Study Times - September 2, 2026

Strengthen data governance of state-owned cultural relic resources to promote high-quality development of cultural relic undertakings

By: 文化和旅游部副部长、国家文物局局长饶权

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has profoundly grasped the characteristics and laws of cultural development against the backdrop of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, incorporated cultural relics work into the construction of Digital China and the national cultural digitization strategy, and pointed out the direction and opened broad prospects for digital technology to empower the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage. The National Cultural Heritage Administration has firmly grasped the new situation and tasks, deeply studied and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and directives on cultural relics work, firmly seized the historical opportunity of iterative upgrading of digital technology, continuously strengthened the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data, formulated and issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Cultural Relics Undertaking" with a special chapter elaborating on enhancing the level of scientific and technological empowerment of cultural relics, promulgated and issued the "Measures for the Management of State-Owned Cultural Relics Resource Data" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), and promoted the development of cultural relics work toward new and better directions through digital empowerment.

Strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is an important strategic task

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The world today is accelerating its march into the intelligent era, and the role of data as a basic resource and an engine of innovation is becoming increasingly apparent." At present, digital technology is increasingly integrated into all fields and the entire process of cultural relics protection, management, research, and utilization. Large-scale and diverse state-owned cultural relics resource data is increasingly becoming an indispensable basic and strategic resource, becoming an important engine driving the digital-intelligent transformation of the cultural relics undertaking. Strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is an arduous task of great significance.

From the perspective of the mission of the times, against the backdrop of the interweaving and superimposition of the "two overall situations," to promote cultural prosperity and build a culturally strong country, it is necessary to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture. Cultural relics carry splendid civilization, inherit history and culture, sustain the national spirit, and contain the unique spiritual values, ways of thinking, and ideological concepts of the Chinese nation. They are important carriers of China's excellent traditional culture. Cultural relics protection lies in the authentic and complete preservation and systematic and profound interpretation of the rich value of material remains, transforming them into information that can be perceived, understood, and disseminated, and giving play to the cultural role of educating people through culture. Today, emerging technologies represented by the Internet and artificial intelligence are changing with each passing day, profoundly changing the ways information is produced and disseminated and people's ways of production and life. Cultural relics protection is facing new opportunities and also new challenges. Strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help promote the cultural relics field to actively embrace the changes in cultural relics protection paradigms, value cognition methods, and media dissemination forms brought by the digital age, enable the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage to show vigorous vitality, and drive the high-quality development of the cultural relics undertaking.

From the perspective of practical orientation, after long-term efforts, digital empowerment of the cultural relics undertaking has achieved remarkable results — the construction of the national cultural relics resource database is steadily advancing, the digital construction of cultural relics and museum institutions is accelerating, and a new pattern of digital management has been effectively constructed; satellite remote sensing law enforcement monitoring has achieved full coverage of more than 40 world cultural heritage sites in China and 5,058 national key cultural relics protection units; information on a batch of precious and fragile cultural relics such as ancient murals and Pattra-leaf scriptures has been permanently preserved, with a shift from rescue protection to preventive protection; value interpretation paradigms such as the origin exploration of Chinese civilization and archaeological research have ushered in innovation; innovative demonstration applications such as the "Digital Palace Museum" and "Digital Dunhuang" have continued to emerge; the concepts of Chinese civilization have better gone global and influenced the world through the power of digital technology; and the boundaries of cultural relics value dissemination have continued to expand, among other things. At the same time, it must be noted that China's cultural relics resources are large in quantity, diverse in type, and widely distributed. There are currently more than 900,000 immovable cultural relics and approximately 108 million pieces/sets of state-owned movable cultural relics. Facing factors such as the erosion of time, natural damage, and man-made destruction, cultural relics protection and management, especially grassroots protection forces, are under pressure. Making good use of digital technology and strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help resolve this contradiction, bridge prominent shortcomings, advance the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity in the cultural relics field, and enhance the effectiveness of cultural relics protection in the digital age.

From the perspective of development trends, the rapid development of digital technology and the deep mining of digital resources provide us with powerful tools for responding to complex environments, predicting potential risks, analyzing difficult problems, and achieving scientific management. In the coming decades, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation will form a historic convergence with the development of human society. The diffusion effect of information technology innovation, the spillover effect of information and knowledge, and the inclusive effect released by digital technology will become more prominent, leading and driving the cultural relics undertaking to accelerate toward a new stage of digital-intelligent transformation. The ancients said: "Act according to the times, achieve merit by relying on resources, and use the capabilities of all things to gain benefits from them." Better adapting to development trends and strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help promote the transformation from "producing data" to "high-quality data," from "information islands" to "comprehensive interconnection," and from "single interpretation" to "diversified presentation," further solving problems such as multi-channel data collection, uneven quality, inconsistent formats, and non-interoperable terminology, and with a new pattern of digital-intelligent development of the cultural relics undertaking, promote the transformation of cultural relics resource advantages into cultural development advantages.

Adhering to a people-centered approach is the starting point and ultimate goal of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance

In October 2025, when General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the exhibition "A Century of Guardianship — From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum," he pointed out that "cultural relics belong to the people and serve the people." This earnest instruction profoundly answered the fundamental question of "for whom and by whom" the cultural relics undertaking exists, and provided fundamental guidance for our work in all fields of cultural relics. The fundamental starting point and ultimate goal of strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is to adhere to a people-centered approach and give priority to social benefits, so that the digital achievements of cultural relics protection benefit all the people more and more fairly.

Cultural relics resources belong to the people, and we must safeguard the people's shared cultural treasures through digital means. History is created by the people, and cultural heritage is shared by the people. Cultural relics are material heritage containing rich value, and they are also rare resources that have weathered vicissitudes, are extremely fragile, and are non-renewable. Digital-intelligent means are an important way to safeguard the precious wealth left to us by our ancestors. We must always maintain an attitude of being responsible to history and to the people, run the firm stand and value orientation through all aspects and the entire process of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance, and, on the premise of ensuring the safety of the cultural relics themselves, completely preserve the historical information and cultural value of cultural relics.

Cultural relics work relies on the people, and we must expand effective channels for the public to participate in cultural relics data governance. Doing a good job in the digitalization of cultural relics protection must be deeply rooted in the people, respect the people's principal position, stimulate the people's pioneering spirit, mobilize broad participation from the whole society, and transform the people's enthusiasm for cultural relics protection into institutionalized participation channels and normalized protection practices. For example, the "Beijing Central Axis Digital Night Watchman Activity" mobilized public volunteers to use digital methods to inspect and record the conditions of heritage sites. As the ways in which the masses participate in the cultural relics undertaking under digital conditions undergo profound changes, it is necessary to further improve social participation mechanisms, smooth public participation channels and communication avenues, enable the masses to play a principal role in joint construction and joint governance in areas such as cultural relics digital archives, social supervision, and institutional construction, further consolidate the consensus of the masses on cultural relics protection, enable them to consciously and actively support various tasks such as digital collection and utilization, and promote the improvement of the level of state-owned cultural relics resource data management.

Cultural relics protection benefits the people, and we must provide the people with high-quality digital cultural products. In today's era, the people's aspiration for a better life has shifted from "whether it exists" to "whether it is good." The past single way of presenting cultural heritage can no longer satisfy the people's growing needs for high-quality, multi-level spiritual and cultural needs. It is necessary to focus on solving problems such as insufficient supply of high-quality data services, uneven distribution, and inadequate accessibility, vigorously develop new forms of digital content, actively build bridges between cultural relics and the public, and create more high-quality digital communication products. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, museums across the country launched nearly 40,000 online exhibitions, and the profound accumulation of cultural relics resources "flew into the homes of ordinary people" through digital technology. In the next step, it is necessary to base ourselves on fully safeguarding the people's cultural rights and interests, improve the mechanisms for open utilization and inclusive sharing of state-owned cultural relics resource data, revitalize data resources, increase the supply of high-quality digital cultural products, enable more cultural relics resources to break through the barriers of time and space in data form, walk out of exhibition halls, walk out of fields, and reach the masses, and continuously enhance the people's sense of cultural gain and happiness.

Promoting the deepening and solidification of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance through the power of institutions

In recent years, the volume of state-owned cultural relics resource data has continued to grow, participating entities have become increasingly diverse, and application scenarios have continued to expand. The focus of digitalization of cultural relics protection has shifted from "accumulation of quantity" to "improvement of quality." As the first special document on data management in the cultural relics field, the "Measures" issued in July 2026 further regulate the production of state-owned cultural relics resource data, ensure the security of state-owned cultural relics resource data, guide the orderly opening and utilization of state-owned cultural relics resource data, activate the potential of state-owned cultural relics resource data, provide systematic and clear institutional guarantees for the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data, and vigorously promote bringing cultural relics to life.

Clarify rights holders and responsible entities. State-owned cultural relics resource data are the results of organizing production with national resources invested to achieve the permanent preservation and sustainable utilization of cultural relics. The "Measures" clarify that state-owned cultural relics resource data belong to the state, with state-owned cultural relics management institutions undertaking specific management responsibilities, fundamentally solving the core problem of "whose data is this and who manages it," and laying the foundation for subsequent orderly utilization. Clarifying the responsible entities for state-owned cultural relics resource data requires cultural relics administrative departments, state-owned cultural relics management institutions, and relevant entities to implement the responsibility for managing state-owned cultural relics resource data in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, adhering to the principles of "whoever manages is responsible" and "whoever uses is responsible." This fundamentally changes the role positioning of state-owned cultural relics management institutions in cultural relics protection, that is, they are not only institutions that manage cultural relics, but also entities that manage cultural relics data.

Implement full life-cycle scientific management. State-owned cultural relics resource data not only have the characteristics of high value and rarity, but also have the general characteristics of being easy to copy, non-exclusive, and non-competitive, which determines that full life-cycle management must be implemented to improve the level of standardized and refined management. In terms of data collection, adhere to the principle of cultural relics safety first, adopt self-collection and entrusted collection methods, and in principle, do not collect repeatedly. In terms of data processing, adhere to closed-loop management, implement according to cultural relics digital processing standards, and processed data must not be privately retained. In terms of data storage, implement secure storage and back up at national or regional storage centers, and establish a complete set of secure storage hardware facilities and institutional systems to ensure data integrity and non-tamperability. In terms of data transmission, give priority to online transmission through state-certified secure transmission platforms to ensure data integrity and full-process traceability. In terms of data registration, unified registration should be carried out on official platforms, with data registration as the core focus of data management. In terms of data services, on the basis of doing a good job in the security of data collection, processing, and storage, achieve orderly opening of data to the outside world.

Release the multiple values of cultural relics resource data. An important purpose of strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is to fully release the factor value of state-owned cultural relics resource data and improve the level of protection, inheritance, display, and utilization of historical and cultural heritage. First, activate academic research value. Through technologies such as multi-dimensional information collaborative analysis and multi-modal cultural relics knowledge retrieval, innovate academic research paradigms and improve the quality and efficiency of knowledge production. Second, highlight public cultural value. Break the traditional ways of cultural relics exhibition and dissemination, deeply develop content such as study courses and science popularization education, and promote the important role of cultural relics in widely consolidating cultural identity and transmitting civilization memory across generations. Third, release innovation and revitalization value. Excavate the cultural essence, artistic aesthetics, and other elements contained in state-owned cultural relics resource data, promote the upgrading from "data materials" to "cultural IP," and the transformation of static cultural relics resources into dynamic cultural products and high-quality cultural tourism resources, injecting new momentum into promoting the development of the cultural undertaking and cultural industry in the new era. Taking the Dunhuang Research Academy as an example, over the past 30-plus years, the Academy has been committed to the practice of "Digital Dunhuang." At present, it has completed data collection of 323 caves, three-dimensional reconstruction of 16 large heritage sites, and panoramic roaming production of 227 caves, forming cultural relics digital resources of more than 600TB. Through effective transformation and utilization and full release of value, the myriad scenes of "a metropolis where Chinese and foreign cultures converge" have come from the depths of history and are presented in digital form, and people's identification with Chinese civilization arises spontaneously.

Meet the needs and expectations of all sectors of society. At present, the general public hopes to understand cultural relics and approach history more conveniently; scientific research and educational institutions hope to obtain more systematic and reliable data support; and public cultural institutions as well as fields such as cultural creativity, digital display, and new technology applications look forward to forming standardized and stable use channels. At the same time, in recent years, phenomenal literary and artistic works have continued to emerge. For example, the popular historical drama "The Peaceful Years" relied on cultural relics unearthed from the Wuyue Kingdom and museum collection historical materials to carry out restoration of artifacts and scenes, and the popularity of the drama drove the dissemination of Wuyue culture; the domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong" used cultural relics shapes, architectural forms, and other elements as the basis for artistic creation, creating digital content with Eastern aesthetics. The vigorous development practices of these high-quality cultural contents and cultural creative industries fully demonstrate that state-owned cultural relics resource data with authoritative sources, accurate content, and open and standardized management are the true source of innovation and creation in the cultural relics field. To meet the increasingly strong needs and expectations of all sectors of society for cultural relics data, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should follow the principles of fairness, justice, and convenience for the people, and provide services such as proactive disclosure and authorized use to the public. The "Measures" put forward the requirement that "raw data does not leave the domain, and data is controllable and measurable," that is, raw data remains in the secure domain of cultural relics management institutions or storage centers and is not directly transferred externally; processed data formed through standardized processing that is reliable in quality, non-sensitive, non-confidential, and with clear rights attribution is opened for use by society through a tiered service mechanism. First, for public welfare utilization scenarios, such as public browsing and inquiry of cultural relics resource information, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should proactively disclose corresponding processed data in a planned and step-by-step manner through official websites or state-owned cultural relics resource data registration and management platforms, and open it to the public free of charge. Second, for non-profit utilization scenarios, such as academic research, exhibitions, and publicity, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should, in accordance with the principle of non-profit, clarify the scope of free use or determine reasonable service fee standards, announce them to the public, and provide corresponding data through authorization. Third, for profit-oriented utilization scenarios, such as cultural and creative development, film and television animation, games, and commercial exhibitions, the user should submit an application, and the state-owned cultural relics management institution and the user should determine the scope of authorized use and service fees through consultation and provide corresponding data.

The cultural lineage continues endlessly, and digital technology empowers the future. Standing at the new starting point of the digital-intelligent transformation and development of the cultural relics undertaking, we will make unremitting efforts to advance cultural relics data governance, improve data quality with clear rules, promote data circulation with smooth channels, empower data utilization with optimized services, ensure data security with standardized management, continuously improve the comprehensive effectiveness of the cultural relics undertaking in serving society, benefiting the people, and empowering development, and provide solid and powerful digital support for the high-quality development of the cultural relics undertaking.

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Theoretical Party strengthening is the path to the Party's continued success

By: 王毅

Emphasizing ideological party-building and theoretical strengthening of the party is a distinctive feature and glorious tradition of the Chinese Communist Party. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Reviewing the party's course of struggle, one can find that an important reason why our party has been able to continuously endure hardships and create new glories is that our party has always attached importance to ideological party-building and theoretical strengthening of the party, insisted on arming the minds of the broad masses of party members and cadres with scientific theory, and enabled the whole party to always maintain unified thinking, firm will, and strong combat effectiveness." In a certain sense, the more than one hundred years of history of the Chinese Communist Party is a history of continuously advancing the sinicization and modernization of Marxism, continuously advancing theoretical innovation and carrying out theoretical creation, and is a history of continuously leading the development of the party and the people's cause with the party's innovative theory. On the new journey of the new era, if we want to win advantages, win the initiative, win the future, and overcome all kinds of roadblocks and stumbling stones on the way forward, we must unremittingly arm our minds and gather our souls with the latest achievements of the sinicization of Marxism, strengthen the whole party's Marxist faith and communist ideal, and continuously improve the theoretical thinking ability and ideological and political level of the whole party, especially leading cadres.

Starting from the "combination of isms"

Around the birth of the Chinese Communist Party, China's mountains and rivers were broken and shattered, and currents of thought were surging and stirring. Hundreds of trends of thought such as "socialism," "anarchism," "work-studyism," and "pragmatism" competed to appear on the stage. Mao Zedong once said, "If one truly wants to establish one's aspiration, it cannot be so easy; one must first study philosophy and ethics, take the truth obtained therefrom as the standard for one's own words and actions, establish it as the goal for the road ahead, and then choose the matters that conform to this goal and do one's utmost to carry them out." Amid the various trends of thought that dazzled the eyes like chaotic flowers gradually tempting the beholder, it was by no means an easy matter to determine one ism as the guiding ideology for transforming China.

China's advanced elements did not firmly believe in Marxism from the very beginning. They moved back and forth among various thoughts, continuously using various isms to conduct "experiments." When a certain plan did not work, they would clean up after themselves and turn to test the next possibility. Each failure brought these explorers one step closer to Marxism. After long-term comparison, discrimination, and practical testing, combined with deep thinking on the domestic and international general situation, these advanced elements finally recognized the scientific nature of Marxist theory and the thoroughness of its revolutionary propositions, and without prior consultation completed their transformation into Marxists. Zhou Enlai made clear, "We should believe in the principles of communism and the two major principles of class revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat." After "fiercely reading and fiercely translating" various thoughts, Cai Hesen became convinced that Marxism was the good prescription for transforming China, and wrote to Mao Zedong to express this firm identification. Mao Zedong replied, "Your letter's views are extremely appropriate; there is not a single character I do not approve of." This kind of theoretical steadfastness tempered through countless "comparisons and experiments" was even more firm and even more enduring.

Attaching importance to theoretical arming is a distinctive feature of Marxist political parties. Engels pointed out, "Our party has a very great advantage, namely that it has a new scientific worldview as its theoretical foundation." Lenin further emphasized, "Without revolutionary theory, there will be no strong socialist party," and "Only a party guided by advanced theory can fulfill the role of an advanced fighter." When these principles were transmitted to China through the Communist International, the early Chinese Communists' high degree of theoretical self-awareness had a clear source.

"An ism is like a banner; once the banner is raised, people have something to look forward to and know where to go." From the day of its birth, the Chinese Communist Party was a "vanguard" formed on the basis of common belief and scientific theory. The powerful force generated by firm belief in the ism was precisely the special quality in which the Chinese Communist Party surpassed other political forces in modern China, and it became the spiritual support that enabled the Chinese Communist Party to rise up no matter what difficulties it encountered.

Answering in practice how to treat theory

Once there was theory, the next question to answer was: how to treat theory? The answer to this question directly determined the fate of the Chinese revolution.

At the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party's founding, because of a lack of revolutionary experience, it for a time copied the Soviet Russian revolutionary model wholesale, mechanically applied classical Marxist phrases, and fell into the erroneous zone of dogmatism. Mao Zedong later summarized: In the past we were like students whose hands were held by the teacher to learn to write characters. From the party's founding in 1921 to 1934, we suffered from the teacher's faults; the program was drafted by the teacher, and the resolutions of the plenary sessions of the Central Committee were also drafted by the teacher, especially in 1934, when we suffered very great losses. After that, we understood that we had to think about problems ourselves. It took us several decades to understand China. If Chinese people do not understand China's situation, how can that do? True understanding of independence and self-reliance began with the Zunyi Conference; this conference criticized dogmatism.

The lessons learned in blood gradually made the whole party realize that Marxism is not a dogma to be memorized by rote, but a guide to action that must be applied in combination with China's actual conditions. After the Long March victoriously arrived in northern Shaanxi, the Chinese Communist Party systematically summed up experiences and lessons and established the ideological line of seeking truth from facts. In 1938, at the party's enlarged Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Mao Zedong clearly put forward the proposition of "sinicization of Marxism," requiring the combination of the basic principles of Marxism with China's concrete reality, "so that in every one of its manifestations it possesses the necessarily present Chinese characteristics." This was a great awakening of the party in ideology and theory. It was precisely under this kind of theoretical self-awareness that the Chinese Communist Party realized the first historic leap in the sinicization of Marxism and created Mao Zedong Thought. Under the correct guidance of Mao Zedong Thought, the Chinese Communist Party led the people from victory in the War of Resistance against Japan to victory in the War of Liberation and established the national political power.

After the founding of New China, how to build socialism became a completely new historical subject facing the Chinese Communist Party. Mao Zedong put forward the major task of a "second combination," requiring "taking the Soviet Union as a mirror," independently exploring China's socialist road, and forming important theoretical achievements such as On the Ten Major Relationships and On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People. However, limited by historical conditions and the cognitive limitations of the era, the Chinese Communists of this period were unable to completely break the shackles of concepts, and socialist construction therefore experienced twists and turns.

Deng Xiaoping reflected on this: "We summed up several decades of experience in building socialism. What socialism is, what Marxism is — in the past we did not completely figure these out." In the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, the Chinese Communist Party re-established the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, proceeded from China's actual conditions, gradually shook off the shackles of traditional socialism, created Deng Xiaoping Theory, and opened up the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Thereafter, the important thought of the "Three Represents" scientifically answered the era's questions of what socialism is and how to build socialism, and what kind of party to build and how to build the party; the Scientific Outlook on Development carried out a systematic answer around what kind of development to realize under the new circumstances and how to develop. From "crossing the river by feeling the stones" to gradually forming and developing into a complete theoretical system, the party's theoretical innovation has been continuously deepened.

Entering the new era, the Chinese Communist Party faces unprecedented new subjects. Facing the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the major changes unseen in a century in the world, how can the world's largest governing party, with more than 100 million party members, maintain its composure and open up new prospects amid complex and ever-changing changes? The answer is condensed in Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This thought systematically answers the major era questions of what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop in the new era and how to uphold and develop it, what kind of modern socialist power to build and how to build it, and what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build it. It is contemporary Chinese Marxism and Marxism of the 21st century. The key to being able to realize such a major theoretical breakthrough lies precisely in combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's concrete reality and with China's excellent traditional culture. This major thesis extends the practical foundation of the sinicization and modernization of Marxism from the reality of contemporary China's development to the fertile soil of more than five thousand years of China's excellent traditional culture, realizing the integration and fusion of the truth force of Marxism and the spiritual force of Chinese civilization.

It is precisely in continuous exploration that the Chinese Communist Party has gradually formed a scientific attitude toward theory: first, there is no theory that works once and for all; fixed and static theory cannot adapt to developing reality. Second, the persuasive power of theory ultimately comes from its ability to solve practical problems. Third, every theoretical advance is not water without a source; it is inheritance and development on the basis of adhering to the basic principles of Marxism, embodying a developmental logic that is both inherited in one continuous line and advancing with the times. This theoretical character of adhering to seeking truth from facts and upholding fundamental principles while breaking new ground enables the Chinese Communist Party to always walk at the forefront of the times, answer the questions of the times, and lead the development of the cause.

The vitality of scientific theory lies in guiding practice and transforming reality

Only when theory is strong can the direction be clear, people's hearts be united, and confidence be sufficient. Looking at the more than one hundred years of the Chinese Communist Party's course of struggle, strengthening the party through theory has never been idle talk in a study, but rather, through effective practical mechanisms, has transformed scientific theory into a powerful material force for transforming the world.

Adhere to the unity of ideological party-building and theoretical strengthening of the party. Ideological party-building solves the question of what party members believe in, that is, using a scientific worldview to transform the subjective world, so that party members identify with the party's program and purpose ideologically; theoretical strengthening of the party solves the question of what to use to guide action, that is, using Marxism that advances with the times to arm the whole party and guide the transformation of the objective world. The two support each other: ideological party-building is the premise of theoretical strengthening of the party, and theoretical strengthening of the party is the deepening of ideological party-building. Together they constitute the key to a Marxist party maintaining its advanced nature and combat effectiveness. At the Gutian Conference in 1929, in response to erroneous ideas that existed in the party at the time, such as purely military viewpoints and extreme democratization, Mao Zedong made clear the principle of ideological party-building, pointing out that the Red Army "is an armed group that carries out the party's revolutionary political tasks," and not simply a fighting force.

