Lai Desheng: We Must Coordinate the Relationship Between Quality Improvement and Total Quantity Expansion
The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference proposed "five must-coordinates," one of which is that "we must coordinate the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume to consolidate the material foundation for Chinese-path modernization." This represents a deepening of our Party's understanding of the laws governing economic work, providing scientific guidance and a fundamental framework [1] for conducting economic work and promoting high-quality development on the new journey of the New Era.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume is an intrinsic requirement for consolidating the material foundation of Chinese-path modernization.
High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects; ensuring and improving people's livelihoods in the course of development is a major task of Chinese-path modernization; and national security is the important foundation for Chinese-path modernization to move forward steadily and reach far [2]. Whether achieving the primary and major tasks or consolidating the foundation of national security, all require the support of a powerful material base. This implies that we must coordinate the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume is an intrinsic requirement for achieving high-quality development. The relationship between quantity and quality runs through the entire process of economic development, though the emphasis differs at various stages. In the early stages of economic development, when per capita income levels are low and the country's total economic volume is small, finding ways to expand the volume in a relatively short period is a more urgent matter. Qualitative change can only occur after quantitative accumulation reaches a certain level; in the early stages of development, overemphasizing quality is unrealistic. Since the beginning of reform and opening up, after decades of rapid development, China has become the world's second-largest economy. The economy has transitioned from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and the principal contradiction in society [3] has shifted accordingly, leading to a shift in the requirements for the quality and quantity of development. First, in the stage of high-quality development, quantitative increases remain important. According to the overall strategic arrangements of the 20th CPC National Congress regarding the comprehensive building of a great modern socialist country, by the time socialist modernization is basically realized in 2035, per capita GDP must reach the level of a moderately developed country. This requires that economic growth maintain a certain speed to further "make the cake bigger" and allow wealth to emerge more and better. Second, we must focus on improving quality. Economic development should accelerate the shift from factor-input-driven growth to innovation-driven growth, fully reflecting the New Development Philosophy [4]. It should accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading; promote changes in quality, efficiency, and momentum; and drive the economy to evolve toward a stage characterized by more advanced forms, a more complex division of labor, and a more rational structure.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume is an intrinsic requirement for ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods in the course of development. Throughout the entire process of realizing Chinese-path modernization, we must attach great importance to people's livelihoods and continuously realize the people's aspirations for a better life. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "In Chinese-path modernization, people's livelihood is of the utmost importance. All the work of the Party and the government is aimed at helping the common people lead a happier life." Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to the people-centered development philosophy. The breadth of livelihood protection has continuously expanded, its intensity has strengthened, its depth has been consolidated, and its precision has improved. Continuous efforts have been made to ensure that children have access to childcare, students to education, workers to rewards, the sick to medical care, the elderly to aged care, residents to housing, and the vulnerable to support [5]. People's lives have improved in all aspects; we have basically solved the problem of "whether something exists" and entered the stage of "whether it is good or not." Improving the quality of life has become the people's new aspiration for a better life. This requires promoting the economy to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth from a higher starting point, providing solid material support for ensuring and improving people's livelihoods.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume is an intrinsic requirement for maintaining national security. National security is the important foundation for Chinese-path modernization to move forward steadily and reach far. We must fully implement the Holistic Approach to National Security, improve the national security system, and enhance the capability to maintain national security. Economic security is an important component and basic foundation of national security. As the "giant ship" of the Chinese economy braves the wind and waves in the great ocean, it still faces many risks and challenges. For example, there is the "chokehold" [6] phenomenon in key core technologies, and the resilience of industrial and supply chains needs further improvement. Only by continuing to expand the total economic volume to increase the "tonnage" of the Chinese economic "giant ship," while improving the quality of economic development to enhance its stability, can we continue to sail far. To this end, we must increase the contribution of innovation to economic growth, enhance the resilience and security levels of industrial and supply chains, coordinate external and internal security, prevent and resolve various risks, and achieve a positive interaction between high-quality development and high-level security.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume possesses a good foundational basis.
Valuing the mastery of the relationship between quality and quantity in economic development is an important piece of experience for our Party in conducting economic work. Currently, the adverse effects brought by changes in the external environment are deepening, and China's economic operation still faces many challenges. Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume faces many hurdles. However, the major achievements in economic development since the reform and opening up, and especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, have laid a good foundation for coordinating this relationship in practice.
The total economic volume is large. The proportion of China's total economic volume in the global total has continuously risen, currently reaching over 18%. Its contribution rate to world economic growth has exceeded 30% for many consecutive years, demonstrating strong economic resilience and increasing importance in global economic governance. The continuous expansion of total economic volume and the sustained strengthening of development resilience have provided more favorable factors and a better environment for driving high-quality development. This not only gives China's development greater room for maneuver but also intrinsically drives economic development toward higher levels.
