Summary: The article outlines China's plan to improve social security and care services for its approximately 85 million people with disabilities, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's directives and the 15th Five-Year Plan. It emphasizes strengthening social assistance, expanding social welfare and insurance, and consolidating poverty alleviation achievements for disabled people. The piece also addresses promoting employment and entrepreneurship, enhancing vocational skills, and leveraging new technologies like brain-computer interfaces and intelligent robots to empower disabled individuals. It calls for improving rehabilitation, education, and care services, enriching cultural and sports life, and safeguarding equal rights through legal and barrier-free environment reforms. The article concludes by stressing Party leadership, the role of disabled persons' federations, and the need to advance the cause in the correct political direction.
Summary: The article, authored by a member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee and head of its Organization Department, outlines how Tibet's organizational work must adhere to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building to safeguard stability and high-quality development. It emphasizes political construction as the lead, focusing on the four major tasks of stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation set by General Secretary Xi Jinping for Tibet. The piece details efforts to forge a high-quality cadre contingent, strengthen grassroots organizations, optimize staffing resources, and leverage paired assistance to Tibet. It also covers Party member education, talent cultivation through the "Everest Talent" plan, and the promotion of self-revolution within organizational departments. The article concludes by calling for new contributions to building a new socialist modernized Tibet.
Summary: The article argues that basic education holds a foundational and leading position in China's national education system, citing General Secretary Xi Jinping's emphasis on correctly grasping its positioning and fully implementing the Party's education policy. It stresses that basic education must be viewed within the broader context of the Party and state's undertakings, transcending narrow, utilitarian perspectives that focus only on enrollment rates. The piece highlights the need to balance fairness and quality, promoting high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education while avoiding both elitism and egalitarianism that suppresses potential. It calls for coordinated efforts among Party committees, governments, schools, families, and society to address challenges such as population changes and urbanization. Ultimately, the article asserts that solidifying basic education is essential for cultivating socialist builders and successors capable of undertaking the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Summary: The article emphasizes sovereign equality and mutual respect as fundamental principles, asserting that world history is jointly written by all peoples and that multipolarity, autonomous development paths, and democratized international relations represent humanity's correct course. It calls for upholding equal rights, opportunities, and rules for all countries regardless of size, strength, or wealth. The piece highlights Global South countries as an important component of the multipolar landscape and a key force in advancing multipolarity, urging enhanced representation and voice for them in international affairs.
Summary: The article argues that Chinese modernization creates a new form of human civilization by breaking the myth equating modernization with Westernization. It identifies four dimensions—historical foundation, value orientation, practical path, and theoretical innovation—that support this achievement. The piece emphasizes that Chinese modernization inherits five thousand years of Chinese civilization through the "second combination," and transcends the logic of capital by centering on the people rather than capital. It also highlights systematic advancement across material, political, spiritual, social, and ecological civilization, contrasting this with Western one-dimensional modernization. The article concludes that this practice provides developing countries with a new path and challenges Western theoretical hegemony, including the "end of history" narrative.
Summary: General Secretary Xi Jinping cited the ancient saying "One who governs small matters must not be negligent, for negligence leads to ruin" from the *Discourses on Salt and Iron* to stress that grassroots work, though concrete and routine, demands meticulous and painstaking effort. The article argues that negligence in small grassroots affairs can erode policy implementation, public services, and popular trust, ultimately undermining governance. It emphasizes that grassroots cadres must investigate truthfully, address each problem with a specific solution, and persevere with constancy rather than seeking one-off fixes. Grassroots work is ultimately mass work, requiring cadres to serve the people's urgent needs while mobilizing the masses as participants in governance. By handling every practical matter with sustained effort, the Party's governing foundation can be consolidated through concrete, daily achievements.
Summary: The article, authored by a member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee and head of its Organization Department, outlines how Tibet's organizational work must adhere to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building to safeguard stability and high-quality development. It emphasizes political construction as the lead, focusing on the four major tasks of stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation set by General Secretary Xi Jinping for Tibet. The piece details efforts to forge a high-quality cadre contingent, strengthen grassroots organizations, optimize staffing resources, and leverage paired assistance to Tibet. It also covers Party member education, talent cultivation through the "Everest Talent" plan, and the promotion of self-revolution within organizational departments. The article concludes by calling for new contributions to building a new socialist modernized Tibet.
Summary: Liu Junwei, member of the Standing Committee of the Xuchang Municipal Party Committee, deputy mayor of the municipal government, and deputy secretary of the Party Leadership Group, poses the question of how leading cadres should understand the three realms of theoretical study as described by General Secretary Xi Jinping, borrowing from scholar Wang Guowei's formulation. Wang Xuebin, professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), interprets that the first realm involves setting lofty aspirations and enduring solitude to consolidate the theoretical foundation, the second requires assiduous research with real, hard, and meticulous effort, and the third emphasizes independent thinking and combining study with application to achieve unity of knowledge and action. He stresses that theoretical cultivation is the core of a leading cadre's overall competence, and political firmness stems from theoretical clarity. The article underscores that leading cadres must internalize the Party's innovative theory into practical ability to solve problems, drawing wisdom from the masses and translating study results into action.
Summary: The article, authored by the Secretary of the Lishui Municipal Party Committee, draws on the revolutionary struggle in southwestern Zhejiang to extract lessons for the present. It highlights the establishment of the first CPC local organization in Lishui in 1927 and the three years of guerrilla warfare by the Red Army Advance Division from 1935 to 1937. The piece emphasizes firm conviction, daring to struggle, seeking truth from facts, and the deep foundation of military-civilian unity and mass support. It also stresses obedience to the Party's command and strict discipline as the magic weapon for victory. The author concludes by urging Party members to carry forward these red genes and walk well the Long March of the new era.
Summary: The article outlines China's plan to improve social security and care services for its approximately 85 million people with disabilities, following General Secretary Xi Jinping's directives and the 15th Five-Year Plan. It emphasizes strengthening social assistance, expanding social welfare and insurance, and consolidating poverty alleviation achievements for disabled people. The piece also addresses promoting employment and entrepreneurship, enhancing vocational skills, and leveraging new technologies like brain-computer interfaces and intelligent robots to empower disabled individuals. It calls for improving rehabilitation, education, and care services, enriching cultural and sports life, and safeguarding equal rights through legal and barrier-free environment reforms. The article concludes by stressing Party leadership, the role of disabled persons' federations, and the need to advance the cause in the correct political direction.
Summary: The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Federation of Social Sciences describes its efforts to answer the "questions of China, the questions of the world, the questions of the people, and the questions of the era" by building an independent knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences. The Federation highlights its work developing indicators for Guangxi as a demonstration zone for forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, conducting field research among ethnic groups, and promoting ethnic unity. In addressing global questions, it has held the China-ASEAN Grand Forum, conducted research in ASEAN countries, and proposed conceptual systems for cross-border data flows under RCEP. The article also details the Federation's grassroots popular science activities, including over 1,900 events reaching 1.6 million people, and its development of AI platforms such as the "AI Luosi Eye" with Tsinghua University. The piece concludes by outlining a three-stage framework for AI governance—"feeding," "disciplining," and "nurturing"—to embed core socialist values into technological development.
Summary: The article discusses the need to strengthen protection of Chinese citizens' and legal persons' legitimate overseas interests, as outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan, including establishing systems for responding to demands and providing protection and relief. It notes that overseas asset protection has become deeply integrated into national resource and supply chain security, forming an important component of safeguarding national economic security. The piece is part of an in-depth discussion launched by the Study Times high-end think tank edition on safeguarding overseas asset interests.
Summary: The article argues that China must accelerate building a national system to prevent and protect the safety of its overseas assets, which face intensifying geopolitical competition, "decoupling and severing supply chains" risks, and the "weaponization" of financial and currency risks. It details the composition of China's overseas assets, noting external financial assets of approximately USD 11.79 trillion as of end-2025, and outlines major challenges including host country political risks, physical security threats, and "long-arm jurisdiction" legal risks. The piece recommends strengthening top-level design, improving risk warning systems, and consolidating enterprise primary responsibility to form a protection system covering pre-event prevention, in-event control, and post-event handling. It specifically warns that the US dollar and dollar clearing system could be used as sanctions tools, posing a systemic threat to China's overseas financial assets. The author is identified as the Executive Director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University.
Summary: The article argues that protecting China's overseas assets requires shifting from passive defense to active rule-shaping as Chinese enterprises expand globally. It cites 2025 data showing outbound direct investment reached 1,245.58 billion yuan, involving 11,048 overseas enterprises in 153 countries, while noting risks from Western "long-arm jurisdiction" and geopolitical competition. The piece highlights recent institutional measures, including the "Regulations on Countering Improper Foreign Extraterritorial Jurisdiction" and the establishment of the Overseas State-Owned Assets Bureau. It recommends strengthening consular protection, building developing-country-friendly investment dispute mechanisms through APEC and BRICS, and enhancing enterprise compliance capabilities. The author, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, concludes that government and enterprises must jointly consolidate the overseas asset security defense line.
Summary: The article argues that traditional and emerging risks to China's overseas assets are increasingly intertwined, posing complex challenges to national security and the Belt and Road Initiative. Traditional risks include political instability, resource nationalism, macroeconomic volatility, and legal compliance pressures from sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction." Emerging risks involve cybersecurity threats, ESG compliance hurdles, and digital governance barriers that constrain cross-border data flows. The author, a professor at Hebei University, calls for a holistic approach to national security to improve risk monitoring, legal frameworks, and international cooperation.
Summary: The article argues that agent warfare, driven by artificial intelligence systems capable of perception, decision-making, and action, represents the new high-end form of intelligent warfare, shifting its center of gravity from technology empowering operational links to agents reshaping operational actions. It outlines five transformations: operational subjects evolving from controlled platforms to intelligent agents, command and control shifting from instruction control to intent-driven approaches, capability generation moving from platform capability to mission orchestration, force organization changing from preset formation to flexible reorganization, and the advantage in winning transitioning from instant concentration of superiority to iterative victory. The piece emphasizes that agents operate autonomously under human intent authorization, forming a tripartite structure of "human-agent-equipment system" and enabling dynamic mission integration and self-organizing coordination. It concludes that future victory depends on who can learn faster, correct more accurately, and iterate more steadily in confrontation, requiring mechanisms for accumulating battlefield experience and adversarial training environments.
Summary: The article outlines three future development directions for ship-launched cruise missiles. First, they are transitioning from "single-shot precision-guided firepower" to "multi-missile collaborative intelligent nodes," incorporating artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data to enhance anti-jamming, target discrimination, and system collaboration capabilities. Second, launch methods are expanding from high-risk, expensive "manned platforms" to safe, low-cost "unmanned launch," leveraging unmanned surface vessels for deeper concealment, flexibility, and sustainable combat. Third, there is a leap from subsonic flight to hypersonic penetration, with speeds exceeding Mach 5 to compress defender decision-making windows and challenge existing air defense systems. The article concludes that these shifts will reshape cruise missile tactics, employment modes, and victory mechanisms, impacting the future course of war.
Summary: The Battle of Chenjiagang was a decisive assault-and-annihilation battle launched by the Third Division of the New Fourth Army in 1944, uprooting a core coastal stronghold held by Japanese and puppet troops for five years and seizing control of the important salt fields of northern Huai'an. Zhang Aiping, deputy commander of the Third Division, directed operations from the front, first clearing peripheral outposts, then launching a converging night assault in heavy rain on May 3. After more than eight hours of fighting, the entire area was recovered, with over 400 puppet troops captured alive along with large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and nearly 500,000 dan of Huai salt. The victory broke the enemy's monopoly and blockade over Huai salt resources and laid a foundation for opening maritime communications between the anti-Japanese base areas of northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong.
Summary: The article is a philosophical commentary on Confucius's saying "In governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount," drawn from the "Record of Duke Ai's Questions" in the *Book of Rites*. It explains that Confucius elevated governance as the greatest of human ways, with "loving the people" as its foundational value, and argues this is not a tactical device but an inevitable choice for political correctness. The piece details how "ritual" serves as the institutional vehicle for loving the people, "reverence" as its spiritual core, and how love and reverence together form the foundation of governance. It connects this to Confucius's idea that "government means correctness," emphasizing self-cultivation and rectification of order as practical standards. The commentary concludes that true political power stems from protecting ordinary people, not authority, and envisions an ideal public life of mutual care and communal harmony.
Summary: This article traces the history of the Tianlu Linlang, the Qing imperial rare book collection established by Emperor Gaozong (Qianlong) in 1744 in the Zhaoren Hall, which was catalogued in the *Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue* in two compilations. The collection, distinguished by its uniform imperial seals and bindings, was largely destroyed by fire in 1797, while the second compilation survived until the end of the Qing dynasty. During the Republic period, Puyi transported many of these books out of the palace, and they were later scattered during the chaos in Changchun, with survivors ultimately housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the National Library of China, and other institutions. The article emphasizes the collection's high documentary value, its role in shaping Qing dynasty edition and catalogue studies, and its fate as a microcosm of modern China's rise and fall. The author is the director of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology and Ancient Documents, Tsinghua University Library.
Summary: The article introduces *Zunsheng Bajian* (Eight Discourses on Respecting Life), a comprehensive Ming Dynasty health-preservation work by Gao Lian, which advocates conforming to nature and regulating body and mind to achieve "prolonging life and increasing longevity." It details how the work harmonizes with the mutual generation and restraint of the five phases, using exercises like the Six-Character Breathing Formula to regulate the viscera. It also emphasizes following the changes of the four seasons, with seasonal health-preservation methods tied to the five viscera and guiding exercises. Dietary regulation is highlighted, stressing moderation and light, bland flavors to protect the spleen and stomach as the foundation of health. Finally, it discusses cultivating the heart through leisurely emotions, including refined amusements and a tranquil dwelling environment, to nurture the spirit and prevent disease.
By: 中国残疾人联合会党组书记、理事长 周长奎
China has approximately 85 million people with disabilities, a special group that is large in scale, complex in composition, prominent in characteristics, and beset by many difficulties. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important statements and important instructions and directives on continuously improving the well-being of people with disabilities and doing the work on disabilities well, profoundly answering major questions such as how to understand people with disabilities in the new era, how to develop the cause of people with disabilities, and how to do the work on disabilities well. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that on the new journey, it is necessary to "further improve the social security system and care service system for people with disabilities, effectively safeguard the equal rights and interests of people with disabilities, and promote the comprehensive development of the cause of people with disabilities." The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan makes dedicated arrangements in a special section for "enhancing the capacity for safeguarding and developing people with disabilities," and the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Safeguarding and Development of People with Disabilities," issued by the Working Committee on Disability of the State Council, makes systematic plans for advancing the comprehensive development and high-quality development of the cause of people with disabilities. Facing the new journey, we must adhere to grasping safeguarding on one hand and grasping development on the other, take improving the social security system and care service system for people with disabilities as the main line, take reform and innovation as the fundamental driving force, and jointly create a happier and better life for people with disabilities in the process of Chinese modernization.
Improve the social security system for people with disabilities and firmly hold the bottom line of people's livelihood
People with disabilities have relatively weak self-development capacity and relatively low ability to resist risks, and some people with severe disabilities have completely lost the ability to work. It is necessary to place doing a good job of bottom-line safeguarding in a prominent position, and during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, hold, hold accurately, and hold firmly the bottom line of the livelihood of people with disabilities with greater efforts and more concrete measures. In strengthening social assistance, improve the dynamic monitoring and normalized assistance mechanisms for the low-income population, promptly include people with disabilities in difficulty in the scope of minimum living security, support for persons in extreme difficulty, and temporary assistance, and strengthen bottom-line safeguarding for groups such as those with severe disabilities, those with multiple disabilities, and families with multiple disabled members. In expanding social welfare, improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism for the two subsidies for people with disabilities, deeply implement the rehabilitation assistance system for children with disabilities, standardize the implementation of the subsidy system for fitting basic assistive devices for people with disabilities, and steadily raise subsidy standards and broaden the scope of coverage. In expanding social insurance, promote the inclusion of more of the most basic and most urgently needed medical rehabilitation items for people with disabilities in the scope of basic medical insurance payment, and promptly include people with disabilities who meet the conditions in the scope of long-term care insurance coverage. In particular, it is necessary to consolidate and expand the achievements of the battle against poverty for people with disabilities, promptly include rural people with disabilities in the scope of normalized monitoring for preventing the return to poverty and the emergence of poverty according to standards and conditions, fully implement targeted assistance measures, and ensure that no large-scale return to poverty or emergence of poverty occurs.
Promote employment and entrepreneurship of people with disabilities and help people with disabilities increase income and achieve common prosperity
Employment is the foundation of people's livelihood and the key path for people with disabilities to improve their living conditions. Employment of people with disabilities has many new characteristics and also carries more special value. In addition to increasing income, it can also give people with disabilities a greater sense of dignity, enhance their confidence in life, and be conducive to physical and mental rehabilitation and better integration into society. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, more than 400,000 people with disabilities in urban and rural areas were newly employed each year, and the employment rate increased by nearly 5 percentage points. At present, some people with disabilities of working age have not achieved employment, due to reasons such as the relatively weak employment capacity of people with disabilities themselves, the impact of changes in the economic and industrial structure, and the problem of inadequate implementation of employment support policies. On the one hand, it is necessary to continuously broaden the employment channels for people with disabilities, promote in accordance with the law the arrangement of employment for people with disabilities by employers in proportion to their workforce, vigorously develop auxiliary employment for people with disabilities, encourage people with disabilities to start their own businesses and engage in flexible employment, support employment brands for people with disabilities such as "Beautiful Workshops," promote the priority arrangement of qualified people with disabilities for employment in public welfare positions, and strive to help people with disabilities achieve fuller and higher-quality employment; on the other hand, vigorously enhance the vocational skills of people with disabilities, comprehensively improve their vocational literacy and employment competitiveness, encourage and guide multiple entities to participate in employment services for people with disabilities, resolutely break down employment barriers, rectify all kinds of unreasonable restrictions and employment discrimination, and create a fair and inclusive employment environment. The development of informatization and digital intelligence has brought both challenges and new opportunities for the employment of people with disabilities. Many people with disabilities previously had difficulty going out and finding employment, but now they can work from home. This requires fully paying attention to the impact of new technologies and increasing targeted support and assistance for people with disabilities in employment in new business forms.
Improve the care service system for people with disabilities and enhance the quality of public services
The completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects basically solved the problem of whether people with disabilities have access to public services; the basic realization of socialist modernization requires further solving the problems of whether services are complete and whether they are excellent. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to continuously expand service coverage and improve the precision of services. People with disabilities have many special needs in public services, and greater efforts need to be made in categorization and differentiation. Rehabilitation services are an urgent livelihood need of people with disabilities. It is necessary to continuously improve the rehabilitation service system, promote the expansion and sinking of high-quality rehabilitation resources, coordinate the advancement of the rehabilitation capacity building of rehabilitation hospitals, rehabilitation departments of general hospitals, and primary-level medical and health institutions, develop self-help and mutual-assistance rehabilitation services, and strive to achieve the goal of "every person with a disability enjoys rehabilitation services." Education is the foundation for people with disabilities to achieve comprehensive development. At present, the "15th Five-Year Plan Action Plan for the Development and Enhancement of Special Education" has been formulated and issued. It is necessary to consolidate and improve the enrollment rate of children with disabilities in compulsory education, promote by category the high school stage education of adolescents with disabilities, promote the articulation and connection of secondary and higher vocational education for students with disabilities, and enable more adolescents with disabilities to have fair opportunities to receive education and learn a skill. Care and nursing are the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of people with severe disabilities and their families. Caring for one person can often free a family. It is necessary to expand the supply of care and nursing services for people with disabilities, accelerate the establishment and improvement of a care and nursing service system for people with disabilities based on home care, supported by day care, and professionally supported by centralized care and nursing, and in particular deepen the integrated development of elderly care and disability assistance, implement the support policy for "elderly parents + children with disabilities" families to jointly move into elderly care institutions, and solve the care difficulties of special difficult families. Highlight care services for people with severe mental disorders, children with autism, and others, focus on core needs such as rehabilitation education, employment assistance, daily care, return to society, and custody and placement, and provide broader and more professional assistance and services.
Advance the research, development, and application of assistive technology and empower people with disabilities with new technology
Technology is an important support for helping people with disabilities overcome physical and mental barriers and achieve self-reliance and self-improvement. At present, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is bringing new rehabilitation opportunities and new hope for a better life to people with disabilities, and the demand scenarios of people with disabilities are becoming important application fields for new technology. For example, large language models for speech smoothly realize the conversion between text and voice, solving the communication barriers of deaf and blind people; brain-computer interface technology has opened up new avenues for neurological rehabilitation of people with disabilities, and cochlear implant technology has rebuilt the auditory function of hearing-impaired people; embodied intelligent robots are exploring entry into the fields of elderly care and disability assistance, and intelligent guide devices for the blind using multiple technological approaches are also being tested; and so on. Technology-assisted disability services are becoming an important field of deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation and an important focal point of new quality productive forces, with broad prospects. The "15th Five-Year Plan for the Safeguarding and Development of People with Disabilities" makes key arrangements for technology-assisted disability services, and nine departments including the China Disabled Persons' Federation jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Technology-Assisted Disability Services." Facing the strong technological needs of people with disabilities, it is further necessary to incorporate technology-assisted disability services into the overall deployment for building a strong country in science and technology and major science and technology research and development plans, increase the source supply of assistive technology achievements, accelerate the transformation and application of assistive technology achievements, strengthen the cultivation and opening of assistive technology scenarios according to the actual needs of people with disabilities of different categories, increase consumption support for technology-based assistive products, and promote the formation of large-scale application.
Enrich the spiritual and cultural life of people with disabilities and strengthen their spiritual strength
The better life of people with disabilities requires both material abundance and spiritual richness. After stably solving the problem of adequate food and clothing, the spiritual and cultural needs of people with disabilities are increasingly growing. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, in terms of cultural development, it is necessary to focus on expanding the supply of cultural services and products for people with disabilities, extensively carry out mass cultural activities for people with disabilities, promote the sinking of high-quality public cultural resources to the grassroots and their extension to the side of people with disabilities, and advance the entry of cultural services into communities and into the families of people with disabilities. There are many cultural and artistic talents among people with disabilities. It is necessary to support people with disabilities in participating in cultural and artistic creation, develop special arts, support intangible cultural heritage skills, cultivate cultural industries, and provide a broad stage for people with disabilities to display their talents and show their elegance. Sports play an important role in the rehabilitation and fitness of people with disabilities and in stimulating the spirit of unremitting self-improvement. It is necessary to support the coordinated development of competitive sports and mass sports for people with disabilities, implement the fitness action for people with disabilities to enjoy sports, organize a series of activities such as the National Fitness Week for People with Disabilities and the Winter Sports Season for People with Disabilities, prepare for major events such as the Paralympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games, the Asian Para Games, and the National Games for Persons with Disabilities and Special Olympics, and inspire people with disabilities to bravely surpass themselves and win glory for the country.
Safeguard the equal rights and interests of people with disabilities and promote social integration
Equal participation in and integration into society is an important connotation of people with disabilities jointly building and sharing Chinese modernization and an important symbol of the progress of social civilization. It is necessary to start from improving the system of laws and regulations for safeguarding the rights and interests of people with disabilities, adapt to new changes and needs, summarize the experience and practices that have been proven to be effective (行之有效, xing zhi you xiao - "act, that, have, effective") in practice, promote the revision of the Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, research and improve laws, regulations, and systems on education and employment for people with disabilities, and at the same time strengthen judicial protection and legal aid services for people with disabilities and resolutely crack down on all kinds of illegal and criminal acts that infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of people with disabilities. Expand the channels and ways for people with disabilities and organizations of people with disabilities to participate in whole-process people's democracy, improve the diversified dispute resolution mechanism for conflicts and disputes involving people with disabilities, deeply advance the rule-of-law-based handling of petitions from people with disabilities, guide people with disabilities to respect, study, abide by, and apply the law, and express their wishes and demands in an orderly and effective manner. Focus on eliminating the tangible and intangible barriers faced by people with disabilities in integrating into society, fully implement the Law on the Construction of a Barrier-Free Environment, coordinate the advancement of barrier-free facilities, barrier-free information, and barrier-free services, and continue to implement the barrier-free renovation of the homes of families with people with severe disabilities in difficulty during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Vigorously promote the fine tradition of the Chinese nation of helping the weak and those in difficulty and helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help"), incorporate supporting and assisting people with disabilities into the activities of building spiritual civilization and the practice of civilized behavior in the new era, and further create a good environment in which the whole society understands, respects, cares for, and helps people with disabilities.