Foster a great atmosphere of learning throughout the party. Only through learning can one truly appreciate the charm of theory, and then actively and consciously practice theory in practice. "Every step forward in theoretical innovation must be followed by a step forward in theoretical arming." This is both a summary of historical experience and the basic principle by which the Chinese Communist Party always maintains ideological acuity and theoretical advancedness. How to study? Within the party there is both "spring breeze transforming rain"-style regular study and large-scale centralized learning and education. Whenever a major historical juncture arrives, the Chinese Communist Party uses centralized learning and education to unify thinking and calibrate direction. The Yan'an Rectification Movement can be called a model of whole-party centralized study. During the rectification period, the Party Central Committee compiled and printed the Rectification Documents, requiring that "each piece must be read intensively one by one, and notes must be written for each piece." Those who experienced it recall that the study atmosphere in Yan'an at that time was extremely strong; even grooms and cooks were studying, and the sound of reading could often be heard from the cave dwellings at night. Through this ideological baptism, the Chinese Communist Party thoroughly eliminated bad practices such as dogmatism, sectarianism, and party stereotyped writing, and realized unprecedented unity under the banner of Mao Zedong Thought. Thereafter, the Chinese Communist Party has continued this study tradition, and in the new era it has become even more regularized and institutionalized. Every major whole-party study is a "major overhaul" and "major arming" of thought, enabling the whole party to always maintain unified thinking, firm will, and coordinated steps in the face of complex and ever-changing situations, thereby forming powerful combat effectiveness.

Rely on organizations to realize the landing of theory. Promoting study through organizations not only reflects the Chinese Communist Party's study tradition, but also reflects the Chinese Communist Party's unique organizational advantage. From the very beginning of its founding, the Chinese Communist Party emphasized organizational construction. After more than one hundred years of practice, it has successfully constructed an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and powerful in execution, providing an important guarantee for doing the party's various activities well. The Sanwan Reorganization established the principle of "building the party branch on the company level," enabling the party's theoretical education to reach the most basic combat units of the army directly. Thereafter, through institutionalized arrangements such as branch meetings and party lecture classes, the broad masses of party members received theoretical education and ideological transformation in organizational life. It is precisely through party organizations at all levels that the Chinese Communist Party's theory is transmitted layer by layer, penetrates deep into the grassroots, walks out of the study and toward the workers and peasants, and becomes an ideological weapon for mobilizing the masses and gathering strength. This tradition has been continuously institutionalized and standardized, from the collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to the "Three Meetings and One Class" at the grassroots level; organized study promotes theoretical arming to go deeper and more solid. It is precisely by relying on the strict organizational system that the party's innovative theory can be transmitted from the Party Central Committee to the nerve endings of the grassroots in the shortest possible time, transformed into the ideological self-awareness of the whole party, and then blossom and bear fruit in practice.

Reviewing history, it is not difficult to find that from the day of its founding, the Chinese Communist Party has held high the great banner of scientific theory, advanced theoretical innovation in practice, and armed the whole party with the party's innovative theory. Precisely because it relies on theoretical sobriety and firmness, and adheres to theoretical innovation and arming, the Chinese Communist Party has been able to always remain "calm and composed amid the flying chaotic clouds" on its stormy journey, and to always retain the confidence and confidence of "the scenery here is uniquely beautiful" amid complex situations.

[The author is Deputy Director of the Party History Teaching Department of the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance) (中央党校（国家行政学院）中共党史教研部副主任)]

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Do grassroots work with genuine feeling.

By: 查德金

General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed, "Emotion is a very essential thing. Doing grounded actions without emotion is 'grandstanding.' When comrades with emotion go down to the grassroots to do work, it can be seen, touched, and experienced — that is a kind of warmth," and "We must sink our work down to the grassroots, must stay grounded, understand what the common people are thinking, mulling over, and hoping for, and do our work according to everyone's needs." For leading cadres, staying grounded is not only a question of working methods; it is even more a fundamental question bearing on political stance, Party-spirit cultivation, and the success or failure of the cause.

One must not only enter reality in person, but also keep one's heart close to the masses. To stay grounded, one must first connect with the qi of emotion. It is not that once one's footsteps arrive at the grassroots one counts as staying grounded; rather, one's heart must be joined with the masses. Entering in person solves the problem of "being present"; keeping the heart close is what solves the problem of "emotion." Grandstanding or doing real work, cold or warm — the masses discern it at a glance. Where does emotion come from? It can only come from the practical experience of serving the people. At present, some leading cadres have high academic credentials and broad vision, but lack the experience of 'sitting on the same bench' with the masses. Some treat the grassroots as a gilded springboard, holding a provisional mentality; some are used to documents coming and going, yet cannot speak 'earthy speech' or listen to 'complaints'; some are used to understanding popular sentiment through a 'keyboard,' replacing felt experience with data, turning mass work into 'formalism at the fingertips.' This emotional estrangement is precisely the difficult problem that staying grounded must first crack. When leading cadres stay grounded, they must first regard themselves as ordinary people too, deepen mutual understanding through eating together, living together, and laboring together with the masses, cultivate emotion in resolving trivial matters such as firewood, rice, oil, and salt, and experience the warmth and cold of the masses through 设身处地 (shè shēn chǔ dì - "place one's body in the other's place," to put oneself in another's shoes) and thinking from the other's position. Only then can they return fully loaded with the people's expectations, grassroots experience, and mass wisdom.

The power of leading cadres is conferred by the Party and the people and is used to do work for the Party and the people. Its surname is 'public,' not 'private'; it can only be used to share the Party's worries, work for the country, and seek benefits for the people. Staying grounded is in essence a correction of the view of power — recognizing clearly where power comes from and for whom it is used. Responsibility to the Party and responsibility to the people have always been identical: to be responsible to the Party is to be responsible to the people; to be responsible to the people is to be responsible to the Party. Only by connecting with the antenna above while also staying grounded below can the Party's heart and the people's will resonate at the same frequency. The emotion of Communists toward the masses lies in doing things that win people's hearts, warm people's hearts, and steady people's hearts, and in solving the interest issues of the greatest, most direct, and most realistic concern to the masses. Only by truly planting one's stance on the side of the masses can 'the great matters of the state' and 'the concerns of the people' resonate at the same frequency. In every decision and every item of work, test whether one's stance truly stands on the side of the masses.

'Ground qi' is in essence the real conditions, real figures, and real difficulties of the grassroots. If these real things cannot be connected with, staying grounded becomes empty spinning. Some leading cadres are keen on 'bonsai-style' investigation and 'clock-in-style' visits; some investigation arrangements are concentrated and clustered, chasing quantity while neglecting quality. What is worse, some, when going down to the grassroots, only go to demonstration villages with convenient transportation and advanced points with solid foundations, while detouring around 'difficult villages' with sharp contradictions and 'weak points' where problems pile up. These practices not only deviate from the original purpose of investigation and research, but also leave policies that benefit the people hanging in midair. To connect well with the qi of practice, one must connect through investigation and research, connect through the grassroots front line, and connect through firm grasping and solid doing. Leading cadres must have the pragmatic spirit of 'only by squatting down can you see the ants clearly,' go more to places with great difficulties and many contradictions, go more to places with complex situations and many popular grievances, ascertain real conditions, produce real measures, and seek real results.

Staying grounded is not a slogan but a set of scientific working methods. Many of the masses' ideas are often not expressed in those very formal settings, in front of many people; rather, one can hear them only by sitting body-to-body with them and chatting heart-to-heart. This requires leading cadres to be good at making friends with the masses, to learn to communicate and interact in language that the masses can understand, are willing to hear, and can take in, to be good at discovering problems in 'idle chat,' and to be good at finding solutions in 'chatting about everyday life.' For leading cadres to stay grounded, they must achieve the 'three transformations': transform 'bookish air' into 'the flavor of soil,' transform 'document language' into 'mass language,' and transform 'passive sinking down' into 'active integration.' Only by truly integrating into the masses with emotion can one accurately perceive the masses' urgent needs, difficulties, worries, and hopes, and make mass work truly enter the mind and heart, visible in action and effective in results.

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Key Remarks

To do well the economic work of the second half of the year, it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, accelerate the construction of the new development pattern, better coordinate the domestic and international situations, coordinate development and security, adhere to deepening reform and opening up, accelerate the promotion of the conversion of old and new growth drivers, implement a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, give full play to the effectiveness of various existing stock policies, promptly plan and introduce pragmatic and effective incremental policies, increase the intensity of counter-cyclical adjustment, intensify efforts to expand domestic demand and optimize supply, effectively safeguard and improve people's livelihoods, enhance development momentum and stimulate social vitality, promote the sustained development of the economy toward the new, toward the excellent, and toward the good, and strive to achieve a good start for the "15th Five-Year Plan."

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In this issue:

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The basic logic and focus of intensifying efforts to expand domestic demand

By: 陈龙

At present, China's economy is showing a development trend in which growth drivers turn toward the new and the structure turns toward the superior. In order to cope with the difficulties and challenges in economic operation, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held in July this year proposed intensifying efforts to expand domestic demand and optimize supply. It is necessary to scientifically understand the basic logic of expanding domestic demand, grasp the principal contradiction, promote the coordinated cooperation of effective investment and the expansion of consumption, realize the effective conversion of savings, and push the economy to continue developing toward the new, the superior, and the good.

The basic logic of intensifying efforts to expand domestic demand

Domestic demand, that is, demand within the country, is composed of two major parts: consumption demand and investment demand. The two play different roles in the economic cycle and in growth. Effective expansion of domestic demand requires understanding its basic logic.

First, scientifically understand the status and role of investment and consumption. Consumption demand is also called final consumption, and investment demand ultimately transforms into capital formation. Apart from exports, all final products and services produced by a country are either used for final consumption or for capital formation and expanded reproduction. Although both belong to the components of aggregate demand and are reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP) accounting under the expenditure approach, this has only statistical accounting significance; the two differ in status and role in the economy. Investment determines consumption, and consumption affects investment; the two are closely linked and mutually reinforcing. Investment and its capital formation are the main driving force of the economic cycle and one of the important sources of economic growth; innovation and technological progress ultimately depend on investment in things and investment in people. Consumption does not constitute the logical starting point of medium- and long-term economic growth, but it affects the quality of the economic cycle. Investment determines future development, production capacity, and the level of supply, forming the material basis and income basis for consumption. The improvement of consumption capacity and the expansion of consumption demand depend, to a certain extent, on the expansion of capital accumulation and are the result of investment.

Second, take a reasonable view of the consumption share (the proportion of consumption in GDP) and its growth rate. Consumption includes household consumption and public consumption. Simply making international comparisons on the basis of the household consumption share alone has great limitations and cannot reflect the real level of consumption in our country. On the one hand, the level of household consumption is underestimated, mainly due to imputed rent, omissions and differences in the statistics of in-kind consumption and service consumption, prices, and other factors; on the other hand, the level of total consumption is underestimated. Public investment such as infrastructure is counted as investment in statistics, but it has the attribute of public consumption; the public goods and services it provides in fact constitute part of total consumption, producing the effect of raising residents' welfare level and reducing residents' expenditures. Therefore, comparing the household consumption share under a narrow caliber has little substantive significance; the consumption growth rate can better reflect the improvement of the consumption level. Observation of long-term cross-country data finds that there is a strong negative correlation between the consumption share and both the consumption growth rate and the GDP growth rate; that is, the higher the proportion of consumption in GDP, the slower the consumption growth rate instead, and in turn the improvement of living standards also slows down. The underlying logic lies in the fact that consumption is determined by income, income is determined by economic growth, economic growth in turn is determined by capital accumulation, and consumption and investment stand in a relationship of 此消彼长 (cǐ xiāo bǐ zhǎng - "this wanes while that waxes," one falling as the other rises).

Third, converting savings into capital formation through effective investment is the key to expanding domestic demand. Consumption is the ultimate reflection of economic activity. If one proceeds only from consumption itself, the policy effect will be limited, and the consumption problem cannot be truly solved. One-time subsidies or "handing out money" and "handing out vouchers," although they can promote the sales of some commodities and temporarily generate consumption in the short term, cannot change long-term household consumption behavior and its consumption function and constant parameters, cannot form sustained aggregate expansion, and cannot drive long-term circulation and growth. Expanding consumption should focus on improving consumption capacity, improving consumption expectations and the consumption environment, and forming the logical chains of "economic growth—increase in employment and income—improvement of consumption capacity" and "optimization of income distribution—improvement of the social security system—improvement of consumption expectations and capacity." Under a given consumption propensity and a desired consumption level, only through effective investment that converts savings into capital formation can employment space be increased, residents' income be raised, and consumption be expanded.

In intensifying efforts to expand domestic demand, three focal points should be grasped well

In terms of direction, adhere to promoting the conversion of savings into capital formation through effective investment. From the perspective of reality, insufficient aggregate demand and inadequate growth are the main causes of the current economic difficulties and challenges; the root lies not in an excessively low consumption share, but in a relative insufficiency of effective investment and the unsmooth conversion of savings into capital formation. Insufficient aggregate demand, especially insufficient investment, is the main factor leading to the "K-shaped" economic divergence and the "temperature gap" between macroeconomic data and micro-level perceptions. To this end, it is necessary to expand effective investment, make up for the shortcomings of investment, take government investment as a regulator, optimize the proportional relationships among investments, promote a dynamic balance among infrastructure investment, industrial investment, and real estate development investment, and realize the effective conversion of savings into capital formation.

In terms of intensity, determine a reasonable intensity of macroeconomic policy. Sufficient effective investment is the key point of the virtuous cycle of "savings—investment (capital formation)—consumption." If the magnitude of investment is insufficient, the conversion cannot proceed smoothly. Whether it is to meet the people's growing needs for a better life or to promote industrial development, our country has broad space for investment. According to the potential economic growth level, the volume of investment, and broad fiscal affordability, determine a reasonable policy intensity and make sound short-term and medium- and long-term investment and financing plans. On a comprehensive judgment, if the scale of infrastructure investment supported by broad fiscal resources each year can be maintained at a growth rate of a certain magnitude, then problems such as insufficient demand, employment pressure, and difficulties in enterprise operation will be greatly alleviated or even solved.

In terms of speed, accelerate the speed of policy implementation according to expectations management and the characteristics of behavioral subjects. If the contradiction of insufficient demand and inadequate growth remains unresolved for a long time, its negative effects will become greater and greater, bringing more difficulties and resistance to high-quality development. As far as the policy itself is concerned, its effect is usually directly proportional to the time from deliberation to implementation. Only by rapidly adopting corresponding measures according to changes in the economic situation, doing a good job in organization, implementation, and departmental coordination, and forming a closed loop of implementation, can the expected effects be achieved.

Systematically expand domestic demand through a virtuous dynamic cycle of investment and consumption

To expand domestic demand, it is necessary to abandon the view of "pulling solely by investment or pulling solely by consumption," establish a systematic concept, coordinate effective investment with the expansion of consumption and the improvement of income distribution, promote economic growth, and expand consumption scenarios, forms, and demand boundaries.

First, with big-ticket consumption such as housing, automobiles, home appliances, and home furnishing as the focus, strengthen the coordination and cooperation between investment and consumption, and stabilize and gradually expand the fundamental base of consumption. First, coordinate the intensity of urban renewal, stabilize real estate investment, form diversified supply methods, advance the construction of a multilevel rental housing and indemnificatory housing supply system, optimize the construction standards of "good houses" (好房子), support AI empowerment, do a good job in building smart supporting facilities, release housing consumption demand at different levels and the corresponding home appliance and home furnishing consumption demand, and thereby drive the consumption and investment demand of upstream and downstream industries. Second, guide industrial investment; by raising the level of intelligence and automation of new-energy vehicles and increasing range capability and battery safety performance, meet the automobile consumption needs of different groups. Optimize infrastructure investment, increase relevant supporting facilities, and eliminate the blockage points of automobile consumption.

Second, implement policies by category, optimize the structure, and expand consumption scenarios, forms, and demand boundaries with effective supply, so as to form consumption increments. First, combine broad infrastructure investment with industrial investment, increase investment in new technologies, empower all industries with artificial intelligence, give rise to new consumption scenarios and new business forms, and produce a multiplier effect of consumption expansion. Broad infrastructure investment should center on artificial intelligence, new quality productive forces (新质生产力), and the like, be moderately ahead of demand, exert added force, and accelerate speed and expand scale. Computing power networks, new-type power grids, and new-generation communication networks are all foundations for nurturing new forms of future consumption. Through government guidance and market competition, give rise to new forms and new hot spots of consumption. Second, combine the renovation of traditional infrastructure hardware with the quality improvement of communications, electric power, computing power, and artificial intelligence, advance the iterative upgrading of infrastructure, form a high-quality market network, and expand consumption space. Third, based on the national unified large market (全国统一大市场), do a good job in the planning and construction of major infrastructure projects, increase the proportions of central investment and government debt, and dynamically reduce the local proportion. Fourth, make up for the shortcomings of investment in the field of social livelihood, increase input in areas such as health care, education, elderly care, and childcare, raise the quality and level of public service supply, and strengthen residents' consumption capacity and willingness to consume.

Third, combine investment with distribution, vigorously implement broad social distribution measures, and fundamentally eliminate the underlying causes of insufficient consumption. First, make efforts on "quantity" and project planning, increase the intensity of 以工代赈 (yǐ gōng dài zhèn - "use work in lieu of relief," a policy of providing paid work in place of direct relief), expand the scale of labor employment, give play to the role of infrastructure investment in broad social distribution, and realize the organic integration of expanding domestic demand, strengthening the foundation, increasing employment, and benefiting people's livelihoods. Second, combine the accumulation of state-owned capital with income distribution, and optimize the way in which the returns of state-owned capital and resources are shared by all the people. Dynamically optimize the fiscal revenue and expenditure system so that value creation, income distribution, and forms of revenue extraction are better matched; tilt the operating income of state-owned capital toward social security; and use a larger proportion of state-owned capital to replenish the social security fund. Third, promote fair and orderly competition of capital, and form a reasonable and orderly income distribution pattern among subjects of different forms of ownership.

(The author is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences (中国财政科学研究院).)

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Fully unleash the potential of "cloud manufacturing"

By: 李子文

"Cloud manufacturing" is a new manufacturing model driven by the deep integration of digital-intelligent technologies such as cloud computing, the industrial internet, and artificial intelligence with manufacturing, against the backdrop of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. In the cloud manufacturing model, the resource capabilities, functional modules, and related physical equipment interfaces needed in every link of the entire production and manufacturing chain are integrated and aggregated in virtual space, forming a "manufacturing service pool" under the unified management and dispatch of a cloud service platform. Manufacturing enterprises can draw on and use various resources "on the cloud" as needed. Compared with traditional industrial production organization methods, the cloud manufacturing model has three prominent characteristics.

First, virtualization of physical resources. This is the most prominent technical feature distinguishing cloud manufacturing from traditional manufacturing models. Under the traditional manufacturing model, physical production resources such as machine tools, production lines, inspection and testing instruments, and pilot-scale test equipment are constrained by physical spaces such as parks, factories, and workshops, and the structural contradiction of supply-demand mismatch often arises in which industrial equipment in some regions sits idle while other small and medium-sized enterprises have no equipment to use. The cloud manufacturing model, relying on technologies such as sensors, the industrial internet, cloud computing, and virtual reality, conducts digital modeling, encapsulation processing, and cloud networking of hardware production resources scattered across different regions, parks, and enterprises, transforming them into digital twin virtual resources that can be invoked online. At the same time, "soft" resources adapted to hardware such as industrial equipment, including industrial operating systems and simulation software, are also incorporated into cloud-side management. Enterprises do not need to own the property rights of industrial equipment and can remotely dispatch resources in other places through network ports and issue operation instructions such as processing and manufacturing commands.

Second, servitization of the development model. This is an important characteristic of cloud manufacturing in realizing a commercial closed loop and sustainable development under market conditions. In the traditional manufacturing model, enterprises take product sales as their source of profit, and production, research and development, testing, and operation and maintenance are completed within the enterprise and do not participate in market transactions. Cloud manufacturing decomposes the manufacturing capabilities of the entire enterprise life cycle into standardized cloud services, forming a servitized business model of payment on demand. Specifically, cloud service platforms provide external integrated modular services such as collaborative design, component processing, simulation verification, remote equipment operation and maintenance, product testing, and capacity sharing. User enterprises, according to changes in their order scale and production cycles, flexibly purchase corresponding services through the cloud service platform and pay fees, saving the one-time expenditure of purchasing complete sets of equipment and software. Enterprises that provide production equipment, relying on the cloud service platform, flexibly open their manufacturing and research and development capabilities to the outside, expanding service-based income beyond production and manufacturing. Cloud manufacturing fully fits the current industrial development trends of deep integration of modern service industries with advanced manufacturing and servitization of manufacturing, and is conducive to large enterprises with relatively strong production and manufacturing capabilities tapping idle resources, expanding new business forms such as crowdsourced design, distributed contract manufacturing, and shared factories, continuously extending the value chain, and forming new business growth points.

Third, flexible resource allocation. This is an important factor in cloud manufacturing's promotion of the efficient operation of the industrial chain and supply chain. At present, the pulling and driving role of the demand side on the supply side continues to strengthen, and the upgrading of resident consumption has increased personalized, customized, and diversified demand, objectively requiring production and manufacturing to accelerate transformation toward flexibility and modularity. Under the traditional manufacturing model, the production lines and capacity of manufacturing enterprises are relatively fixed; when market demand fluctuates, production scheduling is limited to the interior of the enterprise, and problems of insufficient capacity or idle production resources are prone to appear. Relying on intelligent scheduling algorithms and ubiquitously connected industrial internet platforms, cloud manufacturing can fully adapt to market changes and the actual needs of manufacturing enterprises, flexibly and agilely configuring "virtualized" idle manufacturing resources over a broader scope. For a single enterprise, after receiving short-term, niche, customized orders, the cloud service platform can help it quickly match the manufacturing resources of multiple supporting manufacturers, decompose product production into relatively independent units, have different enterprises complete production processes in segments, and rely on the systematic manufacturing capabilities integrated on the cloud to achieve efficient response to market demand. For the industrial chain and supply chain as a whole, cloud manufacturing promotes the dynamic configuration of manufacturing resources around the specific needs of various enterprises, and manufacturing enterprises shift from "单打独斗" (dān dǎ dú dòu - "fight singly, struggle alone," to act independently without cooperation) to "developing by sticking together," realizing cross-enterprise, cross-regional distributed collaborative production. At present, China is accelerating the cultivation and expansion of emerging industries and future industries. Technological and product innovation in these frontier fields often involves considerable uncertainty, and it is difficult for enterprises to bear the high fixed costs of the asset-heavy model. Cloud manufacturing, through flexible resource allocation, can reduce fixed-asset investment in production, pilot-scale testing, small-scale testing, and inspection, which is conducive to lowering the risks of technological innovation, product innovation, and model innovation and promoting the rapid development of new industries and new tracks.

In recent years, China's cloud manufacturing has gradually expanded from early upstream links such as mold processing, simple component production, and research and development trial manufacturing to different links of key industries such as automobiles, electronic information, engineering machinery, and robotics. Service content has also been upgraded from the initial remote leasing of small equipment and invocation of single software functional modules to the ability to invoke more types of higher-end, precision production and manufacturing, inspection and testing, and 3D printing equipment. With the deep application of technologies such as industrial large models, digital twins, and edge computing, cloud manufacturing's role in virtual simulation of production processes, dynamic optimization of production processes, prediction of market demand, intelligent adjustment of output, and early warning of supply chain risks is also continuously strengthening.

At the same time, it must also be noted that the development of cloud manufacturing still faces some obstacles and constraints. For example, the compatibility of industrial equipment, protocols, and software from different manufacturers is insufficient, and standards such as data and instruction sets have yet to be unified and improved, resulting in difficulties in integrating the data interfaces of different enterprises through industrial internet platforms and achieving low-latency, high-precision equipment interconnection and invocation, which constrains the coverage scope of cloud manufacturing. Some cloud service platform operating entities still have deficiencies in encapsulating cloud-integrated manufacturing resources into industrial software applications, and there are few cloud manufacturing industrial APPs that are truly "good to use and effective," leading to the phenomenon of platforms being "built but not used" and having low activity levels. Small and medium-sized enterprises lack digital talent and find it difficult to effectively bring into play the effects of the cloud manufacturing model; when purchasing related services, they are likely to face the dilemma of "money spent but no effect." In addition, the cloud manufacturing model objectively requires equipment to go on the cloud and data to go on the cloud, and the potential risk of data leakage also constrains the willingness of some manufacturing enterprises to participate in building and using cloud service platforms.

