Summary: The article reports on Henan Province's implementation of President Xi Jinping's call for "true and solid work" (真抓实干) as the guiding principle for correct political achievement views. Provincial leaders organized study sessions, conducted self-examinations, and rectified issues such as "new officials ignoring old accounts" and data falsification. Under the provincial party committee's direction, Henan focused on national strategies like the Yellow River ecological protection and the Central China Rising plan, while achieving a 5.2% GDP growth in Q1 2025. Emphasis was placed on improving people's livelihoods, with 75.4% of fiscal spending on social programs and 71.54 million new urban jobs created. The article highlights Henan's systematic approach to cadre education, anti-corruption, and risk prevention, aligning with Xi’s broader governance agenda.
Summary: In an article commemorating the 105th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping emphasized that national prosperity depends on seizing the initiative in historical trends. He identified "bravely undertaking the historical mission and always maintaining strategic initiative" as a defining trait of the CCP. The article reviews the Party's proactive role across historical periods, from founding through reforms to the present "new era," and underscores the need to adapt strategy flexibly while upholding principles. It stresses maintaining strategic initiative amid current uncertainties and risks, particularly in advancing Chinese-style modernization. The United States or U.S.-China relations are not mentioned.
Summary: The article, authored by a vice education director of the Central Party School, emphasizes that the Communist Party of China's (CPC) enduring vitality over 105 years stems from its "self-revolutionary spirit." Citing Xi Jinping, it states that this spirit distinguishes the CPC from other parties and is rooted in its nature, purity, and commitment to serving the people without special interests. The piece details how self-revolution has enabled the CPC to correct historical mistakes, from the Cultural Revolution to contemporary anti-corruption campaigns, and frames it as the second answer to the historical cycle of rise and fall. It calls for continuing self-revolution under Xi's leadership to ensure the party's eternal integrity and leadership in national rejuvenation. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article commemorates 105 years of the Communist Party of China's struggle, asserting that it has opened the correct path to national rejuvenation. It states that under Party leadership, China successfully adhered to socialism with Chinese characteristics, completing industrialization in decades that took developed countries centuries. This effort has produced two major miracles: rapid economic growth and long-term social stability. The piece concludes that China's rejuvenation is now unstoppable, with unprecedented bright prospects. No specific officials or U.S. relations are mentioned.
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Summary: The article, written by a researcher from the Central Party History and Documentation Research Institute, reviews the Party’s achievements from 1949 to 1978, highlighting Mao Zedong’s emphasis on self-reliance and the "Four Modernizations." It notes Mao’s call for "two musts" and his warning against complacency, citing his analogy of "entering Beijing for an exam." The summary references the U.S. role in the Korean War and the eventual normalization of U.S.-China relations in the 1970s, which improved China’s security environment.
Summary: President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to master principles and methods for united front work under new circumstances. The article discusses challenges at the grassroots level, including diverse统战 objects and the need for targeted strategies. It advocates for broadening contact channels, integrating activities into daily life, and embedding united front work into grassroots governance. The piece also highlights leveraging digital tools to enhance efficiency while maintaining face-to-face interactions. No reference is made to the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: President Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to strengthen specialized training for foreign-related legal talent. The article highlights a severe shortage of such talent in China, noting that only 1.46% of lawyers are capable of handling foreign-related cases. It identifies three key deficiencies: insufficient alignment between academic curricula and practical needs, a lack of real-world training scenarios, and a shortage of highly skilled faculty. To address these gaps, the piece proposes establishing foreign-related legal laboratories, leveraging digital technologies to build databases of foreign laws and virtual platforms for international dispute resolution. These initiatives aim to better equip legal professionals to support Chinese enterprises expanding overseas.
Summary: The article examines the traditional Chinese legal principle of "法贵简当" (laws should be concise and appropriate), emphasizing that legislation must be clear, practical, and tailored to societal conditions. It traces historical efforts to balance brevity with comprehensiveness, from the Qin to Ming and Qing dynasties, highlighting how concise codes like the *Tang Code* and *Ming Code* used structured formats and analogical reasoning to achieve "simplicity controlling complexity." The text notes that officials were required to master legal interpretation, and rituals like "reading laws at village ceremonies" promoted public understanding. It concludes that this ancient pursuit of "dense but not tedious, effective and practical" resonates with modern legislative ideals. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article analyzes the Chinese government's first proposal in this year's *Government Work Report* to "build a new form of smart economy," which represents a shift from AI as a tool to a core economic driver. It highlights five systemic transformations: from empowerment to key driving force, from traditional resources to data-computing-algorithm synergy, from passive execution to human-machine collaboration, from linear chains to networked ecosystems, and from efficiency gains to co-creation capabilities. By 2025, China's AI core industry surpassed 1.2 trillion yuan, and over 30% of large manufacturers adopted AI. The analysis emphasizes that this new form redefines economic logic, moving toward cognition-driven growth and value co-creation across industries. The article concludes by noting strong momentum, with 602 million generative AI users in 2025.
Summary: China's matcha exports have surged dramatically in 2026, with Zhejiang's exports in Q1 reaching 1.4 billion yuan (up 7.3 times year-on-year) and Guizhou's exports growing over 40%, driven by health trends, industrial upgrades, and cultural heritage. Domestically, China now produces nearly 70% of the global matcha, with the industry growing at a 28.67% compound annual rate over five years. The article links this success to the government's "15th Five-Year Plan" for agricultural modernization, emphasizing deep processing, standardization, and brand building. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article analyzes the strategic importance of expanding rural consumption under China's "15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization." It states that rural consumption is a key engine for domestic economic circulation and growth, with efforts focused on increasing farmers' incomes through industrial revitalization, employment support, and profit-sharing mechanisms. Specific measures include boosting product supply, developing rural e-commerce, upgrading logistics, and creating new consumption scenarios. No U.S. relations or officials were mentioned.
Summary: The article, authored by the head of the Shanxi Writers Association, examines Zhao Shuli's legacy as a model for "new mass literature" in the internet age, emphasizing his commitment to serving the people through accessible, politically relevant storytelling. It argues that Zhao's principles of "people-centeredness" and "mass appeal" remain vital for contemporary creators, who now leverage digital platforms to produce content that reflects ordinary lives. The piece highlights Zhao's belief that literature should be "understood by common people and serve a political purpose," referring to social progress under the Chinese Communist Party. It also notes that Zhao, alongside figures like Lao She, co-founded the Popular Literature and Art Research Association and edited the journal *Speak and Sing* to guide national popular culture. The article concludes that Zhao's approach offers lessons for avoiding market-driven excesses and maintaining artistic integrity in today's digital creation ecosystem.
Summary: President Xi Jinping emphasized that achievements come from genuine hard work, urging all work to be practical and results-oriented. Henan Province has implemented this directive by conducting special education on correct performance views, focusing on rigorous learning, problem identification, and concrete rectification. The province has stressed serving national strategies, including the Yellow River ecological protection, food security, and the unified national market. It has also prioritized economic development, livelihood improvements, and risk prevention, achieving measurable results such as 5.2% GDP growth in Q1 2025. Henan aims to sustain this momentum by reinforcing correct performance views and fostering a culture of practical dedication among officials.
Summary: The article reports that a prominent Chinese science fiction writer admitted to using AI assistance for over half of his recent work, sparking debate. It argues that literature’s essence lies in emotional connection, which AI-generated text lacks, describing such output as "soulless tap water" versus a writer's "blood and tears." The piece contends that AI lowers the barrier to creation, devaluing the resulting "works," and warns that reliance on AI constitutes cheating that betrays readers’ trust. It concludes that while lazy or AI-dependent writers may vanish, genuine authors who persist in heartfelt creation will retain lasting reader loyalty. No mention is made of U.S.-China relations or any political officials.
Summary: The article, authored by the president of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology and director of the Quantitative Synthetic Biology National Key Laboratory, argues that China's biomanufacturing sector faces a critical bottleneck: the inability to rationally design biological systems, relying instead on costly trial-and-error. It emphasizes that synthetic biology must transition from "building" to "designing" through quantitative synthetic biology, which aims to develop predictive models of life's emergent functions. The piece highlights China's strategic investments in this field, including a nationwide key laboratory and automated platforms, to overcome the "design deficit" and reduce the 5-10 year gap from lab to industrialization. It calls for a mission-driven, institutionalized research approach to integrate basic science with industrial application, thereby transforming biomanufacturing into a rational design-driven industry. The author asserts that mastering quantitative design principles is essential for China to secure a leading position in the global bioeconomy and achieve technological self-reliance.
Summary: China’s 2025 statistical bulletin reports R&D spending reached 3.9262 trillion yuan, raising intensity to 2.80% of GDP—surpassing OECD averages for the first time—while its global innovation index also entered the top ten. The article highlights these milestones as evidence of China’s shift from a technology “follower” to a core innovative nation, but warns of structural imbalances: low basic research funding (7.08%), over-reliance on enterprise trial-stage spending, and regional disparities that constrain efficiency. It notes the 15th Five-Year Plan targets annual R&D growth above 7% while prioritizing structural optimization, including stronger basic research, deeper industry-academia integration, and reformed regional and institutional frameworks. The piece concludes that quantity alone is insufficient; smarter allocation is needed to transform spending into genuine technological self-reliance.
Summary: A Chinese study using long-term data from 30+ forest plots found that over 80% of tree species exhibit aggregated "huddling" distributions, a pattern traditional small-plot methods underestimated. The research showed that accounting for this clustering improved predictions of long-term forest diversity dynamics by 52%. It revealed that temperate forest aggregation is driven by mycorrhizal fungi, while tropical forest aggregation is driven by animal seed dispersal, yet both mechanisms similarly sustain biodiversity. The authors advocate for "plant-animal-microbe" co-conservation strategies and heterogeneous forest management. China’s forest monitoring network has shifted from a data provider to a theory leader, contributing insights for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Summary: The article emphasizes the foundational role of agricultural green transformation in China’s broader sustainability goals, arguing that meteorological resources (light, heat, water) are both environmental factors and production inputs critical to agricultural efficiency. It identifies key problems: neglecting the resource value of weather, simultaneous under- and over-utilization, and mismatches between farming practices and climatic rhythms. Proposed solutions include adopting threshold-based resource management, developing climate-adaptive precision agriculture, and enhancing ecosystem resilience through diversified cropping systems. The analysis calls for integrating meteorological resource utilization rates into agricultural development indicators, shifting from a “high-input, heavy-disaster-prevention” mindset to one of synergy between production and ecology. No U.S. or U.S.-China relations are discussed.
Summary: The article focuses on Xi Jinping’s speech at the 105th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), emphasizing that the party’s enduring vitality stems from its “self-revolution” spirit. Xi stated that this spirit distinguishes the CPC from other parties, rooted in its commitment to advancing the cause of the people and its ability to confront and correct its own mistakes. The piece highlights Xi’s warning that the party faces four persistent challenges—such as maintaining integrity after achieving success—and must continue self-reform to avoid dynastic cycles. It concludes that Xi has called for unwavering self-revolution, with the goal of ensuring the party remains the strong leading core for China’s modernization. The author is identified as a deputy education director of the Central Party School, and no mention is made of U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Xi Jinping has emphasized upholding the new-era "Fengqiao Experience" to resolve disputes at the grassroots level. The China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Party group and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's駐CSCEC team are implementing this approach in construction projects, aiming to prevent conflicts from escalating. They have established mediation rooms and labor payment oversight mechanisms to address worker disputes on-site. The initiative integrates corporate governance with local party-led systems to maintain social stability. No reference is made to the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reports on China Huadian Corporation's Sichuan branch (Huadian Sichuan) emphasizing the correct "political achievement concept" (政绩观) as crucial during the "15th Five-Year Plan" preparation and energy transition. It states the company prioritizes energy security, green transformation, and innovation by strengthening ideological training, party discipline, and cultural empowerment. Huadian Sichuan claims to have completed power supply tasks, including during the Chengdu World Games, and led Sichuan's new energy production for three consecutive years. The company also highlights a "211" science and technology innovation initiative and a clear cadre selection and evaluation system to correct performance deviations. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: A report released on the fifth "Lijiang River Protection Day" (April 25, 2026) showed the Lijiang River Ecological Environment Quality Index reached 87.48, maintaining an "excellent" rating for five consecutive years. The article details how Guangxi and Guilin have built a legal framework including a 2012 regulation and a "five-level protection zone" system, with a negative list banning pollution, quarrying, and unauthorized climbing. Institutional reforms created a unified management committee led by the city's Party secretary and mayor, along with a four-tier grid enforcement system. Technological integration via the "Digital Lijiang" platform uses satellites, drones, and big data for real-time monitoring and rapid response. Public participation is institutionalized through annual "Lijiang Protection Day," village regulations, and grassroots party-led initiatives.
By: 河南省委书记刘宁
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that achievements are all made through hard work; only by truly working hard can one truly produce achievements and produce true achievements. It is necessary to persist in genuine hard work and earnest implementation, and all work must be done in a solid manner and produce tangible results. As one of the general requirements of the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance, genuine hard work and earnest implementation embody the inherent requirements of the Marxist view of practice, are the fundamental requirements of the Party's political line, ideological line, and mass line, and are also an important criterion for evaluating the Party spirit and view of performance of Party members and cadres. Henan resolutely implements the important directives and requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping, both using genuine hard work and earnest implementation to promote the in-depth development of study and education, and further establishing a clear orientation of genuine hard work and earnest implementation through study and education, guiding Party members and cadres to temper their ability and style of genuine hard work and earnest implementation, and promoting tangible results in economic and social development and Party building.
Persist in strictness and solidity, earnestly carry out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance
The purpose of study and education is to transform the subjective world and guide objective practice; the biggest taboo is to become a mere formality, and the greatest fear is the disconnection between learning and application. Henan treats the study and education as a major political task, imposing strictness and solidity from the very beginning, formulating implementation plans, clarifying work requirements, and continuously making efforts in deep study, truthful investigation, and solid rectification, promoting the study and education to go deeper and deeper, gain tangible results, and produce effective outcomes.
Shoulder political responsibility firmly, organize and implement meticulously. If there is a "one-inch looseness" in arrangement and deployment, there will be a "one-foot slackness" in work implementation. The Provincial Party Committee firmly shoulders the main responsibility of being fully responsible for the province's study and education, convening a meeting of the Provincial Party Committee's Party Building Work Leading Group at the first opportunity for mobilization and arrangement, issuing work reminders on the very day of launch, urging Party committees (Party groups) at all levels to immediately enter the working state, and convening the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee meeting nine times for deployment and promotion. Persist in setting an example from above by refining the "construction blueprint" of study and education. The Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee carefully formulates a study and education work list, clarifying 14 key tasks, driving all localities and units to earnestly refine work measures, improve promotion mechanisms, and faithfully implement the prescribed actions. In order to strengthen precise guidance and transmit responsibility pressure, the Provincial Party Committee successively held symposiums on study and education in three areas for provincial municipalities directly under the province, and held symposiums on study and education in different sectors for provincial-level departments, provincial-managed enterprises, and provincial-managed universities, putting forward work requirements in a targeted manner. The Provincial Party Committee sent 10 supervision groups in two batches to conduct supervision over 24 localities and units with prominent problems and weak progress; the Provincial Party Committee working team formed 15 research groups, adopting the "four no-nos and two direct" approach (不发通知、不打招呼、不听汇报、不用陪同接待、直奔基层、直插现场 - no notices, no greetings, no briefings, no reception hospitality, go directly to the grassroots, go directly to the site), conducting four rounds of research in all provincial municipalities, 62 provincial-level units, 38 provincial-managed universities, and 41 provincial-managed enterprises, promoting immediate rectification and solving 724 problems. For possible formalism problems in study and education, make early predictions, early reminders, and early prevention. The Provincial Party Committee systematically sorted out 41 potential manifestations of formalism and "low-level red" and "high-level black" in six aspects, guiding all localities and units to check item by item, strictly prevent and strictly control, avoid unnecessary formal innovation, do not arbitrarily increase "self-selected actions", do not pursue superficial liveliness, promptly correct emerging and trending problems, and ensure the political nature and seriousness of study and education.
Solidify learning and discussion, consolidate the ideological foundation. In study and education, learning comes first and runs through the entire process. We persist in carrying the requirement of "deep study" through to the end, using forms such as the "first agenda" of Party committees (Party groups), special study classes, collective learning in Party branches, and individual self-study to guide Party members and cadres to continuously deepen their understanding, promote the correct view of performance to be internalized in the heart and externalized in action. On the occasion of the first anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping's inspection of Henan, the theoretical study center group of the Provincial Party Committee took reviewing the General Secretary's important speeches and reviewing and examining the implementation situation as an important part of study and education, carried out collective learning and discussion, further clarifying the direction, examining gaps, and increasing motivation. Jiao Yulu is one of the nine positive models in the central-level "Typical Cases". We organized the compilation of "Scientific Decision-making and Genuine Hard Work: Viewing Jiao Yulu's View of Performance from Archives", organized leading cadres to collectively watch the immersive Party spirit education course "Hello, Jiao Yulu", guiding Party members and cadres to emulate those better than themselves and plant the correct view of performance deep in their hearts. Using things from around us to educate those around us best touches the soul and resonates. We held a province-wide warning education conference, organized Party members and cadres to watch the warning education film "Fake Achievements Corrode Governance and Harm the People". We carried out hierarchical warning education on typical cases, selected 70 typical cases of deviation in view of performance within the province, compiled them according to four categories: establishing the Party for the public, benefiting the people, scientific decision-making, and genuine hard work and earnest implementation, providing the provincial-managed edition and municipal-managed edition respectively to municipal-department-level and county-department-level Party organizations, guiding Party members and cadres to self-reflect.
Dare to tackle tough issues, concentrate on truthful investigation and solid rectification. If investigation is not thorough, one does not know the crux of the problem; if rectification is not clean, the root cause of recurrence will surely be buried. Problems in the view of performance have the characteristics of wide coverage and interweaving of new and old problems, requiring coordination from top to bottom and joint investigation from all sides. The Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee earnestly implements the requirement of "three comparisons" (对照习近平总书记重要论述、对照党中央决策部署、对照党章党规党纪 - compare with General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions, compare with the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments, compare with the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and Party discipline), taking the lead in identifying problems and formulating problem lists. At the same time, combined with problems feedback from central and provincial Party inspection tours, disciplinary inspection and supervision, audit supervision, financial supervision, environmental protection inspections, and relevant provincial departments, the provincial level sorted out and feedback 386 prominent problems of deviation in view of performance to each city, urging all localities to identify problems accurately, truthfully, and comprehensively. Organize all localities and units to conduct a comprehensive investigation of problems found in the 2025 assessment and evaluation of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and connecting them with rural revitalization, as well as prominent problems of illegal use of public resources, promoting leading bodies and leading cadres at all levels to further conduct in-depth investigation and careful comparison, and update problem lists in a timely manner. Persist in grasping the organs to drive the system, grasping the current level to drive the lower level, organize 12 provincial departments closely related to correcting deviations in view of performance, focusing on prominent problems in their respective industries, systems, and fields, and establish vertical linkage between province, city, and county levels to jointly implement collaborative rectification. "New officials ignoring old accounts" is a typical manifestation of deviation and dislocation in view of performance. We persist in making the concentrated rectification of this prominent problem an important entry point for study and education rectification and reform, hold a concentrated rectification work promotion meeting, formulate a work plan for concentrated rectification of the prominent problem of "new officials ignoring old accounts", systematically sort out 23 specific problem manifestations, propose 25 specific rectification measures, grasp concentrated rectification, and drive overall reform. In conjunction with the change of county and township Party committee leadership teams, educate and guide leading bodies at all levels to be responsible for the territory, be responsible for the territory's affairs, and fulfill their duties within the territory, both strictly preventing "new officials ignoring old accounts" and also ensuring "current officials do not owe new accounts". After the Central Committee notified Henan of data fraud caused by unreasonable setting of assessment indicators in the commercial department, we comprehensively cleaned up and standardized relevant policies for introducing funds from outside the province. At the same time, 举一反三 (jǔ yī fǎn sān - "raise one and infer three," to draw analogies and learn from one instance to cover many), we deepened the rectification and reform of data fraud in the fields of development and reform, finance, industry and information technology, etc., and hardened our resolve to strictly control related problems.
Highlight learning to promote action, strive to create achievements that withstand the test of practice, the people, and history
Taking the in-depth study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance as an opportunity, carry out a comprehensive re-mobilization and systematic re-deployment for implementing the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, genuine hard work and earnest implementation to promote development and benefit the people. Deepen learning to enhance understanding and transform work style, use truthful investigation to accurately identify problems and target efforts, use solid rectification to promote earnest action and seek tangible results, continuously open up new prospects for career development.
Bravely undertake missions in bearing the overall situation in mind and implementing national strategies. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to resolutely abandon departmentalism, sectoral tendencies, and narrow-minded views, firmly establish the thinking of "the whole country is one chessboard", consider all matters from a political perspective, act under the overall situation, and strive to achieve self-development and make greater contributions while serving the national overall situation. As an important bearing area for the rise of the central region, we research and formulate a three-year action plan (2026-2028) for promoting Henan to strive for the forefront in the rise of the central region, and a "15th Five-Year Plan" implementation plan for Henan to promote the rise of the central region, building "three bases and one hub" at a higher starting point. As the first place to propose the strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, we issued a decision on comprehensively promoting the construction of happy rivers and lakes, and a three-year action plan for building a happy Yellow River, promoting in an integrated manner the construction of a safe Yellow River, an ecological Yellow River, a new-quality Yellow River, a people-benefiting Yellow River, and a cultural Yellow River, deeply implementing the "Clean Water Entering the Yellow River" project. The water quality of the mainstream of the Yellow River has stably reached Class II standards. As the core water source area and canal head location of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, we focus on strengthening ecological management of the core water source area and along the main canal, deepening the investigation, rectification, and management of sewage outlets entering the reservoir (river) and soil erosion and rocky desertification control, accelerating legislation on the safety of the project, water supply safety, and water quality safety of the Henan section of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The water quality at the Taohe intake has continuously remained stable at Class II or above, ensuring "a clear stream flows northward forever". As a nationally important core grain production area, we firmly shoulder the heavy responsibility of ensuring food security, persisting in seeking grain from science and technology, seeking grain from management and protection, seeking grain from prevention and control, and seeking grain from the market. On the basis of last year's increase of 7 billion jin in grain production, we made every effort to win four tough battles: wet farming and seeding, promoting weak seedlings to become strong, pest and disease prevention and control, and the "three summers" (summer harvest, summer planting, summer management) assault. This year's summer grain is already safely stored in granaries, and output is expected to reach the highest level since 2023. Integrating into and serving the national unified market is an important responsibility for Henan to foster strengths and compensate for weaknesses and make contributions to the national development situation. In the form of legislation, we issued a decision on deepening and promoting integration into and serving the national unified market, continued to implement annual key tasks and key tackling matters, researched and formulated a series of special action plans for building "four hubs and three pivot points", accelerating the construction of logistics channel hubs, consumption and commerce hubs, element allocation hubs, industrial connection hubs, and high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" convergence pivot point, foreign trade improvement and transformation pivot point, and international investment cooperation pivot point.
Actively act in bravely shouldering the heavy burden and promoting high-quality development. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to remember General Secretary Xi Jinping's major requirement that "major economic provinces should shoulder the heavy burden", unify their thoughts and actions with the Party Central Committee's analysis and judgment on the economic situation, effectively overcome short-term growth anxiety, prevent seeking quick success and instant benefits and blind reckless action, while also upholding long-termism, maintaining strategic focus, promptly implementing and quickly handling the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments with perseverance and sustained effort, and firmly advance along the optimal curve and best path of high-quality development. Strive to stabilize economic operation, persist in grasping, twisting, and exerting force, using strategy for adverse and favorable trends, and being accurate, solid, and effective. Thoroughly understand and make good use of the package of incremental policies and existing policies introduced by the Central Committee. Since the beginning of this year, we have successively held a province-wide meeting to promote a good start for the new year, a province-wide major project construction work meeting for the second quarter, and a mobilization and deployment meeting to promote sustained improvement of the province's economy in the second quarter, making scientific decisions and precise scheduling. GDP in the first quarter grew by 5.2%, 0.2 percentage points higher than the national average. Unswervingly focus the efforts of economic work on developing the real economy, take the high-quality development of manufacturing as the main attack direction, issue an implementation plan for building a modern industrial system and 13 supporting action plans, coordinate the development of industries under the categories of "original brands" (原字号 - traditional resource-based industries), "old brands" (老字号 - established traditional industries), "new brands" (新字号 - emerging industries), and "foreign brands" (外字号 - foreign-invested enterprises), accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing. In the first five months of this year, the added value of industries above designated size grew by 8.2%, 2.8 percentage points higher than the national average, of which the added value of strategic emerging industries and high-tech manufacturing grew by 13.2% and 26.7% respectively. Accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development is not only the fundamental solution to ecological and environmental problems but also a new engine for promoting high-quality development. We educate and guide Party members and cadres to firmly establish the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". On the one hand, with the spirit of cutting off one's own wrist and scraping the poison off the bone, we resolutely fight the battle of pollution prevention and control, treating all kinds of problems with an iron heart, an iron face, and an iron hand. On the other hand, we seize the opportunities of green development, deeply promote the adjustment of industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure, accelerate the deep integration of digital and intelligent transformation of traditional industries with green transformation, vigorously develop emerging industries, future industries, green environmental protection industries, and modern service industries, strive to increase the greenness of the economy, and enhance the "gold content" by increasing the "green content". In the first five months of this year, the energy consumption per unit of added value of industries above designated size decreased by 8.1%, a 0.2 percentage point increase in the decline rate compared to the first four months. In the first half of this year, the province had 113.6 days with good air quality, an increase of 18.1 days year-on-year.
Devote heart and soul to keeping the purpose in mind and solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to remember that benefiting the people is the greatest achievement, always adhere to the people-first concept, deeply investigate and correct erroneous tendencies such as being keen on "creating momentum for oneself", ignoring "benefiting the people", emphasizing economic development while neglecting people's livelihood and well-being, and sincerely and thoughtfully solve the people's worries, troubles, and anxieties. Persist in the government tightening its belt so that the people can live better lives. From January to May this year, the province's livelihood expenditure accounted for 75.4% of the general public budget expenditure, of which key expenditures such as social security, agriculture and rural areas, and health increased by 9.2%, 10.2%, and 21.9% respectively. Employment is the top priority of people's livelihood. We focus on assisting key groups in employment. In the first half of this year, the province added a total of 715,400 new urban jobs, completing 65% of the annual target of 1.1 million. In particular, this year Henan has 996,000 college graduates, another record high, accounting for about 1/13 of the total college graduates nationwide. We implement the "502020" plan for college graduate employment, supporting enterprises to stabilize and expand employment by 500,000 people, government agencies and public institutions to recruit 200,000 people, and supporting 200,000 people in innovation and entrepreneurship. "One old, one young" affects thousands of households and is a major livelihood issue of concern to Party committees and governments. We start from the elderly meal service of "one hot meal", improve the old-age service network covering urban and rural areas, continuously improve the service level of 127 county-level special hardship support institutions, complete the transformation of 1,054 township-level regional elderly service centers, build 1,309 village-level standardized elderly service stations, issue and write off 710,000 consumption vouchers for elderly people with moderate to severe disability and dementia, driving 1.06 billion yuan in elderly care consumption. Actively promote child care and kindergarten integration pilot projects, support the development of new models such as community-embedded child care, and reach 4.94 child care slots per thousand population. Health is the foundation of people's happy lives. We continuously deepen the coordinated development and governance of the three medical services (medical treatment, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical), continue to implement measures such as "convenient medical treatment" to make up for shortcomings. The province has 330 mutual recognition items for inspection and test results, established an inter-provincial mutual recognition mechanism with nine provinces. The "Five Small" special action for children's health benefited 825,600 children, and the "Six Health" special action for elderly health provided free door-to-door health services to 30,500 disabled elderly people.
