Liu Wei: The Centralized and Unified Leadership of the CPC Central Committee Is the Fundamental Guarantee for Success in Economic Work
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Whether we can successfully steer the world's second-largest economy and maintain sustained, healthy economic and social development depends fundamentally on whether the Party's role as the leadership core in economic and social development is exercised effectively." The Central Economic Work Conference [1] held at the end of last year further deepened our Party’s systematic understanding of the laws governing economic work, emphasizing that "the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well. At critical moments and important junctures, the Party Central Committee timely assesses the situation and makes strategic deployments to ensure that the ship of China's economy braves the wind and waves [2], sailing steadily and reaching far." That the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well is the greatest consensus formed throughout the entire Party; it has further strengthened our determination and confidence to handle economic work in the face of difficulties and challenges.
Systematic Understanding Formed through the Practice of China’s Economic Development
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Our Party is the governing party, and taking charge of economic work is an inescapable and mandatory duty." The centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well; it is a vital component of Xi Jinping Thought on Economy and an important law-like understanding [3] derived from the practice of China's economic development. Since the 18th National Congress [4], the practice of China’s economic development has fully proven that at critical moments and important junctures, it is precisely because the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core timely assessed the situation and made scientific strategic deployments that China's economy has been able to overcome risks and challenges, sailing steadily toward the future.
For example, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck suddenly. Facing this pandemic of the century, some countries chose a "lying flat" [5] response, casting a shadow over the global economy. Our Party accurately judged the situation, meticulously planned deployments, and took decisive action. Relying on our powerful comprehensive national strength, we launched all-encompassing "battles" of human organization, material supply, technological breakthroughs, and resource mobilization, concentrating maximum force in the shortest time to block the transmission of the virus. Simultaneously, we prudently and orderly reopened economic and social activities, performed the "Six Stabilities" [6] work, implemented the "Six Guarantees" [7] tasks, and promoted the resumption of work and production. We established an economic and social order compatible with epidemic prevention and control, striving to minimize the impact of the pandemic on development. By the end of April that year, the resumption rate of industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide exceeded 99%, the rate for small, medium, and micro enterprises reached 88.4%, and the rate for major projects exceeded 95%. Precisely because our Party coordinated epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development and increased the intensity of macro-control, China’s economy was the first among all nations to recover, with GDP growing by 2.2% in 2020. By comparison, according to IMF data, the average global economic growth rate that year was -2.7%, with the U.S. at -2.2%, Japan at -4.2%, and the Eurozone at -6.1%. China was the only major economy in the world to achieve positive growth.
Furthermore, 2024 is a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Externally, the international environment is becoming more severe and complex, global growth momentum is insufficient, and certain countries are continuously intensifying their containment and suppression of China. Internally, domestic effective demand is insufficient, economic performance is diverging, and there remain many hidden risks in key areas, while the transition between old and new growth drivers [8] is experiencing growing pains. The 2023 Central Economic Work Conference made systematic arrangements for economic work, and in 2024, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held multiple meetings to analyze the economic situation, grasp the overall trend, and adjust economic policies in a timely manner. In the later part of the second quarter of 2024, and especially entering the third quarter, the growth rate of China's main economic indicators slowed, market expectations weakened, and anxiety spread at home and abroad. On September 26 of that year, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee made decisive deployments, launching a package of incremental policies focused on five areas: increasing the strength and efficiency of macro policies, further expanding domestic demand, increasing assistance to enterprises, promoting the stabilization of the real estate market, and striving to invigorate the capital market. This released a strong signal of stabilizing the overall economic situation and sustaining the long-term positive trend. This package of incremental policies is both problem-oriented and goal-oriented, balancing short-term effects with long-term layouts, effectively boosting social confidence and leading to a significant economic rebound.
In sum, since the New Era, the historic achievements, historic transformations, and the shift toward high-quality development in China's economic and social development have fully proven that the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well. In practice, our Party has also continuously refined and summarized this law-like understanding. Recent Central Economic Work Conferences have provided profound expositions on this. For instance, the 2019 conference noted that in the face of rising risks and challenges, "achievements were not easily won; the fundamental reason lies in our adherence to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee." The 2020 conference noted that "the authority of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental reliance for the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups to rise to challenges in moments of peril... the Party’s judgment, decision-making, and execution play a decisive role." The 2023 conference emphasized that "under the unified leadership of the Party, we must unite the broadest masses of the people, focus on the central task of economic construction and the primary task of high-quality development, and turn the grand blueprint of Chinese-path modernization into a beautiful reality step by step." The centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well—this is an important conclusion repeatedly proven by the practice of China's economic development in the New Era and a significant deepening of our Party’s understanding of the laws of economic work.