Focusing on these problems, we should continuously improve policy design, increase support, and more fully release the effect of cloud manufacturing in empowering the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing. First, improve the industrial internet identification and resolution standard system for foundational common areas and key industries, accelerate the unification of standards around equipment communication protocols, data interaction, and cloud-side invocation, actively promote the implementation of standards by industrial enterprises, and remove the technical barriers to interconnection and intercommunication of various manufacturing resources. Second, support the innovative development of high-quality industrial cloud applications, encourage chain-leading enterprises, platform enterprises, and software service providers to jointly develop lightweight industrial APPs and practical functional modules adapted to vertical industries, and provide financial support to cloud service platforms with high activity and good empowerment results. Third, promote the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, innovate policy measures such as subsidies for equipment going on the cloud, reduce the cost for small and medium-sized enterprises to use cloud services, and encourage industrial parks and software service providers to offer practical training in cloud manufacturing and free diagnostic consulting services to small and medium-sized enterprises. Fourth, implement the classified and graded management system for industrial data, accelerate the establishment of a data security guarantee system in the industrial field, promote the innovation and application of technologies such as low-latency encrypted transmission, privacy computing, and confidential computing, and build a solid data security barrier for the development of cloud manufacturing and the digital-intelligent transformation of manufacturing.

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What Is the “Engels Pause”?

By: 袁辉

In the mid-19th century, Engels once spent 21 months, through personal observation and interaction, gaining an understanding of the actual production and living conditions of the English proletariat. In The Condition of the Working Class in England, published in 1845, he pointed out that the Industrial Revolution caused "machine labor to triumph over manual labor in all the principal branches of English industry… The result was that, on the one hand… capital and national wealth grew rapidly; on the other hand, the number of the proletariat grew even more rapidly, and the working class lost all property and any guarantee of obtaining a livelihood." Thus, the overwhelming majority of the English people "ate up today what they had earned yesterday," while the bourgeoisie "grew rich directly from the poverty of the workers." In 2009, the economic historian Robert Allen summarized this phenomenon as the "Engels Pause," namely, while the technological revolution promoted the growth of per-capita income, real wages remained almost unchanged, which meant that the fruits of economic development did not flow to ordinary workers but instead accumulated in large measure on the side of capital. According to estimates, between 1780 and 1840, output per worker rose by 46 percent, while the real wage index increased by only 12 percent; in particular, between 1800 and 1830, technology shocks caused output per worker to grow at an average annual rate of 0.63 percent, but their effect on real wages was 微乎其微 (wēi hū qí wēi - "so tiny as to be almost nothing," negligible).

In the first volume of Capital, published in 1867, Marx examined the internal mechanism that led to the "Engels Pause." With the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, capitalism introduced the machine system and factory organization. If an individual capitalist took the lead in adopting an improved mode of production, this could enable him to obtain more surplus value (profit) than the other capitalists in the same trade and occupy an advantageous position in the market; under the dual effect of competitive pressure and subjective greed, competitors would also adopt this new and more efficient mode of production by 千方百计 (qiān fāng bǎi jì - "a thousand ways, a hundred schemes," every conceivable means); once this process spread, the labor productivity of society as a whole would continuously increase. However, under the dominance of capital's profit-seeking motive, the machine system embodying science, natural forces, and mass labor in turn became an existence independent of and alienated from the working class. It abolished the moral and natural limits of working time, and not only created powerful motives and means for lengthening the working day, but also compelled workers to increase their expenditure of labor within the same amount of time and raise the intensity of labor. That is to say, machinery "is not only an extremely powerful competitor that can at any time make wage laborers 'redundant.' It is also openly and deliberately declared by capital to be a force hostile to wage laborers and used as such." In the process of accumulation, additional capital that made full use of new inventions and new means, together with the renewal of old capital under new technological conditions, inevitably brought about the displacement of workers by machinery and a reduction in the demand for labor, as well as the continued growth of the industrial reserve army and the deep poverty of the proletariat.

More than 100 years ago, the American writer Mark Twain wrote that history does not simply repeat itself, but it always rhymes with the same rhyme. In today's world, artificial intelligence technology innovation has entered an 前所未有 (qián suǒ wèi yǒu - "never before existed," unprecedented) period of activity and is rapidly permeating every link of social reproduction, becoming a huge engine driving economic growth. Taking the United States as an example, between 1990 and 2024, U.S. workers' output per hour of labor cumulatively increased by 97.9 percent, while real hourly wages cumulatively increased by only 42.2 percent. If measured by the share of capital income in national income, some scholars believe that in the era of the digital economy, the share of capital income in the United States has reached its highest level since the 19th century. The AI version of the "Engels Pause" is becoming increasingly prominent: technology keeps advancing, but ordinary workers have not obtained more wealth in tandem; the wealth created by technology may mainly be obtained by capital owners and a small minority of people.

Compared with the era in which the classical Marxist writers lived, the mechanism by which artificial intelligence affects the pattern of income distribution is more complex. On the one hand, the artificial intelligence industry depends on huge investments in models, computing power, electricity, and other aspects, and has extremely strong economies of scale and extremely fast iteration speed, thereby enabling a small number of technology oligarchs to rely on technological and capital barriers to seize AI dividends over the long term. On the other hand, the impact of artificial intelligence on workers is multi-dimensional. It creates new jobs, and, driven by AI, new forms of employment such as flexible employment have developed rapidly, absorbing a large number of workers who face difficulties because of the transformation of traditional positions, which helps to narrow income gaps. At the same time, artificial intelligence will not only replace low-skilled positions, but will also extend to a broader range of white-collar work, such as customer service, software engineering, legal assistants, and data analysis. In the past, machines displaced workers; now AI has become a powerful means of influencing the labor process and raising labor intensity. In the wave of digitalization, the digital divide formed by the differentiation of AI skills and the differences in rates of return across industries and regions has further expanded the trend of inequality.

The crux of the problem is not machinery or technology itself. According to Marx's scientific analysis, the contradictions and antagonisms revealed by the "Engels Pause" are rooted in the "capitalist application of machinery": machinery itself raises production efficiency and increases the wealth of producers, whereas, under the domination of the law of surplus value, "its capitalist application turns producers into paupers in need of relief." To ensure that artificial intelligence always remains under human control and becomes a means of extending and expanding human capabilities and realizing the free and comprehensive development of human beings, we must adhere to the people-centered development philosophy (以人民为中心的发展思想), break away from the profit-seeking logic of AI development, and abandon its capitalist application.

In July this year, at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-level Meeting on AI Global Governance, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly stated that all countries should uphold the concepts of putting people first and pursuing goodness (以人为本、向上向善), making artificial intelligence an important source of power for promoting common prosperity and safeguarding common security. To this end, in the actual work of advancing artificial intelligence development, focused consideration needs to be given to the following aspects. First, comprehensively promote artificial intelligence scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, and scenario application; combine investment in things with investment in people; let AI empower a thousand trades and a hundred industries and serve 千家万户 (qiān jiā wàn hù - "a thousand families, ten thousand households," every household). Second, coordinate development and security, attach importance to the various endogenous and derivative risks triggered by artificial intelligence, and promote the construction of a system of laws and regulations, technical monitoring, risk early warning, and emergency response; build a solid bottom line for people's livelihoods in the era of artificial intelligence, improve the protection of the rights and interests of persons in flexible employment, and conduct in-depth research and assessment and actively respond to the impact of AI on employment; regulate and guide the healthy development of capital, improve the basic institutions in the field of artificial intelligence, and strengthen anti-monopoly and algorithm supervision. Third, promote mutual learning among civilizations, shape the values of artificial intelligence with the common values of all humanity (全人类共同价值), make good use of artificial intelligence technology to enhance understanding and tolerance among different civilizations, and promote exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations. Fourth, strengthen the alignment and coordination of artificial intelligence development strategies, governance rules, and technical standards, and contribute Chinese wisdom to forming a global governance framework with broad consensus.

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Full-chain legal safeguards protect food safety

By: 刘俊海

Food safety is both a livelihood project and a popular sentiment project. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that "whether we can give the people a satisfactory account on food safety is a major test of our governing capability" and that "we must implement the Food Safety Law, improve the food safety system, strengthen food safety supervision, and strictly guard every line of defense from farmland to the dining table." In recent years, China's food safety laws and regulations have been continuously improved, the supervision system has been steadily perfected, and governance capability has been steadily enhanced. However, food safety accidents still occur from time to time, and the food safety defense line still has weak links and regulatory gaps, leaving a gap from the people's expectations. To solve food safety problems at the root, it is necessary to rely on institutionalized and systematic whole-chain rule-of-law guarantees, running the most rigorous standards, the strictest supervision, the severest punishment, and the most serious accountability through every link of food production, processing, circulation, and consumption.

From the field to the dining table, food must pass through many links such as planting and breeding, harvesting and processing, storage and transport, wholesale and retail. The longer the chain and the more participating entities, the more dispersed the risk points; a lapse in any link may affect the safety of the final product. An important direction in food safety rule-of-law development is to promote the shift from segmented supervision to whole-chain coordination, so that producers and operators, trading platforms, regulatory departments, and consumers bear their respective legal responsibilities and obligations according to law, properly connecting information and responsibilities with upstream and downstream links, so that the various institutional requirements stipulated by law remain consistent and coherent across all links, promoting the orderly operation of the entire chain.

Implement the primary responsibility of producers and operators for food safety. Producers and operators know best the source, process, and flow direction of their products and are the most capable of implementing risk control at the source; they are the primary responsible persons for food safety and bear the most direct legal obligations. The Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China (《中华人民共和国食品安全法》) (hereinafter referred to as the "Food Safety Law") clearly stipulates that food producers and operators are responsible for the safety of the food they produce and operate and shall engage in production and operation activities in accordance with laws, regulations, and food safety standards. To transform this requirement into operable, traceable, and accountable institutional arrangements, sustained efforts are needed at the levels of daily risk prevention and control and post-incident responsibility implementation. First, strictly implement the system of "daily control, weekly screening, and monthly scheduling" established by the Provisions on the Supervision and Administration of Food Production and Business Enterprises in Implementing Primary Responsibility for Food Safety (食品生产经营企业落实食品安全主体责任监督管理规定), embed risk management into daily operations, move the checkpoint for discovering and handling hidden dangers forward, and ensure that the source of each batch of products can be checked and its destination can be traced. For edible agricultural products, the acquisition, storage, and transport links are at the junction between production and sales, where overlapping responsibilities and regulatory gaps most easily occur; standardized management especially needs to be strengthened, risk control checklists should be established and improved, and daily inspections should cover the entire process. Second, further bring into play the function of the advance compensation and internal recovery systems. The food safety chain is long and has many links; after consumers suffer harm, it is often difficult to accurately ascertain exactly which link had the problem. According to the provisions of the Food Safety Law, consumers who suffer harm from food that does not conform to food safety standards may demand compensation for losses from the operator and may also demand compensation for losses from the producer. The producer or operator that receives a consumer's compensation claim shall implement the first-liability system, compensate first, and may not shirk. This institutional arrangement not only lowers the threshold for consumers to protect their rights, but also prompts entities at all links to be more prudent in choosing trading partners, thereby promoting the formation of an effective self-restraint mechanism. Third, give full play to the role of the punitive damages system. One reason why illegal acts in the food safety field are 屡禁不止 (lǚ jìn bù zhǐ - "repeatedly prohibited yet not stopped," continuing despite repeated prohibition) is the imbalance between illegal gains and illegal costs. The Food Safety Law stipulates a punitive damages system, namely, where food that does not conform to food safety standards is produced, or food known to not conform to food safety standards is operated, consumers may, in addition to demanding compensation for losses, demand from the producer or operator compensation of ten times the price or three times the loss. The purpose of this provision is not only to compensate for the losses of individual victims, but also, by imposing high compensation on unlawful producers and sellers, to force them to improve product quality and ensure that food that does not meet safety standards cannot enter the market.

Consolidate the legal responsibility of food trading platforms. Whether e-commerce platforms, livestream sales platforms, community group-buying platforms, or offline agricultural product wholesale markets, platforms, as makers of trading rules, reviewers of admission qualifications, and providers of information services, hold admission authority, transaction data, and information channels, are in a position favorable to discovering and blocking risks, and play an important role in the food safety chain. Platforms that conduct self-operated business shall bear the statutory responsibilities of food operators; platforms that provide trading services to third parties shall strictly implement obligations such as real-name registration, qualification review, purchase inspection, risk reporting, and stopping services for problem food. At the same time, platforms bear continuous obligations of attention and reporting with respect to relevant food business activities. Platforms hold large amounts of transaction data and should make full use of this feature to achieve rapid identification and precise tracing of problem food. Offline markets should also use information-based means to improve management, effectively linking information such as origin certificates, acquiring entities, transport vehicles, incoming batches, and testing results, so that every batch of products can be traced. Venues such as wholesale markets and logistics parks should also bring acquisition points, temporary loading points, storage sites, and transport vehicles within the scope of daily risk monitoring, promptly discovering hidden dangers and eliminating blind spots.

Effectively improve the efficacy of regulatory departments in resolving food safety risks. The Food Safety Law establishes systems such as risk monitoring and assessment, risk early warning, and emergency response, requiring the establishment of a scientific and strict supervision and management system. The Opinions on Further Strengthening Whole-Chain Supervision of Food Safety (关于进一步强化食品安全全链条监管的意见) clearly proposes to further clarify food safety supervision responsibilities, establish and improve coordinated supervision mechanisms, and strengthen the joint force of whole-chain supervision. First, supervision methods should be diversified and coordinated. The complexity of the food market determines that supervision cannot rely on a single means; it is necessary to comprehensively apply various methods such as administrative inspection, quality sampling inspection, risk monitoring, and credit restraint, so as to form a routine supervision system covering the entire process and the whole chain. Cross-departmental and cross-regional information sharing and linkage mechanisms should be established to achieve whole-chain traceability. For key areas and perishable foods, targeted unannounced inspections may be carried out to ensure that supervision leaves no dead corners. At the same time, attention should be paid to dynamically adjusting sampling inspection items and risk monitoring priorities and promptly optimizing the allocation of regulatory resources in accordance with risk changes. Second, supervision should be scientific, precise, and transparent. While punishing illegal acts strictly according to law, the indiscriminate "one-size-fits-all" approach should be avoided, so as to prevent individual illegal incidents from improperly affecting an entire region or industry. For law-abiding business entities, reasonable institutional convenience and development space should be given. Third, regulatory information should be disclosed in a timely manner. Regulatory departments should promptly publish to the public the batch information, tracing results, testing data, and handling progress of problem products, both to keep the public fully informed and to prevent the spread of untrue information from causing improper harm to lawful operators.

Further unblock the channels for consumers to protect their rights. Protecting consumers' rights and interests is both the starting point of food safety work and the end point for testing the effectiveness of governance. First, further bring into play the role of consumer organizations. Consumers' associations and other consumer organizations shall perform their social supervision functions according to law, promptly intervene in food safety violations that infringe upon consumers' lawful rights and interests, and support harmed consumers in filing lawsuits. For cases with numerous victims and dispersed losses, consumer organizations may, according to law, file consumer civil public interest litigation and play a more active role in safeguarding consumers' lawful rights and interests. Second, give full play to the media's function of supervision by public opinion. The media is an important bridge connecting consumers, enterprises, and regulatory departments and an important force in food safety social supervision. Lawful, objective, and rational supervision by public opinion should be encouraged, while avoiding the spread of unverified information causing improper harm to law-abiding operators. Third, broaden the channels for consumers to participate in food safety governance. Consumers have the right to express opinions and participate in supervision in food safety standard formulation, risk communication, and regulatory evaluation; food safety regulatory departments at all levels should fully listen to consumers' opinions when formulating policies and standards, so that consumers' voices are integrated into the food safety governance process. Fourth, unblock complaint and reporting channels and establish a convenient and efficient mechanism for receiving complaints and reports and providing feedback. Channels such as food safety complaint and reporting hotlines and online platforms should ensure that consumers can conveniently report problems, and regulatory departments should promptly handle them and provide feedback on the results, effectively safeguarding consumers' right to know and right to supervise.

(The author is the director of the Institute of Commercial Law, Renmin University of China (中国人民大学商法研究所).)

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Conduct legislative consultation in a scientific and effective manner

By: 曾庆辉

Legislative consultation is an organic component of socialist consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics and an important practical form of whole-process people's democracy in the legislative field. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "We must improve the platforms and carriers of the people's congress for democratic public-opinion expression, improve the working mechanisms for absorbing public opinion and pooling public wisdom, advance people's congress consultation and legislative consultation, and unify social conditions and public opinion from all sides into the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people." As an important activity that allocates social resources and adjusts interest relations, legislation must be deeply rooted in the people. Legislative consultation embeds consultative democracy into the legislative process, which is of great significance for improving the quality of legislation and developing whole-process people's democracy.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee has made a series of important arrangements for legislative consultation. In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Party proposed "conducting in-depth legislative consultation, administrative consultation, democratic consultation, consultation on participation in political affairs, and social consultation." In 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Party further proposed "improving the communication mechanisms between legislative bodies and the general public, and conducting legislative consultation." In 2015, the CPC Central Committee issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Building of Socialist Consultative Democracy, which took "conducting in-depth consultation in legislative work" as an item under "actively carrying out people's congress consultation" and put forward clear requirements for consultation in all links, such as the compilation of legislative plans, the drafting of draft laws, argumentation and hearings, and opinion feedback. The Plan for Building the Rule of Law in China (2020–2025) further emphasized "strengthening legislative consultation and giving full play to the role of CPPCC members, democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce, personages without party affiliation, people's organizations, and social organizations in legislative consultation." At the same time, all localities actively carried out practical exploration of legislative consultation, the relevant institutional framework has gradually taken shape, and practical forms have become increasingly rich. Practice has proven that legislative consultation, through full dialogue and rational deliberation among multiple subjects, can both effectively coordinate different interest demands and effectively safeguard the people's right to know, right to participate, right to express, and right to supervise in all links of legislation, enabling laws to obtain the broadest recognition.

In recent years, although legislative consultation has achieved remarkable results in institutional exploration and practical innovation, it still faces several prominent problems and challenges. First, the degree of institutionalization needs to be improved. The conditions for initiating consultation, the selection criteria for participating subjects, and the normative requirements for consultation procedures still lack unified and clear provisions in laws and regulations. Second, the interactivity of the consultation process is insufficient. In some legislative consultation activities, consultation is more often manifested as one-way solicitation of opinions, lacking two-way interactive communication. Third, the mechanism for transforming consultation outcomes is not yet sound. The linkage mechanism between consultation outcomes and legislative decisions is still not smooth enough, and some consultation activities have a tendency to emphasize the process and slight the results. Fourth, the depth and breadth of public participation still need to be expanded. Public participation still faces problems such as information asymmetry, insufficient participation capacity, and unsound opinion feedback mechanisms. In response to the above problems, to further carry out legislative consultation in a scientific and effective manner, sustained efforts should be made in the following aspects.

Give play to the leading role of the people's congress in legislative consultation. Legislative consultation is a consultative activity carried out in the legislative process. As the legislative body, the people's congress should play a leading role and actively conduct consultation on the major issues encountered in legislation. First, further standardize the determination of consultation topics. Which legislative projects need to undergo consultation and at what stage consultation should be initiated should both have clear judgment criteria and operational norms, so as to avoid arbitrariness and selectivity in consultation and ensure that draft laws and regulations with complex legal relationships and relatively large differences of opinion can undergo extensive and in-depth argumentation and consultation. Second, reasonably determine the personnel participating in consultation. How the representatives of all parties participating in legislative consultation are produced and how their breadth and professionalism are ensured require the formation of institutionalized selection methods. From the practice of various localities, the way consultation representatives are produced should emphasize breadth: there should be not only CPPCC members, democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce, and personages without party affiliation, but also people's organizations, social organizations, and representatives of the grassroots masses. At the same time, professionalism should be emphasized, and experts, scholars, and practitioners in relevant fields should be invited to participate according to the actual needs of different legislative projects. Third, organize consultation activities in a standardized and orderly manner. It is necessary not only to flexibly carry out consultation through various methods such as thematic research, consultation meetings, symposiums, argumentation meetings, and hearings according to the actual conditions of the legislative project, but also to pay attention to the standardization and effectiveness of the consultation process, ensuring that different opinions are fully expressed and taken seriously. Fourth, pay attention to feedback on consultation outcomes. The adoption status of consultation outcomes should be promptly fed back to the subjects participating in the consultation, and whether opinions have been adopted and what the reasons are should both be clearly explained.

Improve the institutionalized channels for public participation in legislation. If legislative consultation lacks broad and effective public participation, it will be difficult to truly reflect the will of the people. According to the provisions of the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, the working bodies of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress establish grassroots legislative contact points (基层立法联系点) according to actual needs and listen in depth to the opinions of grassroots people and relevant parties on draft laws and legislative work. This is an important channel for public participation in legislation in our country in recent years. On this basis, it is still necessary to further expand consultation channels from multiple aspects. For example, innovate the forms of legislative hearings and establish a hearing model of "offline in-depth discussion + online broad participation," which both ensures the depth of professional discussion and expands the breadth of public participation. For another example, promote the directness and normalization of grassroots opinion solicitation. Through various methods such as going deep into communities to conduct symposiums, questionnaire surveys, and visits, the work of soliciting legislative opinions and collecting public opinion is brought to the "doorsteps" of the masses. At the same time, differentiated participation methods should be designed according to the characteristics of different groups, so that different groups can all find participation channels that suit them.

Strengthen the interactivity of the legislative consultation process. Consultation means two-way, interactive communication and exchange, not merely one-way solicitation of opinions. At present, in some legislative consultation activities, interactive communication, discussion, and debate are still relatively lacking, which affects the quality and effectiveness of legislative consultation. In this regard, first, establish an effective dialogue and debate mechanism. In the consultation process, it is necessary not only to listen to the opinions of all parties, but also to systematically sort through and carefully study the different opinions, conduct in-depth discussions, and enhance understanding and narrow differences through dialogue. For issues with relatively great controversy, thematic argumentation may be organized. In recent years, some local people's congresses have introduced the debate mechanism into local legislation. By building a legislative debate platform, they have enabled all parties to the consultation to fully elaborate their opinions and express their interest demands, effectively enhancing the substantive effectiveness of consultation and building consensus on legislation. Second, improve the consultative capacity of consultation participants. Consultation is a dialogue process built on the basis of rational discussion. All parties participating in consultation should possess corresponding professional knowledge and expressive ability, and be able to conduct in-depth discussion on substantive issues in legislation rather than simply expressing positions. On the one hand, when organizing consultation activities, the legislative body should provide participants in advance with necessary background materials and relevant information, helping them understand the legislative background, become familiar with the content of the draft, grasp the focal points of controversy, and make preparations for effective participation in consultation. On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen training and guidance for participants in legislative consultation, helping them better express their interest demands and enhance their ability to engage in rational dialogue and communication in the consultation process.

Establish a mechanism for the transformation and evaluation of legislative consultation outcomes. If the opinions and suggestions formed in the consultation process cannot effectively enter legislative decisions, the significance of consultation will be greatly diminished. On the one hand, for the important opinions and suggestions formed in consultation, the channels and procedures for their entry into the legislative draft should be clarified. At the bill drafting stage, the drafting department should systematically sort through and study by category the opinions collected in consultation, incorporating the reasonable opinions that have a basis of consensus into the draft as specific provisions; for relatively specialized opinions, experts in relevant fields should be organized to conduct argumentation and assess their feasibility. At the deliberation and revision stage, for issues with relatively great controversy in consultation, thematic argumentation should be organized, and solutions should be sought through further research and consultation. On the other hand, the quality and effectiveness of legislative consultation should be regularly evaluated, including whether consultation has achieved the expected goals, whether the opinions of all participating parties have been fully expressed, and what the actual effect of consultation outcomes has been in improving legislative quality, so as to promptly discover problems in the operation of the system, summarize useful experience, and promote the continuous improvement of legislative consultation in practice.

