Zhou Wen: Following the New Development Philosophy to Conduct Economic Work Well

The New Development Concept is the concentrated expression of our country’s developmental logic, direction, and focus in the New Era. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that since the 18th Party Congress, we have proposed many major theories and concepts regarding economic and social development, among which the New Development Concept is the most important and principal.

A meeting of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau held at the end of July emphasized that leading cadres must establish and practice a correct outlook on performance ^[1], conducting economic work in accordance with the New Development Concept. The New Development Concept enriches and develops Marxist political economy, playing a strategic, programmatic, and guiding role in the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Following the New Development Concept in our economic work is a vital practical footing for our deep study and implementation of Xi Jinping’s economic thought.

Development Concepts Determine Development Outcomes

General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly noted: "Concepts are the precursors of action; any developmental practice is guided by a specific development concept." Whether a development concept is correct fundamentally determines the effectiveness of development, and even its success or failure. As a scientific guide leading profound transformations in our country’s overall development, the New Development Concept provides the fundamental observance and action guide for our economic work. Fully, accurately, and comprehensively implementing the New Development Concept is of extreme significance for conducting economic work at present and for the period ahead.

Innovation is the primary driver of development. The driving force of development determines its speed, efficiency, and sustainability. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that by seizing innovation, one seizes the "ox’s nose" ^[2] that moves the entire situation of economic and social development. Currently, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is reshaping the global economic structure. Breakthroughs in frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, and biotechnology are giving rise to new industrial forms and business models. To seize the commanding heights of future development, innovation must be placed at the core of the overall national development. In recent years, our country has made long-distance progress in scientific and technological innovation. For instance, in 5G standard-setting, base station construction, and terminal applications, we are at the world’s forefront, laying a solid foundation for the development of the digital economy. The deep integration of 5G technology with industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and education has promoted the digital and intelligent transformation of traditional industries, creating new market demands and economic growth points. However, we must also soberly recognize that our technological innovation still faces challenges, and there remain gaps compared to developed countries in foundational research and key core technologies. We must persist in leading the development of new quality productive forces through scientific and technological innovation, accelerating the cultivation of emerging pillar industries with international competitiveness, and promoting the deep integrated development of technological and industrial innovation. We should further increase investment in basic research, reform the scientific research evaluation system, and encourage researchers to carry out forward-looking and strategic basic research. We must improve the systems and mechanisms for technological innovation, strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in innovation, support leading enterprises in forming innovation consortia ^[3], promote the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, and improve the efficiency of transforming scientific and technological achievements into practical applications.

Coordination is an inherent requirement for sustainable and healthy development. Coordinated development is the secret of success and is of great significance for optimizing the pattern of economic development. Our country is vast, and problems of unbalanced and insufficient development between urban and rural areas and among regions still exist. In promoting coordinated development, the focus must be on urban-rural and regional coordination. Regarding urban-rural coordination, in recent years, with the deep advancement of comprehensive rural revitalization, our country's rural infrastructure has been continuously improved, and industrial development has shown a diversified trend, promoting farmers' income growth and rural economic prosperity. However, the urban-rural gap remains, and there is still significant room for improvement in rural industrial development, talent accumulation, infrastructure, and public services. Regarding regional coordination, through the implementation of a series of regional coordinated development strategies, the coordination of development between various regions has been continuously enhanced. In the future, we must further follow the path of integrated urban-rural development, promoting the equal exchange and two-way flow of urban and rural factors ^[4]. We should encourage the flow of talent, capital, and technology to rural areas, accelerate the process of agricultural and rural modernization, promote comprehensive rural revitalization, and narrow the urban-rural development gap. We must continue to implement regional coordinated development strategies in depth, optimizing the layout of regional development based on each region's resource endowments, industrial foundations, and functional positioning, while strengthening inter-regional cooperation and linkage to achieve complementary advantages and common development.

Green is a necessary condition for enduring development. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that protecting the environment is protecting the productive forces, and improving the environment is developing the productive forces. In recent years, our country has actively practiced the concept of green development, achieving significant results in ecological environmental protection and the development of green industries. Through the implementation of a series of strict environmental policies and measures, air quality has markedly improved, water quality in key river basins has steadily risen, and soil pollution risks have been effectively controlled. New energy and energy-saving environmental protection industries are flourishing; our country has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of new energy vehicles. As global climate change issues become increasingly severe and the people's demand for a beautiful ecological environment continues to grow, the importance of green development becomes even more prominent. We must unswervingly follow the path of prioritizing ecology and green development, promoting a substantial increase in the value of natural capital, so that a good ecological environment becomes a growth point for the people's quality of life and a focal point for showcasing our country's positive image. We should strengthen ecological protection and restoration, promote the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass, and sand ^[5], strictly adhere to ecological protection red lines, and enhance the quality and stability of ecosystems. We must accelerate the green transformation of industries, increase support for green industries, and reduce resource consumption and environmental pollution.

