Yan Lianfu: Opening Sweeping Vistas for Chinese-path Modernization Through Reform and Opening Up [1]
The year 2025 marks the concluding year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. In his 2025 New Year Address, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized the historic steps taken in reform and opening up over the past year, clearly pointing out: "The successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee sounded the bugle [1] for further comprehensively deepening reform. Moving forward with the great tide of the era of reform and opening up, Chinese-path modernization will certainly open up even broader prospects through reform and opening up." On the new journey of further comprehensively deepening reform, we must further forge a strong leadership force and coalesce a majestic synergy for advancement, while also continuously strengthening the dynamics of development and expanding the space for development.
1. Encouraging Party Members and Cadres to Lead the Charge
Our reform and opening up possesses direction, position, and principle. Entering the New Era, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has consistently insisted on implementing the Party’s leadership across all fields, aspects, and links of comprehensively deepening reform, driving the realization of historic changes, systemic reshaping, and holistic reconstruction in many fields. Practice has fully proven that it is precisely because we have always adhered to the Party’s centralized and unified leadership over comprehensively deepening reform that our reform and opening up has been able to "gnaw on many hard bones" [2] and navigate countless major difficulties, effectively responding to changing situations and neutralizing crises, presenting a favorable trend of comprehensive exertion, multi-point breakthroughs, and in-depth advancement. In the process of further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese-path modernization, only by consistently adhering to and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership—and by continuously improving the Party's ability and resolve to set the direction, plan the big picture, determine policies, and promote reform—can we ensure that the ship of reform and opening up always sails along the correct course.
To adhere to the Party’s leadership, we must focus on mobilizing the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of the entire Party in grasping reform and promoting development, boosting the "vigor, qi, and spirit" [3] of Party members and cadres in their work and entrepreneurship. Only by building the Party to be stronger and more powerful, with Party members and cadres leading the charge, can we ensure that Chinese-path modernization cleaves the waves and moves forward steadily and far. To this end, we should continuously improve relevant incentive and punishment mechanisms, adhere to the correct orientation in selecting and appointing personnel, and vigorously promote cadres who are politically sound, dare to take responsibility, are keen on reform, possess outstanding achievements, and are clean and honest. We must lead the direction of work with the correct appointment orientation, encouraging the broad masses of Party members and cadres to strive to be proponents and practitioners of reform. We must go all out to create a favorable atmosphere for work and entrepreneurship, strictly implement the "Three Distinctions" [4], resolutely stand up for those who take responsibility, be accountable for those who are responsible, and back those who get things done. This will truly stimulate the spirit of innovation, creation, and merit-building among Party members and cadres, thereby uniting and leading the people to converge closely around the Party and congregate within the Party’s cause, contributing more wisdom and strength to further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese-path modernization.
2. Letting Every Individual Become a Protagonist
In the magnificent course of comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era, the most vivid stroke has been the continuous realization of the people’s aspirations for a better life. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has focused on the most pressing, direct, and realistic interests of the people, responding to people's livelihood concerns through comprehensively deepening reform, and continuously improving people's well-being while promoting social fairness and justice. Data shows that in 2023, the national per capita disposable income reached 39,218 yuan, representing a real increase of 94.4% compared to 2012 after adjusting for inflation, with an average annual real growth rate of 6.2%. Reform only has meaning when it is for the people. From educational equity to medical security, from employment promotion to housing improvement, and from elderly care services to ecological environmental governance, the fruits of reform have benefited all aspects of people’s livelihoods, significantly enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.
Behind every achievement is inscribed the footsteps of the people's struggle; every leap in history carries the strength and dreams of the people. Marx and Engels pointed out: "History is the business of the masses; as the historical activity deepens, the size of the mass whose business it is will grow." Practice has proved that adhering to a people-centered approach in comprehensively deepening reform not only provides the most solid foundation for reform but also injects the strongest confidence and the most surging momentum into Chinese-path modernization. Since the New Era, from the comprehensive victory in the fight against poverty to the orderly rollout of rural revitalization, the continuous promotion of common prosperity for all, and the progression from rows of modern cities to poetic rural landscapes, hundreds of millions of people have achieved great feats with their wisdom and sweat.
General Secretary Xi Jinping affectionately noted in his New Year Address: "On the new journey of Chinese-path modernization, everyone is a protagonist, every contribution is precious, and every beam of light shines brightly." This is not only a profound call to every striver but also a high affirmation of every effort and responsibility. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee sounded the bugle to further comprehensively deepen reform, playing a soul-stirring movement of struggle for the New Era. Amidst the vast winds and clouds of the New Era, only by consistently adhering to a people-centered approach, relying on the people, rooting ourselves in the people, taking the people's expectations as the beacon for reform, and taking the people's well-being as the destination of development, can we generate a continuous stream of great creative power to inject surging and lasting vitality into Chinese-path modernization.
3. Focusing Intently on Promoting High-Quality Development
Only by concentrating our strength and promoting high-quality development can we sail steadily and far amidst turbulent winds and clouds, opening a magnificent new chapter for Chinese-path modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his New Year Address: "At present, the economic operation faces some new situations, including challenges from the uncertainty of the external environment and pressure from the transition between old and new growth drivers; however, these can be overcome through hard work." Arriving at the "deep-water zone" [5] of reform, we must ignite a strong engine for economic takeoff through innovation-driven development, consolidate the eternal foundation of ecological civilization through green development, and protect the robust vitality of economic operation through precise policy implementation.
