Chen Jinlong: Comprehensive and Strict Governance of the Party Safeguards Economic and Social Development
Upholding the Party’s overall leadership is a principle that must be followed for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period [1], and only by advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party can the Party’s leadership be better integrated into all aspects and the entire process of economic and social development. General Secretary Xi Jinping, in his important speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, emphasized: "We must advance the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party with higher standards and more practical measures, implement the major decision-making deployments of the Party Central Committee more resolutely and effectively, place power within the cage of institutions [2] more scientifically and effectively, and advance the anti-corruption struggle with greater clarity and determination, providing a strong guarantee for achieving the goals and tasks of the '15th Five-Year Plan' period." This requirement, proposed with an eye toward economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, points out the priorities and direction for advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party.
Upholding the Party's Overall Leadership Is a Principle That Must Be Followed for Economic and Social Development
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [3] clearly defined the "Six Upholds"—important principles that must be followed for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period—and the first among these is upholding the Party's overall leadership. Practice has proven that the stronger and more powerful the Party’s leadership remains, and the more strict and effective the governance and management of the Party becomes, the more lasting and stable the guarantee for economic and social development will be. To promote high-quality development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to profoundly understand the extreme importance of upholding the Party’s overall leadership and to effectively integrate that leadership throughout every aspect and the entire process of development.
First, the Party sets the direction, plans the overall situation, formulates policies, and promotes reform. The direction of economic and social development is directly related to the effectiveness of that development; through political leadership and ideological guidance, the Party ensures the socialist orientation of China's economic and social development. Economic and social development plans are macroscopic, holistic, and operational in nature, requiring top-level design and overall coordination. Upholding the Party’s overall leadership allows for the scientific positioning of the development stage, the objective analysis of the development environment, and the rational establishment of development goals, strategic priorities, and major measures, thereby promoting the continuous and healthy development of China's economy and society. Realizing the goals and tasks of economic and social development requires the support of specific policies. Upholding the Party's overall leadership ensures that specific policies are formulated based on the development environment and strategic priorities, ensuring the realization of development goals. The momentum for economic and social growth comes from reform; under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, further comprehensively deepening reform is being pushed forward with unprecedented intensity, continuously achieving substantive progress.
Second, the Party coordinates relations between all parties and concentrates resources to accomplish major undertakings. Economic and social development involves various relationships, such as those between the short-term and the long-term, the central and local governments, reform and opening up, material and spiritual civilization, efficiency and equity, and vitality and order. Only by upholding the Party's overall leadership can we oversee the whole situation, coordinate all parties, and properly handle these various relationships—addressing weaknesses while strengthening advantages through holistic planning—to ensure that economic and social development always moves forward steadily on a track of systemic synergy and balanced coordination. Concentrating resources to accomplish major undertakings is a salient advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Only by upholding the Party’s overall leadership can limited resources be precisely allocated to key fields and links of economic and social development through scientific top-level design, forming a powerful collective force like a single moves on a global chessboard [4].
Third, the Party congregates forces from all sides and mobilizes the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of the people. The people are the creators of history, the decisive force for social change, and the primary force driving economic and social development. Achieving the goals of the "15th Five-Year Plan" requires fully mobilizing the people's initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity. The people’s stance is the fundamental political stance of the Communist Party of China. Upholding the Party’s overall leadership ensures that economic and social development is planned starting from the interests of the people, adhering to the principle that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people. This transforms the results of high-quality development into tangible matters of people's livelihood that the masses can perceive and access, enhancing the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security, and solidly advancing common prosperity for all. Our Party has always respected labor, knowledge, talent, and creativity, creating a favorable environment to mobilize all positive factors and stimulate the creative vitality of the entire society. Only by upholding the Party’s overall leadership can we better congregate the majestic strength of millions of people acting as one in united struggle, injecting inexhaustible momentum into economic and social development.
Advancing the Comprehensive and Strict Governance of the Party Is an Inherent Requirement for Upholding the Party’s Overall Leadership
"It takes a good blacksmith to make good steel" [5]; only by advancing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party can the Party’s overall leadership be better maintained and strengthened. The recommendations for the "15th Five-Year Plan" explicitly state that "comprehensive and strict governance of the Party serves as the fundamental guarantee for promoting the effective improvement of economic quality and reasonable growth in quantity." Only through powerful and effective Party governance can we ensure that the Party's leadership is as firm as a rock and that the goals and tasks of the "15th Five-Year Plan" are successfully completed.