Be responsible and fulfill duties in holding the bottom line and better coordinating development and security. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to firmly establish the concept that "grasping the economy to promote development is an achievement, and grasping stability to ensure security is also an achievement", with a sense of responsibility of "always being concerned" and action ability of "having a clear picture of everything", do all work of safety and stability with caution and fear. Persist in placing the maintenance of national political security in the primary position, deeply implement the responsibility system for ideological work, carry out special actions to severely crack down on violent terrorism, properly handle sensitive work related to ethnicity, religion, etc., and strictly prevent various risks from transmitting to the field of political security. Persist in grasping the grassroots, laying the foundation, and consolidating the fundamentals, promote Party building to lead efficient governance at the grassroots level, deeply promote "Five Basics and Four Modernizations" (五基四化 - strengthening basic organizations, basic teams, basic activities, basic systems, basic guarantees; promoting network modernization, information modernization, service modernization, and governance modernization), deeply apply the "Party building + grid + big data" model, implement 22 key tasks including the action to build harmonious communities, formulate task element lists for grassroots governance units, and continuously improve the efficiency of grid governance. On the basis of recruiting 5,000 outstanding college graduates as rural revitalization coordinators last year, this year we optimized and upgraded, expanded and extended, implementing two special plans: rural revitalization village-level coordinators and community grid affairs coordinators, recruiting 10,000 outstanding college graduates each to strengthen grassroots forces. Persist in using multiple measures simultaneously: prevention early, grasping small issues, clearing mines, and defusing bombs, effectively and orderly prevent and resolve risks and hidden dangers in areas such as local government debt, small and medium-sized financial institutions, and real estate, holding the bottom line of no regional or systemic risks. Persist in the safety production responsibility system, strictly implement the "three pipes and three musts" (管行业必须管安全、管业务必须管安全、管生产经营必须管安全 - departments must manage safety for their industries, must manage safety for their businesses, must manage safety for their production and operations), formulate a safety production assessment and inspection implementation method, focus on key areas such as coal mine production, transportation, social security, leading cadres take the lead in going down mines, inspecting river defenses, checking loopholes, and investigating risks, resolutely safeguard the people's life and health safety. In response to the persistent high level of public petitions, persist in and develop the "Fengqiao experience" in the new era, promote the standardized construction of comprehensive governance centers, strengthen territorial management, source prevention, and diversified resolution of conflicts and disputes. Strengthen overall social security prevention and control, strictly prevent and severely crack down on all types of illegal and criminal activities. From January to May this year, the number of production safety accidents and deaths in the province decreased by 21.2% and 15.9% respectively, and the number of criminal and public security cases filed decreased by 18.7% and 2.9% respectively.
Strengthen political guarantees, create a strong atmosphere for doing business and starting undertakings
To encourage Party members and cadres to take responsibility and act, to genuinely work hard and implement earnestly, it is necessary to strengthen ideological education and guidance, but also to improve institutional mechanisms and strengthen organizational guarantees. We persist in clarifying the direction, establishing rules, rectifying atmosphere, and strengthening immunity, continuously rectifying the orientation of action, enhancing the motivation for action, forming a joint force for action, and using the correct view of performance to lead the formation of a good development environment.
Establish a clear orientation. The orientation of personnel selection is the most important, most fundamental, and most effective. We persist in the new era standard for good cadres, vigorously select and promote cadres who are politically firm, dare to take responsibility, are keen on reform, have outstanding achievements, and are clean and honest, using the correct personnel selection orientation to guide the orientation of doing business and starting undertakings. This year is the year of concentrated changes of Party committees at the provincial, city, county, and township levels in Henan. We take the change of term as an important opportunity and key measure to match good leadership teams, select good cadres, and establish a good orientation. Strictly examine and screen candidates, strictly enforce change of term discipline and atmosphere, conduct the change of term work with high standards and high quality. Currently, the change of term for 1,731 township-level Party committees and 156 county (city, district) Party committees in the province has been successfully completed, and full coverage of tenure training for the new first secretaries has been carried out. Focusing on solving the lack of professional cadres in some important functional departments, since the beginning of this year, 34 professional deputy department-level leading cadres have been assigned to relevant units, enhancing the overall function of the leadership teams. Persist in combining strict management with care, and balancing incentives with constraints. On the one hand, earnestly implement the "three distinctions" (区分是缺乏经验先行先试出现的失误和错误，还是明知故犯的违纪违法行为；区分是国家尚无明确规定时的探索性试验和国家明令禁止后有法不依的行为；区分是推动改革发展的无意过失和谋取私利的故意行为 - distinguish between mistakes and errors due to lack of experience in piloting and those that are intentional violations; distinguish between exploratory experiments when there are no clear national regulations and actions that violate laws after explicit prohibition; distinguish between unintentional faults in promoting reform and development and intentional acts for personal gain), seriously investigate and punish false accusation and frame-up. Since the beginning of this year, 1,654 Party members and cadres have been cleared of false charges, allowing them to lay down their burdens and move forward light-footedly. On the other hand, normalize the mechanism for leading cadres to be able to go up and down, timely adjust leading cadres who are not suitable for their current positions, give a wake-up call with an iron hand to those lying flat, and promote the willingness to take responsibility, the courage to take responsibility, and the ability to take responsibility to become a common practice in the Central Plains.
Carry forward new winds and upright atmosphere. The way to govern lies first in rectifying customs. We vigorously promote the spirit of Jiao Yulu, the spirit of the Red Flag Canal, and the spirit of the Dabie Mountains, launch the "Dabie Red Camp" research brand, the series report "'Post-90s' Tell Post-90s", release the first batch of "Henan Role Models", vigorously select and promote advanced models such as Wang Miaoli, "First-class Model Hero of the National Judicial Administrative System", promoting Party members and cadres to strengthen Party spirit tempering and enhance pragmatic responsibility. Unremittingly rectify the "four forms of decadence", consolidate and expand the achievements of study and education on deeply implementing the Central Committee's eight-point regulation on improving work style and maintaining close ties with the masses, formulate "Several Regulations on Deeply Implementing the Central Committee's Eight-Point Regulation to Further Improve Work Style and Establish New Customs", continuously and deeply implement the "Ten Prohibitions" for four items: illegal eating and drinking, illegal receipt and sending of gifts and money, infringement of people's interests, and non-assumption of responsibility and non-action. In particular, crack down on illegal eating and drinking as soon as it appears, repeatedly hit it, and make everyone call for its punishment.
Strictly enforce discipline and rules. Discipline is both a "headband" and a "talisman", marking the bottom line and boundary for Party members and cadres to perform their duties and use their power, providing a guide for action to establish and practice a correct view of performance. We persist in grasping Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline together, and integrating rectifying work style, enforcing discipline, and combating corruption. Deepen the rectification of corruption in areas where power is concentrated, funds are intensive, and resources are abundant, seriously investigate and deal with typical cases of misplaced view of performance, data falsification, image projects, etc., urging Party members and cadres to do business and start undertakings while abiding by discipline and rules. Rectifying unhealthy tendencies and corruption around the people is an important part of opening the door for study and education. We continue to carry out deep and extensive centralized rectification of unhealthy tendencies and corruption around the people with the spirit of poverty alleviation. The main responsible comrade of the Provincial Party Committee takes the lead in receiving petitioners, handling cases, and going deep into the grassroots for supervision, focusing on the main battlefield at the county level and below, deepening the investigation and rectification of problems, better correcting chronic and stubborn diseases, and solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people. Persist in taking the correct view of performance as guidance, coordinate the implementation of the rectification of problems feedback from central inspection tours, establish four task lists: immediate rectification, special rectification, establishment of rules and regulations, and long-term rectification. Formulate rectification measures item by item, strengthen ledger management and work scheduling, carry out three rounds of on-site supervision, complete the rectification tasks in the centralized rectification stage with high quality, and strictly and consistently implement the tasks in the continuous rectification stage.
On the new journey, Henan will continue to deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance, educate and guide Party members and cadres to calibrate their action coordinates with the correct view of performance, vigorously promote the fine work style of genuine hard work and earnest implementation, tackling difficulties, focus on promoting development, strengthening governance, benefiting people's livelihood, preventing risks, and grasping Party building, ensure a good start and a smooth beginning for the "15th Five-Year Plan", and strive to write a new chapter of Chinese-style modernization on the Central Plains.
Return to TopBy: 白鹭
"Whether a country can become prosperous and strong, whether a nation can be revitalized, the most important thing is to see whether this country, this nation can conform to the trend of the times and grasp the initiative in historical progress." General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out at the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, "Bravely shouldering historical missions, always grasping strategic initiative" is one of the fine qualities of the Chinese Communist Party. This fine quality runs through the Party's struggle, theoretical innovation, and great practice, and is a powerful force inspiring the entire Party to bravely take responsibility, actively act, cross historical mountains and rivers, and continuously forge brilliance.
Bravely shouldering historical missions and always grasping strategic initiative is the political character that our Party, as a Marxist political party, 与生俱来 (yǔ shēng jù lái - "born with, innate") and 一以贯之 (yī yǐ guàn zhī - "consistently apply throughout"). The Chinese Communist Party cherishes the lofty ideal of communism, is determined to achieve the eternal cause of the Chinese nation, and has established seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation as its original aspiration and mission. It is precisely this weighty mission that drives our Party to establish central tasks in conforming to changes in the principal social contradiction, anchor the grand blueprint for building a strong country and national rejuvenation, formulate and implement correct lines, principles, and policies, and use systematic thinking to strengthen forward-looking consideration, overall planning, strategic layout, and holistic advancement, ensuring that the Party firmly grasps the leadership and initiative in the development of the cause.
In modern China, with internal and external troubles, poverty and weakness, the Chinese Communist Party 应运而生 (yìng yùn ér shēng - "arise in response to the times") and stepped forward, resolutely shouldering the historical responsibility of national independence and people's liberation, using scientific theory to guide, thoroughly reversing the passive situation of modern China's development. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party consciously undertook the era mission of building socialism and revitalizing the Chinese nation, established the basic system of socialism, thoroughly broke external blockade and containment, and laid a solid institutional foundation and material foundation for contemporary China's development and progress. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, our Party made the historic decision of reform and opening up with tremendous political courage. From the thunderclap of Xiaogang Village's (小岗村) "big contract" to Shenzhen's Special Economic Zone construction where it "fought a bloody path," our Party has always grasped development opportunities and resolved development difficulties with a strategic posture of actively seeking change.
Entering the new era, strategic opportunities and risks and challenges coexist, uncertain and unpredictable factors increase, and major tests of high winds and choppy waters, even towering waves, 接踵而至 (jiē zhǒng ér zhì - "follow one after another"). The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with a strong sense of mission, comprehensively advances the "Five-Sphere Integrated Plan (五位一体总体布局)" and coordinately promotes the "Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy (四个全面战略布局)", upholds and improves the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, advances the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and drives the Party and state's undertakings to achieve historic accomplishments and undergo historic changes. With strategic resolve that "the path does not change, the will does not alter," it earnestly shoulders historical responsibility and wins strategic initiative.
The new era bestows new missions; the new journey opens new chapters. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that it is necessary to organically combine the principle of strategy with the flexibility of tactics, being flexible and mobile, 随机应变 (suí jī yìng biàn - "adapt to changing circumstances"), 临机决断 (lín jī jué duàn - "make a prompt decision as the occasion requires"), and grasp strategic initiative in 因地制宜 (yīn dì zhì yí - "adapt measures to local conditions"), acting according to the situation, and 顺势而为 (shùn shì ér wéi - "act in accordance with the trend"). We must advance the construction of Chinese-style modernization (中国式现代化) with a high degree of historical initiative and historical self-awareness, and always grasp the initiative in political stance, political direction, political principles, and political path. Firmly stand with the people, always stand together, think together, and work together with the people, closely rely on the people to create history. Enhance strategic thinking, be good at viewing the present from history, the part from the whole, and the immediate from the long term, nurture new opportunities amid crises, and open new horizons amid changes. With a sense of responsibility that is "always be concerned" and a spirit of active responsibility and action, closely focus on the Party's central tasks, 真抓实干 (zhēn zhuā shí gàn - "grasp firmly and do practically"), strive and forge ahead, carry the mission on shoulders, hold the initiative in hands, and vigorously write the chapter of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.
Return to TopBy: 刘宝东
A century-old party, in its flourishing prime. Since its founding to the present day, the Communist Party of China has traversed 105 years, yet it still maintains youthful vitality. The secret lies in the fact that our Party can always preserve the spirit of self-reform. In his speech at the conference celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that our Party is soberly aware that to forge iron, one must be strong oneself; it is adept at examining itself in light of the developmental demands of the times, alerting itself with a strong sense of urgency, perfecting itself with the spirit of self-reform, attaching great importance to its own construction, resolutely eliminating all factors that harm the Party's advanced nature and purity, removing all viruses that erode the Party's healthy organism, and becoming stronger and more capable through revolutionary tempering. The spirit of self-reform is a powerful support for the Party to forever maintain its youthful vitality, and it is the fundamental reason why our Party has stood out amid the repeated struggles among various political forces in modern China, always staying at the forefront of the times and becoming the backbone of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.
The spirit of self-reform is the hallmark that distinguishes our Party from other political parties. The Communist Party of China
Return to TopThrough 105 years of unremitting struggle, we have opened up the correct path toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the great practice of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, our Party has led the people through 千辛万苦 (qiān xīn wàn kǔ - "a thousand hardships, ten thousand pains," innumerable difficulties and hardships), successfully opening up and adhering to the socialist path with Chinese characteristics. In only a few decades, we have completed the industrialization process that took developed countries several hundred years, creating two miracles: rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Today, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is 势不可挡 (shì bù kě dǎng - "the momentum cannot be stopped," irresistible), demonstrating an unstoppable momentum.
Return to TopBy: 毛胜
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the ceremony celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China warmly reviewed the glorious course our Party has traversed, systematically summarized the great achievements our Party has created, fully demonstrated our Party’s historic contributions to the Chinese people, to the Chinese nation, to Marxism, to the cause of human progress, and to the construction of a Marxist political party, and provided scientific guidance for us to link history, reality, and the future, to comprehensively understand the Party’s great practice in various historical periods, and to draw from it the wisdom and strength to continue moving forward. To study this historical period from the founding of New China to the eve of reform and opening up, we must accurately grasp that this is the historical period in which the Party led the people to complete the socialist revolution and advance socialist construction, deeply comprehend the great achievements the Party led the people to create during this period, the great leap of a large Eastern country that was poor and blank and had a huge population striding into socialist society, and the provision of valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material foundation for creating socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Establishing a socialist system rooted in the land of China, conforming to China’s national conditions, and embodying the people’s aspirations, the Chinese people become masters of the country and the social landscape takes on a 焕然一新 (huàn rán yī xīn - “shining as if new,” to take on an entirely new appearance).
After the founding of New China, our Party led the establishment and consolidation of the state power of the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. Not only did it overcome a series of severe challenges in the political, economic, and military spheres and gain a firm foothold in the complex domestic and international environment, but it also quickly healed the wounds of war, restored the national economy, and then launched large-scale socialist construction, completely changing the backward appearance of old China.
It created an advanced socialist system. The Party led the people in formulating the Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, determining the state system, the form of government, and the form of state structure of our country, establishing the organizational system of the state power of New China, and setting up the system of people’s congresses, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy. Through socialist transformation, it basically realized public ownership of the means of production and distribution according to work, and established the socialist economic system. In the course of large-scale socialist construction, it also explored and established specific systems in areas such as socialist science and technology, education, culture, and medical and health care. These systems concentratedly embody the characteristics and advantages of Chinese socialism. They not only played an important role in advancing the socialist revolution and construction, but also laid the fundamental political prerequisite and institutional foundation for all development and progress in contemporary China.
It established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. The Party led the people in formulating and implementing four five-year plans, gradually building a number of basic industrial projects with relatively complete categories, covering metallurgy, automobiles, machinery, coal, petroleum, electric power, communications, chemicals, national defense, and other fields, laying a solid foundation for the development of the national economy. The transportation industry achieved many remarkable accomplishments where “natural moats became thoroughfares.” Except for the Tibet Autonomous Region, all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government had railways, and motor vehicles reached most counties and towns across the country. The Party led the people in building water conservancy projects, carrying out basic farmland construction, cultivating and popularizing improved varieties, and promoting scientific farming, which substantially raised the level of grain production and the capacity to resist natural disasters. The Party decided on and implemented the Third Front construction, which not only strengthened national defense capabilities but also improved the industrial layout. In the early days of New China, Mao Zedong lamented that we “could not build a single automobile, a single aircraft, a single tank, or a single tractor.” Through effort, our country not only could design and mass-produce automobiles, aircraft, tanks, tractors, and the like, but also successfully detonated the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, and test-produced and successfully launched intermediate-range and long-range missiles and man-made satellites, shocking the whole world.
It gradually raised the level of the people’s material and cultural life. With economic and social development, the people’s living standards continuously improved, and undertakings such as education and health made significant progress. From 1952 to 1976, the per capita consumption level of rural residents and urban residents increased from 65 yuan and 154 yuan to 131 yuan and 365 yuan, respectively. From 1949 to 1976, the number of students in primary schools, secondary schools, and institutions of higher education grew from 24.39 million, 1.039 million, and 117,000 to 150 million, 58.365 million, and 565,000, respectively, and the enrollment rate for school-age children reached over 90%. From 1949 to 1976, the total number of hospitals nationwide increased from 2,600 to 7,850, and the national population mortality rate dropped from 20‰ to 7.25‰. The average life expectancy of residents markedly lengthened, from only 35 years in 1949 to 63.8 years in 1975. It is worth mentioning that New China attached importance to “developing sports and strengthening the people’s physique.” On the basis of the extensive development of mass sports activities, the technical level of our country’s athletes also greatly improved. During this period, they won 22 world championships and broke or exceeded 171 world records, displaying a spirit of courageous struggle and vigorous uplift to the world.
It realized and consolidated the great unity of people of all ethnic groups across the country. The Party led the people in mopping up the remnant armed forces of the Kuomintang reactionaries and bandits, peacefully liberated Tibet, achieving the complete reunification of the mainland of the motherland, and after establishing the necessary social order, systematically transformed the grassroots political power in urban and rural areas, forming a national administrative system with top-down connectivity, centralized efficiency, and a high capacity for organization and mobilization. This unified situation, built on the basis of people’s democracy, had never been seen before in Chinese history. The Party formulated and implemented a series of policies and principles to promote the common development and prosperity of all ethnic groups, pushing forward economic and cultural construction in ethnic regions with large strides, and the socialist motherland became a big family where all ethnic groups are equal, mutually helpful, united and amicable, and progress together. The Party continuously strengthened and expanded its full cooperation with all patriotic democratic parties, non-party democratic personages, and people’s organizations, established and developed a broad patriotic united front, effectively promoted the great unity of all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, and greatly enhanced the cohesion of the Chinese nation.
Opening up a path of socialist transformation suited to Chinese characteristics, exploring a path of socialist construction suited to China’s conditions.
Our Party conformed to the general trend of history, seized the opportune moment to put forward the general line for the transition period, led the people in creatively opening up the path of socialist transformation, completing the socialist revolution, successfully realizing the most profound and greatest social change in Chinese history, and then carried out arduous exploration of the path of building socialism in China, achieving initial results and accumulating valuable experience.
In the practice of opening up the path of socialist transformation, the Party created a series of forms suited to Chinese characteristics, transitioning from primary to advanced levels step by step. The socialist transformation of agriculture was completed through the agricultural cooperation movement, with steps progressing from simple common labor in temporary mutual-aid teams of a socialist embryonic nature, to year-round mutual-aid teams that, on the basis of common labor, implemented some division of labor and had a small amount of public property and more socialist elements, then to elementary agricultural producers’ cooperatives that implemented land pooling and unified management, had more public property, and were of a semi-socialist nature, and finally to advanced agricultural producers’ cooperatives of a fully socialist nature with collective ownership by the peasants. The socialist transformation of handicraft industries adopted forms that were easily accepted by artisans, adjusted to local conditions, generally passing through three transitional stages: handicraft production groups, handicraft supply and marketing cooperatives, and handicraft production cooperatives. The socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was realized through the state capitalist channel, creating a method whereby the state did not pay a large redemption fee but instead allowed the capitalists to continue to receive a portion of dividends and interest from the enterprises for a considerable period. This not only helped the capitalists accept the transformation but also allowed private industry and commerce to continue playing a positive role in expanding production, enlivening circulation, maintaining employment, and increasing tax revenue. China’s socialist transformation, as an unprecedented profound change, was accomplished under circumstances that ensured economic development, social stability, and the support of the people – something that was very difficult to achieve but was indeed accomplished. In particular, it won the beneficial cooperation of the majority of the national bourgeoisie and successfully realized the peaceful redemption of the bourgeoisie that Marx and Lenin had envisioned, making an important contribution to enriching and developing the theory of scientific socialism.
In the practice of exploring the path of socialist construction, the Party formed its own body of ideas on the question of how to build socialism. Mao Zedong clearly proposed to “take the Soviet Union as a mirror” and find the correct path for carrying out socialist construction in China, formulating the strategic thought of building our country into a powerful socialist state. It was precisely under the guidance of this thought that, around the time of the Eighth National Congress of the Party, our Party put forward a series of new principles. Before the convening of the Eighth National Congress of the Party, Mao Zedong, through careful investigation and research, profoundly summarized our country’s economic construction experience, expounded on the “Ten Major Relationships” concerning the relationship between heavy industry and light industry and agriculture, between coastal industry and inland industry, between economic construction and national defense construction, and others, and initially put forward a number of new principles for China’s socialist economic and political construction. The Eighth National Congress of the Party correctly analyzed the domestic situation and clearly stated that the principal domestic contradiction was already the contradiction between the people’s demand for building an advanced industrial country and the reality of a backward agricultural country, and was already the contradiction between the people’s need for rapid economic and cultural development and the inability of the current economy and culture to meet the people’s needs. It emphasized that the main task of the Party and the people throughout the country was to concentrate on resolving this contradiction and to transform our country from a backward agricultural country into an advanced industrial country as soon as possible. After the convening of the Eighth National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong deeply pondered the contradictions in socialist society, put forward the theory on correctly handling contradictions among the people, clearly stated that the basic contradictions in socialist society remain the contradictions between the productive forces and the relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure, that there exist in socialist society two types of contradictions fundamentally different in nature – contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and contradictions among the people – and emphasized that correctly handling contradictions among the people should be the theme of the country’s political life. These achievements marked a good start for our Party’s exploration of the path of building socialism in China.
Carrying out the “second combination” of the basic principles of Marxism with China’s specific realities, putting forward a series of important thoughts on socialist construction.
After the founding of New China, our Party unified adhering to Marxism with developing Marxism, and, in light of new realities, enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought. In addition to the important thoughts mentioned above such as correctly handling the “Ten Major Relationships” in China’s socialist construction and strictly distinguishing and correctly handling contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and contradictions among the people, the Party also proposed original theoretical achievements such as that socialist society is a very long historical stage.
For example, in the area of socialist economic construction, it proposed shifting the focus of the Party’s and the state’s work to technological revolution and socialist construction; proposed that changes in relations of production must not surpass the stage of historical development, that socialist society must vigorously develop commodity production and commodity exchange, respect the law of value, and adhere to distribution according to work; proposed that plan targets must be realistic, that the scale of construction must be compatible with the national strength, and that improving the people’s livelihood and economic construction should be taken into consideration simultaneously; proposed the idea of “three mainstays, three supplements,” emphasizing the need to handle the relationship between the central government and local authorities well and to give full play to the initiative of both central and local authorities; proposed improving and strengthening enterprise management, implementing the system of workers’ congresses and the “two participations, one reform, three combinations” management system within enterprises; and so on.
For another example, in the area of socialist political construction, it proposed mobilizing all positive factors, uniting with all forces that could be united, to jointly build socialism; proposed that the country’s political life should create a situation that is “both centralized and democratic, both disciplined and free, both unified will and personal ease of mind and lively and vigorous”; proposed effectively safeguarding all the rights of the people as masters of the country, especially the people’s right to participate in the management of state and social affairs; proposed the policy of “long-term coexistence and mutual supervision,” consolidating and expanding the patriotic united front; proposed developing and consolidating the system of regional ethnic autonomy and vigorously training ethnic minority cadres; proposed that socialist legal system should protect the interests of the working people, protect the socialist economic base, and protect social productive forces; and so on.
For yet another example, in the area of socialist cultural construction, it emphasized adhering to the guiding position of Marxism, put forward the policy of “百花齐放 (bǎi huā qí fàng - “let a hundred flowers bloom,” to encourage diversity and free development in arts and sciences) and 百家争鸣 (bǎi jiā zhēng míng - “let a hundred schools of thought contend,” to encourage free discussion in academic research),” and adopted the policy of “make the past serve the present, make foreign things serve China, let a hundred flowers bloom, and 推陈出新 (tuī chén chū xīn - “push out the old, bring forth the new,” to weed through the old to create the new)” toward excellent cultures ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign; proposed that ideological and political work is the lifeline of economic work and all other work, and that the policy of unifying politics and economy, unifying politics and technology, and being both red and expert should be implemented; proposed the educational policy of enabling those receiving education to “develop morally, intellectually, and physically and become cultured laborers with socialist consciousness”; proposed that science and technology have a key role in our country’s modernization, and that we should rely on our own efforts, work hard, and strive to catch up with and surpass advanced world levels; proposed that the majority of our country’s intellectuals were already part of the working people, and that a large contingent of intellectuals from the working class should be built; and so on.
During this period, our Party also put forward a series of new principles in areas such as national defense and military construction in light of new domestic and international situations and the new tasks of national construction. It clearly proposed striving to liberate Taiwan by peaceful means, and advocated the third cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang for the benefit of the nation and the motherland. Most importantly, it proposed the general task of realizing the “Four Modernizations” and the two-step development strategy, conceived that socialism is divided into two stages – a less developed stage and a more developed stage – and estimated that building a strong socialist country would require a hundred years or even longer. These important thoughts and theoretical viewpoints embody the vivid scene of the Party creatively applying Marxism to guide China’s socialist construction, demonstrating the powerful vitality of Marxism.
Making important contributions to the cause of world peace and progress, winning the respect and praise of the international community, especially the vast number of developing countries.
Our Party has always adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, firmly safeguarded national independence, sovereignty, and dignity, and resolutely opposed imperialism, hegemonism, colonialism, and racism. New China completely ended the history of humiliating diplomacy since the Opium War, stood as an independent country with full sovereignty in the East of the world, and played an increasingly important role in international affairs.