The cause of people with disabilities is an important component of the Party's cause and is also a comprehensive social undertaking. To turn the blueprint for the development of the cause of people with disabilities during the 15th Five-Year Plan period into reality, it is necessary to continue to adhere to the leadership system and working mechanism of "Party committee leadership, government responsibility, social participation, and the functioning of organizations of people with disabilities," run the Party's leadership through the entire process and all aspects of the work on disabilities, always adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements and the spirit of his important instructions and directives on the cause of people with disabilities, deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), and ensure that the cause of people with disabilities always advances in the correct political direction. Give full play to the role of disabled persons' federations at all levels as acting as a vital link or connection (桥梁纽带, qiao liang niu dai - "bridge, beam, knot, ribbon"), firmly establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, deepen Party building and self-reform, earnestly perform the functions of "representation, service, and management," maintain close contact with and warmly serve people with disabilities with deep feelings, promote the implementation of various policies benefiting people with disabilities, effectively deliver the care and warmth of the Party and the government to the side of people with disabilities, and unite and lead the broad masses of people with disabilities to listen to the Party, be grateful to the Party, and follow the Party.
Return to TopBy: 赖蛟
Xi Jinping's thought on Party building constitutes the Party-building chapter of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Through a series of major original achievements, it has enriched and developed the Marxist theory of Party building, providing the overarching guidance, fundamental basis, and general direction for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. Tibet serves as an important national security barrier and ecological security barrier, bearing the sacred mission of guarding the southwestern border of the motherland and safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Organizational work in Tibet in the new era must adhere to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building as its fundamental guidance, fully implement the general requirements for Party building in the new era, the Party's organizational line in the new era, and the Party's strategy for governing Tibet in the new era, focus on the four major tasks set by General Secretary Xi Jinping for Tibet—stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation—take political construction as the lead, coordinate efforts on six key tasks concerning cadres, organizations, staffing, aid to Tibet, Party members, and talent, strictly and practically strengthen self-construction, build a "1+6+1" work pattern of coordinated advancement, and provide strong organizational guarantees through high-quality organizational work for Tibet's lasting stability and high-quality development, thereby providing a strong organizational guarantee for writing a new chapter in the practice of Chinese modernization in Tibet.
Adhere to taking political construction as the lead and firmly grasp the correct political direction of organizational work. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the Party's political construction is the Party's fundamental construction, determining the direction and effectiveness of Party building," and emphasized that "to govern, stabilize, and revitalize Tibet, the first priority is to maintain Tibet's political stability, social stability, ethnic unity, and religious harmony." Since the Tenth Party Congress of the Autonomous Region, organizational departments at all levels across the region have insisted on placing political construction first, leading Party organizations at all levels and the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to uphold the Party's political leadership, consolidate the political foundation, cultivate the political ecosystem, guard against political risks, and enhance political capability, with efforts focused on consolidating the united and stable political and social situation. They have unswervingly used Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge souls and consolidate hearts, established an education and training system of "theoretical arming + Party spirit tempering + performance capability building," solidly carried out centralized education within the Party, conducted in-depth education on the Marxist "Five Views" and "Two Theories," and education on the contrast between old and new Tibet, innovatively carried out mutual learning and mutual reference through the "Party Branch Secretary Forum," guiding Party members and cadres to promote political firmness through theoretical clarity, and rallying among people of all ethnic groups the consensus that "those who follow the North Star will not lose their way, and those who follow the Communist Party will find happiness." They have vigorously rectified the problem of "not being strict enough and not being implemented thoroughly" in implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, innovatively carried out special research on implementing the Party Committee Work Regulations of Local Party Committees, the Party Group Work Regulations, democratic centralism, and the "Three Major and One Major" decision-making system, further tightened the Party's political discipline, and strengthened the regulation and supervision of the allocation and operation of power. Based on the special contradictions existing within Tibet and the new stage-specific characteristics of the "five periods of overlap," they have embodied the effectiveness of political construction in resolute actions to safeguard national unity, strengthen ethnic unity, and carry out the struggle against separatism, deepened and substantiated the political quality inspection of cadres, and urged Party members and cadres to take a clear-cut stand, remain clear-headed, and hold firm positions in the face of matters of principle or major issues (大是大非, da shi da fei - "great, is, great, is"), and to dare to struggle and be good at struggling in the struggle against separatism, infiltration, and encroachment.
Establish a clear orientation for cadre selection and appointment, and forge a high-quality cadre contingent capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of governing, stabilizing, and revitalizing Tibet. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Party cadres are the backbone force of the cause of the Party and the state, and that we must adhere to the principle of the Party managing cadres, uphold the correct orientation for selecting and appointing personnel, and build a contingent of high-quality professional cadres. We must implement the standards for good cadres in the new era and the "Four Special" political requirements for cadres in ethnic regions, taking "special resoluteness in maintaining the Party's centralized and unified leadership, special clarity in distinguishing right from wrong on matters of principle, special firmness in action in forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, and special sincerity in feelings toward the people of all ethnic groups" as the fundamental yardstick for selecting and appointing personnel, ensuring that leadership at all levels remains firmly in the hands of those loyal to the Party, loyal to the people, and loyal to Marxism. We must adhere to selecting cadres based on ability and judging heroes by actual performance, repair the political ecosystem, rectify the atmosphere of cadre selection and appointment, and guide the orientation of entrepreneurship and work with a correct view of performance. All cadres promoted or further used by the Tenth Party Committee of the Autonomous Region are those with outstanding performance and public recognition, creating a favorable situation across the region of unity of purpose, smooth communication, and full motivation for work. We must adhere to promoting work through assessment and selecting people through assessment, formulate five comprehensive assessment measures for prefectures and cities, district-level departments, universities, state-owned enterprises, and temple management committees by field and with differentiation, dynamically adjust and optimize the high-quality development assessment and evaluation system based on different functional positioning, resource endowments, baseline levels, and the primary responsibilities and main businesses of each unit, deeply integrate the research on outstanding cadres with the annual comprehensive assessment, change from research once every five years to research once a year, and form an evaluation mechanism of "those who do well are assessed well and used well." Looking ahead to economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we must solidly do a good job in the leadership transitions of cities, counties, and townships, clarify that deputy secretaries of township Party committees are in charge of political and legal stability maintenance work, uniformly equip 680 townships with united front work committee members, strengthen grassroots ethnic and religious work forces, conduct for the first time upgraded review of personnel plans for county (city, district) leadership transitions, optimize the structure of leadership teams and enhance overall functions, coordinate cadre resources across the region to select and strengthen the principal Party and government leaders of cities and counties, and achieve the goal of drawing a good blueprint, selecting good cadres, and forming good leadership teams.
Vigorously strengthen grassroots organizations and foundations, and weave a tight and strong organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in implementation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the grassroots are the foundation of the Party's governance and the source of its strength." We must implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's "Five Requirements" for the construction of Party organizations at the grassroots level in ethnic regions, adhere to placing equal emphasis on tangible coverage and effective coverage, grasp both traditional and emerging fields together, and strive to build strong fighting fortresses that "forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation, lead the masses to prosperity, maintain social stability, guard the border territory, and carry out the struggle against separatism." We must coordinate the promotion of "one grasp, two promotions"—grasping Party building to promote grassroots governance and promote rural revitalization—improve the five-level organizational chain, establish a professional system for community workers, promote the transformation of towns into subdistricts, villages into communities, and the optimization of grids, strengthen Party building in temple management committees, emerging fields, and residential communities, and the construction of Party and mass service centers; implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important reply letter to all villagers of Gala Village in Nyingchi, dispatch more than 20,000 cadres each year to all villages (communities) in the region to maintain stability, promote development, and benefit people's livelihoods, implement the "Two Projects" of national common language education and training for village leaders and rotation training outside the region, build and make good use of red education bases and red beautiful villages, handle well the "small but beautiful" livelihood matters such as small kitchens and small bathhouses, develop "village joint Party committees" in light of local conditions, promote the inclusive financial service of "Jinhui Huinong Tong," cultivate a number of leading collective economy enterprises with an annual output value of over ten million yuan, and assist in building livable, workable, and beautiful villages on the plateau. Focusing on "prospering the border, enriching the people, stabilizing the border, and consolidating the border," and guided by demand, we have innovatively carried out the "Five Co-construction and Five Consolidation" paired co-construction between military and local grassroots Party organizations, in which both sides jointly study the Party's theory to consolidate faith and ideals, jointly build grassroots organizations to consolidate frontline fortresses, jointly promote the improvement of people's livelihoods to consolidate the achievements of the battle against poverty, jointly foster civilized new practices to consolidate ethnic unity, and jointly guard the sacred territory to consolidate border tranquility, jointly building 1,450 grassroots Party organizations, jointly running more than 1,000 special industrial projects, and jointly carrying out more than 30,000 operations for stability maintenance and border control, blazing a new path of military-civil fusion development and joint efforts to strengthen the border and consolidate defense in grassroots Party building in border areas.
Optimize the allocation of staffing resources and form a scientific, standardized, and efficient institutional and functional system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "institutional staffing is an important political resource and governing resource, and institutional staffing work is important work for strengthening the Party's long-term governance capacity and the construction of state power." We must adhere to combining "slimming down" with "keeping fit," seek staffing from deepening reform, seek efficiency from scientific management, break down departmental barriers and regional boundaries, revitalize and make good use of institutional staffing resources, and serve and guarantee the overall situation of governing, stabilizing, and revitalizing Tibet. Closely focusing on the "four major tasks" of stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation, we must comprehensively deepen the reform of Party and government institutions, refine and implement work functions into departments and units, adjust and optimize district-level Party and government institutions, integrate and optimize municipal-level Party and government institutions, comprehensively set up county-level Party, government, and mass organizations, fully implement the large division (section) system, carry out institutional reform in counties with small populations, and promote the Party's leadership over the construction of a new socialist modernized Tibet to be more scientific in institutional setup, more optimized in functional configuration, more complete in institutional mechanisms, and more efficient in operation and management. We must deepen the reform of the institutional staffing of public security organs and thoroughly solve the long-standing problem of "low-level management of high-level units and small units managing large units." We must coordinate burden reduction and empowerment, carefully compile and publish lists of duties and matters for townships (subdistricts), clarify the boundaries of powers and responsibilities, divide the powers of different levels and departments, straighten out the relationships of responsibilities, and focus on solving the prominent problem of "a small horse pulling a big cart." We must solidly do the preparatory work for the reform of public institutions, improve the Party's leadership institutional mechanisms in public institutions, optimize the structural layout, improve the employment and income distribution systems, improve the level of public welfare services, and meet the needs of the people.
Give full play to the unique advantages of paired assistance to Tibet and enhance political, economic, and social benefits. Paired assistance to Tibet is a strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee with a view to the overall situation of Tibet work. Taking the 30th anniversary of paired assistance to Tibet as an opportunity, we must vigorously publicize the great importance attached by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to Tibet work and the cordial care for the Tibetan people, fully demonstrate the profound friendship between the vast numbers of cadres and talents assisting Tibet and the cadres and masses of all ethnic groups in Tibet that transcends time and space and spans mountains and seas, demonstrate the all-round progress and historic achievements made in various undertakings in Tibet under the leadership of the Party, forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation, and advance the building of the community of the Chinese nation. Seizing employment, the biggest livelihood issue, we have innovatively carried out "dual recruitment and dual introduction" of investment attraction and talent introduction for assisting Tibet. Since 2022, more than 70 billion yuan of project funds have been put in place, driving 24,600 people in the region to find employment nearby and conveniently. We must focus on improving people's livelihoods and rallying people's hearts, adhere to investing more than 80% of assistance funds to counties and below at the grassroots level and more than 80% to the field of people's livelihoods, consolidate and expand the achievements of "group-style" assistance to Tibet in medical and educational talent, promote "smart healthcare" and "smart education," strengthen the models of hospitals supporting departments, provinces supporting schools, and "passing on, helping, and leading," and greatly improve the diagnosis and treatment capacity of the "1+7+13" recipient hospitals and the teaching and research level of the 21 recipient schools. We must vigorously promote the spirit of assisting Tibet, formulate work measures to strengthen the management and service of cadres and talents assisting Tibet, establish a temporary Party committee for cadres and talents assisting Tibet from central units, build apartment buildings for cadres and talents assisting Tibet in district-level units, and sincerely and emotionally resolve the worries and concerns of cadres and talents assisting Tibet.
Strengthen the education, management, and supervision of Party members and build a vanguard contingent that is reliable, capable, and outstanding. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "for the Communist Party of China to always remain the vanguard of the times and the backbone of the nation, the Party membership must be outstanding." We must effectively control the entry gate for Party members, fully implement the numbered management of Party membership application forms, establish a joint review system for political review, strictly follow the procedures and steps for developing Party members, and the total number of Party members in the region has reached more than 484,000, with the gender, ethnic, educational, and age structure of Party members optimized, the distribution of the Party membership more rational, and coverage more extensive. We have formulated specific measures to implement the national plan for Party member education and training, deepened education on ideals and beliefs and Party spirit education, carried out education on the Old Tibet Spirit and the "Two Roads" Spirit, optimized curriculum design and improved training quality in light of the characteristics of different Party member groups in rural areas, cities, government organs, public institutions, enterprises, and emerging fields, and enhanced the capability and quality of Party members. We have promoted the "two places, four parties" management experience of the Tibet Party Committee of Chengdu floating Party members, promoted "two-way co-management" of floating Party members, and advanced the localized management of Party members who are retired cadres and workers resettled in other places. We have improved the mechanism for Party members to play their role both online and offline, in peacetime and in emergencies, carried out "dual registration" of in-service Party members to communities, organized the broad ranks of Party members to step forward and take responsibility in urgent, difficult, dangerous, and heavy tasks such as earthquake relief in Dingri and mudslide rescue and disaster relief in Gyirong, and a number of advanced models have emerged.
Implement the four major projects of "cultivating, introducing, using, and retaining" talent and create a favorable environment for outstanding talents to stand out. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "national development depends on talent, and national rejuvenation depends on talent," and that "we must promote the development of education, science and technology, and talent as a whole, and do a good job in all aspects of cultivation, introduction, and utilization." In response to the long-standing problems of "difficulty in attracting talent and difficulty in retaining talent," we have made attracting and gathering talent a key move to promote the prosperity of the region, vigorously implemented the strategy of strengthening the region through talent, and gathered wisdom and strength for the construction of a new socialist modernized Tibet. We have improved institutional design, formulated "19 measures" for talent work, implemented the "Everest Talent" plan, selected and supported a number of strategic talents, leading talents, young talents, and scientific and technological innovation teams each year, and provided living allowances and project funding support of up to 10 million yuan. Changing from "passively waiting for talent to come" to "actively attracting talent," since 2022, we have successively held 17 "Gathering Talents, Aspiring to the Plateau" talent introduction and recruitment promotion activities in key cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and prestigious universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, introducing 594 high-level talents. We have implemented the "talent introduction and enterprise strengthening" action for private enterprises, providing one-time settling-in allowances and project funding subsidies with reference to the autonomous region's policies for introducing high-level talents, and accelerated the integration of industry and talent and collaborative innovation. We have strengthened the cultivation of local talent, promoted Tibet University to optimize its discipline setup, with the proportion of science and engineering enrollment exceeding 68%, and promoted 24 people to be selected for national-level talent programs. We have optimized the talent development environment, with 4 new academician workstations built in the region, the number of autonomous region-level scientific and technological innovation platforms increased to 113, three times that of 2021, including 49 key laboratories, more than double, building a stage for talents to start businesses and make achievements.
Carry forward the spirit of self-revolution and build model organs and outstanding teams with strict and practical standards. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "we must strive to build organizational departments at all levels into model departments that stress politics, value fairness, are professionally proficient, and have a good work style." We must implement the political responsibility of governing the Party and running the Party strictly, continue to promote the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style construction, and lead organizational work cadres to embody "stressing politics" through absolute reliability and absolute loyalty, embody "valuing fairness" through public-mindedness, public trust, fairness, and justice, embody "professional proficiency" through careful planning and meticulous work, and embody "good work style" through modesty, low-key, pragmatism, and responsibility, winning the trust and support of cadres and the masses through strong Party spirit, noble conduct, and personal charisma. We must adhere to effectively combining scientific ways of thinking with work experience summarized and explored in practice, adhere to upholding fundamental principles and break new ground, and overall planning and coordination, grasp the logical relationship of "positioning—status—role," focus on the different levels of "macro—meso—micro," make good use of the working method of "setting benchmarks—comparing with benchmarks—meeting benchmarks," adhere to the systematic thinking of "problems—structure—countermeasures," and make organizational work better reflect the characteristics of the times, grasp the laws of development, and be full of creativity. Since 2021, focusing on selecting cadres and forming leadership teams, consolidating grassroots organizations and foundations, building teams and gathering talent, and managing institutions and using staffing, we have formulated and revised 87 various systems and normative documents, continuously improved the system of laws and regulations for organizational work, improved the execution of systems, and more scientifically and effectively confined power to the cage of institutions.
On the new journey of the new era, Party building and organizational work must make new achievements and new contributions. Organizational departments in Tibet must deeply grasp the practical foundation and theoretical origins of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, implement well the spirit of the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, run the Fourteen Commitments (十四个坚持) through all aspects and the entire process of organizational work, give full play to their functional role in upholding the Party's leadership, strengthening Party building, and advancing the Party's cause, and make new and continuous contributions to building a united, prosperous, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful new socialist modernized Tibet with higher standards and more practical measures.
(The author is a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region and head of its Organization Department.)
Return to TopBy: 李红恩
Basic education is both the starting point in life for countless young people to grow and develop their talents, and the foundational project for building a strong education nation and advancing Chinese modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Education determines the present of humanity, and it also determines the future of humanity. Basic education occupies a foundational and leading position in the national education system; we must grasp its positioning correctly, fully implement the Party's education policy, adopt measures from multiple aspects, and strive to make China's basic education better and better." This important thesis profoundly reveals the significant role of basic education in talent cultivation. Only by building a solid foundation for basic education and being adept at examining our position and planning and advancing our work from the overall situation of the development of the Party and the state's undertakings can we achieve the dialectical unity of running education to the satisfaction of the people and serving the national strategic development.
Basic education is an undertaking of the whole society, and it is where the competitiveness of the nation's long-term development lies; it bears on the overall situation and bears on the long term. From the perspective of its political attributes, basic education is an important forward position of the Party's ideological work; if it departs from the political overall situation, it will shake the fundamental direction of educating people. From the perspective of its people-oriented attributes, basic education is the most universally beneficial basic public service and an important cornerstone for safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods; without an overall perspective, it will deviate from the people-centered development philosophy. From the perspective of its strategic attributes, basic education is the logical starting point for building a strong education nation and the "first kilometer" of the national talent cultivation system; if it is confined to the narrow vision of "discussing education only in terms of education," it will be difficult to support the grand pattern of integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. From the perspective of its current positioning, China's basic education is in a critical transition period of advancing in depth from "basic equilibrium" to "high-quality equilibrium," facing a series of deep-seated challenges such as profound changes in the population structure, the continuous acceleration of urbanization, and the systematic transformation of education methods, which are deeply interwoven with economic development, social governance, population policy, and family structure, and cannot be resolved by the education sector alone. Only by transcending the limitations of one time and one matter and the vision of one place and one school, and always positioning, planning, and advancing basic education within the overall situation of the undertakings of the Party and the state, can we ensure that basic education always advances along the correct direction.
Firmly grasp the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, and anchor the original aspiration and founding mission of educating people for the Party and cultivating talents for the country. The basic education stage is a critical period for the formation of young people's worldview, outlook on life, and values; doing a good job of forging souls and educating people bears on the inheritance of the red bloodline and bears on the continuation of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics with capable successors. When looking at basic education, one must not be utilitarian or short-sighted and only look at enrollment rates. One must view it from the overall situation: scores are only superficial manifestations; cultivating new generations capable of undertaking the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the fundamental goal of our education. Advancing the "double reduction" reform, strengthening science education, and implementing the simultaneous development of five types of education are not internal additions and subtractions within education, but strategic adjustments aimed at the future quality of the nation's talent. We must run ideological and political education through the entire process of basic education, both consolidating students' knowledge foundations and nurturing sound personalities, and cultivate socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor.
Coordinate both the national strategic needs and the expectations of the people, and grasp the dialectical relationship between fairness and quality. Educational fairness is an important foundation of social fairness; basic education must hold the bottom line of universal benefit, continue to promote the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education and the integration of urban and rural areas, and make up for the shortcomings of education in rural and remote areas. The awareness of the overall situation is embodied in not failing to attend to both sides of a matter (顾此失彼, gu ci shi bi - "look at this, lose that"): we must neither one-sidedly pursue a few top students while weakening universal fairness, nor suppress students' innate potential through an egalitarianism of "cutting the peaks to fill the valleys." On the premise of safeguarding the basic development rights of all students, we must provide appropriate education for students of different aptitudes, so that every child can enjoy the opportunity to shine in life, and realize the two-way connection between serving the national strategy and responding to the people's livelihood expectations.
Promote the coordinated efforts of multiple actors with a systematic approach. The reform and development of basic education involves many fields of the economy and society. From the perspective of external conditions, changes in population structure, the process of urbanization, family child-rearing concepts, and the social opinion environment all profoundly affect the ecology of basic education. From the perspective of the internal system, preschool education, compulsory education, and senior high school education are interlinked, and are also connected front and back with higher education, vocational education, and lifelong education. Party committees and governments at all levels must earnestly shoulder their primary responsibility, adhere to giving priority to the development of education, and plan for the long term and calculate the big picture in planning formulation, resource allocation, and funding guarantees. We must improve the education leadership system of unified leadership by Party committees, joint management by the Party and government, and each department assuming its own responsibilities, and coordinate the collaborative education of schools, families, and society. The vast number of educators must both deeply cultivate classroom teaching and actively align with the needs of national development, consciously resist utilitarian tendencies, and jointly maintain a healthy and upward basic education ecology.
"Those who bring order to the world under heaven rely on talents; those who cultivate the talents of the world rely on education and transformation." The quality of talent cultivation in basic education determines the "foundation color" and "staying power" of talent cultivation. We must position and advance basic education work within the overall situation of the development of the undertakings of the Party and the state, hold fast to the original aspiration of fostering virtue through education, hold the bottom line of educational fairness, continuously promote the expansion of quality and the improvement of excellence, consolidate the foundation of education, and lay a solid talent cornerstone for comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization.
Return to TopSovereign equality and mutual respect are the fundamental principles. World history is written jointly by the peoples of all countries, and multipolarity, the autonomy of development paths, and the democratization of international relations represent the right course for humanity. We must uphold that all countries, regardless of size, strength, or wealth, enjoy equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal rules. Global South countries are an important component of the multipolar landscape and a key force in advancing multipolarity, and they should enhance their representation and voice in international affairs.
Return to TopBy: 刘同舫
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, promote the coordinated development of material, political, spiritual, social, and ecological civilization, and have created a new path of Chinese modernization and a new form of human civilization." Modernization is an important marker of the evolution of human civilization. For a long time, the myth equating "modernization" with "Westernization" has obscured people's understanding of the diversity of civilizations. The successful practice of Chinese modernization has shattered this cognitive misconception with irrefutable facts. The fundamental reason Chinese modernization is able to create a new form of human civilization lies in the fact that it achieves the renewal of life in inheriting Chinese civilization, establishes the primacy of the people in transcending the logic of capital, forms a systematic civilization in holistic advancement, and contributes Chinese theory in renewing cognition. These four dimensions support and interpenetrate one another, jointly presenting the complete logic by which Chinese modernization creates a new form of human civilization.
Historical Foundation: Creating a New Form of Human Civilization in the Inheritance of Civilization
Modernization never means a rupture with tradition. The five-thousand-year development of Chinese civilization has nurtured profound governance wisdom, ethical concepts, and humanistic spirit, which, through creative transformation and innovative development, have become practical development concepts and governance principles. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Without the five-thousand-year Chinese civilization, where would Chinese characteristics come from? Without Chinese characteristics, how could there be the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics that has been so successful for us today?" This fully demonstrates that the "Chinese characteristics" of Chinese modernization are, in the final analysis, rooted in the accumulated heritage of five thousand years of Chinese civilization.
The key to Chinese modernization's ability to avoid the predicament of a rupture between tradition and modernity lies in the "second combination." The "second combination" has promoted the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture in the process of modernization, enabling the ancient civilization to acquire a new form of life in contemporary practice. The governance concept of "the people as the foundation of the state" in Chinese civilization has been transformed in Chinese modernization into a people-centered development philosophy; the philosophical wisdom of harmony between humanity and nature (天人合一, tian ren he yi - "heaven, human, unite") has been transformed into the modernization requirement of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature; the interactional wisdom of promoting harmony among all nations (协和万邦, xie he wan bang - "harmonize, ten thousand, states") has been transformed into the firm choice of following the path of peaceful development; and the social ideal of the world belongs to the public (天下为公, tian xia wei gong - "world, for, public") is intrinsically connected with the goal of common prosperity. These transformations are the activation and reconstruction of the deep genes of Chinese civilization under contemporary conditions. Chinese civilization endows Chinese modernization with profound substance, and Chinese modernization endows Chinese civilization with modern power. In this two-way empowering inheritance of civilization, the historic leap of Chinese civilization from "civilization obscured by dust" to "civilization renewed" is achieved.
