Zhang Yi: Original Contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Expositions on Social Governance
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, amidst profound transformations in our economic system, deep shifts in social structures, significant adjustments in the patterns of interest, and deep-seated changes in ideas and concepts, General Secretary Xi Jinping—with immense political courage and wisdom—has scientifically managed the relationship between reform, development, and stability. Emphasizing the need to "improve the social governance system" and "enhance the effectiveness of social governance," he has delivered a series of important discourses on social governance. these have laid the theoretical and practical foundations for long-term social stability as we comprehensively advance the great cause of building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization.
The Creative Construction of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourses on Social Governance
The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee embarked on a new journey of comprehensively deepening reform and advancing reform through systematic and holistic design in the New Era, opening a brand-new chapter in China’s reform and opening up. This Plenary Session proposed "innovating the social governance system" for the first time, achieving a significant shift from "social management" (shèhuì guǎnlǐ) to "social governance" (shèhuì zhìlǐ). Although only one character differs between these terms in Chinese, the underlying logic has undergone a qualitative leap. Social governance emphasizes giving full play to the Party’s role as the leadership core that exercises overall leadership and coordinates all sides. It establishes a social governance system with the participation of multiple stakeholders, moving away from the past method of relying solely on government management. It promotes the formation of a new pattern characterized by systemic governance, governance according to the law, comprehensive governance, and governance at the source.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Social governance is a science; if managed too rigidly, it becomes a pool of stagnant water; if managed too loosely, it leads to turbulent waves." Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, our Party has continuously advanced innovation in social governance. In the report to the 19th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "We will build a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests. We will strengthen institutional pillars for social governance and improve the social governance system under the leadership of Party committees, with government responsibility, social coordination, public participation, and the rule of law as guarantees. We will raise the level of social governance to make it more socialized, law-based, intelligent, and professional." At a symposium for experts in economic and social fields in August 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must improve the social governance system based on collaboration, participation, and common interests, achieve benign interaction between government governance, social regulation, and resident autonomy, and build a social governance community where everyone is responsible, everyone does their part, and everyone enjoys the benefits." At a symposium for grassroots representatives in September 2020, he noted: "We must strengthen and innovate grassroots social governance, adhere to and develop the 'Fengqiao Experience' [1] for the New Era, strengthen the construction of urban and rural communities, reinforce grid-based management [2] and services, improve the comprehensive mechanism for diversified prevention, mediation, and resolution of social contradictions and disputes, and effectively resolve contradictions at the grassroots level to maintain social stability." In the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping further proposed: "Improve the social governance system based on collaboration, participation, and common interests, and enhance the effectiveness of social governance." In 2024, he issued important instructions on social work, emphasizing: "Adhere to a people-centered approach, practice the Party’s mass line for the New Era, and unswervingly follow the path of socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics." While participating in a deliberation with the Jiangsu delegation at the third session of the 14th National People's Congress, he pointed out: "We should perform more practical deeds in strengthening basic, inclusive, and bottom-line-guaranteeing livelihood construction and in solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems (jí nán chóu pàn) [3] of the masses; we should reach new levels in improving the social security system and enhancing the balance and accessibility of basic public services." These important discourses have driven the innovative development of China’s social governance theory, creating powerful political and theoretical discourse influence. They provide scientific guidance for advancing the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity, and offer a fundamental framework for advancing Chinese-path modernization through good governance characterized by stability, unity, harmony, and order.
Meanwhile, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has carried out top-level design for advancing the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity. The 19th CPC National Congress proposed that by 2035, socialist modernization will be basically realized. By then, a modern social governance pattern will have basically taken shape, and society will be full of vitality yet harmonious and orderly. By the middle of this century, China will be built into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful. By then, China's social civilization will be comprehensively enhanced, the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity will be realized, and our people will enjoy a happier, safer, and healthier life. The 20th CPC National Congress further clarified the overall goals of China’s development by 2035, which include a happier and better life for the people, maintaining long-term social stability, and making more substantial progress in well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all. The "Resolution" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee clarified the overall goal of further comprehensively deepening reform, which includes focusing on improving the quality of life of the people, perfecting the income distribution and employment systems, improving the social security system, enhancing the balance and accessibility of basic public services, and promoting more obvious substantive progress in the comprehensive development of people and common prosperity for all. This has clarified the timetable and roadmap for us to advance the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity, and will drive the continuous improvement of China's social governance system and its effectiveness.