Won the great victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. On June 25, 1950, the Korean civil war broke out. The U.S. government, proceeding from its global strategy and Cold War thinking, decided to intervene militarily in the Korean civil war, and dispatched the Seventh Fleet to intrude into the Taiwan Strait, blatantly interfering in China’s internal affairs and obstructing China’s reunification. The U.S. military, disregarding repeated warnings from the Chinese government, brazenly crossed the 38th parallel and brought the flames of war to the China-Korea border, posing a serious threat to China’s security. At this critical juncture, at the request of the Korean Party and government, the Chinese Party and government, with extraordinary boldness and audacity, made the historic decision to resist US aggression and aid Korea and defend the homeland. After two years and nine months of fighting, the Chinese and Korean armies shattered the myth of the invincibility of the U.S. military, declaring to the world that “the era when Western aggressors could occupy a country by just setting up a few cannons on a coast in the East for hundreds of years is gone forever.” The great victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea not only demonstrated the prestige of the country and the military, displayed the spirit and morale of the Chinese people, safeguarded the security of New China, and highlighted New China’s status as a major country, but also profoundly shaped the strategic configuration of Asia and even the world after World War II, greatly inspired the just cause of oppressed nations and peoples around the world striving for national independence and people’s liberation, and forcefully promoted the cause of world peace and human progress.
Advocated and adhered to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. On the eve of the nationwide victory, the Party correctly analyzed the international situation and formulated three basic diplomatic principles: “do everything anew,” “clean the house before inviting guests,” and “lean to one side.” As soon as New China was established, it used these as guidance to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and people’s democratic countries. Through negotiations, it also established diplomatic relations with several Asian independent nations and European capitalist countries, making an important step in breaking the U.S. policy of containment and isolation. New China actively participated in important conferences such as the Geneva Conference and the Asian-African Conference, increasingly played an important role in resolving international disputes through consultation and promoting the easing of international tensions, continuously raised its international status, and secured a relatively favorable international peaceful environment for socialist construction. It was precisely in these fruitful diplomatic efforts that our country proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They were powerful weapons for New China to conduct activities on the international stage, break through the U.S. policy of isolation and containment, and expand foreign exchanges. They not only became the cornerstone of our country’s foreign policy but were gradually widely accepted by the international community, making a historic contribution to promoting the establishment of a just and rational new type of international relations.
Opening up a new situation in foreign work through strategic adjustment. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, under the world Cold War pattern dominated by the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, our country insisted on independence, resolutely opposed hegemonism from all directions, and effectively safeguarded national dignity and interests. Our country actively supported and assisted the liberation cause of oppressed peoples of the world, the construction of newly independent countries, and the just struggles of peoples of various countries, established diplomatic relations with a large number of Asian, African, and Latin American countries, and received their support internationally. In the early 1970s, the Party 审时度势 (shěn shí duó shì - “judge the times and weigh the situation,” to assess the situation accurately) and adjusted its diplomatic strategy, eased relations with the United States, promoted the restoration of all China’s legitimate rights in the United Nations, and promoted the formation of a pattern in which the international community adheres to the One-China principle. In light of changes in the international situation, the Party put forward the strategic thought of dividing the world into three worlds, emphasized that China belongs to the third world, and made the solemn commitment that China will never seek hegemony. The achievements in China’s diplomacy during this period greatly improved China’s security environment, expanded the stage for China’s diplomatic activities, and also laid a good foundation for China’s subsequent reform and opening up and more active participation in international affairs.
Strengthening Party building under the conditions of governance, the Party’s leadership was continuously consolidated and strengthened, and the Party’s organization grew increasingly strong.
Our Party fully anticipated the new challenges faced by governing the whole country. Through conducting rectification campaigns and party consolidation, strengthening inner-party education, rectifying grassroots party organizations, raising the qualifications for party membership, and resolutely punishing corruption, it improved the Party’s leadership level, enhanced the Party’s purity and unity throughout the Party, and strengthened the Party’s ties with the masses. Party building displayed new phenomena and new achievements.
It put forward the thought of the “Two Musts.” “It is harder to defend the country than to conquer it.” The difficulty lies in the fact that after gaining political power, one faces more temptations and tests and may lose one’s fine traditions. On the eve of the founding of New China, Mao Zedong said earnestly at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party, “To win the nationwide victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand li,” and “The comrades must be taught to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness, and the comrades must be taught to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle.” He warned the whole Party to have a sober understanding of “going to the capital to take the exam” and “never become Li Zicheng.” It was because of this profound concern that soon after the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee decided to establish the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and discipline inspection commissions at all levels, responsible for inspecting and handling violations of Party discipline by the departments directly under the central authorities, Party organizations at all levels, Party cadres, and Party members, and absolutely would not tolerate corrupt practices of seeking personal gain by using the status of the ruling party, thus establishing an image of impartial law enforcement and severe punishment of corruption among the people.
It resolutely opposed bureaucracy. After the founding of New China, under the Party’s education and guidance, the overwhelming majority of Party members were able to practice the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, actively played a vanguard and exemplary role, and thus the Party enjoyed high prestige among the people. However, there were also many Party members who failed to withstand temptation and were defeated by attacks of “sugar-coated bullets.” To prevent the growth and spread of bad styles, especially bureaucracy, our Party successively carried out rectification campaigns and party consolidation. In the second half of 1950, a rectification campaign was conducted throughout the Party and the army, focusing on rectifying the work style of cadres, targeting the overcoming of bureaucratic and commandist styles, correcting the mentality of self-complacency and the idea that “the revolution is over,” and strengthening the ties between the Party and the people. From the second half of 1951 to the spring of 1954, a general consolidation of the Party’s grassroots organizations was carried out, and education on the eight conditions that a Communist Party member must meet was conducted among all Party members. After the “Three-Antis” campaign was fully launched, it was required that the “Three-Antis” campaign be combined with party consolidation. In January 1953, the Party Central Committee required Party committees at all levels to seriously carry out a struggle against bureaucracy, commandism, and violations of the law and discipline, starting from handling letters from the people, in conjunction with party consolidation and party building and other work, fully reflecting the Party’s profound understanding of bureaucracy and its harm.
It deeply explored the issue of party building in a ruling party. After the founding of New China, the Party accurately grasped the changes in its position and mission. It not only warned the whole Party to guard against the growth of sentiments such as arrogance and self-satisfaction, seeking pleasure, and regarding oneself as a meritorious official, but also called on the whole Party to strengthen study and quickly master the new skills of economic construction and state governance. The Party emphatically raised the major issue of party building under governing conditions, strengthening party building and consolidating Party leadership from the ideological, organizational, and stylistic aspects. The Eighth National Congress of the Party prominently emphasized opposing subjectivism, sectarianism, and bureaucracy within the Party, criticized the ideology and style of being divorced from reality and the masses, and proposed that the mass line is the fundamental issue in the Party’s organizational work. At the same time, based on the experience and lessons of Soviet socialist construction, it made many new regulations on implementing the fundamental principle of democratic centralism, requiring that “the Party must adopt effective measures to develop inner-party democracy,” emphasizing that “the democratic principle of the Party cannot be separated from the principle of centralism. The Party is a unified combat organization linked by discipline that all Party members must observe.” In addition, the new Party Constitution added content such as “safeguard the Party’s unity, consolidate the Party’s unity” and “be loyal and honest to the Party” to the duties of Party members. Mao Zedong also, from the height of consolidating and developing the socialist cause, emphasized the need to vigorously cultivate and promote new forces and train successors for the revolutionary cause. Practice has proved that these achievements are of great significance for the long-term construction of the Party and the country.
“Yet looking back on the path we have traveled, it lies deep in the deep blue expanse of green mountains.” Looking back on the great achievements of socialist revolution and construction led by the Party, we can more deeply understand that “the Chinese people are not only good at destroying an old world, but also good at building a new one,” and more deeply feel that “only socialism can save China, and only socialism can develop China.” On the new journey, we must more consciously draw confidence and strength from the Party’s glorious history and strive to create new historical brilliance.
(The author is from the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (中央党史和文献研究院).)
Return to TopBy: 阚秀玲
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "To do a good job of united front work under the new situation, we must grasp the laws, adhere to principles, and pay attention to methods." The Regulations on the Work of the United Front of the Communist Party of China (中国共产党统一战线工作条例) require "to attach importance to strengthening grassroots united front work," providing guidance for grassroots united front work in the new era. At present, facing the new situation of profound changes in social structure, profound adjustments in the pattern of interests, and profound transformations in ideas and concepts, further strengthening grassroots united front work is not only an inherent requirement for upholding the Party's overall leadership over united front work, but also an important measure to improve the grand united front work pattern and give full play to the magic weapon role of the united front.
The closer one goes to the grassroots, the more specific the tasks of united front work become. From the perspective of work scope and targets, the grassroots have gathered a large number of united front members, including members of democratic parties, persons without party affiliation, non-Party intellectuals, ethnic minority figures, religious figures, people from the non-public sector of the economy, and new social strata persons, basically covering all targets of united front work in the new era. Many are at the grassroots frontline such as counties/districts, communities, industrial parks, universities, and research institutes, with diverse ideologies, varied interest demands, relatively large social influence, and at the same time relatively strong mobility. From the perspective of work mission, grassroots united front work is closely related to grassroots governance; both require coordinating social relations, regulating interest conflicts, enhancing unity, and promoting harmony. At the same time, the grassroots are at the forefront of our Party's work to unite and connect with non-Party figures, and are an important source for the cultivation and use of non-Party representative figures. These characteristics determine that grassroots united front work must pay more attention to classified policy application and precise targeting, and pay more attention to integrating into daily work and making it a regular practice. At the same time, grassroots united front work still faces some prominent problems, such as relatively single methods in promoting grassroots united front work in some places, the targetedness and effectiveness of ideological and political guidance in some areas needing enhancement, blind spots in work coverage in some places, and insufficient use of digital means, etc. The existence of these problems urgently requires grassroots united front work to continuously innovate in methods and approaches.
Broaden channels for contact and service, and consolidate the foundation of work. Grassroots united front work targets are numerous, widely distributed, complex in type, and highly mobile, making contact and service relatively difficult. To do a good job of grassroots united front work, it is necessary to base on grassroots realities, focus on efforts in links such as ascertaining the exact numbers, classified contact, and daily visits, and make contact and service work meticulous and solid. First, comprehensively ascertain the exact numbers of united front work targets. Accurately grasping the basic situation of all types of united front work targets within the jurisdiction is the prerequisite for carrying out all work. The grid management system can be used to give full play to the role of community workers, grid workers, and other grassroots forces, and through door-to-door visits, information collection, etc., conduct a full-coverage survey of various united front targets within the jurisdiction. At the same time, establish a dynamically updated information database, regularly verify and supplement based on actual conditions such as population mobility and employment changes, ensure data accuracy and usability, and provide reliable basis for precise contact and service. Second, implement classified contact for different groups. Grassroots united front work targets have many types and large differences; different groups focus on different issues, have different activity spaces, and different communication methods. It is necessary to adopt differentiated contact methods according to the characteristics of different types of personnel. For example, for persons from the non-public sector of the economy, contact can be strengthened through government-enterprise docking, solving difficulties and problems, etc.; for non-Party intellectuals and new social strata persons, contact can be strengthened by building platforms for offering suggestions and serving society, etc. Third, make good use of the visit and contact mechanism. Daily visits are one of the most commonly used and most effective contact methods at the grassroots. At present, some places have established a system for leading cadres to contact non-Party representative figures, some have promoted a normalized visit mechanism, clarifying the contact targets, methods, and frequency, promoting united front cadres and united front members to meet and communicate frequently, promptly understand their ideological trends and interest demands, and enhance understanding and identification in daily contact and interaction.
Enrich activity platforms and enhance work attractiveness. Grassroots united front work targets are relatively scattered and often lack an institutionalized bond with the united front departments. It is even more necessary to build platforms and create carriers in places close to united front targets, so that united front members can participate and united front work can go deeper. On the one hand, activity platforms should be integrated into daily life. The advantage of the grassroots lies in being close to united front work targets and having more contact; only when the platform is built nearby can contact become normal. Some places have set up work positions such as United Front Home (统战之家) and Concentric Station (同心驿站) in Party and mass service centers, extending the tentacles of united front work into the daily lives of united front members. On the other hand, activity content should be combined with the professional expertise and actual needs of united front work targets. For example, some places carry out policy briefings and discussions in ways familiar to the masses such as "dam dam meetings" (坝坝会) and "stool meetings" (板凳会); some places organize activities such as "Concentric Services into Communities" (同心服务进社区) and "United Front Figures Public Welfare Walk" (统战人士公益行) to respond to the concerns of united front targets, guide united front members to give full play to their professional expertise, let participants feel respect and realize value in the activities, and enhance the flexibility and effectiveness of grassroots united front work.
Integrate into grassroots governance and gather joint governance synergy. Promoting the better integration of united front work into grassroots governance is not only an important path to expand the methods and approaches of united front work, but also an inevitable requirement to give full play to united front advantages in serving grassroots governance. Grassroots governance requires mobilizing the enthusiasm of various types of entities, and the united front has unique advantages of gathering talent, dense intelligence, and broad contacts, and can play an important role in grassroots governance. Various places have explored many good experiences and practices in giving play to united front advantages and participating in grassroots governance. At present, some places invite united front figures to participate in "Community Development Think Tanks" (社区发展智囊团) to assist community development planning and decision-making; some places set up grassroots united front expert service stations, using a closed-loop mechanism of "the masses place orders, the workstation dispatches orders, experts receive orders, and the masses evaluate orders" to promote the precise sinking of united front intellectual resources to the grassroots; some places explore a "demand + resource + service" linkage mechanism to guide united front resources to accurately serve grassroots needs, allowing all kinds of wisdom to fully flow in grassroots governance. At the same time, the united front has unique advantages in resolving grassroots conflicts and maintaining social stability. The grassroots are an area where various types of conflicts and problems occur frequently, and it is necessary to organically combine united front work with conflict resolution. Some places absorb non-Party representative figures to participate in conflict mediation, giving full play to their advantages of deep mass foundation and strong social credibility; some places integrate the human resources of legal workers, people's mediators, etc. among united front members, and comprehensively use various means such as policy briefings, negotiation and mediation, assistance and relief to resolve conflicts and disputes. This can not only effectively solve problems but also enhance understanding and trust between different groups in the process, highlighting the unique value of united front work in maintaining grassroots harmony and stability.
Strengthen digital empowerment and enhance the effectiveness of united front work. United front work, in the final analysis, is work on people; where people are, work must be done. At present, information technology is deeply integrated into social life, and the ways of information dissemination and interpersonal communication are undergoing profound changes. The information acquisition habits and communication preferences of youth groups and online figures show obvious digital characteristics, which puts forward new requirements for the traditional contact methods and guidance means of united front work. To do a good job of grassroots united front work, it is necessary to actively adapt to this change, be good at integrating digital technology into all links of contact service and ideological guidance, and expand work boundaries and enhance work effectiveness by means of information technology. On the one hand, adapt to changes in communication habits, be good at using various online social platforms to establish contact channels, and enhance understanding and build trust in equal dialogue. United front cadres should improve their online communication skills, be familiar with and understand the characteristics and laws of online expression, and be good at using online language to carry out communication and interaction, making contact work more grounded and warmer. On the other hand, combine social hot spots and practical issues of concern to united front members, and carry out ideological guidance work in a more flexible and closer manner. It is possible to explore the use of short videos, online interactions, and other forms to integrate ideological guidance into daily information dissemination and topic discussions, and be good at collecting and analyzing the ideological dynamics and concerns of united front work targets through online platforms. It should be pointed out that digital means are important tools to enhance work effectiveness, but face-to-face communication and targeted ideological guidance are still irreplaceable basic methods of grassroots united front work. We should insist on the coordinated efforts of online and offline, continuously unite people's hearts and gather strength, and achieve an overall improvement in work effectiveness.
Return to TopBy: 陆宇峰
The cultivation of foreign-related rule-of-law talent, as the foundational project for building the foreign-related rule of law, directly affects the effectiveness of the foreign-related rule-of-law system and capacity building. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, “Strengthen the training of foreign-related rule-of-law professionals” and “cultivate a cohort of foreign-related rule-of-law talent who are firm in political stance, excellent in professional competence, well-versed in international rules, and proficient in foreign-related legal practice.” In recent years, the scale of Chinese enterprises going global has grown rapidly, the quality has improved significantly, and the pace has notably accelerated. The application scenarios of the foreign-related rule of law have become more diverse and complex, placing higher standards and greater demands on the comprehensive quality, professional capabilities, and cross-disciplinary vision of rule-of-law talent, while also exposing a severe shortage of such talent. For example, as of 2025, China had 12,000 lawyers capable of handling foreign-related business, accounting for only 1.46 percent of the country’s 830,000 lawyers. The number of lawyers who can handle “countervailing,” “anti-dumping,” and “safeguard measures” matters, and those capable of independently handling cases within the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, is even smaller. Disputes in areas such as cross-border e-commerce trade, high-tech product exports, foreign trade in services, and foreign direct investment are increasing, creating an urgent need for a large number of rule-of-law professionals who are proficient in international economic and trade rules, familiar with cross-border intellectual property protection, and skilled in trade remedy mechanisms, to provide professional support for enterprises in handling international economic and trade disputes and preventing trade risks. It can be said that the shortage in the supply of foreign-related rule-of-law talent has become a significant factor constraining the enhancement of China’s foreign-related rule-of-law capacity.
After decades of development, the cultivation system for foreign-related rule-of-law talent in Chinese universities has become increasingly complete, with continuous optimization of the disciplinary layout and steady improvement of the training system, supplying a large number of professional rule-of-law talents for the construction of the foreign-related rule of law and high-level opening up. However, when benchmarked against the practical needs of enterprises going global and the requirements of foreign-related rule-of-law construction in the new era, the current talent cultivation work still has three prominent shortcomings. First, the alignment between academic disciplines and practical needs is insufficient. On one hand, the existing foreign-related rule-of-law disciplinary training system is mainly centered on traditional disciplines such as public international law, private international law, and international economic law, with relatively few “country-specific law” (国别法) talents being cultivated. Yet the first thing enterprises encounter when going global is the “country-specific law” of the host country. Foreign-related rule-of-law talent must first be familiar with the institutional characteristics and legal operational logic of different jurisdictions in order to accurately identify host country legal risks and provide targeted legal opinions. Currently, the number of domestic universities offering distinctive “country-specific law” majors or establishing specialized country-specific rule-of-law research platforms is limited, and the supply of country-specific law talent cultivation is relatively weak. On the other hand, emerging interdisciplinary fields related to law are relatively lagging. In new battlefields of foreign-related rule of law such as data compliance for enterprises going global and high-tech new energy patent litigation, relevant talent is still relatively scarce. Second, there is a lack of practical training scenarios. Foreign laws are rooted in different cultural and legal traditions, making it difficult for learners to accurately understand their meaning through theoretical study alone, without relying on background knowledge, life experience, and legal intuition. International dispute settlement often involves a complex interweaving of the Law of Treaties, international investment law, and international arbitration procedure knowledge, and is highly dependent on cross-cultural communication. Classroom teaching has limited effectiveness, making practical training especially important. However, currently, the number of relevant practice platforms in Chinese universities is still small. Third, high-level applied faculty are relatively scarce. The cultivation of foreign-related rule-of-law talent has a distinct practice orientation, requiring teachers to possess both deep theoretical foundations and frontline practical experience in cross-border compliance, international arbitration, and foreign-related litigation. But from a nationwide perspective, the number of teachers who simultaneously possess these capabilities is clearly insufficient.
In response to the above problems, the foreign-related rule-of-law laboratory, as an innovative platform integrating rule-of-law research, rule-of-law practice, and talent cultivation, is becoming an important exploratory direction for filling the shortcomings in the cultivation of foreign-related rule-of-law talent. In recent years, the construction of liberal arts laboratories in Chinese universities has accelerated, and the foreign-related rule-of-law laboratory is one of the key areas of deployment. Based on the actual needs of foreign-related rule-of-law construction, the foreign-related rule-of-law laboratory is supported by a global regional and country-specific law database, driven by digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and large language models, aligned with the real legal needs of enterprises going global, guiding students to actively absorb and integrate legal, commercial, and technological knowledge, and enhancing their professional capabilities in legal practice scenarios.
Consolidate the foundation for teaching and research on “country-specific law.” In foreign-related commercial trials, international investment arbitration, and cross-border corporate compliance and other rule-of-law practices, determining the specific meaning and application boundaries of host country law often directly decides the outcome of a case. In response to the long-standing difficulties in “country-specific law” research—such as scattered materials, slow updates, and high acquisition costs—digital technologies like retrieval-augmented generation and large language models can be relied upon to intelligently aggregate resources such as rule-of-law regulations, judicial precedents, regulatory notifications, and industry standards from around the world, integrating them into a visualized, dynamic “World Map of Regional and Country-Specific Law.” The system updates in real time the dynamics of revisions to national legal systems and adjustments to regulatory policies, comprehensively presenting the characteristics of the global rule-of-law landscape and regional rule differences. Students can be organized to participate in basic tasks such as rule sorting, article comparison, case compilation, and risk summarization, helping them systematically understand the institutional features, regulatory priorities, and common legal risks of different jurisdictions, gradually building a complete knowledge system of “country-specific law,” and continuously consolidating the theoretical foundation and rule-cognition foundation of the foreign-related rule of law.
Build an intelligent system for ascertaining foreign law. According to the provisions of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Laws to Foreign-Related Civil Relations and related judicial interpretations, when the applicable law is foreign law, the court or arbitration institution shall ascertain the content of that foreign law. Ascertaining foreign law is a necessary step in the application of law in foreign-related cases and is also a basic capability that foreign-related rule-of-law talent must possess. The regulatory rules and platform policies faced by enterprises going global change frequently, placing high demands on the timeliness and accuracy of ascertaining foreign law. Currently, in teaching foreign law ascertainment, Chinese universities mainly rely on manual searches, making it difficult to cope with the risks of changes in regulatory rules and platform policies faced by enterprises going global. Based on the regional and country-specific law database built jointly by teachers and students and the typical case database of Chinese enterprises going global, a vertical model can be developed and trained primarily by students, exploring the creation of an intelligent system for ascertaining foreign law. This will integrate “country-specific law,” industry rules, enforcement trends, and typical cases into a database that can be searched, alerted, and analyzed, providing more convenient ascertainment services.
Explore the construction of an industry going-global compliance experiment center. The compliance issues involved in enterprises going global are becoming increasingly complex, covering multiple fields such as cross-border data flows, intellectual property protection, labor and employment, and environmental law. Foreign-related rule-of-law talent must not only be proficient in law but also understand industries, be familiar with technology, and possess cross-cultural communication skills. Targeting scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce, photovoltaic and lithium batteries, artificial intelligence applications, games and short dramas, and engineering contracting, systems can be explored and developed for trademark and patent retrieval, platform policy comparison, contract review, supply chain tracing, cross-border data assessment, labor and employment compliance testing, and environmental compliance testing. Integrate the full-chain functions of these systems into the teaching system, guiding students to participate in combat tasks such as compliance consulting for enterprises going global and intellectual property risk monitoring. Cooperate with relevant technology companies to carry out activities such as legal question-and-answer robots, overseas patent searches, claim analysis, technical feature comparison, preliminary infringement risk screening, and algorithm-assisted circumvention design, cultivating composite rule-of-law talent who possess both legal thinking and the ability to apply technology.
Improve research and teaching platforms for international commercial dispute resolution. Enhancing the professional ability to handle cross-border commercial disputes is one of the important directions for cultivating foreign-related rule-of-law talent. Based on virtual simulation and intelligent interaction technologies, a fully covered, immersive virtual platform for international commercial dispute resolution can be built, covering high-frequency foreign-related dispute scenarios such as cross-border trade, intellectual property, and overseas investment. By restoring the entire process of international arbitration, foreign-related mediation, and cross-border legal negotiations, students can engage in immersive learning in multiple roles such as mediator, case party, and case assistant. Relying on an intelligent evaluation mechanism, students’ comprehensive abilities in legal application, logical reasoning, cross-cultural communication, and digital tool application can be accurately assessed, systematically enhancing their practical competence in foreign-related legal affairs. This will provide a more solid talent guarantee for China’s foreign-related rule-of-law construction and the high-level going-global of enterprises in the new era.
Return to TopBy: 宋玲
“Laws value simplicity and appropriateness, so that people may easily understand them. If the provisions are numerous and tangled, or if one matter has two sides, allowing leniency or severity, officials will be able to exploit them for wrongdoing, which is not the intent of the law.” “The laws and decrees of the state must only be concise; one crime must not be made into several articles.” The “laws value simplicity and appropriateness” advocated by ancient Chinese legislators is an important legislative idea and goal in traditional legal culture. The so-called “simplicity and appropriateness” means that provisions are concise, regulations are proper, and content is clear, making it easy for people to know and observe. Throughout the dynasties, continuous exploration was carried out around this pursuit in the areas of law creation, codification, and legal dissemination, accumulating valuable experience.
Laws stress being “concise yet able to prohibit,” practical and effective. Shang Yang (商鞅), in the “Shuomin” chapter of the Book of Lord Shang (商君书), proposed: “If the law is detailed, punishments are numerous; if the law is concise, punishments are reduced.” In the first year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang dynasty, Yang Xiangru (杨相如), the county commandant of Jinling County (晋陵县), proposed in his Memorial on Current Affairs (时政疏): “Laws value being concise yet able to prohibit; punishments value being light yet must be carried out.” The so-called “concise yet able to prohibit” means that although legislation is concise and to the point, it can still provide clear behavioral norms for society, truly playing the role of 禁奸止邪 (jìn jiān zhǐ xié - “prohibit treachery and stop evil”) and 定分止争 (dìng fēn zhǐ zhēng - “settle distinctions and stop disputes”).
The degree of complexity or simplicity of laws should be commensurate with the level of social development. “Laws value simplicity and appropriateness” can easily lead to a misunderstanding that the fewer legal provisions the better. In fact, this is not the case; it implies a premise: the degree of complexity or simplicity of laws should match the degree of social development. In the early Warring States period, the Canon of Laws (法经) compiled by Li Kui (李悝) of the state of Wei is considered the earliest feudal written code, divided into six chapters: “Theft,” “Robbery,” “Imprisonment,” “Arrest,” “Miscellaneous,” and “General Provisions.” Among the six chapters, the first four were classified by crime category, while the last two governed sentencing standards and general provisions, encompassing the most important social needs of the time. The chapters were concise and clear in priority, meeting the requirements of the era. By the Tang dynasty, with a prosperous economy and numerous affairs, the Tang Code with Commentary (唐律疏议) responded with a scale of twelve chapters and five hundred articles, well-organized and comprehensive in norms, later praised as “achieving the balance of ancient and modern.” The word “balance” precisely describes the appropriate matching relationship between law and society—streamlined yet not crude, detailed yet not cumbersome. Thus it can be seen that the choice between complexity and simplicity in legislation cannot be separated from the social conditions of the era in which it is situated.
Laws should be clear and precise, not trivial and disorderly. Du Yu (杜预), a legal scholar of the Jin dynasty, once said: “Law is the standard for deciding right and wrong, not a book that exhaustively investigates principles and natures. Therefore, the text should be concise and the rules straightforward; hearings should be reduced and prohibitions simple. When rules are straightforward, they are easy to see; when prohibitions are simple, they are difficult to violate. Easy to see means people know what to avoid; difficult to violate means punishments almost cease.” That is to say, law is the measuring line and ink-string for judging right and wrong, not an academic work that delves deeply into principles and meanings, so its articles do not favor embellishment, and its language does not favor prolixity. Sima Guang (司马光) of the Northern Song dynasty also said, “The establishment of legal systems values conciseness.” For example, during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the requirement for “clarity, fluency, conciseness, and simplicity” in scholarly style also influenced legislation, pursuing abstraction and precision of legal concepts, no longer relying on lengthy descriptive expressions. The legal texts were greatly streamlined; the Wei Code (北魏律) “took the essence and applied it broadly,” and the Northern Qi Code (北齐律) had a clearer structural hierarchy. The Sui Kaihuang Code (开皇律) continued to streamline on this basis, with five hundred articles, praised as “having a concise penal outline, sparse yet not missing.” The Great Ming Code (大明律) went further, with only four hundred and sixty articles in the entire code, employing more refined legislative techniques and a more complete structure, focusing on plain and smooth wording.