The profound historical foundation enables the form of civilization created by Chinese modernization to display a distinct cultural subjectivity. The form of civilization created by Chinese modernization is a new form of civilization that has grown from the depths of Chinese civilization and has been continuously transformed and developed in modernization practice. It both carries forward the intrinsic qualities of Chinese civilization—continuity, innovation, unity, inclusiveness, and peacefulness—and possesses the progressive spirit of modern civilization, becoming a model of deep integration between an ancient civilization and modernity. The uniqueness of this form of civilization demonstrates that modernization does not have only one Western model, that the evolution of civilization does not come at the cost of severing tradition, and that an ancient civilization can fully walk its own path of modernization within its own cultural lineage.
Value Orientation: Creating a New Form of Human Civilization in Transcending the Logic of Capital
The answer to the value question of "what is the foundation" of modernization determines the nature of development and the direction of evolution of a civilization. Western modern civilization arose on the basis of capitalism and was dominated by the logic of capital from the very beginning. Although the instinct of capital to multiply greatly unleashed the potential of the productive forces, it also caused the entire society to gradually submit to the rule of "things." Marx pointed out that in capitalist society, "capital has independence and individuality, while the living individuals have neither independence nor individuality." Western modernization has created unprecedented material prosperity, yet it has never been able to escape the fundamental contradictions between capital and labor, and between the multiplication of things and the alienation of humanity; people ultimately become appendages and tools for capital's self-expansion. Chinese modernization has found a breakthrough in its value orientation. It no longer follows the old path of "capital-centeredness," but instead opens up a completely new civilizational orientation of "people-centeredness."
Chinese modernization has achieved a fundamental shift in the value subject from "capital subjectivity" to "people's subjectivity." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the essence of modernization is the modernization of the people." From "capital" to "the people" is not merely an adjustment of the focus of development, but a replacement of the core of civilization and a re-anchoring of the entire value coordinate system. In the practice of Chinese modernization, the people are not bystanders of modernization, but the creative subject, the practical subject, and the enjoying subject. Chinese modernization advocates "development for the people, development relying on the people, and development achievements shared by the people," which is the concrete unfolding of the value logic of "people-centeredness" in practice. "Development for the people" means that the purpose of modernization is not the unlimited accumulation of wealth, but the improvement of people's living conditions and the enhancement of their development capabilities; all economic activities, technological changes, and institutional arrangements must ultimately be measured by the yardstick of the people. "Development relying on the people" shows that the masses of the people are not only the beneficiaries of modernization, but also the creative subjects of modernization; without the participation and practice of hundreds of millions of people, modernization would lose its deepest source of momentum. "Development achievements shared by the people" further answers the question of ownership—the achievements of modernization cannot be monopolized by a minority, but must benefit every individual. Based on the value logic of "people-centeredness," Chinese modernization fundamentally overcomes the drawbacks of Western modernization, such as polarization, materialism, and external expansion and plunder.
Chinese modernization has completed the reconstruction of value subjectivity. In the practice of Chinese modernization, people are no longer tools of modernization, but the very purpose of modernization itself, and its value orientation is highly consistent with Marx's pursuit of "the free and comprehensive development of the human being." The profound shift in the value orientation of Chinese modernization has opened up a path of civilizational evolution different from that of the West. It is not only a transcendence of the Western path of modernization, but also a reconstruction of modernity itself, providing a solid value foundation for creating a new form of human civilization.
Practical Path: Creating a New Form of Human Civilization in Systematic Advancement
The path along which modernization should unfold directly determines the features of the form of civilization. Since the Industrial Revolution, Western modernization has equated modernization with the one-dimensional advancement of industrialization, urbanization, and marketization. Although this path has created enormous material wealth in the capitalist world, it has brought about a series of crises of modernity, such as spiritual poverty, social fragmentation, and ecological crisis. Behind material prosperity lies the one-sided development of human beings and the large-scale destruction of nature. In terms of the practical path, Chinese modernization has embarked on a path that emphasizes the coordinated development of the five dimensions of material, political, spiritual, social, and ecological civilization, making the five dimensions an organic and unified practical system.
The five Chinese characteristics of Chinese modernization—a huge population, common prosperity for all the people, coordination between material and spiritual civilization, harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, and following the path of peaceful development—are the concrete embodiment of this systematic practical path. The huge population size determines that China cannot copy the development model of any other country and must follow its own path based on its own national conditions; common prosperity for all the people determines that polarization cannot be accepted and that fairness and justice must be incorporated as an intrinsic requirement of civilization throughout the entire process of development; the coordination between material and spiritual civilization determines that China cannot fall into the one-dimensional logic of materialist expansion and must pursue spiritual enrichment while achieving material abundance; harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature determines that China cannot follow the old path of polluting first and treating later, and must incorporate ecological construction as a precondition for development; and following the path of peaceful development determines that China cannot accumulate wealth through colonial plunder and must rely on endogenous momentum to support its own modernization process. These five characteristics interpenetrate and support one another, jointly constituting a complete practical system. With systematic advancement as the basic path, the civilizational landscape that Chinese modernization displays at the practical level—namely, the overall picture of material abundance, political clarity, spiritual fullness, social harmony, and a sound ecology—is the concrete unfolding of the new form of human civilization at the practical level.
Chinese modernization replaces one-dimensional advancement with systematic thinking. This practical logic of systematic advancement enables Chinese modernization to avoid the various contradictions exposed in the process of Western modernization, and also provides a practical path that can serve as a reference for creating a new form of human civilization.
Theoretical Innovation: Creating a New Form of Human Civilization in Breaking the Myth of Modernization
The world modernization process began in the Western capitalist world, and Western modernization has long been shaped as the only template for human modernization. "The superiority of the West," "Western-centrism," and "the end of history" were once clamorous, as if modernization meant Westernization and Western civilization meant modern civilization, and non-Western countries could only seek a way out by imitating the West. This theoretical myth essentially elevates a regional experience formed under specific historical conditions into a universal truth applicable everywhere. It obscures the diverse possibilities of the development of human civilization and also suppresses the theoretical courage and practical confidence of non-Western countries in exploring their own paths of modernization. The successful practice of Chinese modernization starts from breaking this myth and completes a fundamental transcendence of the theoretical discourse of Western modernization.
The breakthrough of Chinese modernization against the theoretical myth of Western modernization redefines the theoretical connotation and value boundaries of modernization through its own practice. It proves that the road to modernization has never been a single-choice question, and that the evolution of human civilization has never been one-dimensional, but plural and multi-linear. The unique worldview, values, view of history, view of civilization, view of democracy, view of ecology, and the great practice embedded in Chinese modernization are not a partial supplement or simple correction to the theoretical framework of Western modernization, but a systematic refreshment of the cognitive paradigm of modern civilization. It fundamentally answers the basic theoretical questions of "what is modern civilization" and "how to move toward modern civilization," pushing modernization theory from the "singular" to the "plural," from closed to open. At the same time, it also demonstrates through the practice of more than 1.4 billion people entering modernization as a whole that non-Western civilizations can fully achieve modernization while maintaining their own cultural traditions and institutional characteristics, without having to make an either-or choice between "Westernization" and "backwardness." This provides developing countries with a completely new theoretical perspective and path reference.
Chinese modernization has broken the myth of "modernization = Westernization," liberating modernization theory from the intellectual hegemony monopolized by the West. This theoretical innovation has expanded the path choices for developing countries to achieve modernization, fundamentally shaken the theoretical foundation of the "end of history," and caused the assertion that human civilization "ends with the Western model" to fall apart without being attacked (不攻自破, bu gong zi po - "not, attack, self, break") in the face of facts. It provides Chinese solutions for humanity's exploration of a better social system, contributes Chinese wisdom to the diverse development of human civilization, and provides solid theoretical support for the creation of a new form of human civilization.
Return to TopBy: 贾振博
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The grassroots are the foundation of the Party's governance and the source of its strength. 'One who governs small matters must not be negligent, for negligence leads to ruin.'" "One who governs small matters must not be negligent, for negligence leads to ruin" comes from the Discourses on Salt and Iron (Yantie Lun) by Huan Kuan of the Western Han Dynasty. It means that one must not slacken or be careless in handling specific and minute affairs, for otherwise they may easily be ruined through negligence. Here, "governing small matters" refers to affairs that are concrete and links that are minute — it does not mean that their status and role are insignificant; "not being negligent" means not merely being diligent and not lazy, but also includes not loosening responsibility, not lowering standards, and not interrupting implementation. By citing this ancient saying, General Secretary Xi Jinping applies the ancients' principle of handling affairs to grassroots work, revealing a profound truth: the more concrete and routine grassroots work is, the more one must be conscientious and responsible, engage in meticulous and painstaking work (精耕细作, jing geng xi zuo - "fine, plow; detailed, do"), and maintain unremitting effort.
Why must "one who governs small matters" not be negligent? Grassroots work directly faces specific individuals, specific affairs, and specific links one by one. Much of it appears to be ordinary small matters, yet it possesses a foundational, continuous, and cumulative character. If policy implementation lags by one step, the people's experience may be diminished by one degree; if conflict resolution is delayed by one step, risk may increase by one degree; if work standards are loosened by a little, weak points may appear in the governance chain. "Calamities and misfortunes often accumulate from the tiny and subtle." Many problems in grassroots governance often do not arrive suddenly but accumulate through one instance after another of "good enough" and one "it doesn't matter" after another. Precisely because of this, "negligence" is by no means simply a lax work style; through the transmission and accumulation of daily work, it affects policy implementation, public services, and popular trust, ultimately causing things that ought to be accomplished to be "ruined" through failure in detail and failure in constancy. "Though we are but petty county officials, every twig and every leaf touches our hearts." Small matters at the grassroots are linked to the warmth and cold of people's livelihoods and also to the direction of popular sentiment. The people come to know the Party and the government not only by looking at macro policy but also by forming genuine impressions from specific affairs around them. Whether community governance is smooth, whether public services are convenient, and whether difficult demands receive timely responses — these appear minute, yet they most test the quality of work. The slightest negligence toward these matters may cause the warmth of policy to diminish in the course of implementation and leave the sentiment of serving the people stranded in slogans. Therefore, "one who governs small matters must not be negligent" is determined by the nature and laws of grassroots work, and is also an inherent requirement for practicing the Party's mass line and consolidating the Party's governing foundation.
The greatest characteristic of grassroots work is concreteness, and being concrete means one cannot be vague and general, cannot substitute principles for methods or deployment for implementation — one must be patient and meticulous. Problems such as community parking, elderly care and childcare, property services, and hardship assistance all have specific contexts, specific targets, and specific demands, which cannot be resolved by general requirements. The more concrete the matter, the more necessary it is to ascertain the situation accurately, identify the crux precisely, and make the methods detailed. The prerequisite for meticulousness is truthfulness. Investigation and research are the foundation of planning and the way to accomplish things. Marxist epistemology shows that correct understanding originates from practice and must in turn be tested in practice. Grassroots Party members and cadres must keep their eyes downward and their steps downward, listening both to agreeable words and to disagreeable words; observing both conditions at the "point" and changes on the "surface"; being adept both at "dissecting a sparrow" to grasp common problems from individual cases and at seeing the whole from a tiny part to predict risks from budding phenomena. Only by grasping the true situation more fully and analyzing the people's needs more accurately can one achieve addressing each problem with a specific solution (一把钥匙开一把锁, yi ba yao shi kai yi ba suo - "one, key, open, one, key, lock"), avoid oversimplification and "one-size-fits-all" approaches, and enable specific problems to be solved with specific solutions.
Grassroots work exists largely within daily operations, and many matters cannot be attempting to accomplish everything in one single effort (毕其功于一役, bi qi gong yu yi yi - "complete, achievement, at, one, battle"); one must persevering with constancy (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold, it, with, constant"). Once institutions are established, there must be people to implement them; once problems are solved, relapse must be prevented; once services are launched, results must be tracked. Being conscientious today and slackening tomorrow, bearing down when inspections come and letting go after they pass — none of this can form a stable and effective governance order. "Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand li; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form rivers and seas." Governance effectiveness is precisely accumulated through day-after-day perseverance. Unremitting effort is not simple repetition but continuous improvement through repeated practice. True governance capacity is reflected both in solving one problem in a timely manner and in discovering a category of problems from one problem, filling one shortcoming, and improving one mechanism. There must be both a sense of responsibility for "handling it immediately" and an institutional awareness of "establishing it for the long term." One must guard against treating "leaving traces" as implementation and treating the thickness of materials as work intensity, and must devote more energy to solving actual problems. By doing ordinary work solidly, doing repetitive work meticulously, and persisting in long-term work, through the accumulation of experience or wealth over a long period (日积月累, ri ji yue lei - "day, accumulate, month, pile up"), "non-negligence" can become a stable working state, and grassroots governance can deepen from solving one matter to governing a category, from taking effect in the short term to long-term and regular governance.
Grassroots work is, in the final analysis, mass work. The masses are both the objects of service and a force for governance, so one must uphold a heart for the people. Though the community is small, it connects thousands of households, and doing community work well is very important. The people's urgent difficulties and anxious concerns often lie amid daily necessities, clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Grassroots Party members and cadres must keep the specific affairs around the masses in mind and in hand, devoting heart, feeling, and effort to issues of employment, education, medical care, elderly care, and housing. Accomplishing one practical matter adds one measure of trust; solving one difficult problem gathers one measure of strength. In doing things for the masses, one must also rely on the masses to do things. Adhere to coming from the masses and going to the masses, asking the people about their needs and seeking plans from the people, concentrating scattered opinions, distilling grassroots creativity, and then transforming these into methods and institutions for improving governance, so that the masses move from being beneficiaries of governance to being participants and builders. In this way, "governing small matters" is no longer merely cadres unilaterally handling specific affairs, but becomes a governance practice jointly participated in by the masses under the leadership of Party organizations.
"One who governs small matters must not be negligent, for negligence leads to ruin." Small matters reveal responsibility, daily work reveals work style, and the long term reveals skill. By implementing every policy well, solving every specific problem well, and handling every practical matter for people's livelihoods well, exerting effort in the minute details, applying force in the regular course, and taking root among the masses, grassroots work can avoid ruin through "non-negligence" and achieve good governance through constant governance, making the Party's governing foundation more solid through one concrete and sustained task after another.
Return to TopBy: 赖蛟
Xi Jinping's thought on Party building constitutes the Party-building chapter of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Through a series of major original achievements, it has enriched and developed the Marxist theory of Party building, providing the overarching guidance, fundamental basis, and general direction for advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. Tibet serves as an important national security barrier and ecological security barrier, bearing the sacred mission of guarding the southwestern border of the motherland and safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Organizational work in Tibet in the new era must adhere to Xi Jinping's thought on Party building as its fundamental guidance, fully implement the general requirements for Party building in the new era, the Party's organizational line in the new era, and the Party's strategy for governing Tibet in the new era, focus on the four major tasks set by General Secretary Xi Jinping for Tibet—stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation—take political construction as the lead, coordinate efforts on six key tasks concerning cadres, organizations, staffing, aid to Tibet, Party members, and talent, strictly and practically strengthen self-construction, build a "1+6+1" work pattern of coordinated advancement, and provide strong organizational guarantees through high-quality organizational work for Tibet's lasting stability and high-quality development, thereby providing a strong organizational guarantee for writing a new chapter in the practice of Chinese modernization in Tibet.
Adhere to taking political construction as the lead and firmly grasp the correct political direction of organizational work. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the Party's political construction is the Party's fundamental construction, determining the direction and effectiveness of Party building," and emphasized that "to govern, stabilize, and revitalize Tibet, the first priority is to maintain Tibet's political stability, social stability, ethnic unity, and religious harmony." Since the Tenth Party Congress of the Autonomous Region, organizational departments at all levels across the region have insisted on placing political construction first, leading Party organizations at all levels and the broad ranks of Party members and cadres to uphold the Party's political leadership, consolidate the political foundation, cultivate the political ecosystem, guard against political risks, and enhance political capability, with efforts focused on consolidating the united and stable political and social situation. They have unswervingly used Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge souls and consolidate hearts, established an education and training system of "theoretical arming + Party spirit tempering + performance capability building," solidly carried out centralized education within the Party, conducted in-depth education on the Marxist "Five Views" and "Two Theories," and education on the contrast between old and new Tibet, innovatively carried out mutual learning and mutual reference through the "Party Branch Secretary Forum," guiding Party members and cadres to promote political firmness through theoretical clarity, and rallying among people of all ethnic groups the consensus that "those who follow the North Star will not lose their way, and those who follow the Communist Party will find happiness." They have vigorously rectified the problem of "not being strict enough and not being implemented thoroughly" in implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, innovatively carried out special research on implementing the Party Committee Work Regulations of Local Party Committees, the Party Group Work Regulations, democratic centralism, and the "Three Major and One Major" decision-making system, further tightened the Party's political discipline, and strengthened the regulation and supervision of the allocation and operation of power. Based on the special contradictions existing within Tibet and the new stage-specific characteristics of the "five periods of overlap," they have embodied the effectiveness of political construction in resolute actions to safeguard national unity, strengthen ethnic unity, and carry out the struggle against separatism, deepened and substantiated the political quality inspection of cadres, and urged Party members and cadres to take a clear-cut stand, remain clear-headed, and hold firm positions in the face of matters of principle or major issues (大是大非, da shi da fei - "great, is, great, is"), and to dare to struggle and be good at struggling in the struggle against separatism, infiltration, and encroachment.
Establish a clear orientation for cadre selection and appointment, and forge a high-quality cadre contingent capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of governing, stabilizing, and revitalizing Tibet. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Party cadres are the backbone force of the cause of the Party and the state, and that we must adhere to the principle of the Party managing cadres, uphold the correct orientation for selecting and appointing personnel, and build a contingent of high-quality professional cadres. We must implement the standards for good cadres in the new era and the "Four Special" political requirements for cadres in ethnic regions, taking "special resoluteness in maintaining the Party's centralized and unified leadership, special clarity in distinguishing right from wrong on matters of principle, special firmness in action in forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, and special sincerity in feelings toward the people of all ethnic groups" as the fundamental yardstick for selecting and appointing personnel, ensuring that leadership at all levels remains firmly in the hands of those loyal to the Party, loyal to the people, and loyal to Marxism. We must adhere to selecting cadres based on ability and judging heroes by actual performance, repair the political ecosystem, rectify the atmosphere of cadre selection and appointment, and guide the orientation of entrepreneurship and work with a correct view of performance. All cadres promoted or further used by the Tenth Party Committee of the Autonomous Region are those with outstanding performance and public recognition, creating a favorable situation across the region of unity of purpose, smooth communication, and full motivation for work. We must adhere to promoting work through assessment and selecting people through assessment, formulate five comprehensive assessment measures for prefectures and cities, district-level departments, universities, state-owned enterprises, and temple management committees by field and with differentiation, dynamically adjust and optimize the high-quality development assessment and evaluation system based on different functional positioning, resource endowments, baseline levels, and the primary responsibilities and main businesses of each unit, deeply integrate the research on outstanding cadres with the annual comprehensive assessment, change from research once every five years to research once a year, and form an evaluation mechanism of "those who do well are assessed well and used well." Looking ahead to economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we must solidly do a good job in the leadership transitions of cities, counties, and townships, clarify that deputy secretaries of township Party committees are in charge of political and legal stability maintenance work, uniformly equip 680 townships with united front work committee members, strengthen grassroots ethnic and religious work forces, conduct for the first time upgraded review of personnel plans for county (city, district) leadership transitions, optimize the structure of leadership teams and enhance overall functions, coordinate cadre resources across the region to select and strengthen the principal Party and government leaders of cities and counties, and achieve the goal of drawing a good blueprint, selecting good cadres, and forming good leadership teams.
Vigorously strengthen grassroots organizations and foundations, and weave a tight and strong organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in implementation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the grassroots are the foundation of the Party's governance and the source of its strength." We must implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's "Five Requirements" for the construction of Party organizations at the grassroots level in ethnic regions, adhere to placing equal emphasis on tangible coverage and effective coverage, grasp both traditional and emerging fields together, and strive to build strong fighting fortresses that "forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation, lead the masses to prosperity, maintain social stability, guard the border territory, and carry out the struggle against separatism." We must coordinate the promotion of "one grasp, two promotions"—grasping Party building to promote grassroots governance and promote rural revitalization—improve the five-level organizational chain, establish a professional system for community workers, promote the transformation of towns into subdistricts, villages into communities, and the optimization of grids, strengthen Party building in temple management committees, emerging fields, and residential communities, and the construction of Party and mass service centers; implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important reply letter to all villagers of Gala Village in Nyingchi, dispatch more than 20,000 cadres each year to all villages (communities) in the region to maintain stability, promote development, and benefit people's livelihoods, implement the "Two Projects" of national common language education and training for village leaders and rotation training outside the region, build and make good use of red education bases and red beautiful villages, handle well the "small but beautiful" livelihood matters such as small kitchens and small bathhouses, develop "village joint Party committees" in light of local conditions, promote the inclusive financial service of "Jinhui Huinong Tong," cultivate a number of leading collective economy enterprises with an annual output value of over ten million yuan, and assist in building livable, workable, and beautiful villages on the plateau. Focusing on "prospering the border, enriching the people, stabilizing the border, and consolidating the border," and guided by demand, we have innovatively carried out the "Five Co-construction and Five Consolidation" paired co-construction between military and local grassroots Party organizations, in which both sides jointly study the Party's theory to consolidate faith and ideals, jointly build grassroots organizations to consolidate frontline fortresses, jointly promote the improvement of people's livelihoods to consolidate the achievements of the battle against poverty, jointly foster civilized new practices to consolidate ethnic unity, and jointly guard the sacred territory to consolidate border tranquility, jointly building 1,450 grassroots Party organizations, jointly running more than 1,000 special industrial projects, and jointly carrying out more than 30,000 operations for stability maintenance and border control, blazing a new path of military-civil fusion development and joint efforts to strengthen the border and consolidate defense in grassroots Party building in border areas.
Optimize the allocation of staffing resources and form a scientific, standardized, and efficient institutional and functional system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "institutional staffing is an important political resource and governing resource, and institutional staffing work is important work for strengthening the Party's long-term governance capacity and the construction of state power." We must adhere to combining "slimming down" with "keeping fit," seek staffing from deepening reform, seek efficiency from scientific management, break down departmental barriers and regional boundaries, revitalize and make good use of institutional staffing resources, and serve and guarantee the overall situation of governing, stabilizing, and revitalizing Tibet. Closely focusing on the "four major tasks" of stability, development, ecology, and border consolidation, we must comprehensively deepen the reform of Party and government institutions, refine and implement work functions into departments and units, adjust and optimize district-level Party and government institutions, integrate and optimize municipal-level Party and government institutions, comprehensively set up county-level Party, government, and mass organizations, fully implement the large division (section) system, carry out institutional reform in counties with small populations, and promote the Party's leadership over the construction of a new socialist modernized Tibet to be more scientific in institutional setup, more optimized in functional configuration, more complete in institutional mechanisms, and more efficient in operation and management. We must deepen the reform of the institutional staffing of public security organs and thoroughly solve the long-standing problem of "low-level management of high-level units and small units managing large units." We must coordinate burden reduction and empowerment, carefully compile and publish lists of duties and matters for townships (subdistricts), clarify the boundaries of powers and responsibilities, divide the powers of different levels and departments, straighten out the relationships of responsibilities, and focus on solving the prominent problem of "a small horse pulling a big cart." We must solidly do the preparatory work for the reform of public institutions, improve the Party's leadership institutional mechanisms in public institutions, optimize the structural layout, improve the employment and income distribution systems, improve the level of public welfare services, and meet the needs of the people.
Give full play to the unique advantages of paired assistance to Tibet and enhance political, economic, and social benefits. Paired assistance to Tibet is a strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee with a view to the overall situation of Tibet work. Taking the 30th anniversary of paired assistance to Tibet as an opportunity, we must vigorously publicize the great importance attached by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to Tibet work and the cordial care for the Tibetan people, fully demonstrate the profound friendship between the vast numbers of cadres and talents assisting Tibet and the cadres and masses of all ethnic groups in Tibet that transcends time and space and spans mountains and seas, demonstrate the all-round progress and historic achievements made in various undertakings in Tibet under the leadership of the Party, forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation, and advance the building of the community of the Chinese nation. Seizing employment, the biggest livelihood issue, we have innovatively carried out "dual recruitment and dual introduction" of investment attraction and talent introduction for assisting Tibet. Since 2022, more than 70 billion yuan of project funds have been put in place, driving 24,600 people in the region to find employment nearby and conveniently. We must focus on improving people's livelihoods and rallying people's hearts, adhere to investing more than 80% of assistance funds to counties and below at the grassroots level and more than 80% to the field of people's livelihoods, consolidate and expand the achievements of "group-style" assistance to Tibet in medical and educational talent, promote "smart healthcare" and "smart education," strengthen the models of hospitals supporting departments, provinces supporting schools, and "passing on, helping, and leading," and greatly improve the diagnosis and treatment capacity of the "1+7+13" recipient hospitals and the teaching and research level of the 21 recipient schools. We must vigorously promote the spirit of assisting Tibet, formulate work measures to strengthen the management and service of cadres and talents assisting Tibet, establish a temporary Party committee for cadres and talents assisting Tibet from central units, build apartment buildings for cadres and talents assisting Tibet in district-level units, and sincerely and emotionally resolve the worries and concerns of cadres and talents assisting Tibet.