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Precision Crackdown on Intellectual Property "Rights-Protection Extortion"

By: 张涛

The original purpose of the intellectual property system is to ensure that those who invest are rewarded and that innovators have confidence. When enterprises invest funds and time in tackling core patents and deeply cultivating brand reputation, and when creators devote painstaking effort to producing intellectual achievements, systems such as trademarks and patents grant them exclusive rights, enabling them to obtain reasonable returns from their innovative achievements and thereby maintain the motivation for continued investment. However, in recent years, a small number of individuals and enterprises, under the guise of "lawful rights protection," have acquired trademark rights or patent rights through means such as preemptive registration and hoarding, and then filed lawsuits in batches in the capacity of rights holders, using the litigation itself to pressure the defendants into paying compensation or settlement amounts. Such "ambulance-chasing rights protection" (碰瓷式维权), which engages in profit-seeking in the name of "rights protection," not only harms the lawful rights and interests of others but also disrupts judicial order and undermines judicial authority. Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (最高人民检察院) centrally released five typical cases of procuratorial organs punishing malicious intellectual property litigation, targeting primarily the chaos of "ambulance-chasing rights protection" in the intellectual property field.

"Ambulance-chasing rights protection" takes many forms. Some preemptively register the enterprise names or specific trademarks of others that have a certain degree of fame and influence, and then file malicious lawsuits on that basis. Some, knowing that their own rights foundation has defects or lacks factual basis, still file lawsuits against commercial competitors at important junctures such as their listing applications, seeking improper benefits. Some take advantage of the departure of core talent to blur the boundary between employee inventions and personal research and development, provoking disputes over patent ownership. Such cases may cause multiple harms. First, they waste judicial resources. Malicious litigation consumes judicial capacity that could otherwise be used to handle legitimate disputes, prolonging the trial cycle of normal cases and increasing the burden on courts. Second, they damage judicial credibility. Acts such as fabricating evidence, inventing facts, and malicious prosecution undermine the seriousness and authority of the judiciary. Third, they disrupt market order. Suppressing competitors through malicious litigation drags law-abiding business entities into endless litigation quagmires, interfering with normal business operations and market competition order. Fourth, they dampen innovation enthusiasm. When enterprises or individuals genuinely engaged in R&D and innovation frequently encounter "ambulance-chasing rights protection" and are forced to expend substantial energy and financial resources in response, their motivation for innovation investment is inevitably frustrated, and the basic function of the intellectual property system to incentivize innovation becomes difficult to fully realize.

The intellectual property system has always supported lawful and proportionate rights protection while resolutely opposing the abuse of rights in the name of rights protection. Precisely cracking down on intellectual property "ambulance-chasing rights protection" should focus on maintaining fair market competition order, coordinating efforts across multiple dimensions including legislation, administrative regulation, and judicial adjudication, and lawfully protecting the lawful rights and interests and innovation enthusiasm of business entities.

Close institutional loopholes and raise the cost of illegality. China's patent and trademark fields adopt the first-to-file principle, meaning that when two or more applicants separately apply for patents or trademarks for the same invention creation, the right is granted to the first to apply. The original intent of this rule is to clarify the attribution of rights and promote information disclosure, and it is an internationally accepted practice. However, a small number of individuals and enterprises exploit this rule by preemptively registering trademarks that others have used but not yet registered, and then filing lawsuits in the capacity of rights holders. Although the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国专利法) and the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国商标法) have established the principle of good faith, they have not yet established supporting punitive provisions, so the cost of illegality is relatively low and the binding force on malicious conduct is insufficient. In this regard, the effectiveness of the compensation system should be further enhanced. Currently, China has explored the implementation of the "full compensation principle" in judicial practice. The scope of compensation for liability disputes arising from damages caused by malicious intellectual property litigation includes not only the reasonable expenses of the defendant such as attorney fees, but also the interest on funds occupied due to property preservation and actual losses such as business opportunities abandoned to avoid legal risks. This principle can be further institutionalized through legislation to ensure that the cost of illegality matches the actual damages. On this basis, a punitive compensation system for malicious intellectual property litigation can be explored and established, applying punitive compensation to malicious litigation conduct with clear subjective malice and egregious circumstances, further increasing the intensity of punishment.

Strengthen administrative regulation and curb malicious litigation at the source. According to legal provisions, certain categories of intellectual property applications may, without substantive examination, obtain formal certificates of rights. This institutional design itself has legitimacy and rationality, but some "ambulance-chasers" exploit the characteristics of this procedure by maliciously preemptively registering, hoarding marks, or submitting applications that clearly lack legitimacy, first obtaining formal rights and then carrying out subsequent malicious litigation. Therefore, guarding the examination gate for authorization is an important responsibility of administrative regulation. The Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, revised this year, has explicitly included applications that are "not for the purpose of use and clearly exceed normal production and business needs" within the scope of refusal of registration, and has established administrative penalties. In the patent field, the competent authorities have also continuously strengthened governance of abnormal application conduct that violates the principle of good faith. On this basis, it is necessary to further strengthen the gatekeeping in the examination process, enhancing substantive examination of abnormal applications such as those submitted in large batches within a short period or involving public resources, to prevent rights lacking legitimacy from being easily granted. At the same time, verified malicious preemptive registrations should be handled according to law, and information-sharing and work-coordination mechanisms between examination and law enforcement departments should be promoted, so that information on abnormal applications is promptly transmitted to the enforcement stage, forming effective linkage between examination and enforcement and compressing the space for rights abuse at the source.

Unify adjudication standards and accurately identify and determine malicious litigation. How to apply the good faith principle in intellectual property law to specific cases—that is, how to determine that "the rights foundation has defects" and how to judge "intentional concealment of unfavorable information"—is a difficult issue in judicial practice. Currently, judicial organs primarily make determinations from perspectives such as whether the right itself meets the conditions for authorization, whether unfavorable evaluation reports were concealed, whether the claimed compensation amount is significantly disproportionate, and whether the timing of the lawsuit points to key development junctures of the competitor. On this basis, the examination methods and judgment standards should be further refined and improved. For conduct that already constitutes false litigation, fines and detention should be imposed according to law; where a crime is constituted, criminal liability should be pursued according to law. At the same time, procuratorial organs should continue to deepen special supervision over malicious intellectual property litigation, actively performing their duties in such aspects as clue discovery, investigation and verification, and follow-up supervision, further clarifying case-handling standards, standardizing work procedures, and unifying the application of law—both effectively identifying and cracking down on "ambulance-chasing rights protection" and safeguarding the parties' legitimate exercise of the right to sue, so that intellectual property litigation truly becomes an institutional channel for protecting innovation.

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Correct views on political achievements guide the building of world-class enterprises.

By: 中国保利集团有限公司党委

The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for consolidating the foundation and exerting all-round efforts to basically realize socialist modernization, and state-owned assets and central enterprises (国资央企) bear the glorious mission of serving the overall work of the Party and the state. Embarking on the new journey, China Poly Group Co., Ltd. (中国保利集团有限公司) (hereinafter referred to as Poly Group) has deeply studied and implemented the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party, used the correct view of political achievements (正确政绩观) to guide the value orientation, action yardstick, and development practice of accelerating the building of a world-class enterprise, and continuously stimulated the powerful force of protecting the country and benefiting the people (保国利民) and pursuing excellence.

Through deep study and careful understanding, consolidate the ideological foundation of the correct view of political achievements. Poly Group has deeply recognized, in both theory and practice, the importance of the correct view of political achievements to the development of the undertakings of the Party and the state, and has enhanced the ideological consciousness and action consciousness of establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievements. It has deeply understood and accurately grasped the rich connotation of the correct view of political achievements, and continuously enhanced political judgment, political comprehension, and political execution through theoretical study.

First, deeply study General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievements, and always remain steadfast in the original aspiration and mission of Communists. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has, from an overall and strategic height, made a series of important expositions on establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievements, which have not only calibrated the coordinates of thought and action for the broad ranks of Party members and leading cadres, but also provided fundamental guidance for continuously creating new great undertakings on the new journey. Poly Group came from the military and emerged in response to the trend of the times in serving the modernization of national defense. It has always closely combined carrying forward the red bloodline of "protecting the country and benefiting the people" with adherence to the original aspiration and mission of Communists, guiding the broad ranks of Party members and leading cadres to implement the general requirements of "building the Party for the public, benefiting the people, making scientific decisions, and doing solid work" (立党为公、为民造福、科学决策、真抓实干).

Second, deeply study the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party, and always remain steadfast in the belief and pursuit of "benefiting the people" and the practical path of "scientific decision-making." The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party adhered to the people-centered development philosophy and made strategic arrangements around intensifying efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihood and solidly advancing common prosperity for all the people. The recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan reviewed and approved at the plenary session clearly put forward the guiding principles for China's economic and social development over the next five years. Poly Group adheres to taking the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and ultimate goal of all its work, always closely combining its corporate positioning as a "leader in creating a better life" (美好生活领创者) with the belief and pursuit that "benefiting the people is the greatest political achievement," and is determined to pursue the spiritual realm of "I will have no self, and will not fail the people" (我将无我，不负人民). Rooted in growing through reform, developing through opening up, and expanding through the market, Poly Group has tempered a competitive consciousness of daring to fight, daring to innovate, and 敢为人先 (gǎn wéi rén xiān - "dare to be the first among others," to have the courage to take the lead). It has always closely combined the genes of strategic leadership and respect for the market with the practical path of adhering to scientific, democratic, and law-based decision-making, earnestly studied the 15th Five-Year Plan, and mastered the systematic thinking and scientific methods for long-term planning.

Third, deeply study the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on the reform and development of state-owned enterprises and Party building, and always remain steadfast in the fine work style of "doing solid work." Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the work of state-owned assets and central enterprises. At every important juncture and critical moment, he has made strategic plans and systematic arrangements for the reform and development of state-owned assets and central enterprises and for Party building. In particular, in 2025, he made important instructions on the work of central enterprises, providing fundamental guidance for state-owned assets and central enterprises to accelerate the realization of high-quality development. Through practice, Poly Group has honed the fine tradition of "acting on orders and achieving results through action" (闻令而动、行之以果), formed the New Era Poly Spirit of "loyalty, responsibility, pragmatism, and endeavor" (忠诚、担当、务实、奋斗), always closely combined the corporate culture with Poly characteristics with the fine work style of doing solid work, and firmly shouldered the historical mission and responsibility of state-owned assets and central enterprises.

Deeply calibrate the action yardstick for establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievements. Poly Group, in light of its actual conditions, benchmarked against standards and targets to identify gaps, used 举一反三 (jǔ yī fǎn sān - "raise one and infer three," to draw inferences from one instance) to unearth root causes, and focused on correcting deviations and calibrating direction through real examination and real rectification.

First, comprehensively and deeply compare and examine, accurately identifying the specific manifestations of deviations in the view of political achievements. Poly Group's Party organizations at all levels insisted on putting themselves in, putting their responsibilities in, and putting their work in. On the basis of the requirements of the "three comparisons" (三个对照), and in response to the dynamic requirements concerning the eight types of prominent problems including "new officials ignoring old accounts" (新官不理旧账), the 11 prominent problems existing in central enterprises, and other aspects, they completed multiple rounds of examination and updating, ensuring that problems were accurately identified and root causes were deeply unearthed. On this basis, the Party Committee of Poly Group closely combined problem examination with deepening the normalization and long-term effectiveness of audit rectification and doing a good job of inspection rectification. The leadership team went deep into the front lines of grassroots units to find out the real situation and identify cruxes, independently established three comparative ledgers of "Group Party Committee—subsidiary company Party Committee—grassroots Party branch," formed at the Group Party Committee level a list of positive and negative typical cases and a list of main positive and negative manifestations, promoted all these in an integrated manner and with coordinated force, used examination to promote rectification and rectification to promote construction, and truly achieved the goal of seeing people, seeing events, and seeing thinking, and seeking truth, seeking reality, and seeking depth.

Second, take real action and confront tough problems in centralized rectification, correcting the prominent problems of deviations in the view of political achievements. Poly Group's Party organizations at all levels insisted on taking the lead in overall coordination and applying classified measures. All departments actively claimed tasks and carried out targeted tackling of hard problems, defined rectification measures that are operable, assessable, time-limited, and capable of producing results, carried out check-off management of the centralized rectification ledger, and formed a work pattern of linkage between upper and lower levels and coordinated advancement. On this basis, the Party Committee of Poly Group focused on key businesses and key fields, researched and formulated classified guidance work plans, and guided and advanced special rectification; anchored on prominent problems, systematically carried out research on the 15th Five-Year Plan, and formulated the "Artificial Intelligence +" New Poly Strategy (人工智能+新保利战略) and the industrial system of "three foundations, four drivers, and multi-domain co-creation" (三基四驱、多域共创); coordinated multiple departments to form a joint supervision group, effectively advancing key matters such as inspection rectification and the handling and resolution of major risks; collected more than ten thousand questionnaires, formed high-quality survey and analysis reports, and used the true evaluations and feelings of employees and the masses as an important yardstick for testing the effectiveness of rectification.

Third, 标本兼治 (biāo běn jiān zhì - "treat both the symptoms and the root causes," to address a problem in both its surface manifestations and its underlying roots) and establish rules and systems, building a long-term mechanism for establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievements. Party organizations at all levels insisted on combining "immediate reform" with "long-term establishment," deeply investigated the provisions in current systems that do not conform to the requirements of the correct view of political achievements, continuously improved relevant systems, and promoted the formation of a distinct orientation that values solid work, real performance, and practical results. On this basis, the Party Committee of Poly Group focused on key aspects to improve systems and mechanisms. In corporate governance, it issued the System Management Regulations of China Poly Group Co., Ltd., building a clearly-tiered, systematic, and scientific system management mechanism; in digital-intelligent empowerment, it formulated data standards and norms for operation and management, forming a unified consensus of jointly building high-quality data sets driven by business scenarios; in assessment and evaluation, it completed the first assessment of high-level professional and technical talents and actively promoted the cultivation and use of high-level talents.

Deeply integrate into the development practice of shouldering responsibility during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Poly Group insists on proceeding from reality and acting in accordance with objective laws, practices the requirements of the "three services" (三个服务), takes the correct view of political achievements as the guide, accelerates the implementation of the "Artificial Intelligence +" New Poly Strategy, continuously strengthens core functions and enhances core competitiveness, and through scientific decision-making and hard and solid work, creates achievements that can withstand the test of practice and history, truly benefit the people, and are recognized by the masses.

First, serve the overall work of the Party and the state and give play to the role of strategic guarantee. State-owned assets and central enterprises are an important material foundation and political foundation of socialism with Chinese characteristics and must conscientiously fulfill political responsibilities. Poly Group has always kept the "great affairs of the state" (国之大者) in mind, anchored on the development direction of integration of trade, industry, and technology, accelerated the consolidation, supplementation, and extension of the industrial chain, and better served the overall situation of the country's politics and diplomacy; accelerated strategic mineral development services, independently developed the "Think Power (E1) Precious Metals Business Intelligence Center," completed and delivered the Suzhou Precious Metals Industrial Park project, achieved stable production and effective results in the Jiangxi precious metals recovery project, and deeply practiced the duty and mission of strategic resource guarantee; accelerated the implementation and transformation of key materials, built a complete innovation system of "basic research—application development—industrial transformation," and achieved domestic substitution of green fiber composite materials, supercapacitor separators, and high-performance epoxy asphalt, providing solid support for the independent and controllable industrial chain and supply chain.

Second, serve high-quality economic and social development and enhance the capacity for value creation. State-owned assets and central enterprises are the "ballast stone" for stabilizing the overall macroeconomic fundamentals and must conscientiously fulfill economic responsibilities. Poly Group fully, accurately, and comprehensively implements the new development philosophy, promotes the "transformation drive" of quality real estate, creates benchmarks of "good products, good services, and good life," ranks first in the industry in sales scale and product delivery capability, advances more than 130 urban renewal projects across the country, creates distinctive supermarket and hotel brands, and leads the construction of a new model of industry development; accelerates the innovation leadership of intelligent engineering, deepens whole-process, whole-industry-chain, one-stop intelligent engineering services, and its participating projects once again won the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, repeatedly setting international and domestic records; its intelligent equipment in segmented fields such as papermaking and civil explosives has reached the world's first-class level.

Third, serve to safeguard and improve people's livelihood and continuously enhance people's well-being. State-owned assets and central enterprises are an important reliance for meeting the people's needs for a better life and must conscientiously fulfill social responsibilities. Poly Group has always adhered to the people-centered creative orientation, operated its direct-run theater circuit with high standards, stimulated new cultural and museum consumption scenarios such as the Poly MGM Museum and the Shenzhen International Art Museum, and committed to becoming a multi-field cultural and artistic space management operator; laid out more than 2,000 China Jewelry stores nationwide, guaranteed with high quality the selection and delivery of state gifts for foreign affairs at events such as the China International Supply Chain Expo, and promoted the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional crafts; accelerated the quality and efficiency improvement of whole-region property management, created a trinity "whole-region landscape city" (全域景城) service governance model, with nearly 900 million square meters under management, cumulative service of more than one million person-times in elderly care projects, was rated an outstanding brand for Chinese elderly care products, and guarded the better life of 千家万户 (qiān jiā wàn hù - "a thousand families and ten thousand households," every household) with quality services.

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Integrate Party building into enterprise reform and development.

In the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," the Party Central Committee is carrying out study and education across the Party on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements. This is an inevitable requirement for ensuring decisive progress toward basically realizing socialist modernization, and an important measure for practicing the Party's fundamental purpose and consolidating the Party's governing foundation. China Huadian Group Financial Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huadian Financial), as a central state-owned enterprise industrial financial company, deeply grasps the political nature and people's nature of financial work, closely centers on the general requirements of "building the Party for the public, benefiting the people, making scientific decisions, and doing solid work," upholds the Party Central Committee's centralized and unified leadership over financial work, practices the concept of finance serving the people, fulfills the duties and missions of state-owned assets and central enterprises, leads high-quality development with high-quality Party building, serves the transformational development of the energy and power sector, strengthens internal control and compliance management, and ensures the company's healthy development.

Upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership

The view of political achievements and the view of development are closely connected. Whether the goals and tasks of the "15th Five-Year Plan" can be achieved depends to a large extent on whether Party member leading cadres can take the correct view of political achievements as their guide and work down-to-earth in undertaking undertakings and starting businesses. Facing opportunities and challenges, the Party Committee of Huadian Financial unremittingly uses the Party's innovative theories to unify thinking, unify will, and unify action, always bases the company's development on the foundation of meeting the needs of the broadest masses of the people, relies on China Huadian's main energy business, and clearly puts forward the development requirement of "what industry thinks, finance follows; use finance to promote industry, use finance to strengthen industry," takes enhancing the "five values" as the orientation, takes green and low-carbon development as the focus, takes promoting high-quality development as the theme, and fully gives play to the Party Committee's leadership role in setting directions, managing the overall situation, and ensuring implementation. It implements the "three major and one large" decision-making mechanism, deepens financial reform, comprehensively improves the standardization and effectiveness of decision-making and management, optimizes the boundaries of control rights and responsibilities, and improves the purity, professionalism, and combat effectiveness of the financial workforce. It strengthens strategic guidance, closely centers on the national "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, anchors the development direction with overall thinking, centers on the main line of "enhancing core functions and improving core competitiveness," strengthens investment of resources in strategic research, deeply understands industry development trends and market structures, deepens research in areas such as business transformation, structural optimization, and product and service innovation, seeks the "second growth curve," and ensures that strategic direction adapts to changes in the internal and external environment.

Demonstrating greater achievements in serving national energy security and green transformation

Our Party comes from the people, takes root in the people, and serves the people. The Party's foundation lies in the people, its bloodline lies in the people, and its strength lies in the people. Only by continuously calibrating the fundamental question of "for whom, relying on whom, and who I am" can the orientation of making political achievements for the people be internalized into conscious action and transformed into vivid practice in advancing Chinese-style modernization. The "15th Five-Year Plan" outline clearly states that we should deeply implement the new energy security strategy, accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system, and build a strong energy country. The Party Committee of Huadian Financial deeply implements the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference, takes doing well the "five major articles" of finance as the main starting point, always insists on serving the high-quality development of the people's livelihood economy, organizes dozens of "financial knowledge into ten thousand households" activities every year, launches multiple digital financial products such as Huadian e-Bao and the medical fund management platform, and provides financial support for the elderly care industry and health care. It resolutely resists the thinking of "making quick money," strengthens the service orientation of the financial industry, and focuses on building a distinctive financial service system in areas such as fund intermediation, insurance protection, and asset management, serving as long-term capital, patient capital, and strategic capital for the development of main responsibilities. It guards lucid waters and lush mountains, consciously submits to and serves the national "dual carbon" goal, solidly promotes the development of green finance, focuses on new business forms such as zero-carbon parks, computing-power-electricity coordination, direct connection of green electricity, virtual power plants, and green transportation, and innovates financial products. For new energy power projects, it innovates cooperation models, insists on "active service and forward service," provides multi-type, multi-channel "one-stop" financial service lists, deepens cooperation in the upstream and downstream industrial chain of the energy sector, practically gives play to the advantages of industrial finance, creates highlights in industry-finance integrated services, and achieves new breakthroughs in precisely serving national energy development.

Continuously improving the level of internal control and compliance management

The "15th Five-Year Plan" outline clearly proposes comprehensively strengthening financial regulation, building a risk prevention and resolution system, and ensuring the stable operation of finance. The Party Committee of Huadian Financial clearly recognizes that firmly fulfilling the duty of preventing risks and ensuring compliance is the primary responsibility, takes ensuring the preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets as the ultimate goal, and demonstrates the political responsibility of industrial finance through the actual results of risk prevention and control. It conscientiously implements the requirements of look-through supervision, constructs a risk-control and compliance-control task list, further improves systematic supervision measures for major business processes and important product lines, promotes the implementation and landing of the business list management mechanism, and guides subordinate financial institutions to focus on their functional positioning and conduct business in an orderly manner. Based on its positioning as an industry-finance control platform, it firmly shoulders supervisory responsibilities, compacts the main responsibilities of subordinate institutions, and fully plays its role in the three-level supervision system. It guides all staff to adhere to bottom-line thinking, consciously maintain financial order, embed risk prevention and control into the entire business process, and implement systematic supervision of the entire process and entire product line of "before the event—during the event—after the event" for all types of business. It improves the "horizontal to the edge, vertical to the bottom, grid-based" risk and compliance control system, preventing not only risks that may exist in specific processes but also predicting potential risks in advance, truly achieving early identification, early warning, early exposure, and early disposal of risks.

Transforming ideological concepts into practical actions of solid work

The key to establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements lies in transforming concepts into concrete actions, running through all links and all areas of enterprise reform and development. In recent years, the Party Committee of Huadian Financial has built a "Red Charm" (红蕴) Party building work system characterized by the "red" character and the Party nature of central enterprises, gradually forming the "Red Lotus" (红莲) clean governance work model, the "Red Shield" (红盾) rule-of-law work model, and the "Red Heart Unifies All" (红心化一) youth league work model. Facing the "15th Five-Year Plan," the Party Committee of Huadian Financial has further put forward the "dual first-class" goal of deeply integrating first-class Party building with building a first-class industrial financial group with energy characteristics, organically integrating Party building work into the entire process of reform and development. It deepens the implementation of the "four forces and four pushes" Party building project, actively creates a cultural atmosphere of "innovation and advancement, striving to be first," formulates a list of key projects led by the leadership team and a list of key responsibility implementation for Party building work every year, deeply binds Party building work with industrial financial development, and uses strong organizational construction to promote the implementation and landing of various tasks such as industry-finance integration, state-owned enterprise reform, risk control and compliance, and the development of strategic emerging industries. It deeply implements the requirements for building "four strong" Party branches, strengthens the construction of grassroots Party organizations, empowers the industrial chain and innovation chain through Party building, makes good use of the "post, zone, team" work carriers, and carries out activities such as "secretary takes command, Party members take the lead," Party members receiving flags, and five-star Party member selection every year. The broad masses of Party members and cadres have received more than 700 flag-receiving tasks, ensuring the steady advancement of key tasks. It builds a "3+3" Party building integration assessment mechanism, achieving simultaneous advancement of deployment, implementation, and assessment, forming a virtuous closed loop. It deepens the application of the "three strengths and three promotions" ideological and political work mechanism, establishes ideological and political cottages, united front employee suggestion and advice studios, and the "warm and cozy" psychological counseling platform, further mobilizing the enthusiasm of the broad masses of employees in undertaking undertakings and starting businesses, and building a financial cadre and talent team that is "qualified politically, qualified in executing discipline, qualified in morality, and qualified in playing a role."