Codification emphasizes inherent logic and practicality. “Laws value simplicity and appropriateness” is fully reflected in codification, that is, using a precise structure to govern complex content, using a relatively limited number of legal articles to respond to changing social life, focusing on inherent logic and practicality, achieving “using simplicity to control complexity” (以简驭繁, yǐ jiǎn yù fán - “use the simple to control the complex”).
Establishing a structural framework with the general part first and the specific part in order is an important way for codification to achieve “using simplicity to control complexity.” The Canon of Laws first had six chapters, with the last chapter “General Provisions” actually serving a function of governing the entire code while stipulating crimes and modifications of punishments. The New Code (新律) of the Cao-Wei dynasty changed “General Provisions” to “Penal Names” and placed it at the beginning of the code, establishing the compilation pattern of “general principles at the front, specific provisions at the back.” The general part centrally provided for common principles and basic concepts, so each article in the specific part did not need to repeat them, greatly saving legal text. The Jin Code (晋律) further divided the general part into two chapters, “Penal Names” and “Legal Examples,” which were later combined by the Northern Qi Code into “Names and Examples,” a format that was used by later dynasties. The general part governs the entire code, providing a unified normative basis in each link of “adjudging crimes,” “convicting,” and “sentencing,” greatly reducing the pressure of setting other legal concepts and norms, so that the code is not a simple pile of rules but forms an internal order where the 纲举目张 (gāng jǔ mù zhāng - “when the main rope is lifted, the meshes open,” one key principle leads to everything else falling into place).
Using principle-based provisions to compensate for the insufficiency of a limited number of articles is another important way for the code to achieve “using simplicity to control complexity.” The Tang Code with Commentary, in the “Names and Examples” chapter, stipulates: “When adjudging crimes and there is no precise article, if the case should be exculpated, then cite the heavy punishment to clarify the light case; if the case should be inculpated, then cite the light punishment to clarify the heavy case.” This means that for conduct not explicitly provided for in the code, if punishment should be mitigated, the provisions for heavy punishment are cited as a comparison to decide the light case; if punishment should be increased, the provisions for light punishment are cited as a comparison to decide the heavy case. This principle gave the code a strong coverage capacity with limited articles. The “Commentary” (疏议) appended after each article's text further explained the meaning of the law: the article established the normative framework, and the commentary explained the conditions and scope of application. The two complemented each other, avoiding ambiguity caused by the brevity of the articles. In the Ming and Qing codes, besides their provisions being more general and abstract, a relatively complete system of legal headings was formed, matching each department with the category of affairs it managed, which directly made the codes even more concise and stronger in practicality.
Clear and concise laws create conditions for officials and the people to know and comply. “When the sage makes laws, he must make them clear and easy to understand.” On the one hand, the more concise and appropriate the articles, the easier their dissemination, and the greater the likelihood that the people will know and observe them. On the other hand, the more concise and general the laws, the more accurately the legislative intent and the scale of application behind the articles need to be understood. Throughout the dynasties, extensive exploration was conducted on how to transmit laws to officials and the people and how to understand the legislative intent.
The more concise and general the legal articles, the greater the discretion often left to law enforcement and judicial officers. If officials do not understand the meaning of the law or comprehend legal principles, then not only can they fail to “prohibit treachery and stop evil,” but they may also deviate from the legislative intent due to improper discretion. Therefore, while pursuing “simple and appropriate legislation,” all dynasties consistently attached importance to ensuring that officials accurately understood the meaning of the law. For example, both the Ming and Qing codes contained a special article on “lecturing and reading laws and decrees,” requiring by law that officials at all levels thoroughly read the code and understand its meaning. The Tang dynasty already had a method of assessment with “four excellences and twenty-seven bests,” which listed “deciding cases without delay and making correct decisions” as an important standard for legal officials. The Great Ming Code, “Statutes on Personnel,” “Official Document Formulas,” stipulated: “All officials of the hundred offices must thoroughly study, clearly explain the meaning of the law, and decide affairs.” At the year-end assessment, “if there is anyone who cannot explain or does not understand the meaning of the law, for the first offense, deduct one month’s salary; for a second offense, flog forty and record the fault.” Directly linking legal literacy to job evaluation made studying law an inescapable duty. From the Tang to the Ming and Qing, ensuring that officials understood the law was always an important arrangement in the implementation of the law.
Concise and appropriate legal articles are easy to 口耳相传 (kǒu ěr xiāng chuán - “pass from mouth to ear,” spread by word of mouth), memorize, and follow, which creates necessary conditions for legal dissemination. For example, the Ming founder Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) ordered that “Shenming Pavilions” (申明亭) be established in all prefectures, sub-prefectures, counties, townships, and villages as fixed venues for proclaiming the court’s laws and decrees. The laws and decrees were read out regularly every month, and there disputes were mediated and good and evil were made public, integrating legal education into grassroots daily operations. At the same time, Ming dynasty legal proclamation was integrated into ritual ceremonies. The “Rural Drinking Ceremony” (乡饮酒礼) held on the fifteenth day of the first month and the first day of the tenth month each year had a special segment of “chanting and reading laws and decrees”: “The ritual assistant chants the reading of the laws and decrees; the attendant lifts the table of laws and decrees to the center of the hall. The reader of the laws and decrees approaches the table, stands facing north, reads aloud, all in the manner of the raising of the goblet ritual. Those who have committed faults all go to the main seat, stand and listen; after the reading, they return to their places.” This enabled the people to learn the content of the law in the process of participating in public rituals.
The ancient Chinese tradition of “laws value simplicity and appropriateness” left systematic experience in law creation, codification, and legal dissemination, with a consistent thread running through: making laws both thorough and not cumbersome, both normative and easy to comply with. This is directionally consistent with today’s requirements for the legal system such as “dense but not cumbersome, effective and practical” and “comprehensive in law, convenient for affairs.” The efforts of ancient legislators to seek a balance between institutional complexity and simplicity still offer some inspiration for how to balance comprehensiveness and convenience in legislation today, and how to make the law better known to and observed by the people in its implementation.
Return to TopBy: 肖宏伟
This year’s Government Work Report proposed for the first time “creating a new form of intelligent economy (智能经济新形态),” indicating that our country’s economic development is entering a new stage driven by artificial intelligence as an important force. The intelligent economy is not a simple extension of the digital economy, but an important transformation in the mode of economic operation. An in-depth understanding of what is new about the new form of intelligent economy helps to grasp the basic characteristics of this economic form and provides theoretical support for cultivating new drivers of growth. Overall, the “newness” of the intelligent economy is mainly embodied in five aspects: the driving mechanism, the factor system, the mode of production, industrial organization, and the logic of value creation.
In terms of the driving mechanism, it shifts from enabling tool to key driver. The most obvious change in the intelligent economy is that the role positioning of artificial intelligence has undergone a fundamental adjustment. The previous “AI+ (人工智能+)” action mainly treated artificial intelligence as an enabling tool for transforming traditional industries, whereas “creating a new form of intelligent economy” means that artificial intelligence has risen from a supporting tool to a key force driving economic operation. In the intelligent economy, artificial intelligence possesses capabilities for autonomous perception, intelligent decision-making, and adaptive execution. These capabilities are gradually embedded in the entire process of economic activity, changing the underlying logic of economic operation—that is, shifting from reliance on scale expansion to reliance on cognitive capability. At present, large models with multi-modal understanding, complex reasoning, and agent capabilities are deeply participating in the links of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption, giving rise to intelligent-native enterprises and bringing new development space for economic growth. By the end of 2025, the scale of our country’s core artificial intelligence industry had exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, and the penetration rate of AI technology application among manufacturing enterprises above designated size exceeded 30%. Artificial intelligence is becoming a key variable driving economic growth.
In terms of the factor system, it shifts from traditional resources to the synergy of data, computing power, and algorithms. In the era of the agricultural economy, production activities mainly relied on traditional factors such as land and labor. In the era of the industrial economy, production activities took land and capital as core factors. In the era of the intelligent economy, data, computing power, and algorithms become core production factors. From the perspective of political economy, the object of labor has undergone an important change: the massive data on the internet and proprietary data from physical scenes have become new means of production that can be deeply processed. Data possesses characteristics such as non-rivalry, shareability, and self-growth, continuously increasing in value during use, and is the foundational resource of the intelligent economy. Relying on its ultra-large-scale market and complete industrial system, our country ranks among the top in the world in total data volume and has rich application scenarios. Computing power is equivalent to the power support of the intelligent economy and has become a new type of infrastructure following heat, electricity, and network power. By the first quarter of 2026, the scale of our country’s intelligent computing power reached 188.2 quintillion floating-point operations per second, ranking among the top in the world. Algorithms determine the depth and breadth with which artificial intelligence systems understand and process information. The training and deployment of large models place high demands on computing power, requiring appropriately超前 (ahead-of-time) construction of ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters, and simultaneously driving the upgrading of supporting infrastructure such as energy and networks. Data, computing power, and algorithms support each other and exert synergy, forming the basic framework of intelligent economic operation. This is a factor characteristic that distinguishes the intelligent economy from the industrial economy and the digital economy.
In terms of the mode of production, it shifts from passive execution to human-machine intelligent collaboration. The transformation of the mode of production is the concentrated embodiment of the intelligent economy at the micro level. In the era of the industrial economy, machines passively executed commands; in the era of the digital economy, information technology served as a tool for optimizing processes; in the intelligent economy, artificial intelligence possesses the capabilities of autonomous perception, learning, decision-making, and continuous evolution. This change in capability enables artificial intelligence to develop from a tool that passively executes commands into an agent capable of autonomous decision-making, promoting profound changes in the mode of production and the production function. Embodied intelligent robots have already autonomously completed complex tasks in high-precision scenarios such as automotive die-casting and battery production, and human-machine collaboration has moved from concept to practical application. In terms of production process optimization, it no longer mainly relies on empirical judgment but carries out dynamic optimization based on real-time data streams, forming a new model of intelligent production. Manufacturing is shifting from traditional automated assembly lines to flexible, collaborative production empowered by artificial intelligence, more effectively meeting diverse, small-batch, personalized market demands. At the same time, the relationship between humans and machines is also changing: machines not only continue to undertake physical labor but also begin to share complex mental tasks, gradually transforming from tools into human work partners, promoting the evolution from the traditional human-human collaboration model to a new form of human-machine collaboration. This transformation from passive tool to active partner enables artificial intelligence to be truly embedded in every link of the production process, becoming an integral component of economic operation.
In terms of industrial organization, it shifts from linear chains to networked ecological restructuring. The change in the intelligent economy at the level of industrial organization is embodied as an ecosystem-level systemic adjustment. Digitalization and networking mainly address the issues of connectivity and efficiency within industries, whereas the intelligent economy breaks the linear linkages and vertical boundaries of traditional industries, promoting the upgrade of industrial operation from factor-driven to synergy-driven. The intelligent economy is not a new track independent of the existing industrial system; instead, it deeply embeds intelligent capabilities into every link of agriculture, industry, and the service sector, giving rise to a large number of intelligent-native new business forms and new models. For example, intelligent vehicles are not merely means of transportation but intelligent terminals that integrate autonomous driving algorithms, energy management systems, and mobility service ecosystems, fundamentally changing the value distribution pattern of the automotive industry chain. In terms of micro-level organizational forms, the intelligent economy has given rise to “one-person companies,” relying on multi-agent collaboration systems for a single individual to complete the entire chain of R&D, production, marketing, and after-sales service, with efficiency comparable to that of a traditional team of dozens of people. “Dark factories” in the manufacturing industry rely on the autonomous decision-making capability of agents to achieve 24-hour unmanned operation, greatly increasing production efficiency. The rise of open-source communities and sharing platforms promotes the extensive flow and recombination of innovation resources, shifting industrial organization from vertical division of labor to networked collaboration. Ecosystem-level industrial restructuring breaks the linear linkages and vertical boundaries of traditional industries, promoting the transformation of industrial operation from factor-driven to synergy-driven. This is a salient characteristic that distinguishes the intelligent economy from the digital economy.
In terms of the logic of value creation, it shifts from efficiency improvement to enhancement of co-creation capability. The most profound change in the intelligent economy lies in the transformation of the value creation logic of the economic system. The digital economy mainly resolves the problem of information asymmetry, optimizing resource allocation by improving the efficiency of information flow; the intelligent economy, by contrast, relies on the capability for value co-creation, driving the economic system to shift from information-driven to co-creation-capability-driven. On the one hand, at the technological level, deep integration is achieved. Artificial intelligence is deeply combined with frontier fields such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, and 6G, and the interaction of technological supply and scenario demand gives rise to new business forms and models. On the other hand, at the value level, a paradigm shift occurs. Intelligent technology accelerates its penetration into new fields such as new-energy vehicles, quantum information, nuclear fusion, and the low-altitude economy, pushing the economic system from a value chain of industry segmentation and linear linkages toward a value network of cross-border co-creation and networked synergy. Value creation is no longer confined within the enterprise; it is carried out in real time within a collaborative network of diverse actors and dynamic combinations. General-purpose large models can be reused across multiple domains such as financial risk control, medical diagnosis, and industrial quality inspection, significantly reducing marginal application costs while markedly increasing the value created, with a pronounced effect of diminishing marginal costs. In addition, the development of artificial intelligence also brings a series of new work tasks, such as data governance, model training, algorithm deployment, and ethical governance, thereby generating a large number of new employment positions and expanding new space for value creation. The intelligent economy transcends the traditional sense of efficiency improvement, driving the economic system to shift from information-driven to co-creation-capability-driven.
In summary, the “newness” of the new form of intelligent economy is embodied in the systemic, deep-level transformation of the driving mechanism, the factor system, the mode of production, industrial organization, and the logic of value creation. The accelerated formation of this new form will provide new momentum for expanding the space for economic growth and tapping the potential for economic development. At present, our country’s intelligent economy is developing with good momentum. In 2025, the number of generative AI users had reached 602 million, forming a complete industrial system covering the foundational base, model framework, and industry applications. Looking ahead, we should continue to deepen our understanding of the laws governing the intelligent economy and welcome the era of the intelligent economy with a more proactive stance.
Return to TopBy: 涂强
Since this year, China’s matcha has ushered in a wave of hot sales in the international market, export data has been climbing all the way, and the outstanding achievements have become a major highlight of China’s agricultural products going overseas. In the first quarter of 2026, Zhejiang’s matcha exports reached 1,241.97 tons, with a value of 140 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 7.3 times; Guizhou Tongren’s matcha export volume increased by more than 40% year-on-year, with products exported to 54 countries and regions. The 2026 China Matcha Industry Development Report shows that in 2025, China’s matcha output exceeded 12,000 tons, accounting for nearly 70% of global total output, and the industry’s average annual compound growth rate over the past five years reached 28.67%. China’s tea, which once mainly exported raw material tea, now, relying on matcha as a deep-processed product, is sweeping the world and receiving continuous explosive orders. This is the result of the combined effect of market demand, industrial supply, and cultural empowerment.
From the perspective of market demand, health consumption, scenario expansion, and youthful trends intertwine to become the external driving force for matcha’s popularity. The global consumption trend is accelerating toward natural, healthy, and lightweight options. Matcha retains the complete nutritional components of tea leaves, and its characteristics of zero additives, antioxidant properties, and gentle stimulation meet the current health and wellness consumption demands. In terms of consumption scenarios, matcha has completely broken the single model of traditional tea of “brewing and drinking, gifting and collecting,” effectively achieving full-scenario penetration. New tea drinks and coffee brands have successively launched matcha series as hit products, becoming the main drivers for store traffic; leisure foods such as matcha cakes, matcha ice cream, and matcha nuts are popular in the consumer market; as a natural pigment and flavoring agent, matcha is widely used in pre-prepared dishes, meal replacements, health products, and other food industries. At the same time, relying on its bright visual characteristics and ceremonial preparation process, matcha adapts to the dissemination logic of social media, becoming popular check-in content on short-video platforms, firmly capturing the young consumer group.
At the level of industrial supply, technological breakthroughs, standard construction, and full-chain upgrading work together to become the internal support for seizing the market. Tea is a traditional advantageous agricultural category in China, long focused on exporting raw material tea, with a short industrial chain, low added value, and small profit margins. In recent years, many enterprises have overcome core technical difficulties such as color retention and fineness control, introduced intelligent production equipment, established strict quality control systems, and multiple products have successfully passed hundreds of international pesticide residue tests, successfully transitioning from low-end OEM to important suppliers in the global high-end matcha market. Relying on ecological and agricultural advantages, places such as Zhejiang, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Hubei have successively issued relevant standards for matcha production and tea garden management, established a “leading enterprises + cooperatives + farmers” interest linkage mechanism, built characteristic matcha industry clusters, improved the full-chain supporting system, revitalized previously unsalable summer and autumn tea resources, enabling tea farmers to achieve stable income throughout the year, and driving the tea industry toward scale, standardization, and industrialization.
From the perspective of cultural empowerment, in-depth integration of inheriting the tea lineage, innovating business formats, and tea-tourism symbiosis has become a unique advantage for brands going overseas. Matcha originated in China. Yuhang Jingshan, as the birthplace of the Song Dynasty tea-whisking culture, inherits a thousand-year Zen tea lineage. The Jingshan Tea Ceremony has even been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The profound cultural heritage adds unique charm to matcha going overseas. Matcha, in a youthful and trendy posture, has shed the heavy ancient charm of traditional tea drinks, integrating into the daily lives of young people in a fashionable, simple, and trendy image, allowing tea culture to penetrate public life in a lighter and more down-to-earth way, achieving the living inheritance of traditional culture. Some places deeply explore traditional tea-whisking techniques and Zen tea culture, and characteristic experience projects such as “Zen tea script-killing” and “Song-style tea banquet” have become popular. The integration of tea and tourism, and cultural empowerment, have enhanced the recognition and appeal of domestic matcha in the international market.
This nationwide matcha craze is, in fact, a vivid microcosm of China’s traditional tea industry breaking through the bottleneck of homogenization, embracing youthful consumption, and achieving full industrial chain upgrading. The 15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization emphasizes promoting the quality and efficiency of the “vegetable basket” industry and promoting the high-quality development of the vegetable, fruit, and tea industries. The explosive orders for matcha have pointed a clear direction for the quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of China’s traditional tea industry and its march toward high-quality development.
Extending the industrial chain and deeply exploring product value are important directions for the transformation and upgrading of the tea industry. Behind high-quality matcha is a complete set of agricultural, processing, food safety, and storage systems. Drawing on the development model of matcha deep processing, actively extend the tea industry chain, break the limitation of “only selling fresh leaves, only selling raw tea,” continuously strengthen technological innovation, delve deeply into the field of tea deep processing, develop diversified products around tea such as tea drinks, tea snacks, and tea daily chemicals, extend the industrial chain, increase added value, promote the transformation of tea from primary agricultural products to high value-added deep-processed goods, and fully release the value of tea resources.
Technological empowerment and standardized production are key supports for improving the quality and efficiency of the tea industry. Establish a matcha research institute, build an industry-university-research cooperation platform, collaborate with scientific research institutions and universities to tackle core technologies, and continuously optimize tea tree varieties, planting models, and processing techniques. Gradually popularize smart tea gardens and intelligent production lines, rely on the Internet of Things and intelligent monitoring equipment to achieve refined management of tea gardens, and use precision processing equipment to stabilize product quality. Build a standardized production system, continuously improve the full industrial chain standard system from tea garden planting to terminal sales, fully align with the international market through excellent quality, and promote the Chinese tea industry to gradually gain industry discourse power.
Creating distinctive brands and shaping strong IPs are important pathways for the tea industry to go global. Relying on a thousand-year tea cultural heritage, actively align with current communication trends and consumption trends, find the connection point between traditional culture and modern life, tell the Chinese tea story in youthful and trendy language, let the profound tea culture reach the public and the world in a light way, and create Chinese tea brands that have both cultural heritage and contemporary characteristics. Combining forms such as tea-tourism integration, intangible cultural heritage study tours, and immersive experiences, vividly tell the Chinese tea story, promote more Chinese agricultural products from raw material going overseas to brand going overseas and culture going overseas, and build regionally public brands and enterprise brands with international influence such as Jingshan matcha and Fanjing matcha.
Promoting the integration of three industries and releasing the dividends of enriching the people are inevitable choices for the tea industry to empower the countryside. Promote the deep integration of the tea industry with cultural tourism, handicrafts, and study tours, break product boundaries, develop immersive experience scenarios and diversified cultural tourism products, rely on the matcha industry to link new business formats such as tea garden sightseeing, matcha DIY, and intangible cultural heritage study tours, making tea a pillar industry for strengthening villages, enriching people, and driving regional development. At the same time, promote tourism through tea and promote tea through tourism, driving the development of related industries such as rural catering, accommodation, and cultural creativity, adding momentum to the revitalization of rural industries, and truly realizing the industrial value of “one leaf enriches one region’s people.”
Currently, matcha has become an important track for extending and supplementing the chain of China’s tea industry, improving quality and increasing value, and is also a key lever for promoting the transformation of development momentum in the tea industry and helping rural industries prosper. Standing at a new development starting point, with technological innovation as the engine, standard systems as the foundation, and traditional culture as the foundation, continue to promote traditional planting, breeding, and processing toward the entire industrial chain, high added value, and internationalization, lead more traditional characteristic industries to complete transformation and upgrading, and inject continuous power into the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside.
Return to TopBy: 申学锋
Consumption is an important engine of economic growth, and rural consumption is an important component and potential growth pole of China's consumer market. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") clearly states "taking multiple measures simultaneously to expand rural consumption" and places it within the strategic framework of broadening channels for increasing farmers' incomes and achieving prosperity for systematic deployment. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period for basically realizing agricultural and rural modernization. A profound understanding of the strategic significance of expanding rural consumption and the comprehensive implementation of various measures to expand rural consumption have important practical significance for smoothing the domestic grand cycle and accelerating agricultural and rural modernization.
Expanding rural consumption is of great significance. Rural consumption is not only an important reflection of farmers' living standards, but also a key indicator for measuring the degree of agricultural and rural modernization. Fully unleashing the potential of rural consumption has multiple meanings for stabilizing growth, promoting transformation, and benefiting people's livelihoods.
Expanding rural consumption is an inevitable requirement for meeting farmers' aspirations for a better life. With the comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty and the completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, farmers' aspirations for a better life have become stronger, and their consumption needs have shifted from "having it or not" to "whether it is good or not." Currently, rural residents' consumption demand in areas such as housing improvement, household cars, smart home appliances, cultural entertainment, and health and elderly care is growing rapidly. This is an inevitable result of integrated urban-rural development and sustained income growth. It is necessary to conform to this trend by improving consumption supply and optimizing the consumption environment, transforming rural residents' life aspirations into concrete consumption scenarios, and continuously improving the quality of life and sense of happiness of rural residents.
Expanding rural consumption is a key support for smoothing the domestic grand cycle. China's approximately 450 million permanent rural residents constitute a massive consumer group, and the vast countryside is also an important part of boosting consumption. For a long time, constrained by factors such as income levels, consumption environment, and supply quality, the potential of rural consumption has not been fully unleashed. In 2025, the proportion of retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas to total retail sales of consumer goods in society was only 13.6%, forming a sharp contrast with the proportion of the rural population. Rural consumption contains huge potential for tapping. Promoting the expansion and upgrading of rural commodity consumption means removing bottlenecks in the urban-rural economic cycle, making the rural market an important supporting force for the domestic grand cycle.
Expanding rural consumption is an important engine for cultivating new momentum for economic growth. Against the backdrop of diminishing marginal returns on investment and increasing uncertainty in external demand, consumption has become the main engine driving economic growth. The growth of rural residents' consumption has a significant driving effect on GDP. Activating the rural consumer market is an effective fulcrum for leveraging economic growth. The growth rate of rural consumption has been higher than that of urban areas for many consecutive years, demonstrating strong growth resilience. Efforts must be made to cultivate new rural consumption scenarios and new business forms such as harvest markets and sports events/performances, creating new consumption growth points in the vast countryside.
Expanding rural consumption is an effective way to promote common prosperity. An important manifestation of the urban-rural dual structure is the consumption gap. In 2025, the per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents in China was 35,869 yuan, while that of rural residents was 20,259 yuan. The ratio of per capita consumption expenditure between urban and rural residents was 1.77:1, and the gap remains relatively obvious. To this end, expanding rural consumption should be combined with implementing urban and rural residents' income increase plans, gradually narrowing the urban-rural consumption gap by enhancing rural consumption capacity. Once the rural consumer market is enlivened, agricultural products will have smoother sales channels, the rural service industry will have broader space, and farmers' incomes and consumption capacity will also increase accordingly, thus forming a virtuous cycle of integrated urban-rural development and shared development results.
The prerequisite for expanding rural consumption is increasing farmers' incomes. Consumption is a function of income; income directly affects the quantity and quality of rural residents' consumption. Without the guarantee of steadily growing income, expanding rural consumption is like 无源之水 (wú yuán zhī shuǐ - "water without a source," something unsustainable). The "Plan" arranges "broadening channels for increasing farmers' incomes and achieving prosperity" as a dedicated section and closely links it with expanding rural consumption, reflecting a profound grasp of the laws of consumption.
Industrial revitalization is the fundamental strategy for increasing farmers' incomes. Nationwide, household operating income and wage income are the main components of farmers' income, and the growth of both depends on industrial support. It is necessary to implement a special action for the upgrading of rural characteristic industries, develop characteristic planting and breeding, characteristic foods, and characteristic handicrafts, promote the deep integration of agriculture with culture, tourism, education, health care, sports and other industries, increase added value through industrial chain extension, and allow farmers to share value-added income at various links of the industrial chain.
Employment priority is the stabilizer for increasing farmers' incomes. It is necessary to improve employment support policies for migrant workers and the public employment service system, and fully unleash the employment potential in social service fields such as elderly care, housekeeping, childcare, and logistics. Wage income is the main source of income increase for migrant workers. During the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to stabilize and expand the scale of out-of-town employment, enhance the employment competitiveness and bargaining power of migrant workers through vocational skills training, and at the same time develop and strengthen the county economy. Through programs such as the "Rain Dew Plan+" (雨露计划+) and the Cultivation Project for Rural Artisans, the level of human capital should be improved, enabling farmers to have work and earn money near their homes.
Linking agriculture with farmers and driving farmers along is a key mechanism for promoting common prosperity. Only by improving the mechanism linking support policies for new-type agricultural business entities with driving up farmers' incomes, and enabling farmers to be deeply embedded in the industrial chain and share value-added income, can the huge potential of rural consumption truly be unleashed. Further explore models such as "leading enterprises + cooperatives + farmers," promote the reform experience of "turning resources into assets, funds into shares, and farmers into shareholders," and through effective interest linkage mechanisms, let farmers share more of the value-added income from the industrial chain.
Expanding rural consumption requires coordinated efforts. On the basis of sustained growth of farmers' incomes, expanding rural consumption should also exert coordinated efforts in areas such as consumption supply, consumption carriers, and consumption business forms.
First, continuously promote increasing farmers' incomes and enhance farmers' consumption capacity. Do everything possible to promote employment and business start-ups to increase income, provide targeted employment and entrepreneurship services, and continuously increase rural residents' operating and wage incomes. Continuously increase financial support, raise the level of social security for rural residents in areas such as elderly care, medical care, and employment, increase transfer income, and eliminate rural residents' worries about consumption.
