based development, enhance market competitiveness, and provide the people with professional, high-quality, and selective services through market mechanisms. Attach importance to giving play to the role of social forces, cultivate and develop professional social organizations in the livelihood field, smooth the participation mechanism of charitable forces, and stimulate the vitality of the whole society in participating in livelihood construction. Improve family support policies, strengthen training for family caregivers, and develop family beds, respite services, and the like.
Civil affairs service recipients are at the grassroots level, and policy implementation is at the grassroots level; we must regard grasping the grassroots and building a solid foundation as a long-term plan and a fundamental strategy. Actively explore effective ways to improve grassroots service capacity under the new situation, work with relevant departments to optimize the transfer payment allocation mechanism in the civil affairs field, improve the system for the use of welfare lottery public welfare funds, and promote the tilt of various funds and resources toward the grassroots. Explore the establishment of public welfare posts in the civil affairs field, guide and support village (residential) committees and committees on the work of the elderly and women and children to play their roles, develop civil affairs social workers, and build and strengthen grassroots service teams such as civil affairs assistants and child directors. Improve the civil affairs service network, and through forms such as comprehensive use of facilities, construction of new institutional facilities, development of mobile and roving services, and promotion of online remote services, ensure that wherever civil affairs service recipients are, services cover them.
Author: Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs
Return to TopBy: 郑功成
How Can Social Security Better Safeguard People's Livelihoods
Zheng Gongcheng
Social security is the basic institutional guarantee for safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods, maintaining social fairness, and enhancing the well-being of the people, and it is an important institutional arrangement for promoting economic and social development and enabling the broad masses of the people to share in the fruits of reform and development. Through raising funds through multiple channels and redistribution, social security can, in accordance with the law, provide material or service assistance to citizens when they face risks and pressures such as old age, illness, unemployment, work-related injury, disability, and disasters, so as to guarantee their basic livelihood.
In recent years, China's population development has shown a trend of fewer children and an aging population, people-centered new urbanization has been steadily advanced, new forms of employment based on platforms have developed in diverse ways, the urban-rural and regional development patterns have undergone profound adjustment, and the widespread application of digitalization and artificial intelligence has brought profound changes to production and lifestyle. The people's expectations for a better life are no longer limited to basic survival guarantees but are expanding toward multi-level, differentiated, and high-quality needs. The development of the social security undertaking faces new challenges and also ushers in new development opportunities. How to further deepen reform comprehensively, promote the further optimization of the social security system, and continuously enhance the effectiveness of livelihood guarantees is a major issue that must be studied in depth at present.
I
As early as the founding of New China, China established a social security system centered on the labor insurance system under conditions of starting from nothing with very little resources (一穷二白, yi qiong er bai - "one, poor; two, white") and having a vast amount of work to do to rebuild or restart (百废待举, bai fei dai ju - "hundred, waste; wait, lift"). After reform and opening up, China's social security underwent a transformation from adapting to the planned economy system to adapting to the socialist market economy, gradually building a social security system that fits the development of the times. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's social security reform has been comprehensively deepened, public investment has continued to increase, the development of the social security undertaking has entered the fast track, and the world's largest social security system has been built, with social insurance as the main body, social assistance providing a safety net, social welfare providing universal benefits, and multi-level guarantees working together.
The social security system has moved from long-term exploratory reform to basic maturity and finalization, and expectations for livelihood guarantees have become clearer. In terms of old-age insurance, the basic old-age insurance system for residents, which was divided between urban and rural areas, has moved toward unification, the old-age insurance systems for government agencies and public institutions and for enterprises have achieved integration, and the basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees is gradually advancing toward national coordination. In terms of medical security, the resident medical insurance system, which was separately established for urban and rural areas, has been integrated, critical illness insurance and medical assistance have been fully implemented, medical insurance funds have moved from solidifying city-level coordination to provincial-level coordination, and key steps have been taken in the reform of personal accounts in basic medical insurance. In terms of social assistance, the subsistence allowance system has been consolidated and expanded, temporary assistance has broken through the household registration barrier, and the addition of service-type social assistance has promoted the improvement of the assistance system. Institutional arrangements such as the protection of veterans have also basically taken shape amid continuous development.
The construction of the social security system has moved from a fragmented state to a complete one, and the function of livelihood guarantees has tended toward completeness. The exploration of establishing a long-term care insurance system and improving the work-related injury protection system adapted to the characteristics of new forms of employment has filled the gaps in the social insurance system; the promotion of the comprehensive development of elderly care services and childcare services, the full implementation of the two subsidy systems for persons with disabilities, the introduction of childcare subsidies and free preschool education policies, and the nationwide popularization of the old-age allowance system are accelerating the filling of shortcomings in social welfare; the implementation of enterprise annuities, occupational annuities, and personal pension systems, the promotion of the development of commercial old-age insurance and commercial health insurance, and the exploration of forms of charity implementation have accelerated the formation of a multi-level social security system. The steady implementation of gradually delaying the statutory retirement age, the improvement of the mechanism for the safe supervision and preservation and appreciation of social security funds, and the promotion of the coordinated development of medical care, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals have further enhanced the overall guarantee function of the social security system.
The social security governance system has been continuously optimized, and the effectiveness of livelihood guarantees has continued to improve. The 2018 reform of Party and state institutions streamlined the social security management system and built a governance pattern with clear powers and responsibilities and clear division of labor. Civil affairs, human resources and social security, medical insurance, veterans' affairs, taxation, and finance departments have worked in coordination, making the social security governance system smoother and more efficient. A five-level social security handling and management service network has been fully established, a nationally unified social insurance public service platform has been put into operation, the number of social security card holders has reached 1.39 billion, electronic social security cards are widely used, and services such as social insurance enrollment, payment, inquiry, transfer, and reimbursement have achieved full online and offline coverage, significantly improving the convenience of handling matters for the people. The social security fund supervision system has been continuously strengthened, and the ability to preserve and increase the value of funds has been steadily improved, laying a solid material foundation for the sustainable development of social security.
The level of social security has continued to improve, and the strength and warmth of livelihood guarantees have become increasingly evident. As of the end of 2025, basic old-age insurance nationwide covered 1.076 billion people, basic medical insurance covered 1.33 billion people, the fund payment ratio for employee medical insurance hospitalization expenses within the catalog exceeded 80 percent, urban and rural subsistence allowances and special assistance covered more than 44 million people in difficulty, the childcare subsidy policy of 300 yuan per person per month benefited more than 24 million children aged 0-3, universal free preschool education benefited more than 12 million children in kindergarten, the living allowance for persons with disabilities in difficulty benefited more than 11.9 million persons with disabilities, and the nursing allowance for persons with severe disabilities benefited 16.75 million persons with disabilities. When the people encounter various life risks and practical difficulties, they can all obtain corresponding institutional guarantees, and social security has truly become a safety net for livelihood guarantees that covers the entire population and is universally beneficial and shared.
II
The successful practice of China's social security system reform and development demonstrates the significant advantages of the socialism with Chinese characteristics system and the national governance system. However, benchmarked against the requirements of high-quality development and the people's expectations for a high-quality livelihood, there are still shortcomings in its institutional design, resource allocation, system construction, long-term guarantees, and rule-of-law support, resulting in deficiencies in publicity, fairness, adaptability, and sustainability, which constrain the improvement of the quality and effectiveness of livelihood guarantees and the sustainable development of the system.
First, the uniformity and standardization of the system are insufficient, and the foundation of fairness in livelihood guarantees remains unstable. As a public good at the national level, social security achieves mutual assistance and mutual aid among individuals and groups through compulsory sharing in accordance with the law of large numbers, using the determined strength of the collective to resolve uncertain individual risks, thereby promoting social equality and maintaining social stability. However, China's social security has gone through a long stage of local exploration first, and the problems of institutional fragmentation and regional differentiation have not yet been completely eradicated. For example, the national coordination of employee old-age insurance is still in the stage of improving quality and perfection, a unified contribution standard, benefit calculation and payment, and fund supervision system has not yet been fully implemented, and imbalances in regional fund burdens and benefit gaps objectively exist. As another example, the advancement of provincial-level coordination of medical insurance is uneven, the institutional barriers between employee medical insurance and resident medical insurance have not yet been broken, and regional benefit standards differ; the individual financing of resident medical insurance has not yet been linked to disposable income, and there is a phenomenon of reverse adjustment. In addition, some regions have situations such as adding security items on their own and flexibly changing benefit standards, and local differentiated policies have weakened the uniformity, seriousness, and authority of the social security system and also damaged the fairness of the system.
Second, the precision of guarantees for key groups is insufficient, and the allocation of livelihood resources remains unbalanced. The dynamic monitoring and precise assistance mechanisms for key groups such as low-income groups and households that have been lifted out of poverty but are unstable are not sound enough. The supply of elderly care and childcare public services is structurally imbalanced, rural elderly care service resources are insufficient, there is a large gap in guarantees for the elderly who are advanced in age and living alone or who are disabled or have dementia, and childcare support policies are insufficient in intensity, making it difficult to effectively alleviate the pressure on families in elderly care and childcare. At the same time, the construction of the social security system benefiting flexible employment and new forms of employment groups lags behind, the group-based classified guarantee mechanism is not perfect, and the rates of participation in employee old-age and medical insurance for personnel in new forms of employment, migrant workers, and other groups are relatively low, and their guaranteed rights and interests are relatively weak. In addition, the allocation of social security resources between urban and rural areas and among regions is unbalanced, high-quality livelihood resources are concentrated in cities, the shortcomings of guarantees in less developed regions and rural areas are prominent, and the effectiveness of redistribution adjustment is insufficient.
Third, the multi-level guarantee system still needs to be improved, and the dimension of livelihood guarantee supply remains relatively single. To build a multi-level social security system that covers the entire population, coordinates urban and rural areas, is fair and unified, safe and standardized, and sustainable, there are still some shortcomings to be filled. A diversified and coordinated guarantee pattern has not yet fully taken shape, there are still blind spots in the precise expansion of coverage of basic social security, and groups such as flexible employment personnel have not achieved full coverage as required. The coverage of enterprise annuities is limited, the adaptability of commercial old-age insurance and health insurance products is insufficient, and the role of market supplementary guarantees is not fully played. The support mechanism for the third distribution is not sound, the channels for charity and social mutual assistance to participate in livelihood guarantees are not smooth and their empowerment is insufficient. The limited mobilization of market and social forces not only increases the pressure on the government but also makes it difficult to meet the people's continuously rising expectations for livelihood guarantees.
Fourth, hidden dangers to long-term development still exist, and the ability of the social security system to resist risks is insufficient. The diversified financing mechanism for social security is not yet sound, the structure of fiscal investment and the division of powers and responsibilities between the central and local governments need to be optimized, the mechanisms for the transfer of state capital and the market-oriented operation of social security funds are not perfect, and the ability to preserve and increase the value of funds is limited. There are still shortcomings in the intelligent and normalized supervision system for social security funds, and hidden risks such as fraud in insurance claims, insurance fraud, and fund loss have not yet been completely eliminated. At the same time, artificial intelligence is profoundly affecting the patterns of industry, employment, wealth creation, and distribution, and the existing institutional system has not yet formed an effective response mechanism.
Fifth, the construction of the rule of law still lags behind, and the rule-of-law barrier for people's livelihood rights and interests needs to be improved. The Social Insurance Law urgently needs further revision, and systems such as elderly care services and child welfare are not yet sound enough. The supporting implementation rules and law enforcement standards in various fields are not unified enough, and the level of standardization and normalization of system operation is not high. Relevant rule-of-law publicity and law enforcement supervision are relatively weak, some livelihood guarantee policies are not strictly implemented, fund supervision is not standardized, the relief channels for disputes over social security rights and interests are not smooth enough, and the rigid binding role of the rule of law in escorting the development of the social security undertaking still needs to be strengthened.
III
Facing the new situation and new requirements, and targeting the real problems and shortcomings, we should accurately grasp the public-good attribute of social security, pay attention to the publicity and fairness of the system, focus on key systems and key groups, coordinate resource allocation, improve the quality of guarantees, strengthen the redistribution function, and promote substantive fairness.
Strengthen the unification and standardization of key systems and build a solid foundation for fairness in livelihood guarantees. Fairness and universal benefit are the core essence of the social security system, and achieving fairness and universal benefit requires the system to have uniformity and standardization. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: "At the beginning of the establishment of China's social security system, we encouraged all localities to innovate boldly and explore continuously. Now, with the continuous development of China's social security system, the construction of the social security system should adhere to national top-level design and achieve a unified, coordinated national strategy or plan (全国一盘棋, quan guo yi pan qi - "whole, country; one, board, chess")." This requires us to continue to deepen the reform of the social security system, break down institutional barriers among regions, urban and rural areas, and groups, promote the nationwide unification and standardized operation of the social security system, and strive to narrow the gaps in social security treatment between different groups and different regions. For example, comprehensively deepen the reform of the old-age insurance system, improve the national coordination system for basic old-age insurance for enterprise employees, unify contribution standards, benefit calculation and payment, fund adjustment, and supervision rules, balance regional fund burdens, and narrow regional benefit gaps. Continue to improve the basic old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents, steadily raise the basic pension standard, and mobilize the enthusiasm of urban and rural residents to participate in insurance. As another example, accelerate the optimization of the medical insurance system, break the institutional barriers between employee medical insurance and resident medical insurance, accelerate the advancement of provincial-level coordination, continuously strengthen the overall guarantee function, and effectively reduce the burden of medical expenses on the people. As yet another example, standardize the list system of social security treatment, unify the national basic guarantee items, guarantee standards, and guarantee scope, clean up and standardize local differentiated policies, put an end to arbitrarily adding or reducing guarantee items and changing benefit standards, and maintain the uniformity, seriousness, and standardization of the system.
Focus on key groups and optimize resource allocation. Social security should achieve the goal of supplementing the low-income and supporting the weak. For the low-income population, raise the level of assistance and bottom-line guarantees and expand the function of assistance services. Give key attention to the elderly who are disabled or have dementia and who are advanced in age and living alone. For flexible employment groups, including those engaged in new forms of employment, optimize the mechanisms for participation in insurance, contribution payment, transfer of rights and interests, and connection of treatment, increase the proportion of participation in basic old-age and medical insurance for employees, and implement the policy of participating in insurance at the place of habitual residence and place of employment. At the same time, subdivide flexible employment groups, raise the treatment level of old-age insurance and medical insurance, and gradually realize equal protection of social security rights and interests for all groups. In addition, in response to the real problems of unbalanced allocation of social security resources and insufficient effectiveness of livelihood guarantees, accelerate the improvement of the institutional system for the coordinated matching of primary distribution, redistribution, and third distribution, adhere to universal benefit and sharing, and promote the balanced allocation of social security resources. Promote the investment of public social security investment in people, pay more attention to optimizing the structure of social security expenditure, promote the tilt of resources toward rural areas, less developed regions, and people in difficulty, and narrow the gaps between urban and rural areas, regions, and groups.
Improve the multi-level guarantee system and broaden the dimension of livelihood guarantee supply. To adapt to the people's continuously rising livelihood guarantee needs, social security needs to accelerate the upgrade from "full coverage" to "high quality" and from "guaranteeing the basics" to "promoting development." We should continue to consolidate the achievements of universal coverage, carry out precise expansion of coverage targeting the uninsured and those who have stopped paying, and focus on promoting full participation in insurance for migrant workers, flexible employment personnel, personnel in new forms of employment, and urban and rural residents of appropriate age, so as to achieve full coverage as required. Steadily raise the level of basic guarantee treatment, improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism for social security treatment in combination with economic development, price levels, and the affordability of social security funds, and let the people continuously share in development dividends. Expand the coverage of supplementary guarantees, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of business entities, strengthen policy guidance, develop enterprise annuities, and encourage enterprises to establish supplementary old-age and medical guarantees for employees. Enrich the supply of guarantee products, guide commercial insurance institutions to develop old-age, medical, nursing, and accident insurance products that better meet the needs of residents, and meet the people's needs for high-quality guarantees. Improve support policies for charity, guide social forces to participate in livelihood guarantee undertakings such as supporting the elderly, assisting persons with disabilities, nurturing children, rescuing orphans, and relieving the poor, standardize the development of volunteer services and mutual assistance guarantees, and build a diversified and coordinated livelihood guarantee pattern.
Consolidate the foundation for sustainable development and enhance the long-term resilience of livelihood guarantees. The sustainability of social security is the foundation for the long-term development of livelihood construction. We should adhere to doing our best according to our capabilities, accurately grasp the pace of improving the quality of livelihood guarantees, both put an end to problems of absence, dereliction, and insufficiency in livelihood guarantees, and guard against fiscal pressure and institutional risks caused by welfare catch-up and excessive guarantees, so as to achieve dynamic adaptation and benign interaction between the level of livelihood guarantees and the level of economic and social development. On the basis of reasonably dividing responsibilities between the central and local governments and continuously increasing public investment, establish a diversified financing mechanism with government leadership, unit responsibility, individual contribution, and social participation. Improve the reasonable contribution mechanism for units and individuals, steadily advance the transfer of state capital to social security funds, and expand the strategic reserve of funds. Expand the sources of social security funds and channels for preservation and appreciation, standardize fund investment and operation, improve the level of fund returns, and enhance the system's ability to resist risks. Build a full-coverage, normalized, and intelligent supervision system for social security funds, severely crack down on illegal acts such as evading, refusing, and underpaying social security contributions, defrauding and fraudulently obtaining social security treatment, and misappropriating and embezzling social security funds, and build a solid line of defense for fund safety. Improve the social security risk early warning and emergency response mechanisms, and effectively respond to institutional operational risks brought by economic fluctuations, population changes, and emergencies. Steadily advance the nationwide implementation of the long-term care insurance system, conform to the trend of population structure changes, and achieve long-term balance of the system. Face squarely the profound impact of the development and application of artificial intelligence, and actively explore new concepts, new ideas, and new plans for social security development adapted to the intelligent era.
Accelerate the construction of the rule of law and build a solid institutional barrier for people's livelihood rights and interests. The rule of law is a basic feature of the modern social security system and one of the signs of institutional maturity, and it is an important institutional guarantee for the people's social security rights and interests. We must accelerate the construction of the rule of law for social security and escort the livelihood guarantee with good laws and good governance. Revise the Social Insurance Law in step with the times, refine the institutional norms for social insurance participation, contribution payment, treatment, and supervision, adapt to the development needs of elderly care and childcare, and actively advance the construction of legal systems in fields such as elderly care services and child welfare. Improve supporting policies and systems, refine the implementation rules in fields such as social assistance, social insurance, social welfare, and preferential treatment and placement, unify law enforcement standards, and standardize handling procedures. Strengthen the implementation and supervision of the rule of law, strengthen the publicity of social security law, enhance the awareness of the rule of law in social security across the whole society, guide the people to participate in insurance, safeguard rights, and enjoy guarantee treatment in accordance with the law, continuously enhance the public's awareness and willingness to participate in insurance, and effectively safeguard the people's legitimate social security rights and interests. Improve the rights and interests relief mechanism, smooth the channels for mediation, arbitration, and litigation of social security disputes, provide convenient and efficient channels for rights and interests relief, and ensure that livelihood guarantees always operate on the track of the rule of law in a standardized manner.
Author: President of the China Association of Social Security, Professor at Renmin University of China
Return to TopBy: 莫荣 殷宝明
Striving to Properly Resolve Employment, the Most Fundamental Livelihood Issue
Mo Rong, Yin Baoming
In Chinese modernization, livelihood is of paramount importance. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to livelihood work, especially employment work, and has clearly pointed out that "employment is the most fundamental livelihood issue, bearing on the immediate interests of the people, bearing on the sound development of the economy and society, and bearing on the long-term stability and peace of the country." How to grasp the scientific connotation of this important assertion, actively explore the practical path to achieving high-quality and full employment, strive to properly resolve employment, the most fundamental livelihood issue, and continuously enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security is a theoretical and practical issue that we must study in depth.
I. Why Employment Is the Most Fundamental Livelihood Issue
Employment is a family matter, but even more so a national matter. China has a population of over 1.4 billion, with a working-age population exceeding 850 million. Properly resolving the employment issue has always been a top priority in governance. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, strengthened the employment-first orientation in promoting high-quality development, effectively responded to various pressures and challenges, achieved relatively full employment in a developing country with a huge population, held the bottom line of employment, the most fundamental livelihood issue, and laid a solid foundation for continuing to write the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.
Employment bears on the immediate interests of the people's survival and development. It not only supports the livelihoods of the masses or countless households, but also broadens the space for workers' development. In essence, employment is the basic form by which workers combine with the means of production and participate in social production. On the one hand, workers obtain labor remuneration through employment, and employment income becomes the main and most stable source of livelihood for the vast majority of families. Only with employment is there income; only with income is there security for basic necessities of life such as clothes, food, residence, travel, raising children, and supporting the elderly. In 2025, China's total employed population was 725 million, and per capita wage income accounted for 56.6 percent of per capita disposable income. On the other hand, workers continuously improve their quality and enhance their abilities through employment, and their demands regarding employment have shifted from "whether there is a job" to "whether the job is good." Employment is not only a means of making a living, but also a social form through which workers give play to their intelligence and wisdom and realize their own value. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the country carried out over 92 million person-times of subsidized vocational skills training, over 44 million person-times obtained vocational skill level certificates, and over 6,000 person-times were rated as senior technicians or chief technicians. Enterprise salary surveys show that the higher the skill level, the higher the wage remuneration. "Those with higher skills earn more" is increasingly becoming a reality, and everyone has the opportunity to realize their own development through diligent work. From "being able to get a job" to "getting a good job," employment carries the aspirations of every individual and every family for a better life, and is an important path for workers to grow, develop, and achieve all-round development.
Whether the employment issue is resolved well bears on the sound development of the economy and society. From the perspective of economic development, employment is the key link that connects social demand and supply, and links production, exchange, distribution, and consumption. Workers enter the production process through employment, invest labor, the most active factor of production, into social production, and form actual supply capacity; labor remuneration is in turn transformed into household consumption, consumption drives production, and expanded production creates new job opportunities, thereby forming a virtuous cycle of "employment-income-consumption-production" and promoting a dynamic balance between total social supply and total social demand in the cycle. From the perspective of social development, employment is the main path for optimizing the social structure and promoting social fairness. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, hundreds of millions of rural laborers have shifted from agriculture to non-agricultural industries and from rural areas to cities and towns through employment, realizing an orderly transfer from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors. China's urbanization rate of the permanent resident population rose from 53.1 percent in 2012 to 67.9 percent in 2025, the urban permanent resident population increased from 722 million to 954 million, and over 170 million agricultural transfer population settled in cities and towns; more and more workers are achieving sustained income increases through stable employment, and the size of the middle-income group is continuously expanding. From smoothing the virtuous cycle of the economy to promoting social fairness, employment has become an important support for the sound development of the economy and society.
Employment is linked on one end to the people's rice bowls, and on the other end to social stability. History and reality have repeatedly proven that when the most fundamental livelihood issue of employment is properly resolved, the country has its most solid social foundation for long-term stability and peace. Looking around the world, high unemployment rates are often accompanied by intensified social conflicts and even political turmoil, and poor governance of unemployment is an important root cause of social division and polarization in some countries. As a large developing country, China has withstood one test after another in the process of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and the overall employment situation has remained stable. In the early days of reform and opening up, the "three-pronged" employment policy was formulated and implemented in a timely manner, opening up broad channels for employment and smoothly resolving the pressure of youth employment. In the late 1990s, in the face of the Asian financial crisis compounded by the tough battle of state-owned enterprise reform, a reemployment project was implemented, enabling more than 28 million laid-off and unemployed workers to be reemployed, promptly holding the bottom line of livelihood and ensuring the smooth progress of reform. When the international financial crisis broke out in 2008, about 20 million migrant workers in China were affected and lost their jobs and returned to their hometowns. Through the timely introduction of policies to support enterprises and stabilize employment, returning migrant workers were guided to return to cities for employment or to find employment locally or nearby. In recent years, in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and drastic changes in the external environment, we have insisted on placing stable employment first, rolled out a "combination punch" of policies to reduce burdens, stabilize jobs, and expand employment, and firmly held the basic foundation of employment. Facts show that when employment is stable, people's hearts are stable; when people's hearts are stable, society is stable. Properly resolving employment contradictions can effectively prevent and defuse social risks, continuously enhance the resilience of economic and social development, and effectively safeguard social stability and the long-term stability and peace of the country.
II. What Real Challenges Does Current Employment Work Face
At present, the evolution of the international situation is profoundly affecting domestic development. China's development has entered a period in which strategic opportunities and risks and challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing. The pressure to stabilize growth and stabilize employment always exists. In particular, in the current and coming period, domestic economic and social development is also facing new situations and new problems. The structural employment contradiction of "some people have no work to do" and "some work has no one to do it" is becoming increasingly prominent and has become the main crux restricting high-quality and full employment.
From the perspective of the international environment, external shocks are being transmitted to the domestic economy. The once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, the international situation is intertwined with change and chaos, the global industrial chain and supply chain are undergoing deep adjustment, and the volatility and uncertainty of external demand have increased significantly, transmitting to the domestic economy through trade, investment, finance, and other channels and affecting employment. On the demand side, labor-intensive export enterprises and small, medium, and micro enterprises are the most sensitive to changes in the international market, and fluctuations in external orders will be directly transmitted to job positions and spread along the industrial chain to upstream and downstream. On the industrial side, some labor-intensive enterprises are transferring production capacity overseas, and positions in traditional advantageous industries are facing pressure from substitution and transfer. On the labor side, external shocks mainly fall on foreign trade practitioners, especially key groups such as migrant workers. The profound changes in the external environment have made stabilizing employment face external risks that cannot be ignored, and have put forward higher requirements for the forward-looking and reserve nature of employment policies.
From the perspective of the population structure, the pattern of labor supply and demand is being reshaped at an accelerated pace. China's population development shows the trend characteristics of fewer children, an aging population, and differentiation in regional population increase and decrease. In terms of total volume, the working-age population aged 16-59 has continued to decline since peaking in 2012, having fallen to 850 million; the population aged 60 and above exceeds 320 million; the old-age dependency ratio continues to rise; and the long-term trend of labor supply is changing. In terms of age structure, the dual pressure of "the old and the young" is particularly prominent. On the one hand, the trend of an aging labor force is obvious, with migrant workers over 50 years old approaching 100 million; older workers have weaker adaptability to job changes and greater difficulty in reemployment. On the other hand, the number of college graduates has risen year after year, and will remain above 10 million per year for the next 10 years, and the peak of youth labor force employment will continue for a relatively long time. In terms of regions, against the background of population increase and decrease differentiation, the concentration of labor toward central cities and coastal areas coexists with the outflow of labor from some regions, and the regional differentiation of the job market is more obvious. The pressure of total employment volume and structural contradictions are intertwined, the employment pressure of "the old and the young" is superimposed on regional differentiation, and the profound adjustment of the labor supply and demand pattern requires further enhancing the adaptability of employment policies.
From the perspective of technological change, the pressure of employment structure adjustment is prominent. The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation represented by artificial intelligence is accelerating breakthroughs and reshaping the labor market at an unprecedented speed. Its impact on employment is not simply "machines replacing people," but a superposition of substitution effects, creation effects, and transformation effects. Some repetitive and procedural positions are being replaced at an accelerated pace, while a large number of new occupations and new positions are being created, and work content and skill requirements are undergoing profound changes. There is a mismatch between replaced positions and newly added positions in terms of skill requirements, geographical distribution, and industry attribution. The adjustment of the education and training system often lags behind technological change, making it more difficult for workers to transfer employment across industries and positions, and the risk of structural unemployment is rising. The rise in remuneration for high-skill positions coexists with continued pressure on middle- and low-skill positions, and the risk of "polarization" in the labor market is increasing. If there is a lack of effective training support and redistribution adjustment, the technological dividend may be more concentrated in capital and high-skill groups, exacerbating income differentiation. Historical experience shows that technological progress itself does not necessarily harm employment; the key lies in whether institutional arrangements can promote the good and avoid the harm. How to promote the coordination of technological progress and employment promotion, so that the fruits of technological progress benefit the broad masses of workers more and more fairly, is an issue of the times that must be answered well.
From the perspective of employment forms, the protection of workers' rights and interests faces new challenges. With the vigorous development of the digital economy and the platform economy, the number of flexible employment personnel in China has exceeded 200 million. The organizational form of employment, labor relations, and income settlement have undergone profound changes, and more and more workers are participating in social labor through non-standardized flexible employment forms. Flexible employment has broadened employment channels and enhanced the flexibility of the labor market, but it has also brought a series of new problems. Platform labor relations are "de-employerized" and "blurred," making it difficult to identify labor relations, and some workers are outside the protection of the labor legal system. The current social insurance system is mainly established on the basis of stable labor relations, and the quality of social insurance participation of flexible employment personnel is not high and the level of protection is limited. New employment groups such as food delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers face high risks of occupational injury, and labor intensity and income distribution under algorithmic management still lack effective regulation. The profound transformation of employment forms has put forward entirely new requirements for the labor legal system, the social security system, and public employment services, and the contradiction between institutional supply and the incompatibility with new employment forms urgently needs to be resolved.