Strengthen the education, management, and supervision of Party members and build a vanguard contingent that is reliable, capable, and outstanding. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "for the Communist Party of China to always remain the vanguard of the times and the backbone of the nation, the Party membership must be outstanding." We must effectively control the entry gate for Party members, fully implement the numbered management of Party membership application forms, establish a joint review system for political review, strictly follow the procedures and steps for developing Party members, and the total number of Party members in the region has reached more than 484,000, with the gender, ethnic, educational, and age structure of Party members optimized, the distribution of the Party membership more rational, and coverage more extensive. We have formulated specific measures to implement the national plan for Party member education and training, deepened education on ideals and beliefs and Party spirit education, carried out education on the Old Tibet Spirit and the "Two Roads" Spirit, optimized curriculum design and improved training quality in light of the characteristics of different Party member groups in rural areas, cities, government organs, public institutions, enterprises, and emerging fields, and enhanced the capability and quality of Party members. We have promoted the "two places, four parties" management experience of the Tibet Party Committee of Chengdu floating Party members, promoted "two-way co-management" of floating Party members, and advanced the localized management of Party members who are retired cadres and workers resettled in other places. We have improved the mechanism for Party members to play their role both online and offline, in peacetime and in emergencies, carried out "dual registration" of in-service Party members to communities, organized the broad ranks of Party members to step forward and take responsibility in urgent, difficult, dangerous, and heavy tasks such as earthquake relief in Dingri and mudslide rescue and disaster relief in Gyirong, and a number of advanced models have emerged.
Implement the four major projects of "cultivating, introducing, using, and retaining" talent and create a favorable environment for outstanding talents to stand out. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "national development depends on talent, and national rejuvenation depends on talent," and that "we must promote the development of education, science and technology, and talent as a whole, and do a good job in all aspects of cultivation, introduction, and utilization." In response to the long-standing problems of "difficulty in attracting talent and difficulty in retaining talent," we have made attracting and gathering talent a key move to promote the prosperity of the region, vigorously implemented the strategy of strengthening the region through talent, and gathered wisdom and strength for the construction of a new socialist modernized Tibet. We have improved institutional design, formulated "19 measures" for talent work, implemented the "Everest Talent" plan, selected and supported a number of strategic talents, leading talents, young talents, and scientific and technological innovation teams each year, and provided living allowances and project funding support of up to 10 million yuan. Changing from "passively waiting for talent to come" to "actively attracting talent," since 2022, we have successively held 17 "Gathering Talents, Aspiring to the Plateau" talent introduction and recruitment promotion activities in key cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and prestigious universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, introducing 594 high-level talents. We have implemented the "talent introduction and enterprise strengthening" action for private enterprises, providing one-time settling-in allowances and project funding subsidies with reference to the autonomous region's policies for introducing high-level talents, and accelerated the integration of industry and talent and collaborative innovation. We have strengthened the cultivation of local talent, promoted Tibet University to optimize its discipline setup, with the proportion of science and engineering enrollment exceeding 68%, and promoted 24 people to be selected for national-level talent programs. We have optimized the talent development environment, with 4 new academician workstations built in the region, the number of autonomous region-level scientific and technological innovation platforms increased to 113, three times that of 2021, including 49 key laboratories, more than double, building a stage for talents to start businesses and make achievements.
Carry forward the spirit of self-revolution and build model organs and outstanding teams with strict and practical standards. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "we must strive to build organizational departments at all levels into model departments that stress politics, value fairness, are professionally proficient, and have a good work style." We must implement the political responsibility of governing the Party and running the Party strictly, continue to promote the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style construction, and lead organizational work cadres to embody "stressing politics" through absolute reliability and absolute loyalty, embody "valuing fairness" through public-mindedness, public trust, fairness, and justice, embody "professional proficiency" through careful planning and meticulous work, and embody "good work style" through modesty, low-key, pragmatism, and responsibility, winning the trust and support of cadres and the masses through strong Party spirit, noble conduct, and personal charisma. We must adhere to effectively combining scientific ways of thinking with work experience summarized and explored in practice, adhere to upholding fundamental principles and break new ground, and overall planning and coordination, grasp the logical relationship of "positioning—status—role," focus on the different levels of "macro—meso—micro," make good use of the working method of "setting benchmarks—comparing with benchmarks—meeting benchmarks," adhere to the systematic thinking of "problems—structure—countermeasures," and make organizational work better reflect the characteristics of the times, grasp the laws of development, and be full of creativity. Since 2021, focusing on selecting cadres and forming leadership teams, consolidating grassroots organizations and foundations, building teams and gathering talent, and managing institutions and using staffing, we have formulated and revised 87 various systems and normative documents, continuously improved the system of laws and regulations for organizational work, improved the execution of systems, and more scientifically and effectively confined power to the cage of institutions.
On the new journey of the new era, Party building and organizational work must make new achievements and new contributions. Organizational departments in Tibet must deeply grasp the practical foundation and theoretical origins of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, implement well the spirit of the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, run the Fourteen Commitments (十四个坚持) through all aspects and the entire process of organizational work, give full play to their functional role in upholding the Party's leadership, strengthening Party building, and advancing the Party's cause, and make new and continuous contributions to building a united, prosperous, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful new socialist modernized Tibet with higher standards and more practical measures.
(The author is a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region and head of its Organization Department.)
Return to TopQuestion: Liu Junwei, member of the Standing Committee of the Xuchang Municipal Party Committee, deputy mayor of the municipal government, and deputy secretary of the Party Leadership Group
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that the renowned scholar Wang Guowei described three realms of scholarship: first, "Last night the west wind withered the green trees; alone I climbed the high tower and gazed to the end of the world's road"; second, "My belt grows ever looser, yet I do not regret it; for her I grow haggard and worn"; third, "I searched for him a thousand times in the crowd; suddenly turning back, I saw him there in the dim lamplight." Leading cadres studying theory should also have these three realms. The question is: how should we understand the three realms of theory study for leading cadres?
Interpretation: Wang Xuebin, professor at the Department of Literature, History and Philosophy Teaching and Research, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance)
Theoretical cultivation is the core of a leading cadre's overall competence; theoretical maturity is the foundation of political maturity, and political firmness stems from theoretical clarity. At the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work held on August 19, 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping, borrowing the formulation of the renowned scholar Wang Guowei on the three realms of scholarship, stressed that for leading cadres to forge an "indestructible body," they must arm their minds with scientific theory and continuously cultivate our spiritual homeland, and that leading cadres studying theory should also have these three realms. "First, theoretical study should have the lofty aspiration of 'gazing to the end of the world's road,' enduring the cold and desolation of 'last night the west wind withered the green trees' and the solitude of 'alone climbing the high tower,' calming the mind to read thoroughly and painstakingly; second, theoretical study requires diligence, effort, and assiduous research, putting in real effort, hard effort, and meticulous effort, so that even when 'the belt grows ever looser' one does not 'regret it,' and being 'haggard and worn' is willingly accepted; third, theoretical study values independent thinking, combining study with application, gaining insight through study, and obtaining results through application, 'searching for him a thousand times in the crowd' in study and practice, and finally 'suddenly turning back' to comprehend the true meaning 'in the dim lamplight.'" This important exposition profoundly reveals the three realms through which leading cadres study theory, progressing from the shallow to the deep, layer by layer.
Setting lofty aspirations, consolidating the theoretical foundation in establishing the mind and forging the soul
The first realm of theory study for leading cadres is "Last night the west wind withered the green trees; alone I climbed the high tower and gazed to the end of the world's road." General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that theoretical study should have the lofty aspiration of "gazing to the end of the world's road." This profoundly reveals a fundamental question: why must leading cadres study theory? The answer lies in the fact that theoretical cultivation is the core of a leading cadre's overall competence; the more firmly one grasps Marxist theory, this skill for managing one's household, the higher one's political positioning, the stronger one's political judgment, political comprehension, and political execution, and the more proactive one becomes in observing the situation, planning development, and preventing and defusing risks. Reviewing the Party's more than one hundred years of struggle, the fundamental reason our Party has been able to achieve major accomplishments in various historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform is that it has mastered Marxist scientific theory and continuously advanced theoretical innovation in light of new realities, enabling the Party to grasp powerful truth-force. For leading cadres, the basic theories of Marxism are a required course for Communists and the "true scripture" of us Communists.
Setting lofty aspirations means, first of all, standing high, seeing broadly, and aiming far. When leading cadres study theory, they must not be satisfied with acquiring scattered fragments of knowledge, nor should they be confined to solving immediate concrete problems; rather, they should proceed from the ideal and conviction of "striving all one's life for communism," proceed from the original aspiration and founding mission of "seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation," stand at the height of the times and the overall situation, and deeply understand the laws of Communist Party governance, the laws of socialist construction, the laws of human social development, and the laws of the development of Chinese civilization. Only by standing high and gazing far can one see the general trend clearly, discern the direction accurately, and see through to the essence; only then can one maintain strategic resolve amid complex and changing circumstances and grasp historical initiative amid intertwined risks and challenges. Only with such aspirations and positioning can one truly understand "why to study" and also generate the internal motivation and self-awareness of "how to study."
Setting lofty aspirations is, in the final analysis, for the purpose of building a solid foundation of faith, replenishing the calcium of the spirit, and steadying the helm of thought. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese Communists have reached where we are today through study, and we will surely rely on study to reach the future." At present, facing the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and changes unseen in a century in the world, with unprecedented risks and challenges of all kinds and arduous and heavy tasks of reform, development, and stability, if leading cadres lack the support of profound theoretical accomplishment, it will be difficult for them to stand firm and take a clear-cut stand on major issues of principle, and difficult for them to distinguish right from wrong and command the overall situation amid complex circumstances.
Setting lofty aspirations also requires enduring the cold and desolation of "last night the west wind withered the green trees" and the solitude of "alone climbing the high tower." In today's era of information explosion and clamorous voices, the trend of impetuosity prevails. Some leading cadres treat theoretical study as "packaging" or "gilding," keen on fast-food-style learning and fragmented reading, satisfied with "knowing about it" and "understanding it," lacking the composure and calm to truly settle down and study the classics. If theoretical study cannot endure coldness and solitude, one can only linger at the surface and cannot enter the inner sanctum of theory. And the ultimate point of all this lies in "calming the mind to read thoroughly and painstakingly." The classic works of Marxism are voluminous and profound in thought; only by calming the mind, maintaining composure, and being willing to put in the effort can one truly read deeply and study deeply, and truly master and grasp Marxism, this skill for managing one's household.
Assiduous research, putting in real effort, hard effort, and meticulous effort
The second realm of theory study for leading cadres is "My belt grows ever looser, yet I do not regret it; for her I grow haggard and worn." If the first realm resolves the attitude question of "whether to study," then the second realm resolves the process question of "how to study." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "theoretical study requires diligence, effort, and assiduous research, putting in real effort, hard effort, and meticulous effort." This main requirement is highly targeted at reality. At present, some leading cadres exhibit a "showpiece" phenomenon in study: they take many notes and write many reflections, but it is no more than gulping down dates whole and skimming over the surface; they store a bellyful of theoretical viewpoints but fail to take them into their minds and hearts. There is no shortcut in theoretical study, still less any "southern mountain shortcut"; the only proper path is to put in hard work and use dogged effort, exchanging the sacrifice of "the belt growing ever looser" for "gradually entering a better state" in theory.
The so-called "real effort" is a fundamental requirement for the attitude toward study. Marxist theory is a rigorous scientific system, not a patchwork of scattered knowledge; tasting it lightly and skimming over the surface will never reveal the way in. One must study and read with a devout attitude and persistent spirit. The so-called "hard effort" is a rigid requirement for the intensity of study. Leading cadres studying theory likewise need this spirit of enduring hardship of "the belt growing looser and the person growing haggard," willing to spend time and willing to expend mental energy. The so-called "meticulous effort" is a fine requirement for study methods: one must repeatedly ponder important concepts, deeply analyze and discriminate key judgments, and systematically grasp the theoretical system, achieving not only knowing what is so but also knowing why it is so.
The "no regret" in "my belt grows ever looser, yet I do not regret it" embodies the tenacious character that theory study should have. The process of theoretical study is full of hardship; classic works are often profound in thought and rigorous in logic, and on first reading one inevitably finds them difficult and abstruse, and the connections between many theoretical propositions and real-world problems are not visible at a glance. But it is precisely through this process of "tossing and turning, bitter contemplation" that one can "understand the principles on the page, comprehend the meaning beyond the book, see clearly the road ahead, and build the foundation in the heart," thereby achieving the deepening from true study to true understanding, and from true understanding to true belief. True understanding requires deeply grasping the spiritual essence of Marxist theory, truly mastering the rich connotations and basic viewpoints of this theoretical system, and clearly understanding why the Communist Party of China can, why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good — in the final analysis, because Marxism works, because the sinicized and modernized Marxism works. True belief requires deeply understanding the laws of Communist Party governance, the laws of socialist construction, the laws of human social development, and the laws of the development of Chinese civilization, and strengthening conviction in socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Independent thinking, achieving the unity of knowledge and action through combining study with application and gaining insight through study
The third realm of theory study for leading cadres is "I searched for him a thousand times in the crowd; suddenly turning back, I saw him there in the dim lamplight." Unlike the first two realms, which focus on "studying in," the third realm must accomplish the key leap from "studying in" to "using well."
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "theoretical study values independent thinking, combining study with application, gaining insight through study, and obtaining results through application." This important exposition covers four core dimensions of theoretical study: independent thinking is the premise; without independent thinking, study can only be echoing others and following in their footsteps; combining study with application is the path; theoretical study cannot be divorced from practice, and practice cannot lack theoretical guidance; gaining insight through study is the key; insight is the qualitative transformation node from knowledge to competence, from external sensation to internalization; obtaining results through application is the destination; the effectiveness of study must ultimately be manifested in the practical ability to analyze and solve problems. These four links are interlocked, forming a complete epistemological chain. And running through them all is one main thread: adhering to integrating theory with practice and applying what one has learned. Earnestly internalize the Party's political ideals, political line, and political propositions into conscious actions of strengthening Party spirit cultivation, raising ideological awareness, and cultivating moral sentiment. Continuously seek and repeatedly question in study and practice; after long-term independent thinking and practical accumulation, finally comprehend the Marxist stand, viewpoint, and method for observing the times, grasping the times, and leading the times.
Theoretical study most abhors echoing others and following in their footsteps. The reason Marxism possesses powerful vitality is precisely that it is not a closed system built behind closed doors in a study, but an open system that continuously develops in responding to the questions of the times. Leading cadres must not be satisfied with being "megaphones" and "repeaters," but must repeatedly seek in study and practice. Only after experiencing the hardship of independent seeking can one, at a certain moment, suddenly achieve full comprehension and discover that truth lies precisely "in the dim lamplight." Lacking independent thinking, one can only circle within frameworks drawn by others. To adhere to independent thinking, one must apply the Marxist worldview and methodology, deepen understanding of China's realities and of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and explore scientific approaches to solving new problems.
"Insight" is the pivot from "study" to "application." Insight means that through deep thinking, one achieves a thorough and integrated understanding of theory, transforming it from words on the page into a weapon of thought in one's own mind. Theoretical study must also connect with the reality of transforming the subjective world, resolving issues of ideals, convictions, and Party spirit cultivation. The fundamental reason some Party members and cadres degenerate and change is that they relaxed the transformation of their worldview and wavered in their ideals and convictions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "A cadre's Party spirit cultivation and moral level will not naturally improve with the growth of Party age and work seniority, nor will they naturally improve with promotion in position; they must strengthen self-cultivation, self-restraint, and self-transformation." The theory we study runs through with the requirements of Communists' political character, value pursuit, and work style and integrity. The process of insight is the process of using theory to examine oneself and elevate oneself.
Theoretical study is not for decorating one's facade, but for guiding practice. At present, some leading cadres have "two separate skins" in study and application — they speak plausibly but are at a loss when acting; at the root, the problem lies in "independent thinking" and "gaining insight through study." One must adhere to integrating theory with practice, combining study with researching and solving the issues of greatest concern, most direct interest, and most immediate reality to the people, the major issues of reform, development, and stability in one's own region and department, and the prominent issues in Party building, and earnestly translate the results of study into practical ability to solve problems. At the same time, one must pay attention to drawing wisdom from the masses, sincerely taking the people as teachers, honestly learning from the people, humbly seeking instruction from the people, extensively listening to the voices of the people, consciously seeking plans from the people and seeking needs from the people, using the Party's innovative theory to research and solve the prominent problems required by development, urgent for reform, expected at the grassroots, and desired by the people, while also drawing inspiration for theoretical and practical innovation from the people's genuine insights, elevating fresh experience into rational understanding, refining new theoretical achievements, so that the Party's innovative theory penetrates deeply into the hearts of hundreds of millions of people and becomes a theory that is grounded in reality, gathers the people's wisdom, conforms to the people's will, and wins the people's hearts.
Return to TopBy: 吴舜泽
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "No matter how far we march forward, we must never forget the road we have traveled; no matter how far we go, no matter how glorious the future we reach, we must never forget the past we have traversed, and must never forget why we set out." In January 1927, the Communist Party of China established its first local organization in Lishui (southwestern Zhejiang), namely the Suichang Branch of the CPC, opening the great journey of revolutionary struggle by the people of southwestern Zhejiang under the Party's leadership. The perilousness of the revolutionary environment in southwestern Zhejiang, the harshness of the situation, the difficulty of the struggle, and the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves were unprecedented in the revolutionary history of Zhejiang and rarely seen in the revolutionary history of China, displaying extreme cruelty, extreme risk, strong creativity, and strict discipline, leaving in the history of the Party and the military achievements of eternal brilliance and also leaving rare and precious experience and enlightenment.
Firm conviction and loyal mission are the source of strength. Southwestern Zhejiang was located in the heartland of Kuomintang rule, where reactionary forces had always been the most stubborn and revolutionary struggle the most difficult. From February 1935 to September 1937, the Red Army Advance Division, accepting its mission in a time of crisis and fearless of sacrifice, vowed to advance into southwestern Zhejiang and carried out three years of arduous guerrilla warfare, making southwestern Zhejiang a new strategic fulcrum in the Party's revolutionary layout in the south, and, at a time when the national revolution had fallen into a low ebb, stirred up a local high tide of revolution in southwestern Zhejiang. In the winter of 1935, when the revolutionary base area in southwestern Zhejiang was bloodily ravaged by the enemy, the scattered surviving Red Army soldiers, relying on firm conviction, painstakingly moved to the border between Longquan and Pucheng and persisted in jungle guerrilla warfare. They fought against hunger, fought against severe cold, and, above all, fought against the enemy. Over 23 years of revolutionary struggle, more than 1,500 revolutionary predecessors paid with their precious lives. Liu Ying, Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, and the four successive special committee secretaries of southwestern Zhejiang, Zong Mengping, Huang Fuwu, Xu Xinkun, and Zhang Qilin, all died a heroic death, practicing with concrete actions of loyal mission the solemn oath of "devoting a red heart to revolution, resolutely without turning back." In them, there was always maintained the firm conviction that "revolutionary ideals are higher than heaven," always achieving the ability to rise again after setbacks, to become strong through tempering and hardship after suffering, to have the courage to overwhelm the enemy without being overwhelmed by any enemy, and to overcome all difficulties without being overcome by any difficulty, thereby winning the great victory of the revolution in southwestern Zhejiang. The practice of revolution enlightens us that today, the smoke of war has dissipated, and Party members and cadres no longer face choices between life and death or tests of blood and fire as in the war years, but loyalty to the Party and the certainty of fulfilling the mission have always been the foundation of establishing oneself and finding a sense of purpose for Communists, and the fundamental driving force inspiring us to strive resolutely and advance continuously.
Daring to struggle and seeking truth from facts while advancing are the trait genes. Daring to struggle is the political gene innate to our Party and the distinctive character tempered over a century. The revolutionary and critical nature of Marxism determines that Communists must change the world through practical action. The struggle process of the revolution in southwestern Zhejiang was not only a process of daring to struggle, winning victory, and fulfilling the mission, but also a process of basing oneself on reality, daring to innovate, and seeking truth. At a critical juncture when its own situation was extremely difficult, the Red Army Advance Division, with the dauntless spirit of seeking life from death, resolutely and decisively penetrated deep into the heartland of Kuomintang rule as an isolated force, dealing heavy blows to and pinning down the enemy, and composing in southwestern Zhejiang a stirring and magnificent song of advance. In particular, when cut off from higher-level leadership and isolated without support, it adhered to independence and self-reliance, proceeded from reality in everything, emancipated the mind and sought truth from facts, did not follow old conventions or stick to established rules, actively and correctly adapted to the enormous changes in the struggle situation and struggle environment, took winning victory as the goal, discarded empty dogmatism, overcame narrow departmentalism, and prevented rigid empiricism. Making full use of the unique geographical position and objectively favorable terrain conditions of the mountainous areas of southwestern Zhejiang, it creatively proposed and applied the guerrilla tactic of "when the enemy advances, we advance," which not only successfully smashed the enemy's "suppression" plan and escaped from the dangerous situation while surrounded by powerful enemies, but also enabled it to move to the enemy's rear to open up new battlefields and break new ground in work. The practice of revolution enlightens us that the most fundamental reason the Red Army Advance Division was able to defeat powerful enemies a hundred times its own strength was that it always maintained the spiritual character of daring to struggle and being good at struggle, and no matter how perilous, complex, or difficult the situation and environment, it resolutely moved forward without looking back and advanced courageously toward the established goal; the most important reason was that it always adhered to the principle of seeking truth from facts, with all work based on reality, all decisions proceeding from reality, and the realization of all goals aimed at achieving practical results as the ultimate foothold. We must carry forward the character of struggle, know our responsibilities and shoulder them, bear heavy burdens, win the decisive battle on the main battlefield, fight on the front line, and demonstrate responsibility; we must strengthen the awareness of seeking truth, seek practicality in seeking truth, seek truth through practicality, seek change through truth, in light of local conditions, reform and innovate, and strive to take the distinctive path of high-quality development and common prosperity.
The joint efforts of the military and the people and taking root among the people are the deep foundation. A history of the revolution in southwestern Zhejiang is a history of struggle in which the military and the people worked together and took root among the people. The army led by our Party is the people's army, which comes from the people, relies on the people, and serves the people. In long-term revolutionary struggle practice, it always adhered to the mass line, grasping armed struggle with one hand and doing mass work with the other, acting as both fighters and propagandists, and making winning over and mobilizing the masses the top priority. Wherever they went, they boldly mobilized the masses, expanded revolutionary forces, carried out the agrarian revolution in depth, and did their utmost to seek benefits for the toiling masses, enabling the people to fully recognize that "the Red Army is the people's army and the Communist Party is the great savior of the people," and to show "unprecedented support for and sympathy with the Party and the revolution." It was precisely because of such a solid foundation that our Party and the people's army "gathered together tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of the masses" and fought out a bright red sunny sky. The struggle practice in southwestern Zhejiang tells and enlightens us that the masses are the decisive force for the success of the revolution. Only by adhering to the mass line can we achieve success in all endeavors and be invincible against all obstacles. Facing the new era, the new journey, and the new tasks, we must sit squarely on the side of the common people, earnestly ask the people about their needs, seek plans from the people, and seek results from the people, so that what cadres think about and care about resonates at the same frequency with what the people urgently need and eagerly expect; we must treat the concerns of the people's hearts as our own top concerns, grasp the issues of most direct and realistic interest to the masses, do the things the masses most need, most welcome, and most benefit from, and turn more visions of people's livelihood into scenes of happiness; we must improve our ability to serve the masses, vigorously promote the "six do" work style, deepen the construction of work style and effectiveness of "hard work and practical action, taking responsibility and striving to be first," temper cadres' strong abilities and skills, jointly play the march of universal mobilization of the whole people, and jointly sound the strongest voice of working together with one heart and mind.