Second, promote the expansion and upgrading of commodity consumption and optimize the structure of consumption supply. Support the downward penetration of new-energy vehicles, smart home appliances, and green building materials to the grassroots level. Continue to implement policies such as automobile and home appliance subsidies for rural areas to meet farmers' consumption upgrading needs. At the same time, improve the rural recycling system for waste household appliances, furniture, and other renewable resources, and promote green consumption and circular consumption.
Third, standardize the development of rural e-commerce and live-streaming with goods to stimulate new vitality in consumption. Implement a high-quality development project for rural e-commerce and carry out "Digital Commerce to Revitalize Agriculture" (数商兴农). Further improve rural e-commerce infrastructure, cultivate rural e-commerce talent, standardize new marketing methods such as live-streaming sales and video demonstrations, strengthen the supervision of e-commerce platforms and after-sales services, and make e-commerce a truly new engine for increasing farmers' incomes and rural consumption.
Fourth, improve the rural commercial logistics system and implement an action to enhance the quality and efficiency of county-level commerce. Promote the precise alignment of agricultural product production, supply, and sales, and advance the transformation and upgrading of the "Thousand Markets, Ten Thousand Shops" (千集万店) project. Accelerate the construction of a three-tier logistics distribution system at the county, township, and village levels, and support postal, express delivery, supply and marketing cooperatives, transportation and other enterprises in jointly building and sharing end-distribution networks. Promote the pilot cities for modern commercial circulation systems to build a commercial circulation node system that integrates urban and rural areas and has strong radiation capacity. Where conditions permit, township commercial complexes can be built. Promote the upgrading of county-level comprehensive commercial service centers, township commercial centers, and village-level convenience stores, and create a "quarter-hour convenient living circle."
Fifth, expand and enrich consumption scenarios and cultivate new consumption growth points. Expand rural service consumption and cultivate new scenarios and new business forms for rural consumption. Innovate and explore consumption scenarios suitable for rural residents. Relying on resources such as pastoral scenery and local culture, develop new business forms such as rural homestays, agricultural experience activities, and study tours, driving related consumption in rural catering, accommodation, and shopping. Expand service consumption in health, elderly care, childcare and other fields to meet the consumption needs of the key groups of "the elderly and young children" in rural areas.
Expanding rural consumption is a systematic project and a long-term task. During the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period, efforts must focus on broadening channels for increasing farmers' incomes and achieving prosperity, take optimizing supply and innovating scenarios as key measures, fully unleash the consumption potential of the vast number of farmers, strive to create a new situation of prosperous rural consumption development, and inject strong impetus into agricultural and rural modernization.
Return to TopBy: 李骏虎
At a recent community reading session, a grassroots-level cadre asked me: Why does it seem that fewer people enjoy writing now than before? I told him that it is not that there are fewer people writing, but that the mode of creation has changed. In the internet era, short videos, livestreaming, animation, casually captured snapshots of life or travel — these are all new mass literary and artistic creations. The technological revolution of the artificial intelligence era has made literary and artistic forms even more varied and colorful, enabling creative ideas to be transformed into virtual images at any time. Inspired by Mao Zedong’s Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Zhao Shuli embarked on the path of mass literary and artistic creation and conducted many successful practices in multiple aspects. Mao Dun commented on Zhao Shuli's novels: "To sum up in one sentence, it is that they have achieved popularization." And back then, Zhao Shuli's literary and artistic practice was not limited to writing; he was a versatile talent — wrote novels, composed scripts, played the erhu, performed clapper talk, sang opera — and was hailed as "one person who can perform an entire opera." It can be said that Zhao Shuli, as an explorer of mass literature and art, and the new mass literature and art under the conditions of the new internet era are 一脉相承 (yī mài xiāng chéng - "come down in one continuous line," to be in the same tradition) in terms of formal diversity.
The core of Zhao Shuli's creative spirit is precisely the "people's character" and "popularization" of socialist literature and art. He came from the peasantry, understood the peasantry, and wrote for the peasantry his entire life. He was unwilling to be a study-bound writer or a coterie writer; he liked to write popular stories that ordinary people enjoyed reading, and took them to the marketplace to sell from a street stall. "People's character" and "popularization" are precisely the core of Zhao Shuli's literary and artistic creation, and these have important revelatory significance and referential value for us in flourishing and developing new mass literature and art under internet conditions.
"People's character" and "popularization"
The ultimate pursuit of Zhao Shuli's creation, from content to form, was that ordinary people would enjoy reading it. After the founding of New China, Zhao Shuli came to Beijing and, together with literary and artistic luminaries such as Lao She, initiated the establishment of the Mass Literature and Art Creation Research Society and served as the editor-in-chief of its journal Speak and Sing (说说唱唱). This periodical of folk art forms was designated as "a publication guiding the work of national popular literature and art," with the aim that literate masses could read and understand it, and illiterate masses could speak and sing it. Open the history of Chinese literature — folk literary demand and classic creation have always 相辅相成 (xiāng fǔ xiāng chéng - "mutual complement and mutual achievement," to complement each other): which of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and the like did not absorb a great deal of nourishment from folk oral and sung literature? And Zhao Shuli's novel creation directly adopted the concise oral language of storytelling (评书). Zhao Shuli's simple original intention was that literature and art serve the broad masses of the people. The protagonists of his works were ordinary people, and his readers and listeners were also ordinary people; his creative stance was thoroughly integrated with the people. Zhao Shuli cared about the improvement of the people's livelihood and their spiritual needs, and he stated his creative principle in two sentences: "Ordinary people can understand it; it plays a political role." The political role here refers to the role of social progress. In 1943, his first short story created after the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, The Marriage of Young Blackie (小二黑结婚), criticized the outdated customs of arranged marriage in the old society and promoted the new atmosphere of freedom of marriage in the liberated areas. The work both won applause from the ordinary people and promoted social progress, enabling the new face of people's democracy and freedom of marriage in the liberated areas under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to gain international recognition.
The great practice of the new era has stimulated the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation, bringing about a climax of new mass literature and art creation. As an important cultural phenomenon of the new era, the flourishing development of new mass literature and art must carry forward Zhao Shuli's creative spirit, adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, and deeply grasp the "people's character" and "popularization" of new mass literature and art. No matter how technology and platforms develop, the core of literary and artistic creation is always people, and what it expresses is the life of the masses. The popularity of the TV dramas A Lifelong Journey and The Protagonist are precisely the requirements of the times and social reflections that take ordinary people as the main subjects and protagonists of the works. At the same time, creators themselves should also recognize that they themselves are one of the masses, and can never sever this flesh-and-blood connection, just as Zhou Yang commented on Zhao Shuli in the 1946 Liberation Daily: "He is one of them. He does not observe and depict peasants with the attitude of a bystander, or with a condescending attitude."
"Awareness of quality works" and "responsibility of the times"
Someone might ask: Will popularization and accessibility lower the artistic standard? Will it only produce fast-food-style works and fail to give birth to classics?
Zhao Shuli answered this question with his lifelong creation. His The Marriage of Young Blackie, The Rhymes of Li Youcai (李有才板话), and Three Mile Bay (三里湾) were not only loved by the common people and adapted into films, operas, storytelling (评书), and picture books, but are also classics in the history of contemporary literature, with hundreds of translated versions overseas. Older generation artists such as Mao Dun and Guo Moruo gave them high praise, and these works are still repeatedly read, studied, and adapted. In 2025, the Fourth National Reading Conference was held in Taiyuan, and the "Rereading Zhao Shuli" series of activities sparked a new wave of enthusiasm. This proves: Creating for the people not only does not lower artistic quality, but can forge truly vital works of quality that can be passed down through generations.
Where is Zhao Shuli's awareness of quality works embodied? He lived year-round in the countryside, worked together with peasants, listened to the voices of the masses, and sought characters and stories among the common people. He was adept at using folk art forms such as storytelling, local opera, and clapper talk, and his works were full of vivid and lively peasant language. He did not crudely "cope with" the masses, but used the most exquisite craftsmanship to polish works that ordinary people could understand. In his essay Also Counts as Experience (也算经验), he said: "To write about new experiences and life, one can only obtain them through 'working among the masses and living among the masses'." It was precisely this solid skill of going deep into life that gave his works both the scent of the soil and artistic heights. Each of his works closely followed the pulse of the times, responded to real concerns, and possessed both artistic appeal and social impetus. Zhao Shuli "did not want to be a literary circle writer"; it is precisely this pure quality of "not wanting" that placed him at the peak of the literary world instead.
"Awareness of quality works" and "responsibility of the times" complement each other. Since the new era, poverty alleviation, strengthening the country through science and technology, ecological civilization, rural revitalization… these major themes are also the fiery life that hundreds of millions of people are experiencing. The countless cadres and masses fighting on the front lines, their fates as ordinary people, the dramatic changes in their living environments, and their striving stories at the grassroots level — all these should be the themes that new mass literature and art pay attention to and express. Point the lens at these strivers, direct the pen toward these new changes, write about their joys and sorrows, dreams and struggles, and the radiance of humanity — and then quality works belonging to this era can be born. Zhao Shuli's creation tells us: The most brilliant images are often hidden in the most ordinary days, and the greatest works often grow in the soil of the masses. From My Altay to A Love Letter to Grandma, these all embody General Secretary Xi Jinping's point that "the millions of ordinary people are the greatest," and thus have become quality works of the new era.
"The masses write" and "writing about the masses"
In the era when Zhao Shuli lived, the main subjects of creation were mainly professional literary and artistic workers, and the masses were more often the objects "being served." But today, the situation has undergone a fundamental change — readers are also authors; the masses are both creators and audiences. This is precisely the distinctive feature that distinguishes new mass literature and art from traditional mass literature and art.
The flourishing of new mass literature and art is first embodied in the unprecedented vitality of "amateur writing." Short video platforms produce millions of original works from ordinary people every day; online literature sites have thousands of new submissions daily; social media and audio communities make everyone a "content producer." More and more non-professional creators pick up their pens or raise their phones to record life; the words and videos flowing from marketplace life and daily necessities touch the heartstrings of millions of readers. Isn't this exactly what Zhao Shuli did back then? It is just that in the past it was writing with a brush on paper, and now it is swiping a finger on a phone screen; in the past it was selling from a street stall at the market, and now it is posting on short video platforms. The tools have changed, the field has changed, but the inner spirit is strikingly similar: the same focus on stories of the people around them, the same use of language that they themselves and their fellow villagers can understand.
"The masses write" means the complete breaking down of the threshold for creation; "writing about the masses" means that the content of the works always revolves around the lives of ordinary people. This is precisely the mark of the flourishing of new mass literature and art under internet conditions. An era of truly flourishing culture is not an era where a small number of elites entertain themselves, but an era where tens of millions of ordinary people can participate in creation and express themselves. The "new three categories" of culture — represented by online literature, online film and television dramas, and online games — have become important forces in driving cultural consumption and promoting the high-quality development of the cultural industry in our country. The original power of these "new three categories" comes precisely from the millions of online writers, short video creators, and game designers — the vast majority of whom are amateurs by origin.
Of course, "the masses write" also brings new issues: traffic logic profoundly influences creative themes; problems of homogenization, sensationalism, and vulgarization cannot be ignored; there appear to be unhealthy tendencies such as historical nihilism, excessive entertainment, flaunting wealth and worshiping money in "feel-good stories" and "feel-good dramas"; the convenience of AI "one-click generation" of text, images, and videos also brings risks such as copyright ethics. Zhao Shuli never encountered these challenges in his time, but his attitude has already pointed the way — guide with awareness of quality works, cultivate with healthy aesthetics, and elevate with professional strength. We should, just as Zhao Shuli once edited Speak and Sing, both respect the creative enthusiasm of the masses and provide professional guidance and platforms. "The masses write" is not laissez-faire, but rather the creation of an ecosystem that is both free and healthy, both active and tasteful.
2026 marks the 120th anniversary of Zhao Shuli's birth. We reread Zhao Shuli not only to revisit those classic chapters, but more importantly to gain beneficial insights. Let new mass literature and art creation have less anxiety about traffic and more deep cultivation of life; less obsession with coteries and more closeness to the masses; let the roots of literature and art sink deeper into the fertile soil of the people, and let new mass literature and art bloom even more brilliantly and bear even more abundant fruit. This is our best commemoration of Zhao Shuli.
(The author is a member of the Shanxi Writers Association.)
Return to TopBy: 河南省委书记刘宁
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that achievements are all achieved through doing; only by truly doing can one truly achieve achievements and achieve true achievements; we must adhere to 真抓实干 (zhēn zhuā shí gàn - "truly grasp and solidly do," to work earnestly and effectively), vigorously grasp implementation, and all work must be done in a solid manner and produce practical results. As one of the general requirements of the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance (正确政绩观), grasping firmly and doing solidly centrally embodies the inherent requirements of the Marxist view of practice, is the fundamental requirement of the Party's political line, ideological line, and mass line, and is also an important yardstick for measuring the Party spirit and view of performance of Party members and cadres. Henan resolutely implements the important instructions and requirements of General Secretary Xi, both using grasping firmly and doing solidly to promote the in-depth development of study and education, and further entrenching the clear orientation of grasping firmly and doing solidly during study and education, guiding Party members and cadres to temper the ability and style of grasping firmly and doing solidly, and promoting economic and social development and Party building to achieve tangible and solid results.
Adhere to strictness and solidness, earnestly carry out the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance. The purpose of study and education is to transform the subjective world and guide objective practice; what it most avoids is becoming formalistic, what it most fears is the disconnection between learning and application. Henan takes carrying out study and education as a major political task, being strict and solid from the very beginning, formulating implementation plans, clarifying work requirements, continuously making efforts in in-depth study, truthful investigation, and solid rectification, promoting study and education to go deeper and more solid, to see action and results.
Shoulder political responsibility firmly, meticulously organize implementation. If the arrangement and deployment is "loose by one inch," then work implementation will be "scattered by one foot." The Provincial Party Committee firmly shoulders the main responsibility for general charge of the province's study and education, convening a meeting of the Provincial Party Committee's Party Building Work Leading Group at the first opportunity for mobilization and arrangement, issuing work prompts on the same day of launch, urging Party committees (Party groups) at all levels to immediately enter into the state, and successively convening 9 meetings of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee for deployment and promotion. Adhere to the top leading the bottom to refine the "construction drawing" of study and education; the Standing Committee members of the Provincial Party Committee seriously formulate a work list for study and education, clarifying 14 key tasks, driving all localities and units to seriously refine work measures, improve promotion mechanisms, and fully implement the specified actions without compromise. In order to strengthen precise guidance and transmit responsibility pressure, the Provincial Party Committee successively held study and education symposiums for province-administered cities in 3 regions, and held study and education symposiums for provincial-level units, province-managed enterprises, and province-managed universities by field, putting forward work requirements in a targeted manner. The Provincial Party Committee dispatched 10 supervision groups in 2 batches to conduct supervision over 24 localities and units with prominent problems and weak implementation; the Provincial Party Committee work team formed 15 research groups, adopting the "four noes and two directs" (四不两直 - "four noes: not issuing notices, not briefing, not listening to reports, not being accompanied; two directs: directly to the grassroots, directly to the site") method to successively conduct 4 rounds of research in all province-administered cities, 62 provincial-level units, 38 province-managed universities, and 41 province-managed enterprises, promoting immediate action and immediate rectification to solve 724 problems. For formalism problems that may appear in study and education, make early predictions, early warnings, and early prevention; the Provincial Party Committee systematically sorted out 6 categories of 41 manifestations of formalism and potential problems of "low-level red" (低级红) and "high-level black" (高级黑), guiding all localities and units to check against each item, strictly prevent and strictly control, not engage in unnecessary form innovations, not arbitrarily add "optional actions," not pursue superficial excitement, promptly correct budding and trending problems, ensuring the political nature and seriousness of study and education.
Grasp study and discussion solidly, tamp down the ideological foundation. In study and education, learning comes first and runs through the entire process. We adhere to the requirement of "in-depth study" throughout, using forms such as the "first agenda" of Party committees (Party groups), special study sessions, branch collective study, and individual self-study to guide Party members and cadres to continuously make efforts in deeply studying and thoroughly understanding, promoting the correct view of performance to be internalized in the heart and externalized in action. On the occasion of the first anniversary of General Secretary Xi's inspection of Henan, the Theoretical Study Center Group of the Provincial Party Committee took reviewing the General Secretary's important speeches and reviewing and examining the implementation situation as an important part of study and education, carrying out collective study and discussion, further clarifying directions, checking gaps, and increasing motivation. Jiao Yulu (焦裕禄) is one of the 9 positive examples in the "Typical Cases" at the central level; we organized the compilation of "Scientific Decision-Making and Grasping Firmly and Doing Solidly — Viewing Jiao Yulu's View of Performance from Archives," and organized leading cadres to collectively watch the immersive Party spirit education course "Hello, Jiao Yulu," guiding Party members and cadres to 见贤思齐 (jiàn xián sī qí - "see the worthy and think to equal them," to emulate the virtuous) and root the correct view of performance in the heart. Using things close at hand to educate people around them can most touch the soul and resonate. We held a province-wide warning education conference, organizing Party members and cadres to watch the warning education film "Fake Achievements Corrode Governance and Harm the People"; carried out graded typical case warning education, selecting 70 typical cases of deviation in the view of performance within the province, compiled into 4 categories — establishing the Party for the public, benefiting the people, scientific decision-making, and grasping firmly and doing solidly — and provided them in provincial-level and city-level volumes respectively to municipal and county-level Party organizations, guiding Party members and cadres to 反躬自省 (fǎn gōng zì xǐng - "turn to oneself and examine," to engage in introspection).
Dare to touch the real and confront the tough, concentrate on truthful investigation and solid rectification. If investigation is not thorough, then the crux of the problem is unknown; if rectification is not clean, the root cause of recurrence is inevitably buried. Problems in the view of performance have characteristics such as wide scope and interweaving of old and new problems, requiring top-down coordination and joint efforts from all sides to investigate and list them. The Standing Committee members of the Provincial Party Committee earnestly implemented the requirement of "three comparisons," taking the lead in investigating and listing problems and formulating problem lists; at the same time, combining feedback from central and provincial inspections, disciplinary inspection and supervision, audit supervision, financial supervision, environmental protection inspections, and relevant provincial departments, the provincial level sorted out and fed back to each city 386 prominent problems of deviation in the view of performance, urging all localities to identify problems accurately, truly, and comprehensively. Organized all localities and units to conduct a comprehensive investigation of problems discovered in the 2025 assessment and evaluation of consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements and connecting them with rural revitalization, as well as prominent problems of illegal use of public resources, promoting leadership groups and leading cadres at all levels to further deeply examine and carefully reflect, promptly updating problem lists. Adhere to grasping the organs to drive the system, grasping the current level to drive lower levels, organizing 12 provincial departments closely related to rectifying deviations in the view of performance, focusing on prominent problems in their respective industries, systems, and fields, and implementing joint rectification with top-down coordination at the province, city, and county levels. "New officials do not settle old accounts" (新官不理旧账) is a typical manifestation of deviation and misplacement in the view of performance; we adhere to taking the concentrated rectification of this prominent problem as an important entry point for study and education rectification and reform, holding a concentrated rectification work promotion meeting, formulating a work plan for the concentrated rectification of the prominent problem of "new officials not settling old accounts," systematically sorting out 23 specific problem manifestations, proposing 25 specific rectification measures, grasping concentrated rectification and driving overall rectification. In conjunction with the change of term of leadership groups at county and township Party committees, educate and guide leadership groups at all levels to have responsibility for their territory, take responsibility for their territory, and fulfill their responsibility for their territory, both strictly preventing "new officials not settling old accounts" and achieving "current officials not owing new accounts." After the central authorities notified the province of problems such as data fraud caused by unreasonable setting of assessment indicators by the commercial department, we comprehensively cleaned up and standardized relevant policies for introducing funds from outside the province, while 举一反三 (jǔ yī fǎn sān - "from one instance infer three," to draw inferences from one example), deepening the rectification and reform of data fraud problems in the development and reform, finance, industry and information technology, and other fields, and taking a hard line to strictly control the occurrence of related problems.
Prominently promote learning to drive action, strive to create actual results that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history. Taking the in-depth development of study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance as an opportunity, carry out a comprehensive re-mobilization and systematic re-deployment of implementing the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and grasping firmly and doing solidly to promote development and benefit the people; use in-depth study to enhance understanding and transform work styles, use truthful investigation to accurately identify problems and have a clear target, use solid rectification to promote solid work and seek practical results, continuously opening up new prospects for career development.
In bearing in mind the overall situation and implementing national strategies, bravely shoulder the mission. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to resolutely discard departmentalism, sectoral tendencies, and narrow-minded concepts, firmly establish the thinking of "the whole country as a single chessboard," consider everything from a political perspective and act under the overall situation, striving to achieve their own development and make greater contributions while serving the national overall situation. As an important carrier for the rise of the central region, we studied and formulated a three-year action plan (2026-2028) for Henan to strive to be at the forefront in the rise of the central region, and a "15th Five-Year Plan" implementation plan for Henan to promote the rise of the central region, building "three bases and one hub" (三基地、一枢纽 - three bases: an important advanced manufacturing base, an important modern service base, an important comprehensive energy base; one hub: a comprehensive transportation hub) from a higher starting point. As the first place to propose the strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, we issued a decision on comprehensively promoting the construction of happy rivers and lakes, and a three-year action plan for building a happy Yellow River, advancing in an integrated manner the construction of a safe Yellow River, an ecological Yellow River, a new-quality Yellow River, a people-benefiting Yellow River, and a cultural Yellow River, deeply implementing the "clean water entering the Yellow River" project, with the water quality of the main stream of the Yellow River stably reaching Class II standards. As the core water source area and canal head location of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, we focus on strengthening ecological governance in the core water source area and along the main canal, deepening the investigation and rectification of sewage outlets entering reservoirs (rivers) and the control of soil erosion and rocky desertification, accelerating the legislation for project safety, water supply safety, and water quality safety of the Henan section of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, with the water quality at the Tao Cha intake continuously and stably meeting Class II or above standards, ensuring that "a clear stream is continuously sent northward." As a nationally important core grain production area, we shoulder the heavy responsibility of ensuring food security, adhering to seeking grain from science and technology, from management and protection, from prevention and control, and from the market; on the basis of achieving a grain increase of 0.7 billion jin last year, we fought all out to win four tough battles: wet sowing, promoting weak seedlings to become strong, disease and pest control, and the "three summers" (summer harvest, summer planting, summer management) attack. This year's summer grain has already been harvested and stored in granaries, with output expected to reach the highest level since 2023. Integrating into and serving the national unified large market is an important responsibility for Henan to foster strengths and compensate for weaknesses and contribute to the overall national development. In the form of legislation, we issued a decision on comprehensively advancing the integration into and service of the national unified large market, successively implementing annual key tasks and key attack matters, studying and formulating a series of special action plans for building "four hubs and three fulcrums" (四枢纽、三支点 - four hubs: logistics channel hub, consumption and commerce hub, factor allocation hub, industrial chain hub; three fulcrums: the confluence fulcrum for high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, the upgrading fulcrum for foreign trade, the fulcrum for international investment and cooperation), accelerating the construction of logistics channel hubs, consumption and commerce hubs, factor allocation hubs, industrial chain hubs, and the confluence fulcrum for high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, the upgrading fulcrum for foreign trade, and the fulcrum for international investment and cooperation.
In bravely shouldering the heavy burden and promoting high-quality development, actively take action. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to remember General Secretary Xi Jinping's major requirement that "large economic provinces should shoulder the heavy burden," unify thoughts and actions with the Party Central Committee's analysis and judgment of the economic situation, both effectively overcoming short-term growth anxiety and preventing quick success and blind recklessness, while upholding long-termism, maintaining strategic resolve, implementing the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments immediately, grasping them tightly and doing them quickly, with 锲而不舍 (qiè ér bù shě - "carve without stopping," to persevere) and 久久为功 (jiǔ jiǔ wéi gōng - "persist for a long time to achieve success," to make sustained efforts), firmly advancing along the optimal curve and the best path of high-quality development. Go all out to stabilize economic operation, adhere to grasping, twisting, and lifting; use counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical strategies; focus on accuracy, solidity, and effectiveness. Thoroughly understand and make good use of the central government's package of incremental policies and existing policies; since the beginning of this year, we have successively held a province-wide mobilization and deployment meeting for a good start in the new year, a second-quarter major project construction work meeting for the province, and a mobilization and deployment meeting for promoting the sustained improvement of the provincial economy in the second quarter. Through scientific decision-making and precise regulation, the GDP in the first quarter grew by 5.2%, 0.2 percentage points higher than the national average. Unswervingly focus economic work on developing the real economy, take the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry as the main direction, issue an implementation plan for building a modern industrial system along with 13 supporting action plans, coordinate the writing of a big article on the development of industries of "original brands," "old brands," "new brands," and "foreign brands" (原字号、老字号、新字号、外字号), accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing; in the first five months of this year, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size grew by 8.2%, 2.8 percentage points higher than the national average, of which the added value of strategic emerging industries and high-tech manufacturing grew by 13.2% and 26.7% respectively. Accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development is the fundamental solution to ecological and environmental problems and a new engine for promoting high-quality development. We educate and guide Party members and cadres to firmly establish the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" (绿水青山就是金山银山); on the one hand, with the spirit of 壮士断腕 (zhuàng shì duàn wàn - "the strong man cuts off his wrist," a resolute and decisive measure) and 刮骨疗毒 (guā gǔ liáo dú - "scrape the bone to cure the poison," to take drastic measures to correct errors), we resolutely fight the battle against pollution, treating all kinds of problems with an iron heart, iron face, and iron wrist; on the other hand, seize the opportunity of green development, deeply promote the adjustment of industrial structure, energy structure, and transportation structure, accelerate the deep integration of digital, intelligent transformation of traditional industries with green transformation, vigorously develop emerging industries, future industries, green environmental protection industries, and modern service industries, strive to increase the degree of greening of the economy, and use "green content" to enhance "gold content." In the first five months of this year, energy consumption per unit of added value of industries above designated size decreased by 8.1%, a decrease 0.2 percentage points greater than in the first four months. In the first half of this year, the province had 113.6 days of good air quality, an increase of 18.1 days year-on-year.
In keeping in mind the purpose and solving urgent, difficult, and worrisome problems of the masses, devote heart and strength. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to remember that benefiting the people is the greatest achievement, always adhere to the concept of putting the people first, deeply investigate and correct erroneous tendencies such as being keen on "creating momentum for oneself" while ignoring "benefiting the people," valuing economic development while downplaying people's livelihood and well-being, and sincerely and intently resolve the masses' worries, troubles, and anxieties. Adhere to the government tightening its belt and striving to let the people live better lives; from January to May this year, the province's people's livelihood expenditure accounted for 75.4% of general public budget expenditure, of which key expenditures on social security, agriculture and rural areas, health and health care grew by 9.2%, 10.2%, and 21.9% respectively. Employment is the top priority of people's livelihood; we prominently grasp employment assistance for key groups; in the first half of this year, the province added a total of 715,400 urban jobs, completing 65% of the annual target of 1.1 million; in particular, this year Henan's college graduates numbered 996,000, a record high, accounting for about 1/13 of the total national college graduates; we implemented the "502020" plan for college graduate employment, supporting enterprises to stabilize and expand positions to absorb 500,000 employed persons, government agencies and institutions to recruit 200,000 people, and supporting 200,000 people in innovation and entrepreneurship. "One old, one young" affects thousands of households and is a major livelihood concern for the Party committee and government. Starting with the "one meal of hot food" elderly meal service, we improved the elderly care service network covering urban and rural areas, continuously improved the service level of 127 county-level special hardship support institutions, completed the transformation of 1,054 township-level regional elderly care service centers, built 1,309 village-level standardized elderly care service stations, issued and reimbursed 710,000 consumption vouchers for moderately and severely disabled elderly with cognitive impairment, driving 1.06 billion yuan in elderly care consumption; actively promoted the pilot of integrated childcare and nursery services, supported the development of new models such as community-embedded childcare, and the number of nursery places per thousand population reached 4.94. Health is the foundation of people's happy lives; we continuously deepened the coordinated development and governance of the three medical systems (medical services, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical production and supply), successively implemented measures such as "convenient medical treatment" to make up for shortcomings; the province had 330 items for mutual recognition of inspection and test results, established a provincial mutual recognition mechanism with 9 provinces; the "five small" special action for children's health benefited 825,600 children, and the "six health" special action for elderly health provided free door-to-door health services for 30,500 disabled elderly.
