Liu Qirui and Luan Yongyu: Scientific Methods for Developing New Quality Productive Forces According to Local Conditions
Liu Qirui and Luan Yongyu
In October 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the opening ceremony of a study session for provincial and ministerial-level leading officials on implementing the guiding principles of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee: "Reform is a systematic project that requires scientific methods and the proper handling of relationships across all sectors." [1] The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee identified developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions as a key measure for improving the systems and mechanisms that promote high-quality development. It proposed to "accelerate the formation of relations of production that are better suited to new quality productive forces and promote the aggregation of various advanced production factors toward the development of new quality productive forces" [2]. The theory of new quality productive forces constitutes the underlying logic of Xi Jinping’s economic thought, while developing these forces according to local conditions brings together the methodological wisdom of that thought. To further comprehensively deepen reform and expand Chinese-path modernization, we must grasp these scientific methods completely, accurately, and comprehensively.
I. Strategic Thinking: Adding Luster to One’s Region while Contributing to the Whole General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "Strategic issues are fundamental issues for a political party and a country. If the judgment on strategy is accurate, the strategic planning is scientific, and the strategic initiative is seized, then the cause of the Party and the people will be full of hope" [3]. The "relationship between strategy and tactics" [4] is one of the major relationships required for advancing Chinese-path modernization.
Strategically, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions requires high priority for collaborative innovation and a unified market. In the face of a new round of global technological revolution and industrial transformation, the state's role as the organizer of frontier technological breakthroughs has become increasingly vital. To date, the central government has established five Comprehensive National Science Centers across the country and deployed a series of major scientific facilities (Dàkēxué zhuāngzhì). We must improve the new type of whole-nation system (Xīnxíng jǔguó tǐzhì) [1] under the unified leadership of the Central Science and Technology Commission. We should leverage the scientific research synergy of local high-tech zones, universities, "specialized, refined, differential, and innovative" (Zhuān jīng tè xīn) enterprises [2], national laboratories, and national key laboratories to create an innovation ecosystem of technological self-reliance and self-strengthening for the New Era. Since the start of the New Era, as the Chinese economy entered the New Normal (Xīn chángtài) [3], regional synergy has outweighed competitive effects. We must develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions while serving the national unified domestic market.
II. Historical Thinking: Continuing the Lineage of Prospering Advanced Productive Forces Marx, via the philosophy of law, and Engels, via political economy, reached the same conclusion of historical materialism: social existence determines social consciousness. Marxism holds that the advanced capitalist mode of production swept away the traditional order of feudal society, and the vast numbers of the proletariat became the class representatives of advanced productive forces by combining with large-scale mechanized production. The Communist Party is the highest form of proletarian organization and the vanguard of the proletariat, representing the development requirements of advanced productive forces in the most concentrated way. The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the historical necessity of the combination of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese workers' movement; it evolved from a vanguard representing the working masses to the vanguard of the entire Chinese people. The victory of the New Democratic Revolution overthrew the "three great mountains" [4] oppressing the people and greatly liberated the productive forces. The great decision of Reform and Opening-up adjusted all relations of production and the political superstructure that hindered the development of productive forces, greatly advancing them. Since the New Era began, guided by the principle that "high-quality development is the hard truth" (Yìng dàolǐ) [5], new quality productive forces have grown from nothing into something, expanding under the support of favorable policies. History proves that only by upholding the Party's overall leadership—especially the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core—can the formation of new quality productive forces be accelerated and new relations of production be reshaped.
III. Dialectical Thinking: Balancing Innovation and Quality The relationship between "newness" and "quality" is the fundamental category of new quality productive forces. The "newness" of these forces is the sum of technological innovation, industrial innovation, and other forms of innovation.
Technological innovation is the "first mile" of generating new quality productive forces. Amidst the "changes unseen in a century" (Bǎinián wèiyǒu zhī dàbiànjú) [6], our country's path for technological innovation can only be one of independent innovation and technological self-reliance. Key core technologies must be tackled by relying on the new type of whole-nation system.
Industrial innovation is the "last mile" of generating new quality productive forces. The transformation of achievements into commercial use is the key link for breaking through "islands of innovation" and smoothing the innovation chain. The "quality" of new quality productive forces refers to high-quality development that completely, accurately, and comprehensively implements the New Development Philosophy. It not only highlights technological innovation as the core element but also represents an advanced state of productive forces that coordinates upstream and downstream industrial chains, pursues harmony between humanity and nature, promotes the dual circulation of domestic and international markets, and serves the all-around development of all people.
Innovation is the characteristic. For over 40 years of Reform and Opening-up, the momentum for rapid economic development came from factor-driven growth, building a material foundation by fully leveraging the advantages of labor and natural resources. As socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the New Era, high-quality development became the new stage of national economic development. The old production function has shifted to total factor productivity. New quality productive forces can no longer grow proportionally through massive factor inputs; they face tight constraints from resources and environment. Leading industrial innovation through technological innovation has become the only new path for cultivating new quality productive forces.
High quality is the key. When the CPC Central Committee proposed supply-side structural reform at the end of 2015, its original aspiration was to expand high-quality capacity, eliminate backward capacity, and realize high-end, intelligent, and green development of the national production system from the supply side. From the perspective of the value chain, China has traditionally occupied low-value-added production links in the international division of labor, lacking competitiveness in the high-value-added links of R&D/design and brand marketing at both ends of the "smile curve." Therefore, we must "greatly enhance quality awareness and regard quality as life itself" [5], constantly climbing toward the higher end of the value chain during high-quality development.