We must continuously stimulate the powerful potential of new quality productive forces to inject a steady stream of vitality into economic and social development. Firmly grasping high-quality development as the primary task and developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, an important point of focus is to give full play to the advantages of resource endowments. For example, the eastern coastal areas focus on scientific and technological innovation to catalyze high-tech industrial clusters and create innovation heights that lead the future; the central and western regions accelerate the green and intelligent transformation of resource-intensive industries to cultivate majestic strength for the transition of growth drivers; and the border areas base themselves on ecological and cultural advantages to promote the comprehensive revitalization of characteristic industries, achieving a complementarity between ecological protection and economic development. Only by continuously deepening reform, releasing innovation potential, and optimizing the development layout can we cultivate a deep foundation for development, strengthen new growth drivers, and inject a more vigorous and lasting driving force into Chinese-path modernization.
Building a Beautiful China is an important goal for comprehensively building a modern socialist country, and Chinese-path modernization must move toward "green." To promote high-quality development, the entire society should establish the value consensus that "if humanity does not fail the green mountains, the green mountains will certainly not fail humanity" [6], integrating the concept of green development throughout the entire process of production and life, and making green production and green consumption a common practice. Relying on reform and innovation, we must strengthen ecological governance, improve ecological protection compensation mechanisms, and intensify pollution prevention and control to ensure that the beautiful picture of "green waters winding away, green mountains opening toward each other" [7] becomes even more vivid. We must profoundly practice the important concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," [8] promote the development of green industries such as new energy and new materials, release ecological dividends through technological innovation, and promote the transformation of ecological advantages into developmental successes.
In his New Year Address, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must implement more proactive and promising policies" and "maintain the good momentum of economic and social development." On the new journey, we should use reform as the foundation, opening up as the wings, and policy as the sail, driving Chinese-path modernization to sail steadily and far with more proactive and promising policies. To this end, we should strengthen the precision of policies, focus on the priorities of reform, deepen supply-side structural reform, precisely break through the bottlenecks restricting high-quality development, and improve the efficiency of resource allocation through institutional and mechanism innovation. We must enhance policy coordination to form a synergy for development, adhere to the coordinated exertion of macro policies such as fiscal and monetary policies, coordinate economic and non-economic policies, and prevent policies from hindering one another. By expanding high-level institutional opening up, continuously optimizing the business environment, and attracting more high-quality foreign investment, we will stimulate new vitality through internal and external linkage.
4. Improving the Systems and Mechanisms for High-Level Opening Up
Opening up is a defining feature of Chinese-path modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee clearly proposed "improving the systems and mechanisms for high-level opening up" and made important strategic arrangements, emphasizing the necessity of adhering to the basic state policy of opening up, requiring the enhancement of opening-up capabilities during the expansion of international cooperation, and building a new system for a higher-level open economy. This points the way forward for forming a pattern of deeper and broader opening up on the new journey, expanding a deeper and wider space for the development of Chinese-path modernization.
We must expand the depth of Chinese-path modernization through reform and opening up. In the process of further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese-path modernization, we should accurately grasp the focal points for promoting deep-level reform through high-level opening up. On one hand, we must create new heights for institutional opening up, relying on free trade ports and conditioned pilot free trade zones to conduct pilot trials, accelerating the construction of systems and regulations, and proactively aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules. This provides a solid support for building a new system for a higher-level open economy, ensuring the steady improvement of the quality and level of international trade and investment cooperation. On the other hand, we must practice true multilateralism—from expanding a global-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas to promoting the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, and from deeply participating in the global division of labor and cooperation to actively participating in global economic governance. We must continuously increase the intensity and depth of opening up, sharing more dividends of reform, opening up, and innovation with the world while expanding the development space for Chinese-path modernization.
We must expand the breadth of Chinese-path modernization through reform and opening up. China’s opening up is one of win-win cooperation with the world and one that provides new opportunities for the world. To improve the systems and mechanisms for high-level opening up and expand the breadth of Chinese-path modernization, we should, on one hand, promote the formation of new advantages in international competition and continuously shape new drivers for global development. In the process of proactively moving toward the international market and strengthening international cooperation, China has become a major trading partner for more than 150 countries and regions, providing opportunities for many foreign enterprises while achieving its own significant development. In the process of rapid development in digitalization, intelligence, and greening, we should adapt to the new requirements of high-quality development, actively open up new fields and tracks for development, promote new industries and business forms, and provide more new platforms for cooperation for countries around the world. On the other hand, through the linkage and interaction between domestic and international markets and resources, we will not only enhance our ability to allocate resources globally but also gain strategic initiative in open development. We must implement a more proactive opening-up strategy and continue to commit ourselves to exploring a developmental path of benign interaction between reform and opening up, and between China and the world. As General Secretary Xi Jinping stated in his New Year Address: "China is willing to work with all countries to be practitioners of friendly cooperation, promoters of mutual learning between civilizations, and participants in building a community with a shared future for humanity, jointly creating a beautiful future for the world."
(Author: Yan Lianfu, Guest Researcher at the Shaanxi Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and Dean of the School of Marxism at Xi'an Jiaotong University)
Source: Guangming Daily (January 10, 2025, Page 06) Web Editor: Huihui