III. How to Promote High-Quality and Full Employment
The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan takes high-quality and full employment as a priority goal of economic and social development, and the "15th Five-Year Plan for Implementing the Employment-First Strategy" further clarifies the ideas, goals, key tasks, and policy measures. To promote high-quality and full employment, it is necessary not only to achieve "sufficiency in quantity," so that workers who are willing to work can all obtain suitable employment opportunities, but also, and even more so, to achieve "improvement in quality," so that workers have more stable employment, more reasonable income, more reliable protection, and space for development. To achieve this goal, it is difficult for a single policy or a single department to be effective. We must adhere to a systematic approach, deeply implement the employment-first strategy, improve the employment promotion mechanism, and make the process of high-quality development a process of improving the quality and expanding the capacity of employment.
Adhere to the employment-first orientation and build an employment-friendly development model. Development is the fundamental solution to the employment problem, but development does not automatically bring employment; proactive institutional arrangements are needed to connect growth and employment. Growth without employment support is unsustainable. This requires changing employment from a "result" of development to a "precondition" of development, making employment a priority yardstick for measuring the quality of development. This is precisely the core essence of building an employment-friendly development model. We must more consciously take high-quality and full employment as a priority goal of economic and social development, improve the employment impact assessment mechanism for major policies, major projects, and major productivity layouts, strengthen the synergy between industry and employment, support the development of industries and enterprises with strong employment absorption capacity, actively cultivate new occupations and develop new positions, promote the coordinated linkage and joint action of fiscal, monetary, industrial, consumption, and regional policies with employment policies, and continuously improve the employment-driving force of development.
The quality of workers is the foundation for improving the quality of employment. To resolve the structural employment contradiction, in the final analysis, human resources development must be placed in a more prominent position. The structural employment contradiction appears on the surface to be a problem of positions, but in essence it is a problem of the mismatch between the quality and ability of workers and the demands of positions. We must promote the coordinated development of basic education, higher education, and vocational education, improve the vocational quality of workers from the source, and make talent cultivation resonate at the same frequency with industrial transformation. We must improve the lifelong vocational skills training system, deeply implement the "Skills Illuminate the Future" training action, and help workers keep up with technological change and continuously update their knowledge and skills. We must deepen the reform of the talent development system and mechanism, improve the mechanisms for talent cultivation, use, evaluation, and incentives, and accelerate the shaping of modern human resources that are of excellent quality, sufficient in total volume, optimized in structure, and reasonable in distribution.
If key groups are stable, the overall employment situation is stable. College graduates, migrant workers, and people with employment difficulties have different situations and different demands, so we must adhere to implementing policies based on specific categories and providing precise assistance. College graduates are a valuable talent resource for the country, and their employment is not only related to their personal future and family happiness, but also to the full release of the talent dividend. We must make the employment of young people such as college graduates a top priority, adhere to the direction of market-based and socialized employment, strengthen career guidance and job internships, and carry out paired assistance for graduates from families in difficulty. Migrant workers are the main body of the industrial workforce, and the scale of employment of people lifted out of poverty is directly related to the overall situation of consolidating and expanding the achievements of the battle against poverty. We must adhere to both outbound employment and local or nearby employment, cultivate and develop labor service brands, strengthen labor cooperation, and stabilize the scale of employment and income of people lifted out of poverty. We must improve the employment assistance system, provide timely assistance to people with employment difficulties such as the elderly, the disabled, and the long-term unemployed, make good use of public welfare positions for bottom-line placement, and not let a single worker fall behind on the road to employment.
Expanding employment requires both entrepreneurship-driven job creation and service support. Good entrepreneurial projects can often drive a batch of job positions, and precise employment services can effectively improve the matching efficiency of labor market supply and demand. We must encourage entrepreneurship to drive employment, play a good "combination punch" of policies such as entrepreneurial guarantee loans, entrepreneurial subsidies, site support, and tax and fee reductions, lower the threshold and cost of entrepreneurship, and give play to the multiplier effect of entrepreneurship driving employment. We must improve the all-round public employment service system covering urban and rural areas, build service outlets at the doorsteps of the masses, improve the matching mechanism of human resources supply and demand, strengthen career guidance and the collection and release of job information, and ensure that workers have a door to seek jobs and a road to employment.
Whether the quality of employment is high or not, income is an important yardstick. Promoting the synchronization of residents' income growth with economic growth, and the synchronization of labor remuneration increases with labor productivity increases, is not only a direct reflection of workers sharing in the fruits of development, but also an important support for boosting consumption, expanding domestic demand, and smoothing the economic cycle. We must improve the mechanisms for determining, reasonably increasing, and guaranteeing payment of workers' wages, scientifically evaluate and reasonably adjust the minimum wage standard, expand the coverage of collective wage negotiation, and strengthen macro guidance for enterprise wage distribution. We must improve the compensation and distribution system that reflects the incentive orientation of skill value, make workers' income growth coordinated with economic development, improvement of enterprise efficiency, and improvement of personal skills, and continuously expand the size of the middle-income group.
Employment work must not only "add embellishment to something already excellent" to promote development, but also, and even more so, "provide timely assistance in times of need" to hold the bottom line. The more complex and severe the employment situation, the more we must firmly hold the bottom line of livelihood and guard the bottom line of stability. We must improve the labor legal and regulatory system, improve the rights and interests protection system for flexible employment personnel and workers in new employment forms, regulate the employment and algorithm management of platform enterprises, establish and improve the occupational injury protection system, comprehensively abolish the household registration restrictions on participating in social insurance at the place of employment, and expand the coverage of workers' social insurance. We must improve the labor relations consultation and coordination mechanism, strengthen labor security supervision and law enforcement, and effectively address prominent problems such as employment discrimination, wage arrears and social insurance arrears, and illegal layoffs. We must strengthen employment and unemployment monitoring, improve the mechanism for preventing and defusing the risk of large-scale unemployment, strengthen policy reserves and emergency response, comprehensively respond to the impact of changes in the external environment and the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on employment, and ensure the overall stability of the employment situation.
Authors' affiliation: Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security
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Strive to Enhance the Cadre Force's Ability to Advance Modernization
Qiushi Magazine Commentator
In this golden autumn of October, the People's Republic of China joyfully ushers in the 77th anniversary of its founding, and we are striding forward on the magnificent journey of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. The great achievements in our country's development over the past 77 years have been fought for, worked for, and striven for by the Party leading the people together. To govern the country, one must first govern the Party; only when the Party thrives can the country be strong. To strive to write a new chapter of strengthening the Party and strengthening the country on the new journey, it is necessary to thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, and in particular forge a cadre force that is politically sound, meets the requirements of the new era, and possesses the ability to lead modernization.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made it an important task of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party to persist in building a high-caliber cadre force capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation, and has made a series of important arrangements. General Secretary Xi Jinping has successively put forward a series of important requirements such as enhancing the "eight kinds of abilities" and improving the "seven kinds of capabilities," emphasizing the comprehensive enhancement of political ability, leadership ability, and work ability commensurate with advancing Chinese modernization, leading and promoting the continuous improvement of the cadre force's ability and quality in the practice of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. At present, the basic realization of socialist modernization has entered a critical period of consolidating the foundation and exerting full effort; the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating; a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs; strategic opportunities and risks and challenges coexist; uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing; cyclical, structural, and institutional problems in economic development are intertwined; and on the road ahead there will still be a large number of entirely new subjects that have never appeared before, all of which place new and higher demands on the ability and quality of the cadre force. At present, the overall quality of the cadre force is good, but there are also some phenomena that are incompatible with the new journey and new tasks. Some have insufficient political positioning and weak political ability, implementing the Party Central Committee's decisions and arrangements in a distorted or altered manner, or even only making statements without implementing them; some have entered the new era physically but their thinking remains in the past, accustomed to old concepts, old routines, and old methods; some, although having the sincere desire to do their work well, are at their wits' end (束手无策, shu shou wu ce - "bind hands, no way, no strategy") and feel frightened at heart the moment they encounter complex situations because they do not understand the laws and lack ability. The ability of leading cadres is not merely their own personal matter, but a major matter concerning the development of the Party's and the country's cause. We are in an unprecedented era of transformation, undertaking the great cause that no one before has accomplished; only by unceasingly learning, practicing, and improving, keeping pace with the times to enhance the ability to advance modernization, and achieving loyalty, integrity, and responsibility, can we continuously open up new prospects for Chinese modernization.
Among the various abilities required for modernization, political ability ranks first. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Reform, development, and stability; domestic affairs, foreign affairs, and national defense; governing the Party, governing the country, and governing the military — all are political, and none can be separated from politics." At present, the domestic and international environments are undergoing profound and complex changes, and the political tests for cadres are very real and very severe. If one is muddle-headed politically, with selfish thoughts and distracting ideas springing up, and cannot withstand the wind and waves at critical moments, then no matter how great one's ability, it will be difficult to be put to important use, and one may even cause harm to the Party's and the people's cause. It is necessary to unremittingly use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to arm the mind, guide practice, and promote work; consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics, and action; practice the Two Upholds (两个维护) with concrete actions; continuously enhance political judgment, political understanding, and political execution; and make one's political ability match the leadership responsibilities one assumes. It is necessary to strictly observe political discipline and political rules, resolutely prevent practicing liberalism in thought, opportunism in politics, factionalism in organization, departmentalism in work, and "good-old-boy-ism" in performing duties; never engage in duplicity, act willfully, or even disobey orders and prohibitions; never be double-dealers or two-faced people; and never engage in the "seven types of misconduct."
"A small bag cannot hold large things; a short rope cannot draw from a deep well." High-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Whether leading cadres possess the ability to promote high-quality development directly bears on the quality and effectiveness of modernization. It is necessary to accurately grasp the Party Central Committee's target positioning and deployment requirements for the reform and development of one's own region, department, and field; fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy; accelerate the construction of the new development pattern; and ensure that the Party Central Committee's major decisions and arrangements are implemented without any discount. At present, there are still many old problems and new challenges in our country's economic and social development, and there are still obstacles restricting high-quality development in market construction, scientific and technological innovation, entrepreneurship and employment, and income distribution. In the face of these problems, it will not do to seek a sword by marking the boat, nor will it do to walk the old road in new shoes; it is necessary to focus on the bottlenecks of high-quality development, combine with the actual conditions of one's own region and department, and research and solve major problems such as how to effectively resolve the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand, how to accelerate high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, how to consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, how to develop new quality productive forces in light of local conditions, and how to deepen the construction of the unified national market. Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a new engine of economic growth and an accelerator of the transformation of old and new growth drivers; it is necessary to deeply study its broad and profound impact on scientific research paradigms, industrial forms, economic structure, social governance, and other aspects, ensuring that technological empowerment always serves high-quality development. In the face of the people's higher expectations for a better life and the profound adjustment of the social interest pattern, it is necessary to follow the Party's mass line in the new era, enhance the ability to serve the masses, and solve the urgent and anxious problems of the people such as employment, income increase, school enrollment, medical treatment, housing, handling affairs, childcare, and elderly care. In response to risks and hidden dangers in key areas such as energy security, the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, the financial and real estate markets, and local government debt, it is necessary to enhance the ability to prevent and defuse risks and coordinate development and security.
Practice is the best whetstone. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The cause of the Party and the country covers a wide range of areas, and leading cadres do not always work in one post; it is unrealistic to expect that they must have studied everything and studied it well before taking up their posts." At present, the rotation of local leading bodies is being carried out in an orderly manner, and a number of cadres are successively assuming new leadership positions. It is necessary to proactively adapt to new posts and new requirements, get down to the grassroots and sink to the front line, find out the actual situation clearly, identify the problems accurately, and put forward practical countermeasures, making the new environment and new practice a new starting point for enhancing the ability to advance modernization. It is necessary to consolidate and expand the achievements of the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, educate and guide cadres to carry on the work one term after another and draw the blueprint to the end, and prevent new officials from ignoring old accounts and policy plans from "flipping the pancake." Along with the process of modernization, work in all aspects is becoming increasingly professional, specialized, and refined; it is necessary to accelerate the updating of knowledge, improve professional competence, and strive to become an expert or specialist in a particular field (行家里手, xing jia li shou - "professional, expert, inside, hand") in one's own work. It is necessary to establish a personnel selection and appointment orientation that emphasizes practical work and practical results, adhere to the combination of strict management and care, and the equal emphasis on incentives and constraints; while targeting and treating the "Buddhist-style" and "lying flat" mindsets and the problems of aging and rigidified knowledge structures, it is also necessary to support and encourage cadres who forge ahead and dare to take responsibility, forming a sound situation in which the capable are promoted, the excellent are rewarded, the mediocre are demoted, and the inferior are eliminated, thereby stimulating the endogenous motivation and overall vitality of the cadre force.
To advance Chinese modernization, cadres must not only be politically sound and highly capable, but also have excellent work styles and be honest and clean; moreover, the stronger their ability, the more they must be strict with themselves and hold the bottom line. Practice has repeatedly proven that observing discipline and rules and doing solid work have never been an "either-or single choice"; only by observing discipline and rules can one have full freedom and broad space for doing solid work. The vast number of Party members and cadres must maintain vigilance against "corrosion" and "encirclement and hunting," withstand temptations, keep their minds steady, and preserve their integrity; resolutely refrain from crossing the red line or touching the high-voltage line; achieve both keeping the body and mind in check and letting go of the hands and feet; and create a clean and upright working environment for doing solid work through being upright oneself, clean oneself, and firm oneself.
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Breaking the Contradiction of Strong Supply and Weak Demand Through Reform
Qiushi Commentary
The contradiction of strong supply and weak demand is a prominent problem currently facing the operation of China's economy. To break this contradiction, macro policy must be effective in stabilizing the overall economic picture; reform must also exert force to strengthen the momentum and vitality of economic development.
Since the beginning of this year, in the face of the prominent domestic problem of strong supply and weak demand, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has adhered to pursuing both policy support and reform and innovation, resolutely removing the sticking points and bottlenecks hindering the expansion of domestic demand, striving to promote the continued optimization of the structure of supply and demand, and ensuring the smooth operation of the economy. However, under the influence of various complex factors, certain institutional and mechanistic drawbacks still constrain the virtuous interaction between consumption and investment, and between supply and demand, and breaking the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand faces no small number of challenges. This requires us to maintain strategic focus and resolve (战略定力, zhan lue ding li - "strategy, stability, determination"), accurately grasp the laws governing changes in the supply-demand relationship, persist in seeking momentum and vitality from reform, and promote the economy's continued development toward the new, the superior, and the good.
Dynamic equilibrium between supply and demand is the inherent requirement for stable economic operation. Strong supply and weak demand is one manifestation of imbalance in the supply-demand relationship. Why does the phenomenon of strong supply and weak demand currently arise in China? The answer lies in the practice of China's economic development. Since reform and opening up, in order to solve the problems of material shortages and insufficient supply, China formed in its long-term development practice a development model relying mainly on investment and exports for impetus, with resource allocation and policy orientation clearly tilted toward the production sphere, creating China's world-leading complete industrial system and strong production capacity. At the same time, after decades of struggle, China has grown into a super-large economy with a GDP exceeding 140 trillion yuan and the world's second-largest consumer market, and the people's living standards and consumption levels have improved enormously; however, constrained by institutional and mechanistic factors such as an imperfect income distribution system and inadequate social security, residents' willingness to consume and consumption capacity are subject to considerable restriction. Under these circumstances, compared with the rapid expansion of investment-driven supply capacity, insufficient consumption demand has caused the pace of expansion of domestic effective demand to lag relatively overall, ultimately forming the unbalanced situation of strong supply and weak demand. It can thus be seen that the essence of the current contradiction of strong supply and weak demand in China is not absolute oversupply or insufficient demand, but rather the "mismatch" and "obstruction" between supply and demand caused by the transformation of the development stage and development model, which has deep-seated institutional and mechanistic causes. Only by profoundly grasping this deep-seated cause, persisting in accelerating the improvement of institutions and mechanisms through deepening reform, and promoting the formation of more economic development models led by domestic demand, driven by consumption, and generated by endogenous growth, can the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand be fundamentally broken.
Emphasizing the use of deepening reform to solve development problems is a valuable experience our Party has accumulated in long-term practice. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, in the face of supply-demand imbalance in economic operation, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has accurately grasped the stage-specific features of China's economic development, and, based on accelerating the formation of more economic development models led by domestic demand, driven by consumption, and generated by endogenous growth, has consistently emphasized advancing the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand through institutional and mechanistic innovation, precisely introducing reform measures, comprehensively improving institutions and mechanisms, effectively smoothing the economic cycle, continuously stimulating economic vitality, maintaining the smooth operation of the economy, and continuing to write the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. To break the current contradiction of strong supply and weak demand, we must persist in making good use of the thinking and methods of reform, grasp the principal aspect of the contradiction, resolutely eliminate the various institutional and mechanistic drawbacks that suppress domestic demand, and establish and improve long-term mechanisms for achieving high-level dynamic equilibrium between supply and demand. We must further unify thought and action with the Party Central Committee's decisions and arrangements, coordinate the implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan with the implementation of the arrangements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party, emphasize exerting force through reform, improve the institutional arrangements for boosting domestic demand, accelerate the building of a complete domestic demand system, promote dynamic equilibrium between supply and demand, and strive to realize the virtuous cycle of the national economy.
To break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand through reform, we must correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market. The contradiction of strong supply and weak demand reflects that problems still exist in resource allocation. Market allocation of resources is the most efficient form, and we must coordinate the relationship between an effective market and a well-functioning government, give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better play the role of the government. The government must do what it should do and refrain from what it should not do, solidly advance the building of a law-based economy and a credit-based economy, prevent improper interference in the activities of micro-level entities, and solve the problems of absence and overstepping of roles. We must deepen reform of the fiscal and tax systems, improve assessment, evaluation, incentive, and reward mechanisms, regulate local governments' economic promotion behavior, advance the shift of the collection link of the consumption tax to the post-production stage and its steady downward allocation to local governments, and promote the shift of resource allocation from "emphasizing production and neglecting consumption" to balanced development of production and consumption. We must advance in depth the construction of the unified national market, accelerate the improvement of the institutional and mechanistic systems for market-based allocation of factors, comprehensively rectify "involution-style" competition, strive to create a fair and orderly market competition environment, and promote the optimization and maximization of the efficiency and benefits of resource allocation.
To break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand through reform, we must improve the long-term mechanisms for expanding domestic demand. Making effective institutional arrangements in reasonably guiding consumption, savings, investment, and other areas is an important guarantee for expanding domestic demand. Consumption is a function of income, and the key to boosting consumption lies in forming institutional and mechanistic systems that promote the steady growth of residents' income and stabilize residents' expectations regarding employment and income. We must improve the mechanisms for promoting high-quality and full employment, improve the social security system, and improve the pattern of income and wealth distribution. We must clean up unreasonable restrictive measures in the consumption sphere, establish and improve management methods adapted to new forms, new models, and new scenarios of consumption, implement the system of paid staggered leave, and improve the consumption environment. Investment is an important component of domestic demand, and weak demand is closely related to the downturn in investment, especially the decline in private investment. We must deepen reform of the investment approval system, improve the investment and financing institutional and mechanistic systems, improve the mechanisms for stimulating the vitality of private investment, and form an endogenous growth mechanism for effective investment led by the market. We must adhere to the close integration of investing in things and investing in people, raise the proportion of government investment in people's livelihoods, and promote the virtuous interaction between consumption and investment.
To break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand through reform, we must further improve the quality and efficiency of the supply system. The contradiction of strong supply and weak demand involves not only the problem of aggregate imbalance but also the problem of mismatch between supply and demand structures. As the living standards of Chinese residents improve and the level of demand rises, the products and services supplied in some fields cannot keep pace with the pace of consumption upgrading, and the problems of oversupply of mid-to-low-end supply and shortage of high-quality supply coexist. We must accelerate the building of a modern industrial system, enhance the adaptability of the supply system to domestic demand, and expand high-quality supply to meet the consumption needs of different groups. Traditional industries are an important component of the national economy and play an irreplaceable role in safeguarding people's livelihoods and promoting employment; we must improve the effective mechanisms for supporting and guiding traditional industries to carry out technological transformation and promote the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing. We must improve the policies and governance systems for developing strategic industries and establish mechanisms for increasing investment in future industries. We must deepen reform of the regulation of the service industry, improve the policy support system, and promote the high-quality and efficient development of the service industry. We must improve the market clearing mechanisms, rely on market-based and law-based means to promote vertical integration and horizontal mergers and acquisitions among enterprises, and guide the healthy and orderly development of industries.
"Only reformers advance; only innovators grow strong; only reform-minded innovators prevail." On the new journey, all regions and departments should stand at the forefront of the reform tide, forever maintain the spirit of "daring," the drive of "creating," and the style of "doing," resolutely eliminate all ideological concepts and institutional and mechanistic drawbacks that hinder development, and will surely be able to effectively break the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand and the new problems and new challenges it brings, inject more abundant momentum and vitality into China's economy, and continuously push high-quality development to new heights.
Return to TopBy: 蓝佛安
Precisely and effectively implementing a more proactive fiscal policy
Lan Fo'an
Implementing a more proactive fiscal policy is an important deployment made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on a profound grasp of the operational laws of our country's economy and changes in the domestic and international environment, and coordinating the current with the long-term, development with security. At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held on July 30 this year, it was further emphasized that we must implement well a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, fully leverage the effectiveness of various existing policies, and promptly plan and introduce pragmatic and effective incremental policies. The fiscal departments deeply implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, do a solid job of implementing fiscal policies, continuously improve precision and effectiveness, and go all out to promote the realization of this year's economic and social development goals and tasks.
I. Using a more proactive fiscal policy to promote the sustained development of the economy toward the new, the superior, and the good
Public finance is the foundation and important pillar of national governance. As an important means of macro-control, fiscal policy has the dual advantage of expanding aggregate demand and making targeted structural adjustments. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, our country's fiscal policy has always maintained a proactive orientation, and has been adjusted and improved in a timely manner according to changes in the situation, continuously enhancing its compatibility with economic operations, and providing strong support for stable, healthy economic development. Since the beginning of this year, in the face of difficulties and challenges brought by the complex domestic and international environment, the fiscal departments have resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, firmly grasped high-quality development as the primary task, solidly implemented a more proactive fiscal policy, focused on stabilizing employment, stabilizing enterprises, stabilizing the market, and stabilizing expectations, focused on advancing reform, strengthening management, preventing risks, and increasing efficiency, promoting the economy to achieve an effective improvement in quality anda reasonable growth in quantity.
Consolidating the foundation of the economy's stable improvement, policy intensity has reached a new high, promoting economic operations to remain within a reasonable range. Strengthening the coordination of fiscal resources, striving to enlarge the expenditure scale, this year's general public budget expenditure arrangements exceed 30 trillion yuan, and newly added various types of government bond scale has reached 11.89 trillion yuan. Policy implementation has been front-loaded, budget allocations have been made as quickly as possible, ensuring early implementation and early results; from January to August, central general public budget expenditure at the central level increased by 6% year-on-year. Adhering to the strategic basis of expanding domestic demand, solidly advancing the construction of the "two major" projects and the "two new" initiatives, steadily expanding the pilot scope of the "self-review and self-issuance" of special bonds, introducing and implementing a package of fiscal and financial policies coordinated to promote domestic demand, further opening up space for fiscal policy to exert force, promoting residential consumption and expanding effective investment. With the release of the effects of fiscal policy and other macro policies, in the first half of this year, our country's economy grew by 4.7% year-on-year, with the growth rate continuing to rank among the forefront of major global economies.