Obeying the Party's command and maintaining strict discipline are the magic weapon for victory. Obeying the Party's command is the foundation of the people's army's establishment and the soul of its strengthening; strict discipline is the glorious tradition and unique advantage of Communists and an important guarantee of the people's army's combat effectiveness. In June 1934, at the critical juncture when the fifth counter-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in the Central Soviet Area faced failure and a forced strategic shift, the Red Army's Advance Team for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation, as a dare-to-die corps and a "bait" thrown at the enemy, was ordered to raise high the banner of resistance against Japan, penetrate deep behind enemy lines as an isolated force, disregard life or death, resolutely implement the Central Committee's instructions, and lifted the curtain on the Long March of the Central Red Army. In February 1935, the Red Army Advance Division vowed to advance into the heart of Kuomintang rule, established the base area in southwestern Zhejiang and stirred up a revolutionary high tide, attracting and diverting the Kuomintang army, and shouldering the great mission of strategically coordinating with the Long March. No matter how perilous the environment, how difficult the conditions, or how critical the situation, they always obeyed the Party's command, resolutely implemented the Central Committee's instructions, and did not hesitate to shed their blood and sacrifice everything for the revolutionary cause. Strengthening discipline, the revolution is invincible. When the Red Army's Advance Team for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation moved to Qingyuan and Longquan, they committed not even the slightest offense or theft wherever they went; when they occupied Qingyuan county town, they wrote "preserve the post office" at the post office gate, keeping the post office safe and sound; when using Soviet currency to purchase goods from the masses, in order to avoid losses to the masses, they specially sent personnel carrying silver dollars to exchange Soviet currency back from the masses, one yuan for one yuan, without discount, and were praised by the masses as a "righteous and benevolent army." The practice of revolution fully proves and enlightens us that obeying the Party's command and maintaining strict discipline are the magic weapon for the torch of the revolution in southwestern Zhejiang to be passed on from generation to generation and for the red flag never to fall. Only by strengthening the Party's overall leadership and advancing the rectification of work style, the enforcement of discipline, and the fight against corruption with a strict tone, strict measures, and a strict atmosphere can the cause of Chinese modernization achieve success in all endeavors. We must consolidate and expand the achievements of the study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, bear in mind that "enriching the people of a region is a political achievement, and ensuring the peace of a region and nurturing the mountains and waters of a region is also a political achievement," strengthen risk awareness and bottom-line thinking, and always achieve the establishment of the Party for the public good, serving the people, making scientific decisions, and doing solid work; we must uphold the Party's self-governance and full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, advance in an integrated manner the deterrence against, the prevention of, and the immunity to corruption, and comprehensively cultivate a clean and upright political atmosphere.
History is the carrier of the genes of civilization and, moreover, a spiritual light source that enlightens the present. The revolutionary history of southwestern Zhejiang is the never-fading spiritual map of the people of southwestern Zhejiang. When we open the yellowed classics and touch the mottled cultural relics, those stories frozen in time and space turn into nourishment for the present — history is the best textbook, guiding us to recognize the road we have come from; it is also the best nutrient, giving us the strength to break through difficulties. Let the fire of faith burn unceasingly, let the red genes be passed on from generation to generation, and walk well the Long March of the new era.
(The author is Secretary of the Lishui Municipal Party Committee of Zhejiang Province)
Return to TopBy: 中国残疾人联合会党组书记、理事长 周长奎
China has approximately 85 million people with disabilities, a special group that is large in scale, complex in composition, prominent in characteristics, and beset by many difficulties. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important statements and important instructions and directives on continuously improving the well-being of people with disabilities and doing the work on disabilities well, profoundly answering major questions such as how to understand people with disabilities in the new era, how to develop the cause of people with disabilities, and how to do the work on disabilities well. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that on the new journey, it is necessary to "further improve the social security system and care service system for people with disabilities, effectively safeguard the equal rights and interests of people with disabilities, and promote the comprehensive development of the cause of people with disabilities." The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan makes dedicated arrangements in a special section for "enhancing the capacity for safeguarding and developing people with disabilities," and the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Safeguarding and Development of People with Disabilities," issued by the Working Committee on Disability of the State Council, makes systematic plans for advancing the comprehensive development and high-quality development of the cause of people with disabilities. Facing the new journey, we must adhere to grasping safeguarding on one hand and grasping development on the other, take improving the social security system and care service system for people with disabilities as the main line, take reform and innovation as the fundamental driving force, and jointly create a happier and better life for people with disabilities in the process of Chinese modernization.
Improve the social security system for people with disabilities and firmly hold the bottom line of people's livelihood
People with disabilities have relatively weak self-development capacity and relatively low ability to resist risks, and some people with severe disabilities have completely lost the ability to work. It is necessary to place doing a good job of bottom-line safeguarding in a prominent position, and during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, hold, hold accurately, and hold firmly the bottom line of the livelihood of people with disabilities with greater efforts and more concrete measures. In strengthening social assistance, improve the dynamic monitoring and normalized assistance mechanisms for the low-income population, promptly include people with disabilities in difficulty in the scope of minimum living security, support for persons in extreme difficulty, and temporary assistance, and strengthen bottom-line safeguarding for groups such as those with severe disabilities, those with multiple disabilities, and families with multiple disabled members. In expanding social welfare, improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism for the two subsidies for people with disabilities, deeply implement the rehabilitation assistance system for children with disabilities, standardize the implementation of the subsidy system for fitting basic assistive devices for people with disabilities, and steadily raise subsidy standards and broaden the scope of coverage. In expanding social insurance, promote the inclusion of more of the most basic and most urgently needed medical rehabilitation items for people with disabilities in the scope of basic medical insurance payment, and promptly include people with disabilities who meet the conditions in the scope of long-term care insurance coverage. In particular, it is necessary to consolidate and expand the achievements of the battle against poverty for people with disabilities, promptly include rural people with disabilities in the scope of normalized monitoring for preventing the return to poverty and the emergence of poverty according to standards and conditions, fully implement targeted assistance measures, and ensure that no large-scale return to poverty or emergence of poverty occurs.
Promote employment and entrepreneurship of people with disabilities and help people with disabilities increase income and achieve common prosperity
Employment is the foundation of people's livelihood and the key path for people with disabilities to improve their living conditions. Employment of people with disabilities has many new characteristics and also carries more special value. In addition to increasing income, it can also give people with disabilities a greater sense of dignity, enhance their confidence in life, and be conducive to physical and mental rehabilitation and better integration into society. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, more than 400,000 people with disabilities in urban and rural areas were newly employed each year, and the employment rate increased by nearly 5 percentage points. At present, some people with disabilities of working age have not achieved employment, due to reasons such as the relatively weak employment capacity of people with disabilities themselves, the impact of changes in the economic and industrial structure, and the problem of inadequate implementation of employment support policies. On the one hand, it is necessary to continuously broaden the employment channels for people with disabilities, promote in accordance with the law the arrangement of employment for people with disabilities by employers in proportion to their workforce, vigorously develop auxiliary employment for people with disabilities, encourage people with disabilities to start their own businesses and engage in flexible employment, support employment brands for people with disabilities such as "Beautiful Workshops," promote the priority arrangement of qualified people with disabilities for employment in public welfare positions, and strive to help people with disabilities achieve fuller and higher-quality employment; on the other hand, vigorously enhance the vocational skills of people with disabilities, comprehensively improve their vocational literacy and employment competitiveness, encourage and guide multiple entities to participate in employment services for people with disabilities, resolutely break down employment barriers, rectify all kinds of unreasonable restrictions and employment discrimination, and create a fair and inclusive employment environment. The development of informatization and digital intelligence has brought both challenges and new opportunities for the employment of people with disabilities. Many people with disabilities previously had difficulty going out and finding employment, but now they can work from home. This requires fully paying attention to the impact of new technologies and increasing targeted support and assistance for people with disabilities in employment in new business forms.
Improve the care service system for people with disabilities and enhance the quality of public services
The completion of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects basically solved the problem of whether people with disabilities have access to public services; the basic realization of socialist modernization requires further solving the problems of whether services are complete and whether they are excellent. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to continuously expand service coverage and improve the precision of services. People with disabilities have many special needs in public services, and greater efforts need to be made in categorization and differentiation. Rehabilitation services are an urgent livelihood need of people with disabilities. It is necessary to continuously improve the rehabilitation service system, promote the expansion and sinking of high-quality rehabilitation resources, coordinate the advancement of the rehabilitation capacity building of rehabilitation hospitals, rehabilitation departments of general hospitals, and primary-level medical and health institutions, develop self-help and mutual-assistance rehabilitation services, and strive to achieve the goal of "every person with a disability enjoys rehabilitation services." Education is the foundation for people with disabilities to achieve comprehensive development. At present, the "15th Five-Year Plan Action Plan for the Development and Enhancement of Special Education" has been formulated and issued. It is necessary to consolidate and improve the enrollment rate of children with disabilities in compulsory education, promote by category the high school stage education of adolescents with disabilities, promote the articulation and connection of secondary and higher vocational education for students with disabilities, and enable more adolescents with disabilities to have fair opportunities to receive education and learn a skill. Care and nursing are the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of people with severe disabilities and their families. Caring for one person can often free a family. It is necessary to expand the supply of care and nursing services for people with disabilities, accelerate the establishment and improvement of a care and nursing service system for people with disabilities based on home care, supported by day care, and professionally supported by centralized care and nursing, and in particular deepen the integrated development of elderly care and disability assistance, implement the support policy for "elderly parents + children with disabilities" families to jointly move into elderly care institutions, and solve the care difficulties of special difficult families. Highlight care services for people with severe mental disorders, children with autism, and others, focus on core needs such as rehabilitation education, employment assistance, daily care, return to society, and custody and placement, and provide broader and more professional assistance and services.
Advance the research, development, and application of assistive technology and empower people with disabilities with new technology
Technology is an important support for helping people with disabilities overcome physical and mental barriers and achieve self-reliance and self-improvement. At present, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is bringing new rehabilitation opportunities and new hope for a better life to people with disabilities, and the demand scenarios of people with disabilities are becoming important application fields for new technology. For example, large language models for speech smoothly realize the conversion between text and voice, solving the communication barriers of deaf and blind people; brain-computer interface technology has opened up new avenues for neurological rehabilitation of people with disabilities, and cochlear implant technology has rebuilt the auditory function of hearing-impaired people; embodied intelligent robots are exploring entry into the fields of elderly care and disability assistance, and intelligent guide devices for the blind using multiple technological approaches are also being tested; and so on. Technology-assisted disability services are becoming an important field of deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation and an important focal point of new quality productive forces, with broad prospects. The "15th Five-Year Plan for the Safeguarding and Development of People with Disabilities" makes key arrangements for technology-assisted disability services, and nine departments including the China Disabled Persons' Federation jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Technology-Assisted Disability Services." Facing the strong technological needs of people with disabilities, it is further necessary to incorporate technology-assisted disability services into the overall deployment for building a strong country in science and technology and major science and technology research and development plans, increase the source supply of assistive technology achievements, accelerate the transformation and application of assistive technology achievements, strengthen the cultivation and opening of assistive technology scenarios according to the actual needs of people with disabilities of different categories, increase consumption support for technology-based assistive products, and promote the formation of large-scale application.
Enrich the spiritual and cultural life of people with disabilities and strengthen their spiritual strength
The better life of people with disabilities requires both material abundance and spiritual richness. After stably solving the problem of adequate food and clothing, the spiritual and cultural needs of people with disabilities are increasingly growing. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, in terms of cultural development, it is necessary to focus on expanding the supply of cultural services and products for people with disabilities, extensively carry out mass cultural activities for people with disabilities, promote the sinking of high-quality public cultural resources to the grassroots and their extension to the side of people with disabilities, and advance the entry of cultural services into communities and into the families of people with disabilities. There are many cultural and artistic talents among people with disabilities. It is necessary to support people with disabilities in participating in cultural and artistic creation, develop special arts, support intangible cultural heritage skills, cultivate cultural industries, and provide a broad stage for people with disabilities to display their talents and show their elegance. Sports play an important role in the rehabilitation and fitness of people with disabilities and in stimulating the spirit of unremitting self-improvement. It is necessary to support the coordinated development of competitive sports and mass sports for people with disabilities, implement the fitness action for people with disabilities to enjoy sports, organize a series of activities such as the National Fitness Week for People with Disabilities and the Winter Sports Season for People with Disabilities, prepare for major events such as the Paralympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games, the Asian Para Games, and the National Games for Persons with Disabilities and Special Olympics, and inspire people with disabilities to bravely surpass themselves and win glory for the country.
Safeguard the equal rights and interests of people with disabilities and promote social integration
Equal participation in and integration into society is an important connotation of people with disabilities jointly building and sharing Chinese modernization and an important symbol of the progress of social civilization. It is necessary to start from improving the system of laws and regulations for safeguarding the rights and interests of people with disabilities, adapt to new changes and needs, summarize the experience and practices that have been proven to be effective (行之有效, xing zhi you xiao - "act, that, have, effective") in practice, promote the revision of the Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, research and improve laws, regulations, and systems on education and employment for people with disabilities, and at the same time strengthen judicial protection and legal aid services for people with disabilities and resolutely crack down on all kinds of illegal and criminal acts that infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of people with disabilities. Expand the channels and ways for people with disabilities and organizations of people with disabilities to participate in whole-process people's democracy, improve the diversified dispute resolution mechanism for conflicts and disputes involving people with disabilities, deeply advance the rule-of-law-based handling of petitions from people with disabilities, guide people with disabilities to respect, study, abide by, and apply the law, and express their wishes and demands in an orderly and effective manner. Focus on eliminating the tangible and intangible barriers faced by people with disabilities in integrating into society, fully implement the Law on the Construction of a Barrier-Free Environment, coordinate the advancement of barrier-free facilities, barrier-free information, and barrier-free services, and continue to implement the barrier-free renovation of the homes of families with people with severe disabilities in difficulty during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Vigorously promote the fine tradition of the Chinese nation of helping the weak and those in difficulty and helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help"), incorporate supporting and assisting people with disabilities into the activities of building spiritual civilization and the practice of civilized behavior in the new era, and further create a good environment in which the whole society understands, respects, cares for, and helps people with disabilities.
The cause of people with disabilities is an important component of the Party's cause and is also a comprehensive social undertaking. To turn the blueprint for the development of the cause of people with disabilities during the 15th Five-Year Plan period into reality, it is necessary to continue to adhere to the leadership system and working mechanism of "Party committee leadership, government responsibility, social participation, and the functioning of organizations of people with disabilities," run the Party's leadership through the entire process and all aspects of the work on disabilities, always adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements and the spirit of his important instructions and directives on the cause of people with disabilities, deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), and ensure that the cause of people with disabilities always advances in the correct political direction. Give full play to the role of disabled persons' federations at all levels as acting as a vital link or connection (桥梁纽带, qiao liang niu dai - "bridge, beam, knot, ribbon"), firmly establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, deepen Party building and self-reform, earnestly perform the functions of "representation, service, and management," maintain close contact with and warmly serve people with disabilities with deep feelings, promote the implementation of various policies benefiting people with disabilities, effectively deliver the care and warmth of the Party and the government to the side of people with disabilities, and unite and lead the broad masses of people with disabilities to listen to the Party, be grateful to the Party, and follow the Party.
Return to TopThe questions of China, the questions of the world, the questions of the people, and the questions of the era are both questionnaires handed to us in the course of historical evolution and answer sheets that must be written out in practical exploration. As the bridge and bond connecting the Party Committee and the People's Government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with the broad community of philosophy and social science workers, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Federation of Social Sciences resolutely shoulders its responsibility and commitment, strives to write out a good answer sheet for the era, and contributes Guangxi wisdom to building an independent knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences.
Promoting the Building of China's Independent Knowledge System by Taking Root in the Land of the Eight Gui
Contemporary China is undergoing the most grand and unique practical innovation in human history. The weight of the tasks of reform, development, and stability, the multitude of contradictions, risks, and challenges, and the magnitude of the tests of governance are all unprecedented, raising a large number of theoretical and practical topics that urgently need to be answered.
Guangxi is located in the southern borderland of the motherland. With one bay linking eleven countries, it is both a frontier and a window for opening up, cooperation, and exchange with ASEAN, and it is also the autonomous region with the largest minority population in China. On this land, the Pinglu Canal connecting rivers and the sea echoes from afar with the ancient and charming Lingqu Canal; the blue wave of the marine economy and the strong barrier of border stability promote each other; the harmonious coexistence of 12 indigenous ethnic groups resonates at the same frequency with the main line of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. These unique practical scenarios are precisely the vivid material for answering the questions of China and the fertile soil for building an independent knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences.
Why can Guangxi become a demonstration zone for ethnic unity and progress? The answer lies in those yellowed ancient texts, in those stories passed down by word of mouth (口耳相传, kou er xiang chuan - "mouth, ear, transmit, pass"), and even more so in the vivid practice of all ethnic groups uniting and striving together and jointly developing and prospering. Relying on the Guangxi Research Institute for a Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation at Guangxi Minzu University, the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences has developed the "Guangxi Demonstration Zone for Forging a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation Indicators," built an opinion monitoring system, an artificial intelligence academic assistant, and an ASEAN language version operating system, regularly publishes monitoring reports, speaks with data, answers with facts, and strives to elevate experience into theory.
To answer the questions of China, one cannot do scholarship confined to the study; one must do research in the field. The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences organizes experts and scholars to go deep into ethnic regions such as Baise, Hechi, and Liuzhou, sitting on the ridges of fields, walking into workshops, carrying out "bilingual" propaganda, and delivering the Party's ethnic policies to every village and hamlet. Farmer friends say that previously they felt social sciences were unfathomable and mysterious (高深莫测, gao shen mo ce - "high, deep, cannot, fathom"), but now they find them closely related or intimately connected (息息相关, xi xi xiang guan - "breath, breath, closely, relate") to daily life. We are deeply aware that once separated from the people, philosophy and social sciences will lose their appeal, influence, impact, and vitality.
Contributing Wisdom and Strength in Opening Up to ASEAN
The profound changes unseen in a century in the world are unprecedented, raising a large number of theoretical and practical topics that urgently need to be answered.
The unique geographical advantage determines Guangxi's position in answering the questions of the world. In recent years, the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences has continuously held the China-ASEAN Grand Forum. In 2025, it held 2 large-scale events and 30 ASEAN-related academic exchanges, with participating experts and scholars from more than 10 countries. These activities are not simple meetings, but rather build a platform for scholars from different civilizational backgrounds to discuss issues of common concern in language that each other can understand.
The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences pays attention to the "ASEAN-ization" of academic discourse. Combining the legal culture of ASEAN countries, it studies the rules for cross-border data flows under the framework of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and proposes a set of conceptual systems acceptable to both sides. It has organized the compilation of 25 issues of "Southeast Asia Reference," and submitted more than 80 ASEAN-related internal references and advisory reports. These achievements are not the product of making things blindly without practical investigation (闭门造车, bi men zao che - "close, door, create, vehicle"), but rather the crystallization of "going out" and "bringing in" — the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences organizes experts and scholars to conduct research in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries, while also inviting think tank scholars from ASEAN countries to visit Guangxi, deepening understanding through two-way exchange and building consensus through equal dialogue.
The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences actively opens overseas social media accounts, using short videos to tell China's story and Guangxi's story well, allowing young people in ASEAN countries to feel the pulse of China's development as they swipe their screens. This kind of communication is not one-way indoctrination, but two-way resonance; not rigid preaching, but natural infiltration. It is both rooted in the land of China and looks at the global landscape; both adheres to the stance of Chinese culture and respects the diversity of world civilizations.
Thickening the People's Foundation by Rooting in the Practice of the Masses
With the continuous development of the times and practice, the people continuously have new needs and new demands in the process of pursuing a better life. This raises a large number of theoretical and practical topics that urgently need to be answered for the Party's theoretical innovation and governance.
The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences coordinates the social science forces of the whole region, actively carries out the "Social Science Popularization Square Construction Action," uses existing parks, community activity centers, and new era civilization practice stations to set up "Social Science Popularization Corners," equipped with digital screens, popular science reading materials, and interactive Q&A devices; cultivates "Social Science Flying Swallow" volunteer propaganda teams, allowing local retired teachers, college-graduate village officials, and wealth-creating experts to become explainers, using "everyday language" to explain "great principles" thoroughly.
During the Guangxi Social Science Popularization Activity Week held in May 2026, the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences promoted the carrying out of more than 1,900 popular science activities, covering 1.6 million person-times. Behind these numbers are specific scenes: an old farmer learned to identify fake seeds in front of a digital screen, a young migrant worker understood the terms of a labor contract in a short video, and an ethnic Yao sister understood the process of medical insurance reimbursement in a "bilingual" propaganda session.
The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences has always insisted on writing papers on the land of the motherland, producing series of short videos such as "Understanding AI - 100 Questions" and "Economics Around You," among which the "Pinglu Canal" themed short video has exceeded 3.27 billion views.
Leading the Direction of Innovation in Embracing Technological Change
At present, the changes unseen in a century in the world are accelerating, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered a critical period, raising a large number of theoretical and practical topics that urgently need to be answered, especially major topics of the era.
Artificial intelligence is an important driving force of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences, together with Tsinghua University, has developed the "AI Luosi Eye" social science intelligent application platform, which has obtained computer software copyright. The platform has functions such as intelligent literature analysis, data mining, report generation assistance, and multilingual translation. The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences has also built the "ASEAN Smart View" decision support system, formulated the "AI Empowering Social Science Work Application Scenarios 100+" plan, and has already implemented it in 23 scenarios including project review, popular science creation, public opinion analysis, and international communication.
Technological empowerment is only the starting point; theoretical innovation is the ultimate destination. In May 2026, the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences published a theoretical article "From 'Feeding' to 'Nurturing', Making Artificial Intelligence Development More Warm," proposing a three-stage evolutionary framework for AI governance: the first stage is "feeding" — technological capacity building, pursuing "effectiveness"; the second stage is "disciplining" — delineating legal bottom lines, clarifying "what cannot be done"; the third stage is "nurturing" — the infiltration of value civilization, answering "what it should become." This assertion did not come out of thin air, but is the sublimation rooted in practice. When artificial intelligence begins to penetrate content production and social decision-making, technological optimization alone cannot answer the value question of "should it be done." Technology can not only "do wrong things," but may also, through subtle influence, dissolve the authentic power and humanistic warmth of content. This is precisely the "home turf" of philosophy and social sciences — revealing technological blind spots, constructing governance rules, and embedding mainstream values. The Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences both embraces the opportunities of technological change and adheres to the bottom line of humanistic spirit; both pursues the efficiency of instrumental rationality and demonstrates the brilliance of value rationality. It integrates the core socialist values into algorithm design and model training, promotes the development of version 2.0 of the "AI Luosi Eye" social science intelligent application platform, builds a large language model for philosophy and social sciences oriented toward RCEP, allowing technology to grow in the soil of civilization and giving algorithms a warm humanistic foundation.
We strive to answer the questions of China, the questions of the world, the questions of the people, and the questions of the era, writing the answer sheet in the 3.27 billion view data of the "Pinglu Canal" themed short video, in the 30 academic exchanges of the China-ASEAN Grand Forum, and in the fiery practice of more than 1,900 popular science activities with 1.6 million person-times of participation. Every achievement is a sublimation of understanding and practice.
The tide rises in the Eight Gui, and we strive to be the first to row. Facing the future, the Guangxi Federation of Social Sciences will adhere to using the Party's innovative theories to consolidate the soul, with the vigor of "action is the key, innovation is the soul," and implement the "Eight Major Actions" one by one with tangible results. We are deeply aware that social science work is not a 100-meter sprint, but a marathon; not answering questions behind closed doors, but "openly soliciting advice." As long as the direction is right and the steps are solid, we will certainly be able to contribute greater strength to building an independent knowledge system for Chinese philosophy and social sciences.
(Theoretical Learning Center Group of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Federation of Social Sciences)
Return to TopThe outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan points out that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of the legitimate overseas interests of Chinese citizens and legal persons, establish a system for responding to demands and providing protection and relief, and improve the system for protecting overseas interests. At present, the protection of overseas assets has become deeply integrated into national resource and supply chain security, becoming an important component of safeguarding national economic security. Focusing on safeguarding overseas asset interests, the Study Times high-end think tank edition has launched an in-depth discussion.
Return to TopBy: 朱锋
The world today is undergoing changes unseen in a century, with intensifying geopolitical competition, a resurgence of anti-globalization and protectionist sentiments, frequent local conflicts and turbulence, and an accelerated restructuring of global industrial and supply chains. Against this backdrop, overseas assets of enormous scale and wide distribution are not only a concentrated manifestation of China's comprehensive national strength and the fruits of high-level opening up, but also increasingly an important exposure surface for various external risks. Should overseas assets suffer losses, this not only impacts the relevant business entities, but also endangers national economic security and the overall overseas interests of the country. How to balance development and security, and accelerate the building of a systematic, complete, efficiently operating, and synergistically powerful national system for the prevention and protection of overseas asset security, has become an urgent issue that must be properly resolved under the new circumstances.
The main composition and characteristics of China's overseas assets. In terms of total volume, the scale of China's overseas assets has already risen to the forefront of the world. As of the end of 2025, China's external financial assets stood at approximately USD 11.79 trillion, with net external assets of approximately USD 4.07 trillion, having long remained firmly among the world's major creditor countries. Such a massive stock of assets is the result of decades of reform and opening up and the sustained advancement of the "going global" strategy, and also constitutes important national wealth for China.
In terms of structure, China's overseas assets are mainly composed of four major segments. Observing data as of the end of September 2025, reserve assets, outward direct investment assets, other investment assets, and portfolio investment assets accounted for approximately 32%, 30%, 21%, and 17% of external financial assets respectively. Among them, reserve assets amount to approximately USD 3.69 trillion, mainly held and operated uniformly by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the central bank, including foreign exchange reserves, monetary gold, special drawing rights, and reserve positions in the International Monetary Fund, serving as the "ballast stone" of the country's external payment capacity and financial security.