The qualitative foundation is good. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, major progress has been made in high-quality development, primarily reflected in its closer alignment with the New Development Philosophy. Regarding innovative development, R&D investment has continuously increased, our ranking in the Global Innovation Index has risen significantly, and major breakthroughs have been made in key core technologies. We have accelerated layouts in fields such as quantum technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and new energy, and timely transformed scientific and technological innovation achievements into tangible productive forces. The modern industrial system is continuously improving, and the scientific and technological content of economic growth is increasingly high. Regarding coordinated development, regional coordination strategies such as the large-scale development of the western region, the full revitalization of Northeast China, the accelerated rise of the central region, and the leading development of the eastern region have reached higher levels. Major regional strategies, including the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, have been implemented. The strategic mechanisms for regional coordinated development are more robust, and the coordination, balance, and holism of regional development have significantly enhanced. Regarding green development, the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [7] has taken deep root in people's hearts. The institutional system for ecological civilization is more complete. Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goals [8], we have coordinately promoted carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth. Major strides have been made in the construction of a "Beautiful China," making the green background of development more substantial. Regarding open development, we have implemented a more proactive opening-up strategy, steadily expanded institutional opening-up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards, deeply participated in the global industrial division of labor and cooperation, and actively participated in global economic governance. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has yielded fruitful results, and foreign trade has maintained a good momentum of qualitative improvement and quantitative stability, forming a pattern of opening up to the outside world across a wider scope, broader fields, and deeper levels. Regarding shared development, resident income has basically synchronized with economic growth, the income gap between urban and rural residents has continued to narrow, the size of the middle-income group has steadily expanded, and the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security has become more substantial, better guaranteed, and more sustainable. Important progress has been made in common prosperity.
Adhere to a systems perspective to coordinate the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume.
Coordinating the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume runs through the entire process of building a modern socialist country in all respects. It requires adhering to a systems perspective [9], focusing on economic construction as the center, fully, accurately, and comprehensively implementing the New Development Philosophy, further deepening the comprehensive reform of systems and mechanisms, and continuously consolidating the material foundation for Chinese-path modernization.
Accelerate the construction of the New Development Paradigm. Building a New Development Paradigm [10] with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and the domestic and international dual cycles reinforcing each other is a major strategic decision based on the new stage of development, responding to the changes unseen in a century, and reshaping China's new competitive advantages. The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference proposed "implementing a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy" and issued a series of measures to expand internal demand in all aspects, providing specific guidance for tapping the potential of internal demand. In the future, we need to better handle the relationship between the economy and society, better ensure and improve people's livelihoods, and focus on identifying the focus and breakthrough points for reform from the urgent needs and concerns of the common people, cultivating new economic growth points while solving these problems. Meanwhile, we should spirits of the supply-side structural reform, improve the quality of products and services, smooth the great cycle of supply and demand, accelerate the construction of a unified national market, expand high-level opening up, and achieve a dynamic balance between supply and demand at a higher level.
Vigorously develop new quality productive forces. Both qualitative improvement and quantitative growth require the development of productive forces as a premise and foundation. To coordinate the relationship between improving quality and expanding total volume, we must accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. We should accelerate scientific and technological innovation and apply the results to corresponding industries and industrial chains in a timely manner. This involves transforming and upgrading traditional industries, fostering and strengthening emerging industries, laying out and constructing future industries, improving the modern industrial system, opening up new fields and tracks for development, and shaping new drivers and advantages for growth. Different regions should develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions [11], based on their own resource endowments, industrial foundations, and the strategic positioning granted by the state, forming a modern industrial development pattern with diverse qualitative states and cooperative divisions of labor.
Continuously enhance the vitality of market entities. Adhere to and implement the "two unswervinglys" [12]. While promoting the optimization and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy and encouraging state-owned capital and enterprises to become stronger, better, and larger, we must create a good environment for the development of the non-public sector. This will ensure that the non-public sector has more stable expectations and firmer confidence, allowing it to play its role as a vital force in promoting Chinese-path modernization. We must ensure that various types of ownership can use productive factors equally according to the law, compete fairly in the market, and receive equal legal protection, promoting the complementary strengths and common development of all types of ownership. We should create a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized, and earnestly solve the difficulties faced by market entities in their production and operations. We should vigorously promote the spirit of entrepreneurship, improve management levels, and encourage the emergence of more world-class enterprises, "unicorn" companies, and "lighthouse factories" [13].
Give full play to the role of human capital. Expanding total volume requires new drivers, and improving quality requires them even more. Therefore, innovation is the core prerequisite for coordinating the relationship between quality and quantity and achieving high-quality development. We must maintain the central position of innovation in the overall landscape of modernization and accelerate the achievement of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and strength. Among the various factors determining innovation, human capital plays a particularly important role. To give full play to the role of human capital, we need to continuously improve the quality of human capital cultivation. This can be achieved by optimizing the subject settings and talent cultivation models of higher education institutions, expanding the scale of talent cultivation in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine, and continuously enhancing the future adaptability of talent. We should promote the integrated development of education, technology, and talent, facilitate the rational flow of labor and talent, optimize the allocation of human capital, and create more talent and innovation hubs. Finally, we must improve the talent evaluation and incentive mechanisms and smooth the channels for social mobility of talent to create a positive atmosphere for entrepreneurship and professional achievement.
(The author, Lai Desheng, is a researcher at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the Central Party School [National Academy of Governance] and a professor in the Department of Social and Ecological Civilization.)
Source: Guangming Daily (February 11, 2025, Page 11)