Accelerating the conversion of old and new growth drivers, expenditure directions have become more focused, promoting economic momentum to shift toward the new and the structure toward the superior. This year, the central government's science and technology expenditure budget has increased by 10% compared with last year, of which basic research expenditure budget has increased by 6.3%, strengthening funding guarantees for original innovation and research on key core technologies. This year, our country has allocated 200 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to support equipment updates in approximately 11,000 projects across 22 fields, advancing the upgrading and quality improvement of key industries. Coordinating the use of special funds, loan interest subsidies, government investment funds, and other policy tools, deeply implementing the pilot cities for new-type technological transformation of manufacturing industry, the reward-and-subsidy policies for "specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative" small and medium-sized enterprises, accelerating the digital, intelligent transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and the cultivation and growth of emerging industries; in August, the added value of large-scale high-tech manufacturing industries increased by 16.7% year-on-year, with new growth drivers showing a trend of accelerated growth
Responding to the urgent difficulties and concerns of the people, policy orientation highlights people's livelihood, placing greater emphasis on investing in people. Adhering to the principle that people's livelihood comes first, continuously strengthening input guarantees in employment, education, elderly care, and other areas. The central government has already allocated 66.7 billion yuan of employment assistance funds this year, strengthening employment assistance for disabled persons, zero-employment-family members, and other difficult groups, promoting employment for key groups such as college graduates. Optimizing the allocation of fiscal education funds, promoting the adjustment of the layout structure of educational resources, expanding the supply of general high school places and the enrollment scale of high-quality undergraduate education, better adapting to changes in the age structure of the school-age population. Doing a solid job in the service guarantees for"the elderly and the young," comprehensively implementing the childcare subsidy system; this year, 99.9 billion yuan of subsidy funds have been allocated, an increase of 10.6% over last year; steadily implementing free preschool education, and issuing elderly care service consumption subsidies to moderately and severely disabled elderly people. Timely activating the rapid verification and allocation mechanism for central disaster relief funds, effectively responding to earthquakes, typhoons, floods, landslides, mudslides, and other various natural disasters in some regions, going all out to guarantee the basic livelihood of disaster-affected people
Striving to remove institutional and mechanism obstacles that constrain high-quality development, key reforms have been continuously deepened, using the improvement of fiscal management levels to amplify the effectiveness of fiscal policies. Focusing on advancing the construction of the unified national market, establishing and implementing a negative list management mechanism for local fiscal subsidies, cleaning up and regulating tax preferential policies, optimizing and improving export tax rebate policies, promoting healthy industrial competition. Focusing on creating a fair tax environment, strengthening the reporting of tax-related information by internet platform enterprises, improving new energy vehicle tax policies, introducing offshore trust individual income tax policies, canceling the tax exemption policy for dividends and interest received by foreign individuals, and starting pilot collection of environmental protection tax on volatile organic compounds. Focusing on optimizing the allocation of fiscal resources, organizing 12 provinces to continuously deepen pilots in fiscal scientific management, deeply advancing zero-based budget reform, seeking fiscal resources from management, seeking efficiency from expenditure. Focusing on better mobilizing the enthusiasm of local governments for high-quality development, deeply advancing the construction of the local tax system, carrying out pilots in integrating, coordinating, and using transfer payment funds, enhancing local governments' autonomous fiscal capacity and coordination capacity, in light of local conditions using more funds for maintaining operations and seeking development
Holding the bottom line of security, risk resolution has been solidly advanced, and fiscal sustainability has been further enhanced. Supervising and guiding all localities to make good use of the central government's debt resolution support policies, accelerating the resolution of existing implicit debt, solidly advancing the exit and reformand transformation of financing platforms. As of the end of August this year, 5.8 trillion yuan of the 6 trillion yuan replacement bonds have been issued, and the scale of existing implicit local government debt and the number of financing platforms have continued to decline. Resolutely treating the curbing of illegal new implicit debt as iron discipline, optimizing and improving the full-caliber local debt monitoring mechanism, deepening cross-departmental information sharing and regulatory collaboration, severely investigating and punishing acts such as new implicit debt and false debt resolution, and imposing heavier accountability. At the same time, issuing a certain scale of special bonds to support localities in clearing government arrears owed to enterprises
II. In improving macroeconomic governance, deepening the understanding of the laws of fiscal macro-control
At present, the world's century-old transformations are accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, international competition has become more complex and fierce, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, global industrial chains and supply chains are undergoing accelerated restructuring, and the growth momentum of the world economy is insufficient. At the same time, our country is in a critical period of basically realizing socialist modernization, with profound adjustments in industrial structure, business models, population structure, etc., and the environment and conditions facing economic development and macroeconomic governance are undergoing profound changes, placing higher demands on the precision, coordination, and effectiveness of fiscal policy. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, the fiscal departments have deeply studied and comprehended Xi Jinping's economic thought, especially General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on fiscal work, deeply grasped the Party Central Committee's ideas, approaches, and methods for managing finances, continuously deepened the understanding of the laws of fiscal macro-control, adhered to the use of systematic thinking to design and plan fiscal policies, strengthened coordination with monetary, industrial, regional, and other policies, and promoted a more proactive fiscal policy to exert precise force, land effectively, and produce results
Better coordinating an effective market with a proactive government, identifying the focal points for fiscal policy to exert force. There are things that should be done: fiscal fund arrangements should focus on important areas related to the long-term economic and social development of the country, such as ecological environmental protection, agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and tilt toward areas with strong positive externalities and high social benefits, such as science, technology, and education, striving to remedy market failures; there are also things that should not be done: making great efforts to regulate government economic promotion behaviors such as fiscal subsidies and tax preferences, minimizing direct allocation of resources and direct intervention in micro entities, attaching importance to giving play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, using the "measuredness" of fiscal policy to guarantee the "effectiveness" of the market mechanism, promoting the formation of an economic order that is both "able to be enlivened" and "able to be managed well"
Better coordinating the optimization of increments and the revitalization of existing stocks, driving increments through revitalizing existing stocks, consolidating existing stocks through optimizing increments, comprehensively improving the efficiency of fiscal fund resource allocation. Paying attention to combining incremental funds with existing funds, taking zero-based budget reform as the starting point, vigorously reducing low-efficiency and ineffective expenditures, focusing more on major national strategies and basic livelihood areas. Paying attention to combining asset management with liability management, comprehensively inventorying government debt-formed assets, promoting the coordination of management, operation, disposal, transfer, and revenue remittance, and making a good connection with debt repayment. Paying attention to combining incremental policies with existing policies, both doing a solid job of implementing existing policies and optimizing and improving them in step with the times, and making discretionary choices to promptly introduce incremental policies, promoting existing policies and incremental policies to exert force in the same direction and form synergy
Better coordinating policy support with reform and innovation, both increasing policy supply and seizing the opportunity to deepen reforms without delay, forming a combined amplification effect of reform and policy. On the one hand, based on the present, using supportive policies to strengthen counter-cyclical adjustment, maintaining reasonable deficit and expenditure scales, making good use of policy tools such as treasury bonds, ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, special bonds, to mitigate short-term economic fluctuations. On the the other hand, focusing on the long term, using reform to exert force to enhance development stamina, coordinating the advancement of fiscal and tax system reformand fiscal scientific management, striving to solve the stuck points and blocking points that constrain high-quality development and the exertion of fiscal functions, creating favorable conditions for better release of policy effectiveness
Better coordinating fiscal force exertion with coordination and cooperation, strengthening the coordinated linkage of fiscal policy with monetary and other policies, fully giving play to the leveraging and guiding role of fiscal funds. Innovatively launching a package of fiscal and financial policies coordinated to promote domestic demand, combining and using loan interest subsidies, guarantee compensation, premium subsidies, and other methods, using fiscal funds to guide financial resources, amplifying the multiplier effect of policies, better stimulating private investment and promoting residential consumption. At the same time, coordinately advancing policy formulation, implementation, and expectation management, running publicity and guidance through the entire process of policy formulation and implementation, striving to boost market confidence, achieving policy effects that are "in line with expectations" or even "beyond expectations"
Better coordinating economic promotion with improvement of people's livelihood, adhering to ensuring and improving people's livelihood in the course of development, expanding development space in meeting people's livelihood needs. Organically combining economic development with improvement of people's livelihood, strengthening the livelihood orientation when formulating and implementing fiscal policies, considering economic promotion effects when formulating livelihood policies, promoting the close integration of investing in things with investing in people, benefiting people's livelihood with promoting consumption, better meeting people's livelihood needs through promoting industrial upgrading and optimizing public services, effectively releasing the potential of domestic demand through stabilizing employment, promoting income growth, and improving social security
Better coordinating the promotion of development with the prevention of risks, both actively acting to promote development and holding the bottom line to consolidate security, forming a benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security. Running risk awareness and bottom-line thinking through the entire process of fiscal work, both scientifically and reasonably arranging deficit, debt, and expenditure policies to form strong support for economic growth and structural optimization, and doing a solid job of preventing and resolving implicit debt risks of local governments, firmly holding the bottom line of "three guarantees" at the grassroots level, ensuring the safety and sustainability of public finance itself. At the same time, strengthening support for key areas such as food security, energy and resources, important industrial chains and supply chains, consolidating the foundational guarantees of national security
III. Anchoring the annual economic and social development goals, going all out to implement key fiscal tasks
This year is the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and doing a good job of the work in the coming months is crucial to completing the annual goals and tasks and achieving a good start. The fiscal departments must unify their thinking and actions with the Party Central Committee's scientific judgment of the situation and its decisions and deployments, adhere to the unity of problem orientation, goal orientation, and result orientation, solidly do a good job of the implementation and effectiveness of existing policies, research and formulate highly targeted incremental policies, promote a more proactive fiscal policy to exert force and improve efficiency, provide strong guarantees for completing this year's economic and social development goals and tasks
Paying greater attention to expanding effective domestic demand, maintaining stable economic operations. Reasonably accelerating the progress of expenditures, strengthening supervision, guidance, and unblocking bottlenecks for regions with relatively slow expenditure progress, allowing precious fiscal funds to land early and produce results early. Coordinating the use of funds such as ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and local government special bonds, solidly advancing the construction of the "six networks" and the "two major" projects. Optimizing the implementation of fiscal and financial policies coordinated to promote domestic demand, expanding the scope of interest subsidies, increasing the number of handling institutions, appropriately raising quotas, better releasing consumption potential and leveraging private investment. Issuing 300 billion yuan of special treasury bonds to support relevant central financial enterprises in supplementing core tier-one capital, consolidating and improving their capability for sound operation and serving the real economy. Researching and introducing incremental policies such as arranging the use of the local government debt balance limit, improving local general public budget guarantee capacity and supporting the expansion of effective investment
Paying greater attention to enabling through science and technology, accelerating the conversion of old and new growth drivers. Strengthening the management of fiscal science and technology funds, further focusing on basic research and research on key core technologies, advancing high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology. Coordinating the use of policies such as first(set) insurance compensation, first-batch insurance compensation, and government procurement of independently innovative products, accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and their application and promotion. Strengthening fund guarantees and policy supply, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, cultivating and strengthening emerging pillar industries and future industries. Implementing and improving fiscal and tax policies, promoting the expansion, quality improvement, and better development of producer services and consumer services. Strengthening support for cultivated land protection, seed industry revitalization, agricultural science and technology, agricultural machinery and equipment, etc., advancing the construction of high-standard farmland in a high-quality manner by region and category, striving to enhance comprehensive agricultural production capacity and quality efficiency
Paying greater attention to people's livelihood guarantees, improving the level of public services. Continuously strengthening the capacity building for disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief, timely allocating central disaster relief funds, supporting the resettlement of disaster-affected people, basic livelihood guarantees, and post-disaster recoveryand reconstruction. Making good use of policies such as unemployment insurance premium refunds for maintaining stable employment, expansion subsidies, skill improvement subsidies, improving the social security system, implementing policies such as raising the basic pension for urban and rural residents, promoting high-quality and full employment and income growth for residents. Adapting to population structure changes and mobility trends, advancing the optimization of the layout of basic public services such as education, healthcare, etc., achieving services that follow people and are portable, better meeting the expectations of the people. Implementing normalized, precise assistance, implementing corresponding bottom-line guarantee measures and development-oriented assistance measures, firmly holding the bottom line of preventing large-scale return to poverty or new poverty
Paying greater attention to promoting the stable operation of grassroots public finance, preventing and resolving local government debt risks. Advancing reforms such as moving the collection link of consumption tax backward and steadily delegating it to local governments, local additional tax reform, etc., supporting localities in expanding tax sources. Solidly advancing pilots in integrating, coordinating, and using transfer payment funds, giving localities more autonomy and better meeting actual needs. Supervising localities to strengthen treasury fund scheduling and operation monitoring, ensuring that the "three guarantees" do not have problems. Accelerating the resolution of existing implicit debt, severely investigating and punishing illegal acts such as new implicit debt and false debt resolution, consolidating the hard-won achievements of debt resolution. Promoting the reformand transformation of local government financing platforms in a classified and orderly manner, resolutely stripping their government financing functions, strictly prohibiting the establishment of new or the creation through variation of various financing platforms
Paying greater attention to advancing fiscal scientific management, continuously improving the efficiency of fiscal fund use. Promoting fiscal scientific management to expand from a single point to a wider area** (由点及面, you dian ji mian - "from point to surface")** and develop in depth, further improving the management system that is horizontal to the edge and vertical to the bottom. Strengthening the coordination of fiscal resources and budgets, guiding localities to standardize, orderly revitalize existing assets and resources, better concentrating financial resources to accomplish major matters. Continuously deepening zero-based budget reform, further expanding the scope of pilots in central departments, guiding localities to deepen exploration, promoting the establishment of a budget allocation mechanism with guarantees for some items, pressure on others, the ability to increase or decrease, and dynamic adjustment. Improving the whole-process budget performance management mechanism, comprehensively strengthening pre-expenditure performance evaluation, in-process performance monitoring, and post-expenditure performance appraisal, continuously improving the efficiency of fiscal expenditures. Strictly implementing the requirement that Party and government organs cultivate the habit of living frugally, saving wherever possible in budget execution, strictly and tightly managing funds for official overseas visits (travel), domestic inspectionand exchange, official receptions, meetings, training, etc., effectively reducing administrative operating costs, and putting an end to extravagance and waste (铺张浪费, pu zhang lang fei - "spread, waste"). Deeply carrying out the three-year action to improve the quality and effectiveness of fiscal and accounting supervision, severely investigating and punishing acts that violate financial and economic discipline
Author: Lan Fo'an, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Finance
Return to TopBy: 陈刚
Activating the New Engine of the Seaward Economy
Chen Gang
The ocean is a strategic priority for high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the management and development of the ocean, and has delivered a series of important statements on building a maritime power. In July 2025, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "to advance Chinese modernization, we must efficiently develop and utilize the ocean, promote the high-quality development of the marine economy, and blaze a path of seeking strength through the sea with Chinese characteristics." Guangxi is located at the southwestern end of the mainland coastline of the motherland and is the only province in the country connected to ASEAN by both land and sea, shouldering an important mission in building a maritime power. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited Guangxi three times, putting forward important requirements for Guangxi such as "building a sound seaward economy," "vigorously developing the seaward economy," and "freeing the mind and seeking innovation, seeking strength through the sea and pursuing open development." We resolutely implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, continuously strengthen the consensus on seaward development, pool efforts for managing and developing the ocean, solidly promote the high-quality development of the seaward economy, and unswervingly follow the path of seeking strength through the sea.
The "seaward economy" is a new concept proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection of Guangxi in April 2017. It is both intrinsically linked to and essentially different from concepts such as the "marine economy" and the "coastal economy." All are based on the ocean as an important foundation and jointly serve the overall cause of building a maritime power. The marine economy emphasizes the "marine" aspect, taking marine production activities and the development and utilization of marine resources as its main body; it is a resource-based and industrial economy directly related to the ocean. The coastal economy emphasizes the "coastal" aspect, taking port-side industries, port logistics, coastal tourism, and port service industries as its main business forms; it is an economic activity characterized by coastal industrial layout and heavy dependence on seaports. Both fall within the category of regional economies and are important components of the seaward economy. The seaward economy emphasizes the "seaward" aspect. It is not confined to maritime boundaries, but rather regards the inland hinterland, riverside cities, coastal ports, and maritime space as an organic whole, placing greater emphasis on the coordinated linkage of river–sea–land, guiding resource factors and economic activities to concentrate seaward, and forming an open development pattern of seaward orientation across the entire region. This economic form has distinct open characteristics. Its connotation and extension are not static or closed, but continue to enrich and develop with deepening practice, strategic upgrading, and expanding opening up.
Fully, accurately, and comprehensively understanding the new concept of the seaward economy proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and deeply grasping its connotation and extension, are theoretical and contemporary propositions that Guangxi must answer well. Over the past decade, successive Party committees and governments of the autonomous region have continuously advanced the practice and exploration of the seaward economy, constantly deepening systematic understanding of its development laws, basic connotations, and practical paths. In the early period, we mainly focused the efforts of the seaward economy on offshore sectors such as marine fisheries, port-side industries, and port logistics, highlighting the development of the marine economy and the coastal economy. As the construction of the New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor in the western region has deepened and the level of opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN has continued to rise, the understanding of the entire region has gradually shifted from "marine" to "seaward," and the concept of region-wide seaward development has been continuously established and formed. In June 2026, the Twelfth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Party Committee of the Autonomous Region designated the promotion of high-quality development of the seaward economy as a major region-wide strategy, summarizing the seaward economy as follows: "Facing ASEAN and the world, connecting land and sea, and linking domestic and international markets, building an open economic system based on the land, supported and linked by a modern seaward infrastructure system and a modern seaward industrial system, with the marine economy, port economy, coastal economy, and seaward corridor economy as its main forms." This summary, focusing on the overall situation of China–ASEAN opening-up and cooperation and based on Guangxi's unique advantages of being coastal, riverside, and border-area, clarifies the direction, path, coverage, preconditions, main forms, and essential attributes of the seaward economy, defines a connotation of the seaward economy that is implementable, promotable, measurable, distinguishable, and assessable in line with Guangxi's development reality, and unifies thinking and enhances consensus on "what it is, why it is needed, what to do, and how to do it."
In practice, we are clearly aware that Guangxi still faces many difficulties and challenges in seaward development, mainly including: the pattern of land–sea coordination has not yet taken shape; the seaward industry as a whole is relatively weak; infrastructure shortcomings are prominent; the integrated development of ports, industries, cities, and parks lags behind; and pressure on ecological environment protection is great. To solve these problems and achieve the major transformation of region-wide seaward development, we must thoroughly implement the important instructions and requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping and achieve the "four adherences." First, adhere to viewing the land routes from the sea, "strengthening land–sea coordination and mountain–sea linkage," optimizing the allocation of land-based factors guided by maritime demand, and identifying the integration points of the land economy and the marine economy. Second, adhere to viewing the entire region from the coast, "placing greater emphasis on efficient coordination," accurately grasping the dialectical relationship between the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone's leading role and Guangxi's region-wide supporting role, promoting the coast to take the lead in breakthroughs, and driving region-wide seaward development. Third, adhere to viewing the hinterland from the shore, deeply recognizing that the Beibu Gulf coastline belongs not only to Guangxi but also to the western region and to China, actively serving and connecting with the vast inland hinterland, and undertaking the demand of inland provinces to "borrow ports to go to sea." Fourth, adhere to viewing Guangxi from the overall situation and the future, "placing greater emphasis on win-win cooperation," anchoring on what the country needs, what Guangxi can do, what ASEAN hopes for, and where the future lies, standing at the height of deepening opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN, serving the open development of the central and southern and southwestern regions, and integrating into the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, looking to the long term to seize future tracks and win historical initiative. During the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan, we will place greater emphasis on scientific layout and systematic integration, greater emphasis on highlighting priorities and making up for shortcomings, greater emphasis on opening-up and cooperation and internal–external linkage, and greater emphasis on harmony between people and the sea and green development, strengthen confidence, and strive forward with great energy to accelerate the formation of a path of high-quality development of the seaward economy that reflects Guangxi's characteristics and advantages.
Better coordinate key breakthroughs and overall advancement, and build an overall layout of "one axis driving, two wings linking, land–sea coordination, and region-wide seaward orientation."
In developing the seaward economy, the coast is the leader and the hinterland is the support. Without key breakthroughs on the coast, region-wide seaward development lacks momentum; without coordinated linkage of the hinterland, coastal development lacks staying power. We must adhere to a systematic approach, promote complementary spatial functions, efficient flow of factors, and mutual promotion and support between the coast and the hinterland, and realize a systematic leap from "coastal development" to "region-wide seaward development." As the first canal project built since the founding of New China to connect rivers with the sea, the Pinglu Canal has been completed and opened to navigation on schedule, safely, and with high quality, achieving direct connection between the main stream of the Xijiang River and the Beibu Gulf waters, forming the shortest, more cost-effective, and more efficient sea passage from Guangxi and the southwestern region to ASEAN, solving at one stroke the geographical dilemma of the southwestern hinterland being "near the sea but having to go around it," and injecting surging momentum into the development of Guangxi's seaward economy. We will strengthen the important linking role of the Pinglu Canal, take the New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor in the western region as the main axis, take the Xijiang seaward economic belt and the Beibu Gulf coastal economic belt as the two wings, coordinate integrated land–sea development and construction, and promote region-wide seaward development in Guangxi. This overall layout, unfolding along the International Land–Sea Trade Corridor, takes Nanning as the strategic base point, coordinates the integration of Qinzhou, Beihai, and Fangchenggang, organically connects the Pinglu Canal economic belt, the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration, the Hainan Free Trade Port, the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, and ASEAN countries, forming a series of major river–sea loops that extend layer by layer from land to sea, interlocking ring by ring, connecting Guangxi's land and sea areas, connecting South China, Central South China, and Southwest China, and connecting the Belt and Road Initiative, comprehensively enhancing Guangxi's hub capacity for connecting rivers with the sea.
Better coordinate spatial shaping and foundation consolidation and meridian strengthening, and build a "leaf-vein" seaward industrial layout.
If the Xijiang seaward economic belt and the Beibu Gulf coastal economic belt are the "two horizontals" running east–west, then the Pinglu Canal is the "one vertical" running north–south. Promoting the coordinated linkage of these "two horizontals and one vertical" constitutes a spatial layout in the shape of the character "gan." We will take the "gan" character as the "vein" and ports, industries, cities, and parks as the "leaves," striving to shape the "leaf-vein" "industrial form" of the seaward economy.Among them, the Pinglu Canal economic belt is the main vein, focusing on the concentrated layout of large-volume, port- and water-appropriate industries, building industrial clusters with upstream–downstream industry matching and coordination among large, medium, and small enterprises, and supporting the hard backbone of Guangxi's seaward development; the rest of the region consists of branch veins, focusing on basing themselves on their respective locational conditions, resource endowments, and industrial foundations, concentrating on characteristic resource industries and emerging potential industries, and actively undertaking the industrial chain supporting role of the main vein; the numerous parks and enterprises are fine veins, focusing on strengthening precise industrial supporting services, guiding various business entities to embed deeply into the industrial chain division of labor system, and forming an overall seaward industrial structure with rational layout, clear division of labor, and coordinated development. At the same time, we will consolidate the "industrial substance" with the ten major modern pillar industries of manufacturing. In recent years, Guangxi has broken down the boundaries between traditional, emerging, and future industries, focusing on building ten major industries including non-ferrous metals and key metal materials, advanced steel materials, modern green chemicals, artificial intelligence and new-generation information technology, and machinery and high-end equipment manufacturing, with total output value accounting for nearly 90 percent of the region's industrial enterprises above designated size. We will actively guide these industries to concentrate along ports, canals, and corridors, strengthen the leading role of artificial intelligence empowerment, vigorously promote the integrated development of ports, industries, cities, and parks, and provide solid material and technological support for the high-quality development of the seaward economy. With the "leaf-vein" layout building the skeleton and shaping the soul, and with the ten major industries strengthening the body and smoothing the meridians, clearing the main veins, connecting the branch veins, and extending the fine veins, Guangxi will surely form a modern seaward industrial system with thick main veins, accessible branch veins, relaxed fine veins, and strong support.
Better coordinate practical needs and strategic support, and advance the construction of a modern seaward infrastructure system.
Infrastructure construction has both a pioneering and an adaptive nature. It must look to the long term, coordinate scarce resources such as coastlines, land, and waterways, make advance layouts, intensive construction, and appropriate reservations in major project construction, and reserve sufficient space for future development; it must also be based on the present, closely follow the actual needs of industrial development, scientifically control the pace of construction, scale standards, and precisely make up for shortcomings. We will focus on sustained efforts to tackle the bottlenecks of railway port-connection gaps, inland waterway navigation constraints, and highway traffic congestion points, fully guarantee the high-quality and high-efficiency navigation and operation of the Pinglu Canal, and collaboratively build a "river–rail–sea–road–air" multimodal transport system. Adhere to planning-led, market-oriented orderly integration and construction of inland river ports, upgrade and improve the logistics hub system, and smooth the "last kilometer" of logistics. Strengthen cross-border infrastructure, promote the alignment of construction standards and mutual recognition of customs rules, and further smooth the major passages to the sea, out of the province, and across the border. Lay out new digital infrastructure, accelerate the intelligent transformation and upgrading of traditional ports, waterways, and logistics stations, fully release the potential of digital technology to empower seaward development, and promote the transformation of corridors from physical connectivity to efficient flow and comprehensive empowerment.
Better coordinate domestic cooperation and external linkage, and continuously expand the space for seaward opening-up and development.
Opening up is a distinctive feature of the seaward economy. Guangxi backs onto the greater southwest, adjoins Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and connects to Southeast Asia. It is both an important hub of the Maritime Silk Road and a frontier and window for China's opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN. In recent years, we have built the New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor in the western region at a high level, with operating routes increasing from more than 70 to more than 200, radiating to 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China, reaching 592 ports in 128 countries and regions around the world. The Beibu Gulf Port has entered the ranks of major ports with ten million TEUs, and ASEAN has been Guangxi's largest trading partner for 26 consecutive years. Guangxi is accelerating its major transformation from a "geographical frontier" to a "strategic hub." We will adhere to the coordinated and equal emphasis on opening up to both domestic and international markets, smooth the circulation of factors within the region and deeply integrate into the unified national market domestically, and amplify the function of the gateway hub externally, comprehensively enhancing the level of the open economy. Actively connect with the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, the Hainan Free Trade Port, and the Chengdu–Chongqing economic circle, deepen cross-regional economic cooperation, and build Guangxi into a super hub for cooperation with ASEAN and the Belt and Road Initiative. Seize the major opportunity of the national implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good, build the China–ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Application Cooperation Center to high standards, jointly construct a differentiated development path of "R&D in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou + integration in Guangxi + application in ASEAN," and accelerate the building of Guangxi into an open highland, integration highland, application highland, innovation highland, and security governance highland for artificial intelligence facing ASEAN. Deepen cooperation with ASEAN and countries jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative in various fields, solidly advance the construction of a convenient place for domestic and international dual circulation market operations, and strive to achieve high-quality development in serving the country's major strategies.
Better coordinate ecological protection and development and utilization, and promote the green and low-carbon development of the seaward economy.
A sound ecology is the basic premise and solid foundation for Guangxi's pursuit of strength through the sea. All development and construction activities should be based on controllable ecological security and stable ecosystems, and we must never follow the old path of "pollute first, treat later," and must never want development at the expense of the environment. We will adhere to ecological priority and green development, focus on land and sea ecological environment protection, advance the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, and strengthen the protection and restoration of key river basins, risk control of soil pollution, and comprehensive improvement of urban and rural environments. Deeply implement the actions of blue bays, beautiful beaches, and harmonious islands, advance the ecological restoration of mangroves and other ecosystems, strengthen the protection of marine animals such as white dolphins and Bryde's whales, and build a new pattern of positive interaction between people and the sea. Focus on key areas such as the stability of industrial and supply chains, port safety production, cross-border cooperation risks, and marine disaster prevention and control, strengthen risk identification, dynamic control, and cross-regional and cross-departmental coordinated handling, and effectively build a solid safety barrier for seaward development.
Guangxi has a sea, which is an extremely precious strategic resource. We will always adhere to the overall leadership of the Party, strive to improve the institutional system for the high-quality development of the seaward economy, accelerate the layout of industries that enrich the people, actively improve public services, cultivate a region-wide consensus on seaward development, pool the mighty force of the whole region united in seaward orientation, unswervingly follow the path of seeking strength through the sea, and make greater Guangxi contributions to building a maritime power.
Author: Secretary of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Autonomous Region
Return to TopBy: 《求是》杂志记者 侯亚景
Qiushi Exclusive Interview
Striving to Break Through the Sticking Points and Obstacles Restricting Foreign Investment
Qiushi Reporter Hou Yajing
Editor's Note: Foreign investment is an important force in participating in Chinese modernization, and in promoting the common prosperity and development of China's economy and the world economy. Striving to break through the sticking points and obstacles restricting foreign investment,and further boosting the expectations and confidence of foreign investment,is both an inherent requirement for consolidating the basic stock of foreign investment and optimizing the investment structure,and an important measure for steadily expanding institutional opening-up and accelerating the construction of the new development pattern. Focusing on deeply understanding and striving to break through the sticking points and obstacles restricting foreign investment,the reporter of this journal conducted an exclusive interview with Sang Baichuan, Dean and Professor of the China Open Economy Theory Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics.
Reporter: Actively attracting and utilizing foreign investment has been an important experience since the reform and opening-up for China to rapidly enter the world market and make rapid progress in catching up with the times. How do you view the contributions made by foreign investment to China's economic and social development? Currently, why does China need to attract and utilize foreign investment with greater intensity?
Sang Baichuan: Attracting and utilizing foreign investment is an important component of China's opening-up to the outside world. In the early days of reform and opening-up, facing difficulties such as capital shortages, backward technology,and insufficient experience, China established special economic zones, vigorously attracted foreign investment to develop labor-intensive export-oriented processing industries,and promptly formulated and issued relevant supporting laws and regulations, establishing and improving the legal and regulatory system for utilizing foreign investment. With the establishment and gradual improvement of the socialist market economy system, especially after joining the World Trade Organization, the key areas of foreign investment expanded from export-oriented processing industries to high-tech industries,and from manufacturing to services; the scope of foreign investment market access continued to broaden, foreign investment sources became more diversified,and the scale of investment expanded rapidly. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has adhered to the long-term policy of utilizing foreign investment, continuously optimized the foreign investment business environment, deepened reform of the institutional mechanisms for promoting foreign investment,and continuously improved the policy, legal,and regulatory systems for foreign investment, maintaining the scale of attracted foreign investment ranked first among developing countries for a long time,and remaining a major global destination for cross-border investment. Practice has proven that foreign-invested enterprises are important participants in Chinese modernization, important participants in China's reform, opening-up, innovation,and creation,and important participants in China's connectivity with the world and integration into economic globalization.
Attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity is a strategic deployment made in the 15th Five-Year Plan, fully demonstrating China's determination and confidence in further expanding high-level opening-up,and is of great significance for attracting global resources and factors through the domestic economic cycle and better serving the construction of the new development pattern. First, it is conducive to promoting scientific and technological innovation and technological progress. Most foreign-invested enterprises possess advanced technology and management experience,and conducting R&D and innovation activities in China has obvious spillover effects. Data show that from 2013 to 2023, the full-time equivalent of R&D personnel of foreign-invested industrial enterprises above designated size in China increased by 33.2%,R&D investment increased by 86.4%,and the number of valid invention patents increased by 336%. Attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity helps to introduce more advanced technology and scientific talents,promote technological breakthroughs and the cultivation of industrial ecosystems. Second, it is conducive to promoting the global division of labor in industries. Foreign-invested enterprises, especially multinational corporations,are an important force in promoting economic globalization,and play an important role in promoting the development of the world economy and maintaining the order of economic and trade cooperation. Attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity,and supporting foreign-invested enterprises to participate in upstream and downstream supporting collaboration in industrial chains,is both an inherent requirement for promoting China's deep participation in the global industrial division of labor and cooperation,and an important measure for enhancing the security level and resilience of China's industrial chains and supply chains. Third, it is conducive to promoting consumption upgrading and the improvement of people's livelihoods. Foreign-invested enterprises in China contribute nearly 7% of national employment and approximately one-third of imports and exports. Attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity can not only bring more competitive products and service resources,satisfying the demands for quality, personalized,and diversified consumption,but also provide a large number of employment opportunities,and improve residents' living standards.
Reporter: In recent years, the total amount of foreign investment actually utilized in China has declined somewhat,and some public opinion has replayed the old tune of "foreign capital withdrawing from China." How should we objectively view the current situation of China's attraction and utilization of foreign investment? What sticking points and obstacles still exist in promoting the high-quality development of foreign investment in China?
Sang Baichuan: The direction of capital flows is an important indicator for observing the economic resilience and vitality of a country or region. From 2023 to 2025,China's total actual utilization of foreign investment declined for three consecutive years. From January to August this year,China's total actual utilization of foreign investment decreased by 5.3% year-on-year. Regarding the short-term fluctuations in the scale of China's utilization of foreign investment,some public opinion has deliberately hyped "foreign capital withdrawing from China" and exaggerated "the deterioration of China's investment environment." On the surface,this is a misinterpretation of China's economic transformation and upgrading and the restructuring of global industrial chains and supply chains; in essence,it is using this to talk down China's economy and shake market confidence. To judge the effectiveness of foreign investment development in China,relying on a single indicator is not enough,and looking only at short-term fluctuations is also one-sided. We must adhere to the "two-point theory," make good use of dialectics,and analyze the situation of foreign investment development from different levels.