Outward direct investment assets are the part of overseas assets with the most substantial physical attributes and the most easily "visible and accessible." According to statistics from relevant departments, as of the end of 2024, the stock of China's outward direct investment assets reached USD 3.14 trillion, ranking among the global top three for many consecutive years; Chinese domestic investors had established approximately 52,000 overseas enterprises in 190 countries and regions worldwide, with the total number of employees in overseas enterprises reaching 5.021 million, of which approximately 19,000 overseas enterprises were established in countries jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Portfolio investment assets and other investment assets exist in the form of financial assets; the former refers to portfolio investments such as stocks and bonds, while the latter covers deposits and loans, trade credit, currency and deposits, etc., with relatively strong liquidity, but equally subject to host country policies and the international financial environment.
Taken together, China's overseas assets exhibit several distinctive characteristics. First, the scale is enormous and continuously growing, with the share of global outward investment steadily rising. Second, the entities are highly diverse, encompassing both officially held reserve assets and various assets held by state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, financial institutions, and even natural persons, with markedly different risk-bearing capacities and protection demands among different entities. Third, the types of assets are diverse, including not only financial assets with relatively strong liquidity, but also physical and operational assets such as mines, oil fields, ports, railways, and industrial parks. Fourth, the geographical distribution is dispersed yet relatively concentrated, extending both to offshore financial centers and developed economies, while also being heavily invested in emerging markets and developing countries along the Belt and Road. Fifth, the degree of substantivization and localization is continuously deepening, with overseas assets deeply bound to overseas institutions and overseas personnel, and property security highly intertwined with personal security, making protection significantly more difficult.
Major security challenges facing overseas assets. Geopolitical game-playing and the risk of "decoupling and severing supply chains" are prominent. Against the backdrop of intensifying major-power competition, certain countries, on the pretext of national security, are constructing a full-chain blockade system targeting China in technology, markets, and capital, continuously escalating export controls and economic sanctions. Relevant data show that as of September 2025, more than 3,000 Chinese enterprises and institutions have been included in the export control "Entity List," with some high-end manufacturing projects experiencing significantly reduced capacity utilization due to restrictions on key equipment and technology, and increasing pressure on the security of industrial and supply chains.
Host country political and policy risks are prone to frequent occurrence. Overseas assets, especially long-cycle infrastructure and resource projects, are deeply influenced by the political stability of host countries. Regime changes, social unrest, armed conflict, as well as sudden policy shifts, unilateral contract repudiation, resource nationalization, and license revocation, may all cause major losses to existing investments. Compared with mature developed markets, the business environments of some emerging markets along the Belt and Road are more complex, with legal standards of varying quality, insufficient policy continuity and predictability, and greater uncertainty for investment security.
Financial and currency risks show a trend of "weaponization." Sharp exchange rate fluctuations and sovereign debt defaults by host countries can directly erode the value of overseas assets. What is more worthy of vigilance is that reserve assets and financial assets are facing the risk of being frozen, seized, and even "weaponized." Once the US dollar and the dollar clearing system are used as sanctions tools, this will pose a systemic threat to the security of China's overseas financial assets. In addition, courts in certain countries also support so-called "frivolous lawsuits," issuing high-compensation rulings and threatening to seize assets in the United States, including those of Chinese state-owned enterprises. Such practices that confuse the interests of different entities and breach legal boundaries must be met with high vigilance and resolute opposition.
Risks to physical security and personnel security cannot be ignored. At present, the overseas security risks faced by Chinese-funded enterprises exhibit new characteristics of regional concentration, targeted precision, motivational complexity, and diversified means, and are deeply intertwined with resource competition, major-power game-playing, and regional conflicts. Mining camps, remote infrastructure projects, transport convoys, and other high-value, low-protection facilities often become the preferred targets of terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and armed robbery. In the event of war or major emergencies, there is also enormous pressure for the emergency evacuation of personnel and the preservation of assets.
Legal compliance and "long-arm jurisdiction" risks continue to rise. In recent years, foreign investment security review mechanisms in Europe and the United States have been continuously broadened, antitrust, sanctions compliance, and data and privacy regulation have become increasingly stringent, "long-arm jurisdiction" and secondary sanctions are frequently used, and corporate compliance costs and legal risks have increased significantly. At the same time, even when China's overseas assets seek to defend their rights through legal channels, they often face practical difficulties such as lengthy judicial procedures, high rights-protection costs, and a shortage of professional foreign-related legal talent.
The protection system still has shortcomings. After years of construction, China has initially formed a pattern for the protection of overseas interests combining "diplomatic and consular—economic and trade agreements—military operations," but on the whole, the existing protection mechanisms still suffer from insufficient systematicity and synergy: many departments and entities are involved, yet coordination and linkage are not yet smooth, and protection forces are relatively dispersed; the construction of the institutional system needs improvement, the "forward deployment of the threshold" for risk warning is insufficient, and there is still an over-reliance on post-event emergency handling, with the capacity for pre-event prevention and whole-process management still in need of strengthening.
Safeguarding overseas asset security requires prevention first, robust protection, and synergistic efficiency. Facing the complex and severe external environment, it is necessary to adhere to the holistic approach to national security, balance development and security, and accelerate the building of a system for the prevention and protection of overseas asset security that covers the entire chain of pre-event prevention, in-event control, and post-event handling, and connects multiple entities including the government, the market, and society.
Strengthen top-level design and overall coordination, and improve the legal and diplomatic protection system. It is recommended to strengthen unified leadership over overseas asset security work at the national level, clarify the lead department and coordination mechanisms, integrate functions scattered across the diplomatic, commerce, finance, financial, state-owned assets, and security systems, and change the current fragmented pattern. At the same time, further clarify the boundaries of responsibility: organizations or individuals are the first responsible parties for their overseas interests, and the state should provide protection in accordance with the law, forming an institutional arrangement with entities fulfilling their responsibilities, the state providing escort, and clear rights and responsibilities, and effectively incorporating overseas asset security into the national security system for coordinated advancement. Both consular protection and diplomatic protection mechanisms should be well utilized; the former is front-loaded, routine protection, while the latter is the ultimate remedy after damage occurs and local remedies are exhausted, with the two having their respective boundaries and being mutually connected. At the same time, the network of bilateral investment treaties should be continuously improved, and international investment dispute settlement mechanisms should be fully utilized. Accelerate the building of a toolbox of foreign-related laws for countering sanctions, countering "long-arm jurisdiction," and countering interference, strengthen professional foreign-related legal service forces, and effectively reduce the costs of rights protection for enterprises and individuals overseas.
Improve the risk warning and assessment system, and enhance emergency response and security protection capabilities. It is recommended that relevant departments regularly issue annual country risk rating reports, detailing indicators such as political stability, policy continuity, exchange rate volatility, and sovereign credit. Industry associations should take the lead in establishing a risk database for overseas engineering contracting and investment. Promote the establishment of chief risk officers in large enterprises and their connection to a unified warning platform, forming a "government—industry—enterprise" trinity risk warning mechanism to achieve early identification, early warning, and early handling of risks. Improve emergency response plans and standardized procedures for personnel evacuation and asset preservation, strengthen the coordinating and handling functions of overseas embassies and consulates in emergency situations, and regulate cooperation between enterprises and professional security agencies. The Gulf of Aden escort missions and the evacuation operations in Libya, Yemen, Sudan, and other places demonstrate that continuously enhancing open-ocean escort, overseas projection, and comprehensive security support capabilities is an important support for safeguarding overseas assets and personnel security.
Consolidate primary responsibility and cultivate a professional service network. As the direct holders and first responsible parties of overseas assets, enterprises should strengthen their awareness of compliant operations, actively integrate into local legal and regulatory systems, fulfill social responsibilities, and reduce the risk of friction and conflict at the source. At the same time, accelerate the cultivation of professional service consortia and think tank networks covering foreign-related law, international trade and economics, and industrial consulting, to provide high-quality intellectual and service support for overseas asset security.
Protecting overseas assets and safeguarding overseas interests is a long-term and arduous strategic task. Only by adhering to balancing development and security, and accelerating the building of a national system for the prevention and protection of overseas asset security that is prevention-first, robust in protection, and synergistic and efficient, can we provide escort for enterprises and citizens to "go global" steadily and far, provide solid guarantees for the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and high-level opening up, and truly safeguard and develop the overseas wealth of the Chinese people and the country's overseas commercial expansion.
(The author is the Executive Director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University)
Return to TopBy: 肖宇
Ensuring the security of overseas assets is an unavoidable key issue in the process of comprehensively advancing Chinese modernization and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Viewed from the history of global economic development, relying on domestic multinational enterprises to allocate factors of production globally was once the "patent" of only a few developed countries. However, as China's economic strength has risen, the pace of Chinese enterprises "going global" has accelerated in recent years. According to statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in 2025, China's outbound direct investment across all industries reached 1,245.58 billion yuan, an increase of 7.4 percent over the previous year, with investment regions and entities involving 11,048 overseas enterprises in 153 countries and regions worldwide. While the scale has grown steadily, Chinese enterprises going overseas have also gradually extended from product exports in the past to building factories abroad and extending the entire industrial chain, and the acquisition of strategic assets such as energy, key minerals, and hub ports has become increasingly common. Against the backdrop of the accelerated evolution of changes unseen in a century and the deep reshaping of the global economic and trade landscape, these overseas assets can easily become key targets of geopolitical competition.
As a rising star (后起之秀, hou qi zhi xiu - "after, rise, particle, talent") of globalization, in response to the practical contradictions and problems in the past when Chinese enterprises went overseas, such as fragmented protection mechanisms, insufficient rights-protection measures, inadequate supply of the foreign-related rule of law system, and the absence of safeguards for small and medium-sized overseas entities, China has in recent years continuously strengthened systematic institutional arrangements for overseas asset protection, successively issuing the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Countering Foreign Sanctions" and the "Provisions on the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Countering Foreign Sanctions," thereby filling the gaps in laws and regulations on overseas asset protection. On April 7, 2026, the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Countering Improper Foreign Extraterritorial Jurisdiction" officially took effect; on April 8, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council established the Overseas State-Owned Assets Bureau; and on July 1, the "Provisions of the State Council on Outbound Investment" began implementation, clarifying mechanisms for risk early warning, consular protection, dispute resolution, and cross-border law enforcement coordination. China's overseas asset protection has begun to enter a new stage of law-based, standardized, and systematic development.
At the same time, enhancing overseas asset protection capabilities remains urgent. As of the end of 2025, Chinese business entities had established more than 50,000 enterprises abroad, with overseas asset stock exceeding 8 trillion US dollars, and overseas assets have gradually become an important pillar of China's new development pattern. However, in the face of China's rising global influence, some Western developed countries are attempting to build alliance-based containment systems and abuse "long-arm jurisdiction" measures through exclusionary rules such as "small yard, high fence," "friend-shoring," and "national security," targeting and suppressing China's overseas assets. In addition, as the world enters a new period of intertwined turbulence and change, risks arising from local armed conflicts, emergencies, nationalism in resource-rich countries, sharp exchange rate fluctuations, and policy reversals by host countries are increasingly showing a trend of frequent occurrence. Moreover, shortcomings such as insufficient protection under existing bilateral investment treaties, high costs of international arbitration, and rising rights-protection costs for Chinese enterprises have not yet been addressed, and the security situation facing China's overseas assets has become more severe.
Overseas asset protection must promptly transition from passive defense to active rule-shaping. On the one hand, it is necessary to clearly and resolutely show one's sword; for countries that arbitrarily change policies, illegally expropriate, abuse national security, or issue or cooperate with "long-arm jurisdiction" measures causing losses to China's overseas assets, deterrent measures such as tariff adjustments and the introduction of investment access restrictions may be adopted. It is necessary to practically distinguish the handling procedures for different scenarios such as war and chaos, disguised expropriation, economic sanctions, and "long-arm jurisdiction," improve risk-handling mechanisms, and establish a toolbox for reciprocal countermeasures. On the other hand, consular protection and diplomatic representations with host countries should be strengthened, and through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, a developing-country-friendly investment dispute settlement mechanism should be established to weaken the influence of unilateral rules of Western developed countries. Overseas asset security should be incorporated as a regular topic in bilateral high-level talks, and memorandums of understanding on bilateral security and law enforcement cooperation should be promoted for signing with key investment countries, establishing bilateral mediation channels for asset disputes.
From the perspective of enterprises, it is necessary to focus on enhancing the compliance capabilities of Chinese enterprises' overseas investment, which requires strengthening research on host countries, conducting pre-investment due diligence, and paying attention to local public opinion dynamics. Feedback from real cases shows that some Chinese-funded enterprises, due to insufficient judgment on host countries' election cycles, evolution of foreign investment policies, and geopolitical leanings, have failed to gain sufficient understanding and foresight of host countries' trade, investment, environmental protection, taxation, labor, and export control measures as well as exchange rate trends, and under the drive of short-term interests, have fallen into a negative spiral of "preferential investment attraction plus later tightening." At the same time, it is also necessary to accelerate the construction of a global compliance system aligned with international standards. Institutional opening-up is an important lever for China's overseas asset protection; it is necessary to proactively benchmark against internationally accepted rules, clean up and revise incompatible domestic regulations, and align with internationally accepted rules, regulations, management, and standards in areas such as property rights protection, industrial policy, environmental standards, and labor protection, thereby enhancing Chinese enterprises' familiarity with the rule systems of different countries.
Establishing and improving a public service system for overseas investment is also very important. Judging from the experience of countries with a higher level of globalization, providing domestic overseas organizations with pre-prevention public services such as country-specific due diligence, legal consulting, intellectual property information, and crisis and alert analysis has played an indispensable and positive role in protecting their overseas assets. In light of China's actual conditions, in addition to continuously strengthening the current public service of free public welfare training on overseas compliance, it is also necessary to build a one-stop demand-response and public legal service guarantee system. For example, overseas asset protection commissioners should be established at Chinese embassies and consulates, responsible for building intergovernmental bilateral mediation mechanisms to reduce enterprises' rights-protection costs. At the same time, the establishment of a special financial fund for legal aid in overseas investment rights protection should be explored, providing appropriate subsidies for arbitration fees or lawyer fees of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Overseas asset protection is a long-term project that requires the joint efforts of both government and enterprises. Looking ahead to the complex and volatile international trade and investment environment of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's task of overseas asset protection remains arduous. Efforts should be made to strengthen the construction of the public service system, continuously optimize public services such as information provision, legal aid, emergency response, and policy-based insurance, and fill the shortcomings in institutional safeguards. All types of overseas entities also need to firmly shoulder their own primary responsibility for risk control, proactively conduct country-specific due diligence, formulate risk prevention and control plans, and enhance crisis response capabilities. Only in this way can China's overseas asset security defense line be continuously consolidated.
(The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Return to TopBy: 王智新
The security of overseas assets is a key extension of national core interests beyond the border, a bottom-line guarantee for guiding the rational and orderly cross-border layout of industrial and supply chains and for the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, and moreover a strategic cornerstone for advancing the modernization of the national security system and capacity. At present, the changes unseen in a century are accelerating, strategic competition among major powers is becoming increasingly complex and intense, traditional geopolitical risks and non-traditional security threat factors are intertwined and superimposed, and China's overseas assets and core rights and interests have become a focal area of attention for external forces. Profoundly grasping the evolutionary mechanisms and extension boundaries of the intertwining and superimposition of the two types of risks is a strategic prerequisite for steadily advancing the cross-border industrial layout, safeguarding the supply of key strategic factors, and building a solid overseas interest barrier for coordinating development and security.
Overt "hard nails" constrain routine security. Traditional overseas asset risks are rooted in the inherent contradictions of host countries' politics, economy, culture, and social governance, and have characteristics of being fundamental, recurrent, and long-term, continuously testing the stability and sustainability of China's overseas investment layout. Political security risk is a relatively common traditional risk. Affected by factors such as irregular regime changes in some host countries, factional struggles, and geopolitical armed conflicts, overseas investment faces challenges to policy continuity, and cases of governments unilaterally breaching contracts or abolishing existing cooperation projects occur from time to time. At the same time, resource nationalism has somewhat risen, and some host countries have strengthened their control over core resources through means such as frequently adjusting foreign investment access policies, which has a certain impact on China's overseas asset rights and interests in the fields of minerals, energy, and infrastructure. In addition, driven by geopolitical game factors among major powers, some countries' foreign cooperation strategies are in a state of dynamic adjustment, bringing uncertainty to the security of China's overseas assets. Macroeconomic risk manifests as downgrades in host countries' sovereign credit ratings and shortages of foreign exchange reserves, which can easily trigger exchange rate fluctuations and asset price adjustments. Superimposed with factors such as inflationary pressure, local currency depreciation, and cyclical fluctuations in commodity prices, the uncertainty faced by Chinese enterprises in overseas operations has increased to some extent, which may exert certain pressure on investment principal, profit repatriation, and project capital chains. Legal compliance risk manifests as some countries expanding the concept of "national security" and using means such as sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" to constrain China's overseas investment. The strict enforcement standards of host countries and differences in territorial rules make Chinese enterprises susceptible to penalties such as hefty fines, suspension for rectification, or revocation of qualifications. At the same time, international economic and trade rules are evolving rapidly, and institutional arrangements such as export controls and investment security reviews are becoming increasingly stringent, increasing the compliance pressure on Chinese enterprises' overseas asset operations.
Hidden "soft traps" constitute new-type challenges. Emerging risks rely on the penetration of digital technology, the reconstruction of international rules, and non-physical contact methods to implement covert pressure, and have characteristics such as strong concealment, all-domain penetration, and rapid transmission, becoming the security variables that are currently the most difficult to predict and the most difficult to handle. Cybersecurity risk manifests as overseas entities relying on digital technology means, obtaining core data through methods such as invading information systems, and having an actual impact on the safe and stable operation of China's overseas physical assets. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the digitalization level of Chinese enterprises' overseas investment and operations, overseas forces have interfered with the core technical data and asset operation and maintenance information of China's overseas projects through means such as network intrusion, implantation through supply chain vulnerabilities, and remote control. In particular, cyberattacks targeting overseas infrastructure such as energy, minerals, and transportation can affect the safe and stable operation of China's physical assets. This risk breaks through national and regional boundaries, and has characteristics such as concealed attack methods, greater difficulty in detection, and high technical thresholds for handling, requiring sustained attention. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance risk manifests as host countries raising the compliance threshold for overseas investment by setting relatively strict access standards, causing the costs of Chinese enterprises' cross-border operations to continue to rise. At present, overseas ESG reviews are becoming increasingly strict, and Europe, the United States, and most host countries have incorporated ESG indicators into the entire process of foreign investment access and continued-operation review. Chinese overseas investment enterprises face objective pressure to align with internationally accepted rules and host country requirements in areas such as environmental disclosure, labor governance, and social responsibility. Digital governance risk manifests as some countries implementing differentiated cross-border data control rules, building digital barriers, and restricting the orderly flow of cross-border data, which constrains the normal operation of China's overseas digital assets. In recent years, major developed countries have successively introduced regulations such as data localization and digital security reviews, and cross-border digital governance barriers have increased to some extent, bringing constraints to the normal operation of Chinese enterprises' overseas digital assets and commercial data. This risk belongs to constraint factors at the institutional level, with relatively strong rule rigidity and limited room for maneuver, and requires active response.
At present, traditional risks and emerging risks no longer appear in isolation, but rather penetrate each other and resonate at the same frequency, forming a complex challenge pattern of multi-dimensional interweaving. In particular, the two types of risks appear simultaneously in time, gather in the same domain in space, and transmit interactively in mechanism, which may trigger the systematization of single risks, the long-termization of short-term risks, the globalization of local risks, and the interweaving of cross-border risks, requiring coordinated response at the overall level. We should implement the holistic approach to national security, based on coordinating development and security, improve the mechanisms for monitoring, preventing and controlling, and handling overseas investment risks, promote enterprises to enhance their risk prevention and control and compliance operation capabilities, accelerate the construction of the foreign-related legal system and capacity, deepen international law enforcement and security cooperation, strive to enhance the systematic, holistic, and synergistic nature of overseas interest protection, and provide solid support for building the new development pattern and achieving high-level opening up.
(The author is a professor at the School of Economics, Hebei University)
Return to TopBy: 张龙
The evolution of forms of warfare has always been the result of the collision and convergence of technological breakthroughs and military demands. When artificial intelligence leaps from data algorithms and generative models to agent systems with perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution capabilities, the center of gravity of intelligent warfare shifts from "technology empowering operational links" to "agents reshaping operational actions." An agent is not an ordinary algorithmic tool, nor a general unmanned platform, but an action-oriented intelligent system capable of continuously driving mission execution under human intent authorization and rule constraints. When agents move from "being able to compute" to "being able to act," and from "assisting" to "leading," agent warfare is no longer a distant concept but a reality taking shape, becoming the high-end form of intelligent warfare.
First, reshaping the operational subject, from "controlled platforms" to "intelligent agents."
Traditional operational units mostly have humans operating platforms at the front, or humans remotely controlling unmanned systems from behind; the platform is essentially still an extension of human tools, in a passively controlled state. Agents, by contrast, can understand missions, perceive the environment, plan steps, call on resources, execute actions, and feed back results under human intent authorization, becoming a new type of action subject situated between humans and equipment. This marks a historic leap in the participants in warfare from the dual structure of "human-equipment" to the tripartite structure of "human-agent-equipment system." Agents break through the single-point model of traditional artificial intelligence of "input-computation-output," forming a complete action loop of "perception-understanding-planning-execution-feedback." They do not wait for instructions at every step, but operate autonomously around mission objectives; they do not execute preset programs, but dynamically adjust strategies according to environmental changes; they not only process data, but can also continuously learn and evolve in open scenarios.
On the future battlefield, victory or defeat will depend on the level of autonomous decision-making of agents and the degree of tacit coordination among swarms. When data, algorithms, and computing power driven by large models develop exponentially, and agents break through the autonomous critical threshold for complex battlefield decision-making, their situational awareness, target recognition, on-the-spot decision-making, and coordinated cooperation capabilities will leap in a stepwise manner. Accelerating the transformation of the operational subject requires concentrating efforts on overcoming core technologies such as highly reliable autonomous decision-making chips, robust environment perception algorithms, and explainable behavior decision models, so as to achieve the capability leap of agents from executing preset programs to autonomously responding on complex battlefields; building a deep human-machine symbiosis relationship, developing intelligent decision-support systems, clarifying the dynamic allocation of human-machine functions and the boundaries of responsibility, and strengthening commanders' capabilities for situational understanding, intent prediction, and trust calibration with respect to agents.
Second, reshaping command and control, from "instruction control" to "intent-driven."
Traditional command and control emphasizes the transmission of orders, process control, and execution of actions, forming a top-down chain of instructions. In agent warfare, commanders neither can nor need to conduct full-process fine-grained control over every agent and every action; rather, they must transform operational intent, mission objectives, action constraints, risk boundaries, and evaluation criteria into mission semantics that agents can understand, achieving a fundamental shift from instruction control to intent-driven command. This is a profound transformation of the command and control paradigm. The mechanism of this shift lies in the fact that agents possess the capability to understand mission semantics and can decompose macro-level operational intent into specific action steps, resource allocation plans, coordination sequences, and result feedback mechanisms. Commanders control the direction of objectives, rule boundaries, and value standards, while agents autonomously complete plan generation, path adjustment, and action coordination.
Advancing the intent-based transformation of command and control requires establishing standards for the semantic transformation of agent missions, encoding operational objectives, constraint conditions, and evaluation indicators into mission frameworks recognizable by agents; developing human-machine collaborative decision interfaces, enabling commanders to grasp in real time the action logic, risk judgments, and plan rationale of agents; and improving the hierarchical authorization mechanism for agents, clarifying the autonomous authority under different mission phases and different risk levels, ensuring that machine actions always remain within the boundaries of human control, forming a new command relationship in which humans set the direction and agents implement the tasks.
Third, reshaping capability generation, from "platform capability" to "mission orchestration."
Traditional operational capability building often focuses on the performance indicators of equipment platforms, pursuing the linear logic that the stronger the platform, the greater the capability. In agent warfare, platform performance remains important, but it is no longer the whole of capability generation. Agents can incorporate multi-source intelligence, model reasoning, simulation assessment, unmanned platforms, communication nodes, and support resources into a unified mission chain, forming a mission integration capability of data support, model analysis, plan generation, resource allocation, and action feedback. This is a paradigm shift in the way capability is generated. Its core mechanism lies in the fact that agents possess the capability to call on tools and resources; their capability is not sealed within themselves, but is embodied in the dynamic organization of multiple types of resources.
Future advantage lies not only in strong equipment, but also in whether the mission integration of agents is fast to convert, accurate to connect, and stable to control. Without the "workflow" of agent mission integration, even the most advanced platform is merely an isolated node. Accelerating the mission-integrated generation of capability requires breaking down data barriers, building a military data resource pool covering the entire battlefield domain and multi-granularity time-space, providing agents with high-quality data supply; developing agent mission orchestration technology, supporting the dynamic call-up of sensors, communication links, simulation exercises, and support resources according to mission needs; and establishing agent capability evaluation standards, designing an indicator system covering mission system response timeliness, resource call-up success rate, and multi-source information fusion quality, ensuring that capability generation is quantifiable, verifiable, and iterable, achieving the capability paradigm shift from platform-centric to mission-centric.