IV. Systems Thinking: Forming a "Single Chessboard" of Complementary Regional Advantages Resource endowments, industrial foundations, and scientific research conditions constitute the basis for various regions to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions. Vast differences in topography, climate, culture, development paths, and values exist across China’s regions. The development of new quality productive forces necessitates a process of localization. Each region should develop industries using the factors in which their local resource endowment is richest, thereby forming the greatest comparative advantage. On the new journey (Xīn zhēngchéng), the development of new quality productive forces must not be detached from the industrial foundations built over many years; it must realize the integration of technological and industrial conditions across upstream and downstream chains, with central cities taking the lead in creating highlands for cultivating new quality productive forces.
Emphasis must be placed on the hierarchical, substantive, and diverse nature of local development. We must follow the layers, substance, and diversity of cultivation according to different industry types, natures, and paths. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "The financial industry has a clear institutional interest margin, and there once existed a dominant mindset of 'sitting and collecting money.' We must highlight customer-demand orientation, value creation through service, and relying on competitiveness" [6]. Deviating from the real economy (Shítǐ jīngjì) has never been the correct path for socialist financial development; providing full-cycle services for the cultivation and expansion of new quality productive forces is a major tenet of modern socialist finance. There is no single model for developing new quality productive forces; we must establish a "single chessboard" (Yīpánqí) [7] mindset, identifying our own strengths within the overall situation of Chinese-path modernization, leveraging strengths, avoiding weaknesses, and consolidating the foundations while creating the new.
V. Innovative Thinking: Integrated Promotion of Innovation in Education, Technology, and Talent Developing new quality productive forces necessitates building a leading country in education. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must coordinately implement the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, the strategy on developing a quality workforce, and the innovation-driven development strategy, and integrally promote the development of education, technological innovation, and talent cultivation" [7]. Building a leading country in education essentially solves the problem of ensuring there are successors to the cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation. To face modernization, we must train talents targeting major contemporary themes such as high-level technological self-reliance, the construction of a modern industrial system, and new-type urbanization. To face the world, we must absorb and learn from all excellent elements and scientific methods within the "sum of human knowledge" with a more open mind. To face the future, we must seize the theme of innovation and promote the forward-looking development of higher education disciplines—such as "New Engineering, New Liberal Arts, New Agriculture, and New Medicine"—to solve the core element of technological innovation in new quality productive forces.
Developing new quality productive forces necessitates building a modern human resource base. Modern human resources are the backbone supporting high-quality population development. The universalization of higher education has greatly improved the educational level of the citizenry, and China's talent landscape is evolving from a large country with a "population dividend" to a powerful country with a "talent dividend." Currently, the "gap" in connecting labor supply with industrial demand for talent has become a structural contradiction restricting high-quality full employment and "mass entrepreneurship" (Dàzhòng chuàngyè). The "new-quality-ification" of talent facing new quality productive forces must urgently solve this puzzle.
VI. Rule of Law Thinking: Creating a Legal Environment Conducive to Innovation and Entrepreneurship The rule of law provides the best business environment and the best environment for innovation and entrepreneurship. Since Reform and Opening-up, under the "protection" of economic and civil/commercial laws and regulations, China's private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises have flourished, gradually becoming major employers, taxpayers, and innovators. A large number of consumer service enterprises in coffee, e-commerce, and lodging have become active in cities and regions, providing people with high-quality products and services. In the New Era and on the new journey, we must continue to optimize the business environment, alleviate the concerns of non-public enterprises, and create a better legal environment for comprehensive innovation.
We must improve the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics that encourages innovation and advocates high quality. We must promote scientific legislation following the laws of innovative and high-quality development; innovation requires both space for freedom and the regulation of order. We must strengthen intellectual property protection and methods, casting a vote of confidence in creative inventions based on the authority of the law, and improve the setting of industry quality standards and disciplinary measures to protect consumer rights. We should strengthen impartial justice (Gōngzhèng sīfǎ) to protect new quality productive forces and smooth the domestic circulation, protecting both leading "head" enterprises and "specialized, refined, differential, and innovative" enterprises to exert judicial efficacy in building a national unified market. We must increase the popularization and promotion of innovation and quality laws and regulations, promote law-abiding behavior among all citizens, and tell the story of China's rule of law to foreign businesses.
VII. Bottom-line Thinking: Dynamic Balance and Mutual Reinforcement of Development and Security Economic security is the foundation of the Holistic Approach to National Security (Zǒngtǐ guójiā ānquánguān). In 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping formally proposed this approach, stating that national security is a structured concept with economic security as its foundation.
We must coordinate high-quality development and high-level security. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must persist in the mutual promotion of high-quality development and high-level security" [8]. The current intertwining of cyclical and structural contradictions is, fundamentally, a issue arising during development, which must and can only be solved by solidly promoting high-quality development. New quality productive forces can effectively release the demand for high-level talent, helping to alleviate employment issues. As industrial levels rise, the value chain steadily climbs, which also helps boost domestic demand, expand external demand, and promote dual circulation. Furthermore, we must establish high-level security mechanisms adapted to high-quality development, implement the production safety responsibilities of different entities, improve the safety supervision system for key industries, promote effective coordination between industry, regional, and local supervision, and improve the system of laws, regulations, and standards for production safety while strengthening safety prevention and guarantee mechanisms.
(About the Authors: Liu Qirui is a doctoral student at the School of Marxism, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law; Luan Yongyu is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Marxism, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.)