(Party Committee of China Huadian Group Financial Holding Co., Ltd.)

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"Five Measures" to Deepen Improvement of Cadre Work Style and Capabilities

By: 王康亮

Since 2026, focusing on prominent issues in the work style and capability of the cadre contingent, the Lanling County Party Committee of Shandong Province has deployed and carried out the "Cadre Work Style and Capability Improvement Year" activity, planning and promoting five landmark actions including inheriting and carrying forward the Yimeng Spirit, vigorously grasping work style transformation and capability improvement, and striving to provide a strong guarantee for the start and opening of the "15th Five-Year Plan."

Inherit and carry forward the Yimeng Spirit. First, broaden the channels for red heritage inheritance. Launch the "Take the Yimeng Spirit to Join the Army" and "Take the Yimeng Spirit to University" publicity and lecture activities, selecting and appointing 80 college students and 190 newly enlisted soldiers to form volunteer lecture teams to "go out" and give lectures. Create the "Red Spirit + Green Vegetables" Beijing-Shandong co-building brand, continuously activating the contemporary value of the Yimeng Spirit. Carry out more than 2,000 lectures, and organize more than 780 activities such as nationwide reading and red study tours. Second, firmly implement practical matters benefiting the people. Organize county-level cadres to go down to towns and streets under their liaison responsibility to conduct research and on-site work more than 850 times, precisely resolving more than 260 matters of mass needs and enterprise development difficulties. Coordinate the advancement of 10 major livelihood practical matters and 63 key livelihood projects at the county level, and organize county-direct departments and townships (streets) to implement more than 2,200 service matters for the people. Third, amplify the red brand effect. Build the Yimeng Spirit publicity street, create 10 red short plays and skits including "The Tiger Grinds Its Teeth," build immersive red education scenes, so that the masses can feel red culture and receive patriotic education at their doorstep. Intensively carry out 22 series of activities in the "Yimeng Spirit Inheritance and Promotion Publicity Month," open special columns for diversified dissemination, and continuously enhance the leading power of the Yimeng Spirit.

Benchmark against advanced regions, learn from each other and promote improvement through mutual exchange. First, improve the benchmarking and tackling system. Based on the county's development reality, clearly benchmark the vegetable industry against Shouguang and the private economy against Jinjiang, organize townships (streets) and county-direct departments to clarify annual development goals and tackling paths, and improve the benchmarking and learning system. Second, strengthen the vegetable "primary industry." Plan modern agriculture with industrial thinking, compile the "Lanling County Vegetable Industry Development Plan (2026-2030)," and advance 16 projects to a high standard with a total investment of 1.76 billion yuan. Implement the market capacity expansion project, organize trips to Shanghai to dock 14 cooperation tasks, establish supply chain and fruit-and-vegetable broker alliances, expand contract farming and online sales channels, and effectively enhance the "vegetable basket" guarantee level. Third, activate the vitality of the private economy. Innovatively carry out the "one category of matters" reform for the green fruit-and-vegetable and processing industry chain in Shandong Province, reducing the average number of procedures by 50%. Taking "efficiently completing one matter" as the starting point, deepen the reform of the commercial affairs system, so that matters such as enterprise migration, change, deregistration, and "individual transformation to enterprise" achieve full-process assistance and one-time completion. Establish a normalized enterprise visit and demand rapid-response mechanism, cumulatively docking and serving 1,654 enterprises, resolving 419 development difficulties, organizing 2 government-bank-enterprise docking meetings, and reaching intended financing of 456 million yuan.

Forge a strong professional cadre contingent. First, build a precise training system. Carry out 6 sessions of the "Monday Lecture Platform" activity for county-level leading cadres, promoting policy interpretation and work guidance to reach the grassroots frontline directly. Around fields such as new energy and artificial intelligence, hold 24 sessions of "First Secretary on the Lecture Platform" and 6 sessions of "Bureau Director Lectures." Organize 627 cadres and enterprise leaders to carry out 18 sessions of intensive teaching under "Cadre-Enterprise Integration of Wisdom, Joint Efforts for Progress," and go to advanced regions such as Shanghai and Qingdao for on-site study, uniting development forces through joint training of cadres and enterprises. Through forms such as "Section Chief Lectures on Professional Work" and county-township joint learning seminars, carry out 366 sessions of "system internal training." Second, promote multi-post training. Sort out the list of needs for rotation and exchange, promote the orderly rotation of 57 middle-level cadres in 14 departments and units, and organize 12 cadres to carry out cross-departmental exchanges. Promote 131 young cadres to go down to villages for tempering, and 1,007 cadres to contact and assist 9,132 key households, allowing cadres to hone their problem-solving abilities at the grassroots level. Select and dispatch 84 cadres to participate in the special work of higher-level departments and the county party committee, enhancing their abilities in urgent, difficult, dangerous, and heavy tasks. Third, strengthen adaptive selection and appointment. Increase the intensity of cadre inspection and identification, and combine annual assessment, special on-site research, frontline tracking and other methods to strengthen the selection and allocation of professional cadres and adaptive exchange. Since 2026, attention has been paid to equipping professional cadres in departments and units, promoting upward, downward, and horizontal exchange of professional cadres.

Improve the level of ability to handle affairs according to law. First, improve the responsibility system for rule-of-law construction. Strictly implement the statutory procedures for major administrative decisions including public participation, expert demonstration, risk assessment, legality review, and collective discussion and decision. Establish a legal expert database to comprehensively improve the level of administrative decision-making. Second, deepen the standardization of administrative law enforcement. Improve the full-staff rotation training system for law enforcement personnel, strengthen practical operational skills training for law enforcement, improve the benchmark for administrative penalty discretion, and dynamically adjust the lists of matters for non-penalty and mitigated penalty. Comprehensively promote information-based management of administrative law enforcement, implement tiered and categorized supervision in 29,632 enterprises, sort out and improve 201 joint inspection scenario matters, advance the implementation of the "comprehensive inspection once" system, and reduce inspection frequency by 40%. Third, strengthen supervision and restraint over law enforcement and judiciary. Normalize "accompanying" law enforcement supervision and quality evaluation of 100 cases, and track and supervise prominent issues in law enforcement and judiciary with deadlines for rectification. Deeply advance the tackling and resolution of 32 petition cases involving legal and litigation matters, promote substantive resolution of cases, and continuously enhance the credibility of law enforcement and judiciary.

Deepen the rectification of work style, enforcement of discipline, and anti-corruption efforts. First, maintain the high-pressure posture of punishing corruption. Deepen mechanisms such as the linkage of discipline inspection, inspection, and audit, big data screening, and digging out cases from cases, and discover 346 clues to problems. Second, deepen the promotion of governance improvement through case analysis. Strengthen supervision and inspection of the implementation of systems, and guide all departments and units to improve the "Three Major and One Large" decision-making system. Promote 13 key functional departments to comprehensively investigate integrity risks, issue 12 targeted disciplinary inspection and supervision suggestions, promote the rectification of 2,161 problems, and establish and improve 34 systems. Third, build a solid ideological defense line against corruption. Make good use of integrity education bases such as the rural party member and cadre warning education center, carry out precise education by level and category, and cumulatively organize 91 batches of more than 3,500 party member cadres to receive on-site education. Make good use of warning and deterrence measures such as notification and exposure and warning education films, issue 3 notices on typical problems of cadre work style, and produce 2 warning education films, guiding the broad masses of party member cadres to know reverence, maintain vigilance, and hold the bottom line.

(The author is the Secretary of the Lanling County Party Committee of Shandong Province)

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The fragrance of rice flowers drifts across the shores

By: 郭克俭

On August 11, 2026, Guo Lanying passed away peacefully.
When the news spread, many people, as if by common accord, opened their phones and found My Motherland — "A great river, with wide and gentle waves, windblown rice flowers fragrant on both banks..." They let this classic melody, sung for over half a century, echo in their ears for a long time, as if in their thoughts the artist who sang it had not gone far, the singing still there...
She sang her whole life. From a suffering child on the Shanxi opera stage, to the lead in national opera; from the award podium of the Budapest World Youth Festival, to receiving the national honorary title of "People's Artist." From the opera stage to the performance stage, from the performance stage to the teaching podium, this road was long — long enough to span nearly a century; and this road was also short — short enough to be summed up in a single word: "feeling" — she had feeling for singing, feeling for the people, and feeling for this land.

Traditional roots, transformed and applied in opera
Guo Lanying's artistic foundation was not read from books in a schoolroom, but was forged through the bitter days of the old opera troupes.
In 1929, Guo Lanying was born into a poor farming family in Pingyao, Shanxi. At age six, she was sent into a Shanxi opera troupe as an apprentice. The old opera troupes firmly believed in the training maxim "no beating, no talent" — voice training, string accompaniment practice, and body movement drills — every item was soaked in blood and sweat. But it was precisely in these difficult childhood years that she carved into her bones the classical performing arts principles: the singing, recitation, acting, and acrobatics of traditional opera; the four tones and rhyme of the language; the rhythmic beat and measure; and the singing method of "shaping the melody according to the word." These skills honed in her youth later all became her signature abilities, serving her for life.
In the autumn of 1946, Guo Lanying persuaded her mother and resolutely joined the North China United University cultural troupe performing in Zhangjiakou, transforming from a traditional opera artist of the old society into a revolutionary literary and art worker. She threw herself wholeheartedly into performances such as Husband and Wife Learning to Read, Brother and Sister Reclaiming Wasteland, and the newly compiled yangge opera Aunt Wang Goes to Market.
The revolutionary situation developed rapidly, and in November 1947, Shijiazhuang was liberated. Guo Lanying followed the North China United University cultural troupe into Zhengding, where she welcomed her first opportunity to appear on stage as Xi'er in The White-Haired Girl. Below the stage sat ordinary people who had just been liberated; on stage she sang tunes they could understand and be moved by. Although she choked up so much at the end of the performance that she could barely sing, because she was so deeply immersed in the role, the thunderous shouts of the audience were the greatest recognition. In this transformation, she did not discard traditional opera, but skillfully blended the exquisite techniques of bangzi opera — weeping tones, vibrato, rhythmic beats, and stylized movements — into her stage performance and character portrayal, allowing opera, this foreign art form, to take root on native soil and bloom into a new flower of stage art full of the spirit and temperament of the Chinese nation.
On the eve of the founding of New China, Guo Lanying followed the Chinese Youth Delegation on a long journey to Hungary to perform at the Second World Youth Festival. On the train during the journey, she adapted the poet Ruan Zhangjing's new work Song of Women's Freedom into a melody using four Shanxi folk songs, and after performing it live in Budapest, she won third prize. This was a Chinese folk singer standing on the international stage, relying not on imitating anyone, but on the beauty of the Chinese language's own vocal tones. This experience strengthened her conviction even more — Chinese vocal music need not follow the Western path; the phonetic beauty of the Chinese nation's language is the firmest root.
In August 1951, at the invitation of the government of the German Democratic Republic, the Ministry of Culture selected more than 300 artists from across the country in the fields of music, dance, drama, and acrobatics to form the Chinese Youth Cultural Troupe, to participate in the Third World Youth Festival held in East Berlin, the capital, and to embark on an overseas tour of more than 30 cities in 8 Central and Eastern European countries including the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, lasting 1 year and 2 months. Guo Lanying, as a member of the Chinese Youth Cultural Troupe, served as the lead in The White-Haired Girl, and her performances wherever she went produced enthusiastic responses.

"As long as the people are willing to listen, I will keep singing"
When Guo Lanying sang, she did not show off technique; she only conveyed feeling. She often said that no matter how good the voice, without feeling it is empty.
When recording the interlude My Motherland for the film Battle on Shangganling Mountain, in the first half she sang gently and tenderly, as if slowly telling someone about her hometown; when the chorus began, her timbre suddenly became firm and strong — that spirit of "when friends come, there is fine wine; if wolves come, what awaits them is the hunting gun" was all in the voice. One song sang out the deepest attachment of generations of Chinese people to their native land. At that time, the radio broadcast the song first, and the film was released later — the song ran faster than the images, and people on every street could hum it.
In 1964, in the large-scale music and dance epic The East Is Red, produced under the personal care and guidance of Premier Zhou Enlai, Guo Lanying sang Nanniwan. She did not sing it in the old conventional way as a rough work chant, but drew on the sweet and agile style of the xiaohuadan (young female role) in Shanxi opera, singing the days of the 359th Brigade reclaiming wasteland with pastoral poetry, singing out revolutionary enthusiasm and the warmth of life.
Many people summarize Guo Lanying's singing art as "clear, crisp, sweet, moist, and firm." Clear means precise enunciation; crisp means clean and decisive; sweet means sweet and pure; moist means warm and moving; firm means the sound of metal and stone. These five qualities she could switch between at will, and listeners never felt any abruptness — only a sense of just-right comfort.
She also left behind two rules of singing technique. The words were plain, but the principles were profound: First, when singing Chinese characters, one must not twist the pronunciation for the sake of a beautiful sound. The character's pronunciation is the bone; the melody is the flesh. If the bone is not straight, no matter how good-looking the flesh, it cannot stand. Second, singing and acting cannot be separated. The sound from the mouth and the movement of the body must be one thing, so that the audience can see it and hear it truly.
Behind the brilliance on stage was pain that ordinary people could not bear, which she carried. She later said: "My waist is made of steel, my voice is forged of iron. As long as the people are willing to listen, I will keep singing." These words were not rhetorical; they were true.

"I hope you can cultivate talents like yourself"
In 1982, Guo Lanying bid farewell to the stage and went to teach at the China Conservatory of Music. Four years later, she did something many people could not understand — she gave up the good life in Beijing, took out all her savings, and went south to Panyu, Guangzhou to found a school. On Fei'e Ridge, where weeds grew wild, she and her husband lived in a thatched shed, set up a makeshift donkey stove, and led volunteers to move stones and pave roads, stubbornly turning a broken-down farm into classrooms.
Why did she have to go so far away to run a school? Because in 1964, Premier Zhou Enlai had asked her: "Lanying, right now you can still sing and perform, but when you are older, what will you do?" She said she wanted to train students. Premier Zhou said: "Good. I hope you can cultivate talents like yourself, so that the nation's excellent culture can be carried forward." She remembered this sentence for her whole life.
In the early days of establishing the school, she was both principal and teacher. Every morning she led students in practice, and she even went into the rehearsal hall with a cane. When she saw a student's posture was wrong, she threw away the cane and personally demonstrated the flower-basket step.
In 2015, for the 70th anniversary revival of the premiere of The White-Haired Girl, the 86-year-old Guo Lanying made a special trip from Guangzhou to Beijing to serve as the artistic director for Lei Jia, the fourth-generation "Xi'er" and doctoral student in national vocal music. When rehearsing the "weeping for father" scene, without a word she knelt down on the floor with a thud to demonstrate. The next day her knee was swollen, and her toe was infected and festering. She went to the hospital early in the morning, had the doctor squeeze out the pus, and limped back to the rehearsal hall. When others tactfully tried to dissuade her, she said: "If I don't do it myself once, the children cannot experience that real pain." During rehearsal she was completely immersed in the role, calling Lei Jia "Xi'er." When she cried out the word "Dad" in a sobbing voice, Lei Jia was so shaken that she burst into tears on the spot.
When a student could not control her emotions and laughed during a performance of Hatred Like High Mountains, Hatred Like the Sea, Guo Lanying immediately darkened her face: "What are you laughing at? What is there to laugh about?" Then she sang a demonstration with tears in her eyes, and before the music ended, her face was covered in tears. A journalist recorded her words: "If you cannot express it well, I will not blame you. But if you do not study seriously and do not do it properly, I will not forgive you. If I forgive you today, the audience will not forgive me tomorrow."
In 2017, Guo Lanying, at 88 years old, was again invited to the China Conservatory of Music to guide the young singer Wu Bixia in rehearsing The Marriage of Xiao Erhei. Right at the opening she stopped everyone — "clear and rippling water" had been sung as "dear and dripping water" — the pronunciation was wrong. She said slowly and deliberately, word by word: "Singing is not singing sound; it is singing the soul. Chinese people must sing Chinese characters clearly!"
She never cared about personal gain or loss; her greatest worry was that the essence of the singing techniques passed down from ancestors would be broken off in her own hands. She once said earnestly to her students: "In the future, when I am gone, as long as there are still people singing according to the rules of the four tones of the Chinese language, and guarding the root of national vocal music, I will still be living in the singing."

The great river surges on; the singing remains with the people
In Guo Lanying's life, the source was the earthen bed of a farmhouse in Pingyao and the hard floor of the opera troupe. Along the way she absorbed the dual nourishment of folk songs, traditional opera, and revolutionary literature and art. She sang the blood and tears of the lower classes of the old society and the high spirits of New China's builders, and in the end she left all her abilities to the younger generation.
In the history of China's national opera, although Guo Lanying was not the first performer of The White-Haired Girl, The Marriage of Xiao Erhei, or Liu Hulan, she transformed stylized conventions and the aesthetics of freehand expression, endowing Xi'er, Xiaoqin, and Liu Hulan with brand-new stage character images, thereby establishing a model of Chinese opera performance art that unifies form, spirit, and feeling. With her lifelong artistic practice, she proclaimed that China's national vocal art need not copy the West, and can completely walk a path of its own — a path belonging to the Chinese nation, with the tones of the Chinese language as the phonetic foundation, the rhythmic patterns of traditional opera as the rhythmic logic, "shaping the melody according to the word" as the singing method, "unity of singing and acting" as the core of performance, and "unity of form and spirit" as the aesthetic standard.
In 2019, Guo Lanying received the national honorary title of "People's Artist." After receiving the award in Beijing and returning to the school in Panyu, the students stood at the school gate and shouted in unison: "Welcome Principal Guo back with honor!" She smiled very happily, very gratified. That was the highest honor the state bestows on an artist, but the true judgment of history had long been deposited in the people's memory — everyone who has heard "a great river" is her confidant and her judge. She sings for the people forever.
On the day she left, many people said: "Listen one more time!"
Listen once more to North Wind Blows, Ridge After Ridge of Water, Ridge After Ridge of Mountains, listen once more to My Motherland, Nanniwan, Embroidering the Gold Banner... In the notes, the little girl from Pingyao, Shanxi, is still there; the People's Artist who stood up again after a lumbar fracture is still there; Teacher Guo, who knelt on the floor of the rehearsal hall to demonstrate for her students, is still there.
And the best remembrance, undoubtedly, is to keep singing well like this — as she did, pronouncing every Chinese character accurately, singing every phrase of melody truly, and sending every feeling into people's hearts...
(The author is the dean of the Shi Guangnan Music and Culture Research Institute at Zhejiang Normal University)

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Welcome to Dragon Restaurant: Telling an International Story with Chinese Wisdom

By: 张慧瑜

Recently, the domestic realistic-themed film Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant (《欢迎来龙餐馆》) has become a high-quality work with both strong word-of-mouth and popularity in the summer season, thanks to its unique war narrative and warm Eastern expression. The film tells the ordinary story of Xu Fu, a northeastern Chinese chef, who runs the Dragon Restaurant in a Middle Eastern country during wartime, using a Chinese restaurant as its small stage to connect the rising and falling fates of characters from multiple countries. It not only allows audiences to recognize the cruelty of modern warfare—such as the 残垣断壁 (cán yuán duàn bì - "broken walls and ruined buildings," war-torn devastation) visible everywhere on the streets, sudden artillery attacks, and the desperate situation of civilians 流离失所 (liú lí shī suǒ - "wandering and losing one's home," displaced and homeless)—but also uses the Chinese principle of "eating well" to tell an international story, enabling this relatively niche international-themed story in domestic cinema to display a warm, profound, and substantial Chinese wisdom.

Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant is a food film. Food is a cultural symbol that transcends race, language, and ideology, and is one of the media most capable of dissolving barriers and fostering empathy in turbulent times. In the 1990s, Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and Stephen Chow's The God of Cookery (1996) were both classic works that conveyed philosophy through food. Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant continues this creative path while achieving artistic innovation by integrating it with the wartime context. The film makes full use of the visual style of high-quality domestic food documentaries in recent years, employing techniques such as close-ups, slow motion, and warm-tone rendering to present multiple scenes including Xu Fu "managing" a wedding banquet, a Christmas banquet, and a hodgepodge stew (烩菜) feast. The fine depiction of Chinese cooking—ingredient handling, heat control, and dish presentation—lets audiences 大饱眼福 (dà bǎo yǎn fú - "feast one's eyes," to enjoy a rich visual treat). The dining scenes connect individual destinies, family emotions, wartime trauma, and cross-cultural exchange. At the same time, this is not a simple food spectacle but rather endows Chinese cuisine with profound cultural metaphors, making the food narrative a cultural vehicle that carries Chinese values, conveys Chinese positions, and explains Chinese principles.

In the film, the steaming warmth of human life inside the Dragon Restaurant forms a stark contrast with the gunfire-filled wartime environment outside. Inside the Dragon Restaurant, the cooking fires never cease, and diners sit together to eat—a pure land amid troubled times; outside the restaurant, streets and alleys are dilapidated, smoke and gunpowder fill the air, artillery can strike at any moment, and the people are anxious and fearful. One shot appears repeatedly in the film: Xu Fu's apprentice Saifu stir-fries over a high flame with a wok in hand, flames leaping and ingredients tumbling in the wok, while the lens superimposes layer upon layer of the blazing battlefield fires outside the window—a stark contrast between warmth and cold. Through the commonality of food, the film breaks through the camp divisions and positional oppositions brought by war, constructing a consensus of humanity that transcends political games. The highly representative hodgepodge stew imagery in the film is a concrete expression of China's culture of inclusiveness and coexistence. The cooking logic of the hodgepodge stew is 兼容并蓄 (jiān róng bìng xù - "inclusive and absorbing," to embrace all and incorporate everything), merging diverse ingredients into one, harmonizing flavors, and ultimately forming a warm, gentle, and inclusive taste experience. This culinary trait reflects the Chinese philosophy of life: respecting differences, embracing diversity, and pursuing harmonious coexistence.

The film distills the everyday Chinese phrase "eat well" (好好吃饭), elevating it from a familial expression of care in daily life to a Chinese-style humanistic ethic that transcends race and ideology. "Eating well" is rooted in the familial affection of Chinese society. The repeated reminders between Xu Fu and his mother about eating carry the Chinese people's most simple expectations of reunion and hopes for safety. At the same time, this phrase breaks through the boundaries of individual family affection and becomes a universal consensus for survival in the context of war. For civilians ravaged by war, years of conflict have destroyed their homes, making adequate food and clothing a luxurious demand, and eating one's fill is the only hope for staying alive. For soldiers stationed locally, the anxiety and fear of being far from home and on the battlefield can also find brief solace in a hot meal. On a battlefield rife with factions and constant conflict, the food of the Dragon Restaurant becomes a public medium unrestricted by political stance, military faction, nationality, or race, allowing hostile parties to return to their essence as "human beings" before food, fully presenting the Chinese wisdom of being 以人为本 (yǐ rén wéi běn - "taking people as the foundation," people-centered) and valuing 以和为贵 (yǐ hé wéi guì - "harmony is most precious," peace and harmony as paramount).

The film achieves narrative innovation, constructing an international narrative perspective with Chinese people as the subjects. The protagonist Xu Fu explicitly refuses to make American-style Chinese food tailored to Western tastes, insisting on cooking authentic Chinese flavors. This detail is a concrete expression of cultural stance—observing the world and telling stories from a Chinese perspective. Apart from Chinese actors such as Shen Teng (沈腾) and Jiang Qiming (蒋奇明), most of the actors in this "Dragon Restaurant" are foreign actors. This is a rare film that presents a major disaster in another country from a Chinese perspective.