Fourth, reshaping force organization, from "preset formation" to "flexible reorganization."
Traditional operational force organization mostly relies on preset establishment relationships, mission allocation systems, and command links, emphasizing a fixed model of organizing first and acting later. In agent warfare, large numbers of heterogeneous agents can dynamically form temporary mission groupings according to mission phases, capability status, geographic location, resource surplus, link quality, and risk changes, achieving flexible reorganization of acting first and organizing later, or even organizing while acting. This is a revolutionary transformation in the way forces are organized. Multi-agents are not simply networked, but form self-organizing coordination around missions. Roles such as perception, judgment, relay, execution, assessment, gap-filling, and constraint verification are adjusted in real time as the situation changes—roles are reassigned when missions suddenly change, alternative channels are selected when links are disrupted, nodes automatically fill in and take over when damaged, task priorities are adjusted when resources decline, and action relationships are restructured when coordination becomes unbalanced.
Building a force system with flexible reorganization requires developing open, modular command and control systems, supporting plug-and-play and dynamic service orchestration of multi-source heterogeneous agent nodes, achieving Rubik's-cube-style rapid reconfiguration; developing distributed intelligent network protocols and damage-resistant, resilient communication technologies, ensuring self-healing of command links and adaptive migration of missions in highly adversarial environments; building dynamic assessment models based on node redundancy, connection variability, and information flow timeliness, and optimizing system robustness through real-time simulation and deduction on digital twin battlefields, so that operational forces possess the evolutionary resilience of fighting while damaged and repairing while fighting.
Fifth, reshaping the advantage in winning, from "instant concentration of superiority" to "iterative victory."
Traditional operations pursue concentrating superiority at critical moments and winning with a single strike, emphasizing the instant concentration of superiority that completes a task in a single decisive effort (毕其功于一役, bi qi gong yu yi yi - "finish, all, work, at, one, battle"). Agent warfare is different: its advantage is not generated by producing one optimal plan at a single stroke, but by continuously converting action results into experience in sustained confrontation, converting experience into rules, and having rules in turn shape the next round of action, forming an iterative loop of action, feedback, correction, and re-action. This is a deep transformation of the mechanism of winning. The mechanism of this shift lies in the feedback learning capability of agents. Individual actions produce local experience, multi-agent coordination produces structural feedback, the system level distills mission patterns, and rules then flow downward to shape the next round of action. Thus, agents are both the terminal of mission execution and the source of experience generation; the battlefield is not only a field for releasing capability, but also a field for the evolution of rules. This means that victory or defeat in war no longer depends solely on whose initial capability is stronger, but on who can learn faster, correct more accurately, and iterate more steadily in confrontation.
Building an iterative victory advantage requires establishing a mechanism for accumulating battlefield experience of agents, automatically archiving the data, decision paths, effect assessments, and deviation analyses of each action to form reusable knowledge assets; developing adversarial training environments, enabling agents to continuously learn, rapidly test and err, and iteratively optimize under near-real combat conditions through high-fidelity simulation and virtual-real combined exercises; improving the rule update process for agents, establishing a fast channel from battlefield feedback to rule correction to system verification; and strengthening system resilience building, ensuring through distributed deployment, redundant design, and self-healing mechanisms that the evolution process is not interrupted by single-point failures, ultimately achieving a sustained advantage of acting, feeding back, correcting, and evolving simultaneously.
Return to TopBy: 李浩源
In the "weapons arsenal" of surface warships, one type of missile is particularly "eye-catching." It has high strike accuracy, long range, and strong penetration capability, and is the weapon of choice for major military powers to carry out the first round of strikes "from sea to land." This is the ship-launched cruise missile (hereinafter referred to as cruise missile). As the rules of naval warfare change, new characteristics are beginning to emerge in its future development.
First, the transition from "single-shot precision-guided firepower" to "multi-missile collaborative intelligent nodes."
Judging from several local wars in the 21st century, as the "pathfinder" for strikes from sea to land, cruise missiles possess outstanding "single-shot precision strike" and defeating the enemy with a single decisive blow (一招制敌, yi zhao zhi di - "one, move; defeat, enemy") capabilities against "the right enemy" at "the right time and the right place," and have had an important impact on the course of war. However, it should also be noted that with the continuous upgrading of missile interception technology and adjustments in air defense tactics, the strike accuracy and damage effects of some cruise missiles are beginning to show signs of feeling inadequate or unable to achieve one's goals (力不从心, li bu cong xin - "strength, not, follow, heart"). Facing an increasingly complex battlefield environment, existing cruise missiles still have room for improvement in capabilities such as dynamic identification, anti-jamming penetration, and autonomous decision-making. Actual combat has shown that relying solely on the "single-shot precision strike" of past "external guidance" can no longer easily achieve the desired operational effects.
With the application and development of new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data in the military field, future warfare will take on intelligent characteristics. The operational style will shift from traditional platform confrontation to systemic gaming. The role and positioning of each frontline operational unit will also transform from an independent battlefield presence to a collaborative system node. The key to victory will upgrade from physical destruction to "outperforming the enemy in cognition, decision-making suppression, and cross-domain systemic disruption." Under the strong impetus of intelligentization, cruise missiles are accelerating their intelligent upgrade and transformation, being incorporated into operational systems composed of multiple platforms, reshaping their future battlefield role, and transitioning from the past "guidance"-type "single-shot precision-guided firepower" to "multi-missile collaborative intelligent nodes" with multi-source perception, autonomous decision-making, and swarm strike capabilities, further enhancing their adaptability, collaboration, and lethality in future complex battlefield environments.
The intelligent upgrade of cruise missiles is reflected in three aspects: First, anti-jamming capability. Through AI visual matching, terrain contour recognition, and multi-source fusion algorithms, the missile can autonomously correct its flight path even when GPS/satellite signals are cut off or jammed. The algorithm can autonomously lock onto high-value targets with sub-meter accuracy, achieving a leap from "blind firing" to "precision recognition." Second, the capability to "distinguish false targets and adaptively identify real ones." At the terminal stage, using imaging seekers and deep learning algorithms, it automatically eliminates decoys/false targets, identifies high-value objects from group targets, and locks onto weak points for strikes. During flight, it perceives threats in real time (such as air defense radars and interceptor missiles) and autonomously adjusts its flight route for evasion within milliseconds, achieving "fire-and-forget" without human intervention. Third, system collaboration capability. Multiple missiles can form a "missile swarm" through data links, achieve system-wide integration with other operational platforms, share situational awareness, autonomously allocate targets, coordinate attack timing and angles, and form a distributed "multi-missile" collaborative kill network. They can also serve as "command nodes" to guide multiple low-cost munitions in swarm-style saturation attacks against enemy targets.
Second, the expansion from high-risk, expensive "manned platforms" to safe, low-cost "unmanned launch."
By launch platform, cruise missile launch methods are typically divided into air-launched, sea-launched, and land-launched types, of which the sea-launched type is further divided into ship-launched and submarine-launched. Compared with other launch methods, the core advantages of the ship-launched type lie in high missile capacity, all-directional rapid response, and mobile maritime deployment. Its disadvantage is that the platform is exposed on the sea surface, and its navigation trajectory and launch positions are susceptible to detection and attack, with survivability lower than other launch methods. Judging from several recent regional military conflicts, future naval warfare will feature high intensity, high time consumption, and high attrition. Competing in resilience, cost, and tactics will become the new normal of future warfare, and the connection between "sea-air strikes" and "ground submission" is becoming increasingly loose. This structural change in warfare places higher demands on the military potential and sustainable combat capability of the countries involved, requiring the injection of more low-cost, deeply concealed, and widely deployed maritime forces, and unmanned combat equipment is the best option.
Currently, unmanned combat equipment is developing at a "blowout" pace. Local wars in recent years have also verified the advantages of unmanned combat equipment. It will reconstruct kill chains, cost logic, and strategic deterrence systems, rewrite the rules of naval warfare, and have a major impact on the development and employment of cruise missiles. This is prominently reflected in the fact that the use of unmanned launch platforms is beginning to spread to cruise missiles and has become an important trend in the development of global naval equipment. The core advantages of unmanned launch platforms lie in safety and economy. Traditional manned warships face the risk of personnel casualties in high-intensity confrontation and have limited endurance due to life support system constraints. Unmanned platforms can perform missions in forward sea areas for extended periods, and even if damaged in combat, they will not cause personnel casualties. Moreover, their cost is usually far lower than that of large manned warships.
In addition, unmanned launch of cruise missiles offers deeper concealment and flexibility for wide-area deployment, can reduce the enemy's early warning reaction time, and increase the suddenness of attacks. At the same time, they can conduct multi-directional coordinated launches with other platforms, forming swarms or distributed firepower networks, imposing multi-directional, multi-wave, and multi-mode strike pressure on the enemy, enhancing the effectiveness of sustainable long-range precision strikes, and minimizing the duration of war to the greatest extent possible. Current main development paths include modifying existing warships, developing dedicated unmanned arsenal ships, and building hybrid manned/unmanned combat systems. Some countries have unveiled unmanned surface vessels with missile launch capabilities. Some countries are accelerating the combat-ready pace of "strike-type" unmanned combat platforms and vigorously developing low-cost containerized launch modules suitable for deployment on unmanned vessels. Some "strike-type" unmanned equipment has already been put into actual combat.
Third, the leap from subsonic flight to hypersonic penetration.
"Faster, more accurate, more lethal" has always been the core pursuit of maritime penetration firepower. Among these, "speed" is the core of the core. In the martial arts world, there is the saying that speed is the key to being invincible (唯快不破, wei kuai bu po - "only, fast, not, break"), which means that only with speed can one be difficult to defeat. The faster the speed, the higher the chance of victory. This attack philosophy also applies to the development of maritime penetration weapons such as cruise missiles. With advances in materials science, aerodynamics, and propulsion technology, cruise missiles are evolving comprehensively from subsonic and supersonic to hypersonic speeds. The core advantage brought by hypersonic speed (generally referring to speeds exceeding Mach 5) lies in penetration capability and damage effectiveness. Hypersonic missiles are currently the core weapons reshaping modern strike modes. Their core characteristics are flight speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound, sustained controlled flight within the atmosphere, and the ability to adjust course mid-flight, combining extreme speed with maneuverability, greatly compressing the defender's decision-making window, making them difficult to track, predict, and intercept, and posing a disruptive challenge to traditional missile operational modes and existing air defense systems.
Currently, hypersonic missile propulsion is mainly divided into two types: one is the rocket-boosted glide type (solid/liquid rocket booster + unpowered glide), and the other is the air-breathing cruise type (mainly scramjet engines, often requiring rocket boost to start). Looking at the development trend of hypersonic missile propulsion, it will revolve around three core directions: transitioning from single rocket/ramjet to wide-speed-range combined cycles, detonation propulsion, and reusable low-cost options, in order to break through the speed/range bottlenecks of single propulsion systems and achieve operational deployment. The focus of hypersonic research and development is shifting from "whether it can ignite" to "whether it can work persistently and stably" and "seamless switching across a wide speed range." At the same time, new high-temperature-resistant composite materials such as ceramic-based materials and active cooling technologies are being developed to ensure structural integrity and electronic equipment stability; breakthroughs are being made in signal penetration and target locking technologies under the plasma sheath (blackout) at high flight speeds to solve the problem of striking moving targets such as ships at the terminal stage.
Cruise missiles are the "trump card" for long-range precision destruction by surface warships. Under the strong impetus of intelligentization, unmanned operation, and hypersonic speed, the offensive and defensive tactics, employment modes, and mechanisms for achieving victory of cruise missiles will all undergo new changes and will have an important impact on the future course of war.
Return to TopBy: 袁垚
The Battle of Chenjiagang was a classic assault-and-annihilation battle launched by the Third Division of the New Fourth Army at the mouth of the Guan River during the stage of local counteroffensive in the anti-Japanese resistance in northern Jiangsu in 1944. Relying on the coastal salt-flat terrain, our forces first cleared the isolated outlying points, then launched a converging assault under cover of a rainy night, uprooting in one stroke the core coastal stronghold that Japanese and puppet troops had occupied for five years, annihilating most of the defending enemy, and seizing control of the important salt fields of northern Huai'an, making it a landmark victory marking the transition of the Yanfu anti-Japanese base area to the strategic counteroffensive. This victory broke the Japanese and puppet forces' monopoly and blockade over Huai salt resources, genuinely rescued the salt workers and common people, and laid a solid foundation for opening up maritime communications between the anti-Japanese base areas of northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong.
Clearing the Periphery, Splitting the Enemy Forces
In 1944, the world anti-fascist battlefield saw a turning point. The Japanese and puppet forces entrenched in northern Jiangsu sharply contracted their strength and were forced to shift from taking the initiative in "mopping-up" operations everywhere to holding fixed strongpoints. After the Japanese seized Chenjiagang in 1939, they built a defense line relying on the Guan River seaport and the contiguous salt fields, stockpiling large quantities of Huai salt here and constructing pillboxes and fortifications. The Japanese and puppet troops stationed here totaled more than 800 men, divided among the town area, the power plant, and the various salt-field strongpoints. Depending on supply by seagoing vessels and reinforcements from Xianshuikou by land, they firmly controlled the lifeline of the northern Huai'an salt industry, plundering salt production year after year and exploiting the local salt workers, leaving the masses of Yanfu suffering beyond words (苦不堪言, ku bu kan yan - "bitter, cannot, endure, speak"). To deal a powerful blow to the Japanese and puppet forces, Zhang Aiping, deputy commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, directed operations from the front and finalized the battle plan to uproot the Chenjiagang stronghold.
Before the battle began, Zhang Aiping did not launch a hasty frontal assault. Instead, he separately dispatched scouts to infiltrate the town and the salt dike settlements to ascertain on the ground the enemy's deployment, the tidal patterns, and the surrounding traffic routes, while also liaising with local Party organizations in Binhai and Liandong, relying on local salt workers to locate the hidden pillboxes and the positions of grain and fodder stores. In early April 1944, the 24th Regiment of the 8th Brigade acted first, successively eliminating the two forward outposts of Xinwan and Majiagou west of Chenjiagang. After the loss of these two strongpoints, the defending enemy at Chenjiagang completely lost its outlying coordination, its land route for seeking reinforcements was cut off, and it was trapped in an isolated city, able only to pin its hopes on reinforcement by seagoing vessels. Having successively lost the peripheral sentry posts, the puppet troops inside the stronghold were in a restless and unsettled state of mind (人心浮动, ren xin fu dong - "people, heart, float, move"). Some of the defenders made small sorties to test patrols, but were repeatedly harassed and driven back by our local guerrilla detachments. The enemy still relied on the natural advantage of the seaport, believing that the New Fourth Army lacked heavy assault weapons and could not cross the tidal flats and wade through the water to launch a large-scale attack. Its defensive focus was tilted toward the offshore sea surface, while vigilance on the western salt-flat side gradually slackened, creating a rare condition for our forces to concentrate covertly.
Relying on the Terrain, Refining the Deployment
Zhang Aiping personally surveyed the entire terrain of the Chenjiagang area. This region faces the mouth of the Guan River to the east, with saline-alkali wasteland and contiguous salt mounds near the sea, and dozens of salt dike settlements and ditches scattered outside the town, with salt piles of all sizes rising high — these could both conceal troop movements and serve as temporary fighting cover. To the west is a flatland route leading directly to Xianshuikou, the must-pass route for enemy reinforcements.The contiguous salt fields to the southeast and northeast divided the enemy's defensive positions, naturally forming a favorable environment for splitting and annihilating the enemy.
Combining the terrain with the enemy situation, the command echelon finalized a complete plan of deploying forces in layers and annihilating the enemy by sectors. The 22nd Regiment, together with the brigade's special service battalion, served as the main assault force, compressing the defenders in the town area from the southeast and northwest. The 24th Regiment advanced on the Qingrixin Salt Field, and the 19th Regiment of the 7th Brigade moved to the Dayuan Salt Field, separately splitting the defenders of each salt dike settlement so that the puppet troops in various places could not support one another. The two local independent regiments of Liandong and Funing concealed themselves on the main road west of Chenjiagang, tasked exclusively with intercepting land reinforcements from Xianshuikou. The Binhai local general detachment stood by on the spot, ready at any time to support the assault forces with battlefield service and casualty evacuation. All participating units concealed themselves in advance behind the surrounding wasteland and salt mounds, quietly awaiting the moment of the general offensive.
On May 2, heavy rain suddenly fell over northern Jiangsu, and the muddy tidal flats greatly weakened the enemy's artillery observation field of view. Zhang Aiping seized the window of foul weather and organized the various units overnight to cross the river in the rain. The soldiers trod through waterlogged saline-alkali ground and waded through the icy cold abandoned Yellow River, and by midnight all had quietly reached their pre-designated positions. The engineers simultaneously cut the telephone lines connecting Chenjiagang to the outside world, plunging the entire defending force of the town into an encirclement cut off from all information.
Night Assault in the Rain, Victorious over the Enemy
At 1:00 a.m. on May 3, three red signal flares tore across the rainy night sky, and the general offensive on Chenjiagang officially began. The 22nd Regiment was the first to break into the town area from the northwest and northeast, and the soldiers hidden behind the salt mounds quickly broke through the outer ditches under cover of the rainy night. The caught-off-guard puppet troops hastily held out in civilian houses and fired wildly from pillbox towers. The enemy, originally dispersed in garrison, was split into several groups and could only huddle in various fortifications for passive defense. Some Japanese troops, seeing the defense line collapse, had no heart for a last-ditch stand and fled by motorboat on the offshore sea under cover of night to Lianyungang, abandoning large numbers of puppet troops to put up stubborn resistance.
As the assault on the town area entered a stalemate, the puppet battalion commander in the pillbox tower at Qipaitouwei on the southeast side stubbornly held out and refused to surrender, relying on his solid fortifications, and a forced assault would inevitably add needless casualties. Zhang Aiping climbed atop a towering salt mound to observe the battle, immediately adjusted his tactics, and while organizing firepower to seal off the exits of the pillbox, drafted a letter urging surrender and launched a political offensive, explaining the great cause of the nation and exhorting the puppet troops to turn from evil to good (弃暗投明, qi an tou ming - "abandon, darkness, throw, brightness"). Under the dual effect of military siege and ideological persuasion, the puppet troops trapped in the pillbox lost their will to resist and laid down their arms in surrender. The defenders of the remaining six salt dike strongpoints, seeing this, successively came out of their fortifications and surrendered. On the outer battlefield, there was likewise frequent news of military victories (捷报频传, jie bao pin chuan - "victory, report, frequently, spread"): the 24th Regiment and the 19th Regiment of the 7th Brigade successfully captured the two core salt fields of Qingrixin and Dayuan; the reinforcement-interception forces on the west side successively repelled more than 30 reinforcement motorboats from Lianyungang and the incoming reinforcements from Xianshuikou, completely cutting off any possibility of enemy outside support. After more than eight hours of fierce fighting, by 10:00 a.m. that day, the entire area of Chenjiagang was smoothly recovered.
In this battle, a number of stubbornly resisting puppet troops were killed or wounded, and more than 400 people were captured alive, including the commanders of the puppet 4th and 7th battalions and those below them. Captured were 3 mortars, 4 grenade dischargers, 2 light machine guns, more than 400 rifles and pistols, nearly 40,000 rounds of ammunition, 2 radio stations, nearly 500,000 dan of Huai salt, and more than 1 million yuan in puppet currency. Our forces suffered light casualties in this battle, exchanging small losses for a great victory.
Return to TopBy: 王杰
"In governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount" comes from the "Record of Duke Ai's Questions" in the Book of Rites. In the text, Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius: "May I venture to ask, among the ways of humanity, which is greatest?" Confucius, his countenance turning solemn, replied: "That your lordship should raise this question is the blessing of the common people. How dare I, your servant, decline to answer? Among the ways of humanity, governance is greatest." Duke Ai then pressed further on the essentials of governance, whereupon Confucius made clear its foundation: "In governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount." This exchange concisely distills the core proposition of Confucius's political philosophy and establishes the fundamental stance that governance is rooted in "loving the people."
The eight characters "In governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount" appear simple on the surface, yet in truth they constitute an inquiry into the very nature of politics. Duke Ai's question focused on "the foundation of the way of humanity." Confucius first stated that "among the ways of humanity, governance is greatest," making clear that governance is the most central public affair of a society ordered by human relations, and then defined the inner core of governance with "loving the people is paramount." He then further argued: "If one cannot love others, one cannot preserve one's own person; if one cannot preserve one's own person, one cannot be settled in one's land; if one cannot be settled in one's land, one cannot delight in Heaven's mandate; if one cannot delight in Heaven's mandate, one cannot perfect one's own person." This line of reasoning breaks through the shallow perception that "loving the people" is an external moral charity, elevating it to the very foundation of one's standing as a person. Examining its essential meaning: if one cannot extend oneself to others and care for them, one cannot cultivate one's own virtue and hold fast to one's original heart; if virtue is not established and the original heart is not settled, one cannot be at peace in one's native soil and integrate into the community; if one is detached from the community and has no settled abode, it is difficult to accord with the natural way of Heaven and fit the correct path of human relations; and turning one's back on the way of Heaven and human relations, one ultimately cannot achieve a complete and virtuous character. From this it can be seen that taking "loving the people" as the foundation of governance is not a tactical device by which rulers win over the hearts of the people, but rather an inevitable choice that accords with the essence of human existence and fits the laws of social operation—it is the precondition for politics to be "correct."
Confucius opens his argument with "in governance of antiquity," and the wording carries profound significance. The "antiquity" here is by no means a mere temporal reference; it is even more a value paradigm bearing the Confucian ideal, referring specifically to the ideal form of kingly governance under the sage kings of high antiquity. In Confucius's system of understanding, the reason the sage kings of high antiquity could achieve great order under Heaven and accomplish kingly governance lay precisely in their adherence to the governing standard of "loving the people is paramount." This is at once a longing for ideal politics, a critical rebuke of the reality of the Spring and Autumn period—when the breakdown of social order and traditional rites (礼崩乐坏, li beng le huai - "ritual, collapse; music, destroy") prevailed and governance lacked virtue—and a value expectation placed upon later generations of officials and those who engage in governance.
Confucius did not confine "loving the people" to an abstract moral concept. The "Record of Duke Ai's Questions" in the Book of Rites continues the preceding text, recording: "In governing and loving the people, ritual is paramount; in governing ritual, reverence is paramount; the utmost of reverence is the great marriage... Love and reverence—are these not the foundation of governance?" This exposition clarifies that "loving the people" is the value core of governance, "ritual" is the institutional vehicle of "loving the people," and "reverence" is the spiritual foundation of the ritual system. The three complement each other to achieve a result (相辅相成, xiang fu xiang cheng - "mutually, assist; mutually, complete"), transforming the abstract ideal of benevolent governance into concrete governing practice.
First, "in governing and loving the people, ritual is paramount." If "loving the people" remains only at the level of moral advocacy, it will ultimately be hollow and powerless; only by relying on the institutional system of "ritual" can it take root and grow. The Confucian "ritual" is not a form of empty formalities but a complete system of governance that regulates human relations, defines the boundaries of rights and responsibilities, coordinates social order, and balances the distribution of resources. Once the ritual system is established, then ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, and the common people each rest in their proper place and fulfill their proper duties; people interact with one another according to standards, and society operates with order, so that the original intention of "loving the people"—benefiting all—can be realized. Love without ritual is without order and without measure, ultimately degenerating into private favor and indulgence; love with ritual is just and orderly, and can thereby achieve the public justice of the world.
Second, "in governing ritual, reverence is paramount." The reason the ritual system can function lies in the inner spiritual support of "reverence." "Reverence" is a solemn self-possession and prudent self-discipline arising from the original heart—respect for the dignity of others, adherence to the order of human relations, and awe before public rules. The external provisions of ritual are the "form" of governance; the inner heart of awe is the "soul" of governance. Without the spiritual core of "reverence," the ritual system will degenerate into a rigid and hypocritical form, having only a superficial appearance without substance (徒有其表, tu you qi biao - "only, have, its, surface") and utterly without effect; only by harboring awe in the heart and practicing it earnestly can ritual truly regulate words and deeds, maintain order, and nourish the human heart.
Third, "love and reverence—are these not the foundation of governance?" Confucius ultimately condenses the core of governance into two parts, "love" and "reverence," which are two sides of one whole and inseparable from each other. "Love" is the value soul of politics, establishing the ultimate purpose of politics in serving the myriad people and benefiting the common folk, and delineating the warm baseline of governance; "reverence" is the practical standard of governance, requiring those who govern to carefully guard their duties, stand in awe of rules, and respect the people, thereby consolidating the orderly foundation of governance. Love without reverence causes benevolent governance to lose its measure and drift into laxity; reverence without love causes the ritual system to become harsh and cold. Only when love and reverence are both present, and reason and feeling are fused, can politics return to its essence.