In holding the bottom line and better coordinating development and security, shoulder responsibility and fulfill duties. Educate and guide Party members and cadres to firmly establish the concept that "promoting the economy and development is an achievement, and maintaining stability and ensuring security is also an achievement," with a sense of responsibility that "always be concerned" and the action force of "knowing everything in the heart," do all work for safety and stability with caution and fear. Adhere to placing the maintenance of national political security in the primary position, deeply implement the responsibility system for ideological work, carry out special operations to severely crack down on terrorism, prudently handle sensitive work related to ethnic groups, religion, etc., strictly prevent various risks from transmitting to the political security field. Adhere to grasping the grassroots, laying the foundation, consolidating the fundamentals, do a good job of grassroots high-efficiency governance led by Party building, deeply advance "five foundations and four modernizations" (五基四化 - five foundations: grassroots organizations, grassroots teams, grassroots mechanisms, grassroots positions, grassroots safeguards; four modernizations: modernization of governance methods, modernization of governance systems, modernization of governance capabilities, modernization of governance effectiveness), deeply apply the "Party building + grid + big data" model, grasp 22 key tasks including carrying out the action for building harmonious communities, formulate a list of tasks and elements for grassroots governance units, continuously improve the effectiveness of grid-based governance; on the basis of recruiting 5,000 outstanding college graduates as rural revitalization coordinators last year, this year we optimized, upgraded, expanded, and extended, implementing 2 special plans — village-level rural revitalization coordinators and community grid affairs coordinators, each recruiting 10,000 outstanding college graduates to strengthen grassroots forces. Adhere to multi-pronged measures of preventing early, grasping small, removing mines, and defusing bombs, forcefully and orderly prevent and resolve risks and hidden dangers in local government debt, small and medium financial institutions, real estate and other fields, maintaining the bottom line of no regional or systemic risks. Adhere to the safety production responsibility system, strictly implement the "three musts of three management" (三管三必须 - management of industry must be responsible for safety, management of business must be responsible for safety, management of production must be responsible for safety; and enterprises must be responsible for the main body, departments must be responsible for supervision, and local governments must be responsible for territorial management), formulate implementation measures for safety production assessment and inspection, focus on key areas such as coal mine production, transportation, social security, leading cadres take the lead in going down to mines, patrolling river defenses, checking loopholes, and eliminating risks, resolutely protect the life and health safety of the people. Aiming at the problem of high levels of public petitions and complaints, adhere to and develop the "Fengqiao experience" (新时代“枫桥经验”) in the new era, promote the standardized construction of comprehensive governance centers, strengthen territorial management, source prevention, and diversified resolution of contradictions and disputes. Strengthen the overall prevention and control of public security, strictly prevent and severely crack down on all types of illegal and criminal activities. In the first five months of this year, the number of production safety accidents and deaths in the province decreased by 21.2% and 15.9% respectively, and the number of criminal and public security cases filed decreased by 18.7% and 2.9% respectively.
Strengthen political guarantees, create a thick atmosphere of entrepreneurship and hard work. To encourage Party members and cadres to take on responsibilities and act, and to grasp firmly and do solidly, it is necessary not only to strengthen ideological education and guidance, but also to improve institutional mechanisms and strengthen organizational guarantees. We adhere to clarifying directions, setting rules, correcting conduct, and strengthening immunity, continuously correct the orientation of doing, enhance the motivation of doing, and form a synergy of doing, leading the formation of a good development environment with a correct view of performance.
Establish a clear orientation. The orientation of personnel selection is the most important, most fundamental, and most effective. We adhere to the standard of good cadres in the new era, vigorously select and appoint cadres who are politically strong, dare to take responsibility, are keen on reform, have outstanding achievements, and are upright and clean, using the correct orientation of personnel selection to guide the orientation of entrepreneurship and work. This year is the year for the centralized change of term of provincial, city, county, and township Party committees in Henan; we take the change of term as an important opportunity and key measure to match good teams, select good cadres, and establish a good orientation, strictly examine and check candidates, strictly enforce discipline and conduct in the change of term, and complete the change of term work with high standards and high quality. Currently, the change of term of 1,731 township Party committees and 156 county (city, district) Party committees in the province has been successfully completed, and all new Party committee secretaries have received full-coverage induction training. Aiming to solve the problem of some important functional departments lacking professional cadres, since the beginning of this year, 34 professional deputy department-level leading cadres have been assigned to relevant units, improving the overall function of the team. Adhere to combining strict management with care, and simultaneously motivating and restraining; on the one hand, earnestly implement the "three distinctions" (三个区分开来 - distinguish between mistakes made in exploration and experiments without clear restrictions, mistakes made due to lack of experience in reform and innovation, and mistakes made in promoting development), seriously investigate and punish false accusations and framing; since the beginning of this year, 1,654 Party members and cadres have been clarified and rehabilitated, allowing them to put down their burdens and move lightly; on the other hand, normalize the promotion and demotion of leading cadres, promptly adjust leading cadres who are unsuitable for their current positions, and with a hard hand, give a sharp rebuke to those who are lying flat, promoting a culture of willingness to take responsibility, daring to take responsibility, and being good at taking responsibility to become a common practice on the Central Plains.
Promote new winds and healthy atmosphere. The way to achieve good governance is nothing more than to correct customs and practices. We vigorously promote the spirit of Jiao Yulu (焦裕禄精神), the spirit of the Red Flag Canal (红旗渠精神), and the spirit of the Dabie Mountains (大别山精神), launch the "Dabie Red Camp" (大别红营) research and study brand, the series report "'Post-90s' Tell the Post-90s," release the first batch of "Henan Role Models," vigorously select and promote advanced models such as Wang Miaoli (王妙丽), "First-Class Hero Model of the National Judicial Administrative System," and promote Party members and cadres to strengthen Party spirit tempering and reinforce pragmatic responsibility. Unremittingly rectify the "four undesirable work styles" (四风 - formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance), consolidate and expand the results of the study and education on thoroughly implementing the central eight-point regulations, formulate "Several Regulations on Further Improving Work Style and Establishing New Conduct in Thoroughly Implementing the Spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations," continuously and deeply implement the "ten musts and ten prohibitions" (十严禁) for the four categories of illegal eating and drinking, illegally accepting gifts and money, infringing on the interests of the masses, and not taking responsibility or action, especially hitting illegal eating and drinking as soon as it appears, repeatedly beating it, and having everyone denounce it.
Strictly enforce discipline and rules. Discipline is a "tight headband" (紧箍咒), but even more a "protective talisman" (护身符), marking the bottom line and boundary for Party members and cadres to perform their duties and use their power, providing a criterion for action for establishing and practicing a correct view of performance. We adhere to simultaneously grasping Party spirit, Party conduct, and Party discipline, connecting rectifying conduct, enforcing discipline, and fighting corruption; deepen the rectification of corruption in fields with concentrated power, dense funds, and abundant resources; seriously investigate and punish typical cases of misplacement of the view of performance, data fraud, image projects, etc., urging Party members and cadres to work and start businesses while abiding by rules and discipline. Rectifying misconduct and corruption around the masses is an important part of open-door study and education; we continue to carry out in-depth concentrated rectification of misconduct and corruption around the masses with the spirit of the fight against poverty. The main responsible comrade of the Provincial Party Committee took the lead in receiving petitioners, handling cases, and going to the grassroots for supervision; focus on the main battlefield below the county level, deepen the problem uncovering and rectification actions, better rectify stubborn and chronic diseases, and solve the masses' urgent, difficult, and worrisome problems. Adhere to being guided by the correct view of performance, coordinate and grasp the rectification and implementation of problems fed back by central inspections, establish four task lists for immediate action and immediate rectification, special rectification, establishing rules and systems, and long-term rectification; formulate rectification measures item by item, strengthen ledger management and work scheduling, conduct 3 rounds of on-site supervision, complete the rectification tasks in the centralized rectification stage with high quality, and handle the tasks in the continuous rectification stage with caution from beginning to end and consistency.
On the new journey, Henan will continue to deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance, educate and guide Party members and cadres to calibrate their action coordinates with the correct view of performance, vigorously promote the fine style of grasping firmly and doing solidly and tackling difficulties, focus on promoting development, strengthening governance, benefiting people's livelihood, preventing risks, and grasping Party building, ensure a good start and a good step for the "15th Five-Year Plan," and strive to write a new chapter on the Central Plains of advancing Chinese-style modernization.
Return to TopBy: 宋强
Recently, when a well-known science fiction writer frankly stated in an interview that more than half of his own science fiction works had been completed with the aid of AI, it sparked heated debate. The essence of literature lies in the emotional communication between writer and reader, and this is precisely the enduring and ever-fresh charm of literary works. Good works are all completed by writers with "blood and tears," brimming with the writer's heart-wrenching feelings and realizations; high-level narrative techniques and poetic language are like mountain peaks, requiring the writer to climb to the summit only after countless attempts and countless failures. After receiving a work, the reader can perceive the writer's emotions through the words and engage in a silent dialogue of souls with him. After finishing a good work that embodies the writer's painstaking effort and abundant emotion, the reader can resonate with the writer, have their emotions expressed, be touched in their soul, and imperceptibly have their understanding of the world and nature elevated. The ideal writer and the ideal reader ought to be like this. However, works created using AI have no emotion or soul. If every word a writer writes is "painstaking effort," then the large passages of text output instantly by AI are nothing more than nutrient-free "tap water."
In the age of AI, it seems that anyone can, with the help of large models, casually input a few commands and casually obtain so-called "works" easily numbering in the thousands of words. At this rate, if everyone participates, the "works" produced daily using AI can truly be described as vast in quantity. But the question arises: how much value do so many so-called "works" actually have? Who are these vast amounts of text for? When something becomes barrier-free, its own value is actually dissolved. AI "works" that everyone can "produce" have no value.
Some say the key to the quality of the generated "work" lies in the commands input—how precise the commands are determines the level of the output text. The level of a writer's creative ability is now mainly reflected in the comparison of their command-input skills. And some writers even generate their commands with the help of AI—AI works generated from AI commands are even more valueless.
A writer's maturation and rise to fame are achieved step by step through their own life insights, combined with deep thinking and painstaking writing. The reason readers hold good writers in their hearts is that good writers bring them emotional resonance. The trust readers have in writers all stems from this. As a writer, one must never betray this trust. If you see that others are all using AI-assisted creation, it is like seeing a cheating competitor, and your mind inevitably loses balance—do you choose to cheat as well, or do you choose to hold the line? The cheating competitor may enjoy temporary glory, but over time, they will no longer be able to move readers with sincere words and will surely be abandoned by readers. But writers who hold fast to their original aspiration and persist in touching readers with "painstaking effort" will surely earn lasting love from readers. If a writer begins to create with the help of AI, producing torrent after torrent of words without their own deep thought, this is nothing less than deceiving the reader's emotions.
Some say that in the age of AI, the profession of writer will gradually disappear. What I want to say is: what will disappear are not good writers; what will disappear are only lazy writers, writers who create with the help of AI.
Return to TopBy: 刘陈立
Basic research is the source of the entire scientific system and the master switch for all technical problems. As the most transformative frontier direction in the life sciences in the 21st century, synthetic biology is evolving into the deep-water zone of a paradigm shift from "being able to build" to "being able to design." Its core mission is to advance the leap from 格物致知 (gé wù zhì zhī - "investigate things to extend knowledge") to 造物致用 (zào wù zhì yòng - "create things for application") on the basis of a profound understanding of the operating laws of living systems, thereby providing the scientific driving force for bio-manufacturing as a strategically emerging industry. At present, China has listed bio-manufacturing as a strategically emerging industry. However, while the scale is expanding rapidly, a deep bottleneck is becoming increasingly prominent: although we can "build" a large number of biological systems, it is difficult to "design" biological systems that truly meet expectations. Currently, the vast majority of strain and process development still rely on the repeated trial-and-error cycle of "Design-Build-Test-Learn," with an average of 5 to 10 years from laboratory discovery to industrial deployment, high costs, and limited success rates. The root cause of this predicament lies in the core scientific problem that synthetic biology itself has yet to overcome — a serious lack of understanding of the quantitative laws governing the "emergence" of biological functions. It is precisely this challenge that has given rise to the frontier research direction of quantitative synthetic biology. Only by breaking through the cognitive bottleneck at the fundamental level can we inject a sustained source of momentum into the high-quality development of bio-manufacturing.
The Conceptual Connotation and Strategic Significance of Synthetic Biology
Synthetic biology is an emerging field formed by the deep interdisciplinary integration of life sciences with information science, materials science, mathematical and physical sciences, and engineering. Its core idea is to design and construct new biological systems using an engineering approach so that they possess desired functions — for example, efficiently synthesizing specific compounds, precisely responding to environmental signals, or targeting diseases for treatment. If traditional biology is about "deciphering" life, then synthetic biology is attempting to "rewrite" and even "create" life. It elevates the manipulation of biological systems from merely patching up what exists in nature to a "from 0 to 1" construction based on quantitative design principles. Currently, through technologies such as gene sequencing, editing, and synthesis, it is possible to rapidly "write" massive gene sequences and construct strains with basic functions, reflecting synthetic biology's powerful capability at the "building" level. However, the higher goal of synthetic biology lies in "design" — that is, based on predetermined functional requirements, to predict and construct biological systems with predictable performance starting from principles. This is precisely the greatest challenge we currently face.
Understanding the intrinsic relationship between synthetic biology and bio-manufacturing is a prerequisite for grasping strategic deployment. Synthetic biology is the underlying scientific foundation and technical source of bio-manufacturing, while bio-manufacturing is the industrial application outlet of synthetic biology. Without synthetic biology's sustained assault on the "design principles" of living systems, bio-manufacturing cannot break free from the path dependence of empirical trial and error and cannot truly become the core engine driving new productive forces. The core mission of synthetic biology is to explore the design and construction of living systems with an engineering philosophy, providing reliable "design tools" for bio-manufacturing. However, synthetic biology itself has not yet completed the paradigm shift from "being able to build" to "being able to design" — when the complexity of living systems far exceeds what human intuition and experience can grasp, traditional qualitative descriptions and trial-and-error accumulation can no longer support the demands of precise design. This "design deficit" is precisely the root cause of bio-manufacturing's entrapment in a low-level cycle. From the perspective of the global competitive landscape, major economies worldwide have elevated synthetic biology to a national strategy. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the global bio-manufacturing market is projected to exceed one trillion US dollars by 2030. In this competition for dominance over future industries, whoever first masters the quantitative design rules of living systems will seize the commanding heights in the international competition of the bio-economy era.
Why Develop Synthetic Biology
Currently, China's bio-manufacturing industry is experiencing sustained rapid expansion driven by both policy and capital. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the total scale of the national bio-manufacturing industry reached 1.1 trillion yuan. The output of bio-fermentation products accounts for over 70% of the global total, and the annual output value of sub-sectors such as food and additives and biopharmaceuticals exceeds 400 billion yuan. However, when examined from the perspective of industrial quality, structural contradictions beneath the surface of prosperity cannot be ignored, primarily manifested in three major bottlenecks. The deep-seated crux of these bottlenecks reflects the yet-unbridged gap between basic research in synthetic biology and engineering applications in bio-manufacturing.
First, the lack of predictive design theory leads to a situation where high-quality scientific and technological supply is "large in quantity but low in quality." At present, with the help of high-throughput technologies such as gene sequencing, editing, and synthesis, we can rapidly "write" massive gene sequences and construct a large number of strains with basic functions. However, there has always been a lack of predictable quantitative models for the complex nonlinear interactions between gene circuits, metabolic networks, and host cells. This makes it impossible to scientifically extrapolate the overall function of a biological system from component characteristics; so-called "design" mostly relies on the personal experience and intuitive judgment of researchers. Precisely because of the absence of theoretical guidance, although the scientific and technological supply is growing rapidly in quantity, quality improvement is limited — China has accumulated a large number of novel patents for gene editing tools and synthetic pathways, yet truly scarce are key core technology products such as "chassis cells" and "industrial enzymes" that can cross the threshold of industrialization and achieve stable and efficient production at an industrial scale. At its root, it is the insufficient underlying understanding of the "operating logic" of living systems that has created the structural gap in high-quality scientific and technological supply.
Second, the lack of engineering quantitative principles makes it difficult for laboratory achievements to cross the threshold of industrialization. Synthetic systems that perform excellently under controlled laboratory conditions often suffer from poor stability, weak adaptability, and sharp efficiency drops when placed in the complex industrial scenarios of large-scale fermenters. Due to the lack of quantitative understanding of the changes in cellular physiological states during large-scale fermentation, current strain optimization mostly consists of fragmented repairs targeting specific failures, making it difficult to carry out systematic redesign from a global perspective. This conversion gap between "laboratory success" and "factory failure" is essentially an inevitable result of the absence of a mechanism for converting scientific principles into engineering-predictable design rules. Without a set of quantitative criteria covering industrial environmental variables (such as mass transfer, shear force, and osmotic pressure), laboratory achievements can only remain in papers and cannot be transformed into truly reliable industrial productivity.
Third, the lack of differentiated design capability leads the industry to converge on low-threshold, homogeneous tracks. Currently, most enterprises lack the systematic ability to reverse-engineer biological system design from performance requirements, making it difficult to develop core products with differentiated advantages around specific performance indicators or application scenarios. Consequently, enterprises generally choose to deploy in areas with mature technical paths, low patent barriers, and clear market expectations, engaging in homogeneous price competition by relying on scale expansion, energy consumption, and labor costs. This model not only results in thin profits and insufficient innovation motivation but also prevents enterprises from being able to feed back into basic research that requires long-term investment. The industry lacks high-value-added products and falls into a low-efficiency cycle. The root cause lies in the lack of genuine "design" capability at the enterprise level — the inability to transform scientific discoveries into competitive technical solutions, leading to passive following of mature paths, which in turn exacerbates the homogenization dilemma of the entire industry.
Although the above difficulties manifest at different levels on the industrial side, tracing back to the source, they all point to one fundamental question: how exactly do biological functions "emerge" from the combination of gene circuits? Can quantitative theories be used to describe, predict, and even guide the design of synthetic systems? This is the core bottleneck that quantitative synthetic biology must overcome. From the perspective of disciplinary development logic, the difficulties in the development of the bio-manufacturing industry cannot be fundamentally resolved merely through process optimization; it is necessary to trace back to the basic research level of synthetic biology to find a path to break the deadlock. The rational design bottleneck currently faced by bio-manufacturing is essentially a core scientific challenge that the development of synthetic biology itself urgently needs to overcome, and it has directly driven the rise of the frontier research paradigm of quantitative synthetic biology.
The Frontier of Synthetic Biology Is Quantitative Synthetic Biology
Driven by both industrial demand and scientific logic, quantitative synthetic biology has emerged as a new research path. Based on the thinking methods of quantitative biology and systems biology, it is dedicated to establishing mathematical or artificial intelligence models that can quantitatively predict the behavior of biological systems, providing a scientific foundation for rational design. Its core proposition can be condensed as: how do biological functions emerge across levels, and can quantitative theories be used to describe, predict, and even guide the design of synthetic systems? The introduction of this direction marks the paradigm shift of synthetic biology from "engineering construction" to "scientific design." Historically, when a discipline moves from describing phenomena to exploring principles, from accumulating experience to engineering construction, quantification and theorization are often the inevitable path. Chemistry moved from alchemy to modern chemistry, inseparable from the establishment of quantitative measurement and atomic theory; climate science moved from weather records to climate prediction, inseparable from the construction of atmospheric dynamics equations; electronic engineering moved from discrete component assembly to VLSI design, inseparable from the development of semiconductor device physics and design automation tools. Similarly, for synthetic biology to move from empirical trial and error to rational design, it must establish its own system of quantitative theory.
Chinese scientists recognized the importance of this direction early on and have carried out systematic exploration of key scientific questions, forming a relatively early-mover deployment. The core characteristic of these explorations is the search for simple quantitative laws within complex life phenomena, moving biology from "discovering new phenomena" to "discovering new principles." In recent years, Chinese scientists have made a series of important progress in research on single-cell, multi-cell systems, and application-oriented studies, verifying at multiple levels that there exist deep logics in biological processes that can be described quantitatively. The commonality of these achievements is that they are not satisfied with discovering "what function a certain gene has," but rather ask "how does the function emerge from the interactions of the system, and can it be described quantitatively?" This paradigm shift from empirical description to extraction of laws is precisely what fundamentally distinguishes quantitative synthetic biology from traditional synthetic biology.
Looking ahead, the development of quantitative synthetic biology urgently requires breakthroughs in several frontier directions. First, establishing cross-level quantitative models that unify reaction kinetics at the molecular level, network logic at the gene circuit level, physiological state at the cellular level, and even the spatial organization structure of multi-cell systems into a computable theoretical framework. Second, deeply integrating artificial intelligence with mechanistic models, using high-quality, standardized quantitative data to train interpretable and generalizable predictive models, gradually improving the rational design capability for complex synthetic systems. Third, taking "de novo construction of a synthetic cell" as the ultimate goal, in the process of using non-living macromolecules to bottom-up construct systems with basic life attributes, to verify and deepen the understanding of the principles of life emergence. This direction holds promise not only for answering the scientific question of "what is life" but also for providing the most malleable "cell factory" platform for bio-manufacturing.
Institutionalized Translation Connecting Basic Research and Bio-Manufacturing
The rise of quantitative synthetic biology is not only an expansion of research content but also a transformation of research paradigm, which imposes new and higher requirements on the organization of scientific research. First, the core scientific problem is highly systemic. The proposition "how do biological functions emerge" spans multiple levels from molecules to circuits to cells to communities, involving the coordinated operation of different physical and chemical processes such as energy metabolism, information processing, and material assembly. No single discipline or research group can cover all research means; answers must be sought in the deep interdisciplinary integration of mathematics, physics, chemistry, information science, and life sciences. Second, the discovery of quantitative laws is highly dependent on standardized, large-scale, comparable data. Under the traditional decentralized single-group research model, there are significant differences in experimental conditions, strain backgrounds, and measurement methods across different laboratories, making data difficult to integrate and reuse, and research conclusions difficult to replicate. Finally, the key milestone in this field — achieving the construction of an artificial synthetic cell with basic life attributes using non-living macromolecules — is a grand scientific project requiring sustained investment over decades or even longer periods, far exceeding the career cycle of any individual researcher. It requires strategic determination and organized support at the national level.
Precisely because of this, the development of quantitative synthetic biology must follow a mission-driven, institutionalized basic research path. By "institutionalization," it is not meant to replace scientists' autonomous exploration with administrative orders, but rather to organically integrate multidisciplinary scientific forces within a clear strategic goal framework, forming a new type of scientific research organization that can "conduct independent research when separated and conduct collaborative tackling of hard problems when united." Around this need, China has already taken substantial steps. Relying on platforms such as the State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, and guided by core propositions such as "quantitative principles of biological function emergence," multi-disciplinary teams are organized to carry out collaborative research, while "original projects" are established to support young scientists in freely exploring "no-man's land." At the infrastructure level, the world's first fully automated large-scale scientific platform for synthetic biology has been completed — the Shenzhen Synthetic Biology Research Major Science and Technology Infrastructure, providing conditions for the standardized acquisition of high-quality quantitative data. In terms of talent cultivation, relying on major tasks and large facilities, composite research backbones with both mathematical modeling and experimental literacy are trained in practice, gradually forming a rationally structured, echelon-connected talent matrix. In international cooperation, China has taken the lead in initiating the "Asian Synthetic Cell Alliance" and the "Asian Synthetic Cell Technology Roadmap," and hosted the first "International Conference on Synthetic Cells," promoting the collaborative development of the global academic community. Looking to the future, it is urgent to accelerate the construction of a national-level artificial synthetic cell infrastructure, build a standardized biological component library, standard product library, and data sharing platform, and gradually bridge the "precision gap" and "data islands" between different laboratories and platforms.
Breakthroughs in basic research must ultimately be transformed into real productive forces. The rational design capability pursued by quantitative synthetic biology, if gradually realized, will fundamentally change the R&D paradigm of bio-manufacturing: from trial-and-error screening to rational design, greatly shortening the R&D cycle, increasing the success rate of construction, and lowering the threshold for industrialization. However, breakthroughs in scientific principles will not automatically translate into industrial competitiveness; the translation mechanism must be incorporated into systems engineering early in the paradigm exploration. Traditional technology transfer often follows a point-to-point linear model, which faces special difficulties in the field of synthetic bio-manufacturing — bio-manufacturing products are often system integrations of chassis cells, metabolic pathways, fermentation processes, separation and purification, and other links. Fragmented single technology transfers are difficult to form overall competitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to explore an institutionalized translation model, promoting whole-institution cooperation between research institutions and enterprises, systematically outputting technology clusters, talent clusters, and solutions around industrial needs. Another trend worthy of attention is building a closed-loop ecosystem of "demand pulling R&D, capital catalyzing translation, and industry feeding back innovation." Relying on large scientific facilities, national key laboratories, and new-type R&D institutions, researchers are encouraged to simultaneously carry out stage-based achievement translation while tackling frontier problems, achieving rapid engineering verification.
Seizing the International Commanding Heights of the Quantitative Synthetic Biology Paradigm
Aiming for the strategic goal of building a strong science and technology nation by 2035, quantitative synthetic biology bears a dual mission: it must both scale the scientific peak of "understanding life" and open the engineering pathway of "designing life," providing principle support for bio-manufacturing. The current deficiency in rational design capability faced by China's bio-manufacturing industry is both a core bottleneck restricting high-quality industrial development and a strategic entry point for China to achieve leapfrog development in frontier fields. To seize the international commanding heights of the quantitative synthetic biology research paradigm, systematic planning and systemic deployment at the national level are urgently needed.
In strengthening the layout of institutionalized basic research, we should further improve the collaborative tackling model that integrates mission-driven and free exploration, gathering multi-disciplinary forces around core propositions such as "quantitative principles of biological function emergence," while leaving fertile ground for original free exploration, allowing researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds to deeply integrate under a common goal, forming a collaborative innovation effect, and fundamentally solving the problem of insufficient high-quality scientific and technological supply.
In improving the mechanism for systemic achievement translation, we should promote the institutionalized translation model, building a complete value cycle from basic discovery to technology development to industrial application, allowing quantitative design capabilities to move from the laboratory to the factory, truly ushering bio-manufacturing into a new stage driven by "rational design," fundamentally breaking the lock-in of low-end development characterized by homogeneous low-efficiency competition, and contributing core momentum to cultivating new productive forces.