From a global perspective,multinational corporations adjusting their investment layouts according to their own development strategies and the comparative advantages of various countries is a normal phenomenon in enterprise business activities. Currently,geopolitical conflicts are frequent and protracted,the international economic and trade order faces severe challenges,the momentum of world economic growth is insufficient,risks are accumulating,the global investment landscape is undergoing profound changes,competition among countries to attract investment is intensifying,and the recovery of global foreign direct investment is fragile and uneven; however,China has maintained a relatively strong attraction for foreign investment,and has consistently maintained its position as the largest host country for investment among developing economies. As of the end of 2025,China's actual utilized foreign investment scale has exceeded 700 billion yuan for 16 consecutive years. From 2021 to 2023,China's total actual utilization of foreign investment exceeded 1 trillion yuan for three consecutive years; after related investment projects entered the construction phase,the scale of newly added foreign direct investment has contracted somewhat in recent years due to external environmental influences,which is in line with market laws.
From the perspective of domestic development,China's utilization of foreign investment is undergoing a transformation from scale expansion to structural optimization and quality upgrading. In terms of stock,as of the end of 2025,China had 533,000 foreign-invested enterprises,with a stock of foreign investment approaching 4 trillion US dollars,with average annual growth rates of 4.5% and 3.6% respectively since 2021. In terms of increment,from 2021 to 2025,China cumulatively established 269,000 new foreign-invested enterprises,an increase of 66,000 compared with the 13th Five-Year Plan period. In terms of structure,in the first half of this year,foreign investment attracted by China's high-tech industries increased by 33.2% year-on-year,accounting for 42.4%,while foreign investment attracted by the modern service industry accounted for 57%. In terms of operations,during the 14th Five-Year Plan period,foreign-invested enterprises achieved operating revenue of 262.7 trillion yuan and profits of 21.4 trillion yuan,with both indicators growing at an average annual rate of approximately 5%. Overall,the changes in the scale of China's utilization of foreign investment conform to the general trend of industrial upgrading,and are a manifestation of further optimization of the structure of utilizing foreign investment and the continuous improvement of the profitability level of foreign investment.
While affirming the achievements of foreign investment development,we must also recognize that there are still some sticking points and obstacles in China's utilization of foreign investment. First,there is an institutional gap between market access opening-up and barriers to obtaining business licenses,and foreign-invested enterprises still face a series of "behind-the-border" institutional obstacles in actual operations. Second,the business environment for foreign investment is still not fully improved; acts infringing on the intellectual property rights of foreign-invested enterprises occur from time to time in the market,and there are also situations of differential treatment between domestic and foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement and project bidding,affecting the fair and equal participation of foreign-invested enterprises in domestic market competition. Third,some localities still have a path dependence on "involution" in investment attraction and simple tax-and-fee concessions; foreign-invested enterprises' R&D centers in China have development shortcomings,which is not conducive to improving the efficiency of allocation of factor resources
More importantly,we must see that the fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth have not changed; advantages such as the super-large market,complete supporting industrial systems,well-developed infrastructure,and abundant human resources remain prominent; along with continuously deepening high-level opening-up measures and consistent,stable policy orientations,these together constitute deterministic advantages for attracting global capital,and create favorable conditions for attracting and utilizing foreign investment with greater intensity. On the whole,the favorable conditions for promoting the high-quality development of foreign investment in China outweigh the unfavorable factors,and "investing in China is investing in the future" has become a consensus among many foreign-invested enterprises.
Reporter: In recent years,China has steadily expanded institutional opening-up,restrictive measures on foreign investment market access in the manufacturing sector have been fully lifted,and the service industry has become the focus of a new round of opening-up. How should we expand market access and opening-up areas with the service industry as the focus,and continuously expand new space for foreign investment?
Sang Baichuan: The service industry is closely related to people's livelihoods and well-being,and is a major field for China to expand opening-up,attract,and utilize foreign investment. In 2025,foreign investment absorbed by the service industry accounted for over 70% of the national total actual utilized foreign investment,and has been China's largest foreign investment inflow sector for many years; the absorption of foreign investment by the modern service industry has accelerated,among which the actual utilized foreign investment in scientific research and technical services accounted for nearly one-fifth of the national total actual utilized foreign investment,with its share steadily rising for 7 consecutive years,reaching 3.8 times the level of 2018. Making the service industry the focus of a new round of opening-up not only conforms to the objective reality of changes in the structure of foreign investment,but also helps to enhance the international competitiveness of China's service industry
In recent years,China has continuously reduced restrictive measures on foreign investment market access in the service industry,and increased the number of encouraged items in the service industry; foreign-invested enterprises have accelerated their investment pace in the service industry,but there are still some difficulties. For example,among the 29 restrictive measures in the 2024 edition of the national negative list for foreign investment market access,23 involve the service industry,which still shows a clear gap compared with economies with high-level service industry opening-up internationally; foreign investment market access in the service industry is limited to relevant pilot areas,business licenses are managed according to territorial jurisdiction,and the implementation of national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises' cross-regional operations is restricted; mutual recognition mechanisms for cross-border professional qualifications of talents such as lawyers and doctors are not yet sound,and implementation standards vary across localities. Compared with the manufacturing industry,the scope of foreign investment market access in China's service industry can be further expanded,and restrictions on obtaining business licenses still need to be further lifted. Whether it is producer services or consumer services,there is great room for improvement in attracting and utilizing foreign investment in the future
The service industry is an important field for international trade,investment,and cooperation. To expand market access and opening-up areas with the service industry as the focus,it is necessary,under the premise of coordinating development and security,to improve the quality and level of utilizing foreign investment. Further relax market access,promote the orderly expansion of opening-up in fields such as telecommunications,internet,education,culture,and healthcare,and prudently implement opening-up pilot programs such as value-added telecommunications,biotechnology,and wholly foreign-owned hospitals. Promote comprehensive pilot demonstrations for expanding opening-up in the service industry,and strengthen the linkage between negative list revisions and opening-up pilot programs. Encourage foreign investment to participate in the integrated,digital,and intelligent transformation and upgrading of the service industry,and vigorously attract foreign-invested enterprises to establish regional headquarters and R&D centers in China,helping China's service industry to expand capacity,and improve quality
Reporter: Regulating the investment attraction practices of local governments is an important part of deeply advancing the construction of the unified national market. For localities,how should they promote the competition for attracting foreign investment to shift from competing over preferential policies to competing over institutional environment,innovation ecosystems,and resource allocation capabilities?
Sang Baichuan: In the past,during the investment attraction process of local governments,competition for attracting foreign investment was very fierce,and many localities regarded attracting foreign investment as an important indicator for performance assessment. Currently,China's advantages in attracting foreign investment have undergone profound changes; the effect of preferential policies in attracting investment has declined,while the effect of institutional environment,innovation ecosystems,and resource allocation capabilities in attracting investment has risen. For local governments,the work of investment attraction must abandon the old path of "whatever is picked into the basket is considered a dish," and the attraction of foreign investment must shift from focusing on costs and preferential policies to focusing on value creation,from filling market gaps to forging global competitiveness,and from independent operation to deep integration into local industrial ecosystems and coordinated development with Chinese enterprises,thereby achieving win-win outcomes for localities,enterprises,and markets
But in practice,some local governments still have situations in attracting and utilizing foreign investment where they emphasize the quantity of investment projects over the quality and benefits of investment,affecting the expectations and confidence of foreign investment. For example,some localities engage in improper competition for projects,set up local barriers,abuse measures such as fiscal subsidies,tax rebates,and low-priced land supply,artificially creating policy depressions,and disrupting normal market order; some localities are keen on pursuing "short,flat,fast" projects,exacerbating low-level duplicate construction and homogeneous "involution"; some localities have situations where "new officials do not honor old accounts," and investment attraction commitments cannot be effectively fulfilled,damaging the long-term investment willingness of foreign investment. These situations of pursuing immediate interests and short-term political achievements not only undermine the investment attraction environment of the whole society,but also hinder the efficiency of market-based allocation of factors,and are not conducive to the construction of an efficient,standardized,fairly competitive,and fully open unified national market
Local government investment attraction is not a one-time "transaction." It is necessary to establish and practice a correct view of political achievements,work hard on competing in "internal strength," get rid of the malpractice of competing over tax-and-fee concessions and preferential policies,and place more emphasis in investment attraction work on optimizing the business environment,cultivating industrial ecosystems,and providing high-level services,shaping new advantages in attracting foreign investment. First,continuously optimize the business environment,improve communication and exchange mechanisms with foreign-invested enterprises,build diversified application scenarios,and provide a relaxed market environment and policy support for enterprises' technological iteration,product polishing,and business model experimentation. Second,strengthen the guarantee of a complete and efficient supporting industrial and supply chain system,encourage cooperation between domestic and foreign-invested enterprises,support foreign-invested enterprises to deeply integrate into local industrial ecosystems and develop in coordination,promoting foreign-invested enterprises' R&D,production,and sales to take root in the Chinese market across the entire chain. Third,attract foreign investment in accordance with laws and regulations,accelerate the introduction of lists of encouraged and prohibited matters for local government investment attraction,perform contract agreements in accordance with the law,strictly prohibit granting policy preferences in violation of laws and regulations,improve decision-making and evaluation mechanisms for attracting foreign investment,and promptly and fully disclose investment attraction preferential policies to the public
Reporter: Foreign investors' reinvestment within China is an important component of foreign investment. In light of the new situations and new characteristics in the current reinvestment work of foreign-invested enterprises,please talk about how to better support foreign-invested enterprises in long-term investment and continuously deepening their roots in the Chinese market.
Sang Baichuan: In 2025,over 8,000 foreign-invested enterprises made additional investments in China,an increase of over 10% year-on-year; nationally,foreign investment actually utilized through profit reinvestment accounted for 17.7% of the national total actual utilized foreign investment. From January to May this year,foreign enterprises' reinvestment of earnings within China increased by 35% year-on-year. Foreign-invested enterprises continuously "increasing their positions" with real money,indicating that foreign-invested enterprises are optimistic about China's market prospects and development potential,constituting a vote of confidence in China's economy,and also signifying a transformation from short-term operations to long-term rooting in China
Foreign investors' reinvestment within China is the "stock article" of the work of stabilizing foreign investment. China attaches great importance to foreign investors' reinvestment within China,and has successively introduced policies such as temporary exemption from withholding income tax,tax credits,and measures to facilitate reinvestment,with the policies,measures,and institutional environment for foreign investors' reinvestment within China continuously improving. In terms of characteristics,foreign investors' reinvestment within China is shifting from expanding production capacity to increasing R&D,with a faster flow toward R&D and innovation links,and reinvestment upgrading in tandem with the structure of attracting investment; reinvestment methods are becoming more diversified,and tools are continuously innovating; in addition to direct reinvestment of profits,methods such as equity investment,debt-to-equity swaps,and conversion of capital reserves are increasingly common. Foreign-invested enterprises leaving profits in China,rooting their industrial chains in China,using stock to drive increment,and using deep cultivation to promote rooting,are becoming a new trend in the development of foreign investment in China
Against the backdrop of current pressure on new investment,foreign investors' reinvestment within China also faces some difficulties and challenges. For example,geopolitical conflicts are prone to occur and frequent,economic globalization is encountering headwinds,some countries are erecting tariff barriers,"decoupling and severing supply chains,"and "reshoring manufacturing,"and foreign-invested enterprises' reinvestment decisions in China are under dual pressure from the international environment and geopolitics; competition in some industries is becoming increasingly fierce,even severely "involutionary,"compressing the profit margins of foreign-invested enterprises,and affecting the source of profits available for reinvestment; there are still "last mile" difficulties in policy implementation,with sticking points in links such as deferred tax declaration,project registration,and information sharing among departments,reducing the actual returns on foreign investors' reinvestment within China
To promote foreign investors' reinvestment within China,guide foreign-invested enterprises to participate more deeply in the Chinese market,and enable foreign-invested enterprises to operate with peace of mind and continuously deepen their layout,it is necessary to firmly grasp and implement policy delivery well,create a more transparent,stable,and predictable institutional environment,promote the direct and swift enjoyment of already-introduced measures such as the domestic reinvestment project database,tax credits,and facilitation of foreign exchange transfer,so that foreign-invested enterprises can enjoy all benefits they are entitled to. Make good use of mechanisms such as special work teams for foreign investment,roundtable meetings for foreign-invested enterprises,and mechanisms for collecting and handling problems and appeals,strengthen full-lifecycle service guarantees from project initiation to production. Support diversified reinvestment methods such as equity investment and debt-to-equity swaps,guide reinvestment to flow toward fields such as high technology,green and low-carbon,and R&D centers,achieving coordinated progress between the expansion of the scale of foreign investors' reinvestment within China and high-quality development
Reporter: Thank you for accepting our interview.
Return to TopBy: 求是杂志社经济编辑部、工信部新型工业化研究中心联合课题组
In-depth Research
Survey on Advanced Manufacturing: Forging the Strategic Engine of a Major Country's Core Competitiveness
Joint Research Group of the Qiushi Magazine Economic Editorial Department and the Industrial New-Type Industrialization Research Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Manufacturing is the foundation of the nation and the bedrock of national strength. Since the founding of New China, we have always placed manufacturing in a priority position within the national development strategy, completing in several decades the industrialization journey that Western developed countries took several hundred years to traverse, and building the world's largest and most complete industrial system. Particularly since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's advanced manufacturing has continued to grow and strengthen, with markedly enhanced innovation capacity, competitiveness, and overall strength, and solid steps have been taken in building a manufacturing powerhouse. The CR450 high-speed train has refreshed the world speed limit for rail transit, the "Jinghua" super-large-diameter tunnel boring machine has set records for crossing rivers and seas, the "Fendouzhe" has completed a 10,000-meter deep-sea dive, the Fujian aircraft carrier has become the world's first conventionally powered electromagnetic catapult carrier, and a batch of landmark achievements with global influence continue to refresh the international community's understanding of "Made in China." How has a large developing country that was once desperately catching up in the waves of world industrialization managed to accelerate innovation breakthroughs and industrial implementation in the new era? How has an economy that missed the opportunities of the first two industrial revolutions come to deeply participate in and even lead the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation? With these questions, we conducted in-depth research.
I. Why China's Advanced Manufacturing Has Been Able to Advance Steadily and Far
Advanced manufacturing represents the most dynamic, most leading, and most competition-tested portion of a country's industrial system, and is the most concentrated carrier of new quality productive forces in the real economy. In our research, we deeply felt that international competition in advanced manufacturing has never been a contest of a single product or a single technology, but rather a systemic and systematic competition formed by the superimposition of national strategy, organizational mechanisms, industrial foundations, and openness patterns. Amidst the waves of industrial transformation, how does one discern trends and hold the correct course? Under technological blockades, how does one pool strength and overcome bottlenecks? When scientific and technological achievements emerge, how does one rapidly transform them and achieve mass production? With domestic and international dynamics interwoven, how does one optimize industrial chain layout and efficiently allocate global resources? This series of interlocking propositions together constitutes the analytical framework for understanding the rise of China's advanced manufacturing.
Seizing windows of transformation with strategic foresight, strategic resolve, and strategic determination. Each round of technological revolution and industrial transformation opens an opportunity window for industrial leapfrogging, and whether a country can ride the trend to make industrial strategic layouts at critical junctures and sustain investment often determines the success or failure of industrial upgrading and the achievement of historic leaps. During our research at Luoyang Bearing Group, we learned that this key industrial enterprise, born during the "First Five-Year Plan" period, once fell deeply into losses and faced the risk of foreign acquisition. In desperate straits, this enterprise seized opportunities through the national digitalization and intelligent transformation strategic layout, investing over 2 billion yuan cumulatively to renovate traditional production lines, building China's first "black light" intelligent factory for wind power gearbox bearings, raising production efficiency by approximately 30%, and raising the proportion of high-end bearing output value to 70%, achieving a transformation from sustained losses to annual revenue exceeding 6 billion yuan. The rebirth of an old bearing enterprise is precisely a microcosm of the nation's timely strategic adjustments and successive advancement of its industrialization strategy. From prioritizing the development of heavy industry, to promoting the coordinated development of light and heavy industry, to prospectively laying out strategic emerging industries and future industries, China has always based itself on its stage of development, combined with technological development trends, dynamically adjusting strategic priorities. Particularly since the 18th National Congress, in the face of transformation waves characterized by the overlapping evolution of digitalization, networking, intelligentization, and green development, from promoting the deep integration of informatization and industrialization in 2012, to deploying the "Internet+" action in 2015, from issuing the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" in 2017, to releasing the "Implementation Opinions on the 'AI + Manufacturing' Special Action" in 2026, national strategy has continuously guided industrial development to keep pace with major trends and seize the initiative. In the face of doubts such as "low-carbon transformation is a trap," China has maintained strategic resolve, advancing industrial greening and green industrialization as one, promoting traditional industries to improve quality and efficiency through energy conservation and carbon reduction, cultivating and strengthening advantageous industries such as new energy vehicles, power batteries, and photovoltaics, achieving global leadership.
Uniting collaborative efforts to tackle key problems with the new system of mobilizing resources nationwide. On September 14, 2026, the first batch of lunar far-side soil samples collected by Chang'e-6 was formally handed over to the United Nations. This "gift" is the crystallization of over 20 years of concerted efforts and collaborative tackling by nearly 3,000 units and approximately 100,000 scientific researchers across China, witnessing our leap from starting from scratch to leading in deep-space exploration technology, in the face of long-term foreign technological blockades, core equipment embargoes, and monopolies on technological systems. The practice of tackling key problems in the aerospace field reveals a practical law: major equipment and frontier technology research often requires enormous investment, involves long chains, and carries high uncertainty; relying solely on market forces cannot accomplish it, and relying solely on administrative mobilization cannot sustain it. The advantage of the new system of mobilizing resources nationwide lies precisely in combining national strategic coordination with market competition mechanisms, both leveraging national strength to integrate cross-field and cross-regional scientific research and industrial resources, and giving play to the principal role of enterprises, promoting technological optimization and cost reduction through market competition, scenario validation, and large-scale application. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System likewise confirms the effectiveness of this system: over 400 units and more than 300,000 scientific researchers collaborated to tackle key problems, breaking through over 160 key core technologies including inter-satellite links and high-precision atomic clocks, achieving 100% domestic production of core components, with the social inventory of BeiDou terminals exceeding 2.2 billion units (sets), and total industrial output value surpassing 1.3 trillion yuan, successfully achieving the organic unity of strategic security and industrial prosperity.
Forging competitive advantages through the integration of a super-large-scale market and a complete industrial system. Research found that the key to China's ability to form and continuously strengthen its advanced manufacturing capacity lies in persisting in promoting the mutual reinforcement of market demand, industrial supporting capacity, and spatial layout, transforming static endowments into dynamic competitiveness. First, the vast domestic market and rich application scenarios drive continuous product iteration, helping enterprises cross the breakeven point more quickly. For example, the initial commercial cost of 5G modules was high, but with the nationwide implementation of over 25,000 "5G + Industrial Internet" projects, large-scale production immediately drove module prices down by over 90%, forming a positive cycle of "scenario expansion—capacity enhancement—cost reduction—further market expansion." Second, the characteristic of a complete industrial system that balances efficiency and resilience. In Hefei, we saw an automated corridor directly connecting the world's most advanced glass substrate factory with a panel factory, where components go "off the line" and immediately "onto the line," achieving direct supply with zero waiting; in Suzhou, a robotics enterprise leader introduced that for the core components needed in its R&D, such as servo motors and reducers, "almost all supporting suppliers can be found within a 10-kilometer radius." This close collaboration, while shortening delivery cycles, promoting knowledge sharing, and enhancing industrial stickiness, also greatly reduces industrial development costs and the risk of large-scale outward relocation. Third, the vast national territory endows industrial transformation with strategic depth. The orderly transfer of some industries from the east to the central and western regions not only maintains the integrity of the industrial chain, but also activates the industrialization potential of the interior, providing spatial support for the continuous iteration of industrialization. A leader of a high-tech enterprise in Chengdu introduced to us that, compared with its eastern R&D base, local plant rent, labor costs, and per-unit logistics costs have decreased by 60%, 30%, and 40% respectively, and within six months of operation, output value exceeded 1 billion yuan.
Embedding into global production and supply chain networks through high-level institutional opening. Since the 18th National Congress, China has steadily expanded institutional opening. In June 2018, China lifted the foreign equity ratio restriction on new energy vehicles, and Tesla immediately announced the construction of a Gigafactory in Shanghai, achieving first deliveries in 2019, and by the end of 2025, cumulative vehicle production had exceeded 4 million units. In our research, we learned that the localization rate of components for its Model 3 and the refreshed Model Y has exceeded 95%, with over 60 Chinese suppliers entering Tesla's global supply chain system. From access opening, to local supporting, to integration into global networks, capital introduction, technology learning, and market expansion are interconnected, conducive to driving local enterprises to enhance their capabilities and transforming domestic industrial advantages into global competitive positions. High-level opening is also reflected in proactively enhancing global resource allocation capabilities through "going global." Currently, an increasing number of Chinese enterprises have shifted from pure product exports to technology cooperation, joint R&D, and localized operations. CATL's overseas factories have taken root in European local industrial chains, serving European automotive clusters with its proprietary technology system; Chery's investment in South Korea's KGM combines its new energy powertrain and complete vehicle platform technologies with KGM's product design, development experience, and local market channels, both opening international markets for proprietary technologies and supporting products, and creating conditions for integrating global innovation resources and deepening transnational industrial collaboration.
II. What Era-Setting Challenges Does the Development of China's Advanced Manufacturing Face?
While recognizing achievements, we must also clearly realize that China's manufacturing leapfrog catch-up means that structural contradictions and technological shortcomings that took first-mover countries several hundred years to slowly release have manifested themselves intensively in China within a short period, forming practical challenges where multiple contradictions are interwoven and multiple tasks are superimposed. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period for China to accelerate its march toward becoming a manufacturing powerhouse; it is necessary both to consolidate the scale and track advantages already formed, and to fill technological shortcomings that require long-term accumulation; both to achieve breakthroughs in individual technologies and products, and to unclog bottlenecks in innovation transformation, value enhancement, industrial collaboration, and regional linkage; both to seize the transformative opportunity of AI empowering manufacturing, and to guard against new technological generation gaps and hold the bottom line of industrial security; both to rely on opening-up to integrate global resources, and to respond to external containment and enhance the capacity for self-reliance and self-improvement. This composite development scenario of multiple objectives, multiple constraints, and multiple games, with no mature experience to draw upon and no fixed path to follow, constitutes a major era-setting challenge for the development of China's advanced manufacturing, testing the resilience of China's industrial development, its scientific and technological innovation capacity, and its industrial governance level.
There remain shortcomings in source innovation and technological accumulation, and the foundation for industrial development still needs to be consolidated. On the one hand, as more and more of China's fields enter the "no-man's land," existing technologies and mature paths can no longer be borrowed, making continued leadership more dependent on breakthroughs in independent basic research. However, the supply of source innovation cannot yet fully adapt to this requirement; in 2025, China's basic research expenditure accounted for 7.08% of total R&D expenditure, a record high, but still far behind the 15%–20% level of the world's major scientific and technological powers. On the other hand, scientific and technological innovation requires not only "short-track sprints" of rapid breakthroughs, but also "long-cycle endurance races" of continuous iteration. For example, the leading advantages of developed countries in fields such as aircraft engines and industrial software largely stem from long-term R&D investment, complex operating condition validation, and multi-generational product evolution. General Electric of the United States and Safran of France have cooperated in civil aviation engines for over half a century, with their CFM56 series engines accumulating over 1.3 billion flight hours, providing important support for the development of the new-generation LEAP engine. In contrast, China's commercial aviation engine started relatively late, and domestically produced large aircraft still face some "bottleneck" problems; the necessary accumulation process is a threshold that must be crossed to achieve catch-up.
There are bottlenecks in industrial system coordination, and the effectiveness of chain integration has yet to be unleashed. From the perspective of the innovation chain, the problem of poor connection between industry, academia, research, and application has not been eradicated, with application demands not fully integrated into the front end of R&D, and technological achievements often only exposing adaptation defects at the industrialization stage; from the perspective of the value chain, the deep integration of manufacturing with producer services is insufficient, the path dependency of valuing manufacturing while neglecting services has not yet been broken, and the value potential of service-oriented manufacturing has yet to be released; from the perspective of the industrial chain, breakthroughs in complete machines and the enhancement of basic supporting capabilities are not yet synchronized, with "big pieces" such as large aircraft and ocean-going vessels continuously making new progress, but some "small pieces" such as key components still having weak links; from the perspective of spatial layout, the development of advanced manufacturing clusters is not yet balanced, with the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region gathering over 60% of the nation's national-level clusters, while the northeast, central, and western regions still need to strengthen cluster scale and supporting capacity. At the same time, cross-regional technological coordination and benefit-sharing mechanisms are not yet well-established, which also constrains the radiation and driving role of advantageous clusters.
Competition in "AI + Manufacturing" is accelerating, and seizing the initiative remains constrained by multiple shortcomings. In recent years, artificial intelligence has accelerated its march from the digital world to the physical world, and manufacturing, especially advanced manufacturing, has become the main battlefield for AI applications. Measured against this transformation requirement, China's new-generation intelligent manufacturing still faces multiple constraints. Research found that, at the level of basic data, China's full-spectrum industrial scenarios contain a vast amount of production experience and process knowledge, but data is scattered, standards and interfaces are not unified, and tacit knowledge such as "master craftsman experience" cannot be effectively sedimented, constraining the deep penetration of AI into core production links; at the level of computing power and models, there remain shortcomings in high-end computing chips, industrial large models, and other areas, particularly given that manufacturing sub-sectors have the characteristic of being "one meter wide, one hundred meters deep," the supply of industry-specific vertical models and intelligent agents that integrate AI technology with deep industrial knowledge is insufficient; at the level of large-scale application, existing applications are mainly concentrated in local links and single-point scenarios, with insufficient supply of comprehensive solutions that run through the entire production process. At the same time, the cost of digital and intelligent transformation for enterprises is high, and the dilemma that small and medium-sized enterprises lack mature "out-of-the-box" solutions remains prominent.
The trend of restructuring global production and supply chains is intensifying, and external constraints are becoming more complex. Participating in the international division of labor based on comparative advantages helps improve the efficiency of resource allocation, but the realization of this advantage depends on a stable and reliable international environment. In recent years, geopolitical conflicts and international competition have continuously impacted global industrial networks, with some countries stretching the concept of national security and politicizing and instrumentalizing economic, trade, and technological issues, causing global industrial networks to be disturbed by more non-economic factors. Some countries have repeatedly intensified export controls around advanced computing chips and other fields, and through frameworks such as "Silicon Peace" have strengthened collaboration with allies, increasing the difficulty for China to access advanced technologies and participate in international industrial cooperation. The European Union, while imposing countervailing duties on electric vehicles, has also comprehensively applied tools such as investment review to strengthen regulation, causing Chinese enterprises to face institutional barriers ranging from product exports to overseas investment restrictions. Technological blockades, market barriers, and rule games are superimposed, posing sustained challenges to the resilience building, global layout, and international cooperation of China's advanced manufacturing.
III. Where Does the Development Direction of China's Advanced Manufacturing Lie?
Manufacturing is the cornerstone of the evolution of human civilization, supporting every leap from agricultural society to industrial society, from industrial economy to digital economy, but the traditional Western path of industrialization has also been accompanied by prominent problems such as high resource and environmental costs and uneven distribution of development fruits. Currently, the world's century-old transformations are accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, global manufacturing is comprehensively advancing its intelligent, green, and integrated transformation, and innovation paradigms, productivity layouts, division of labor systems, and governance rules are undergoing profound adjustments. China's manufacturing value added has ranked first in the world for 16 consecutive years, accounting for approximately 30% of the global total, making it not only an important stabilizer of the world industrial system, but also an irreplaceable systemic force in global industrial transformation. From September 16 to 17 this year, the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference was held in Beijing, at which General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on developing advanced manufacturing were conveyed, pointing the direction for continuously growing and strengthening advanced manufacturing on the new journey. Looking to the future, the development of China's advanced manufacturing needs to be planned and positioned within the broader landscape of the evolution of global industrial civilization and the common development of humanity, both achieving the leap from scale catch-up to quality leadership, and providing pragmatic and feasible Chinese solutions and institutional support for solving global development challenges such as insufficient growth momentum, high technological barriers, pressure from green transformation, and imbalanced development between the North and the South.