Confucius's other famous saying, "Government means correctness. If the ruler is correct, then the hundred surnames will follow his governance," forms an inner unity with "in governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount," together embodying Confucius's way of governance. The so-called "government" is in essence "correctness"—rectifying order, rectifying the human heart, rectifying the ways of the world—this is the core mission of politics. And the essential meaning of "correctness" is not an empty moral demand but has a clear path of practice. In the context of the "Record of Duke Ai's Questions" in the Book of Rites, Confucius states: "When husband and wife are properly distinguished, father and son are properly affectionate, and ruler and minister are properly strict—when these three are correct, then all things will follow." The threefold rectification of family human relations, social relationships, and political order is the precondition for stability under Heaven and order in all matters. "Loving the people is paramount" is the value purpose of governance; "government means correctness" is the practical standard of governance. Love of the people is the inner basis of "correctness"—it is precisely because governance is rooted in loving the people that those who govern must cultivate themselves and rectify their own conduct, establish institutions and rectify the world; upholding correctness is the external guarantee of "loving the people"—only when the ruler is correct, the institutions are correct, and the people are correct can the peace of the myriad people and the welfare of the common folk truly be realized.
Confucius's elevation of the "great marriage" (the marriage of a ruler) to "the utmost of reverence" appears abrupt on the surface, yet it contains profound political wisdom. The great marriage of a ruler is by no means a private matter of the sovereign, but a public affair of "uniting the goodwill of two clans, continuing the legacy of the former sages, and bearing the weight of the altars of state," concerning family lineage, moral education of human relations, and the stability of the state. When a ruler treats the marriage ceremony with solemnity and reverence, he extends the cultivation of "reverence" from personal private virtue to public governance, from family human relations to the order of the world, providing a concrete model for officials and those who govern to cultivate virtue and benefit the people through governance.
It can thus be seen that Confucius's statement "in governance of antiquity, loving the people was paramount" is at once a retrospective longing for the kingly governance of the sage kings of high antiquity and an eternal warning for the way of governance in all ages. The power of politics never originates from the might of authority, but from sincere protection of every ordinary person; the wisdom of politics never originates from the complexity of institutions, but from the governing heart that establishes institutions with reverence and benefits the people with love. When politics truly takes "loving the people" as paramount, "reverence" as its foundation, and "correctness" as its pursuit, then amid the complex and ever-changing vicissitudes of the world, it can achieve the beautiful public life in which "the aged are at peace, friends are trusted, and the young are cherished," in which people are "treating others with friendship in all social interactions (出入相友, chu ru xiang you - "exit, enter, mutually, friend"), helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help"), and supporting one another in sickness," in which "one honors one's own elders and extends it to the elders of others, and cherishes one's own young and extends it to the young of others," and in which "the yellow-haired and the child with hanging hair all rejoice together in contentment."
Return to TopBy: 刘蔷
The collection of Chinese classics has flourished in every dynasty, with the imperial inner-court collections being the most distinguished. The Han dynasty had Tianlu and Shiqu, the Tang dynasty had Hongwen and Jixian, the Song dynasty had Chongwen and Mige, and by the Qianlong-Jiaqing period of the Qing dynasty, the imperial inner-court book collections reached their zenith in abundance, precision of collation, and beauty of binding. During the Qing dynasty, Emperor Gaozong (Qianlong) ordered Confucian officials to select the finest editions of Song, Yuan, and Ming works from the palace, storing them exclusively in the Zhaoren Hall, with an imperial plaque inscribed "Tianlu Linlang." The collection, with its precious volumes and exquisite bindings, was a complete collection of precious items (珠玉毕集, zhu yu bi ji - "pearl, jade, all, collect"), and can be regarded as the pinnacle of imperial book collecting. However, over the course of more than a century, this collection of rare books suffered fire, theft, and the ravages of war, experiencing cycles of gathering and dispersal, rise and fall, and a turbulent fate. Its rise and decline is both a history of the vicissitudes of classical transmission and a microcosm of the honor and disgrace, rise and fall of modern China.
The Establishment and Cataloguing of the Imperial Rare Book Special Collection
After the Qing dynasty entered the Central Plains, it took over the books and old texts left in the Ming imperial palace. Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong repeatedly issued edicts to widely collect surviving books from across the realm, so that books from all over the country were gathered in the secret archives. The richness of the collection surpassed that of all previous dynasties, marking the peak of imperial palace book collecting in China's feudal era. In the ninth year of the Qianlong reign (1744), the imperial collection grew ever richer and more substantial in scale. Emperor Gaozong ordered the Hanlin scholars of the inner court to inspect the rare books in the imperial collection, select the finest of the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions, and store them separately on shelves in the Zhaoren Hall, with an imperial plaque personally inscribed, naming it "Tianlu Linlang." "Tianlu" derives from the story of the Tianlu Pavilion, the Han dynasty palace library, while "Linlang" signifies that the imperial collection was a large number of beautiful things (琳琅满目, lin lang man mu - "jade, bright, full, eyes"), too beautiful to be fully appreciated.
The Zhaoren Hall is located on the east side of the Hall of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Gong) in the Forbidden City. It is a "工"-shaped hall with a three-bay front and an independent courtyard. This was once the bedchamber of Emperor Kangxi. Emperor Qianlong said, "When my imperial grandfather was on the throne, he often slept and rose here. I dare not reside here, and therefore use it to store the fine editions of Tianlu Linlang," thereby honoring his ancestor and carrying on his legacy. Moreover, the Zhaoren Hall faces south toward the Shangshu Fang, the study place of princes and imperial grandsons, whose recitation sounds would reach here. Emperor Qianlong's perusal of books here also reflected the intent to emulate the Han dynasty Tianlu Pavilion's tradition of preserving ancient texts and studying classics. From then until the end of the Qing dynasty, the Zhaoren Hall served as the Qing palace's dedicated rare book repository.
In the fortieth year of the Qianlong reign (1775), the rare books in the Zhaoren Hall grew even more abundant. Ten ministers, including Yu Minzhong, Peng Yuanrui, and Wang Jie, were ordered to compile a catalogue of the Zhaoren Hall collection, resulting in the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue (first compilation) in ten volumes, recording 429 titles, which was listed in the history section's catalogue category of the Annotated General Catalogue of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries. On the twenty-first day of the tenth month of the second year of the Jiaqing reign (1797), at dusk, a fire broke out in the Hall of Heavenly Purity, spreading to the two side halls, Zhaoren and Hongde, and all the books of the first compilation were destroyed. Emperor Qianlong, then already Retired Emperor, ordered the reconstruction of the halls, the recompilation of the palace's treasures, and the restoration of the former glory of Tianlu Linlang. He also ordered Grand Secretary Peng Yuanrui, who had participated in the compilation of the first catalogue, to lead the compilation of the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue, Second Compilation. The selection of books and compilation of the catalogue took only seven months, resulting in a 20-volume catalogue recording 664 titles.
Seals and Binding Styles on the Books
As the Qing imperial collection was both abundant and fine, while compiling the palace collection into catalogues, it also became standard practice to affix the palace's appreciation seals and apply specially made Qing palace bindings. Tianlu Linlang books have two distinctive external features that distinguish them from other imperial collections. First, the seals were affixed uniformly. Although the books of the first compilation no longer exist, it is known from research that each volume had the two seals "Qianlong Imperial Appreciation Treasure" and "Tianlu Linlang" stamped on its first and last pages. The books of the second compilation followed a fixed seal regulation: each volume bore a total of six imperial seals at the beginning and end, including "Five Blessings, Five Generations Hall, Seventy-Year-Old Emperor Treasure" (also written as "Five Blessings, Five Generations Hall Treasure"), "Eight Signs of Longing for Old Age Treasure" (also written as "Eight Signs of Longing for Old Age"), "Retired Emperor Treasure" (also written as "Retired Emperor"), "Qianlong Imperial Appreciation Treasure," "Tianlu Successive Appreciation," and "Tianlu Linlang," collectively known as the "Six Seals of Tianlu." Books recorded in the second compilation are therefore also called "Tianlu Successive Appreciation Books." The two compilations together comprise more than 1,000 titles, all bearing the imperial seals of Emperor Qianlong, indicating that Tianlu Linlang books were always regarded as Emperor Qianlong's personal collection. Second, the binding and book label inscriptions were uniform. The books of the first compilation were "Song and Jin editions and shadow-Song manuscripts all encased in brocade, Yuan editions in blue silk, and Ming editions in brown silk, to indicate their grades." The surviving books of the second compilation, whether sent out of the palace for rebinding during the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns or rebound by later collectors, mostly no longer show their original elegant and magnificent court style in appearance. Therefore, the uniformly affixed palace seals indicate the special identity of Tianlu Linlang books as the imperial rare book special collection of the Qianlong-Jiaqing period, and are also the primary basis for later authentication.
The Value and Characteristics of the Collection
During the Qianlong reign, the imperial collection was both rich and beautiful. The Tianlu Linlang, formed by "selecting the cream and reorganizing it," contained only first-rate rare editions—precious secret volumes and exquisite treasures—and was long praised with the saying, "All books stored in the imperial collection are complete in Tianlu Linlang." Not only were the books finely printed and of excellent quality, fully representing the superb skills of Chinese woodblock printing across the ages, but they also reflected the evolution of the book industry in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties and in various regions. Moreover, they had clear provenance and meticulous bindings, demonstrating the extraordinary care shown by public and private collectors of successive generations.
The Tianlu Linlang books were a complete collection of precious items, and many were already marveled at as rare secrets of the human world at the time. Among them, the Song edition of the History of the Han (Hanshu), for which the Ming dynasty figure Wang Shizhen exchanged a manor, and the Song Guangdong Transport Commission edition of Collected Annotations of Du Fu's Poems by Nine Commentators, which Qianlong inscribed twice, are celebrated anecdotes in the world of books. The three most treasured Song editions were the Two Han Histories, the Selections of Refined Literature (Wenxuan), and Du Fu's Poems, which the Ming dynasty figure Dong Qichang called "the three legs of a tripod within the realm." Among them, the Two Han Histories and the Six-Minister Commentary on the Selections of Refined Literature were both in the first compilation of Tianlu Linlang. In the First Batch of National Precious Ancient Books List published in 2008, 51 Song, Yuan, and Ming editions had once been in the Qing palace's Tianlu Linlang collection. Furthermore, this group of books has a high proportion of Song and Yuan editions, many are unique copies in the world, and many are the earliest printed editions from which all extant versions derive, making their documentary value extremely high—they are national treasures.
Dispersal and Current Distribution Since Modern Times
As the Qing dynasty's imperial rare book special collection, the Tianlu Linlang books endured many hardships from their establishment to the 1950s, suffering fire, theft, war, and insect damage, losing more than half of their number. The vast majority of the survivors have returned to public collections, which also reflects, from one angle, the difficult journey of the transmission and circulation of ancient Chinese cultural classics. The books recorded in the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue (first compilation) were all destroyed in the palace fire of the second year of the Jiaqing reign, while the books recorded in the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue, Second Compilation remained safe and intact until the end of the Qing dynasty.
During the Tongzhi reign, the Qing court sent books in the palace that could not be repaired in time to bookshops outside the palace for binding and restoration. Some passed through the hands of the handlers, and some were stolen by palace eunuchs who abused their positions, and the imperial collection began to leak out of the palace. During the Republic period, the last emperor Puyi, though abdicated, remained in the Forbidden City for as long as 13 years. During this time, he used the methods of bestowal and secret removal to transport the most precious parts of the palace's paintings, calligraphy, and Tianlu Linlang rare books out of the palace. In February 1925, Puyi, expelled from the Forbidden City, took up temporary residence in Tianjin, and these treasures were secretly transported to the Jingyuan Garden where the abdicated emperor resided, including 31 crates containing more than 200 Song and Yuan editions. In March 1932, with the support of Japanese imperialism, Puyi established the puppet state of Manchukuo in Changchun, and the rare books stored in Tianjin, along with other curios and paintings, were transported to Changchun, where they were stored in the "Little White Building" behind the Tongde Hall of the puppet imperial palace. On the eve of Japan's surrender, Puyi and his entourage fled Changchun in haste, and the books in the puppet palace were not taken away. In the following four months, Changchun was in a state of anarchy, and the paintings, calligraphy, and rare books in the building were first stolen secretly and then openly looted, suffering great damage and being scattered widely in all directions (流散四方, liu san si fang - "flow, scatter, four, directions"). The Tianlu Linlang books that remained in the Forbidden City were moved south with the cultural relics, passing through Shanghai, Nanjing, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and were ultimately transported to Taiwan Province, where they are now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. After the victory of the War of Resistance, the Palace Museum in Beijing spared no expense in purchasing many lost national treasures and imperial secrets, and 205 Tianlu Linlang rare books were transferred in the spring of 1959 to the Beijing Library (the predecessor of the National Library of China).
The Tianlu Linlang books left the imperial palace and entered the hands of the people, undergoing repeated cycles of gathering and dispersal. Of the 664 titles, more than 30 have vanished without a trace. According to surveys, the institutions holding the most Tianlu Linlang books are, in order, the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the National Library of China, and the Liaoning Provincial Library, with others scattered among dozens of public and private collectors at home and abroad. As the Qing dynasty's imperial rare book special collection, the Tianlu Linlang books once created a glorious chapter in the history of Chinese book collecting. At the same time, their fate, full of ups and downs (起伏跌宕, qi fu die dang - "rise, fall, undulate, surge"), is to a certain extent a microcosm of the honor and disgrace, rise and fall of modern Chinese society. Scattered everywhere in the world (五湖四海, wu hu si hai - "five, lakes, four, seas"), every title and every volume of the Tianlu Linlang books has its own legendary story. Today, the Tianlu Linlang books distributed at home and abroad are all the crown jewels of their respective public collections and are highly treasured by the academic community.
Tianlu Linlang was the imperial rare book special collection of the Qianlong-Jiaqing period of the Qing dynasty, and the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue compiled for it is a standardized official rare book catalogue of ancient China. It followed the tradition of annotated bibliographies dating from the Han dynasty and made many innovations in compilation format. It had a profound influence on the Qing dynasty book collectors' emphasis on edition authentication and rare book cataloguing, deeply promoted the formation of the trend of edition authentication and rare book cataloguing in the Qing dynasty, had a far-reaching impact on the rise of modern edition and catalogue studies, and led the subsequent trend of compiling annotated rare book bibliographies. To this day, the compilation of Chinese rare book catalogues and bibliographies at home and abroad is still deeply influenced by it. Fortunately, nine out of ten of the books of the second compilation survive, and this group of books and its catalogue correspond to each other, making it important material for studying the achievements of edition and catalogue studies in the Qianlong-Jiaqing period of the Qing dynasty. As the Qing dynasty's first imperial inner-court rare book special collection and its accompanying annotated catalogue, the Tianlu Linlang books and the Imperially Authorized Tianlu Linlang Catalogue are of great significance to Chinese classical bibliography, ancient book edition studies, and ancient book collecting studies, and their study has tangible academic value for the collation and preservation of ancient books today and in the future.
(The author is the director of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology and Ancient Documents, Tsinghua University Library)
Return to TopBy: 高雅
Zunsheng Bajian (Eight Discourses on Respecting Life) is the most representative comprehensive health-preservation work of the Ming Dynasty. Its author, Gao Lian, was a native of Qiantang, Zhejiang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), who lived mainly during the Jiajing and Wanli reigns. He studied medical theory year-round, delved deeply into the art of health preservation, and accumulated rich experience in health-preservation practice and textual research. In his later years, he retired to the West Lake to devote himself to writing, focusing on summarizing the essence of health preservation from successive dynasties and organizing his own insights into health preservation, finally completing Zunsheng Bajian. "Zunsheng" means to obey and respect life; its core is upholding the human-centered view of health preservation of "following life and valuing life," discarding behavior that forcibly strives against nature or excessively depletes life, and advocating the health-preservation philosophy of conforming to nature and regulating body and mind. The work comprises nineteen volumes in total, expounding from eight aspects how to prevent disease and achieve prolonging life and increasing longevity (延年益寿, yan nian yi shou - "extend years, increase life") through cultivating the body and nurturing the mind, daily regulation, practice of exercises, dietary nourishment, and emotional cultivation — hence it is called the "Eight Discourses."
Harmonizing with the Mutual Generation and Restraint of the Five Phases
Traditional Chinese medical theory correlates the five viscera of the human body — liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys — respectively with the five phases of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The five viscera are interconnected through the meridians, with body fluids, qi, and blood flowing through them, the interaction of opposing forces in Chinese philosophy (相生相克, xiang sheng xiang ke - "mutually generate, mutually overcome") in ceaseless circulation. If any one viscus becomes diseased, it may affect the others. Zunsheng Bajian attaches great importance to the role of the essential qi of the five viscera in preserving healthy qi and warding off pathogenic qi, pointing out that the smooth or adverse flow of the essential qi of the five viscera is related to bodily health: if it flows smoothly and not adversely, the qi of the whole body will be harmonious and unobstructed, and only then can health be maintained; otherwise, "when qi flows adversely, death results." The Discourse on Prolonging Life and Dispelling Disease records in detail the health-preservation exercise of the Six-Character Breathing Formula, in which the six sounds correspond one-to-one with the viscera: the sound xu regulates the liver, he regulates the heart, hu regulates the spleen, si regulates the lungs, chui regulates the kidneys, and xi regulates the Triple Burner. Through different mouth shapes in exhalation and inhalation, one regulates the excess or deficiency of qi movement in the corresponding viscera. For example, the "Xu Liver Qi Formula" specifically treats conditions of constrained liver and gallbladder qi movement such as liver heat with red eyes, dry eyes, and excessive tearing. In addition, the fully preserved supporting essentials of the exercise, breathing rhythm, and practice taboos of the Six-Character Breathing Formula provide documentary evidence for later generations to study.
Following the Changes of the Four Seasons
Health preservation must follow the changes of the four seasons and the monthly ordinances, for only then can one achieve "no severe illness arising"; violating them results in "disasters and diseases being born." The four-season health preservation in Zunsheng Bajian takes the monthly ordinances as its general framework, emphasizes the correspondence between the four seasons and the five viscera, and stresses the relationship between seasonal climate changes and the health preservation of the body's viscera. The Discourse on Regulating the Four Seasons proposes that "nothing under heaven is accomplished outside the seasons, and therefore the sage aligns his sequence with the four seasons," advocating that health-preservation activities should conform to the changes of the four seasons and monthly ordinances. This discourse is divided into four volumes — spring, summer, autumn, and winter — detailing how to conform to the climatic characteristics of the four seasons to settle the spirit of the five viscera and preserve their essence, and listing health-preservation methods corresponding to each season. For instance, it includes special chapters such as "On the Liver's Flourishing in Spring," "On the Heart's Flourishing in Summer," "On the Spleen's Flourishing in All Seasons," "On the Lungs' Flourishing in Autumn," and "On the Kidneys' Flourishing in Winter," explaining that nurturing the five viscera should follow the four seasons, with cultivation techniques appended afterward. For example, in spring things are born and the liver flourishes in spring, so one needs to soothe the liver and relieve stagnation; in summer things grow and the heart flourishes in summer while the spleen flourishes in late summer, so one should nourish the heart and strengthen the spleen; in autumn things are reaped and the lungs flourish in autumn, so one should nourish the lungs and gather the metal; in winter things are stored and the kidneys flourish in winter, so health preservation should focus on storing essence and consolidating the kidneys. On this basis, guiding exercises are proposed, such as the liver guiding exercise being suitable for the first, second, and third months; the gallbladder guiding exercise suitable for practice in spring; the heart guiding exercise practiced in early summer; the spleen guiding exercise practiced in the sixth month; the lungs guiding exercise suitable for the seventh, eighth, and ninth months; and the kidney guiding exercise suitable for the three winter months. Taking the kidneys as an example: "In the three months of winter, the qi of heaven and earth is closed, all things lie hidden and stored. The gentleman is cautious and careful, moderates desires, stops sensual pleasures, and awaits the settling of yin and yang, not contending with yin and yang, so as to preserve his life in accord with the Great Purity."
Regulating Dietary Intake
Chinese medical health preservation has always emphasized the spleen and stomach as the foundation. The spleen and stomach are the acquired foundation and the source of qi and blood generation and transformation. They are responsible for transporting and transforming the essential nutrients of water and grain, nourishing the internal organs of the body (五脏六腑, wu zang liu fu - "five organs, six viscera") and the meridians throughout the body. If the spleen and stomach are strong, then qi and blood are sufficient and no diseases arise; if the spleen and stomach are weak, then lacking the fundamental source of nourishment or vitality (生化无源, sheng hua wu yuan - "generate, transform, without source"), healthy qi is deficient, and various diseases proliferate. Zunsheng Bajian places particular emphasis on regulating and nourishing the spleen and stomach, taking moderation in eating and drinking and light, bland flavors as the foundation of health preservation, thereby forming a systematic dietary regulation and nourishment philosophy. The Discourse on Food and Drink states, "The spleen can mother and nourish the four viscera; health-preservation practitioners call it the 'Yellow Woman'" and "from this one knows that when the spleen and stomach are fully secure, no diseases arise." The spleen and stomach transport and transform water and grain to nourish the whole body, "therefore in the method of cultivating the body, one cannot fail to make one's food excellent." It advocates moderating food intake and using light, bland flavors to nourish the spleen and stomach, never allowing the spleen and stomach to be damaged, for over-nourishment instead harms them. The Discourse on Prolonging Life and Dispelling Disease also says, "Food and drink are used to nourish life, but if one greedily chews without restraint, then what gives life can also harm it. Moreover, if it does not supplement life, and one greedily craves exotic flavors to please one's mouth, hidden calamities are often not small." Overeating, partiality toward a single flavor among the five tastes, rich, greasy, and heavily flavored foods (肥甘厚味, fei gan hou wei - "fatty, sweet, thick, tasty"), irregular eating habits (三餐不节, san can bu jie - "three meals, not regulated"), and blind supplementation all increase the burden of transportation and transformation on the spleen and stomach, causing stagnation of spleen and stomach qi movement and dysfunction of transportation and transformation, which in turn leads to insufficient generation of qi and blood, loss of nourishment of the viscera, triggering systemic qi movement disharmony and visceral functional disorder, and breeding various chronic diseases. This fully confirms that regulating the spleen and stomach and moderating food intake are the fundamental prerequisites for health preservation and disease prevention.
Cultivating the Heart through Leisurely Emotions
The Discourse on Leisurely Appreciation emphasizes that "leisure and tranquility" is an important prerequisite for regulating emotions. A tranquil mind and spirit and smooth emotions are the key to harmony of the five viscera and prolonging life and increasing longevity; emotional disharmony is an important root of internally generated disease. "When the mind has no toil of chasing and hunting, and the body has no labor of pulling and dragging, avoiding the vulgar and fleeing fame, following the seasons and dwelling in peace, the world calls this 'leisure.'" Leisure can nurture one's nature, delight the heart, and bring contentment to life and longevity. How does one attain the state of "leisure and tranquility"? It is by returning the mind to life and attending to the daily qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, flowers, birds, bamboo, and jade — all of which are excellent methods for settling the spirit and nourishing the heart. In addition, the discourse elaborates in detail on the appreciation of poetry and qin playing, the four treasures of the study, calligraphy and painting and rubbings, ancient porcelain and bronze vessels, kiln jade, incense, flowers, and potted bamboo, and discusses experience in distinguishing genuine from fake antiques, judging fine pieces, cultivating flowers, and cultivating bamboo.
In addition to nurturing the mind and spirit through refined indoor amusements, the Discourse on Daily Comfort and Well-Being also emphasizes the influence of the dwelling environment on emotions, advocating that living quarters should have bright windows and clean tables, be airy and open, with flowers, trees, bamboo, and rocks adorning the courtyard, so that one's daily surroundings are all elegant and pure scenes, naturally gathering the mind and spirit and dispelling distracting thoughts. "Brightness and cleanliness can refresh the mind and spirit; excessive spaciousness harms the eyesight. Outside the windows, on all four walls, vines cover the walls; within are arranged potted pine and juniper bonsai, or one or two orchids; around the steps, emerald cloud grass is planted to cover the ground, and when lush it is verdant and flourishing." Beside the house one places a wash-inkstone pond and a basin pond, and near the window one keeps goldfish to observe the lively activity of nature — all of these serve to "clear the mind and temper the will." These leisure activities are important methods for nurturing the five viscera, especially for preserving the mind and spirit. "Excess of the five emotions" (referring to the pathological states caused by excess of the five emotions of joy, anger, worry, thought, and fear) most easily damages the essential qi of the viscera, causing disharmony of visceral qi movement, thereby generating internal diseases that are not easily cured. Therefore, whether it is outdoor excursions, antique appreciation, or indoor ink-grinding and tea-tasting, chanting and composing verses, all are means to keep the spirit at ease and give the mind and spirit something to rest upon, thereby nurturing the spirit and emotions.
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