Original Values and Contributions of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourses on Social Governance
General Secretary Xi Jinping has firmly grasped the laws governing social operation and social governance. Adhering to China’s reality, he has accurately assessed the changing trends in China’s social structure, modes of social production, social interaction, social life, and consumption patterns. He has scientifically analyzed the evolving international situation, national conditions, and Party conditions (shìqíng guóqíng dǎngqíng), actively responded to the people's aspiration for a better life, and continuously promoted the adaptation of social governance to changes in the social structure. This ensures that society remains both vibrant and orderly, carving out a path of socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics in a major country with a population of over 1.4 billion. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on social governance possess significant original value and contributions.
From a theoretical perspective, since the birth of socialism, the questions of how to govern a brand-new socialist society and how to advance the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity in a socialist country remained unanswered by previous theories and practices of world socialism. Marx and Engels did not encounter the practice of comprehensively governing a socialist country; many of their principles regarding future society were predictive. Socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and those in Eastern Europe made attempts and explorations and gained some practical experience, but ultimately failed to solve this problem because they did not find scientific theories that advanced with the times, leading to serious errors. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on social governance have scientifically answered major questions such as what constitutes socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics and how to advance it, thus innovatively developing the theory of social governance with Chinese characteristics. In particular, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, on the basis of proposing that relations of production and productive forces, as well as the superstructure and the economic base, should better adapt to one another, further proposed promoting the better adaptation of national governance and social development. This is a theoretical synthesis of China’s practical experience in advancing the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity through comprehensively deepening reform since the New Era. It marks a further deepening of our Party’s understanding of the laws of governance by a Communist party, the laws of socialist construction, and the laws of the development of human society.
From the perspective of institutional construction, in leading the process of Chinese revolution, construction, and reform, our Party has insisted on combining the basic principles of Marxism with China’s specific realities and China’s fine traditional culture. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and particularly since the reform and opening up, our Party has actively explored social governance and accumulated rich experience. General Secretary Xi Jinping has systematically summarized the experience of strengthening and improving social governance since the start of the New Era. He proposed unswervingly following the path of socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics, comprehensively advancing the modernization of the social governance system and governance capacity, and focusing on making social governance more systemic, scientific, intelligent, and law-based. This has made socialist social governance with Chinese characteristics more mature and stereotyped [4] in terms of systems, providing a solid institutional guarantee for the development of the Party and the state, for the happiness and health of the people, for social harmony and stability, and for the long-term peace and stability of the country.
From an international perspective, the world is currently undergoing profound developments in multipolarity, economic globalization, cultural diversity, and social informatization; the instability and uncertainty of the international situation have become more prominent. In recent years, some Western countries—or countries that have mechanically copied Western modernization experiences—have experienced political shocks due to migrant conflicts, struggled to escape the middle-income trap due to increased class interest contradictions and widening regional development gaps, suffered from inconsistent policies due to partisan struggles, or faced turmoil due to the influence of populism. A key reason is that they have not found a social governance method suited to their own conditions. Since the founding of the People’s Republic, our Party has led the people in creating the "two miracles" rarely seen in the world: rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Especially since the New Era, the Party has continuously improved the social governance system, strengthened the overall prevention and control of social order, and focused on improving public safety governance, successfully writing a new chapter for these "two miracles." General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on social governance contribute Chinese wisdom to the steady and healthy development of human society and provide a social governance model that other developing countries can draw upon as they move toward modernization independently.
The Essence and Core Tenets of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourses on Social Governance
Social governance is a crucial aspect of national governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on social governance have rich connotations, which we must profoundly grasp and resolutely implement.