Activating the "power source" of the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. The core of manufacturing is innovation, that is, mastering key core technologies, and it is necessary to transform the momentum of scientific and technological innovation into the driving force of industrial upgrading. First, strengthen basic research and source innovation. Place greater emphasis on enhancing original innovation capacity, strengthen strategic, forward-looking, and systematic layout of basic research, support multi-route exploration in frontier fields. Support enterprises to jointly tackle key problems with universities and research institutes around underlying "root" technologies. Improve mechanisms for stable support and long-cycle evaluation, providing sustained innovation supply for industries to advance toward the frontier. Second, strengthen the tackling of key core technologies. The key is to adhere to the simultaneous advancement of breakthroughs in major technical equipment and the enhancement of basic industrial capabilities, using complete machine demand to drive upstream and downstream collaborative tackling, filling shortcomings in the industrial foundation. Third, connect achievement transformation with application iteration. Promote collaborative tackling among the demand side, R&D side, and application side, improve the systems for concept validation and pilot-scale maturation, optimize policies for first (set), first batch, and first version, provide scenario support for the implementation of new technologies, and improve product maturity through continuous application.
Doing well the "big article" of the coordinated development of traditional industries, emerging industries, and future industries. Research found that, in practice, there still exist cognitive biases: simply labeling traditional industries as low-end, treating emerging industries as short-term trends, and reducing future industries to concept packaging. In fact, advanced manufacturing is not an isolated emerging track; the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries can equally give birth to new growth curves, and the three types of industries together constitute the complete ecosystem of advanced manufacturing. Optimize the stock of traditional industries, deeply implement the action to revitalize traditional industries, empower existing production capacity with digital, intelligent, and green technologies, and hold steady the "basic plate" of China's position in the global division of labor. Expand the increment of emerging industries, base development tracks on local industrial foundations, and use large-scale scenario demonstration to lead the development of emerging pillar industries. Cultivate the variable of future industries, encourage multiple technology routes to be tested in parallel, establish investment, financing, and risk-sharing mechanisms suited to high risk and long cycles, and screen mature technologies through market application.
Holding the "steering wheel" of intelligent, green, and integrated development. Intelligentization, greening, and integration are the directions of advanced manufacturing development, and the three empower each other to jointly reshape production methods, development models, and value logic. Intelligentization is the core engine; it is necessary to take new-generation intelligent manufacturing as the main attack direction, promote the deep implementation of industrial intelligent agents, while coordinating technological progress with employment transformation, improve skills training and job transition guarantees, achieving human-machine collaboration and technology for good. Greening is the distinctive background color; it is necessary to vigorously promote clean production, circular manufacturing, energy conservation, and carbon reduction technologies, optimize the energy consumption structure of industry, and transform green constraints into green competitive advantages. Integration is the new growth point of value; it is necessary to adapt to the trend of changes in the value distribution of industrial chains, vigorously develop service-oriented manufacturing, cultivate full-process solution service providers, and promote the deep integration and mutual reinforcement of manufacturing with R&D and design, operation and maintenance services, and supply chain services
Using the "regulator" of institutional supply and industrial governance. The faster technology iterates and the deeper industrial integration becomes, the more timely response of policy supply and dynamic adjustment of governance methods are needed, so that standards, policies, and development environments better adapt to industrial transformation. In our research, we learned that, after several years of reform and optimization, the cycle for a national standard from project initiation to publication has been compressed from 3–5 years to approximately 1.5 years, and the iteration of key indicators in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence has been compressed from several months to several weeks, but there still exists a time lag between standard supply and industrial demand, while some policy support directions, fund allocation methods, and project acceptance indicators have also failed to adapt promptly to the rapid changes in industry. It is necessary to improve mechanisms for the rapid formulation and dynamic updating of standards in emerging fields, promoting the coordinated advancement of technology R&D, standard development, and industrial application. It is necessary to enhance the dynamic adaptability of industrial policies, explore rolling evaluation and phased support models, increase tolerance for technological trial-and-error and rapid iteration, so that policies can keep up with technology, funds can be invested in the right directions, and projects can accommodate trial-and-error. It is necessary to promote the alignment of industrial governance with the development landscape, internally adapting to the requirements of building the unified national market, regulating and rectifying irrational local competition, strengthening production capacity monitoring and early warning, and maintaining fair competition order. Externally, steadily expand institutional opening, support going-global enterprises to enhance their localized operation and compliance capabilities, and actively participate in the formulation of international rules and standards
Research Notes:
From hand-tearable steel as thin as a cicada's wing, to intelligently connected smart factories laid out in contiguous clusters, 80 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters have grown into forests, and 17,600 "little giant" enterprises have broken through and grown. On this land of China, vivid practices of industrial iteration are taking place every day, and these practices have leapt beyond the confines of traditional theory, providing new answers for our understanding of the entirely new path of industrial catch-up by latecomer countries. We often say that China has completed in several decades the industrialization journey that Western developed countries took several hundred years, but the path China has taken is not the old path that Western developed countries traversed, but rather a new path of industrialization that is not closed, not dependent, not predatory, and not rigid, profoundly confirming that modernization does not equal Westernization and that industrialization is not limited to a single paradigm, providing a brand-new reference for the vast number of developing countries that lack primitive accumulation, do not have first-mover technological advantages, and wish to independently advance their own industrialization processes. In this sense, seizing the rare opportunity presented by the world's century-old transformations and industrial transformation, rooting ourselves in local independent innovation, and continuously growing and strengthening advanced manufacturing, is not only necessary to consolidate the hard-core foundation of a manufacturing powerhouse, but also is the proper meaning of breaking through the barriers of Western industrialization theory and discourse, and contributing Chinese solutions and Chinese wisdom to the transformation of global industrial governance and the innovation of modernization theory
Writers: Guo Feiran, Liu Wenqiang, Liang Yixin, Sun Haiyao, Shu Yu
Return to TopWalking Well Our New Era's Long March Road
Editor's Note: This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March. Ninety years ago, the Red Army soldiers led by the Communist Party of China, with indestructible revolutionary conviction, overcame countless hardships and dangers, and blazed a path to victory. The great Long March spirit has become a powerful spiritual driving force that inspires and encourages the Chinese people to keep overcoming great difficulties (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack, overcome, hard, difficult") and march from victory to victory. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that carrying forward the great Long March spirit and walking well today's Long March road is a major subject we face under new era conditions. Today's Long March road lies not in snowy mountains or grasslands, but in the steadfastness and dedication of every ordinary post. This issue specially publishes a set of articles, recording the stories of strivers from all walks of life who, at their respective posts, love their work and devote themselves to it, forging ahead through hardships (砥砺前行, di li qian xing - "grind, whet; advance, move forward"), and walk well their own Long March road of the new era.
Forging Heavy Weapons for National Defense Security
Wang Ji, Researcher at the College of Computer Science, National University of Defense Technology
The Long March, step by step was fraught with danger, every place was a pass of life and death. Yet, the Red Army soldiers resonated with the fate of the nation, vibrated with the survival of the nation, breaking through obstacles and overcoming difficulties (闯关夺隘, chuang guan duo ai - "break, pass; gate, seize; pass, capture")all along the way, forging a towering monument in the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Each generation has its own Long March road, each generation has its own battlefield for tackling tough problems. I am a soldier, and also a national defense scientific research worker. Today, carrying forward the great Long March spirit means closely linking personal struggle with the nation's fate, resonating with the nation's needs, adhering to cultivating virtue and educating people (立德树人, li de shu ren - "establish, virtue; cultivate, person"), educating people for combat, pursuing cutting-edge science and technology, working hard to strengthen the military through science and technology, and striving with all our might toward realizing the goal of building the people's army into a world-class military by 2027.
Many people came to know me through "labels" such as "Model of the Times" and "scientific research warrior in a wheelchair." My parents, who once supported the Third Front construction, named me "Ji" (戟), and a ji is a sharp weapon of the state, hoping that I would hold a halberd to defend the country. When I was young, I liked following my father to the factory workshops, watching engineers gather around to deduce data and crack difficult problems, a group of people burying themselves in hard work and dedicating themselves to the country, no one ever complaining of fatigue. That image has always been carved in my heart, and that spirit has always influenced me. Later, from an ignorant teenager, I was admitted to the National University of Defense Technology. Shortly after enrollment, the "Galaxy-I" hundred-million-times supercomputer, developed by the university's Computer Research Institute, was successfully completed. This joyful news stirred me; the thunderous cheers of classmates upon hearing the broadcast that day seem still to echo in my ears. From that moment on, I felt that my life and our country, our nation, were bound together.
President Xi Jinping pointed out that the victory of the Long March depended on the Red Army soldiers' heroic spirit and revolutionary spirit of overwhelming all enemies without being overwhelmed by any enemy, conquering all difficulties without being conquered by any difficulty. We national defense scientific research workers also carry such a revolutionary spirit; it is a dual glory of "soldier + scientific researcher." The older generation of "Harbin Military Engineering" people, starting from scratch with nothing (白手起家, bai shou qi jia - "white, hand; rise, family")on the snowy plains of the North, pioneered the first military higher technical education of New China; over forty years ago, the predecessors of the National University of Defense Technology's Galaxy undertaking, working or staying up all night (通宵达旦, tong xiao da dan - "through, night; reach, dawn")in their laboratories, breaking through external technological blockades, gritting their teeth to develop the "face-saving computer"; the National University of Defense Technology people of the new era are tackling key core technologies, achieving national defense scientific and technological innovation step by step from following, to running alongside, and in some areas leading the way. I have heard those stories of those years, I have seen those scenes, I have experienced the hardships and joys of reaching the summit. To cultivate talent for the cause of strengthening the military, to forge heavy weapons for national defense security, my teachers and my colleagues around me have all struggled forward this way.
In November 2013, President Xi Jinping, during his inspection of the National University of Defense Technology, required us to strive to make the university a highland for cultivating high-quality new-type military talent anda highland for independent innovation in national defense science and technology. "Highland" is the positioning Xi Jinping has given the National University of Defense Technology, and also our goal for struggle. As a scientific researcher at a military academy, my mission is to serve the nation's needs and development in military technology; whatever the troops most urgently lack, that is what we should go and do. If we regard scientific research tackling as a Long March road, I firmly believe that as long as we walk toward the goal, with firm ideals and convictions, we will be able to make correct choices. I once thought that it was I who chose the path of "high-confidence software technology"; in fact, it was the era that chose me, it was the mission of strengthening the country and strengthening the military that pushed me constantly forward. I remember once, at an academic exchange event, a foreign company was about to demonstrate its software, but when it heard we were Chinese, it immediately made an excuse to refuse us. Behind this lies a silent contest. The three characters "high-confidence" may seem "cold" to others, but they are certainly "right" for the country; this may not be a "hot" area of scientific research, but it is certainly a "vital gate" of security. The research we do is the confidence that upholds the nation's great instruments; wherever the country's needs lie, wherever the pain points of "stranglehold" problems lie, there is where scientific researchers' battlefield of struggle lies
The Long March was inherently a road with no ready-made answers, and today's independent innovation is likewise a pioneering journey. Basic research is a cause of exploring the unknown; to advance it requires passion and perseverance. When I graduated, my advisor, Academician Chen Huowang, wrote the words "staying calm to achieve long-term goals" (宁静而致远, ning jing er zhi yuan - "quiet, peaceful; and; reach, far")in my graduation autograph book. My teacher was telling me that only by calming one's mind down, can one go farther. My undertaking may be difficult to produce results in the short term, but basic research aims at the future, and someone must always go do it. In this line of work, one must have the patience of persistent effort over a long period (十年磨一剑, shi nian mo yi jian - "ten, years; grind, polish; one, single; sword"), and the preparation to walk 25,000 li. The Long March is always on the road, the research and development of high-confidence software technology is always on the road. Serving the strengthening of the military and winning wars, meeting the combat forces' ever-growing demand for software, that is our Long March road; we must redouble our efforts, break through bottlenecks one by one, and firmly grasp the initiative for national security in our own hands
In September 2023, President Xi Jinping, in his congratulatory letter on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the National University of Defense Technology, required us to bravely shoulder the tasks of the era, forge ahead sharply, and strive to play an important role in implementing the strategy of strengthening the military through science and technology and the strategy of strengthening the military through talent. Standing in the surging tide of the times, technology is transforming, the military is tackling tough problems, the great dream of national rejuvenation is drawing closer and closer; this powerful sense of being "pushed forward by the era" has made me determined to, within my limited working time, do as many meaningful things as possible, shoulder my mission and continue charging forward. As long as my brain can still think, my hands can still move, I will continue solving problems and charging forward without cease
Walking well the new era's scientific research Long March road is a mission, and even more a spirit, a legacy; every scientific researcher forging shields for the country is running on this road. With faith in one's heart, there is strength under one's feet. We will continue to work hard, so that every line of code we write can provide support for making national defense equipment more reliable; so that every student we cultivate can, at critical moments and in critical fields, stand up and hold firm; so that Chinese people can master their own core technology in key software fields, guarding the confidence and dignity of a major country's science and technology
A Precious Red Vegetable Tray
Wu Shuai, Political Instructor of a certain brigade's "Red First Company," 83rd Group Army of the PLA Ground Force
In the company history museum of the "Red First Company," there is displayed a red vegetable tray. Why is this ordinary-looking vegetable tray solemnly displayed here?
In 1935, during the Central Red Army's Long March, when it rested at Huili, Comrade Mao Zedong came to the "Red First Company" to visit the company's officers and soldiers, sitting around with them in cordial conversation. At lunchtime, the mess squad leader brought over a plate of boiled pumpkin on a captured red enamel tray, and Comrade Mao Zedong ate together with the officers and soldiers, leaving behind a moving chapter of equality between officers and men, sharing both joys and sorrows (同甘共苦, tong gan gong ku - "together, sweet; together, bitter"). In the long-term revolutionary practice that followed, there gradually emerged and formed the company spirit of "obeying the Party's command, working hard and plain living, equality between officers and men." These are the histories I have seen through glass, the spirits I have learned from texts. As the newly appointed political instructor of the "Red First Company," I can tell the stories, but I cannot tell forth their warmth; I can recite the connotations, but I cannot comprehend their power. Why is it that, despite the changes of the times and the turnover of personnel, the spirit carried by this red vegetable tray remains endless and continuous growth or life (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth; not, not; cease, end")and passed down from generation to generation?
The "Red First Company" where I serve has a glorious company history. It came forth from the flames of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and in the "Sanwan Reorganization" gave birth to the army's first company-level Party branch, pioneering the precedent of establishing Party branches at the company level, and is known as the "place where the soul of the military was born." In the company history museum, medal after medal, old photograph after old photograph, heirloom after heirloom, silently tell of the ancestors' fervor and steadfastness. Looking at the walls full of weighty honors, I asked myself: Can I take over this banner well? Can I hold fast to this legacy? Can I truly understand the company's history, inherit the red bloodline, and lead this heroic company well? I realized that the records in books, the accounts passed on by word of mouth, are all histories compiled by others; without having walked the road of the ancestors, without having touched those eventful years, my understanding would forever remain only on the surface. Carrying these confusions, carrying the longing to enter the spiritual world of the ancestors, I set foot on a root-seeking journey to retrace the Long March. There was no preset answer, nor did I know what people or what events I would encounter ahead; I merely thought that, by walking onto the land where the ancestors had walked, perhaps I could answer the long-unresolved questions in my heart
The first stop of tracing origins, I came to Huili, Sichuan. "When the Red Army arrives, the poor laugh, the gentry cry; when the White Army arrives, the poor cry, the gentry laugh." This folk rhyme passed down from generation to generation by the local people is simple and direct, yet it fully expresses where the people's hearts lie. Chen Haiqing, an elderly man over eighty years old, told me the stories of how his father's generation had guided the Red Army and delivered grain for them. When the Red Army was stationed in the villages, it did not disturb the people, did not encroach on their interests, and in spare time helped the masses carry water, chop firewood, sweep courtyards, and tidy grounds, truly keeping the poor common people in their hearts. Standing on the land of Huili, the wind blew through the streets and alleys, and also through the dust of more than 90 years. I seemed to see that what that small red vegetable tray held was not merely a meal of coarse grain; it carried the sincerity of superiors and subordinates sharing one heart, the deep affection of army and people depending on each other, and the faith of holding fast to original aspiration and warming each other even in desperate straits
Carrying new inspiration, I continued to trace historical footsteps.The company history records that in August 1935, the company advanced into the vast grasslands, seven days and seven nights of life-and-death trekking, with severe non-combat attrition. Countless ancestors were forever left behind in the depths of the grasslands. I wanted to know, what exactly was the force that supported them through desperate straits?
In Dujiangyan, I met Wang Quanying, an old Red Army veteran. At the age of 14, she followed the Red Army, crossing snowy mountains and grasslands, unafraid of hardship and cold, unafraid of sacrifice, even when her toes were frozen off, she clung firmly to the ranks. She recalled her original aspiration, saying that it was only because, upon first seeing the Red Army, she had felt a warmth she had never known before. When the ranks were in peril, she unhesitatingly shouldered the duties of a medic, rescuing the wounded amid hail of bullets, getting separated and breaking through encirclement, then living incognito, silent for a lifetime, not contending for merit, not recounting glory. When I took out the neatly folded company flag of the "Red First Company," the elderly woman, her fingertips trembling, gently stroked the bright red flag surface, slowly raised her hand, and solemnly saluted a military salute. It was this very salute that instantly untied all the confusion in my heart; I came to understand the spiritual essence conveyed by the red vegetable tray. This legacy is supported not only by cultural relics and sustained by texts, but also by the pure steadfastness, selfless dedication, and loyalty unto death of generation after generation of officers and soldiers. Obeying the Party's command, that is the original aspiration that does not waver even in desperate straits; working hard and plain living, that is the responsibility that does not retreat before a hundred difficulties; equality between officers and men,that is the warmth of life-and-death mutual dependence
Returning from root-seeking, when I look again at the officers and soldiers of the company, my state of mind is completely different. Previously, I stood on the podium telling history, relaying the stories of the ancestors; now, when I interact with the officers and soldiers, I am seeing the continuation of a spirit. I have discovered that the warmth of the red vegetable tray has always been hidden in the plain daily life of the company's officers and soldiers. Private Xiao Zhang, when he first arrived at the company, was impetuous by nature, uninterested in traditional education, always feeling that red traditions were too far away from him. I no longer preached, but slowly told him what I had seen and heard on the journey retracing the Long March, the steadfastness of the elderly Wang Quanying, the sincerity on the land of Huili. I told him that the hardships endured by the ancestors were the narrow escapes from death on snowy mountains and grasslands; our struggle is every persistence in training, every steadfastness at our posts. Slowly, I saw him change: at morning formation, he stood straight as a ramrod; in physical training, he no longer fell behind; in tidying internal affairs, he kept everything neat and orderly. He said to me that heroes have never been a distant image; earnestly practicing every movement well and completing every mission well is the best tribute to them
The company has a senior squad leader, known as a "willing ox." In field training and emergency rescue missions, he always charges to the very front; when new recruits make mistakes or training suffers setbacks, he patiently helps and guides them, carefully counseling them. Previously, I only thought he had a strong sense of responsibility; only after returning did I understand that this is the most plain form of "equality between officers and men." The ancestors shared joys and sorrows, depended on each other in life and death; now, he leads the new recruits in growth, accompanies his comrades in forging ahead, hiding warmth in daily life, and placing responsibility at his post
There are also many young soldiers who temper themselves in the great furnace of the new era's military. Some quietly work overtime to hone professional skills, some focus closely on the front edge of winning to devote themselves to researching new-type combat forces, some continuously refine themselves in monotonous repeated training. They may not be able to articulate profound principles, may not be able to recite the weighty company history from memory, yet they are using the most solid actions to continue the essence of the ancestors. The confidence of the "Red First Company" comes not from its glorious past, but from the silent steadfastness of generation after generation of officers and soldiers; the company spirit is not "locked" in the glass cabinets of the company history museum; it flows in the sweat of the soldiers, hides in the warmth of officers and soldiers depending on each other, lands in the steadfastness of day after day, passed down from generation to generation
I have finally come to understand that inheritance is not replicating history, but taking over the original aspiration of the ancestors, walking well one's own Long March road of the new era, holding fast to loyalty, shouldering responsibility, melting the red spirit into one's blood, and continuing to write the new glory of a heroic company through ordinary steadfastness
"Planting Fire" in the Hearts of Young People
Liu Yang, Professor at the School of Marxism, Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications
When discussing the Long March with students, I would ask:"When you hear 'the 25,000-li Long March,' what comes to mind?" Some students would mention the long journey of crossing snowy mountains and grasslands, some would recite poems like "The Red Army fears not the hardships of the distant expedition; ten thousand rivers and thousand mountains are treated as nothing." I would then ask:"What does this history have to do with us today?" In fact, this is also the question I have been asking myself for over a decade of working in ideological and political education at universities: how exactly should we, in this generation, walk well our Long March road? Looking back over the years spent accompanying generation after generation of young students in their growth, the answer has gradually become clear
To walk well the new era's Long March road, one must first answer well the "required question" of "faith." Some people say that college students find it hard to accept lectures on ideals and convictions. I do not agree; students do not disbelieve, one must simply speak in ways they can understand and accept. On the Long March road, the average age of the Red Army soldiers was only around twenty, similar to the age of the students I teach; what supported them across snowy mountains and grasslands, through tens of thousands of li of journey, was precisely the fire of faith in their hearts. I tell these stories to my students, not putting on airs of great principles, only speaking of the choices of "people of the same age," especially when speaking of the young soldiers in the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, the classroom was so quiet that one could hear breathing. At that moment, faith was no longer an abstract concept, but landed on concrete, living individuals, weighty and warm
The longer I work, the more I feel that whether counselors or ideological-and-political-course teachers, essentially we are all doing the same thing——"planting fire" in the hearts of young people. Contemporary youth live in an information society; when they encounter problems, search platforms, short videos, and artificial intelligence output a flood of information, answers are readily available. But difficulties follow: amid the overwhelming information, what exactly should one believe? Platform recommendations, popular discourse, life samples of peers keep pouring into view; many young people's ideological confusion does not manifest as grand questions, but turns into daily states such as learning burnout, emotional catharsis, anxiety about the future, behind which actually lies reflection on the value of life. How to read these trivial vexations, help them distinguish what is worth believing and persisting in, has become an unavoidable topic in my exchanges with students
Students often cannot take in great principles; when principles are blended into stories, they naturally understand. I therefore put down my lecture notes and chat with classmates about the "highlight moments" and "darkest moments" of the Long March road, exploring together the source of the power that enabled Red Army soldiers, even when in peril, to never give up. I often use analogies: the difficult and complicated problems in study and life are the "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" that youth must conquer; the "stranglehold" problems on the road of scientific research are the "Dadu River" that youth must overcome. Break through them, and it is a victory of crossing a natural barrier. I also often use Long March stories to encourage students: when studies are arduous, think of the Red Army soldiers advancing while gnawing on tree bark; when scientific research hits a wall, think of the vanguard regiment soldiers bravely exploring the way through the swamp. "Planting fire" in the hearts of young people, roughly speaking, means letting them, from real people and real choices, understand steadfastness and faith
For the Long March spirit to "come alive," classroom teaching alone is not enough; one must adhere to combining theory with practice, letting young college students read well both the "book with characters" and the "book without characters," and make contributions on the new Long March road at the front line of serving society. My experience of going to the countryside for research in the summer of 2016 gave me a particularly deep understanding of this. During the research trip, I discovered that many children in old revolutionary base areas and impoverished mountain areas, when talking about science, were full of curiosity yet somewhat unfamiliar, which gave rise to my idea of building "science and technology huts"——building for mountain children a science laboratory where they can do hands-on work and experience things. Saying it, we did it, and my students and I went from the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi to the depths of the Qinling Mountains, visiting schools, designing plans, raising resources. In March 2017, the first science and technology hut was completed. In the nearly ten years since, more than 1,800 college students have taken up the relay of dedication, and more than 60 science and technology huts have been built one after another, becoming not only windows for mountain children to access science, but also classrooms for young students to temper themselves. When hearing that a child who had never left the county seat was admitted to a city middle school because of the special skills honed at the science and technology hut, my classmates and I were overjoyed. When seeing graduating students sigh with emotion that participating in building the science and technology huts was the most meaningful thing of their university years, I feel that this is my greatest achievement as a university ideological-and-political worker. I often think that this journey itself is a Long March; hut after hut, is a torch handed to children, and also a lamp that illuminates ourselves
In 2019, as a national youth representative, I listened on site at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the meeting commemorating the centenary of the May Fourth Movement. The General Secretary sent earnest messages to the youth:"Each generation has its own Long March, each generation has its own responsibilities. Building a modern socialist country and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is a relay race." This further strengthened my confidence in doing youth ideological and political work well. Recalling the Long March road, the Party Central Committee required that in political work, one should use every opportunity and every method, targeting the soldiers' emotions, doubts, and misunderstandings, to continuously carry out explanation and education. Those propaganda during marches, those answering of doubts beside campfires, were precisely the code by which this ranks marched all the way to victory. Today, the smoke of gunpowder has dissipated, but the "ideological and political work on the march road" has never gone far, but has entered campuses in another form. Landing on us counselors, it means heart-to-heart talks time and again, dormitory visits time and again, breaking principles apart, chewing them thoroughly, explaining them clearly, and delivering them into students' hearts. From the campfires of snowy mountains and grasslands to the lights of university campuses, though the times have changed, the original aspiration of staying close to people's hearts and accompanying them along the way remains unchanged
Gradually, I have found the answer to the question at the beginning. Speaking of the Long March today is not about letting youth replicate suffering, but about teaching them to think independently in complex environments, to learn to persevere through setbacks. We cannot choose life paths for young people, but we can accompany and guide them when they are confused, help them face up to immediate gains and losses, combine personal choices with national needs and people's needs, recognize clearly the value of giving back to society. Now, how to walk well the new era's Long March road, I also have my own clear direction. As university counselors, our new era's Long March road is to bring the Long March spirit to life, plant ideals and convictions into students' hearts, escort generation after generation of youth as they set out on their own life journeys. This road has no end, only new starting points.Just as when the Red Army set out back then, no one knew how long the journey would take, but everyone firmly believed that as long as one walked forward, one would surely reach the destination
Printing Youth's Footprints on the New Era's Long March Road
Liu Gongli, Former First Secretary Stationed in Potou Village, Wangmo County, Guizhou Province
What does the Long March road of new-era youth look like? This question, I find it hard to answer precisely for the moment. The Long March is a magnificent epic I have read about in books and seen in images; the deeds of the ancestors crossing snowy mountains and grasslands are moving, and that arduous and extraordinary expedition is deeply imprinted in my heart. When I was young, I always thought that such a long trek belonged only to distant years, very far from present life. At that time, I never imagined that many years later, amid mountains and fields, in countless ordinary, plain grassroots daily routines, I would slowly find my own answer
After graduating from university, I initially worked in an office clerical position at a government organ, lacking firsthand perception of the real conditions of villages deep in the mountains. Later, I was transferred to work in Lewang Township, serving as First Secretary stationed in Potou Village, a relatively remote village. Here, mountains rise layer upon layer, villages scatter among the mountain gullies. Going from a government office cadre accustomed to writing documents at a desk to a village-based worker often climbing over mountains and ridges to visit households, I had to re-adapt to both the surrounding environment and the way of thinking about things
On my first visit to the village, I encountered continuous overcast rain; the mountain dirt roads were soaked into mud, slippery and wet, vehicles could not pass, and I could only hike several kilometers into the mountains. Entering a farmer's home, the mottled, old wooden houses, the left-behind elderly and children, deeply touched my heart. Only after truly plunging into the grassroots did I understand that the knowledge learned from books, when placed into rural reality, still needs to be re-polished, and is this not precisely the "snowy mountains" and "grasslands" of our generation of grassroots cadres? There is no shortcut, only step by step groping forward
When I first entered grassroots work, I thought things were simple, believing that as long as I explained policy provisions clearly, the masses would naturally understand. Only after interacting with villagers did I discover that rural work has no ready-made template to apply. Many elderly people are not accustomed to listening to bookish explanations, and are even more cautious toward a young newcomer. Sometimes, to explain clearly one small matter, I would sit by the fire pit in a farmer's home for half a day. One principle had to be broken apart and chewed thoroughly, repeated in language the villagers could understand; if one visit could not get it across, I would make several more trips
The roads to the countryside were not easy to travel; in the rainy season, the road surfaces were slippery and hard to traverse, in sunny weather, dust flew in one's face all the way. Building roads was in itself a good thing benefiting the whole village, yet actual progress was not smooth. In mountainous villages with complex terrain, route selection and land acquisition involved the interests of every household——some villagers worried that road construction would take up forest land and vegetable plots, refusing to give way; some had concerns that during construction, dust would be heavy and farm machinery would be inconvenient to enter and exit, feeling resistant. We repeatedly ran to the fields and into homes, measuring boundaries on site, patiently negotiating, explaining clearly compensation standards and long-term benefits; running back and forth four or five times to coordinate a small piece of land was commonplace. Promoting the relocation-from-poverty-alleviation work was equally fraught with resistance. Villagers worried that after relocation they would lose land and have no means of livelihood, feeling very resistant to relocation, and one elderly person was particularly resolute, saying whatever happened he would not leave the home where he had lived all his life. I went to his door seven times, sitting by the fire pit to chat with him, listening to his concerns, discussing pros and cons with him. During that period, we often, in the evening and at night after the villagers had finished their farm work, held fire-pit meetings and courtyard meetings, sitting together to calculate livelihood accounts and speak plain truths, slowly untangling everyone's heart knots, and ultimately more than 800 people from the village walked out of the deep mountains and moved into new resettlement housing
Relocation let the villagers move into new houses, but how to make their lives better and better was an even bigger subject. In Potou Village where I worked, the mountain land was barren and short of water, while the valley below had superior conditions, with highly uneven resource distribution; the local masses had long relied on traditional crop cultivation and animal husbandry for subsistence, and faced with new development paths, most were hesitant and wavering, afraid of taking risks. Based on the village's conditions, we tried exploring an"enclave economy," letting high-altitude villages contribute collective resources as shares, building an ecological flowing-water fish farming base in the valley below, jointly sharing the industrial returns of the flatland area. Even though the plan was repeatedly deliberated, the masses still harbored doubts, worrying that operations would be unstable and dividends would fall through. We then listened time and again to the farmers' real worries, slowly building trust through daily interactions. I have always believed that trust at the grassroots is accumulated through sincere mutual treatment and genuine assistance. After the project landed, the base provided nearby employment posts, and the village collective also received stable dividends; the idle mountain land was then used to lay out photovoltaic power generation, converting sunlight resources into collective income
Through day-after-day steadfastness, the mountain villages quietly changed. The rugged dirt roads were slowly built into smooth, convenient roads for the people; old, dilapidated dwellings were repaired and upgraded one by one; distinctive agricultural products gradually opened up sales channels and walked out of the deep mountains. The villagers' channels for increasing income kept broadening, and their days became stable and comfortable. Watching these changes, I am very glad that I did not give up when misunderstood, and did not retreat when encountering difficulties. I have slowly come to understand that grassroots work requires not hasty success, but sufficient patience and steadfastness
Looking back again at the original question, I now have my own answer. Today, we generally no longer need to undergo the life-and-death ordeals of the ancestors, but in ordinary days there are equally our own journeys. General Secretary Xi Jinping said that each generation has its own Long March road, and each generation must walk well its own Long March road. For us grassroots cadres, the new era's Long March road is the road of going down to the countryside time and again, is the patient, meticulous communication time and again, is the small matters that show no immediate results yet must be persisted in doing well. It will not be magnificent and stirring, but it equally requires faith as support, equally tests willpower and character. This steadfastness and trekking require no loud slogans; more often, one must settle one's heart down, and do the matters before one's eyes solidly and well
Youth's journey is long and ordinary. Walking well the new era's Long March road, for me, is not a grand narrative, but taking root in a piece of land, quietly keeping to an ordinary post, doing every small matter carefully well, stepping every step firmly and steadily. Looking back at every ordinary footprint along the way, this, is the most sincere Long March road of my very own.