We must improve the Party's ability and level of leadership over economic and social development through the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China's development is in a period where strategic opportunities and risks/challenges coexist, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are increasing. The domestic and international situations are complex and volatile, featuring both favorable conditions and many unfavorable factors. Regarding the specific problems facing China's economic and social development, some are long-standing issues, such as unbalanced and inadequate development, the arduous task of shifting from old to new growth drivers, and the relative lag in the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Others are new problems emerging with the changing situation, such as strong supply vs. weak demand. These old problems and new challenges place higher demands on the Party's capacity for leadership. The process of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party is also a process of improving its ability to lead economic and social development. We must focus on development tasks, strengthen specific, precise, and normalized supervision and inspection, encourage Party members and officials to establish and practice a correct view of performance [6], further implement the responsibility for Party governance, and effectively improve the Party's leadership level to better seize opportunities and respond to challenges.
We must ensure through comprehensive and strict governance that the Party remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest strength of the system. The prerequisite for manifesting this feature and exerting this strength is the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. Only through this can the Party maintain its advanced nature and purity, leading a great social revolution through the Party's self-revolution. The recommendations for the "15th Five-Year Plan" were formulated under the Party's leadership and must be realized under its leadership. Ensuring the Party’s position as the leadership core is a necessity for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.
We must consolidate the Party's long-term governing status through comprehensive and strict governance. The CPC’s long-term governing status was formed during the leadership of China's revolution, construction, and reform; it is the choice of history, the people, and the times, and it serves as the political foundation for China's sustained economic development and long-term social stability. In the process of long-term governance, the Party faces different contradictions and problems at different stages. As the world's largest Marxist governing party, to always win the people's support and consolidate its status, the CPC must remain clear-headed and determined in solving the unique challenges facing a large party [7], pushing the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party to deeper levels and consolidating the foundation of its long-term rule. This is necessary for the Party's own development and for safeguarding national security and social stability.
Advancing the Comprehensive and Strict Governance of the Party with Higher Standards and More Practical Measures
The New Era has inaugurated new practices in the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. Through years of effort, the Party's ability for self-purification, self-perfection, self-innovation, and self-improvement has been significantly enhanced, and the "lax, weak, and soft" state of Party governance has been fundamentally reversed. At the same time, we must clearly recognize that the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party is a journey without an end. After existing problems are resolved, new issues may arise with the development of the times and social changes. To promote economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party must continue to focus on maintaining the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. It must continue to exert effort in areas such as more scientifically and effectively placing power within the cage of institutions, advancing the anti-corruption struggle with greater clarity and determination, and strengthening the political responsibility and sense of historical mission of Party members and officials, thereby guaranteeing the "15th Five-Year Plan" blueprint with new achievements in Party governance.
We must resolutely uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee. China is a large country with a population of over 1.4 billion, and the CPC is a large party with more than 100 million members. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The history of the Party and the history of New China’s development tell us: to govern this large Party and this large country well, ensuring the unity and centralized unification of the Party is vital, and upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee is vital." Upholding the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the most fundamental political discipline and political rule; it is the winning magic weapon for ensuring the whole Party acts in unison. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period for laying the foundation and fully exerting effort to basically realize socialist modernization. Only by upholding this leadership can we ensure that the strategic deployments and major measures of the "15th Five-Year Plan" are implemented, turning the development plan into reality.
We must more scientifically and effectively place power within the cage of institutions. The Party's self-revolution focuses on the governance of power, and placing power within the cage of institutions is a major task of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. The key lies in using institutions to regulate the granting and exercise of power, clarifying power boundaries and operating procedures. In this process, we must continuously improve institutional regulations alongside the development of the times, timely plugging institutional loopholes to make them dense but not cumbersome—effective and useful. We must also focus on improving the execution of institutions, strengthening their rigid constraints, and adhering to the principle that everyone is equal before the law/institutions, so as to fully exert their role in regulation, deterrence, and guarantee. In particular, the "top leaders" (yibashou) of all units and departments must take the lead in observing institutions, ensuring institutional authority, and guiding the whole society through their example to form respect and awe for institutions.
We must advance the anti-corruption struggle with greater clarity and determination. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, our Party has successfully blazed a path of anti-corruption with Chinese characteristics—one that addresses both symptoms and root causes under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, simultaneously ensuring that officials "do not dare to be corrupt, cannot be corrupt, and do not want to be corrupt." However, judging from cases investigated recently, the situation remains grave and complex, and the task of eradicating the soil and conditions that breed corruption remains arduous. Advancing this struggle requires improving the mechanism for simultaneously investigating "Four Winds" issues and corruption, staying abreast of new trends and characteristics of corruption, innovating methods of struggle, and identifying new and hidden forms of corruption to demonstrate the Party's determination.
Lastly, we must enhance the political responsibility and historical mission of all Party members and officials. The blueprint for the "15th Five-Year Plan" has been drawn; whether it can become a reality depends on Party members and officials. Achieving these tasks requires Party organizations at all levels to enhance their sense of responsibility, maintaining a state of mind where "success does not have to be attributed to me, but I must contribute to that success" [8]. They must firmly establish a correct view of performance that benefits the people, act according to objective laws, and ensure the Party Central Committee's decisions are implemented, showing new responsibility and actions on the new journey of comprehensively promoting Chinese-path modernization.