Adhering to the leadership of the Party. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the most defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics." The Party's leadership is comprehensive, systemic, and holistic; it can mobilize and integrate forces from all sectors, coordinate social interest relationships between different regions, departments, and groups, and provide a fundamental guarantee for strengthening social governance. Within the social governance system—characterized by the leadership of Party committees, government responsibility, democratic consultation, social coordination, public participation, rule-of-law guarantees, and technological support—the key lies in adhering to the leadership of Party committees and strengthening the guiding role of Party building. A current focus of work is to comprehensively, completely, and accurately implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on social governance, highlighting the Party-building work in new economic organizations, new social organizations, and new employment groups [5]. This aims to continuously enhance the Party's appeal, cohesion, and influence in emerging fields, achieving a Party leadership that reaches "the bottom vertically and the edges horizontally." At the same time, we must insist on Party building leading grassroots governance and the construction of grassroots political power, resolutely resisting all forms of formalism and striving to reduce the burden on the grassroots.
Staying people-centered. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "To create effective social governance and a good social order, we must promote social fairness and justice so that the people can live and work in peace, making their sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, better guaranteed, and more sustainable." Staying people-centered is the starting point and goal of strengthening social governance. Improving social governance aims to effectively safeguard social fairness and justice, protect the interests of the people, and continuously improve people's well-being while managing the relationship between reform, development, and stability. In strengthening social governance, we must respect the principal status of the people, respect their pioneering spirit, "take the people as our teacher," and implement the people’s rights to participate, to know, to manage, and to supervise through institutional innovation. The process of social governance is also a process of continuously solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people. By continuously promoting "education for the young, learning for the students, remuneration for the workers, medical care for the sick, support for the elderly, housing for the residents, and assistance for the weak," we can maximize the satisfaction of the people’s needs for a better life. The standard for judging the effectiveness of social governance must be whether it seeks happiness for the people, whether its results better benefit the masses, and whether it brings them tangible "gain."
Adhering to collaboration, participation, and common interests (gòngjiàn gòngzhì gòngxiǎng). Collaboration (gòngjiàn) means joint participation in social construction; participation (gòngzhì) means joint participation in social governance; and common interests (gòngxiǎng) means jointly enjoying the fruits of social governance. Collaboration and participation form the basis for common interests, while common interests are the goal of collaboration and participation. This reflects the Party's emphasis on guaranteeing the rights of all people to participate in social construction and social governance, and on safeguarding their right to share in the results. Under the Party’s leadership, only by giving full play to the roles of the government, enterprises, public institutions, social organizations, urban and rural community organizations, volunteer groups, and the public can we effectively reduce the costs and increase the efficiency of social governance. In recent years, forms such as "democratic consultative meetings," "participatory budgeting," "courtyard deliberation halls," and "dam-dam meetings" (bàbà huì) [6] have continued to emerge, alongside the linkage of people's mediation, administrative mediation, and judicial mediation. The service capacity of the Party and the government to effectively respond to and resolve the demands of the masses has improved, expanding the new frontier of social governance through collaboration, participation, and common interests.
Adhere to law-based governance. The rule of law is a vital support for the national governance system and governance capacity; law-based governance is the most reliable and stable form of governance. The Outline for the Implementation of the Construction of a Law-Based Society (2020–2025) clearly proposes that by 2025, the level of legalization in social governance will be significantly improved, forming a vivid situation in the construction of a law-based society that conforms to national conditions, reflects the characteristics of the times, and satisfies the people, thereby laying a solid foundation for the basic completion of a law-based society by 2035. Combining the construction of a law-based society with law-based governance—while persisting in the coordinated advancement of law-based governance of the country, the exercise of State power, and administration—and advancing the integrated construction of a law-based state, government, and society, can effectively reduce the various costs of resolving social contradictions. This approach forms a mechanism for equal cooperation, dialogue, consultation, and communication among multiple subjects, including the government, enterprises and public institutions, social organizations, communities, and individuals. It regulates and guides social affairs and social life, comprehensively enhancing the level of legalization in social governance. To persist in law-based governance, we must exert effort across all links—legislation, law enforcement, justice, and law observance—while also paying attention to the role of the "governance of virtue" [7], striving to implement the concept that "the law secures the realm, while virtue moistens the hearts of the people" [8] throughout the entire process of social governance.
