Mao Peijin: The Scientific Connotation and Promotion Path of High-Efficiency Governance
High-efficiency governance is a vital component of the modernization of national governance and an important guarantee for promoting high-quality development of the economy and society. In April 2025, while presiding over a symposium on economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" [1] period for certain provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to "pay greater attention to coordinating development and security, consider internal and external risks and challenges as a whole, improve the national security system, and enhance the capability to maintain security. We must promote a benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security through high-efficiency governance, and safeguard the New Development Paradigm [2] with a New Security Paradigm." In May, during an inspection tour in Henan, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to strengthen confidence in promoting high-quality development and high-efficiency governance. On the New Journey, only by consolidating the foundation of development through high-efficiency governance can we achieve a dynamic balance between development quality, governance efficacy, and security resilience at a higher level, providing a solid guarantee for the steady and sustained progress of Chinese-path modernization.
High-efficiency governance is the organic unity of effective governance results and an efficient governance process
Governance efficacy is the unity of governance results and governance efficiency. Governance results focus on goal attainment; they represent the degree to which governance activities achieve predetermined objectives, determine the value orientation of those goals, and command the focus of governance development. Governance efficiency focuses on process optimization; its core essence is the completion rate of governance goals within a certain timeframe, reflecting the dynamic relationship between input and output in governance activities. High-efficiency governance is not a simple summation of results and efficiency, but rather their synergistic promotion, eventually manifesting as a proactive, rational, secure, and efficient governance process and sustainable, high-quality governance results.
The evolution and development of high-efficiency governance possess a dual logic. On the one hand, through scientific top-level design [3], a systemic strategic framework is constructed across dimensions such as ideological concepts, goals and tasks, and implementation paths. This ensures the authority, continuity, and scientific rigor of governance modernization, providing institutional protection for the implementation of policies. On the other hand, a degree of flexibility must be maintained in governance goals and implementation mechanisms to make timely adjustments for new situations and problems arising in governance practice. This achieves a dialectical unity between preventing governance risks and improving governance efficiency, realizing the continuous enhancement of the governance system's flexibility, adaptability, and resilience. In the process of modernization, China has formed a system for national economic and social development planning—that is, the institutional arrangement whereby the Party Central Committee proposes planning recommendations, the State Council formulates the planning outline, and the National People's Congress deliberates and approves it before it is released for implementation by the whole society. This system transforms the Party’s advocacy into national will and collective action through legal procedures. It can effectively integrate resources from all parties and build social consensus, realizing an organic combination of long-term strategic stability and short-term policy flexibility. This is an important manifestation of the unity between effective results and an efficient process, fully demonstrating the significant advantages of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
High-efficiency governance is the organic combination of improving the governance system and enhancing governance capacity
The national governance system is the systemic integration of institutional arrangements and operating mechanisms under the leadership of the Party, covering various fields including the economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, and Party building. This complete institutional architecture, which is mutually supporting and coordinated in operation, focuses on the construction of legal systems, structures, and mechanisms, providing a powerful institutional guarantee for the modernization of national governance. National governance capacity is the comprehensive strength to transform institutional advantages into governance efficacy. It is reflected in the coordination of reform, development, and stability; the coordination of domestic affairs, foreign affairs, and national defense; and the advancement of governing the Party, the state, and the military. It directly concerns the efficiency and results of institutional implementation. The governance system and governance capacity complement each other: a sound governance system is the foundation for enhancing comprehensive governance capacity, while strong governance capacity is the key to exerting the efficacy of the governance system.
To promote high-efficiency governance, we must persist in advancing system improvement and capacity enhancement in tandem, achieving both the comprehensive and systemic planning of the institutional framework and the systemic leap in governance capacity. To this end, on the one hand, we should continue to improve the institutional system of governance, promptly improving structures and mechanisms that do not meet the requirements of practical development, and promoting various institutions to become more mature and standardized. On the other hand, we must comprehensively enhance the capacities for systemic governance, governance according to law, comprehensive governance, and governance at the source. We must continuously strengthen the synergy and executive power of the governance system, and persistently improve the quality and skills of various national governance subjects—including the governing Party—in implementing institutions across the economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological spheres. Only by adhering to the "twin-wheel drive" of institutional construction and capacity building can we truly realize the systemic optimization of the governance system and the overall leap in governance efficacy.
High-efficiency governance can lead the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security
Development and security are reciprocal prerequisites and are interdependent. Development is the foundation of security, and high-quality development provides solid support for national security; security is the prerequisite for development, and high-level security is an important cornerstone of Chinese-path modernization. Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to coordinating the two major tasks of development and security, emphasizing the need to "persist in coordinating development and security, attach equal importance to development and security, and achieve a benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security." On the New Journey, we must grasp the relationship between development and security, persist in consolidating the foundation of security within development, and stimulate development vitality within a secure environment. By enhancing governance efficacy, we can powerfully promote the dynamic balance and mutual reinforcement of high-quality development and high-level security.