Xu Fu, in the civilian identity of an ordinary chef, navigates the gaps between the various camps of the war. To restore the most authentic picture of wartime chaos, the production team, within the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis film and television industrial park in Shandong, highly restored streets and alleys, residential dwellings, and markets with very realistic scene details, leading many audiences to mistake it for on-location filming in the Middle East. The film no longer treats foreign societies as a vague backdrop but instead deeply dissects the complex configuration of forces in the war. The foreign characters in the film, such as Zayid and Saifu, shed their stereotyped and instrumentalized portrayals, possessing three-dimensional growth trajectories and the motivations behind shifts in their emotional stances, fully displaying the complexity of human nature—such as Zayid, who loses his family in the war and struggles repeatedly between revenge and conscience, and the innocent, kind-hearted apprentice Saifu, who witnesses both killing and warmth amid the flames of war. The film meticulously depicts the struggles of every ordinary person in troubled times, showing how war distorts human nature. This richness of narrative marks how domestic films, when handling international themes, move from a narrative of the self toward empathy for the other.

The film, through a folk perspective and non-politicized daily narrative, constructs a Chinese-style reflection on war, conveys a Chinese view of peace, and achieves the soft output of mainstream values. What this film chooses is a folk stance. Chef Xu Fu goes overseas to work only to make a living and support his family. In the war, his international responsibility derives from an ordinary person's survival instinct and innate goodness. The film uses the daily ethic of "eating well" to construct a non-politicized consciousness. In war, various forces engage in games around power, interests, and positions, while Xu Fu holds fast to the bottom line of "eating well" and "living well," using food as a medium to dissolve the hatred brought by war. This value choice based on individual survival forms a humanistic perspective that transcends ideology. Through the delicate expression of individual destinies, the film celebrates the beauty of ordinary humanity and conveys the themes of opposing war, revering life, and longing for peace. "Eating well," the most simple Chinese phrase, demonstrates the Chinese principle of harmonious coexistence and love of peace.

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Strengthen data governance of state-owned cultural relic resources to promote high-quality development of cultural relic undertakings

By: 文化和旅游部副部长、国家文物局局长饶权

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has profoundly grasped the characteristics and laws of cultural development against the backdrop of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, incorporated cultural relics work into the construction of Digital China and the national cultural digitization strategy, and pointed out the direction and opened broad prospects for digital technology to empower the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage. The National Cultural Heritage Administration has firmly grasped the new situation and tasks, deeply studied and implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and directives on cultural relics work, firmly seized the historical opportunity of iterative upgrading of digital technology, continuously strengthened the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data, formulated and issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Cultural Relics Undertakings" with a special chapter elaborating on enhancing the level of scientific and technological empowerment of cultural relics, and promulgated and issued the "Measures for the Management of State-Owned Cultural Relics Resource Data" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), promoting the development of cultural relics undertakings toward new and excellent directions through digital empowerment.

Strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is an important strategic task

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The world today is accelerating its march into the intelligent era, and the role of data as a basic resource and an engine of innovation is becoming increasingly apparent." At present, digital technology is increasingly integrated into all fields and the entire process of cultural relics protection, management, research, and utilization. Large-scale and diverse state-owned cultural relics resource data is increasingly becoming an indispensable basic and strategic resource, becoming an important engine driving the digital-intelligent transformation of cultural relics undertakings. Strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is an arduous and significant task.

From the perspective of the mission of the times, against the backdrop of the interweaving and superimposition of the "two overall situations," to promote cultural prosperity and build a culturally strong country, it is necessary to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture. Cultural relics carry splendid civilization, inherit history and culture, sustain the national spirit, and contain the unique spiritual values, ways of thinking, and ideological concepts of the Chinese nation. They are important carriers of China's excellent traditional culture. Cultural relics protection lies in the authentic and complete preservation and systematic and profound interpretation of the rich value of material remains, transforming them into information that can be perceived, understood, and disseminated, and giving play to the cultural role of educating people through culture. Today, emerging technologies represented by the Internet and artificial intelligence are changing with each passing day, profoundly changing the ways information is produced and disseminated and people's ways of production and life. Cultural relics protection is facing new opportunities and also new challenges. Strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help promote the cultural relics field to actively embrace the changes in cultural relics protection paradigms, value cognition methods, and media dissemination forms brought about by the digital age, enable the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage to show vigorous vitality, and drive the high-quality development of cultural relics undertakings.

From the perspective of practical orientation, through long-term efforts, digital empowerment of cultural relics undertakings has achieved remarkable results — the construction of the national cultural relics resource database is steadily advancing, the digital construction of cultural and museum institutions is accelerating, and a new pattern of digital management has been effectively constructed; satellite remote sensing law enforcement monitoring has achieved full coverage of more than 40 World Cultural Heritage sites in China and 5,058 key national cultural relics protection units; information on a number of precious and fragile cultural relics such as ancient murals and Pattra-leaf scriptures has been permanently preserved; rescue protection has shifted to preventive protection; value interpretation paradigms such as the origin exploration of Chinese civilization and archaeological research have ushered in innovation; innovative demonstration applications such as "Digital Palace Museum" and "Digital Dunhuang" have continued to emerge; the concepts of Chinese civilization have better gone global and influenced the world through the power of digital technology; and the boundaries of cultural relics value dissemination have continued to expand, among other things. At the same time, it must be noted that China's cultural relics resources are large in quantity, diverse in type, and widely distributed. There are currently more than 900,000 immovable cultural relics and approximately 108 million pieces/sets of state-owned movable cultural relics. Facing factors such as the erosion of time, natural damage, and man-made destruction, cultural relics protection and management, especially grassroots protection forces, are under pressure. Making good use of digital technology and strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help resolve this contradiction, bridge prominent shortcomings, advance the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity in the cultural relics field, and enhance the effectiveness of cultural relics protection in the digital age.

From the perspective of development trends, the rapid development of digital technology and the deep mining of digital resources provide us with powerful tools for responding to complex environments, predicting potential risks, analyzing difficult problems, and achieving scientific management. In the coming decades, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation will form a historic convergence with the development of human society. The diffusion effect of information technology innovation, the spillover effect of information and knowledge, and the inclusive effect released by digital technology will become more prominent, leading and driving cultural relics undertakings to accelerate toward a new stage of digital-intelligent transformation. The ancients said: "Act according to the times, achieve merit by relying on resources, and use the capabilities of all things to gain benefits from them." Better adapting to development trends and strengthening the scientific governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data will help promote the transformation from "producing data" to "high-quality data," from "information islands" to "comprehensive interconnection," and from "single interpretation" to "diversified presentation," further solving problems such as multi-channel data collection, uneven quality, inconsistent formats, and non-interoperable terminology, and use the new pattern of digital-intelligent cultural relics undertakings to transform the advantages of cultural relics resources into advantages of cultural development.

Adhering to a people-centered approach is the starting point and ultimate goal of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance

In October 2025, when General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the exhibition "A Century of Guardianship — From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum," he pointed out that "cultural relics belong to the people and serve the people." This earnest instruction profoundly answered the fundamental question of "for whom and by whom" cultural relics undertakings are carried out, and provided fundamental guidance for our work in all fields of cultural relics. The fundamental starting point and ultimate goal of strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is to adhere to a people-centered approach and give priority to social benefits, so that the digital achievements of cultural relics protection benefit all the people more and more fairly.

Cultural relics resources belong to the people, and we must safeguard the people's shared cultural treasures through digital means. History is created by the people, and cultural heritage is shared by the people. Cultural relics are material heritage containing rich value, and they are also rare resources that have undergone vicissitudes, are extremely fragile, and are non-renewable. Digital-intelligence is an important way to safeguard the precious wealth left to us by our ancestors. We must always maintain an attitude of being responsible to history and to the people, run the firm stand and value orientation through all aspects and the entire process of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance, and completely preserve the historical information and cultural value of cultural relics on the premise of ensuring the safety of the cultural relics themselves.

Cultural relics work relies on the people, and we must expand effective channels for the public to participate in cultural relics data governance. Doing a good job in the digitalization of cultural relics protection must be deeply rooted in the people, respect the people's principal position, stimulate the people's pioneering spirit, mobilize broad participation from the whole society, and transform the people's enthusiasm for cultural relics protection into institutionalized participation channels and normalized protection practices. For example, the "Beijing Central Axis Digital Night Watchman Activity" mobilized public volunteers to use digital methods to inspect and record the conditions of heritage sites. As the ways in which the masses participate in cultural relics undertakings under digital conditions undergo profound changes, it is necessary to further improve the social participation mechanism, smooth public participation channels and communication pathways, enable the masses to play the principal role of co-construction and co-governance in cultural relics digital archives, social supervision, institutional construction, and other aspects, further consolidate the consensus of the masses on cultural relics protection, enable them to consciously and actively support digital collection, utilization, and other work, and promote the improvement of the level of state-owned cultural relics resource data management.

Cultural relics protection benefits the people, and we must provide the people with high-quality digital cultural products. In today's era, the people's aspiration for a better life has shifted from "whether there is something" to "whether it is good." The past single way of presenting cultural heritage can no longer satisfy the people's growing needs for high-quality, multi-level spiritual and cultural needs. It is necessary to focus on solving problems such as insufficient supply of high-quality data services, uneven distribution, and inadequate accessibility, vigorously develop new forms of digital content, actively build bridges between cultural relics and the public, and create more high-quality digital communication products. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, museums across the country launched nearly 40,000 online exhibitions, and the profound accumulation of cultural relics resources "flew into the homes of ordinary people" through digital technology. In the next step, it is necessary to base ourselves on fully safeguarding the people's cultural rights and interests, improve the mechanisms for open utilization and inclusive sharing of state-owned cultural relics resource data, revitalize data resources, increase the supply of high-quality digital cultural products, enable more cultural relics resources to break through the barriers of time and space in data form, step out of exhibition halls, step out of fields, and reach the masses, and continuously enhance the people's sense of cultural gain and happiness.

Promoting the deepening and solidification of state-owned cultural relics resource data governance through the power of institutions

In recent years, the volume of state-owned cultural relics resource data has continued to grow, participating entities have become increasingly diverse, and application scenarios have continued to expand. The focus of digitalization of cultural relics protection has shifted from "accumulation of quantity" to "improvement of quality." As the first special document on data management in the cultural relics field, the "Measures" issued in July 2026 further standardizes the production of state-owned cultural relics resource data, safeguards the security of state-owned cultural relics resource data, guides the orderly open utilization of state-owned cultural relics resource data, activates the potential of state-owned cultural relics resource data, provides systematic and clear institutional guarantees for the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data, and vigorously promotes bringing cultural relics to life.

Clarify rights holders and responsible entities. State-owned cultural relics resource data is the result of organizing production with national resources for the purpose of achieving permanent preservation and sustainable utilization of cultural relics. The "Measures" clarify that state-owned cultural relics resource data belongs to the state, with state-owned cultural relics management institutions undertaking specific management responsibilities, fundamentally solving the core problem of "whose data is this and who manages it," and laying the foundation for subsequent orderly utilization. Clarifying the responsible entities for state-owned cultural relics resource data requires cultural relics administrative departments, state-owned cultural relics management institutions, and relevant entities to implement the responsibility for managing state-owned cultural relics resource data in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, adhering to the principles of "whoever manages is responsible" and "whoever uses is responsible." This fundamentally changes the role positioning of state-owned cultural relics management institutions in cultural relics protection, that is, they are not only institutions that manage cultural relics, but also entities that manage cultural relics data.

Implement full life-cycle scientific management. State-owned cultural relics resource data not only has the characteristics of high value and rarity, but also has the general characteristics of being easy to copy, non-exclusive, and non-competitive, which determines that full life-cycle management must be implemented to improve the level of standardized and refined management. In terms of data collection, adhere to the primacy of cultural relics safety, adopt self-collection and entrusted collection methods, and in principle, do not collect repeatedly. In terms of data processing, adhere to closed-loop management, implement according to cultural relics digital processing standards, and processed data shall not be retained privately. In terms of data storage, implement secure storage and back up at national or regional storage centers, and establish a complete secure storage hardware facility and institutional system to ensure data integrity and non-tamperability. In terms of data transmission, give priority to online transmission through nationally certified secure transmission platforms to ensure data integrity and full-process traceability. In terms of data registration, unified registration should be carried out on official platforms, with data registration as the core focus of data management. In terms of data services, on the basis of doing a good job in the security of data collection, processing, and storage, orderly realize the opening of data to the outside world.

Release the multiple values of cultural relics resource data. An important purpose of strengthening the governance of state-owned cultural relics resource data is to fully release the factor value of state-owned cultural relics resource data and improve the level of protection, inheritance, display, and utilization of historical and cultural heritage. First, activate academic research value. Through technologies such as multi-dimensional information collaborative analysis and multi-modal cultural relics knowledge retrieval, innovate academic research paradigms and improve the quality and efficiency of knowledge production. Second, highlight public cultural value. Break the traditional ways of cultural relics exhibition and dissemination, deeply develop content such as study courses and science education, and promote the important role of cultural relics in broadly consolidating cultural identity and intergenerational transmission of civilization memory. Third, release innovation and activation value. Excavate the cultural essence, artistic aesthetics, and other elements contained in state-owned cultural relics resource data, promote the upgrading from "data materials" to "cultural IP," and the transformation of static cultural relics resources into dynamic cultural products and high-quality cultural tourism resources, injecting new momentum into promoting the development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries in the new era. Taking the Dunhuang Research Institute as an example, over the past 30-plus years, the Institute has been committed to the practice of "Digital Dunhuang." At present, it has completed data collection of 323 caves, three-dimensional reconstruction of 16 large heritage sites, and panoramic roaming production of 227 caves, forming cultural relics digital resources of more than 600TB. Through effective transformation and utilization and full release of value, the myriad scenes of "a metropolis where Chinese and foreign cultures converge" have come from the depths of history and are presented in digital form, and people's identification with Chinese civilization arises spontaneously.

Meet the needs and expectations of all sectors of society. At present, the general public hopes to understand cultural relics and approach history more conveniently; scientific research and educational institutions hope to obtain more systematic and reliable data support; public cultural institutions as well as fields such as cultural creativity, digital display, and new technology applications look forward to forming standardized and stable use channels. At the same time, in recent years, phenomenal literary and artistic works have continued to emerge. For example, the popular historical drama "The Peaceful Year" relied on cultural relics unearthed from the Wuyue Kingdom and museum collection historical materials to carry out restoration of artifacts and scenes, and the popularity of the drama drove the dissemination of Wuyue culture; the domestic game "Black Myth: Wukong" used cultural relics shapes, architectural forms, and other elements as the basis for artistic creation, creating digital content that combines Eastern aesthetics. The vigorous development practices of these high-quality cultural contents and cultural creative industries fully demonstrate that state-owned cultural relics resource data with authoritative sources, accurate content, and open and standardized management is the true source of innovation and creation in the cultural relics field. To meet the increasingly strong needs and expectations of all sectors of society for cultural relics data, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should follow the principles of fairness, justice, and convenience for the people, and provide services such as proactive disclosure and authorized use to the public. The "Measures" put forward the requirement that "raw data does not leave the domain, and data is controllable and measurable," that is, raw data remains in the secure domain of cultural relics management institutions or storage centers and is not directly transferred externally; processed data formed through standardized processing that is reliable in quality, non-sensitive, non-confidential, and with clear ownership of rights and interests is opened for use to the public through a tiered service mechanism. First, for public welfare utilization scenarios, such as public browsing and querying of cultural relics resource information, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should proactively disclose corresponding processed data in a planned and step-by-step manner through official websites or state-owned cultural relics resource data registration and management platforms, and open it to the public free of charge; second, for non-profit utilization scenarios, such as academic research, exhibitions, and publicity, state-owned cultural relics management institutions should clarify the scope of free use or determine reasonable service fee standards in accordance with the principle of non-profit, announce them to the public, and provide corresponding data through authorization; third, for profit-making utilization scenarios, such as cultural and creative development, film and television animation, games, and commercial exhibitions, the user should submit an application, and the state-owned cultural relics management institution and the user should determine the scope of authorized use and service fees through consultation, and provide corresponding data.

The cultural lineage continues endlessly, and digital technology empowers the future. Standing at the new starting point of the digital-intelligent transformation and development of cultural relics undertakings, we will make unremitting efforts to advance cultural relics data governance, improve data quality with clear rules, promote data circulation with smooth channels, empower data utilization with optimized services, ensure data security with standardized management, continuously improve the comprehensive effectiveness of cultural relics undertakings in serving society, benefiting the people, and empowering development, and provide solid and powerful digital support for the high-quality development of cultural relics undertakings.

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Why is antimicrobial resistance prevention and control difficult?

By: 王明贵

Bacteria are a large class of microorganisms invisible to the naked eye that can cause various infectious diseases. With the widespread use of antimicrobial drugs, bacterial antimicrobial resistance is rising rapidly, and even "super-resistant bacteria" that are almost untreatable have emerged, seriously affecting the clinical prognosis of bacterial infections and becoming a major challenge to human health. The problem of bacterial antimicrobial resistance concerns not only human health and well-being, but also involves multiple dimensions such as public health governance, medical and pharmaceutical scientific and technological innovation, and global collaborative cooperation, and is closely related to the implementation of the Healthy China strategy. Which groups of people are mainly harmed by drug-resistant bacteria? How does bacterial antimicrobial resistance form and spread? Why is the prevention and control of bacterial antimicrobial resistance so difficult? Why is it that only through close multidisciplinary and cross-field collaboration can progress be expected in responding to bacterial antimicrobial resistance?

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance is a global problem. The 2025 Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that resistance among key pathogens, especially Gram-negative bacteria, continues to rise, and the effectiveness of first-line antimicrobial treatment regimens for clinically common bloodstream, urinary tract, and gastrointestinal infections is facing increasingly severe challenges from resistance. In 2023, approximately one-sixth of global bacterial infections were drug-resistant infections, with the proportion reaching one-third in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean region; between 2018 and 2023, resistance in more than 40 percent of pathogen-antibiotic combinations showed an upward trend, with an average annual increase of 5 to 15 percent, seriously affecting empirical antimicrobial treatment, and many infected patients have had to choose second-line or reserve antimicrobial drugs.

China's overall level of bacterial antimicrobial resistance is higher than the international average. However, there are differences in resistance among various types of bacteria, with the resistance problem of Gram-negative bacteria (such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) being significantly more prominent than that of Gram-positive bacteria (such as Staphylococcus). For example, according to the 2025 annual report of the CHINET bacterial resistance surveillance network, the global resistance rates of E. coli, the most common clinical pathogen, to third-generation cephalosporins and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin are both approximately 40 percent, while in China they are 52 percent and 62 percent respectively; the detection rates of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter species, which are the most clinically harmful, are 15 percent and 50 percent globally, while in China they are 22 percent and 66 percent respectively. Among Gram-positive bacteria, the detection rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus in China is similar to the global level; however, the detection rate of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium in China (8 percent) is significantly lower than that in most European and American countries (approximately 50 percent), although the detection rate of this bacterium has shown a clear upward trend in China in the past three years, rising from 3.2 percent to 8.2 percent.

The main groups harmed by drug-resistant bacteria

Drug-resistant bacteria are quietly spreading within hospitals. The high-risk populations and transmission characteristics of drug-resistant bacterial infections differ markedly from viral infections such as COVID-19 and influenza A — COVID-19 and influenza A mostly spread in the community, and susceptible populations include healthy people; drug-resistant bacterial infections, by contrast, occur mainly in hospitals and spread continuously in hospital wards. These pathogens tend to attack patients with weakened immunity and underlying diseases, such as patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumors, diabetes, and those who have undergone major surgery, aggravating their original conditions and resulting in greater difficulty in clinical treatment and higher mortality rates.

Drug-resistant bacterial infection is an important fatal factor. The ultimate cause of death for many elderly patients is not their primary disease but a complicating drug-resistant bacterial infection. For example, most stroke patients can be cured and discharged through treatment, but because such patients often have impaired consciousness and motor dysfunction, require the placement of multiple catheters (venous catheters, gastric tubes, urinary catheters, endotracheal tubes, etc.), are bedridden, and choke when eating or coughing, they are prone to drug-resistant bacterial infections, leading to prolonged hospitalization, increased medical costs, and even death due to drug-resistant bacterial infection.

Drug-resistant bacterial infection increases the disease burden. Research shows that in 2021, drug-resistant bacterial infections directly caused 1.14 million deaths globally and indirectly caused 4.71 million deaths; from 1990 to 2021, the mortality rate of people aged 70 and above due to drug-resistant bacterial infections rose by 80 percent. China accounts for a high proportion of global direct and indirect deaths from drug-resistant bacteria, at 14 percent and 15 percent respectively. In addition to directly increasing medical expenditures, drug-resistant bacterial infections also cause enormous indirect economic losses. The WHO has warned that drug-resistant bacteria are not only a medical problem but also a socioeconomic problem.

The formation and spread of bacterial antimicrobial resistance

"Survival of the fittest." Bacteria are the aborigines of the Earth, having survived on Earth for 3.5 billion years, far longer than the time humans have existed. The bacteria of today are those that have survived countless rounds of 大浪淘沙 (dà làng táo shā - "great waves sift the sand," the survival of the fittest through severe selection); the bacterial population is enormous and reproduces rapidly — a milliliter of liquid culture medium can contain more than 10 million bacteria, and they can multiply tenfold every two hours. Thus, bacteria have an extremely strong ability to adapt to the environment; they cannot be completely killed or eradicated.

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance evolved as a means for bacteria to escape humanity's relentless pursuit of killing them. The treatment of bacterial infections mainly uses antimicrobial drugs to kill pathogenic bacteria and thereby cure the disease. When antimicrobial drugs are used, bacteria develop resistance, and humans then develop new antimicrobial drugs to treat drug-resistant infections. "Resistance generation" and "new drug development" are like a race. In recent decades, the speed of new drug development has not kept pace with the speed of drug-resistant bacterial emergence, giving rise to the current predicament. In the 1940s, humanity invented penicillin, and bacteria at that time were very sensitive to it, but resistance soon appeared; cephalosporins were then developed for the treatment of infections caused by penicillin-resistant bacteria, and later cephalosporins also became resistant; then carbapenems and other more advanced antimicrobial drugs were developed, and subsequently carbapenems also became resistant, greatly reducing the available antimicrobial drugs. Such bacteria are called "superbugs." At present, this situation remains in a vicious cycle of 水涨船高 (shuǐ zhǎng chuán gāo - "as the water rises, the boat rises," each side escalating in response to the other).

Bacteria possess multiple molecular mechanisms of resistance. From a microscopic perspective, bacteria have multiple resistance mechanisms against antimicrobial drugs: target site alteration, where the antimicrobial drug cannot bind to its target site on the bacterium; inactivating enzymes, where the bacterium produces proteases that destroy the structure of the antimicrobial drug; porin closure, where the antimicrobial drug cannot enter the bacterial cell; and efflux pump activation, where the antimicrobial drug that has entered the bacterial cell is pumped out. All of these mechanisms ultimately prevent antimicrobial drugs from exerting their bactericidal effects. Superbugs often possess multiple resistance mechanisms simultaneously and are therefore resistant to multiple antimicrobial drugs at the same time, displaying the characteristic of being 刀枪不入 (dāo qiāng bù rù - "impervious to swords and spears," invulnerable to attack).

Why the prevention and control of bacterial antimicrobial resistance is difficult

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance results from the use of antimicrobial drugs; therefore, reducing antimicrobial drug use and promoting the rational application of antimicrobial drugs can reduce the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and break the vicious cycle of "drug use — resistance — higher-level antimicrobial drugs — superbugs."

There are practical difficulties in reducing antimicrobial drug use. The use of antimicrobial drugs has strict indications; only when a diagnosis of bacterial or fungal infection is made is there an indication for using antimicrobial drugs, and they should not be used unnecessarily. However, in clinical practice, the differential diagnosis of bacterial infection is quite difficult. For example, fever is the most common clinical manifestation of bacterial infection, but viral infections, rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, malignant tumors, and other conditions can also cause fever, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between them.

There are difficulties in the rational application of antimicrobial drugs. Standardizing the proper use of antimicrobial drugs is an important measure for improving clinical efficacy and reducing the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, but achieving rational application is not easy. It requires mastering knowledge from multiple disciplines — one must understand the disease (infectious diseases), understand the bacteria (bacteriology), and understand the drugs (antimicrobial agents). There are more than a hundred species of clinically common bacteria and more than 160 types of antimicrobial drugs, and one must be proficient in their characteristics and apply them flexibly.