Openness is the only path for a nation’s prosperity and development. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that economic globalization is the trend of the times we must face when planning development. In today's deeply integrated economic globalization, it is difficult for any country to achieve sustainable economic development in a state of closure. To grow and become strong, one must actively adapt to the trend of economic globalization, persist in opening up to the outside world, and make full use of the advanced scientific and technological achievements and beneficial management experiences created by human society. In recent years, our country has actively promoted higher-level opening up, forming a pattern of opening up that is broader, wider in scope, and deeper in level. The next step is to continue expanding the space for open development, continuously promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, deepening multilateral, bilateral, and regional economic cooperation, and actively participating in the reform and construction of the global economic governance system to maintain the multilateral trading system. We should strengthen the construction of platforms for opening up, giving full play to the exemplary and leading roles of pilot free trade zones, free trade ports, and economic and technological development zones to create new highlands for opening up with international competitiveness. We must encourage enterprises to "go global" more effectively, strengthening ties and cooperation with overseas markets and enhancing the international competitiveness of our enterprises.

Sharing is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the essence of the concept of sharing is adhering to the people-centered philosophy of development, reflecting the requirement of gradually achieving common prosperity. In recent years, our country has achieved remarkable success in shared development. The battle against poverty has achieved a complete victory, opening a new chapter for comprehensive rural revitalization. We have implemented a proactive employment policy, maintaining overall stability in the employment situation through measures such as stabilizing economic growth, supporting enterprise development, and strengthening vocational training. The social security system has been continuously improved, with the coverage of basic old-age insurance and basic medical insurance expanding and social security standards gradually rising. In the future, we must further promote shared development, forming an institutional system that effectively increases the income of low-income groups, steadily expands the size of the middle-income group, and rationally regulates excessively high incomes. We must highlight the employment-first policy orientation, promoting employment for key groups such as college graduates, veterans, and migrant workers. We must implement policies that benefit the people and improve the multi-tiered and categorized social assistance system. We will consolidate and expand the results of poverty alleviation to ensure that no large-scale return to poverty occurs.

Translating the New Development Concept into Developmental Practice

The full, accurate, and comprehensive implementation of the New Development Concept is a profound transformation involving the overall development of our country. We must adhere to a systems perspective, effectively improving political capacity, strategic vision, and professional standards, and continuously translating advanced development concepts into developmental practice and work effectiveness.

Strengthen systems coordination and build linkage mechanisms. The New Development Concept—comprised of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing—is an interconnected and mutually reinforcing whole. To conduct economic work, we must break away from singular thinking and localized perspectives, establishing a systematic and coordinated working mechanism. In strategic layout, the five major development concepts must be promoted as a unified whole. For example, innovative development cannot be carried out in isolation from the requirements of coordination and green development. The layout of high-tech industries must take regional coordination into account to avoid creating new imbalances; green transformation must rely on innovation-driven processes to reduce emission reduction costs through technological breakthroughs. The Yangtze River Delta region has explored a collaborative model where innovative R&D occurs in Shanghai while manufacturing and transformation take place in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. This not only strengthens the function of innovation sourcing but also promotes regional coordinated development while fostering green development through unified environmental standards—a vivid practice of systems coordination. In policy synergy, we must promote the formation of stronger policy synergy to ensure that policies support and promote each other. Fiscal policy should lean toward basic research, ecological protection, and people's livelihoods; monetary policy should guide financial resources toward innovative enterprises and green industries; and industrial policy should be aligned with regional coordination and opening-up policies. For instance, regarding the new energy vehicle industry, we must both encourage technological innovation through R&D subsidies and reduce regional disparities by optimizing the layout of charging facilities, while also introducing advanced technologies and opening international markets. In factor allocation, we must promote the leaning of factors such as land, labor, capital, and technology toward innovation frontiers, weak links in coordinated development, and highlands of opening up. By deepening the market-based reform of factors, we can dismantle the institutional barriers hindering their flow.

Enhance practical capabilities and strengthen competence support. The key to translating the New Development Concept into practice lies in improving the political capacity, strategic vision, and professional level of the cadre ranks. It must be profoundly recognized that development deviating from the New Development Concept will not only affect economic quality but also harm the fundamental interests of the Party and the people. In practice, we must resolutely discard "GDP-only theory" ^[6] and put a stop to behaviors that sacrifice the environment or ignore people's livelihoods in pursuit of short-term growth. We must maintain political resolve, viewing economic work from a political perspective to ensure that the direction of development does not deviate from the track. The New Development Concept focuses on long-term development and overall interests; implementing it well requires cadres to possess forward-looking thinking and a broad vision. Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce technological competition, we must arrange the layout for frontier fields like artificial intelligence and quantum information in advance, rather than just looking at current industrial scales. In addressing climate change, we must base our actions on the "Dual Carbon" goals ^[7] and promote energy structure transformation, rather than hesitating due to short-term cost pressures. We must strengthen the assessment of the international situation and trends in technological change, establishing a mechanism for forward-looking research on major strategies. Since the New Development Concept involves all areas and aspects of development, it requires professional knowledge support. We must strengthen the study of new industries, new formats, and new models, mastering professional methods such as data analysis and project evaluation. We should establish a normalized learning and training mechanism, organizing cadres to conduct investigations and practice on the front lines of enterprises and scientific research institutions, continuously optimizing their knowledge structure and improving their ability to use the New Development Concept to solve practical problems.