The key to promoting the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security lies in constructing a high-efficiency governance system. High-efficiency governance can provide a guarantee of order and a source of vitality for high-quality development. Currently, China's development has entered a period where strategic opportunities coexist with risks and challenges, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing. The risks, challenges, contradictions, and problems that need to be addressed and resolved are more severe and complex than before. We must rely on high-efficiency governance to resolve contradictions and problems in development and maintain a good development environment. High-efficiency governance also provides the institutional framework and specific levers for high-level security. Through the establishment of complete mechanisms for risk prevention, process control, and emergency response, high-efficiency governance builds an all-around, multi-level security guarantee system. The report to the 20th Party Congress discussed national security in a dedicated chapter for the first time, placing "public security" and "social governance" as parallel headings within the national security section for systemic deployment. It set forth specific tasks and requirements for "improving the level of public security governance," clarifying the logical relationship between national security, public security, and social governance. Facing complex and volatile domestic and international situations, we should enhance risk prevention and control capabilities, improve the emergency management system, and refine national security institutions, ensuring through high-efficiency governance that development, the "top priority," and security, the "major matter of paramount importance," promote and complement each other.
Activating new momentum for national governance through high-efficiency governance
High-efficiency governance is a systemic project that requires comprehensive efforts across key links such as the governance environment, goals, patterns, methods, tools, and evaluation. To promote high-efficiency governance on the New Journey, we should construct an institutional system that is systemically complete, scientifically standardized, and efficient in operation. We should focus on improving the synergy, collaboration, consultation, and joint-effort mechanisms within the governance process, adhering to a scientific spirit, utilizing professional methods, and insisting on meticulous standards to comprehensively enhance the level of governance modernization.
Promoting technological empowerment. Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in depth. We must proactively adapt to the trends of the times, persist in a systems concept, strengthen technological support, and promote the organic unity of technological logic and governance logic. Taking the construction of a "Digital China" as an opportunity, we should create an intelligent governance hub and a sound data governance system, promoting the deep integration of frontier technologies with governance. We should establish cross-regional and cross-departmental collaborative governance platforms at different levels to achieve scientific decision-making, precision services, and high-efficiency supervision. We should explore the establishment of a mechanism for the authorized operation of public data, promoting the orderly flow and release of value of data elements under the premise of ensuring security. We must strengthen the risk assessment and prevention of technical governance, paying attention to algorithmic fairness, privacy protection, and the digital divide to ensure that the process of technological empowerment is equitable, inclusive, and secure.
Improving governance mechanisms. Persistent adherence to the people-centered development philosophy, a profound grasp of the laws of social governance, and the organic combination of Party leadership, governance according to law, and mass participation are not only practical needs for maintaining social harmony and stability but also far-reaching strategies for consolidating the Party's governing foundation and promoting the long-term peace and stability of the state. To this end, we should persist in and develop the "Fengqiao Experience" [4] in the New Era, constructing convenient and efficient mechanisms for resolving contradictions and disputes, and promoting the downward shift of the governance center of gravity and resources to the grassroots. We should promote new grassroots governance models such as "grid management + digitalization + credit point system," achieving a state where people’s livelihood demands are "reported with one click, handled intelligently, and fed back in real-time." We should establish incentive and constraint mechanisms for resident participation in governance, attracting diverse subjects to participate in the cause of rural revitalization.
Strengthening the guarantee of the rule of law. The rule of law serves to consolidate the foundation, stabilize expectations, and benefit the long term. Comprehensively governing the country according to law is a broad and profound revolution in the field of national governance. Facing the deep-seated needs of reform and development and the continuous emergence of new business forms and models, we should continue to strengthen the guarantee of the rule of law to escort the modernization of national governance with an institutional system that is systemically complete, scientifically standardized, and effective in operation. We should accelerate legislation in key and emerging fields and optimize the connection mechanism between administrative enforcement and criminal justice. In the field of administrative enforcement, we should implement "embedded" supervision and "risk-oriented" regulation, and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for administrative discretion benchmarks. We should improve the public interest litigation system and expand channels for public participation in legal supervision.
Promoting synergy and linkage. Social governance needs to break through the traditional model of single-subject, one-way management and turn toward collaborative governance involving multiple participants and benign interaction. This is both an inevitable requirement of the people-centered development philosophy and a practical path to enhance the systemic, holistic, and collaborative nature of governance. Through effective institutional design and mechanism innovation, we can integrate resources and forces from all parties to build a modernized governance network characterized by organic linkage, coordinated interaction, and complementary functions. We must continuously improve the social governance system led by Party committees and characterized by government responsibility, democratic consultation, social coordination, public participation, legal guarantees, and technological support. This will effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of social organizations, market entities, and the general public to participate, building a social governance community where everyone is responsible, everyone does their part, and everyone shares in the benefits. We should establish a comprehensive governance efficacy evaluation system based primarily on mutual supervision and evaluation among governance subjects, introducing third-party assessments and social reviews to ensure that governance effectiveness can be quantified, evaluated, and improved.