The characteristics of the diseases determine the complexity of the rational application of antimicrobial drugs. Pathogen diagnosis of infectious diseases (determining what pathogen causes the infection) is crucial to the rational application of antimicrobial drugs, but the problem is that the rate of pathogen diagnosis in bacterial infections is low, the positive rate of bacterial culture is low, and even for those with positive cultures, the possibility of bacterial colonization must be excluded. Thus, even in tertiary hospitals, the rate of bacterial pathogen diagnosis does not exceed one-third, and approximately two-thirds of patients with bacterial infections can only receive empirical treatment. Empirical treatment is prone to problems of broad coverage and excessive use of antimicrobial drugs, which is an important reason for the difficulty in the rational application of antimicrobial drugs. In addition, for severe infections requiring a longer course of treatment, the pathogenic bacteria may change during the treatment process — when the original bacteria are eliminated, new bacteria may appear — and antimicrobial treatment must therefore be adjusted accordingly. Compared with the "fixed target" of viral infections, bacterial infections are a "moving target," making antimicrobial treatment considerably more difficult.

New resistance mechanisms continue to emerge. After new antimicrobial drugs are launched on the market, resistance often appears quickly, causing the drugs to become ineffective. This also affects pharmaceutical companies' enthusiasm for developing new antimicrobial drugs and is one of the reasons why the development of new antimicrobial drugs is relatively lagging.

There are shortcomings in the professional workforce. As the name suggests, infectious diseases should mainly be diagnosed and treated in hospital infectious disease departments, but due to various factors, in many hospitals in China the infectious disease department mainly treats hepatitis, and the staffing of subspecialties for bacterial and fungal infections cannot meet clinical needs. Moreover, the diagnosis and treatment of bacterial infections requires the support and joint participation of other disciplines, especially clinical microbiology, clinical pharmacology and pharmacy, and hospital infection management departments, in order to achieve the goals of improving pathogen detection rates, precise antimicrobial drug use, and preventing the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals.

The problem of antimicrobial drug use in food animals. Antimicrobial drugs are used not only by humans but also in food animals (livestock animals, aquatic products, etc.). Approximately 50 percent of the antimicrobial drugs produced globally are used in food animals. Antimicrobial drugs are mainly administered through feed, resulting in relatively high bacterial resistance rates in chickens, pigs, and other animals. Drug-resistant bacteria carried by animals may contaminate the environment through feces and other excreta, and may be transmitted to humans through food and water sources. In addition, in recent years the population keeping pets has grown increasingly large; pets also contract infectious diseases and require antimicrobial drugs, and because of the close contact between humans and pets, the risk of cross-host transmission of drug-resistant bacteria has increased accordingly.

Containing bacterial antimicrobial resistance requires multidisciplinary and cross-field cooperation

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the causes of bacterial antimicrobial resistance are complex and involve a wide range of areas; containing bacterial antimicrobial resistance requires close multidisciplinary and cross-field collaboration before results can be achieved. China has successively issued the National Action Plan for Containing Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance (2016–2020) and the National Action Plan for Containing Antimicrobial Resistance (2022–2025), jointly issued by 14 and 13 departments respectively (including the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Education), coordinating multi-party forces to solve the resistance problem collaboratively and defining work objectives from multiple dimensions.

Strengthen discipline development. Many hospitals in China have not established infectious disease departments, which constrains the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, especially drug-resistant bacterial infections. In 2016, the former National Health and Family Planning Commission issued the Notice on Improving the Diagnosis and Treatment Capacity for Bacterial and Fungal Infections in Secondary and Above General Hospitals, requiring secondary and above general hospitals to establish infectious disease wards or medical teams primarily admitting patients with bacterial and fungal infections by 2020. However, a 2026 survey shows that currently only 58 percent of tertiary general hospitals in China have established infectious disease departments, and the proportion of hospitals with standardized diagnosis and treatment capacity for bacterial and fungal infections is even lower. It is thus evident that policy guidance still needs to be further strengthened, and the development of hospital infectious disease departments and bacterial and fungal subspecialties should be advanced to better respond to the problem of bacterial antimicrobial resistance.

Emphasize talent cultivation. The rational application of antimicrobial drugs and the prevention and treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections require multidisciplinary participation, but China's talent reserve clearly cannot meet clinical needs. Since 2015, China has established the "Pei Li Fang" medical continuing education program (including the Peiyuan, Peiying, Peiwei, and SHIP plans), which respectively train clinical physicians in bacterial and fungal infections, clinical pharmacists, clinical microbiologists, and hospital infection management professionals. This program has had considerable influence in the industry and has trained more than 21,000 backbone personnel to date, but there is still a large gap relative to clinical needs, and professional team building must be continuously strengthened through multiple forms and multiple channels.

Strengthen the rational application and management of antimicrobial drugs in hospitals. Relying on close collaboration among clinical departments (infectious diseases, respiratory, critical care, hematology, etc.) and clinical pharmacy, clinical microbiology, hospital infection management departments, and medical administration departments, strengthen training and combine it with information technology means to continuously improve the level of rational clinical application and refined management of antimicrobial drugs, thereby reducing the overall volume of antimicrobial drug use and reducing the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria.

Encourage the research and development of microbiological detection technologies. Rapid detection technologies for bacterial species and antimicrobial resistance developed on the basis of polymerase chain reaction, immunochromatography, metagenomic sequencing, and other technologies have been gradually applied to clinical pathogen diagnosis of infections, effectively improving the positive rate of pathogen detection, shortening the detection cycle, and assisting rapid and precise clinical treatment. However, problems still exist, such as difficulty in interpreting detection results, insufficient technological accessibility, and imperfect medical insurance support, which remain to be continuously optimized and resolved in the future.

Support the research and development and clinical application of new antimicrobial drugs. In the past 10 years, 14 new antimicrobial drugs have been launched on the domestic market, half of which have antibacterial activity against carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, the most clinically intractable. In addition, domestic research institutions and enterprises are increasingly active in developing new antimicrobial drugs; among the above 14 antimicrobial drugs, 2 are original new antimicrobial drugs created in China, and several others have completed or are undergoing phase III clinical trials. The development and launch of these new antimicrobial drugs provide more options for the treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections and help reduce the incidence of drug-resistant bacteria. Compared with other categories of new drugs, new antimicrobial drugs also face more management issues after launch, such as the 35/50 specification limit for antimicrobial drugs entering hospitals — that is, the admission caps for antimicrobial drugs in secondary and tertiary hospitals are 35 and 50 varieties respectively — meaning that tertiary hospitals can purchase fewer than one-third of the varieties currently on the market, which affects the clinical accessibility of new antimicrobial drugs and will also affect the enthusiasm of research institutions and enterprises for developing innovative antimicrobial drugs. From the perspective of clinical needs and resistance mechanisms, the diversified use of clinical antimicrobial drugs helps reduce antimicrobial selection pressure and reduce outbreaks and epidemics of drug-resistant bacteria.

Standardize the use of antimicrobial drugs in the food animal sector. China has already carried out multiple related governance efforts, but there is still room for strengthening in several aspects, including improving regulations on antimicrobial drug use in food animals (such as prohibiting the use of human antimicrobial drugs in animals and strictly controlling the addition of antimicrobial drugs to feed), and strengthening supervision and law enforcement. Research and develop feed additives that are not antimicrobial drugs.

Carry out diversified science popularization and publicity. Through continuous publicity by various media, the awareness of the public in China regarding the rational use of antimicrobial drugs has improved markedly, but phenomena such as the use of antimicrobial drugs in children without indications (most commonly the misuse of antimicrobial drugs during viral infections) still exist. In coordination with World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, which the WHO conducts every November, education and publicity can be carried out through various forms such as science popularization articles and short promotional videos to promote the widespread dissemination of knowledge on rational drug use.

(The author is the director of the Institute of Antibiotics, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University.)

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Robots: Replacing Humanity or Liberating It?

By: 王韬 孙蕴嘉

From the explosion of large language models in 2023 to the accelerated deployment of embodied intelligence in 2025, robots are moving from "mechanical execution" toward "autonomous cognition" at an unprecedented pace. Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot can undertake precision assembly in factories, Figure 03 leverages multimodal large models to achieve natural conversation and collaboration with humans, and China has likewise seen the emergence of dozens of general-purpose humanoid robot startups, including Unitree Robotics and Galaxy General. According to the World Robotics Report 2025 released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), global newly installed industrial robots reached 542,000 units in 2024, exceeding 500,000 units for the fourth consecutive year. In the first half of this year, China's humanoid robot output has already surpassed 40,000 units, and the full-year figure is expected to exceed 100,000 units. As robots' perception, decision-making, and action capabilities increasingly approach those of humans, an ultimate question that once belonged to science fiction fans now confronts every ordinary person: will they crowd out our living space, or will they liberate us from dangerous, tedious, and repetitive labor? The answer lies not only in the trajectory of technological evolution but also requires deep examination from the dimensions of social ethics and governance.

Ethical considerations in robot design

Throughout the history of human cognition regarding the relationship between robots and society, views have consistently assumed a pluralistic and complex character. Some machines are regarded purely as tools — for instance, in the early days of industrial robot proliferation, the mechanical arms operating repeatedly on assembly lines could efficiently complete tasks such as welding, and because they lacked the attributes of "persons," they rarely triggered ethical reflection. However, human longing for "robots" has a long history. In 1939, at the New York World's Fair in the United States, the household robot Elektro, manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, made a stunning debut — it could walk, speak quite a few words, and even smoke cigarettes. Elektro's appearance greatly concretized people's imagination of household robots; it was no longer merely a mechanical device executing a single task but was endowed with a certain social attribute. As robots gradually entered fields involving direct interaction with humans, such as healthcare and services, more people began to realize that robot design must incorporate ethical considerations.

As early as 1942, science fiction writer Asimov proposed the famous Three Laws of Robotics (along with the later-added Zeroth Law): the Zeroth Law, a robot must protect the overall interests of humanity from harm; the First Law, a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; the Second Law, a robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; the Third Law, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. This conception attempted to establish a basic ethical framework for robot behavior, but in practical application it faces significant dilemmas. If Asimov's laws are taken only as an ethical framework, that is clearly insufficient. For example, in the field of autonomous driving, when confronted with the "trolley problem," a car cannot satisfy the First Law of "not harming humans" regardless of whether it chooses to collide with a single pedestrian who ran the red light or with multiple people who obeyed traffic rules. More cutting-edge thinking hopes to endow algorithms with ethical and moral judgment capabilities similar to those of humans. However, ethics is a social-level value yardstick for coordinating relationships and safeguarding consensus, while morality pertains to individual conscience; this conceptual system based on human social experience is very difficult to fully convert into machine computational logic. At present, the focus of discussion on robot ethics remains on the responsibilities of designers, manufacturers, and users, rather than on the ethical and moral awakening of robots themselves. In 2002, roboticist Gianmarco Veruggio first proposed the concept of roboethics. He held that roboethics is an applied ethics whose goal is to develop scientific, cultural, and technical tools that can be shared by different social groups and beliefs, aimed at promoting and encouraging the development of robotics so that robots can benefit human society and individuals, while preventing the misuse of robot technology from causing harm to humans. This means that robots remain technological products that must operate within an ethical framework set by humans.

The dual social impact of robots

The social impact of robots presents a distinctly dual-faced character. Regarding the replacement of humans, this is mainly reflected in employment restructuring and autonomous risk. When robots begin to enter traditional employment domains, concerns about replacement become unavoidable. Projections from Oxford Economics show that by 2030, the number of manufacturing jobs that industrial robots may replace will account for 8.5 percent of the global manufacturing workforce. Although new technical positions — such as robot operation and maintenance — emerge accordingly, the pain of workforce skill transformation is real. Potential replacement in the service sector also deserves attention — if one day educational robots can participate in teaching in physical form and precisely match each student's learning pace through data analysis, will the role of teachers be marginalized? When care robots take on the task of accompanying elderly people, will the emotional connections of human society become alienated? These scenarios are still far from becoming reality, but they have already triggered widespread concern. These worries are not entirely groundless, but what deserves deeper reflection is which industries robots can actually replace — are these industries positions that must be defended in the development of human civilization, or are they domains we originally wished to liberate? Take mining, for example: perhaps miners in harsh environments truly hope that robots can liberate them so they can do something more valuable.

Regarding the liberation of humans, this is mainly reflected in capability breakthroughs in dangerous scenarios and heavy physical labor. A notable social value of robots lies in liberating humans from high-risk, high-load, or high-precision tasks. In extreme environments such as mountain rescue and deep-sea mineral exploration, robots equipped with sensors and remote interaction systems can reach areas inaccessible to humans. For example, engineers can use AR/VR devices to control robots from a first-person perspective to work on ultra-high-voltage power grids, both avoiding the risk of electric shock and breaking through the limits of human physical capacity for high-altitude operations. This model of "human decision-making plus machine execution" does not replace humans; in essence, it extends human capabilities through robots. Industrial robots can operate continuously for 24 hours, freeing workers from repetitive and tedious physical labor so they can shift toward more creative process optimization work. In heavy machinery maintenance workshops, robots, relying on the flexible joints of humanoid arms and torso balance capabilities, can autonomously grasp tools such as wrenches and screwdrivers like humans, reach into narrow spaces inside equipment to complete procedures such as bolt removal and parts replacement, without relying on fixed tracks or dedicated fixtures; their built-in endurance systems support several hours of continuous operation, avoiding the physical strain on humans caused by prolonged bending and load-bearing, while workers can concentrate on formulating maintenance plans and monitoring key parameters, achieving a division of labor in which machines perform heavy physical work and humans perform high-value intellectual work.

Toward a people-centered human-machine future

The original intention of robots' emergence is to help humans. Although there are risks requiring attention in this process, on the whole, they will certainly promote the progress of human civilization and the further liberation of productive forces. This requires that, in designing and advancing robot development, we on the one hand strictly set ethical boundaries to prevent negative fluctuations, and on the other hand, society as a whole must actively consider what role humans should play to promote the continued evolution of civilization under the premise of human-robot coexistence.

First, build a protective system of technological ethics. To prevent the disorderly development of robots from crowding out social resources and impacting humans' core rights and interests, the primary prerequisite is to deeply embed ethical constraints throughout the entire technical design process. The classic Asimov's laws are already difficult to cope with ethical dilemmas in complex real-world scenarios; there is an urgent need to establish a hierarchical, implementable robot ethics framework suited to the times. At the level of core principles, clearly delineate technical red lines, prohibiting robots from touching fundamental rights and interests such as the human right to life, basic decision-making rights, and personal dignity. At the application level, impose rigid restrictions on the scope of robots' autonomous behavior and decision-making authority through means such as algorithmic regulation and technical locking. This constraint requires the collaborative participation of interdisciplinary forces including technical experts, ethics scholars, legal professionals, and sociologists, embedding the principles of technology for good and people-centeredness into the underlying logic of robot research and development, design, and production, making ethical constraints an internal requirement of technological development rather than an external addition.

Second, promote structural adjustment of social resources. The key to responding to employment replacement lies in actively guiding the labor force toward fields that robots find difficult to replace. Drawing on international experience, when manufacturing introduces robots, transforming assembly line workers through vocational training into high-skilled positions such as robot operation and maintenance specialists can effectively mitigate the impact of unemployment. More tangible transformations are reflected in multiple existing fields — in the catering industry, after the popularization of automatic ordering machines and smart meal delivery cabinets, waitstaff can shift to recommending signature dishes to customers and explaining the stories behind ingredients, enhancing the dining experience; in the logistics sector, after the deployment of intelligent sorting robots, warehouse workers can transition into special-case handling specialists, specifically dealing with claims coordination for damaged packages and communication of delivery plans for special items — these tasks requiring flexible response and interpersonal negotiation are precisely what machines find difficult to perform perfectly. At the same time, vigilance is needed against technology exacerbating social polarization; policy regulation must be used to prevent high-end robot technology from becoming a privilege of the few. In agriculture, shared robot service stations can be established so that smallholder farmers can also use high-end equipment such as precision seeding and intelligent irrigation on demand, without falling behind large farms in production efficiency due to inability to purchase such equipment individually; in education, smart teaching assistance systems from high-quality schools should be opened to under-resourced schools, enabling rural students to also enjoy technical support such as personalized error analysis and knowledge point reinforcement through remote collaboration, preventing the digital divide from continuously widening due to technological monopoly.

Finally, attach importance to the irreplaceability of humanistic values. In fields such as healthcare, education, and elderly care, the boundaries of human leadership must be clearly defined. Surgical robots can be the "hands" of doctors, but the wisdom of diagnosis and the warmth of comfort must still be conveyed by human doctors; educational robots can be carriers of knowledge, but the shaping of values and emotional resonance can only be accomplished by teachers. Some elderly care institutions implement a "human-machine staffing ratio system" in the application of care robots, pairing equipment with human caregivers in fixed combinations, allowing technology to play an auxiliary value while satisfying the emotional needs of elderly patients through humanistic care. Clearly defining the core positioning of robots as serving humans can effectively prevent them from reversing course and dominating social relationships.

From the controversy in 2017 over the robot Sophia obtaining Saudi Arabian citizenship, to employment discussions in industrial scenarios, the development of robots has always been accompanied by the dual narrative of "replacement" and "liberation." In fact, the essence of technology has never been to replace humans, but to expand the boundaries of human possibility through capability extension. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to anchor with ethics and steer with governance, adhering to one principle in technological development: robots can become partners of humanity, but they should never become the protagonists of society. Only in this way can robots truly become a force for liberating humanity, rather than creating new survival dilemmas.

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Advancing Compensation for Ecological and Environmental Damage in a Coordinated Manner

By: 於方

In 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System, listing "strictly implementing the ecological environment damage compensation system" as one of six special reform tasks, officially embarking on the path of institutional reform exploration. In 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed "coordinated advancement of ecological environment damage compensation," pointing the direction for deepening the reform. The Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China, adopted in March 2026, provides explicit provisions on ecological environment damage compensation, consolidating the foundation for institutional operation at the level of national law. After more than 10 years of sustained tackling and steady advancement, China's ecological environment damage compensation system has achieved a historic breakthrough from nonexistence to existence, and a whole-chain governance pattern featuring clear responsibilities, unimpeded channels, standardized technology, robust safeguards, compensation in place, and effective restoration has been preliminarily established.

At present, although the reform of the ecological environment damage compensation system has achieved notable phased results, some problems still exist in practice that constrain the reform from advancing in depth. First, the supply of specialized legislation is insufficient. The legal nature of current ecological environment damage remains controversial, and there is a lack of unified provisions on key links such as the articulation of administrative, civil, and criminal procedures, fund management, and restoration implementation. Second, interdepartmental coordination effectiveness is insufficient. As of the end of 2025, approximately 70% of ecological environment damage compensation cases nationwide were handled by ecological environment departments, with insufficient proactive participation from other relevant departments, and the role of multi-department joint governance has not been fully unleashed. Third, the technical methodology system is not yet complete. Ecological environment damage is diverse in type, complex in causation, and multifaceted in scenario; the existing technical standard system has problems such as incomplete standard coverage, insufficient refinement of content provisions, and inadequate articulation between technical standards in different fields, and the overall technical support capacity needs further enhancement. Fourth, a whole-chain closed-loop mechanism for compensation and restoration has not yet been formed. Ecological environment damage compensation includes multiple links such as fund collection, management and disbursement, project implementation, and effectiveness acceptance; existing supporting operational mechanisms do not cover the entire process of compensation and restoration, and there are problems such as compensation funds being unable to be directly used for damage relief, insufficiently smooth articulation with restoration projects, and unsound restoration effectiveness evaluation systems, so the effectiveness of the ecological environment damage compensation system has not been fully realized.

The "15th Five-Year Plan" outline proposes "improving the ecological environment damage compensation system." In response to existing institutional and practical pain points, efforts should be continuously strengthened in coordinating legislation, departments, land and sea, technology, and funds, systematically resolving practical bottlenecks and difficulties, and promoting the system to go deeper and be implemented more solidly.

Strengthen legislative coordination and consolidate the institutional foundation of rule of law. The ecological environment damage compensation system, after more than 10 years of sustained exploration and practice, has accumulated a series of replicable and scalable mature experiences and work achievements that need to be solidified and regulated through specialized legislation; at the same time, in response to core difficulties such as incomplete definition of the scope of damage and poor procedural articulation, specialized legislation is needed to make clear and unified institutional arrangements, using a complete rule-of-law system to safeguard the long-term operation of the institution. On the one hand, clarify the inclusion of natural resource damage in the scope of ecological environment damage compensation. Because the economic value of natural resources themselves (such as the economic value of water resources) cannot be separated from the value of the water ecological services they provide (such as service functions including aquatic organism habitats and climate regulation), if consultation and litigation are conducted separately according to natural resource asset damage compensation and ecological environment damage compensation, it is highly likely to result in duplicate claims and gaps in accountability, artificially severing the governance logic of integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, and violating the essential characteristics of the integrity and interconnectedness of ecosystems. Through specialized legislation coordinating both types of damage compensation, the simultaneous protection and simultaneous restoration of the economic value of natural resources and the value of ecological services can be achieved, making accountability and restoration work more systematic and complete. On the other hand, straighten out the applicable logic of multiple relief channels, and clarify the order of application of ecological environment damage compensation consultation, litigation, and environmental civil public interest litigation. Refine the preconditions for consultation, time limits for handling, and the litigation articulation procedures after consultation failure, clarify the standards for initiating litigation procedures when consultation yields no result or cases are not concluded within the time limit, achieve orderly articulation and efficient linkage between consultation and litigation, and promote the whole-process legalization, standardization, and normalization of ecological environment damage compensation and restoration.

Strengthen departmental coordination and pool multi-party governance synergy. Ecological environment damage compensation work involves multiple fields and multiple departments, and it is necessary to adhere to a systematic perspective and continuously improve the cross-departmental coordinated linkage work pattern. As of the end of 2025, approximately 66,900 ecological environment damage compensation cases had been handled nationwide, of which cases involving amounts below 50,000 yuan accounted for about 80%, with small cases constituting the majority, and the administrative cost of multi-department case handling is relatively high. Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to innovate the multi-department collaborative case-handling working mechanism, standardize case-handling procedures, maximize the conservation of administrative resources, and improve case-handling quality and efficiency. On the other hand, based on the governance needs of lawful articulation among criminal prosecution, civil compensation, and administrative performance of duties, it is necessary to further refine and improve supporting rules for the transfer of case leads, case handover, and evidence sharing between administrative, civil, and criminal procedures, fill the institutional shortcomings in cross-department and cross-institution case-handling articulation, and comprehensively pool a strong synergy for joint management and joint governance of ecological environment damage.

Strengthen land-sea coordination and achieve whole-domain systematic governance. For a long time, land and marine ecological environment governance have been relatively fragmented, and current laws and regulations have not been effectively integrated, with problems in ecological environment damage such as inconsistent accountability preconditions, unclear claims subjects, and inconsistent case-handling procedures. Based on the concept of whole-domain governance, it is still necessary to coordinate the advancement of land and sea damage compensation institutional development: first, unify accountability preconditions, clarifying that the initiation of ecological environment damage compensation should be premised on "causing losses" through acts such as environmental pollution and ecological destruction. Second, clarify the boundaries of claims rights and responsibilities, exploring that damage compensation work in territorial coastal waters be uniformly responsible for by the department or institution designated by the compensation right holder, and that damage compensation work in waters under national jurisdiction implement multi-department coordinated performance of duties and linked handling. Third, unify case-handling procedural rules, making consultation a mandatory pre-procedure for compensation, and filing ecological environment damage compensation lawsuits in accordance with law where consultation fails. At the same time, under land-sea coordinated management, it is more convenient to draw on the mature institutional experience of ship oil pollution compulsory insurance and oil pollution damage compensation funds, continuously improve the fund management mechanism for ecological environment damage compensation, and break through land-sea governance barriers.