Improve institutional guarantees and solidify the structural foundation. Institutions are the guarantee for the realization of concepts. Through deepening reform, we must form institutional mechanisms conducive to the implementation of the New Development Concept, providing institutional support for economic work. We should establish a system of indicators that reflects the New Development Concept, increasing the weight of indicators such as innovation investment, environmental quality, and improvement of people’s livelihoods. We must improve the mechanism for allowing and correcting errors ^[8], encouraging active exploration and resolving the "concerns behind the back" of cadres. Through the guidance of the assessment and evaluation system, we will implement the New Development Concept throughout all fields and processes of economic work. We should give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, allowing price signals to reflect resource scarcity and environmental costs. We should improve the green financial system to guide social capital into green industries. We must improve the intellectual property protection system to stimulate the enthusiasm of innovators. We should improve relevant laws and regulations and strengthen law enforcement supervision, strictly punishing acts that destroy the ecological environment, infringe on intellectual property rights, or harm the interests of the masses, so as to ensure that the New Development Concept is grounded and implemented.

Establishing an Outlook on Performance Consistent with the New Development Concept

The outlook on performance is the manifestation of leading cadres' worldview, outlook on life, and values in their pursuit of their careers; it directly determines the direction and effectiveness of economic work. Leading cadres must change their traditional outlook on performance and establish one that aligns with the New Development Concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing, guiding the practice of economic work with scientific value orientations.

Adhering to the principle that benefiting the people is the greatest performance means standing firm on our fundamental position. Taking the people as the center is our Party's fundamental governing philosophy and the core essence of the New Development Concept. To establish a correct outlook on performance, leading cadres must first resolve...

The question of "for whom one creates performance" must always take the people's sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security as the fundamental standard for measuring the effectiveness of work. Improving people's livelihoods must be the starting point and end goal of economic work. This involves prioritizing the employment-generating effects in industrial layout, fully assessing the impact on livelihoods during project approvals, and focusing on the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses ^[9] when formulating policies. Certain livelihood projects require long-term investment before results manifest—such as educational equity and ecological governance—and must not be neglected due to term limits. One must possess the spiritual realm of "success does not have to be mine" ^[10], doing more practical deeds that build foundations and benefit the long term, writing the results of serving the people into the hearts of the masses.

We must persist in basing our actions on the long term, seeking progress while maintaining stability, and discarding the mindset of seeking quick success and instant benefits. The new development philosophy emphasizes the sustainability of development, requiring leading cadres to possess strategic vision and historical patience, and to properly handle the relationship between "stability" and "progress," as well as "the near" and "the distant" in economic work. It is necessary to master the rhythm of economic development and avoid blindly pursuing "leapfrog" or "extra-normal" development. We must strengthen strategic resolve and maintain the continuity and stability of our work, opposing both passive coping and lack of ambition, as well as impulsive, reckless actions and over-eagerness for success. We must not turn long-term goals into short-term ones, nor turn a "protracted war" ^[11] into a "blitzkrieg," nor turn a "war of fortification" into a "war of attrition." Economic operation has its own laws; technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and ecological restoration all require long-term accumulation. When developing emerging industries, some localities expand blindly without regard for their own industrial base, leading to overcapacity and a waste of resources; other localities, in pursuit of short-term growth, borrow excessively, triggering debt risks. These practices are manifestations of being over-eager for success and run counter to the new development philosophy. We must push forward the change in quality, change in efficiency, and change in drivers in a step-by-step manner under the premise of maintaining stable economic operation. We must look toward the development needs of the "15th Five-Year Plan" ^[12] and even longer periods, doing well in strategic planning and institutional design. We must calculate the "long-term account" and the "comprehensive account" more often, fully assessing the impact on future development during project decision-making.