Return to TopBy: 王戟
Forging Heavy Weapons for National Defense Security
Wang Ji, Researcher at the College of Computer Science, National University of Defense Technology
On the Long March, every step was fraught with danger, every place was a pass of life and death. Yet the Red Army officers and soldiers resonated with the fate of the nation, vibrated in unison with the survival of the nation, overcoming many difficulties and obstacles (闯关夺隘, chuang guan duo ai - "pass, gate, seize, obstacle"), and forged a towering monument in the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Each generation has its own Long March road, each generation has its own battlefield for tackling tough problems. I am a soldier, and also a national defense scientific research worker. Today, in carrying forward the great Long March spirit, it means closely linking personal struggle with the fate of the nation, resonating in unison with the nation's needs, adhering to cultivating virtue and educating people (立德树人, li de shu ren -"establish, virtue, cultivate, person"), educating people for combat, pursuing frontier science and technology, working hard to strengthen the military through science and technology, and striving with all our might toward achieving the goal of building the people's army into a world-class military by 2027.
Many people came to know me through "labels" such as"Model of the Times" and"Scientific Warrior in a Wheelchair." My parents, who had once supported the Third Front construction, named me"Ji"(戟), and a ji is a sharp weapon of the state, hoping that I would hold a halberd to defend the country. When I was young, I liked to follow my father to the workshops, watching engineers gather around to deduce data and crack difficult problems, a group of people working hard with great dedication (埋头苦干, mai tou ku gan -"bury, head, bitter, work"), dedicating themselves to the country, and no one uttered a single word of fatigue. That image has always been carved in my heart, and that drive has always influenced me. Later, I went from being an ignorant youth to enrolling in the National University of Defense Technology. Shortly after enrollment, the"Galaxy-I"hundred-million-times supercomputer, developed by the Computer Research Institute of NUDT, was successfully completed. This piece of good news stirred me; the thunderous cheers of my classmates upon hearing the broadcast that day seem still to echo in my ears. From that moment on, I felt that my life was bound together with our country and nation.
President Xi Jinping pointed out that the victory of the Long March depended on the heroic spirit and revolutionary spirit of the Red Army officers and soldiers, who overwhelmed all enemies without being overwhelmed by any enemy, and conquered all difficulties without being conquered by any difficulty. We national defense scientific research workers also carry such a revolutionary spirit; it is a dual glory of"soldier + scientific researcher." The older generation of"Haerbin Military Engineering Institute"people, on the snowy plains of the north, started from scratch with no initial capital (白手起家, bai shou qi jia -"white, hand, rise, family"), pioneering the first military higher technical education in New China; over forty years ago, the predecessors of NUDT's Galaxy undertaking, in the laboratory working or staying awake from dusk till dawn (通宵达旦, tong xiao da dan -"pass, night, reach, dawn"), broke through external technological blockades, and, holding their breath, developed the"face-saving computer"; in the new era, NUDT people tackle key core technologies, achieving national defense scientific and technological innovation step by step from following, to running alongside, and in some areas leading. I have heard those stories of the past, I have seen those scenes, and I have experienced the hardship and joy of reaching the summit. To cultivate talent for the cause of strengthening the military, to forge heavy weapons for national defense security — my teachers and my colleagues around me have all struggled forward in this way.
In November 2013, when President Xi Jinping inspected the National University of Defense Technology, he required us to strive to make NUDT a high ground for cultivating high-quality new-type military talent anda high ground for independent innovation in national defense science and technology. The"high ground"is President Xi's positioning of NUDT, and it is also our goal for struggle. As a scientific researcher at a military academy, my mission is to serve the country's needs and development in military technology; whatever is most scarce for the troops, that is what we should go and do. If one regards scientific research and tackling key problems as a Long March road, then I firmly believe that, as long as we advance toward the goal, with firm ideals and convictions, we will be able to make correct choices. I once thought that it was I who chose the path of"high-confidence software technology"; in fact, it was the era that chose me, it was the mission of strengthening the country and strengthening the military that pushed me constantly forward. I remember once, at an academic exchange event, a foreign company was about to demonstrate its software, but when it heard that we were Chinese, it immediately made an excuse and refused. Behind this lay a silent contest. The three characters"high-confidence"may seem"cold"to others, but to the country they are certainly"correct"; this may not be a"hot"area of research, but it is certainly a"vital gate"of security. The research we do is the confidence that upholds the nation's great instruments; wherever the country's needs lie, wherever the pain points of"chokepoint"technologies lie, there is where scientific researchers' battlefield of struggle lies
The Long March was, after all, a road with no ready-made answers, and today's independent innovation is equally a pioneering journey. Basic research is a cause of exploring the unknown; to advance it requires love and perseverance. When I graduated, my advisor, Academician Chen Huowang, wrote in my graduation commemorative album the words"tranquility leads to far-reaching vision." My teacher was telling me that only by calming one's heart down can one go farther. My career may be relatively difficult to produce results in the short term, but basic research aims at the future, and someone must always go and do it. In this line of work, one must have the patience of persevering in a single task for a long time (十年磨一剑, shi nian mo yi jian -"ten, years, grind, one, sword"), and the preparation of walking 25,000 li. The Long March is always on the road, and the research and development of high-confidence software technology is always on the road. Serving the strengthening of the military and winning wars, meeting the combat forces' constantly growing demand for software — this is our Long March road; we must redouble our efforts, break through bottlenecks one by one, and firmly grasp the initiative for national security in our own hands
In September 2023, in his congratulatory letter to NUDT on its 70th anniversary, President Xi Jinping required us to bravely shoulder the responsibilities of the era, showing great determination to pioneer and expand (锐意开拓, rui yi kai tuo -"sharp, intention, open, expand"), strive to play an important role in implementing the strategy of strengthening the military through science and technology and the strategy of strengthening the military through talent. Standing in the surging tide of the times, science and technology are transforming, the military is tackling hard problems, the great dream of national rejuvenation is drawing closer and closer; this powerful"push at the back"of the era makes me determined, in my limited working time, to do as many meaningful things as possible, to shoulder the mission and continue charging forward. As long as my brain can still think, as long as my hands can still move, I will continue solving problems and charging forward without cease
Walking well the new era's Long March road of scientific research is a mission, and even more a spirit, a legacy; every scientific researcher forging shields for the country is running on this road. With faith in one's heart, there is strength under one's feet. We will continue to work hard, so that every line of code we write can provide stronger support for the reliability of national defense equipment; so that every student we cultivate can, at critical junctures and critical moments, stand up and hold firm; so that Chinese people can master their own core technologies in key software fields, guarding the confidence and dignity of a major country's science and technology.
Return to TopBy: 吴帅
A Precious Red Enamel Plate
Wu Shuai, Political Instructor of the "Red First Company" of a brigade under the 83rd Group Army of the Army
In the company history hall of the "Red First Company," a red enamel plate is displayed. This plate, which looks utterly ordinary, why is it solemnly displayed here?
In 1935, during the Long March, the Central Red Army halted for rest at Huili. Comrade Mao Zedong came to the "Red First Company" to visit the company's officers and soldiers, sitting in a circle with them in hearty conversation. When lunchtime arrived, the mess squad leader brought over a plate of boiled pumpkin on a captured red enamel plate, and Comrade Mao Zedong ate together with the officers and soldiers, leaving behind a moving chapter of equality between officers and men, sharing both joys and sorrows (同甘共苦, tong gan gong ku - "same, sweet, same, bitter"). In the subsequent long years of revolutionary practice, this gradually gave birth to the company spirit of "obeying the Party's command, working hard and enduring hardship, and maintaining equality between officers and men." These are the history I see through the glass, the spirit I learn from the written words. As the newly appointed Political Instructor of the "Red First Company," I can tell the stories, but cannot convey their warmth; I can recite the connotations, but cannot grasp their power. Why is it that despite the changes of the times and the turnover of personnel, the spirit carried by this red enamel plate remains endless and inexhaustible (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, stop") and passed down from generation to generation (代代相传, dai dai xiang chuan - "generation, generation, mutually, pass")?
The "Red First Company" I serve in has a glorious company history. It emerged from the flames of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and during the "Sanwan Reorganization" gave birth to the entire army's first company-level Party branch, pioneering the practice of establishing Party branches at the company level, and is hailed as "the place where the soul of the military originated." In the company history hall, medal after medal, old photograph after old photograph, heirloom after heirloom, silently tell of the ancestors' fervor and steadfastness. Looking at the wall full of weighty honors, I asked myself: Can I take up this banner well? Can I preserve this legacy? Can I truly understand the company's history, inherit the red bloodline, and lead this heroic company well? I realized that the records in books and the retellings by word of mouth are all histories compiled by others; without having walked the road the ancestors walked, without having touched those stirring years, my understanding would forever remain floating on the surface. Carrying these perplexities, carrying the longing to enter the spiritual world of the ancestors, I set foot on a journey of tracing roots by retracing the Long March. There was no preset answer, nor did I know what people I would meet or what things I would hear on the road ahead; I merely thought that, walking onto the land where the ancestors had walked, perhaps I could answer the questions that had long remained unresolved in my heart.
On the first stop of tracing origins, I came to Huili, Sichuan. "When the Red Army comes, the poor laugh, the gentry cry; when the White Army comes, the poor cry, the gentry laugh." This folk rhyme passed down from generation to generation by the local people is simple and direct, yet it fully reveals where the people's hearts inclined. Chen Haiqing, an elderly man over eighty years old, told me about how his father's generation had guided the Red Army and delivered grain for them back then. When the Red Army was stationed in the villages, it did not disturb the people, did not encroach on their interests, and in spare time helped the masses carry water, split firewood, sweep courtyards, and tidy grounds, truly keeping the poor common people in its heart. Standing on the land of Huili, the wind blew through the streets and alleys, and also through more than ninety years of dust and smoke of the times. I seemed to see that what that small red enamel plate held was not merely a coarse meal; it carried the sincere devotion of superiors and subordinates united as one, the deep affection of army and people depending on each other, and the faith of holding fast to the original aspiration amid desperate straits and warming each other.
With new stirring in my heart, I continued to trace the footsteps of history. The company history records that in August 1935, the company pushed deep into the vast grasslands, trekking through life-and-death marches for seven days and seven nights, with severe non-combat attrition. Countless ancestors were forever left behind in the depths of the grasslands. I wanted to know, what exactly was the force that sustained them through desperate straits?
In Dujiangyan, I met Wang Quanying, a veteran Red Army soldier. At the age of fourteen, she followed the Red Army, crossing snowy mountains and grasslands, unafraid of hardship and cold, unafraid of sacrifice, even when her toes were frozen off, she clung tightly to the ranks. She recalled her original aspiration, saying it was only because, upon first seeing the Red Army, she had felt a warmth she had never known before. When the ranks were in peril, she resolutely and undaunted (义无反顾, yi wu fan gu - "righteous, no, reverse, look back") took up the duties of a medic, rescuing the wounded amid hail of bullets, then became separated from her unit, broke through encirclement, lived under an assumed name, silent her whole life, neither contending for merit nor recounting glory. When I took out the neatly folded company flag of the "Red First Company," the elderly woman, her fingertips trembling, gently stroked the bright red flag surface, slowly raised her hand, and solemnly saluted. It was this very salute that instantly unraveled all the confusion in my heart; I came to understand the spiritual underpinning conveyed by the red enamel plate. This legacy is sustained not merely by artifacts and written words, but by the pure steadfastness, selfless dedication, and unswerving until death (至死不渝, zhi si bu yu - "until, death, not, change") loyalty of generation after generation of officers and soldiers. Obeying the Party's command is the original aspiration that does not waver even in desperate straits; working hard and enduring hardship is the responsibility that does not retreat before a hundred difficulties; equality between officers and men is the warmth of depending on each other in life and death
Having returned from tracing roots, when I look again at the officers and soldiers of the company, my state of mind is entirely different. Previously I stood on the podium telling history, retelling the stories of the ancestors; now I interact with the officers and soldiers, seeing the continuation of the spirit. I have discovered that the warmth of the red enamel plate has always been hidden in the plain daily life of the company's officers and soldiers. Private Xiao Zhang, when he first arrived at the company, was impetuous by nature, uninterested in traditional education, always feeling that the red tradition was too far away from him. I no longer lectured him, but simply told him, slowly, about what I had seen and heard on the journey retracing the Long March, about Elder Wang Quanying's steadfastness, about the sincere devotion on the land of Huili. I told him that the hardship endured by the ancestors was a narrow escape from death (九死一生, jiu si yi sheng - "nine, deaths, one, life") amid snowy mountains and grasslands; our striving is every persistence on the training ground, every steadfastness at one's post. Gradually, I saw him change: at morning formation, he stands ramrod straight; in physical training, he no longer falls behind; when tidying internal affairs, he keeps everything neat and orderly. He said to me that heroes have never been a distant image; earnestly practicing every movement well and completing every mission well is the best way to honor them
The company has a senior squad leader, known far and wide as an "old yellow ox." In field training deployments and emergency rescue missions, he is always the first to charge forward; when new recruits make mistakes or training suffers setbacks, he patiently helps and guides them, carefully counseling them. Previously I only thought he had a strong sense of responsibility; only after returning did I understand that this is the most plain form of "equality between officers and men." The ancestors shared joys and sorrows, depended on each other in life and death; today, he brings new recruits along as they grow, accompanies fellow soldiers in striving forward, hides warmth in daily life, and shoulders responsibility at his post
There are also many young soldiers who temper themselves in the great crucible of the military in the new era. Some quietly work overtime to hone professional skills, some keep their eyes fixed on the front edge of victory, devoting themselves to researching new types of combat forces, some continually refine themselves in monotonous repetitive training. They may not be able to articulate profound principles or recite the weighty company history from memory, yet through the most down-to-earth actions, they are carrying forward the underpinning of the ancestors. The confidence of the "Red First Company" comes not from its glorious past, but from the quiet steadfastness of generation after generation of officers and soldiers; the company spirit is not "locked" inside the glass cabinets of the company history hall — it flows in the sweat of the soldiers, hides in the warmth of officers and soldiers depending on each other, lands in the steadfastness of day after day, and is passed down from generation to generation
I have finally come to understand that inheritance is not replicating history, but taking up the original aspiration of the ancestors, walking well our own Long March of the new era, holding fast to loyalty, shouldering responsibility, fusing the red spirit into our blood, and, through ordinary steadfastness, continuing to write the brand-new glory of a heroic company.
Return to TopBy: 刘洋
Planting Fire in the Hearts of Young People
Liu Yang, Professor at the School of Marxism, Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications
When I talk with students about the Long March, I ask: "When you hear 'the 25,000-li Long March,' what comes to mind?" Some students speak of the endless journey of climbing snow mountains and crossing grasslands; some recite lines of poetry such as "The Red Army fears not the trials of a distant march; a thousand mountains, ten thousand waters, are treated as nothing." I then ask further:"What relation does this stretch of history have to us today?" In fact, this is also the question I have repeatedly asked myself over the more than ten years I have been engaged in ideological and political work in institutions of higher education: how, today, are we to walk well the Long March road of our own generation? Looking back over the years spent accompanying generation after generation of young students as they grew, the answer has gradually become clear.
To walk well the Long March road of the new era, one must first answer well this mandatory question of "faith." Some people say that when you lecture college students on ideals and convictions, they find it hard to accept. I do not agree with this; it is not that students do not believe, but that one must speak in a way they can understand and accept. On the Long March road, the average age of the Red Army soldiers was only around twenty, similar to the age of the students I teach; what supported them in crossing snow mountains and grasslands, in completing a march of tens of thousands of li, was precisely the fire of faith in their hearts. I tell these stories to my students, not putting on airs with grand principles, but only speaking of the choices made by "people of the same age" — and especially when I speak of the young soldiers in the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, the classroom becomes so quiet that one can hear the sound of breathing. At that moment, faith is no longer an abstract concept, but lands upon concrete, living individuals — heavy, yet warm.
The longer I work, the more I feel that whether one is a counselor or a teacher of ideological and political theory courses, what one is essentially doing is the same thing — planting fire in the hearts of young people. Contemporary young people find themselves in an information society; when they encounter a problem, search platforms, short videos, and artificial intelligence pour out a vast quantity of information, and answers are readily available (唾手可得, tuo shou ke de - "grasp, can, obtain"). But with this comes a difficult problem: amid the welter of information, what exactly should one believe? Platform recommendations, popular discourse, and the life samples of people of the same age keep flooding into view; for many young people, ideological confusion does not manifest itself as grand questioning, but rather transforms into such everyday states as study burnout, emotional venting, and anxiety over the future — and behind these, in fact, lie reflections on the value of life. How to read these trivial vexations, help them distinguish what is worth believing and persisting in, has become a topic I cannot avoid in my exchanges with students.
Students often cannot take in grand principles; when you knead principles into stories, they naturally understand. I therefore put down my lecture notes and chat with the students about the "high-light moments" and "darkest moments" of the Long March road, exploring together the source of the strength that enabled Red Army soldiers, when trapped in peril, to never give up. I often use analogies: the thorny and complicated problems in study and life are the "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" that young people must assault; the "bottleneck" problems on the road of scientific research are the "Dadu River" that young people must conquer. Break through them, and you have achieved a victory of crossing a natural barrier. I also often use Long March stories to cheer students on: when studies grow arduous, think of the Red Army soldiers who pressed forward chewing on tree bark; when scientific research hits a wall, think of the vanguard regiment soldiers who bravely forged ahead through the marshlands. To plant fire in the hearts of young people, I suppose, is to let them learn, from real people and their real choices, what perseverance and faith mean
For the spirit of the Long March to "come alive," classroom instruction alone is not enough; one must adhere to combining theory with practice, letting young college students read well both the "book with characters" andthe "book without characters," and make contributions on the new Long March road at the front line of serving society. My experience of going to the countryside for research during the summer vacation of 2016 gave me a particularly deep understanding of this. During that research trip, I discovered that many children in old revolutionary base areas and impoverished mountain areas, when they spoke of science, were full of curiosity yet somewhat unfamiliar with it, and from this I conceived the idea of building "science and technology cottages" — to build, for the children in the mountains, a science laboratory where they could use their hands and experience things. No sooner said than done: my students and I went from the loess plateau of northern Shaanxi to the depths of the Qinling Mountains, visiting schools, designing plans, and raising resources. In March 2017, the first science and technology cottage was completed. In the nearly ten years since, more than 1,800 college students have passed on the torch of dedication, and more than 60 science and technology cottages have been established one after another — they have not only become windows through which mountain children come into contact with science, but have also become classrooms in which young students temper themselves. When I heard that a child who had never left the county town was admitted to a municipal middle school because of the special skill he had practiced in the science and technology cottage, my students and I rejoiced. When I saw graduating students sigh with emotion that participating in building the science and technology cottages was the most meaningful thing of their university years, I felt that this was my greatest achievement as a worker in ideological and political education in institutions of higher education. I often think that this journey itself has been a Long March; each cottage, one by one, is a torch handed to the children, and also a lamp that illuminates ourselves
In 2019, as a national youth representative, I was present in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to listen on site to the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the commemoration of the centenary of the May Fourth Movement. The General Secretary sent a message to the youth with deep feeling:"Each generation has its own Long March, and each generation has its own responsibilities. To build a great modern socialist country and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is a relay race." This further strengthened my confidence in doing well the ideological and political work among young people. Thinking back to the Long March road, the Party Central Committee required that in political work, one must use every opportunity and every method, continuously carrying out explanation and education aimed at the soldiers' emotions, doubts, and misunderstandings. Those propaganda efforts during the march, those sessions of dispelling doubts beside the campfires, were precisely the code by which this contingent marched all the way to victory. Today, the smoke of gunpowder has dispersed, but "ideological and political work on the march road" has never gone far away — rather, it has entered the campus in another form. As it falls upon us counselors, it means one heart-to-heart talk after another, one dormitory visit after another, one time after another of breaking principles apart, kneading them thoroughly, explaining them fully, and delivering them into the students' hearts. From the campfires of snow mountains and grasslands to the lamplight of university campuses, though the times have changed, the original aspiration of staying close to people's hearts and accompanying them along the way has never changed
Gradually, I have found the answer to the question posed at the beginning. To speak of the Long March today is not to have young people replicate suffering, but to teach them, in a complex environment, to think independently, and to learn to persevere amid setbacks. We cannot choose the path of life for young people, but we can accompany and guide them when they are lost, help them face squarely the gains and losses before their eyes, combine personal choices with the needs of the country and the demands of the people, and recognize clearly the value of repaying society with themselves. Now, as to how to walk well the Long March road of the new era, I too have my own clear direction. As college counselors, our Long March road of the new era is precisely to bring the spirit of the Long March to life, to plant ideals and convictions into the hearts of students, and to escort generation after generation of young people as they set out on their own life's Long March journey. This road has no terminus, only new starting points. Just as when the Red Army set out back then, no one knew how long the march would take, but everyone firmly believed that as long as they pressed forward, they would surely reach their destination.
Return to TopBy: 刘恭利
Leaving the Footprints of Youth on the Long March of the New Era
Liu Gongli, former First Secretary Stationed in Potou Village, Wangmo County, Guizhou Province
What does the Long March of the youth of the new era look like? For a long time, I found this question difficult to answer precisely. The Long March was a magnificent epic I had read about in books and seen in images; the deeds of our forebears climbing snow mountains and crossing grasslands were deeply moving, and that period of extraordinary perseverance in difficult circumstances (艰苦卓绝, jian ku zhuo jue - "hard, bitter, outstanding, excellent") left a deep imprint on my heart. As a young person, I always thought that such a long trek belonged only to a distant past, far removed from the life of the present day. At that time, I never imagined that, many years later, amid mountains and fields, in the countless ordinary, plain routines of grassroots daily life, I would slowly find my own answer.
After graduating from university, I initially worked in an office clerical position at a government organ, lacking direct, personal experience of the real conditions of villages deep in the mountains. Later, I was transferred to work in Lewang Township, serving as First Secretary Stationed in Potou Village, a relatively remote village. Here, mountains upon mountains rise in layers, and villages are scattered among the great mountain ravines. Transforming from an office cadre who bent over desks writing materials into a village-based worker who often went traversing many mountains and ridges (翻山越岭, fan shan yue ling - "cross, mountain, leap, ridge") to visit households, I had to re-adapt to both the surrounding environment and my way of doing things.
On my first trip into the village, I encountered continuous overcast rain; the mountain dirt roads were soaked by the rainwater into mud, slippery and wet, vehicles could not pass, and I could only hike several kilometers into the mountains. Entering the homes of farming households, I saw mottled, aging wooden houses and left-behind elderly people and children, and my heart was deeply stirred. Only after truly plunging into the grassroots did I understand that the knowledge learned from books, when placed into the reality of the countryside, still needed to be re-polished — and is this not, for our generation of grassroots cadres, our own "snow mountains" and "grasslands"? There are no shortcuts to be taken; one can only grope forward step by step
When I first entered grassroots work, I thought things were simple, believing that as long as I explained policy provisions clearly, the masses would naturally understand. Only after interacting with villagers did I discover that rural work has no ready-made template to apply. Many elderly people were not accustomed to listening to bookish, formalized explanations, and were even more cautious toward young people arriving in a new place for the first time (初来乍到, chu lai zha dao - "first, come, suddenly, arrive"). Sometimes, in order to explain one small matter clearly, I would sit by the fire pit in a farming household for half a day at a time. One principle had to be explained in great detail and simplicity (掰开揉碎, bai kai rou sui - "break, open, knead, crush"), repeated over and over in words the villagers could understand; if one trip could not make it clear, I would make several more trips
The roads to the countryside were not easy to travel; in the rainy season, the road surfaces were slippery and hard to traverse, and in sunny weather, dust swept into one's face along the entire way. Building roads was, on the face of it, a good thing benefiting the entire village, but its actual implementation did not go smoothly. The terrain of the mountain villages was complex, and route site selection and land acquisition involved the interests of every household — some villagers worried that road construction would take up forest land and vegetable plots, refusing to give way; some had concerns that during construction, dust would be heavy and agricultural machinery would find it inconvenient to enter or leave, harboring resistance. We repeatedly ran between the fields and into homes, actually measuring land boundaries on site, patiently negotiating, explaining compensation standards and long-term benefits thoroughly — it was common to run back and forth four or five times to coordinate a single small plot of land. Pushing forward the work of relocation from inhospitable areas was likewise fraught with resistance. The villagers worried that after relocation they would lose their land and have no means of livelihood, and were very resistant to moving; one elderly person was especially firm in attitude, saying that no matter what, she would not leave the home where she had lived her entire life. I went to her door seven times in succession, sitting by the fire pit to chat about everyday matters with her, listening to her concerns, discussing pros and cons with her. During that period, we often took advantage of dusk and night, after the villagers had finished their farm work, to hold fire-pit meetings and courtyard meetings, sitting together to calculate the accounts of livelihood and speak plainly, slowly untangling everyone's misgivings, and in the end, more than 800 people in the village emerged from the deep mountains and moved into new resettlement housing
Relocation let the villagers move into new homes, but how to make their lives get better and better was an even bigger task. In Potou Village, where I was stationed, the land in the mountains was barren and short of water, while the river valleys at the foot of the mountains had superior conditions — resources were distributed very unevenly, and the local people had long relied on traditional planting and animal husbandry to make a living, mostly hesitating and watching when faced with new development paths, afraid of taking risks. Based on the village's conditions, we tried to explore an "enclave economy," letting high-altitude villages contribute collective resources as shares, building an ecological flowing-water fish farming base in the river valley at the foot of the mountains, jointly sharing the industrial returns of the dam area. Even though the plan was repeatedly deliberated, the masses still harbored doubts, worrying that operations would be unstable and dividends would fall through. So we listened, time and again, to the farmers' real worries, slowly building trust through daily interactions. I have always believed that trust at the grassroots level is accumulated through sincere mutual treatment and genuine assistance. After the project landed, the base provided nearby employment posts, and the village collective also received stable dividends; the idle mountain land was, in turn, used to lay out photovoltaic power generation, converting sunlight resources into collective income
Through day after day in a repetitive manner (日复一日, ri fu yi ri - "day, repeat, one, day") of perseverance, the mountain villages quietly changed. The rugged dirt roads were gradually built into smooth, convenient roads for the people; aging old dwellings were repaired and upgraded one by one; specialty agricultural products gradually found sales channels and emerged from the deep mountains. The villagers' channels for increasing income kept widening, and their lives became stable and unhurried. Watching these changes, I am very glad that I did not give up when I was not understood, and that I did not flinch when encountering difficulties. I slowly came to understand that grassroots work does not require being overly anxious to achieve quick success (急于求成, ji yu qiu cheng - "urgent, at, seek, success"), but rather sufficient patience and perseverance
Looking back again at the original question, I now have my own answer. Today, we generally no longer need to undergo the life-and-death trials that our forebears experienced, but in ordinary days there is equally a march of our own. General Secretary Xi Jinping has said that every generation has the Long March of its own generation, and every generation must walk its own Long March well. For us grassroots cadres, the Long March of the new era is precisely the road of each trip to the countryside, the patient communication of each repeated exchange, the small matters that cannot be seen to yield immediate results but must nonetheless be persisted in doing well. It may not be magnificent and stirring, but it equally requires the support of conviction and equally tests one's will and character. This perseverance and trek does not require loud slogans; more than anything, it requires sinking one's heart down, doing the tasks before one's eyes steadily and well
The march of youth is long and ordinary. Walking well the Long March of the new era, for me, is not a grand narrative, but rather taking root in one piece of land, quietly keeping to an ordinary post, conscientiously doing every small matter well, and planting every step firmly and steadily. Looking back at every ordinary footprint along the way I have come — this, precisely, is the most sincere Long March of my own.