In consolidating the support of platform-based infrastructure, guided by national strategic needs, we should accelerate the deployment of frontier facilities such as artificial synthetic cells, build standardized biological component libraries and data platforms, bridge the "precision gap" and "data islands," make high-quality quantitative data truly a basic resource driving discovery and serving design, and provide engineering support for crossing the achievement translation gap.
In building an echeloned composite talent system, we should innovate mechanisms within the existing disciplinary training system, organically integrate mathematical modeling ability and biological experimental literacy throughout the entire talent cultivation process, rely on major tasks and large facilities to forge research backbones with both strategic vision and frontline tackling capability in practice, and simultaneously open up to global talent recruitment, forming a cross-disciplinary, intergenerational collaborative matrix.
In deepening high-level international open cooperation, we should continue to promote the construction of international cooperation platforms such as the "International Synthetic Cell Alliance" and the "Asian Synthetic Biology Association," actively participate in and set international academic agendas, continuously contribute Chinese solutions in open exchanges, and enhance China's academic influence and discourse power in the field of quantitative synthetic biology.
Quantitative synthetic biology is the core pathway to breaking through the rational design bottleneck of China's bio-manufacturing and driving the paradigm shift of synthetic biology. It both responds to the fundamental scientific question of "how do biological functions emerge" and directly confronts the real dilemma of the bio-manufacturing industry having "scale but no design." Facing the strategic goal of building a strong science and technology nation, continuously consolidating quantitative basic research, improving the institutionalized innovation system, and opening up the closed loop of industry-academia-research value will not only promote the cognitive leap of life sciences from qualitative description to quantitative prediction but also inject a sustained source of momentum into the high-quality development of the bio-economy, help China seize the strategic commanding heights in the global biotechnology revolution, and lay a solid scientific foundation for achieving scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.
(The author is Director of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology.)
Return to TopBy: 吕旭宁
The statistical communiqué on national economic and social development for 2025, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (国家统计局), shows that China's total expenditure on research and experimental development (R&D) for the year was 3,926.2 billion yuan, accounting for 2.80% of GDP, surpassing for the first time the average level of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In the 2025 Global Innovation Index report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's innovation index ranking entered the global top ten for the first time. These two "firsts" have not come easily, and their significance is far-reaching.
The investment intensity surpassing the OECD average for the first time underscores China's strategic resolve to pursue innovation-driven development and reflects a fundamental shift in the innovation underpinnings of the country's economic growth. High-intensity R&D investment has laid a solid foundation for cultivating new productive forces and injected a continuous stream of endogenous impetus into China's high-quality economic development. At the same time, this breakthrough means that China is no longer a "follower" in R&D investment but has entered the core echelon of innovative countries, increasingly becoming an "important contributor" to global technological innovation and injecting strong Chinese momentum into global scientific and technological progress. However, while the "quantity" of scientific and technological innovation investment has reached the mark, improving its "quality" still has a long way to go. When the total amount approaches the high level of 4 trillion yuan, "spending efficiency" and "spending structure" become increasingly critical. If the first stage of science and technology investment was to solve the problem of "whether there is or is not," then the new stage must answer the question of "whether it is good or excellent." The current imbalance in the investment structure is becoming a deep-seated bottleneck restricting innovation effectiveness.
From the perspective of activity type, the proportion of basic research investment in China is relatively low, and the foundation of original innovation remains insecure. In 2025, China's basic research funding was 277.8 billion yuan, accounting for 7.08% of R&D expenditure. Although this is a record high, there is still a clear gap compared with global science and technology powers. Insufficient investment in basic research makes it difficult to escape the situation of being controlled by others in key core technologies and even harder to produce disruptive, leading major original achievements. From the perspective of performing entities, there is a disconnect between R&D investment and market demand, and a diversified investment pattern has not yet been fully formed. The proportion of enterprise R&D expenditure in total societal R&D investment has remained above 75% for many years, significantly strengthening their dominant position in innovation. However, enterprise R&D investment is highly concentrated in the experimental development stage, with a low proportion allocated to basic research and underlying technologies. Government research institutions and institutions of higher education undertake most basic research tasks, but their funding sources are heavily dependent on fiscal appropriations. This dual structure of "front-end relies on government, back-end relies on enterprises" increases the difficulty of transforming scientific and technological achievements from the laboratory to the production line. From the perspective of regional distribution, the imbalance in R&D funding across regions is prominent, making it difficult to form a cohesive national force for collaborative innovation. R&D investment is highly concentrated in the developed eastern regions, while the R&D investment intensity in the central and western regions as well as the northeast is significantly lower than that in the east. This imbalance in regional investment not only causes a continuous widening of the regional innovation capacity gap but also leads to inefficient allocation of innovation resources, constraining the improvement of the overall effectiveness of the national innovation system.
The core competitiveness of scientific and technological innovation has never been limited to the "volume" of investment but lies even more in its "structure." The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly sets a target of an average annual growth rate of over 7% for the whole society's R&D expenditure, while also proposing goals of significantly enhancing basic research and original innovation capabilities and achieving rapid breakthroughs in key core technologies in priority areas. This arrangement sends a clear signal: while maintaining investment intensity, structural optimization will become the focus of science and technology innovation investment policy.
First, strengthen the systematic layout of basic research and accelerate the formation of a diversified investment pattern for basic research. Persist in placing the enhancement of original innovation capacity in a more prominent position, continuously strengthen long-term and stable fiscal support for basic research, increase the intensity of fiscal investment, and ensure that the proportion of basic research in fiscal science and technology expenditure continues to rise. Improve the basic research investment mechanism combining competitive and stable support, refine the diversified investment system, and guide and encourage the whole society to increase basic research investment. Improve incentive policies to guide enterprises to extend from "short-term applied R&D" to "long-term basic research," promoting enterprises to become an important force in basic research.
Second, promote deep integration of the innovation chain and industrial chain to enhance the effectiveness of scientific and technological innovation. Strengthen enterprise-led industry-university-research collaborative innovation, effectively transmit the real needs of the industrial end to the research end, and solve the prominent "last kilometer" bottleneck between research and industry. Encourage enterprises to extend from the "downstream" of technology application to the "upstream" of original innovation, opening up a two-way channel between basic research and industrial innovation. Build a complete pathway from concept verification to pilot-scale maturation to industrialization, and strengthen the alignment between technology supply and market demand.
Third, improve the regional innovation layout to enhance the overall effectiveness of the national innovation system. On the one hand, continue to leverage the leading and driving role of innovation hubs such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; on the other hand, increase the central government's financial and policy support for scientific and technological innovation in the central and western regions and the northeast, promoting the improvement of regional scientific and technological innovation capacity. In 2025, the central government arranged 6 billion yuan to guide local science and technology development; this scale should be further expanded in the future, with greater attention to the precision and effectiveness of fund utilization.
Fourth, deepen the reform of the science and technology system to activate investment effectiveness through institutional innovation. Behind structural optimization lies institutional innovation; a good investment structure is not carved out by "dividing the pie" but grows out of systemic and institutional reforms. In terms of fiscal science and technology investment, improve the investment mechanism combining competitive and stable support, and increase long-term stable support for advantageous teams engaged in basic research and young scientific and technological talents. In terms of incentives and evaluation, accelerate the establishment of an evaluation system oriented toward innovation capability, quality, effectiveness, and contribution, so that the orientation toward the quantity of papers truly gives way to the orientation toward original innovation and industrial contribution. In terms of achievement transformation, thoroughly implement laws and regulations such as the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, deepen the reform of empowerment for job-related scientific and technological achievements, and use the power of the rule of law to break down institutional barriers.
An R&D intensity of 2.80% is a new starting point for China's scientific and technological innovation, not an end point. Quantity provides the foundation, structure provides the cutting edge. From "investing more" to "investing accurately" and "investing scientifically," the second half of the journey for science and technology innovation investment tests a country's wisdom and ability to allocate innovation resources. Only by emphasizing both quantity and optimizing structure can we truly transform massive R&D investment into tangible innovation momentum, continuously consolidate the foundation for high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology, and lay a solid foundation for building a world-leading science and technology power.
Return to TopBy: 王绪高
Under the context of intensifying climate change and human activities, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation have become major global environmental challenges, as well as major issues affecting ecological security and sustainable human development. Protecting forest biodiversity is not only a crucial cornerstone for curbing global biodiversity loss and steadily advancing the protection targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (hereinafter referred to as the "Kunming-Montreal Framework"), but also a core measure for continuously enhancing key ecosystem service functions such as water conservation, climate regulation, carbon sequestration and oxygen release, and is extremely critical for stabilizing global ecological security. However, unlike relatively simple ecosystems such as grasslands and shrublands, forest ecosystems are known for their strong spatial heterogeneity and long life cycles. Therefore, in-depth understanding of the unique distribution patterns and spatial coexistence mechanisms of forest tree species helps to unlock the "spatial code" for the long-term maintenance of forest biodiversity, and has profound theoretical significance and practical value for improving the diversity, stability, and sustainability of forest ecosystems.
The "Huddling Together for Warmth" Pattern of Forest Biodiversity Maintenance
In response to the characteristics of strong spatial heterogeneity and long life cycles in forest ecosystems, as well as the defects of traditional small-plot monitoring such as missing spatial information and short monitoring durations, the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (中国森林生物多样性监测网络) initiated the establishment of China's forest large plots in 2004. After more than 20 years of development, over 30 forest large plots have been established, basically covering major climate zones and forest types, providing a key data foundation for formulating biodiversity protection strategies.
These large plots are mostly larger than 20 hectares, and in accordance with the standardized requirements of the global forest large plot monitoring network, each individual plant within the plot is positioned, tagged, numbered, and measured, with regular re-surveys every five years, which is equivalent to creating household registration files for each plant. Therefore, compared with traditional small-plot monitoring, large plots have the unique advantages of unified standards, long-term positioning, large data volumes, and complete spatial information. For example, the 25-hectare broad-leaved Korean pine forest large plot in Changbaishan has completed five surveys since its establishment in 2004, recording the precise spatial positions of more than 50 woody plant species and over 30,000 individual plants, along with more than 200,000 data entries on their dynamic changes. These high-precision spatial data on tree species have laid a solid foundation for deciphering the long-term maintenance mechanisms of forest biodiversity.
Relying on more than 20 years of long-term monitoring of the temperate forest large plot in Changbaishan, our research found that over 80% of tree species show significantly aggregated distribution ("huddling together for warmth"), meaning that plants of the same species grow together in clusters, whereas traditional small-plot studies could only identify about 30% of aggregated species, causing this key spatial feature to be underestimated for a long time. Since traditional biodiversity maintenance theoretical systems were mainly developed based on small-plot studies, this suggests that traditional theories may have flaws. To reveal the significance of "huddling together for warmth" for the long-term maintenance of forest biodiversity, it is urgent to break through the technical bottleneck of simulating individual aggregation and predicting community dynamics, and to quantitatively characterize the impact of "huddling together for warmth" on species spatial distribution and community diversity. To this end, researchers developed a multi-level spatial process model for individuals, species, and communities that accounts for aggregated distribution. They found that this model's prediction accuracy for long-term dynamics of forest diversity is about 52% higher than that of traditional models (which do not account for aggregated distribution), indicating that many tree species in forests can coexist peacefully with their neighbors through "huddling together for warmth," ultimately achieving long-term maintenance of forest biodiversity. These findings have for the first time unlocked the "spatial code" by which plants achieve long-term stable coexistence through "huddling together for warmth," breaking through the traditional understanding of long-term forest biodiversity maintenance.
Different Paths to the Same Destination: "Huddling Together for Warmth" in Tropical and Temperate Forests
Global forest biodiversity exhibits a latitudinal pattern of "high in the tropics, low in the temperate zone." So what differences exist in the "huddling together for warmth" patterns between tropical and temperate forests? And what are the differences in the biological mechanisms that cause "huddling together for warmth"? To answer these questions, researchers systematically collected data from 21 forest large plots spanning tropical and temperate regions worldwide, while also gathering information on plant seed dispersal modes, mycorrhizal symbiosis attributes, and other factors, because seed dispersal limitation and mycorrhizal symbiosis protection are two core biological mechanisms determining plant "huddling together for warmth."
The study found that "huddling together for warmth" is an important cause of the latitudinal gradient pattern of forest plant diversity being "high in the tropics, low in the temperate zone," but there are significant differences in the "huddling together for warmth" patterns and their formation mechanisms: the "huddling together for warmth" of temperate forest tree species is mainly determined by soil microorganisms such as mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi provide a "protective armor" for tree roots against harmful microorganisms like pathogens. Therefore, the "huddling together for warmth" in temperate forests exhibits a pattern of "surrounding the mother tree, with high and concentrated clustering," easily forming large patchy spatial aggregations around mother trees. Unlike temperate forests, the "huddling together for warmth" of tropical forest tree species is mainly determined by animal-mediated seed dispersal. Birds, squirrels, and other animals carry seeds away from mother trees and bury them, resulting in a pattern of "away from the mother tree, with low and dispersed clustering" in tropical forests, easily forming small patchy aggregations away from mother trees.
Although the modes of "huddling together for warmth" differ between tropical and temperate forests, model simulation results show that "huddling together for warmth" has a 殊途同归 (shū tú tóng guī - "different paths, same destination," meaning different approaches lead to the same result) effect on biodiversity maintenance in both forest types: in temperate forests, where diversity is low and dominant species with large individual numbers account for a high proportion, "huddling together for warmth" around mother trees is conducive to maintaining the stability of these dominant species; in tropical forests, where diversity is high but there are many rare species with small individual numbers, "huddling together for warmth" away from mother trees is extremely critical for the long-term maintenance of these rare species. These findings deepen the understanding of long-term biodiversity maintenance in temperate and tropical forests from the new perspective of how mycorrhizal fungi and seed-dispersing animals influence plant spatial distribution.
This study breaks through the limitations of traditional biodiversity theory in the spatial dimension, unlocks the "spatial code" for long-term forest biodiversity maintenance, and provides new scientific evidence for global forest biodiversity conservation and forest management practices. For example, in biodiversity conservation, the study found that animal-mediated seed dispersal in tropical forests is key to maintaining plant diversity, so protection of birds, rodents, and other dispersers should be strengthened; in temperate forests, mycorrhizal fungi play an important role in promoting plant coexistence, so attention should be paid to protecting soil microbial diversity. Therefore, to better protect forest biodiversity, a "plant-animal-microorganism" collaborative protection strategy should be developed in the future.
In forest management, the study found that aggregated distribution is an important spatial feature for maintaining forest biodiversity. Therefore, attention should be paid to the management and protection of "patch-type" forestlands, with a focus on maintaining the spatial heterogeneity distribution of forests and avoiding homogenized protection strategies. At the same time, in artificial afforestation and management, to strengthen the coexistence stability of tree species and the sustainability of plantation ecosystems, the advantages of natural forest tree species' "huddling together for warmth" should be utilized, attention should be paid to patch structure configuration, and through reasonable design of planting density, inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi, and other auxiliary measures, new multi-density mosaic forest management models should be explored to enhance the stability of plantations.
Future Development of Biodiversity Research and China's Contribution
Facing the new challenge of ongoing biodiversity loss under global change, global biodiversity research still needs to make sustained efforts in monitoring systems, technological innovation, and theoretical breakthroughs.
In terms of data support, large-scale, long-term, high-precision long-term positioning monitoring data on biodiversity remain relatively insufficient; existing monitoring networks have not yet covered all ecosystem types; and data sharing and collaborative research mechanisms among different countries and regions still need improvement. In the future, the construction of long-term ecological monitoring networks such as forest large plots should be continuously strengthened, and cross-regional, multi-scale biodiversity monitoring systems should be improved to provide more solid data support for revealing the formation and maintenance mechanisms of biodiversity. In terms of technological innovation, traditional biodiversity monitoring still relies mainly on manual ground surveys, with problems such as long monitoring cycles, limited coverage, and insufficient dynamic response capability. To this end, efforts should be further accelerated to promote the deep integration of new technologies such as satellite remote sensing, drones, near-ground LiDAR, monitoring tower clusters, artificial intelligence, and big data analysis, building an integrated "space-air-tower-ground" biodiversity monitoring system to achieve real-time sensing, dynamic monitoring, and intelligent prediction of forest biodiversity, and continuously improving the modernization level of China's ecological monitoring. In terms of theoretical development, forest biodiversity maintenance involves complex interactions among plants, animals, microorganisms, and their environment. In the past, due to disciplinary segmentation, research on different biological groups was relatively independent, resulting in an insufficient overall understanding of the maintenance mechanisms of forest biodiversity. In the future, collaborative research on "plants-animals-microorganisms" should be strengthened, deep cross-integration of multiple disciplines such as spatial ecology, microbial ecology, and artificial intelligence should be promoted, the theory of forest biodiversity maintenance should be further improved, and a new scientific paradigm for global biodiversity conservation should be provided.
In recent years, relying on major scientific research platforms such as the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network, China has continuously improved its long-term positioning monitoring system, explored and formed a new research model featuring collaborative plant-animal-microorganism monitoring, multi-source data open sharing, and interdisciplinary cross-integration, and achieved an important transformation from a "data provider" to a "scientific question proposer" in global forest biodiversity research. The discovery of the "spatial code" for forest biodiversity maintenance is an important theoretical breakthrough for China in the field of forest spatial ecology.
Looking to the future, China should continue to leverage the advantages of its long-term ecological monitoring network, adhere to original theoretical innovation, strengthen international cooperation, actively participate in global biodiversity governance, and contribute more Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to implementing the Kunming-Montreal Framework, advancing the construction of a Beautiful China, and building a community of life for humans and nature.
(The author is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)
Return to TopBy: 潘志华
Agriculture and the ecological environment are closely linked, and the green transformation of agriculture plays a foundational supporting role in the overall green evolution pattern of the entire society. Agricultural production is the process of converting meteorological resources such as light, heat, water, and air into biomass and agricultural products. The spatiotemporal rhythm, total supply, matching degree, and fluctuation characteristics of meteorological resources have a significant bearing on agricultural production, and under certain specific conditions, can even play a dominant role. Against the backdrop of intensified global climate change and frequent extreme weather events, re-understanding the characteristics and mechanisms of meteorological resources has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting green and sustainable agricultural development.
The Role and Regulation Mechanisms of Meteorological Resources in Agricultural Production
Meteorological conditions (sunlight, heat, precipitation, carbon dioxide, etc.) possess dual attributes of both environment and resource in the agricultural system, and are one of the important characteristics of agricultural production. The environmental factors of meteorological conditions constitute the external background for the survival and development of agricultural organisms, and their spatiotemporal changes directly affect the process of biological growth and development. The resource factors of meteorological conditions directly enter the agricultural production process in the form of matter and energy, becoming components of organic matter. The two are interdependent and transform into each other.
Agricultural production is the process of converting meteorological resources. Agricultural production synthesizes biomass through photosynthesis, and the main participating elements in this process are solar radiation, water, carbon dioxide, and other meteorological elements. Therefore, agricultural production, to some extent, is a process of converting natural resources centered on meteorological resources into agricultural products and biomass. Of course, this process also requires the participation of elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which can promote or inhibit crop growth, development, and yield formation, thereby affecting the conversion rate of meteorological resources. In this process, the conversion rate of meteorological resources varies under different meteorological environment backgrounds: when temperature, moisture, and other factors are suitable, the conversion rate is fast, and more meteorological resources are converted into biomass; otherwise, conversion is slow or impossible.
Meteorological resources and agricultural activities interact and influence each other. People can adopt technical measures to regulate the conversion process of meteorological resources, enabling more meteorological environments to be converted into meteorological resources. Artificial measures in agricultural production, such as variety selection, sowing date adjustment, fertilizer application, irrigation and drainage, and field facility regulation, are essentially active adaptation and optimization of meteorological resources. On one hand, they compensate for insufficient supply of meteorological resources and tap resource potential; on the other hand, they avoid meteorological environment stress and mitigate negative environmental impacts. Reasonable agricultural management can expand the crop meteorological suitability range and improve resource conversion efficiency; while blind incremental input, unified management, and production methods that violate phenological rhythms will break the balance between meteorological elements and crops, ultimately causing dual losses in production and ecology.
Scientifically controlling meteorological resources is the key to coordinating production and ecology. Meteorological resources run through the entire process of agricultural production resource conversion. When conditions are suitable, the conversion process proceeds smoothly; when conditions are unsuitable, the conversion process is hindered. The primary goal of green and sustainable agricultural development is to ensure that this conversion process is efficient, stable, with low loss and low disturbance. The contradiction between agricultural production and ecological protection is concentrated in the intensity and degree of utilization of meteorological resources. The basic requirement for sustainable development is that the intensity of utilization does not exceed the rate of resource renewal, and the degree of utilization does not exceed the ecological carrying threshold. Full utilization of meteorological resources can promote agricultural production, such as increasing yield by raising the multiple cropping index in areas rich in light and heat resources. However, excessive utilization will cause ecological problems, such as over-extraction of groundwater leading to land subsidence, and indiscriminate reclamation causing soil erosion.
Prominent Problems Currently Existing
Currently, due to insufficient understanding of meteorological resources in specific agricultural production, a series of production and ecological problems have emerged.
First, unilaterally emphasizing the environmental attribute while neglecting the value of the resource attribute. In agricultural production, meteorology is simply regarded as an external environment affecting yield, with preventing meteorological disasters becoming the main goal, while the value of meteorological resources as a production factor has not been fully valued. Production layout, variety selection, and sowing date setting have not been optimized and configured based on regional endowment of light, heat, and precipitation resources, leading to idle meteorological resources, low solar energy utilization rate, low heat utilization efficiency, and the failure to effectively release regional agricultural production potential. Relying unilaterally on artificial inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation to compensate for yield shortcomings has fallen into the cognitive misconception of "valuing artificial inputs while neglecting nature."
Second, insufficient utilization and excessive utilization of resources coexist. In some cases, meteorological resources are not fully utilized. In agricultural areas with superior light and heat conditions, due to relatively single cropping systems and unreasonable variety combinations, the interception rate of solar radiation by the crop canopy is low, the utilization rate of heat resources is insufficient, and the conversion efficiency of meteorological resources has not reached the regional optimal level. In other cases, meteorological resources are over-utilized. In production, regardless of the suitable threshold and carrying capacity of meteorological elements, high-intensity fertilization and flood irrigation cause problems such as agricultural non-point source pollution and groundwater over-extraction.
Third, artificial management does not match the temporal rhythm of meteorology. Meteorological resources have significant seasonal fluctuations and diurnal variation rhythms, and crop nutrient uptake and photosynthetic rate also change dynamically accordingly. In traditional production, water and fertilizer supply, agricultural operations, and the rhythms of meteorology and crop growth are always out of sync. When light and heat are abundant and crops require ample fertilizer and water, supply is insufficient; when light and heat are weak and crop metabolism is slow, water and fertilizer are excessive. This rhythm mismatch leads to a decline in resource utilization efficiency, forming a 恶性循环 (è xìng xún huán - "vicious cycle," a cycle of worsening cause and effect) of "high input, low efficiency, heavy pollution."
Pathways for Scientific Utilization of Meteorological Resources
Strengthen theoretical understanding and establish the concept of comprehensive regulation of meteorological resources. In agricultural research, technology extension, and production management, increase the popularization of knowledge about meteorological resources, establish the concept of 趋利避害 (qū lì bì hài - "seek advantages and avoid disadvantages," to pursue benefits and avoid harms), moderate utilization, threshold control, incorporate meteorological resource utilization rate and meteorological suitability into evaluation indicators for high-quality agricultural development, and correct the deviations of valuing inputs over resources and valuing disaster prevention over utilization at the ideological level.
Grasp distribution patterns and formulate classified management and utilization strategies for meteorological resources. In areas with superior meteorological resources, focus on potential tapping, optimize cropping systems and variety layout, and improve the conversion efficiency of light, heat, and water resources; in areas with marginal meteorological resources, adhere to suitable thresholds, strictly control total inputs, and prevent the superposition of meteorological stress and human overload; in areas with fragile meteorological resources, prioritize avoiding meteorological risks, moderately develop meteorological resources, and protect native ecology.
Adhere to coordinated matching and develop rhythm-adapted precision agricultural technologies. Addressing the mismatch between meteorological and agricultural rhythms, develop meteorology-adapted precision control technologies. Based on real-time status of meteorological elements and crop growth stages, dynamically adjust agricultural activities such as fertilization and irrigation. Implement weather-based management, allowing water and fertilizer supply and field regulation to closely follow meteorological rhythms, increase utilization during periods of high meteorological resource efficiency, reduce artificial inputs during periods of meteorological stress, and enhance resource conversion efficiency and reduce ecological pollution at the technical level.
Strictly adhere to meteorological thresholds and build a threshold-constrained input control system. Take crop meteorological suitability thresholds as rigid constraints on agricultural inputs, strictly prohibit increasing fertilizer application and flood irrigation during periods of meteorological extremes such as high temperature, waterlogging, and insufficient sunlight. Promote and support green production technologies such as slow-release fertilizers, water-retaining agents, and water-saving irrigation. While leveraging the effectiveness of meteorological resources, strictly control artificial inputs within the carrying capacity of meteorological resources, and reduce agricultural non-point source pollution and water and soil resource consumption at the source.
Optimize production layout and enhance the climate resilience of farmland ecosystems. Research, develop, and promote new crop varieties with stress resistance and high resource utilization efficiency. Rationally arrange crop layout and stubble succession to improve the matching degree and utilization rate of light, temperature, and water resources. Promote diversified cropping systems such as rotation, intercropping, and relay cropping, construct agroforestry composite systems, and implement measures such as straw return and green manure planting to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem service functions and enhance climate resilience.
Return to TopBy: 刘宝东
A century-old party, 风华正茂 (fēng huá zhèng mào - “flourishing style and prime,” in the prime of youth and vigor). The Communist Party of China has already traversed 105 years since its founding, yet it still maintains youthful vitality. The secret lies in the fact that our party can always preserve the spirit of self-revolution. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in his speech at the meeting celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China that our party is soberly aware that to forge iron, one must be strong oneself; it is skilled at examining itself in light of the development demands of the times, alerting itself with a strong sense of urgency, perfecting itself with the spirit of self-revolution, highly valuing its own construction, resolutely eliminating all factors that harm the party’s advanced nature and purity, eradicating all viruses that erode the party’s healthy organism, and becoming even stronger and more powerful through revolutionary tempering. The spirit of self-revolution is the powerful support for the party to forever retain youthful vitality; it is the fundamental reason why our party has stood out among the repeated contests of various political forces in modern China, has always been at the forefront of the times, and has become the backbone of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.
The spirit of self-revolution is the distinctive mark that distinguishes our party from other political parties. The Communist Party of
Return to TopGeneral Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly pointed out that it is necessary to uphold and develop the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era (新时代枫桥经验), improve the mechanisms for correctly handling contradictions among the people under the new situation, and promptly resolve conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level and in their budding state. The construction industry is an important pillar industry of the national economy, bearing on the overall development situation, employment stability, and the well-being of the people. At present, the construction industry is undergoing deep adjustment, with overlapping risks and converging contradictions, raising higher requirements for the industry's development. China State Construction Engineering Corporation (中国建筑集团有限公司, hereinafter referred to as China Construction), as the main force in the construction industry, has thoroughly studied and implemented the important instructions and directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping through its Party Leadership Group and the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at China Construction (中央纪委国家监委驻中国建筑纪检监察组). Adhering to jointly answering the same question and based on the conditions of the enterprise and society, it upholds and develops the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era, innovatively applies it in grassroots projects, resolves conflicts and disputes on the front line, eliminates risks and hazards in their budding state, fully plays a demonstration and leading role, promotes the formation of identifying concepts for construction enterprise governance, and provides strong support for the high-quality development of the construction industry.