We must persist in a style of seeking truth from facts and being pragmatic, breaking through formalism. Seeking truth from facts and pragmatism are important ideological and working methods for Communists, as well as an inevitable requirement for practicing the new development philosophy. For leading cadres to establish a correct outlook on career achievements, they must strictly abstain from formalism and bureaucratism ^[13], promoting economic development through solid measures. They must avoid "vanity projects" and "image projects" ^[14] that are detached from reality and the masses, and avoid blindly pursuing high speeds in defiance of objective conditions and laws. We should not treat the macro-control targets set by the state as the floor for local economic growth, let alone engage in mutual competition or "adding weight" at every level of implementation. We must eliminate "table-ism" and "trace-ism" ^[15], and resolutely break through "digital performance" and "written-material performance." We should go deep into the front lines—enterprises, industrial parks, and villages—to conduct research, master the real situation, and solve practical problems, thereby achieving truth and pragmatism. The effectiveness of work should be reflected in concrete results such as project implementation, industrial upgrading, and the improvement of people's livelihoods, so that career achievements can withstand the test of practice. We must persist in a problem-oriented approach, focusing on prominent contradictions in economic development and deploying practical and hard-hitting measures. We must avoid "implementing meetings with more meetings" or "implementing documents with more documents," and instead focus energy on solving practical problems.

We must persist in taking measures tailored to local conditions and avoid blindly following trends in violation of objective laws. The new development philosophy is a universal guiding principle, but in practice, it must be combined with local realities. To establish a correct outlook on career achievements, leading cadres must respect objective laws, base themselves on resource endowments and development stages, and explore development paths consistent with local reality. We must persist in seeking truth from facts and following laws; we cannot act recklessly in isolation from reality, nor can we try to do everything regardless of conditions just to produce performance results. The key to preventing "rushing headlong" into homogenized competition ^[16] lies in identifying comparative advantages. Different regions vary in industrial infrastructure, ecological functions, and locational conditions; their developmental focus must necessarily differ. Some localities, regardless of their own conditions, have blindly followed trends to develop industries like new energy vehicles and big data, leading to redundant construction and wasted resources—a profound lesson. Leading cadres must deeply analyze local factor endowments, push their localities to find their proper positioning within the overall national development framework, respect economic and natural laws, and avoid "patting the head" (extemporaneous) decision-making. Industrial upgrading needs the support of factors like capital, technology, and talent, and cannot be rushed; ecological restoration must follow natural laws and cannot violate them. Sufficient demonstration and proof must be conducted before making decisions, listening to expert opinions and the voices of the masses, and establishing scientific decision-making mechanisms.

We must persist in the systematic thinking of overall planning and coordination, overcoming the one-sided tendency of "caring for one thing while losing another." Economic and social development is a systemic project; one must avoid a "one-track" approach, simplification, or acting blindly. To establish a correct outlook on career achievements, leading cadres must possess the ability to coordinate comprehensively, avoiding the error of overemphasizing some aspects while neglecting others. In development layout, we must insist on the coordinated promotion of the five aspects: innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing. Innovative development cannot ignore ecological protection; green transformation must rely on technological support; and coordinated development needs to be integrated with openness and sharing. Leading cadres must learn how to "play the piano" ^[17], coordinating the needs of all parties when formulating development plans. For example, in the construction of industrial parks, one must consider both economic benefits and the supporting environmental protection facilities and public services, achieving the integration of production, life, and ecology. Regarding working methods, one must handle the relationship between the local and the global, the current and the long-term, and the key points and the general situation. When promoting work in a certain field, one must consider the impact on other fields to avoid "pressing down the gourd only for the ladle to float up" ^[18]. We should be adept at combining the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and deployments with the actual conditions of our own departments and regions, continuously improving the systematic, holistic, and collaborative nature of promoting high-quality development.

We must persist in the "national chessboard" ^[19] strategy and break through "involution-style" ^[20] competition. The new development philosophy requires leading cadres to establish a global perspective, breaking down regional barriers and discarding zero-sum thinking in economic work to form a pattern of coordinated development. We must break all kinds of local protectionism; we cannot set up market access barriers or create "policy troughs" (unfair incentives) to pursue local interests, or even compete for projects through tax rebates and land concessions, which lead to inefficient resource allocation and redundant construction. This "involution-style" competition violates the concept of open development and harms the overall national interest. We must advance the construction of a unified national market in-depth, promote the continuous optimization of the market competition order, and govern the disorderly competition of enterprises according to laws and regulations. We must promote the governance of production capacity in key industries and regulate local investment promotion behaviors.

The outlook on career achievements of leading cadres is linked to the outlook on development and concerns the implementation of the new development philosophy. Only by establishing and practicing a correct outlook on career achievements—always adhering to the value orientation of creating benefits for the people, maintaining the strategic resolve of seeking progress while maintaining stability, carrying forward a pragmatic work style of seeking truth from facts, utilizing scientific methods tailored to local conditions, establishing systematic thinking that coordinates all factors, and strengthening the global consciousness of the "national chessboard"—can we transform the new development philosophy into the vivid practice of high-quality development. This will inject strong impetus into economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and lay a solid foundation for the realization of socialist modernization.