Deeply Grasping the Scientific Connotation of this Systematic Understanding from the Perspective of High-Quality Development
Advancing the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese-path modernization is the central task of the Party and the country on the new journey in the New Era. To accomplish this, we must focus on economic construction as the central work and high-quality development as the primary task. Only by placing the understanding that "the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee" within the context of high-quality development can we more deeply grasp its scientific connotation.
Upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is necessary to uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system. This system is the institutional safeguard for high-quality development. Since the New Era, our Party has incorporated "distribution according to work as the mainstay with multiple distribution modes coexisting" and the "socialist market economy system" into the basic socialist economic system. This marks the system's increased maturity and formalization, creating an institutional basis for the Party Central Committee’s leadership over economic work in terms of ownership of the means of production, distribution of output, and resource allocation. At the same time, the consolidation and improvement of this system require the active role of the superstructure, as determined by the dialectical relationship between productive forces and relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure. In China, an important aspect of exercising the superstructure's active role upon the economic base is upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. Since the New Era, the Party has persisted in comprehensively deepening reform, fully leveraging the leading role of economic systemic reform to promote more mature mechanisms for the Party's leadership over economic work.
Upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is necessary to achieve scientific governance and holistic coordination. High-quality development is a general requirement for all aspects of economic and social development. it requires a systems perspective to coordinate diverse interests, ensuring "overall coordination, systematic optimization, highlighting priorities, and promoting development while maintaining stability, and establishing the new before breaking the old" [9]. This requires centralized leadership. From a macro-governance perspective, steering the "Giant Ship of China" [10] requires facing the diversification of interests among different subjects, multiple governance goals, and varied policy tools. Only with centralized leadership can we increase the consistency of policy orientations and improve macro-governance efficiency. Regarding economic structural adjustment, "imbalance and inadequacy" remain prominent issues. Only with centralized leadership can we improve the coordination between urban and rural areas, promote the synchronized development of "four modernizations" (new-type industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization), and balance the transformation of traditional industries with the growth of emerging ones. Practice shows that to achieve scientific governance and coordination, we must leverage the Party’s role as the leadership core that "commands the overall situation and coordinates all parties."
Upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market. Currently, there are many "bottlenecks" [11] to high-quality development that must be resolved through economic systemic reform. The core issue is the relationship between the government and the market, particularly the formation of "new-type relations of production" corresponding to the requirements of new quality productive forces. Taking the strengthening of China’s digital economy as an example: treating data as a new factor of production requires institutional innovation in ownership and distribution; resource allocation requires market mechanisms and micro-level innovation by enterprises; and macro-governance requires optimizing national strategic planning and fiscal/monetary mechanisms. These all require balancing the government and the market. Only by upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee can we promote the combination of an "effective market" and a "promising government" [12], forming an economic order that is both "vibrant" and "under control."
Putting Effective Implementation First to Ensure the Party Central Committee’s Decisions are Fully Realized
The Central Economic Work Conference at the end of last year emphasized: "We must strengthen the Party's leadership over economic work, prioritize 'getting things done' (gàn zì dāng tóu), increase confidence, rise to challenges, and strive to ensure the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments are fully realized." We must deeply study and implement these spirits, grasping the general trend while remaining clear-eyed about difficulties.
Improve the capacity and level of doing economic work. Economics is the basis of politics, and politics is the concentrated expression of economics. Leading cadres at all levels must be adept at observing economic issues through a political lens and advancing economic work from a political height, continuously improving their political judgment, political understanding, and political execution. We must insist on scientific decision-making, improve our mastery of objective economic laws, and better answer the theoretical and practical questions of development. We must advance with the times, especially adapting to the requirements of economic globalization and the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.
Be adept at using rule-of-law thinking and methods to solve economic problems. A socialist market economy is, in essence, an economy based on the rule of law. Since the New Era, the Party has promoted the revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law and the implementation of the "Fair Competition Review Regulations," moving away from relying solely on administrative means or "extra-legal" policies to push projects. Leading cadres should consciously use the rule of law to coordinate interests and govern the economy.
Accelerate the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system. The centralized leadership of the Party must ultimately be realized within the operation of the market. The quality of the market system directly affects the efficiency of the Party's leadership. We must follow the requirements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee to coordinate policies across fiscal, monetary, employment, industrial, regional, trade, and environmental sectors, ensuring that landmark reform measures take root and effectively stimulate the endogenous driving forces and innovation vitality of the whole society.
(The author was formerly the President of Renmin University of China)
Source: People’s Daily (January 22, 2025, Page 09)