Strengthen technical coordination and improve the standard support system. Technical standards are an important foundation for accurate identification, scientific assessment, and standardized compensation of ecological environment damage. At present, the construction plan for ecological environment damage appraisal and assessment standards is being orderly formulated and implemented, coordinating the advancement of technological research and development and standard formulation, and providing guidance for the standardized and systematic construction of the technical system. First, improve the existing technical standards for ecological environment damage appraisal and assessment, promptly fill key links such as physical quantification, causation determination, and value quantification, and improve technical standards for environmental elements such as ambient air and ecosystems such as wetlands and grasslands, as well as basic methods including the virtual treatment cost method, remote sensing monitoring analysis, statistical analysis, and fingerprint spectra. Second, strengthen the guidance of standards for practical work, increase the series of standards for application fields, mainly providing more operational and standardized guidance on applicable standards, specific work links, and parameter selection for common types of cases such as dumping and landfilling and illegal construction; at the same time, revise published standards in a timely manner according to practice to ensure consistency of standards. Third, coordinate the formulation and revision of standards across all fields, maintain the systematic nature of the ecological environment damage appraisal and assessment standard system, effectively avoid problems such as standard overlap, content conflicts, and application misalignment caused by departments initiating projects separately and formulating standards in a dispersed manner, and make necessary revisions and improvements to guidelines and norms in fields such as marine and agriculture in light of actual application conditions, resolving the problem that existing standards are not fully articulated.

Strengthen fund coordination and achieve a closed loop of compensation and restoration. The full realization of institutional effectiveness cannot be separated from organic articulation and concerted action among institutions. Based on the needs of modernization of ecological environment governance, it is necessary to continuously open up the linkage channels between ecological environment damage compensation and related institutions. On the one hand, deepen the coordinated advancement of the fund guarantee system, forming an institutional closed loop of ex-ante prevention through environmental pollution liability insurance and ex-post compensation for ecological environment damage. Drawing on the institutional experience of the U.S. Petroleum Trust Fund and Superfund, all localities can be encouraged to expand the industry scope of environmental pollution liability insurance, guide enterprises in high environmental risk industries such as petroleum, chemical, steel, electric power, metallurgy, and hazardous waste generation to proactively take out insurance, and carry out pilot integration of damage compensation funds with soil pollution prevention funds, gradually forming a virtuous governance cycle of "enterprises proactively assume responsibility, funds and insurance provide a safety net, and the environment is effectively restored." On the other hand, improve the articulation rules between alternative restoration implementation and the use of compensation funds. All localities are encouraged to build alternative restoration project repositories according to local conditions, clarify the applicable rules for alternative restoration and the priority of compensation fund use, promote funds being preferentially invested in repository restoration projects and restoration areas, and enhance public awareness of the ecological environment damage compensation system and environmental sense of gain. At the same time, based on the core characteristics of the integrity and public welfare nature of the ecological environment, attempts should be made to break through administrative division governance barriers, promote the innovative integration of the ecological environment damage compensation system and the ecological protection compensation system, take multi-regional operating compensation obligors as a pilot, explore the realization of horizontal ecological compensation through cross-regional alternative restoration, and coordinate the advancement of integrated governance of damaged ecosystems across river basins and across regions.

(The author is the Chief Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Ministry of Ecology and Environment)

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Coordinating carbon and nitrogen cycles to boost green agricultural development

By: 逄焕成

Carbon and nitrogen are the most fundamental elements of life activities and also the core of material cycling in agricultural ecosystems. The degree of coordination between the carbon and nitrogen cycles directly determines the efficiency of agricultural production, the health of soils, and the quality of the ecological environment. At present, China's agriculture is in a critical period of transitioning from the traditional extensive model to a modern green and low-carbon model. Coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles is not only an inherent requirement of agricultural green transformation, but also an important lever for advancing the construction of agricultural ecological civilization.

The imbalance of the carbon and nitrogen cycles is a systemic problem. For a long time, the intensity and speed of human intervention in the carbon and nitrogen cycles have far exceeded the self-regulating capacity of natural ecosystems. According to a study on carbon and nitrogen cycles published in the internationally renowned academic journal Science, in recent years the problem of imbalanced carbon and nitrogen emission ratios has been relatively prominent, and the green transformation of agriculture is already 刻不容缓 (kè bù róng huǎn - "cannot tolerate delay," extremely urgent).

From the perspective of carbon, farmland soil, as one of the largest terrestrial carbon pools in the world, has the stability and growth of its carbon pool directly related to soil fertility and greenhouse gas emissions. Behaviors such as excessive tillage, straw burning, and insufficient input of organic matter have led to the continuous loss of soil organic carbon, and the problem of soil "carbon hunger" is becoming increasingly serious. From the perspective of nitrogen, even though the nitrogen fertilizer utilization rate has improved in recent years, the nutrient input to farmland is still 2 to 3 times the crop requirement. Excessive nitrogen application not only causes soil acidification and water eutrophication, but also increases nitrous oxide emissions, whose warming potential is approximately 273 times that of carbon dioxide.

The imbalance of the carbon and nitrogen cycles is, in essence, a systemic problem. Insufficient carbon input weakens the soil's carbon sequestration capacity and nutrient retention capacity, while excessive nitrogen input intensifies nitrogen loss and greenhouse gas emissions. The two interact and amplify each other, forming a vicious cycle. To break this deadlock, it is necessary to establish systematic thinking, shift from "single-point governance" to "systematic coordination," and take carbon and nitrogen as a whole for integrated regulation and control.

Practical pathways for coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles is centered on restoring the agricultural ecosystem to the healthy state of "carbon-nitrogen balance"—both enhancing the soil's carbon sequestration capacity and nutrient retention capacity through carbon increase, and reducing environmental load through nitrogen reduction and efficiency improvement. In recent years, various regions have accumulated rich experience in theoretical research and practical exploration, and have initially formed four effective pathways.

Optimize cropping systems to achieve carbon-nitrogen synergy from the source. Adjusting the planting structure is the foundational means of coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles, with the core being the use of natural nitrogen fixation capacity to replace part of the chemical nitrogen sources. In the corn-soybean rotation cropping system, through straw returning to the field to supplement carbon, combined with soybean nitrogen fixation for carbon-nitrogen synergistic regulation, the coordinated improvement of black soil tillage layer thickness, organic matter content, and crop yield can be achieved. In recent years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (农业农村部) has continuously promoted the soybean and oilseed capacity enhancement project, and corn-soybean rotation has been widely promoted in Northeast China, the Huang-Huai-Hai region, and other areas, becoming a typical paradigm for coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles and combining land use with land nurturing. In addition, in the southern Chinese milk vetch-double-cropping rice rotation areas, Chinese milk vetch, as a traditional green manure, can provide nutrients equivalent to 5-8 kilograms of pure nitrogen per mu for the subsequent rice crop after being turned under, replacing 15%-25% of chemical nitrogen fertilizer while increasing soil organic carbon input. These practices demonstrate that optimizing cropping systems can not only reduce fertilizer input, but also simultaneously enhance the soil carbon pool, achieving the dual goals of "carbon increase" and "nitrogen reduction."

Precise nutrient management, bidding farewell to the extensive application of chemical fertilizers. Improving the nitrogen fertilizer utilization rate is a key link in reducing environmental pollution. According to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2024 the chemical fertilizer utilization rate for China's three major grain crops—rice, corn, and wheat—was 42.6%, and in 2025 it further increased to 43.3%, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared with 2020. The steady improvement in the chemical fertilizer utilization rate marks that China's scientific fertilization level has reached a new stage. However, it must also be clearly recognized that the current nutrient input to farmland is still far higher than the actual crop requirement, and there is still considerable room for fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement. Precise fertilization is the core means of achieving this goal. Through the potato nutrient expert system to optimize fertilization, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs can be reduced by 34.4% and 74.5% respectively, and greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by 34.1%.

Granulated straw returning to the field, an innovative pathway to solve the problem of straw returning. Straw returning is an important means of improving soil organic matter and achieving carbon-nitrogen synergy, but traditional direct straw returning has long faced prominent bottlenecks such as slow decomposition, difficulty in improving organic matter, and high risk of yield reduction. In response to this problem, Chinese scientists have innovatively proposed the granulated straw returning technology—secondary crushing of crop straw and then extruding it into granules, reducing the straw volume to 1/10-1/15 of the original, with significantly improved returning performance. Research shows that after granulation, the decomposition rate of straw is greatly increased, meaning that carbon and nutrients can be released into the soil more quickly, and the efficiency of soil fertility improvement is significantly enhanced. In terms of carbon and nitrogen accumulation, continuous deep burial returning of granulated straw at 5 tons per mu for three years can increase the soil organic matter content of the 0-40 centimeter layer from 2.79% to 3.60%, an increase of 0.81 percentage points over three years. Compared with no straw returning, the total carbon content of the surface and subsurface soil layers increases by 14% and 51% respectively, and the total nitrogen content increases by 9% and 42% respectively, with a relatively balanced soil carbon-nitrogen ratio. In terms of yield increase effects, granulated straw returning achieves the synergy of nurturing the land and nurturing the crop. At present, this technology has been widely promoted and applied, and can achieve a 10%-20% reduction in chemical fertilizer and an 8%-15% increase in crop yield, effectively solving the production difficulties of straw that "cannot be returned, cannot be burned, and has nowhere to be placed."

Coordinated regulation of water, carbon, and nitrogen, promoting systematic comprehensive governance. Taking water, carbon, and nitrogen as a system for integrated regulation is the frontier direction of current agricultural green transformation. Through the coordinated efforts of three measures—water management, straw management, and fertilizer management—a "systematic optimization" is performed on the farmland ecosystem, unblocking the "bottlenecks" of the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles, achieving the dual goals of "pollution reduction" and "carbon reduction" while ensuring crop yield, and shifting to a new stage of high-quality development that is resource-saving, environmentally friendly, and ecologically circular.

Important guarantees for coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles ultimately depends on scientific and technological support. At present, from molecular breeding to digital monitoring, from new fertilizers to intelligent management and control, science and technology are opening up entirely new pathways for carbon-nitrogen synergy. In the field of breeding, Chinese scientists have successfully achieved the synergistic optimization of crop carbon metabolism and nitrogen utilization by regulating key genes in the gibberellin signaling pathway within plants, significantly improving nitrogen fertilizer utilization efficiency while ensuring yield. These breakthroughs in basic research are providing a theoretical basis for cultivating green varieties with "less input, more output." In the field of monitoring and management, through the construction of an integrated agricultural carbon monitoring management platform, real-time online monitoring of farmland carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles has been achieved. This digitalized and precise management means has moved carbon-nitrogen synergistic regulation from "experience-based judgment" to "data-driven" approaches, laying a methodological foundation for large-scale promotion and application. In the field of fertilizers, carbon-nitrogen balance technology and its core products are providing new product support for solving the problem of crop "carbon hunger." The promotion and application of soil conditioners such as biochar and straw granules also provides effective tools for the carbon-nitrogen synergistic restoration of degraded soils.

Coordinating the carbon and nitrogen cycles requires both technological breakthroughs and institutional guarantees. The Implementation Plan for Emission Reduction and Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture and Rural Areas (《农业农村减排固碳实施方案》) jointly issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission (国家发展改革委) clarifies six key tasks and ten major actions, including emission reduction and efficiency improvement in the planting industry and carbon sequestration and capacity expansion in farmland. The Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Agricultural Development and Promoting Rural Ecological Revitalization (《关于加快农业发展全面绿色转型促进乡村生态振兴的指导意见》) issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs proposes that by 2030 a green, low-carbon, and circular agricultural industrial system will be preliminarily established, and by 2035 green production methods will be basically formed. These policy frameworks provide strong institutional support for carbon-nitrogen synergistic regulation. In the next step, efforts should be continuously made in three aspects. First, strengthen policy incentives, improve the agricultural subsidy system oriented toward green ecology, and provide compensation to operating entities that adopt carbon-increasing and nitrogen-reducing measures such as straw returning, green manure planting, and organic fertilizer substitution. Second, improve the accounting system, accelerate the establishment of accounting methods and standards for agricultural carbon and nitrogen emissions, and lay the foundation for agricultural emission reduction to enter the carbon trading market. Third, cultivate market mechanisms. In December 2025, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (生态环境部) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly issued the Methodology for Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Projects—Centralized Treatment of Agricultural Waste (《温室气体自愿减排项目方法学农业废弃物集中处理工程》), marking the expansion of carbon trading into the agricultural field. This opportunity should be seized to make market forces an important engine for promoting carbon-nitrogen synergy.

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (中国农业科学院农业资源与农业区划研究所).)

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Theoretical Party strengthening is the key to our Party's continued success in creating new glories.

By: 王毅

Emphasizing ideological party-building and theoretical party-strengthening is a distinctive feature and glorious tradition of the Communist Party of China. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Reviewing the Party's course of struggle, one can find that an important reason why our Party has been able to continuously endure hardships and create new glories is that our Party has always attached importance to ideological party-building and theoretical party-strengthening, insisted on arming the minds of the broad masses of Party members and cadres with scientific theory, and enabled the whole Party to always maintain unified thinking, firm will, and strong combat effectiveness." In a certain sense, the more than one hundred years of history of the Communist Party of China is a history of continuously advancing the sinicization and modernization of Marxism, continuously advancing theoretical innovation and conducting theoretical creation, and a history of continuously leading the development of the Party and the people's cause with the Party's innovative theory. On the new journey of the new era, to win advantages, win the initiative, win the future, and overcome all kinds of roadblocks and stumbling blocks on the way forward, we must unremittingly use the latest achievements of the sinicization of Marxism to arm our minds and unite our souls, strengthen the whole Party's Marxist faith and communist ideal, and continuously improve the theoretical thinking ability and ideological and political level of the whole Party, especially leading cadres.

Starting from the "combination of doctrines"

Around the birth of the Communist Party of China, the country was torn apart and currents of thought were surging. Hundreds of trends of thought such as "socialism," "anarchism," "work-studyism," and "pragmatism" appeared on the stage one after another. Mao Zedong once said, "If one truly wants to establish aspirations, it cannot be so easy; one must first study philosophy and ethics, take the truth obtained therefrom as the standard for one's own words and actions, establish it as the goal for the future, and then choose matters that conform to this goal and strive to do them." Among the various trends of thought that were gradually dazzling to the eye, determining one doctrine as the guiding ideology for transforming China was by no means an easy task.

China's advanced elements did not firmly believe in Marxism from the very beginning. They moved back and forth among various thoughts, constantly using various doctrines to conduct "experiments." When a certain plan did not work, they would clean up after themselves and turn to test the next possibility. Each failure brought these explorers one step closer to Marxism. After long-term comparison, screening, and practical testing, combined with in-depth thinking on the domestic and international situation, these advanced elements finally recognized the scientific nature of Marxist theory and the thoroughness of its revolutionary propositions, and unanimously completed their transformation into Marxists. Zhou Enlai made it clear, "We should believe in the principles of communism and the two major principles of class revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat." After "fiercely reading and fiercely translating" various thoughts, Cai Hesen became convinced that Marxism was the correct prescription for transforming China, and wrote to Mao Zedong to express this firm conviction. Mao Zedong replied, "Your letter is extremely sound in its views; I do not have a single word of disagreement." This kind of theoretical resolve tempered through countless "comparisons and experiments" was even more firm and more enduring.

Attaching importance to theoretical arming is a distinctive feature of Marxist political parties. Engels pointed out, "Our Party has a great advantage, namely, that it has a new scientific world outlook as its theoretical basis." Lenin further emphasized, "Without revolutionary theory, there will be no strong socialist party," and "Only a party guided by advanced theory can fulfill the role of an advanced fighter." When these principles were transmitted to China through the Communist International, the early Chinese Communists' high degree of theoretical consciousness had a clear source.

"A doctrine is like a banner; once the banner is raised, people have something to look forward to and know where to go." Since the day of its birth, the Communist Party of China has been a "vanguard" formed on the basis of common belief and scientific theory. The powerful force generated by firm belief in the doctrine is precisely the special advantage of the Communist Party of China over other political forces in modern China, and it became the spiritual support that enabled the Communist Party of China to rise up no matter what difficulties it encountered.

Answering in practice how to treat theory

With theory in hand, the next question to answer was: how to treat theory? The answer to this question directly determined the fate of the Chinese revolution.

At the founding of the Communist Party of China, due to lack of revolutionary experience, it once copied the Soviet Russian revolutionary model wholesale, mechanically applied classical Marxist phrases, and fell into the error of dogmatism. Mao Zedong later summarized: In the past, we learned to write characters with the teacher holding our hands. From the founding of the Party in 1921 to 1934, we suffered from the teacher; the program was drafted by the teacher, and the resolutions of the plenary sessions of the Central Committee were also drafted by the teacher, especially in 1934, when we suffered great losses. After that, we understood that we had to think about problems ourselves. It took us several decades to understand China. If Chinese people do not understand China's situation, how can that do? True understanding of independence and self-reliance began with the Zunyi Conference; this conference criticized dogmatism.

The lessons learned in blood gradually made the whole Party realize that Marxism is not a dogma to be memorized by rote, but a guide to action that must be applied in light of China's actual conditions. After the Long March victoriously reached northern Shaanxi, the Communist Party of China systematically summed up experiences and lessons and established the ideological line of seeking truth from facts. In 1938, at the enlarged Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Mao Zedong explicitly put forward the proposition of "sinicizing Marxism," requiring the integration of the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities, "so that in every manifestation it carries the necessary Chinese characteristics." This was a great awakening of the Party in ideology and theory. It was precisely under this theoretical consciousness that the Communist Party of China achieved the first historic leap in the sinicization of Marxism and created Mao Zedong Thought. Under the correct guidance of Mao Zedong Thought, the Communist Party of China led the people from victory in the War of Resistance against Japan to victory in the War of Liberation and established the national political power.

After the founding of New China, how to build socialism became a completely new historical subject facing the Communist Party of China. Mao Zedong put forward the major task of a "second combination," requiring "taking the Soviet Union as a mirror" and independently exploring China's own path to socialism, forming important theoretical achievements such as On the Ten Major Relationships and On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People. However, limited by historical conditions and the cognitive horizons of the era, the Chinese Communists of this period were unable to completely break free from conceptual constraints, and socialist construction therefore experienced twists and turns.

Deng Xiaoping reflected on this: "We summed up several decades of experience in building socialism. What socialism is, what Marxism is — in the past we did not fully understand." In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Communist Party of China re-established the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, proceeded from China's actual conditions, gradually shook off the shackles of traditional socialism, created Deng Xiaoping Theory, and blazed the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Thereafter, the important thought of the "Three Represents" scientifically answered the questions of the times concerning what socialism is and how to build it, and what kind of party to build and how to build it; the Scientific Outlook on Development systematically answered the questions of what kind of development to achieve under the new circumstances and how to develop. From "crossing the river by feeling the stones" to gradually forming and developing into a complete theoretical system, the Party's theoretical innovation has been continuously deepened.

Entering the new era, the Communist Party of China faces unprecedented new subjects. Facing the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the major changes unseen in a century in the world, how can the world's largest governing party, with more than 100 million Party members, maintain its resolve and open up new prospects amid complex and volatile changes? The answer is condensed in Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This thought systematically answers major questions of the times such as what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop and how to uphold and develop it in the new era, what kind of modern socialist country to build and how to build it, and what kind of long-term governing Marxist party to build and how to build it. It is the Marxism of contemporary China and the Marxism of the 21st century. The key to achieving such a major theoretical breakthrough lies in combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific realities and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture. This major thesis extends the practical foundation of the sinicization and modernization of Marxism from the realities of contemporary China's development to the fertile soil of more than five thousand years of excellent traditional Chinese culture, realizing the integration and fusion of the truth force of Marxism and the spiritual force of Chinese civilization.

It is precisely through continuous exploration that the Communist Party of China has gradually formed a scientific attitude toward theory: first, there is no once-and-for-all theory; fixed and static theories cannot adapt to developing reality. Second, the persuasive power of theory ultimately comes from its ability to solve practical problems. Third, every theoretical advance is not water without a source; it is inheritance and development on the basis of adhering to the basic principles of Marxism, reflecting a developmental logic that is both continuous in lineage and advancing with the times. This theoretical character of seeking truth from facts and upholding fundamental principles while breaking new ground enables the Communist Party of China to always stay at the forefront of the times, answer the questions of the times, and lead the development of the cause.

The vitality of scientific theory lies in guiding practice and transforming reality

Only with strong theory can the direction be clear, hearts be united, and confidence be sufficient. Looking at the more than one hundred years of struggle of the Communist Party of China, theoretical party-strengthening has never been idle talk in the study, but rather the transformation of scientific theory into a powerful material force for changing the world through effective practical mechanisms.

Uphold the unity of ideological party-building and theoretical party-strengthening. Ideological party-building solves the question of what Party members believe in, that is, using a scientific world outlook to transform the subjective world, so that Party members identify ideologically with the Party's program and purpose; theoretical party-strengthening solves the question of what to use to guide action, that is, arming the whole Party with Marxism that advances with the times and guiding the transformation of the objective world. The two support each other: ideological party-building is the premise of theoretical party-strengthening, and theoretical party-strengthening is the deepening of ideological party-building. Together they constitute the key to a Marxist party maintaining its advanced nature and combat effectiveness. At the Gutian Conference in 1929, in response to erroneous ideas that existed in the Party at the time, such as purely military viewpoints and extreme democratization, Mao Zedong made clear the principle of ideological party-building, pointing out that the Red Army "is an armed group that carries out the political tasks of the revolution," not merely a fighting force.

Promote a vigorous atmosphere of learning throughout the Party. Only through study can one truly appreciate the charm of theory, and then consciously practice theory in reality. "Every step forward in theoretical innovation must be followed by a step forward in theoretical arming." This is both a summary of historical experience and the basic principle by which the Communist Party of China always maintains ideological acuity and theoretical advancement. How to study? Within the Party there is both "spring breeze and rain"-style regular study and large-scale centralized study and education. Whenever a major historical juncture is reached, the Communist Party of China uses centralized study and education to unify thinking and calibrate direction. The Yan'an Rectification Movement can be called a model of whole-Party centralized study. During the rectification, the Party Central Committee compiled and printed the Rectification Documents, requiring that "each piece must be read carefully one by one, and notes must be taken on each piece." Those who experienced it recalled that the study atmosphere in Yan'an at the time was extremely strong; even grooms and cooks were studying, and the sound of reading could often be heard from the cave dwellings at night. Through this ideological baptism, the Communist Party of China thoroughly eliminated bad practices such as dogmatism, sectarianism, and Party stereotyped writing, and achieved unprecedented unity under the banner of Mao Zedong Thought. Since then, the Communist Party of China has continued this study tradition, and in the new era it has become even more regularized and institutionalized. Every major whole-Party study is a "major overhaul" and "major arming" of thought, enabling the whole Party to always maintain unified thinking, firm will, and coordinated steps in the face of complex and changing situations, thereby forming strong combat effectiveness.

Rely on organizations to realize the implementation of theory. Promoting study through organizations not only reflects the Communist Party of China's study tradition, but also reflects the Communist Party of China's unique organizational advantages. From its founding, the Communist Party of China emphasized organizational building. After more than one hundred years of practice, it has successfully constructed an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution, providing an important guarantee for carrying out the Party's various activities. The Sanwan Reorganization established the principle of "building the Party branch on the company level," enabling the Party's theoretical education to reach the most basic combat units of the military directly. Thereafter, through institutionalized arrangements such as branch meetings and Party lecture classes, the broad masses of Party members received theoretical education and ideological transformation in organizational life. It is precisely through Party organizations at all levels that the Communist Party of China's theory is transmitted layer by layer, penetrates to the grassroots, leaves the study, and goes to the workers and peasants, becoming an ideological weapon for mobilizing the masses and gathering strength. This tradition has been continuously institutionalized and standardized, from the collective study sessions of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to the "three meetings and one lecture" system at the grassroots level; organized study promotes theoretical arming to go deeper and more practical. It is precisely by relying on the rigorous organizational system that the Party's innovative theory can be transmitted from the Party Central Committee to the nerve endings of the grassroots in the shortest possible time, transformed into the ideological consciousness of the whole Party, and then blossom and bear fruit in practice.

Reviewing history, it is not difficult to find that since the day of its founding, the Communist Party of China has held high the great banner of scientific theory, advanced theoretical innovation in practice, and armed the whole Party with the Party's innovative theory. Precisely because it relies on theoretical sobriety and firmness, and insists on theoretical innovation and arming, the Communist Party of China has been able to always remain "calm and composed amid the flying clouds and surging mists" on its stormy journey, and always retain the confidence and confidence of "the scenery here is uniquely beautiful" amid complex situations.

[The author is Deputy Director of the Department of Party History Research of the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance)]

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