**Cong Bin: Developing New Quality Productive Forces Requires Fully Unleashing the Vitality of Scientific and Technological Talent**
The "new quality productive forces" proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping represent an innovation and development of Marxist theory on productive forces. In Marx's view, productive forces are the material forces formed by human beings in productive practice to transform and influence nature to suit social needs. They originate from the practical relationship between humanity and nature and constitute a comprehensive power formed in the process of actively transforming nature, comprising three elements: laborers, means of labor, and subjects of labor. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the basic connotation of new quality productive forces is "the leap in laborers, means of labor, subjects of labor, and their optimized combination." Cultivating and developing new quality productive forces requires not only increasing the input of these three elements in terms of quantity but also promoting a qualitative leap in these elements and their optimized combination. Among them, the laborer is the element that plays a leading and decisive role in the various elements of productive forces, acting as the creator and user of material elements.
As a logical system of interaction among the three elements, productive forces reflect the relationship between humans and things. To develop new quality productive forces, we must first adjust and properly handle the relationship between humans and things. In Marx's view, the laborer is the factor possessing active agency and occupies the leading position at all times. In the labor process, only the laborer can use machinery; without the conscious activity of the laborer, the means of labor and subjects of labor lose their value. The means of labor and subjects of labor "are realized only through contact with living labor, for such living labor sublate [1] the dead objectivity of these products." [2] It is evident that without laborers, human economic activity and social economic development would not exist, and the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces would be out of the question.
Therefore, in the process of cultivating and developing new quality productive forces, high importance must be attached to developing and perfecting the capabilities of laborers. The enhancement of laborer capability elements is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, from an epistemological perspective, it must be clarified that talent—especially innovative talent and strategic talent—is the primary resource and a necessary condition for forming a comparative advantage in talent during international competition. Second, in the new round of international competition, we must continuously improve the employability of laborers to form a workforce that meets the developmental needs of new quality productive forces. In the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization, scientific and technological (scitech) talent forms the main force of the labor contingent. It is necessary to continuously improve their political, creative, psychological, and physical capacities, providing them with stronger awareness of innovation, greater knowledge reserves, and higher skill levels. This will enable them to research more original and disruptive technologies, develop more advanced production tools, and continuously manufacture "great power heavy equipment," "great power precision instruments," and "great power sharp tools" [3]. They must continuously generate new knowledge, new technologies, new engineering, and new business forms to achieve the innovative transformation of the objective world.
Developing new quality productive forces requires fully releasing the vitality of scitech talent and improving their quality. The history of human social development shows that scitech talent is the decisive factor in productive forces. From the improvement of the steam engine to the ignition of the electric revolution, and through to atomic energy, electronic computers, space technology, big data, and artificial intelligence—a survey of the qualitative leaps and developments in productive forces worldwide shows that every single one was the result of the creative practice of scitech talent. In the current era, more and more scitech talents possess broader horizons, knowledge, and capabilities. They are strategic talents capable of developing new quality productive forces and application-oriented talents who have mastered new quality means of production; they are innovative talents capable of fully utilizing modern technology and high-end advanced equipment while rapidly iterating their knowledge. They are the high-quality laborers required for developing new quality productive forces and constitute the primary element of these forces. We must do a good job in the construction and cultivation of scitech talent, guiding them to profoundly understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments, and to strengthen the Four Consciousnesses [4], firm up the Four Confidences [5], and achieve the Two Upholds. At the same time, we must strengthen care and concern for scitech talent, creating a relaxed, harmonious work and social environment characterized by free exploration, allowing them to release their innovative vitality to the fullest.
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee was an extremely important meeting convened by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core during a critical period for comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese-path Modernization (hereinafter referred to as the Decision) reviewed and adopted at the Plenary Session is an overall deployment centered closely on advancing Chinese-path modernization. Comprehensively deepening reform is the path and method for realizing Chinese-path modernization. Only by further comprehensively deepening reform can we ensure the realization of the strategic tasks determined by the 20th CPC National Congress and comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization. The Decision proposed constructing systems and mechanisms to support comprehensive innovation, coordinately advancing the integrated reform of systems and mechanisms for education, science and technology, and talent, improving the new-type whole-nation system, and enhancing the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. This series of new deployments and requirements fully reflects the profound insight into the essence and laws of innovation held by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. The Decision emphasizes optimizing the organizational mechanisms for major scitech innovation, strengthening the building of national strategic scitech forces, and coordinately strengthening breakthroughs in key core technologies. It calls for deepening the reform of systems and mechanisms for talent development, focusing on accelerating the formation of effective mechanisms for talent cultivation, utilization, evaluation, service, support, and incentives. The Decision emphasizes implementing more proactive, open, and effective talent policies and improving mechanisms for the independent cultivation of talent. We must accelerate the construction of national strategic talent forces, focusing on cultivating strategic scientists, first-class scitech leaders, and innovation teams, as well as cultivating卓越 (zhuóyuè) "excellent engineers," "great power craftsmen" [6], and high-skilled talents to improve the quality of all types of talent. We must strengthen talent incentive mechanisms, persisting in delegating authority to employers and "untying the hands" of talent, and establishing a talent evaluation system oriented toward innovation capacity, quality, effectiveness, and contribution. These important requirements reflect an encouragement of exploration and innovation.
Implementing the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee focuses on "untying the hands" of scitech talent. In particular, the management of scitech talent must not be monolithic or simplistic; systems should not be formulated merely for the convenience of management while ignoring the realization of the legitimate rights and interests of the subjects of management and the release of their creativity. The aspiration of scitech talent to serve the country is reflected in their labor practices of dedicated service and disregard for personal remuneration; this is the manifestation of the "scientist spirit" [7]. To put the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee into practice, we must explore scientific and rational management methods and effectively "untie the hands" of scitech talent.
The development of new quality productive forces must rely closely on high-quality laborers. The broad masses of scitech workers should further strengthen their aspirations for invigorating the country through science and education, shoulder the heavy responsibility of scitech innovation, strengthen basic research and applied basic research, win the battle for breakthroughs in key core technologies, and cultivate new kinetic energy for developing new quality productive forces. Through pragmatic suggestions and advice, they should assist in deepening the reform of the scitech system and the system for talent development, improve the scitech evaluation system and incentive mechanisms, and further stimulate their own innovative vitality and potential. They should establish a correct outlook on talent and values, continuously improve their self-cultivation, carry forward the scientist spirit, and strive to become creators, promoters, and leaders of new quality productive forces who satisfy the people and reassure the Party.
(Author: Cong Bin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering) Source: Guangming Daily (December 11, 2024, Page 06) Online Editor: Huihui