Return to TopBy: 李震
Cultural China
Deeply Grasping the Outstanding Unity of Chinese Civilization
Li Zhen
The Chinese nation has a glorious tradition of opposing division and upholding unity. The enduring unity of the state is a profound pursuit engraved in the genes of Chinese civilization. On June 2, 2023, at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development, General Secretary Xi Jinping systematically expounded on the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, among which an important one is "outstanding unity." This characteristic has not only shaped the solid political foundation and firm spiritual core of the Chinese nation, but together with continuity, innovation, inclusiveness, and peacefulness, it has forged the magnificent bearing of Chinese civilization as pluralistic yet unified, enduring and expansive. Deeply grasping the outstanding unity of Chinese civilization is of great significance for forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, advancing the great cause of national reunification, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
I
Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has regarded great unity as "the constant norm of heaven and earth, and the universal principle of past and present." The unity of Chinese civilization is the key to China being China. It fundamentally determines the shared conviction that the territory cannot be divided, the state cannot be thrown into chaos, the nation cannot be scattered, and civilization cannot be severed; it determines that national unification will forever be the core of China's core interests; and it determines that a strong and unified state is the destiny on which all ethnic groups depend.
The territorial map is the spatial carrier for the survival and development of the Chinese nation, and the unity of Chinese civilization is first manifested in the territorial map. The concept of unified territory had already taken embryonic shape in the ancient period of Chinese civilization. The Book of Documents, chapter "Tribute of Yu," records that Yu the Great surveyed the Nine Provinces, "reaching eastward to the sea, westward to the shifting sands," and "the Nine Provinces were made uniform, and all four corners were settled." China, as represented by the "Nine Provinces," was already regarded as a unified political community. Thereafter, successive dynasties all devoted themselves to maintaining the complete unity of the state's territory. From the successive governance of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, with the Western Zhou stabilizing the realm through the enfeoffment system and the patriarchal clan system; to Qin Shi Huang's unification of the six states, establishing the first centralized great-unification state in Chinese history; to the Han dynasty's northern campaigns against the Xiongnu, pacification of Nanyue, and management of the Western Regions, the territory of the unified multi-ethnic state grew ever more stable. On this foundation, the Sui and Tang dynasties achieved "nine zones on the same track, six directions as one family." The Yuan dynasty restored great unity, and "the merging of this territory into one far surpassed that of the Han and Tang." The Qing dynasty had an extremely vast territory, and "China's territory was opened up and extended far and wide." After the course of China's development as a unified multi-ethnic state began, no matter which ethnic group entered the Central Plains to rule, it took unifying the realm as its own mission. That passes and rivers must be unified, and that territory brooks no division, is the most distinct manifestation of the unity of Chinese civilization.
Unity is a blessing; division and turmoil are a curse. The unity of Chinese civilization is concentrated in the historical self-awareness that "the state cannot be thrown into chaos." Looking back over the whole of Chinese history, unity and stability are the mainstream, while division and turmoil are the tributary. The Qin dynasty "unified the script, standardized the axle gauge, unified weights and measures, and unified moral norms," gradually welding the vast territories of differing customs and practices into a single whole at the level of social customs and cultural psychology. The Han dynasty inherited the Qin system, with vast territory and unified governance, flourishing industries, growing population, and the Silk Road connecting east and west. The Tang dynasty established order through the Three Departments and Six Ministries and the imperial examination system, and governed the frontiers through Protectorate-Generals and the Jimi system; even after the An Lushan Rebellion, the dynasty's mandate continued for more than a century. The Yuan dynasty entered the Central Plains, ended the regime confrontation that had persisted since the late Tang, and rebuilt the great-unification order. The Ming dynasty established the Grand Secretariat, inherited and reformed the provincial system, and employed both garrisons and native chieftain systems to ensure that decrees reached throughout the vast territory. The Qing dynasty strengthened the central government, and over more than a century under Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong, consolidated the territory and nurtured the people. Even during the turbulent periods of dynastic change and north-south confrontation, the pursuit of stability and the reunification of the realm never ceased. The long continuation of stable order nurtured the deep social consensus of "all under heaven as one family," displaying the civilizational resilience of the Chinese nation in maintaining an unbroken bloodline and an undivided body over thousands of years.
In ethnic relations, the unity of Chinese civilization manifests as a situation of integration into one body and firm cohesion. The history of the Chinese nation is the history of all ethnic groups jointly creating, developing, and consolidating the great unified motherland. As early as the pre-Qin period, China gradually formed a pattern of integration with Yan-Huang and Huaxia as the cohesive core and "the peoples of the five directions" sharing the realm; the Han dynasty's military agricultural colonies and border trade promoted ethnic interaction in the frontier regions; Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei's reforms powerfully advanced the great integration of the northern ethnic groups; Emperor Taizong of the Tang upheld a broad-minded and inclusive disposition, creating an open and tolerant social atmosphere for the Tang dynasty, and Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng successively entered Tibet, bringing classics, artisans, and musicians to the Tibetan regions, so that the Tang and Tubo "became one family in harmony"; during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods, the establishment of the Xuanzheng Yuan and the Lifan Yuan, as well as the implementation of the reform replacing native chieftains with regular officials, strengthened at the institutional level the ties between frontier regions and the central government and the interior; the return of the Torgut tribe from the east during the Qing dynasty, and the resistance of the Hui People's Detachment against the Japanese aggressors during the War of Resistance, further demonstrated the powerful centripetal force of the Chinese nation in uniting as one and jointly resisting foreign aggression. Long-term historical integration has long since tightly bound all ethnic groups together, becoming a salient marker of the Chinese nation's pursuit of unity.
Chinese civilization is the only great civilization in the world that has continued unbroken and developed in the form of a state to this day. The firm conviction that "civilization cannot be severed" is the conscious manifestation of the unity of Chinese civilization at the level of values. Looking back through history, the ritual systems of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties were modified, added to, and adjusted while always continuing a consistent civilizational spirit; Confucius compiled and edited the Six Classics, providing later generations with a shared canonical system and value foundation; the Han dynasty established the Erudites of the Five Classics, giving classical transmission a stable institutional guarantee; after the Tang and Song dynasties, the spread of woodblock printing made the publication of books increasingly convenient, and the establishment of numerous academies created favorable conditions for cultural popularization; during the Ming and Qing periods, the compilation of large-scale classics such as the Yongle Encyclopedia and the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries aided the organization and preservation of Chinese culture. The significance of preserving classics has never lain merely in retaining history and knowledge, but still more in nourishing hearts, transmitting identity, and continuing the cultural lineage. For thousands of years, the root of Chinese civilization has never been interrupted, and the national spirit has always been passed down from generation to generation. This unity of the inner spiritual world enables the Chinese nation, amid shared value identification and cultural inheritance, to transcend time and space and coalesce into a historical and cultural community sharing the same goals and ideals (同心同德, tong xin tong de - "same heart, same virtue"). This is precisely the profound embodiment of the unity of Chinese civilization in the long river of history.
II
More than five thousand years of Chinese civilization history eloquently proves that great unity has always been the mainstream of China's historical development. The formation and continued consolidation of the unity of Chinese civilization has its inevitable momentum and necessary rationale; it is the historical result of the combined action of three factors: complementary and symbiotic exchange and interaction, profound and enduring political practice, and the cultural tradition of family and state as one.
Complementary and symbiotic exchange and interaction constitute the economic and social foundation for the formation and continuous deepening of the unity of Chinese civilization. As Liang Qichao pointed out in On the General Trends of Chinese Geography, "China is naturally a country of great unity. Unity of race, unity of language, unity of literature, unity of doctrine, unity of customs — and the root of all these lies in the configuration of the terrain." China's terrain is complete and open: it reaches the Gobi and grasslands to the north, leans against plateaus and mountain ranges to the west, and borders the ocean to the east and south, naturally constituting a relatively independent and complete geographical unit; within this unit, the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers traverse east and west, with vast plains and dense river networks, forming a circulation network covering the entire territory. On this vast land, the exceptional geographical conditions not only gave rise to multiple economic forms such as farming, herding, fishing, and hunting, but the crisscrossing river and canal transport and the radiating land post roads also opened thoroughfares for social interaction and the flow of goods. The millet, wheat, mulberry, and hemp of the Central Plains; the rice and silk of Jiangnan; the salt, iron, cloth, and silk of Bashu; the tea and medicinal herbs of Dian and Qian; the furs and minerals of the northwest; the fish, salt, pearls, and shells of the coast — the products of each region had their own distinctive features and complemented one another, weaving an economic network of mutual complementarity, mutual support, and joint accomplishment. Successive dynasties followed this general trend, continuously strengthening internal economic interconnection. From the Sui and Tang onward, the Grand Canal connected north and south, realizing the "transport of southern grain to the north" and becoming the economic lifeline sustaining dynastic rule; through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, the internal ties between farming regions and pastoral regions grew ever deeper. Frequent and deep economic and social exchange and interaction gave rise to the demand for political integration that drew inward; the social bonds of cohabitation and symbiosis and the blood ties of shared culture shaped intermingled cultural customs and values, gradually binding different groups into a community of shared destiny of "the Nine Provinces as one."
Governance on a super-large scale is the institutional cause of the formation and maintenance of the unity of Chinese civilization. "Unity brings order; divergence brings chaos; unity brings peace; divergence brings danger." To govern a country like China, with its vast territory and numerous peoples, it is necessary to adopt a centralized and unified governance strategy, bringing hundreds of millions of people into the same political order. Only through centralization can the communal life of a super-large community be organized; only through unity can centralization be maintained and the communal life of a super-large community be settled. Historically, the implementation of the commandery-county system and the state monopoly on salt and iron weakened the political and economic foundations of separatist regional forces and strengthened central power; the implementation of the reform replacing native chieftains with regular officials and the league-banner and vassal systems strengthened effective central control over the frontiers; the establishment of dedicated supervisory organs such as the Censorate and the Court of Censors impeached and censured officials' abuses of power and upheld central authority; the long-term implementation of the imperial examination system both selected and absorbed talent from all regions for the state apparatus and achieved the integration and unification of the value orientations of the intellectual class. All such measures continuously reinforced the developmental trend of inward cohesion and jointly shaped China as a super-large political community. In the long evolution of history, unity and centralization were mutually reinforcing and mutually promoting; the process by which Chinese history advanced was simultaneously a process of continuously strengthened unity. From antiquity to the modern era, every return to unity in China conformed to and reinforced the historical momentum of the great-unification tradition, and each generation's experience of unity was inherited and improved by later generations, driving China toward ever more consolidated unity. The unity of Chinese civilization is by no means an accidental historical phenomenon, but rather the unique political wisdom and civilizational trait crystallized by a super-large political community in its long-term governance practice for the sake of social stability and development and the people's peaceful and prosperous life.
The formation of any civilizational characteristic is rooted in a specific intellectual and cultural tradition. At the cosmological level, Chinese civilization regards humanity, heaven and earth, and all things as an interconnected whole; at the ethical dimension, it links family, state, and all under heaven layer by layer, viewing the state and all under heaven as a body as intimately connected and indivisible as the family. The isomorphism of family and state, as the root structural feature of traditional Chinese society, tightly binds the individual, the family, the neighborhood, the clan, society, the regime, and even all under heaven together, and is the most solid and unshakable foundation for defending national unity. Relying on this foundation, the political identity of "unity under heaven" and the family-state sentiment of cultivating oneself, regulating the family, governing the state, and pacifying all under heaven, and of sharing responsibility for the rise and fall of the realm, were nurtured. The Book of Rites states, "The sage can take all under heaven as one family and all within China as one person"; Zhang Zai proposed in the Western Inscription, "All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions"; Wang Yangming pointed out in Inquiry on the Great Learning, "The great person regards heaven, earth, and all things as one body, viewing all under heaven as one family and China as one person." The concept of "all under heaven as one family" generates within this community a bonding force as intimate and harmonious as that of the family. When this familial affection of "all under heaven as one family" encounters foreign invasion, it transforms into a powerful spiritual momentum for defending the homeland and sharing a common hatred against the enemy. To protect the territory is to protect one's kin; to defend the state is to defend the family. The reason the Chinese nation has been able to display formidable fighting spirit, high morale, and unity of will whenever it has faced national crisis is precisely that family, state, and all under heaven have never been abstract concepts for the Chinese nation, and that the relationship between the individual and the family-state-all-under-heaven in the Chinese national conception is by no means the simple subordination of an isolated individual to a community, but rather a family-state bond of shared roots and one body. This national spirit, combining identity and emotional belonging, is the important intellectual foundation supporting the unity of Chinese civilization, laying for the Chinese nation the popular foundation for upholding great unity, and constituting the spiritual support by which the Chinese nation, through countless hardships and dangers, has continuously moved toward rejuvenation.
III
The unity of Chinese civilization is one of the salient markers distinguishing Chinese civilization from other civilizations of the world. However, for a long time, Western academia, confined by its own experience and standpoint, has formed certain biased views around the unity of Chinese civilization. These views appear to be academic disagreements, but in fact they involve fundamental questions of historical outlook, national outlook, state outlook, and cultural outlook.
For example, some foreign scholars apply the conceptual framework of Western imperial expansion and conquest to interpret China's great-unification tradition. Whether it is the "Chinese Empire" depicted by early Western missionaries and sinologists, the "conquest dynasty theory" proposed by Karl Wittfogel and others in the 20th century, or the assertion in some recent "New Qing History" research that the Qing dynasty was an "Inner Asian empire," behind most of these lies a common logical presupposition: that a regime with vast territory and multiple ethnic groups must inevitably rely on military conquest, colonial plunder, and hierarchical rule. Western empires in history were often founded precisely through aggression and conquest, and "conquest" and "colonialism" have become part of their historical cognition and memory. China's several-thousand-year great-unification tradition, by contrast, is essentially the integration and inclusion of civilization, a civilizational community bound by cultural identity — this follows a fundamentally different logic from the Western understanding of "empire" from its very roots. The scholar Qian Mu once pointed out that China's formation lay "in the construction of the center, not in the conquest of the periphery"; it was "formed by all directions converging into one whole, not by a center extending its power to subjugate the surrounding areas and force them to follow it." This is the difference between inward cohesion and outward conquest. To conflate this unification process, bound internally by civilizational identity, with empires maintained by Western military conquest is not only a misreading of the unity of Chinese civilization, but also obscures the diversity of forms of human civilization.
Another view that needs to be examined is the "single nation-state theory." From the 18th century onward, some European scholars such as Herder maintained that nations are naturally organic cultural communities and criticized the multi-ethnic state model. Some went further, advocating one nation, one state, and one state, one nation, basing the legitimacy of the state on a single ethnic group. Influenced by this concept and its variants, "nation-state" — originally an inclusive concept — has been narrowed in some modern Western propaganda and public discourse to mean "single-ethnic nation-state," distorting the Chinese-style pluralistic-unified multi-ethnic state form and claiming that it suppresses the subjectivity of each ethnic group. This view is difficult to justify on its own terms: an absolutely single-ethnic nation-state hardly exists anywhere in the world. Engels said that no state boundary coincides with the natural boundary of nations, that is, the boundary of language. In fact, as early as the early 20th century, Zhang Taiyan held that the Chinese nation was never a so-called "natural nation" demarcated purely by blood, but rather a "historical nation" coalesced through shared historical responsibility, in which "the many directions and mixed surnames all become one lineage." The Chinese nation is a community sharing weal and woe, sharing honor and disgrace, sharing life and death, and sharing destiny. Inward cohesion and pluralistic unity are the path jointly chosen by all ethnic groups in history.
In recent years, some Western scholars have also used "homogenization" to describe "great unity," holding that unity necessarily means the suppression of difference and the dissolution of plurality. This understanding neither accords with the facts of Chinese history nor grasps the philosophical core of great unity. The unity of Chinese civilization unfolds within a framework of pluralistic coexistence. The Guoyu states, "Harmony generates all things; sameness cannot sustain life," elucidating the principle that the unity of diversity can generate all things while monotonous sameness cannot develop; the Doctrine of the Mean states, "All things are nurtured together without harming one another, and the ways run in parallel without conflicting," regarding the coexistence of differences as the normal state of the cosmos and society. Translated into historical practice, China under great unity has always maintained a pattern of pluralistic coexistence — manifested not only in the diversity of dialects, customs, and the multiplicity of literary and artistic styles and forms, but even extending into mentality and habits. In the pre-Qin period, regional cultures such as Heluo culture, Qilu culture, Jingchu culture, and Bashu culture initially took shape; the Buddhist schools that appeared successively in the Sui dynasty included the Tiantai and Sanlun schools, and after the Tang dynasty there appeared the Weishi, Huayan, Chan, Mi, Jing, and Lü schools; Song dynasty Neo-Confucianism was summarized into the four schools of Lian, Luo, Guan, and Min; in Qing dynasty classical studies there was the so-called distinction between the "Wu school" and the "Wan school"; and so on. "Each, according to its geographical conditions, political customs, and native talents, unfolds and establishes itself as a school of its own." This is precisely the vivid confirmation of each school's beauty in its own way under the great-unification pattern of Chinese civilization.
At present, changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and changes of the world, of the times, and of history are unfolding in unprecedented ways. On the new journey, we should strengthen historical confidence and cultural confidence, deeply appreciate the unified character of Chinese civilization as pluralistic yet unified and inwardly cohesive, draw from the great-unification tradition the intellectual essences of unity, solidarity, inclusiveness, and sustainability, continuously consolidate the common ideological foundation, gather the mighty force of endeavor, and propel the Chinese nation toward a brighter future in unity and solidarity.
Author: Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Return to TopBy: 王英津
Using the First Five-Year Plan to Guide Hong Kong's High-Quality Development
Wang Yingjin
On September 16, 2026, the First Five-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026–2030) was officially released. This is the first time since Hong Kong's return to the motherland that an overall high-level strategic planning (顶层设计, ding ceng she ji - "top, layer, design") has been conducted for its economic and social development. The Plan is grounded in Hong Kong's actual local conditions, proactively aligns with the national "15th Five-Year Plan," and makes systematic arrangements for development across such areas as economic growth, improvement of people's livelihoods, scientific and technological innovation and transformation, and regional coordination, charting a practical path for Hong Kong to better integrate into and serve the national development overall situation and to promote high-quality economic and social development.
I
Since the return, Hong Kong, grounded in the institutional framework of "One Country, Two Systems," has fully leveraged its unique geographical advantages of backing onto the motherland and connecting with the world, effectively responded to internal and external risks and challenges, and achieved sustained consolidation of its economic foundation and social stability and order.
In recent years, Hong Kong's economy has grown steadily, with its local gross domestic product exceeding HK$3 trillion in 2024 and real growth of 3.5% in 2025. Its status as an international financial, shipping, and trade center has become more consolidated, its economic freedom ranking has retained first place globally for consecutive years, its Global Financial Centres Index score ranks third in the world, its World Competitiveness ranking has returned to the global top three, and its World Talent Ranking has surged to fourth globally and first in Asia. The International Financial Leaders Investment Summit has been successfully held for consecutive sessions, a large number of cross-border trade and investmentandfinancing projects have been implemented, its function of connecting internally and externally has been continuously strengthened and expanded, and its important role as a bridge and window has become more prominent. Investment in people's livelihoods and social sectors has increased, sustained efforts have been made in land supply and public housing construction, public services such as education, healthcare, transportation, and elderly care have been continuously improved, and the social welfare security system has been gradually perfected. The social governance system has been continuously improved, diverse cultures have developed inclusively, and citizens' various rights have been effectively guaranteed. These abundant achievements have laid a solid foundation for Hong Kong to embark on a new journey of high-quality development.
However, while the economy and society continue to develop, the limitations of Hong Kong's original development model have gradually become apparent, and some long-accumulated difficult problems have also become increasingly prominent. In the field of economic development, Hong Kong's industrial structure is relatively monolithic, with the services sector accounting for approximately 94% of local GDP, while manufacturing accounts for only about 1%. Hong Kong's economy is highly externally oriented, and its foreign trade and capital markets are significantly affected by changes in external demand. Supply of industrial land is insufficient, and land costs are relatively high. In the field of people's livelihoods, housing has always been a problem Hong Kong cannot avoid, and the growth of public housing supply has struggled to match social demand. Although Hong Kong's unemployment rate remains generally low, there is structural imbalance: the financial services sector accounts for 26.2% of local GDP, yet it can only absorb 7.2% of the employed population; the number of people employed in manufacturing accounts for 2.1% of total employed persons; youth employment problems are prominent. Public healthcare resources have long been in a relatively tight state, and there is an obvious gap in the supply of elderly care services. In the field of scientific and technological innovation and development, Hong Kong possesses multiple world-renowned universities and strong basic research capabilities, but the layout of applied research is relatively sparse, the chain for transforming scientific research achievements is not smooth enough, and linkage with actual industrial demand is insufficient. In the field of regional coordination, Hong Kong's advantage of relying on the support of the motherland still has room for further exploration, and the synergy of regional coordination with the mainland, particularly with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, has not yet been fully released.
The above problems are deep-seated issues formed by the interweaving of multiple factors, which require relying on a more forward-looking and systematic policy framework to make more precise and detailed arrangements for relevant development fields, and to make determined efforts to solve the difficult problems and pain points involved.
II
Hong Kong's first five-year plan directly faces the development reality, places the resolution of deep-seated problems in a prominent position, and with detailed content spanning 7 parts, 28 chapters, and approximately 60,000 characters, focuses on precisely implementing policies targeting Hong Kong's various development shortcomings, striving to promote industrial transformation and solve people's livelihood pain points.
Promote diversified industrial development and enhance economic resilience. The Plan takes enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness as its focus and makes systematic arrangements around consolidating traditional advantages in finance, shipping, and trade. In finance, it consolidates and enhances the functions of offshore renminbi, wealth management, and other businesses, and optimizes and expands market connectivity mechanisms. It advances "Finance+," using finance to serve the real economy. Taking gold as an entry point, it builds a commodity trading ecosystem. In shipping, it promotes the transformation of ports toward high-value-added businesses and deepens port coordination within the Greater Bay Area. In trade, it upholds freedom and openness, expands international economic and trade networks, builds a high-value-added supply chain service center, advances the upgrade of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), develops digital trade, and aligns with the Belt and Road Initiative. These arrangements stem from the fact that traditional industries are the basic foundation of Hong Kong's economy, accounting for more than 50% of local GDP; they not only absorb a large amount of employment, but also serve as the foundation for Hong Kong's high-quality economic and social development and an important support for industrial transformation and upgrading. To optimize the local economic structure, the Plan strives to cultivate emerging industries such as the low-altitude economy and the digital economy, strengthen the foundation of the real economy, and make determined efforts to advance Hong Kong's new industrialization. With the development and construction of the Northern Metropolis, it revitalizes contiguous idle land resources and expands development space for advanced industries. It continues to broaden Hong Kong's diversified international economic cooperation channels, optimize the layout of opening up, and enhance Hong Kong's ability to resist economic risks.
Fill shortcomings in the field of people's livelihoods and enhance social welfare. In response to insufficient housing and land supply, the Plan continues to expand land sources, advance large-scale land development projects such as the Northern Metropolis, steadily expand public housing supply, and clearly proposes hard targets such as producing approximately 1,400 hectares of "ready land" in the next five years, basically resolving substandard subdivided flats by 2030, and shortening the average waiting time for public rental housing to below four years, forcefully responding to Hong Kong citizens' "urgent, difficult, anxious, and longing" concerns.In response to youth employment difficulties, the Plan creates more high-quality employment opportunities through measures such as cultivating scientific and technological innovation industries, expanding industry internship positions, enhancing vocational skills, and building online employment service platforms. Facing tight medical, elderly care, and childcare resources, the Plan continues to expand the capacity of public medical services, improve specialized service supporting facilities, and within five years, the cumulative number of members of District Health Centres will reach 1 million people, genuinely benefiting ordinary Hong Kong citizens. Elderly care and childcare supporting facilities will expand in tandem; funded long-term care service places will increase from approximately69,500 at the end of 2025 to approximately77,500 by the end of 2030; and places for toddler care services will expand from approximately1,500 to approximately3,300, comprehensively improving people's livelihood supporting facilities.