Accurately understand the scientific connotation of the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era in grassroots governance in the construction field. The Fengqiao Experience in the New Era is the "golden signboard" of grassroots social governance. Its scientific connotation is to uphold and implement the Party's mass line, fully mobilizing, organizing, and relying on the masses under the leadership of the Party to solve the masses' own affairs, achieving "small matters do not leave the village, major matters do not leave the town, and contradictions are not handed upward." The Party Leadership Group of China Construction and the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at China Construction firmly grasp the scientific connotation of the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era, applying it in the creation of grassroots front-line projects, achieving "small matters do not leave the work team, major matters do not leave the project, and contradictions are not handed upward," thereby resolving risks and contradictions at the grassroots level. For example, a certain project of China Construction Sixth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd. established a "Fengqiao-style" mediation room and a labor and wage station, implemented a special wage account management and a full-process on-site supervision and agency payment mechanism, promoted the on-site resolution of labor disputes, achieved "zero occurrence" of labor workers petitioning for wage arrears, and realized "contradictions do not leave the project, and safety and peace do not suffer incidents." Another example is a certain property management project of China Overseas Property Management Co., Ltd., which applied the "Fengqiao-style working method," established a "Red Vest Service Alliance" (红马甲服务联盟) and a "Deliberation and Consultation Joint Construction System" (议事协商联建制度), quickly resolved conflicts among community residents on the spot, and was rated as an outstanding property demonstration project in Guangdong Province.
Profoundly grasp the contemporary value of the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era in grassroots governance in the construction field. In project creation, China Construction focuses on promoting the resolution of contradictions and risks at the grassroots level, which has rich contemporary value for grassroots governance in the construction field.
First, it is an inherent requirement for preventing and resolving risks and improving governance effectiveness. The project front line is the basic production unit of a construction enterprise; if the front line is stable, the enterprise is stable. Large construction enterprises have many management levels and long chains, making it difficult for supervision to penetrate to the project level, and front-line risks and contradictions cannot be ignored. Minor hidden dangers and small disputes in a project, if not detected in time or handled improperly, can easily superimpose and transmit, producing an "emergence effect," and in severe cases can evolve into systemic risks. China Construction projects shift the frontier forward and sink the center of gravity, addressing issues early and at small scale, preventing problems before they occur, achieving a transformation from post-event handling to pre-event prevention, from point-based management to systemic governance, solving problems in the work team, resolving risks in the project, and promoting good enterprise performance through good grassroots governance.
Second, it is a practical need for integrating into grassroots governance and maintaining social stability. Grassroots governance at the project front line is not only the responsibility of construction enterprises but also affects the nerves of local grassroots social governance. Major infrastructure, urban renewal, urban operation, housing construction, property operation and other projects involve a large amount of work such as land acquisition and demolition, pipeline relocation, traffic diversion, ecological and environmental protection, fund payment, and community services. There are many stakeholders, and conflicts and disputes are frequent and prone to occur. If handled improperly, they can easily intensify, even triggering mass incidents and affecting social stability. China Construction projects actively integrate the enterprise's project governance into the grassroots governance system under the leadership of the local Party committee, integrate resources and forces from all sides, forming a comprehensive governance pattern of joint enterprise-local construction, joint conflict mediation, joint risk prevention, and joint problem treatment, achieving "small matters do not leave the work team, major matters do not leave the project, and contradictions are not handed upward," maintaining social stability through good enterprise governance.
Third, it is an inevitable choice for safeguarding the rights and interests of the masses and practicing putting the people first. The Fengqiao Experience in the New Era follows the Party's mass line, requiring that the legitimate rights and interests of the masses be properly protected, their reasonable demands be properly addressed, and their wisdom and strength be consolidated. The construction industry is connected on one side to major engineering construction and on the other side to the livelihood of thousands of households. Whether project quality is excellent and reliable, whether payments are made on time, whether construction is safe and civilized, whether property services are timely and thoughtful, and whether community disputes are properly resolved are all closely related to the masses. China Construction projects take the masses' urgent, difficult, and anxious problems as the focus of governance, fully coordinating and resolving them, so that the masses can feel and see results in grassroots governance. At the same time, it stimulates the enthusiasm and creativity of the broad workforce, gathers public wisdom, and promotes the source prevention and timely resolution of conflicts and disputes.
Fourth, it is an important measure for fulfilling political responsibilities and leveraging the advantages of central enterprises. State-owned enterprises are an important material and political foundation of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and an important pillar and relying force for the Party to govern and rejuvenate the country. China Construction undertakes the important mission of building "good houses," "good communities," and "good neighborhoods," leading the industry to accelerate digital, intelligent, and green transformation. China Construction projects promote coordinated governance of engineering construction, community services, and urban operations, improving the living environment from the source, enhancing urban resilience, and promoting social harmony.
The innovative practice path of China Construction in upholding and developing the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era. To transform the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era into grassroots governance effectiveness in the construction field, it is necessary to continuously explore practice paths in conjunction with the new situation of China's construction industry, achieving innovative development through inheritance.
First, adhere to Party building leadership and consolidate responsibility. The Party Leadership Group of China Construction and the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at China Construction firmly grasp the important requirement of leading grassroots governance with Party building, adhere to the clear orientation of focusing on grassroots, continuously improve the "legal person manages the project" governance system, and strengthen penetrating supervision and refined control over projects. Strengthen grassroots Party organizations, eliminate blank work teams, and consolidate the political responsibility of managing the Party and governing the Party. Improve the "121" supervision system, achieve full coverage of project supervisors, fully leverage the "probe" role of discipline inspection cadres, go deep into the project front line to listen to public opinion, observe actual conditions, and actively solve problems. Carry out special governance of risky projects to prevent small matters from becoming big, and big matters from exploding, better transforming the Party's political and organizational advantages into grassroots governance effectiveness.
Second, adhere to classified exploration and targeted policy implementation. China Construction projects are diverse in type, and the contradictions and risks faced by different segments, business formats, and regions are different. Promoting project creation should not be uniform; it is necessary to adapt measures to local conditions, adopt classified guidance, and implement targeted policies according to different project types. Construction projects should focus on those with large scale, tight schedules, land acquisition and demolition, pipeline relocation, safety and environmental protection, and concentrated labor disputes. Property operation projects should focus on residential communities and commercial complexes with diverse owner demands, frequent service disputes, and many neighborhood conflicts. Urban operation, urban renewal, and investment-type projects should focus on comprehensive development projects involving multiple interests of the government, enterprises, and residents, exploring cross-departmental, cross-subject, and cross-cycle collaborative governance mechanisms. Overseas projects should focus on major landmark projects and "small but beautiful" livelihood projects, strengthening care and concern for overseas employees, achieving harmonious coexistence between grassroots governance concepts and local customs and traditions.
Third, adhere to problem orientation and grasp the main and key points. At the beginning of project creation, China Construction projects must first identify the problems and thoroughly investigate the root causes. Focus on key areas where power is concentrated, funds are intensive, and resources are abundant, zero in on key links such as "three major and one large" (major decisions, major personnel appointments, major project arrangements, and large-sum fund use), supply chain, clearing arrears and payments, quality and safety, recruitment and dismissal, property management, and real estate sales, conduct systematic investigation, scientifically formulate problem lists, responsibility lists, and rectification lists, and clarify governance goals on the project front line such as "zero wage arrears," "zero major complaints," "zero major quality and safety accidents," and "contradictions not handed upward." Second, strengthen planning and move the frontier forward. Embed risk prevention and conflict resolution requirements into key business links to prevent "two skins" between governance and business. Aiming at institutional loopholes and management shortcomings, use rule-of-law thinking and methods to improve systems such as project authorization, subcontracting and sub-supply, fund payment, petition and complaint handling, and integrity risk prevention, forming long-term mechanisms.
Fourth, adhere to pluralistic co-governance and multi-party coordination. China Construction projects organize, link, and coordinate various grassroots governance subjects under the leadership of the Party, forming a benign governance pattern of pluralistic co-governance and multi-party coordination. Establish a regular communication and consultation mechanism, such as holding regular joint meetings of the project Party branch, subcontractors and sub-suppliers, community representatives, and local competent departments, smooth the channels for expressing interest demands, and let everyone discuss and handle everyone's affairs together, achieving "small matters do not leave the work team, major matters do not leave the project, and contradictions are not handed upward." At the same time, establish a closed-loop chain of "contradiction investigation — investigation and verification — consultation and mediation — follow-up implementation — feedback and evaluation," ensuring that every piece has an outcome and every matter has a response.
Fifth, adhere to grasping laws and scientific guidance. Systematically sort out effective practices, typical cases, and institutional achievements of different types of projects. On the basis of full piloting, explore a set of scientific and practical norm systems such as creation standards, evaluation indicators, and operational guidelines. For problems existing in the exploration, such as formalist tendencies, unclear boundaries of rights and responsibilities, insufficient coordination and linkage, and inadequate digital application, conduct in-depth analysis of causes, and continuously improve and perfect them. Through piloting first, demonstration and leadership, and iterative optimization, promote project creation from partial exploration to system construction, from empirical practices to institutional mechanisms.
The Fengqiao Experience in the New Era is a bright business card of Chinese governance. Standing at a new historical starting point, the Party Leadership Group of China Construction and the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at China Construction will adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as guidance, unswervingly follow the socialist social governance path with Chinese characteristics, continuously explore new paths for the Fengqiao Experience in the New Era in grassroots governance in the construction field, and contribute more wisdom and strength to building a higher level of safe China and rule-of-law China.
(Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at China Construction)
The view on political achievement (政绩观) is the "master switch" for Party cadres and officials in starting undertakings and building careers. Currently, it is a critical period for the planning and launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan ("十五五"规划) and the deepening advancement of energy transition. China Huadian Corporation Ltd. Sichuan Branch (中国华电集团有限公司四川分公司, hereinafter referred to as Huadian Sichuan Company) always keeps in mind the "great affairs of the nation" (国之大者), anchors itself to the new energy security strategy, establishes and practices a correct view on political achievement, insists on proceeding from reality and acting according to laws, and, in adhering to the original aspiration, taking concrete action and shouldering responsibility, and perfecting mechanisms, advances tirelessly and bravely strives to be first, striving to write an excellent answer sheet for high-quality development of energy central enterprises in the new era.
Strengthen value guidance, and forever preserve the original aspiration and mission in focusing on high-quality development. Establishing and practicing a correct view on political achievement lies first and foremost in tempering strong Party spirit and calibrating ideological coordinates. Huadian Sichuan Company always insists on taking the Party's political construction as the guide, deepening theoretical armament, immersive cultural infiltration, and regularized tempering of Party spirit, promoting all staff to build a solid ideological foundation and unify action steps.
Deepen theoretical armament, and firmly grasp the "steadying star" (定盘星). Huadian Sichuan Company lists in-depth study and understanding of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as compulsory content for the Party committee theoretical study central group, the "three meetings and one lesson" (三会一课), and youth theoretical study groups, constructing a hierarchical, categorized, full-coverage, regularized learning system. It closely focuses on central tasks such as energy supply guarantee, green transition, technological innovation, and improving quality and efficiency to carry out special discussions, guiding all cadres and employees to plan work and promote implementation from the overall situation of the national strategy and the overall development of the enterprise, correcting deviations in political achievement from the ideological root and calibrating the direction of endeavor.
Temper strong Party spirit, and temper "excellent work style" (过硬作风). Insist on tempering excellent work style through Party spirit cultivation, incorporate the examination of the view on political achievement into the content of Party members' Party spirit analysis and cadres' performance evaluation, regularly carry out ideological self-examination and problem self-correction, and resolutely rectify problems such as valuing appearances over actual results, valuing the short term over the long term, and valuing form over real performance. Perfect the long-term mechanism for leading group members to contact the grassroots and serve employees, go deep into the front line to observe the actual situation, solve problems, and seek practical results. Deeply excavate advanced typical examples from the front lines of energy supply guarantee, project construction, and innovation攻坚, use the power of role models to transmit "positive energy" (正能量) of endeavor, rely on venues such as moral lectures and cultural exhibition halls, guide all staff to draw endeavor strength from the enterprise's struggle history and cultivate a practical character.
Carry out cultural empowerment, and gather the "source of impetus" (动力源). Deeply advance the Huadian Endeavor Culture knowledge-action unity action, continuously deepen "strive for advanced in individual items, create first-class in the overall" (单项争先进、整体创一流), integrate the endeavor concepts of pragmatism and truth-seeking, taking responsibility and acting, and persisting for a long time to achieve success (久久为功) into the institutional system, daily management, and performance practice. Insist on incorporating the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view on political achievement into cadre rotation training and staff-wide training courses, regularly carry out situation and task propaganda, construct a three-level propaganda pattern of "leading cadres take the lead in lecturing, branch secretaries give special lectures, advanced models share and lecture" (领导干部带头讲、支部书记专题讲、先进典型分享讲), use role models around to explain the endeavor spirit, and use vivid cases to interpret the connotation of political achievement. Organize the "Endeavor '15th Five-Year Plan', Overcome Difficulties to Create Excellent Results" (奋进‘十五五’攻坚创佳绩) labor competition, build a platform for learning, catching up, exceeding, and striving to be first, make good use of positive and negative typical examples, guide all staff to firmly establish the value orientation of "valuing hard work, valuing real performance, valuing long-term, valuing actual results" (重实干、重实绩、重长远、重实效).
Strengthen concrete action and responsibility, and manifest the endeavor底色 (character) in serving the overall strategy. Huadian Sichuan Company always bases itself on the political responsibility, economic responsibility, and social responsibility of state-owned enterprises, follows the development laws of the energy industry and regional resource endowments, takes high-quality development as the main line, runs the correct view on political achievement through the entire process of energy supply guarantee, green transition, and innovation攻坚, and tests performance and manifests mission responsibility with tangible development results.
Resolutely complete the supply guarantee task. Power supply guarantee is a major political task for energy central enterprises. Resolutely shoulder the political responsibility of energy supply guarantee, strictly implement the "Thunder Action" (雷霆行动) for safe production, deeply advance the "Three Stricts and Three Improvements" (三从严三提升) action for safe production, and comprehensively build a solid defense line for safe production. Fully leverage the multi-energy complementary resource advantages of "hydro, thermal, wind, solar, storage" (水火风光储), solidly carry out精品 (high-quality) maintenance of units, equipment hazard treatment, and technical transformation and upgrading, continuously improve equipment health level and supply guarantee capability, and successfully complete the supply guarantee tasks for the Chengdu World Games and the关键 (critical) period of peak summer. Facing sudden dangers such as rainstorms, mountain torrents, and geological disasters, always uphold "people first, life first" (人民至上、生命至上), respond quickly, handle scientifically, and fight effectively, resolutely hold the bottom line of people's livelihood electricity use, serve local economic and social development with absolutely reliable power supply, and use concrete actions to interpret the value pursuit of fulfilling duties for the people.
Deeply cultivate green transition. Huadian Sichuan Company fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development concept, actively integrate into the national energy development strategy, base itself on Sichuan's clean energy resource endowments, focus on major new energy project construction, and for three consecutive years has been the power generation enterprise with the highest annual new energy commissioning, the shortest construction cycle, and the best landing results in Sichuan Province, with over 80% of new energy projects achieving "approval within the year, construction within the year, commissioning within the year" (当年核准、当年开工、当年投产). Insist on ecological priority and green development, successively built Yanyuan Company into the nation's largest整县 (whole-county) high-altitude wind-solar integrated base and the largest operational wind-solar integrated base in Sichuan Province, Neijiang Company into the first batch of national gas turbine innovation development demonstration projects, and Aba New Energy Company into the first grid-forming energy storage photovoltaic power station and a batch of landmark demonstration projects, using the "green content" (含绿量) of development to enhance the "gold content" (含金量) of growth, and demonstrating state-owned enterprise responsibility in serving the "dual carbon" (双碳) goal.
Concentrate efforts to overcome difficulties and make breakthroughs. Plan and implement the "211" scientific and technological innovation action (“211”科技创新行动), focus on key fields such as high-altitude new energy development, energy storage technology application, and smart energy construction, continuously increase scientific research investment, and cultivate a batch of independently controllable intellectual property rights and innovation achievements. Deeply advance digitalization and intelligent transformation, iteratively upgrade the intelligent operation and maintenance digital control platform, promote deep integration of artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things with energy production and operation, use scientific and technological innovation to break through development bottlenecks, and use digital empowerment to improve development quality and efficiency. In the past five years, it has won 29 scientific and technological progress awards at the group company and key industry society levels, an increase of 25 compared with the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, with both the number and quality of awards reaching historical bests.
Strengthen systematic governance, and stimulate endeavor momentum in cultivating a clean and upright atmosphere. Establishing and practicing a correct view on political achievement is not an achievement of a single day or night; it must adhere to systematic thinking and construct normalized, long-term effective working mechanisms. Huadian Sichuan Company insists on two-way发力 (exertion) of cultural infiltration and institutional restraint, use the responsibility system to compact担当 (shouldering of responsibility), use the用人导向 (talent selection orientation) to guide the atmosphere, use strict work style to escort and protect, and continuously cultivate a clean and upright political ecology.
Perfect the closed-loop responsibility system. Always anchor to the national energy strategy, construct a responsibility system with clear powers and responsibilities, closed-loop implementation, and whole-process control, achieving layer-by-layer transmission and layer-by-layer landing of responsibility. Establish a work ledger-style and list-style management mechanism for key tasks, clarify task lists, responsible subjects, and time-limit nodes, ensuring that deployment has a basis, advancement has strength, tracking is orderly, everything is implemented, and every matter has a response. Strengthen whole-process supervision and control, regularly carry out special inspections, and seriously urge rectification of problems such as poor implementation, buck-passing, and poor results. Perfect cross-departmental coordination and linkage mechanisms, unblock work堵点 (blockages) and难点 (difficulties), so that every task can withstand inspection.
Establish a clear talent selection orientation. Insist on both moral integrity and professional competence, with moral integrity first and merit-based appointment, take whether one practices a correct view on political achievement, whether one takes concrete action and shoulders responsibility, and whether one has outstanding actual performance as important yardsticks for cadre selection and appointment, assessment and evaluation, and training and use. Deeply implement the three-year deepening action for empowering all staff, perfect a comprehensive and systematic talent cultivation and management system, focus on discovering, cultivating, and selecting a batch of practical and攻坚-type cadres who are rooted in production frontline, green development, and innovation forefront. Introduce 14硬 (hard) measures to encourage cadres to take responsibility, perfect the容错纠错 (fault tolerance and error correction) mechanism, clearly and unequivocally take responsibility for those who take responsibility, support those who work hard, stimulate endeavor vitality, and forge a high-quality professional talent team with firm politics, pragmatic work style, good at doing and achieving results, and capable of shouldering heavy tasks.
Cultivate a clean political ecology. Adhere to the strict tone without wavering, focus on the "key few" (关键少数) such as "first-in-command" (一把手) and leading groups, solidly implement the "four responsibilities coordination" (四责协同) mechanism for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and compact responsibility through daily interviews, integrity talks, and performance assessment reports. Deepen the construction of the Huashu Qingfeng "1+N" integrity culture, regularly carry out work style inspections and rectification of the "four forms of decadence" (四风), severely investigate and punish violations of discipline and law, as well as inaction and arbitrary action. Carry out immersive warning education, through forms such as court trial旁听 (observation) and case analysis, guide all staff to deeply recognize the political harm of wrong views on political achievement and the development risks of unsolid work style, and build a solid ideological dam against "dare not be corrupt, cannot be corrupt, do not want to be corrupt" (不敢腐、不能腐、不想腐).
(Party Committee of China Huadian Corporation Ltd. Sichuan Branch)
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The clear waters of the Lijiang River embody the people’s ardent yearning for a better life. On April 25, 2026, the Lijiang River Ecological Environment Quality Index Report (2025), released on the occasion of the fifth “Lijiang River Protection Day,” shows that the Lijiang River Ecological Environment Quality Index reached 87.48, maintaining an “excellent” rating for five consecutive years. In 2025, the water quality of the Lijiang River mainstem stably met the Class II standard for surface water. This impressive ecological scorecard stems from a distinctive Lijiang River protection path centered on institutional innovation, underpinned by rule-of-law construction and supported by modern governance, providing replicable and scalable valuable experience for the construction of ecological civilization in river basins across the country.
Legislation takes the lead, weaving a tight legal protection net. The primary breakthrough in Lijiang River protection lies in transforming ecological protection from “soft advocacy” into “hard constraints” through legislation. In 2012, Guangxi began implementing its first local comprehensive ecological environment protection regulation, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Lijiang River Basin Ecological Environment Protection Regulation, and Guilin City issued supporting documents including the Guilin City Lijiang River Scenic Area Management Regulation and nine other institutional documents, constructing a legal system with interconnected levels that is pragmatic and effective.
First, adhere to precise control and build a “five-level protection zone” system. The scenic area is divided into special-level, first-level, second-level, third-level protection zones and a control coordination zone: the special-level protection zone strictly safeguards the original ecological landscape, the first-level protection zone strictly controls new construction, the second-level protection zone manages and controls the flow of people and vehicles, the third-level protection zone rationally lays out cultural tourism facilities, and the control coordination zone protects rural fields, villages, and farming ecology. Second, strictly delineate ecological red lines and issue a negative list for management. The regulations specify three categories of prohibited acts: strictly prohibit pollution behaviors such as barbecuing on river embankments and open burning within 500 meters of the riverbank; strictly prohibit quarrying and uncontrolled rock climbing, enforcing “zero tolerance” for permanent damage to the karst landform; strictly prohibit acts that disrupt management order, such as unauthorized relocation of ecological boundary markers. Scientifically delineate a 500-meter no-burn control line to cut off pollutant dispersion at the source. Third, adhere to dynamic legislative iteration and continuously optimize institutional supply. In March 2026, Guilin City launched the revision of the regulations, focusing on governance bottlenecks to optimize system design, so that legislation keeps pace with the new governance situation, ensuring it is well-established, operable, and truly effective. Lijiang River protection has abandoned the crude “one-size-fits-all” model; every system is grounded in the actual conditions of the river basin, directly targeting prominent issues, achieving targeted pragmatism and tangible results.
Structural reform reshapes a new governance pattern. For a long time, Lijiang River governance involved more than 20 departments at the autonomous region and municipal levels as well as 10 counties and districts, with overlapping functions and dispersed powers and responsibilities. The long-standing problem of “multiple management with unclear powers and responsibilities” persisted. Guilin reshaped the governance structure through systemic reform, achieving unified management across the entire area.
First, coordinate powers and responsibilities from a high level by establishing the Party Working Committee and the Management Committee of the Lijiang River Scenic Area, with the city’s Party secretary and mayor serving as the principal leaders respectively, achieving unified command and centralized management, truly forming a governance pattern of “one team manages the Lijiang River”; second, drive the sinking of regulatory forces by building a city, county, township, and village four-tier grid-based law enforcement system, allocating more than 210 police officers and more than 1,680 auxiliary police officers, achieving closed-loop regulation across the entire river basin; third, innovate a diversified co-governance model by building a “five-in-one” protection network (五位一体), promoting the integration, coordination, and joint exertion of various types of oversight. The city has conducted more than 120 joint law enforcement actions, investigated and handled more than 80 ecological violation cases, and seized more than 50 illegally operated rafts and pieces of equipment (including boats). The touring order and ecological environment of the river basin continue to improve. Structural reform has solved the chronic problem of “everyone manages but no one manages well,” pushing Lijiang River protection from fragmented multi-actor governance toward integrated and efficient governance.
Technology empowers, raising the level of governance modernization. Adhere to the deep integration of institutional innovation and digital technology, driving Lijiang River protection from “traditional human defense” to “smart technical defense,” and from experience-based governance to data-driven governance.
First, establish a quantitative evaluation yardstick to make protection effectiveness measurable and assessable. Create the Lijiang River Ecological Environment Quality Index (LJEEQI), setting 28 quantitative indicators around four dimensions: ecological quality, environmental quality, ecological-environmental friendliness, and environmental safety. From 2021 to 2025, the index steadily rose from 85.86 to 87.48, making ecological improvement quantifiable and traceable, providing data support for scientific policy-making. Second, build a “Digital Lijiang River” to achieve smart regulation across the entire river basin. Integrate satellite remote sensing, aerial inspections, and ground station monitoring resources, merge cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, set up an air-space-ground integrated monitoring network, and form a new law enforcement model of “real-time warning—online dispatch—rapid disposal.” In 2024, relying on the digital platform, Yangshuo handled a report of illegal raft docking within one hour, leaving no place for various ecological violations to hide. Third, use digital technology to empower ecological restoration and assist in the return of biodiversity. Deploy an automatic forest carbon flux observation system at Haiyang Mountain (海洋山), an important water conservation area for the Lijiang River, to precisely calculate forest carbon sink reserves. Continuously restore wildlife habitats, with egrets perching in flocks on river islands, and the endangered aquatic species the Guilin softshell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis? Actually, "桂林马蹄鳖" is a local name for a type of softshell turtle; I'll translate as "Guilin horseshoe softshell turtle" and possibly append Chinese? But first mention: "桂林马蹄鳖" is a specific local species name, might be unfamiliar. I'll render as "Guilin horseshoe softshell turtle (桂林马蹄鳖)" on first mention) reappearing in Lijiang River waters, achieving solid results in biodiversity protection. Digital methods have equipped system implementation with a “clairvoyant eye”; the dual drive of system and technology continuously raises the level of modern governance in the river basin.
Universal participation builds a joint protection force through co-construction, co-governance, and shared benefits. The implementation of systems cannot be separated from the collective practice of the whole society. Guilin continues to broaden channels for public participation, pushing Lijiang River protection from government acting alone to co-construction and co-governance by the entire population.
First, regularly consolidate social consensus: since 2022, April 25 each year has been designated as “Lijiang River Protection Day,” with periodic release of ecological quality reports, making the protection of the landscape a conscious thought for the whole people. Second, smooth the legislative channels for public opinion: implement the “integration of stations and points” for deputies’ liaison stations and grassroots legislative contact points, conducting more than 2,000 opinion-gathering activities and absorbing more than 3,000 suggestions from the masses, making laws and regulations more grounded and aligned with the people’s wishes. Third, strengthen the leadership of the Party to build a solid grassroots defense. In Diecai District (叠彩区), the first stop for entering the Lijiang River’s main urban area, a “three-chain linkage” mechanism of “organization chain, law enforcement chain, and restoration chain” has been created, with vanguard teams formed, and Party members and cadres charging to the front line of dredging, pollution control, and shoreline restoration, ensuring the effective implementation of various protection measures. Fourth, activate the endogenous motivation of grassroots self-governance: fully implement the river segment chief system, with Party organization secretaries of each village (community) in the river basin serving as river chiefs for their respective sections, taking the lead in tackling key tasks such as sewage discharge control and shoreline restoration. Villagers have written rules such as “no illegal discharge of sewage” and “no encroachment on the shoreline” into village regulations and folk conventions, integrating ecological protection into daily rural governance. Institutionalized public participation gathers broad and lasting social forces.
Protecting the clear waters of the river depends on persistent, long-term effort. Going forward, we will continue to deepen institutional innovation, make good use of comprehensive measures including rule-of-law guarantees, technological support, and universal participation, and carefully protect the Lijiang River, this landscape treasure “peerless under heaven,” contributing Lijiang River wisdom and experience to building a beautiful China where humanity and nature coexist in harmony.
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