Improve mechanisms for transforming scientific and technological achievements and invigorate innovation vitality. While consolidating its own advantages in basic research, the Plan promotes research projects to better align with actual industrial demand, helping to consolidate and enhance the global leading position of the "Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou" innovation cluster. It establishes a Microelectronics Research Institute, an Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, anda Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, which, together with the existing Productivity Promotion Bureau and Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, form the "Five Major Research Institutions," jointly constituting a new landscape for Hong Kong's innovation and technology development. Relying on innovation and technology carriers such as Cyberport, the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, and the San Tin Technopole, it strengthens the connection and collaboration among universities, research institutions, and business entities. It establishes a ten-billion-yuan Innovation and Technology Industry Guidance Fund and improves mechanisms for guiding and supporting industry-university-research collaboration. It encourages enterprises to build their own R&D centers, pilot-scale testing facilities, and mass production bases, solving the problem of relatively insufficient applied research. Using the "Study in Hong Kong" brand to attract talent, it promotes the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent, building a highland for gathering international high-end talent. It optimizes arrangements for the cross-border flow of innovation and technology factors, builds platforms for transforming achievements, and assists in realizing the industrialization and implementation of scientific research achievements
Deepen regional coordinated development and broaden the pattern of cooperation. The Plan focuses on participating in the construction of the Greater Bay Area, designating the Northern Metropolis as the core hub for connecting with the Greater Bay Area, linking Qianhai, Nansha, and Hengqin to carry out differentiated cooperation, providing spatial carriers for coordinated development. With the development goals of university towns, innovation and technology, industry, and livability, workability, and travelability, it lays out the Northern Metropolis, building it into the main platform for Hong Kong's deep participation in Greater Bay Area construction, proactive integration into and service of the national development overall situation, anda new engine for developing new quality productive forces. It advances the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure, accelerating the construction of cross-border projects such as the Northern Link spur line, coordinating the spatial layout of the Northern Metropolis, and consolidating the facility foundation for regional coordination. It accelerates the "soft connectivity" of rule alignment and mechanism docking, orderly expands pilot programs for mutual recognition of professional qualifications, reduces institutional costs for the flow of talent factors, and facilitates cross-border business operations by professionals. In response to the sticking points in the connection and coordination of medical and social security systems between the two places, it promotes the alignment of public service policies in healthcare, elderly care, and other areas, enhancing the convenience of cross-border travel for citizens. To promote industrial coordination in the Greater Bay Area, the Plan strengthens the linkage and collaboration between Hong Kong's ports and the Greater Bay Area port cluster, focusing on developing high-value-added shipping services. It expands cooperation in trade and supply chain fields, builds normalized channels for industrial docking, guides Hong Kong's financial and professional service resources to empower the real economy of the Greater Bay Area, and promotes the coordinated industrial development of the two places
III
Hong Kong's first five-year plan comprehensively aligns with the national "15th Five-Year Plan," fully leverages its own unique advantages, makes up for shortcomings and deficiencies, and marks that Hong Kong is integrating into and serving the national development overall situation with a more proactive posture, examining its own development with a broader and longer-term vision, and embracing the future with a more responsible and enterprising attitude
Promote the institutionalization of Hong Kong's proactive alignment with national strategies and its integration into and service of the national development overall situation. The current international situation is complex and volatile; China is the powerhouse and stabilizer of global economic development. The Plan connects upward with national strategies, downward with people's livelihoods and well-being, internally consolidates the foundation for industrial upgrading, and externally expands space for global cooperation, marking a clear course for Hong Kong's moving from social disorder to prosperity (由治及兴, you zhi ji xing - "from, govern, to, prosper"). In recent years, Hong Kong's integration into and service of the national development overall situation has mainly relied on special cooperation agreements, departmental docking, project cooperation, and other means, lacking a unified, stable, mid-and-long-term governance carrier at the SAR level. Through independently compiling a mid-and-long-term development plan, Hong Kong proactively benchmarks its own development goals against national development strategies, transforming macro strategies such as assisting Chinese modernization, serving the nation's high-level opening up, and participating in Greater Bay Area construction into implementable stage-by-stage tasks. The Plan internalizes national development needs into Hong Kong's local mid-and-long-term governance arrangements, which will continue to consolidate the basic pattern of Hong Kong developing in synchronization with (同频共振, tong pin gong zhen - "same, frequency, resonate") the nation's development
Continuously enhance the overall governance effectiveness of the SAR government. In the past period, constrained by factors such as the social environment, political ecosystem, and departmental division of labor, the SAR government's administration has mostly focused on annual deployments, with various policy bureaus focusing on daily affairs in their respective areas of responsibility, insufficient cross-departmental coordination and linkage, anda lack of cross-cycle, overall planning. The SAR government's first mid-and-long-term development plan is coordinated and led by the Chief Executive, with all government departments advancing it collaboratively, effectively strengthening the top-level coordination capacity of the SAR administrative system. At the same time, the Plan complements the annual Policy Address:the Plan establishes Hong Kong's mid-and-long-term development blueprint and clarifies stage-by-stage key development tasks; the annual Policy Address closely follows the Plan's deployments, detailing annual work targets and specific implementation measures, ensuring that the Plan's various tasks are implemented year by year. The organic connection between mid-and-long-term planning layout and annual specific implementation not only ensures the continuous advancement of major development policies, but also enhances the stability, continuity, and systematic nature of the SAR government's administration
Make up for the shortcomings of Hong Kong's free market regulation. Hong Kong is one of the economies with the highest degree of economic freedom in the world, having long pursued a policy of "positive non-interventionism." This policy has promoted full market competition. However, as the world undergoes accelerated changes of a scale unseen in a century and internal and external risks and challenges intensify, better combining an effective market with a proactive government, and compiling a five-year plan, is precisely the way to respond to these changes. The value of the Plan lies in, without changing the capitalist system, without changing the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and without breaking through the framework of the Basic Law, absorbing the mainland's systematic and forward-looking governance methods, making up for the shortcomings of the free market system's short-termism, enabling Hong Kong's development to more proactively align with the national strategic layout, more systematically respond to local people's livelihood governance demands, and more calmly cope with the complex changes in the external environment. The Plan strictly maintains the attribute of SAR government governance, focusing on guidance and direction, not intervening in the micro-operations of enterprises, not replacing the role of the market in resource allocation; through top-level government coordination, it clarifies future key development areas, public resource investment directions, major infrastructure layouts, and policy optimization directions, making Hong Kong's forward direction clearer, social consensus more cohesive, government governance more effective, development momentum stronger, and citizens' well-being better guaranteed
Improve Hong Kong's risk management and control system for coordinating development and security. To promote development, security must never be ignored. Hong Kong's security is formed in the course of development, and must likewise be consolidated and enhanced through development. The Plan, grounded in consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's unique advantages, continuously strengthens new momentum for development, places greater emphasis on security in areas such as finance, shipping, trade, and the protection of overseas interests, and earnestly guards against interference and sabotage by external hostile forces. The Plan systematically improves the whole-chain risk management and control system, establishes normalized risk investigation mechanisms, refines prevention and control standards and daily management processes in key areas, promotes the transformation of risk management and control from post-hoc emergency handling toward forward-looking prediction and proactive prevention and control models, compresses the space for risk generation and spread from the source, enhances the capability for rapid handling and post-incident recovery after risks occur, and builds a solid security foundation for Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability and high-quality development
The promulgation of the first five-year plan marks a key step by Hong Kong in mid-and-long-term development planning. Hong Kong possesses a mature rule-of-law environment, a relatively complete professional service system, and an internationalized talent network; coupled with the vast market provided by the mainland, it has the practical foundation to advance long-term development. As all sectors of Hong Kong society adhere to the foundation of the "one country" principle, make good use of the benefits of the "two systems," solidly advance the implementation of the Plan's various deployments, proactively integrate into and serve the national development overall situation, collaboratively promote industrial transformation and improvement of people's livelihoods, they will surely explore a path of high-quality development that suits their own actual conditions
Author: Professor, School of International Relations, Renmin University of China
Return to TopBy: 蓝庆新
Let the BRICS strength better lead the Global South
Lan Qingxin
This year marks the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation. Over the past 20 years, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has continuously deepened cooperation in trade, investment, finance, science and technology, and other fields, jointly responding to challenges such as the international financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change, firmly safeguarding the common interests of the Global South, demonstrating vigorous vitality, and entering a new stage of high-quality development in "Greater BRICS Cooperation." As the first echelon of the Global South, BRICS countries adhere to independence and autonomy, actively explore development paths suited to their own national conditions, and have become a model of emerging markets and developing countries uniting for self-strengthening. In September 2026, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized the course of BRICS development at the first plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit, once again clarifying the historical mission and pointing out the direction of progress for BRICS cooperation. The international community has paid close attention to General Secretary Xi Jinping's attendance at this BRICS Summit, positively evaluating the key role China has played in pooling BRICS strength, advancing BRICS cooperation, and promoting the development and revitalization of the Global South. Against the backdrop of the accelerating evolution of a world undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, how can BRICS countries better represent and safeguard the common interests of the Global South and play a greater role in reforming and improving global governance?
Since its launch in 2006, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has risen from foreign ministers' dialogues to regular summits of leaders, grown from an economic dialogue platform into a comprehensive strategic cooperation mechanism covering a wide range of fields, and has developed into the world's most influential cooperation platform for Global South countries today. First, institutional building has been continuously improved. BRICS countries have already established a multi-level, all-dimensional institutional framework led by leaders' summits, supported by ministerial meetings and various working groups, with broad participation of social forces, with cooperation content covering dozens of fields including economy and trade, security, finance, science and technology, culture, and others. Second, the ballast-stone role of economic cooperation has become prominent. Currently, the economic aggregate of BRICS countries accounts for about 30% of the world, exceeding the Group of Seven in purchasing power parity terms, with total trade accounting for one-fifth of the world, and contributing more than 50% to global economic growth, profoundly rewriting the world economic landscape. BRICS cooperation continues to extend into emerging fields such as green development, digital economy, and artificial intelligence, continuously opening up new growth points for economic cooperation. Third, it promotes the reform and improvement of global governance. BRICS countries have developed from 4 countries into a "BRICS family" comprising 11 member states and 10 partner states; the BRICS cooperation mechanism has evolved from a collection of several large emerging economies into an increasingly broader South-South cooperation mechanism. Relying on cooperation mechanisms such as "BRICS Plus," it promotes the coordination of positions and joint voice of the vast number of Global South countries in areas such as the international rules-based system and peace and security, pushes global governance toward a just and reasonable direction, and enhances their own right to speak and influence.
At present, the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for world multipolarization, but the Global South faces long-standing historical injustices and various problems and challenges. For example, in global governance, the existing international governance system has not yet adapted to the changes of the times, with Global South countries severely underrepresented and under-voiced, and their legitimate demands failing to receive due attention; in development, the vast number of Global South countries have structural shortcomings in economy and technology, insufficient capacity for sustainable development, and are more vulnerable to external shocks amid major global transformations; and so on. This situation not only drags down the pace of revitalization of Global South countries, but also weakens the capacity of the international community to jointly address shared challenges. Safeguarding their own development interests and pursuing fairness and justice have become urgent demands of the Global South. At this summit, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that "BRICS countries must firmly stand on the correct side of history, boldly serve as vanguards of the times, lead the international order toward a more just and reasonable direction, and work together to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind," emphasizing that"to stabilize the world and make it better, BRICS countries must grasp historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, play an active, stable, and constructive role in international affairs, and enhance the common well-being of mankind." Based on the expectations of the times, the BRICS cooperation mechanism needs to continuously improve coordination and linkage with the Global South, use institutional dialogue to pool the greatest common denominator of the Global South, play an important role in issues such as upholding international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, promoting common development, and responding to global challenges, and transform the collective advantages of the Global South into a constructive force for reshaping the international order, realizing world fairness, justice, and common development
Firmly uphold international rule of law. Rule of law is the inevitable choice for the international community to achieve good governance. International rules must be based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; it cannot be that whoever has the thickest arms or the loudest voice gets to call the shots, still less can one form cliques or gangs (拉帮结伙, la bang jie huo - "pull, gang, tie, group") and package one's own "family rules and gang regulations" as international rules. BRICS countries have repeatedly emphasized in declarations and statements of successive leaders' summits their commitment to upholding international rule of law, safeguarding international law, fully and completely observing the purposes and principles of the UN Charter as their indispensable cornerstone, maintaining the core role of the United Nations in the international system, and opposing selective enforcement and double standards in the application of international law and rules. BRICS cooperation adheres to international rule-of-law norms such as sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs, understands and respects the diversity of civilizations among Global South countries, firmly supports countries' independent choice of development paths, political systems, and modernization models suited to their own national conditions, and effectively safeguards the sovereignty, security, and development interests of Global South countries. The BRICS cooperation mechanism has demonstrated through concrete actions that international rules should be jointly written and jointly upheld by all, rather than dictated by a few countries. The rise of BRICS countries and the growth of the BRICS cooperation mechanism are precisely about enabling Global South countries to enjoy equal voice in international affairs, promoting global good governance through sound international law, and advancing the evolution of the international order toward a more just and reasonable direction
Jointly uphold and practice true multilateralism. The essence of multilateralism is that international affairs are discussed and decided by all together, and that the future and destiny of the world are jointly grasped by all countries. No country can achieve development by standing outside the global governance system, nor can any country win the future by divorcing itself from international cooperation. Currently, unilateralism and protectionism are intensifying, and calls from the international community for upholding fairness, justice, and revitalizing multilateralism are rising continuously. The BRICS cooperation mechanism practices true multilateralism, does not form alliances, does not confront, does not target any third party, does not engage in exclusive closed "small circles," insists on being the "backbone" promoting unity and cooperation among Global South countries, upholds the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation, and win-win results, supports enhancing the representation and voice of developing countries in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, promotes WTO reform to maintain the correct direction, upholds principles such as most-favored-nation treatment and special and differential treatment, actively explores formulating future-oriented new rules, and resists a few countries dominating the reform agenda. Using mechanisms such as the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement as starting points, it carries out financing, issuing local-currency bonds, promoting local-currency trade and investment settlement, etc., providing the Global South with financial support and risk protection that carry no political strings attached and no ideological export. Along the way, BRICS countries have gained more and more partners on the journey, and their path of cooperation has grown ever wider. BRICS practice has fully demonstrated that multilateralism is an important pillar for world peace and development, the only way that best serves the interests of all peoples, and indeed the aspiration of the people and the trend of the times. "Greater BRICS" should rightly shoulder the heavy responsibility of the times, join hands with the Global South, transform the broad consensus of the international community into concrete actions, build a governance pattern with broad participation of diverse actors and equal consultation, and let the torch of multilateralism illuminate the path of human progress
Jointly advance common development. Development bears on people's livelihoods and dignity, is an inalienable right of all countries, and is even more a contest between hope and despair. World prosperity and stability cannot be built on the basis of the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer. All countries in the world share intertwined destinies, sharing weal and woe; blowing out others' lamps does not make one's own light brighter. When developing countries develop, the entire world will have a more solid foundation for prosperity and stability, and developed countries will also benefit from it. As the backbone of common development of the Global South, BRICS countries are committed to opening up and sharing their own development dividends, such as strong economic capacity and market consumption potential, with Global South countries by promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, providing them with development opportunities and stable growth momentum, and enhancing their economic development strength; expanding practical cooperation in investment and financing, industrial cooperation, technology transfer, and other areas, helping the Global South explore modernization paths suited to their own national conditions; focusing on the special difficulties and development aspirations of the least developed countries, providing financial and technical assistance in key areas such as infrastructure construction, poverty reduction, and public health, filling shortcomings in infrastructure and industrial technology, and enhancing these countries' endogenous development capacity; promoting the international community to attach importance to the problem of unbalanced development, urging developed countries to fulfill their development assistance commitments, and creating a favorable international development environment for the vast number of developing countries. "Only when all develop together is it true development, and only sustainable development is good development" — this concept has already become an important consensus and action guideline for BRICS cooperation, fully demonstrating that development is not the patent of a few countries, but the common right of all countries. BRICS cooperation should continue to adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, pool the joint strength of the Global South, jointly promote truly open, inclusive, and beneficial international cooperation, leave no country and no person behind, make the "golden signboard" of BRICS cooperation shine even brighter, with an even more promising future
Jointly respond to the endless array of global challenges. Currently, the world landscape is accelerating its evolution, traditional and non-traditional security threats emerge one after another, and instability and uncertainty in the international situation have risen markedly. Global threats and challenges require global responses. The closer BRICS cooperation is, the more united and self-reliant the Global South is, the greater confidence, the more methods, and the better results it will have in responding to external risks and challenges. In response to frequent international conflicts, BRICS countries take a firm stand and uphold justice, adhere to a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept, seek addressing both symptoms and root causes (标本兼治, biao ben jian zhi - "mark, root, treat, govern"), oppose Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, oppose violation of other countries' sovereignty and interference in other countries' internal affairs, constructively participate in resolving hotspot issues, strive to eliminate war and chaos and maintain peace, making unique BRICS contributions. In non-traditional security fields such as food and energy, climate change, and artificial intelligence, BRICS countries attach great importance to the interconnected, transnational, and diverse nature of non-traditional security issues, adopt multi-pronged and comprehensive measures, improve rules, and jointly seek long-term solutions. Rainbows and wind and rain coexist, opportunities and challenges coexist — this is an eternal dialectical law. For BRICS countries to achieve better development for themselves, they must grasp historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, strengthen strategic partnerships, deepen cooperation in all fields, turn crises into opportunities and turn danger into safety (化险为夷, hua xian wei yi - "transform, danger, become, harm"), play an active, stable, and constructive role in responding to risks and challenges, boldly serve as vanguard forces in jointly shouldering the responsibilities of the times, and accelerate the development and revitalization of the Global South
Over the past two decades of braving all hardships on the way (风雨兼程, feng yu jian cheng - "wind, rain, together, journey"), BRICS countries have made great strides with high spirits (踔厉奋发, zhuo li fen fa - "strive, energetic, vigorous, exert"), advancing hand in hand, jointly burnishing the golden calling card of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. As the vanguard of the Global South, BRICS cooperation's leading role in the Global South's unity, self-reliance, and common development is increasingly prominent. The BRICS Summit will be held in China next year, which will also open the third "Golden Decade" of BRICS cooperation. BRICS countries will continue to deepen the "Greater BRICS" cooperation pattern, rely on the "BRICS Plus" mechanism to further pool the collective strength of the Global South, and will surely push BRICS cooperation to a new level, demonstrate new achievements, open up new prospects, and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South
Author: Vice Dean and Professor of the School of International Economics and Trade, University of International Business and Economics
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Study Q&A
How should we understand that persevering in tempering strong Party spirit is a lifelong subject for Party members and cadres
Liu Yuan
Persevering in tempering strong Party spirit is one of the Fourteen Commitments (十四个坚持) of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, and is a lifelong subject for Party members and cadres. If Party spirit is pure, then convictions are firm; if Party spirit is strong, then the cause prospers. Party spirit cultivation is not a private matter of an individual Party member; when the Party spirit cultivation of thousands upon thousands of Party members converges, it manifests the political character and spiritual outlook of a political party,and bears on whether the Party can forever win the support and endorsement of the masses. Therefore, we must regard tempering strong Party spirit as a foundational project for consolidating roots and nourishing the essence,and grasp it unremittingly.
Party spirit is the inherent essential attribute of a political party. If we say Communist Party members are made of special material, then this special material is the Party spirit unique to Communists. Comrade Mao Zedong once said: "Uniform action, uniform opinion, collectivism — that is Party spirit." Whether a Party member's Party spirit is strong or not is seen most clearly in specific people and matters. In early 1950, Comrade Deng Xiaoping summoned Zhang Guohua, commander of the Eighteenth Army, who had originally been prepared to lead his troops to take over the prosperous southern Sichuan, to deploy the task of entering Tibet,and his first sentence was: "Today's conversation relies on Party spirit." Zhang Guohua resolutely replied: "I will obey all arrangements of the Party." In sharp contrast to this is the Liu Ligong incident during the Yan'an period. After Liu Ligong graduated from the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and entered the Party's training class to study, the Party organization decided to let him go to the grassroots for training, but he insisted on entering the Marxism-Leninism Academy or returning to his original place of work,and later proposed that he must go to work at the General Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. The Party organization talked with him seven times, yet he still refused to execute the Party's decision,and was ultimately expelled from the Party. These two examples — one putting the Party's interests first, without bargaining over conditions or calculating gains and losses; the other placing personal will above the organization, haggling and refusing to obey — the strength or weakness of Party spirit, the high or low of realm, are vastly different or worlds apart (判若云泥, pan ruo yun ni - "judge, different, cloud, mud"),and are worth deep reflection by every Party member.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions on strengthening Party spirit cultivation, pointing out that Party spirit is the cornerstone of Party members'and cadres' standing firm, establishing careers, establishing words,and establishing virtue; emphasizing that Party spirit, in the final analysis, is a question of stance,and that the fundamental yardstick for measuring the strength of Party spirit is the two characters "public" and "private"; emphasizing that Party spirit education is the "study of the mind" of Communists; and so on. Today, what are the basic requirements for speaking of Party spirit? Studying the General Secretary's relevant important expositions, we can grasp this from at least the following aspects. First, loyalty to the Party is the most basic requirement of Party spirit; to speak of Party spirit is to love the Party while in the Party, speak for the Party while in the Party, worry about the Party while in the Party,and work for the Party while in the Party, always maintaining high consistency with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in thought, politics,and action. Second, the fundamental question of Party spirit is the question of worldview; to speak of Party spirit is to firmly ideal and convictions, tighten the "master switch" of worldview, outlook on life,and values,and become firm believers and faithful practitioners of the lofty ideal of communism and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Third, Party spirit and the people's nature are consistent; to speak of Party spirit is to firmly stand on the people's stance,and unify loyalty to the Party with responsibility to the people. Fourth, observing rules and discipline is an important test of Party spirit for Party members and cadres; to speak of Party spirit is to strengthen organizational discipline,and unconditionally abide by the Party Constitution, Party rules,and Party discipline. Fifth, seeking truth from facts is the greatest Party spirit; to speak of Party spirit is to make being an honest person, speaking honest words,and doing honest deeds a life creed,and dare to uphold truth and correct errors for the interests of the Party and the people. Sixth, Party spirit, Party conduct,and Party discipline are an organic whole; to speak of Party spirit is to insist on grasping Party spirit, Party conduct,and Party discipline together,and link rectifying conduct, enforcing discipline,and combating corruption with each other.
Does emphasizing Party spirit mean erasing individuality? This is entirely a misunderstanding. Party spirit and individuality are dialectically unified. At the Seventh National Congress of the Party, Comrade Mao Zedong once profoundly and wittily pointed out,"Party spirit is universality, individuality is particularity,""one cannot imagine that our Party has Party spirit, yet every Party member has no individuality, all being blocks of wood — 1.2 million Party members would be 1.2 million blocks of wood." He also cleverly adapted Gong Zizhen's poem into "I urge Marxism-Leninism to bestir itself once more, and not be restricted to one mold in sending down talent," to indicate that our Party needs is lively, each with one's own strengths, talents. Marxist political parties never exclude individuality, but rather emphasize giving full play to Party members' initiative, enthusiasm,and creativity under the premise of adhering to the principle of Party spirit. Of course, from the moment a Party member joins the Party organization, one should bear in mind that one's first identity is that of a Communist Party member,and one's first duty is to work for the Party; one must never be unconstrained and unrestrained in imagination (天马行空, tian ma xing kong - "heavenly, horse, travel, sky") or acting solely according to one's own whims (我行我素, wo xing wo su - "I, act, I, manner") — this is entirely a different matter from developing individuality.
Why must tempering strong Party spirit be made a lifelong subject? This is because Party spirit cannot naturally strengthen with the increase of Party seniority, nor can it naturally strengthen with the promotion of positions. Party spirit tempering has a long-term, arduous,and repetitive nature, just as the saying goes,"Joining the Party organization is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but joining the Party ideologically is a lifetime of events." Comrade Liu Shaoqi's book On the Cultivation of Communist Party Members systematically expounds the importance of persistently strengthening Party spirit cultivation. Many older-generation revolutionaries are models of paying attention to Party spirit tempering; Comrade Zhou Enlai insisted on"live to old age, learn to old age, transform to old age,"and used his entire life to practice and answer what is a"lifelong subject." Today's young Party members and cadres relatively lack strict tempering in intra-Party political life,and are more susceptible to erosion by individualism, liberalism,and the like; lacking sufficient resolve in the face of various real-world temptations, they especially must regard tempering Party spirit as a matter of a lifetime. In reality, some Party members and cadres are being overly selective or picking and choosing (挑肥拣瘦, tiao fei jian shou - "pick, fat, select, thin") toward tasks assigned by the organization — doing what suits them and shoving off what does not; some walk around problems and retreat before difficulties; some have deviations in their view of political achievements, emphasizing"visible achievements" over"latent achievements"; some abuse power for personal gain, act like officials and masters, engage in privilege-seeking,and even fall into the abyss of violating laws and discipline. All these phenomena, at their root, lie in the weakening of Party spirit and the imbalance between public and private interests. Once the dike of Party spirit collapses, all kinds of erroneous things may pour in through the breach.
How can one temper strong Party spirit? This requires sustained effort from multiple aspects. We must place political cultivation at the foremost position of Party spirit cultivation, deeply comprehend the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), continuously improve political judgment, political comprehension,and political execution,and be clear-headed persons in politics. We must draw nourishment for Party spirit from the Party's innovative theories, deeply study and comprehend Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, consolidate the foundation of faith, replenish the calcium of spirit,and steady the rudder of thought. We must regard studying, observing,and implementing the Party Constitution, Party rules,and Party discipline as important content of Party spirit cultivation, achieving resolute response to what the Party Central Committee advocates, resolute compliance with what the Party Central Committee decides,and resolute refusal of what the Party Central Committee prohibits. Serious and earnest intra-Party political life is the"great furnace" for tempering Party spirit; we must strictly implement the Several Guidelines on Intra-Party Political Life under New Circumstances, wield well the weapon of criticism and self-criticism,and temper political character in positive and healthy ideological struggle. Whether one dares to assume responsibility and take on burdens best reveals a Party member's or cadre's Party spirit and conduct. We must actively undergo tempering at the front line of reform, development,and stability, in major struggles,and in urgent, difficult, dangerous,and heavy tasks, integrate loyalty, integrity,and responsibility into one's blood and manifest them in action, firmly establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, consciously cultivate Party spirit in bringing well-being to the people, test Party spirit in exercising power impartially,and manifest Party spirit in taking on responsibilities and making achievements.
A Party member is a"flag" among the masses; the advanced image of millions upon millions of Communist Party members is the glorious image of our Party. The vast majority of Party members and cadres must regard tempering strong Party spirit as a required course for a lifetime, make sustained, long-term effort in firmly establishing ideal and convictions, forging loyalty to the Party, cultivating deep feelings for the people, purifying moral character,and maintaining integrity and honesty, always preserve the political character of Communists,and hand over to the Party and the people a qualified answer sheet worthy of the era.
Author: Deputy Secretary in Charge of Day-to-Day Work of the Party Committee of the Organs Directly Under the Shandong Provincial Party Committee
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Dear Comrade Editor:
When deploying a task, first ask whether brother units have done it; when advancing a piece of work, first look around to see whether there is a precedent. Drawing on references and grasping the pace in work is originally a steady approach, but it also easily forms an inertia of benchmarking everything against others and seeking sameness everywhere: briefing materials are exactly the same (如出一辙, ru chu yi zhe - "as, come, out, same"), self-inspection checklists deliberately converge toward uniformity, and everything must be compared against others and kept in step with everyone. This mentality appears to seek stability and avoid risk, but in reality it shackles the hands and feet of those who do work and start undertakings.
Grassroots work has many lines of responsibility and fine divisions of labor; different departments have different functional positioning and business content, and the foundation for advancing the same task and the practical difficulties involved are also vastly different in every respect (千差万别, qian cha wan bie - "thousand, differ, ten thousand, distinguish"). Mature practices that have already been implemented may not necessarily be suitable for large-scale promotion and application; work areas not yet ventured into also do not represent forbidden zones or minefields. Those good experiences and good practices that are widely recognized are precisely paths blazed on the basis of one's own actual conditions. If one waits for others to blaze the trail first in everything, waits to see others make the first move in everything, and dares not take the first step, on the surface this appears steady, but in reality it is a failure to dare to take responsibility.
The ultimate effectiveness of work has never been the uniform neatness of looking all the same (千人一面, qian ren yi mian - "thousand, people, one, face"), but rather the precise efficiency of each fulfilling its own responsibility. "No need to wait for others to blaze the trail first" by no means opposes benchmarking against advanced models or advocates working in isolation without regard to reality (闭门造车, bi men zao che - "close, door, create, vehicle"), but rather requires leaping out of thinking traps and grasping well the measure between learning from others and basing oneself on reality. For the broad ranks of cadres, it is better to ponder more on how to do things and how to achieve results, and less on agonizing over whether others have done it or whether mistakes will occur; in grasping planning, anchor on one's own pain points, fit local realities, do not engage in the rigid copying of copying others blindly without adaptation (依葫芦画瓢, yi hu lu hua piao - "rely on, gourd, draw, gourd"), concentrate one's mind on doing real work, and invest one's energy into seeking real results.
Wang Yuxuan, Organization Department of the Guanyun County Party Committee, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province
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Continuously purifying the "three circles" of one's social circle, life circle, and circle of friends, and always maintaining a sense of awe and reverence (心有所畏, xin you suo wei - "heart, have, something, fear"), exercising self-restraint in speech (言有所戒, yan you suo jie - "speech, have, something, caution"), and exercising self-restraint in conduct (行有所止, xing you suo zhi - "action, have, something, stop"), is a required course for young cadres in cultivating virtue and self-discipline (立德修身, li de xiu shen - "establish, virtue, cultivate, body") and growing up healthily.
Draw a clear line between public and private interests, and purify the social circle. Young cadres have relatively little life experience; if their resolve against corruption is not strong, they can easily blur the line between public and private interests and abandon the principles of social interaction in the course of human relationships. To purify the social circle, one must adhere to maintaining appropriate boundaries in social relationships (亲而有度, qin er you du - "close, but, have, limit") and being upright while remaining proactive (清而有为, qing er you wei - "pure, but, have, achievement"), clearly distinguishing normal official business dealings from social engagements laced with selfish motives, always bearing in mind one's identity as a Party member and cadre, and resolutely resisting erroneous practices such as "circle culture" and exchanging favors for personal gain.
Nurture a clean and upright atmosphere, and purify the life circle. Young cadres are at a critical stage of growth and development; once they act purely on impulse without restraint (随心所欲, sui xin suo yu - "follow, heart, what, desire") and slacken their self-discipline, they can easily develop habits of hedonism and extravagance and become tainted by vulgar and unhealthy trends. The key to purifying the life circle lies in persevering with consistency (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold, that, with, perseverance") in cultivating one's character and temperament (修身养性, xiu shen yang xing - "cultivate, body, nourish, nature") and strictly disciplining oneself, nurturing clean and refined aspirations, strictly managing one's family and those around one, and consciously establishing a good family tradition.
Adhere to associating only with good people (择善而交, ze shan er jiao - "choose, good, and, associate"), and purify the circle of friends. Young cadres' ability to distinguish good from bad needs continuous improvement, and their resolve to guard against being "hunted" needs constant strengthening; if they fail to judge people accurately and are careless in choosing friends, they can easily have their original aspirations eroded by utilitarian associations and have their futures jeopardized. The key to purifying the circle of friends lies in adhering to associating only with good people, precisely distinguishing beneficial friends, candid friends, and harmful friends, going down to the grassroots level more often to make close friends among the masses, and living up to the organization's careful cultivation and the people's earnest expectations.
(Excerpted from Party Building, Issue 9, 2026)
By: 国家统计局
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