The Great Practical Power of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Expositions on Social Governance
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on social governance, with their powerful theoretical leadership, guide the new practice of social governance. They promote the realization of historical changes, systemic reshaping, and holistic reconstruction in social governance. Under the complex situation where the world’s great changes unseen in a century [9] are accelerating and the domestic tasks of reform and development are extremely heavy, these expositions have successfully maintained overall social stability and written a new chapter in the miracle of long-term social stability.
Promote the reform of the social system in the New Era. Under the leadership of the Party, we have correctly handled the relationship between the government and society, giving full play to the Party’s core leadership role in overseeing the whole situation and coordinating all parties. We established the Social Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, responsible for the unified guidance of the work regarding the people's letters and visits [10], overseeing the collection of people's suggestions, and coordinating the advancement of Party building-led grassroots governance and the construction of grassroots political power. It also provides unified leadership over the Party's work in national industry associations and chambers of commerce, coordinates and promotes their deep reform and transformation, guides Party building in mixed-ownership enterprises, non-public enterprises, "new economic organizations" and "new social organizations" [11], and "new employment groups" [12], and guides the development of the social work professional workforce. At the same time, we have accelerated the separation of government functions from social organizations, clarified the responsibilities of social organizations, and prioritized the cultivation and development of industry associations, science and technology organizations, public welfare and charity organizations, and urban and rural community service organizations. Matters and public services suitable for social organizations to provide or resolve have been delegated to them. We give full play to the functions and advantages of social organizations in social governance, smoothing and regulating the channels for their participation, and supporting the development of volunteer service organizations. Furthermore, we have comprehensively launched the reform to decouple industry associations and chambers of commerce from administrative organs, promoting their service levels, standardized operation according to law, and healthy and orderly development to help modernize social governance.
Promote the downward shift of the center of gravity of social governance to the grassroots. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must promote the downward shift of the center of gravity of social governance to the grassroots, and channel more resources, services, and management into the communities." The grassroots are the foundation of social harmony and stability. To value the grassroots, we must push the center of gravity of social governance downward to better provide precise and refined services to community residents, and extensively implement mass self-management, self-service, self-education, and self-supervision in urban and rural community governance, grassroots public affairs, and public welfare undertakings. Specifically: first, consolidate the role of grassroots Party organizations as "fighting fortvresses" [13] and mobilize the enthusiasm of all grassroots departments and parties to participate in governance. Second, clarify the boundaries of powers and responsibilities between sub-district offices (township governments) and grassroots mass autonomous organizations according to law; formulate lists of powers and responsibilities for district/county functional departments and sub-district offices in community governance; and reasonably determine the jurisdiction and scale of mass autonomous organizations to form an organic system where each performs its duties and cooperates with others. Third, improve the construction of grassroots mass autonomy mechanisms, refining autonomous vehicles such as village (resident) councils, boards of directors, and supervisory committees to stimulate the endogenous motivation of the masses. Fourth, strengthen the construction of the grassroots governance workforce and actively cultivate leaders for grassroots Party organizations.
Promote the transition of social governance from offline to online-offline integration. Along with the development of information technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, the pace of constructing a "digital society" in our country has accelerated, and the internet penetration rate and user scale have climbed significantly. As of December 2024, the number of internet users in China reached 1.108 billion, and social network users reached 1.101 billion. Social governance must follow wherever society develops. Our Party makes full use of the advantages of the internet—its flatness, interactivity, and speed—to promote the efficiency of public services, strengthen the role of the internet in social governance, and advance electronic government affairs, smart cities, and digital rural construction. We strive to improve the level of "intelligent governance," letting "data travel more so the masses travel less," while severely cracking down on crimes such as cyber fraud. We protect the legitimate rights and interests of netizens, greatly enhancing the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security in the process of social progress.
Under the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on social governance, various regions have persisted in and developed the "Fengqiao Experience" [14] in the New Era. This has produced many local models of social governance, such as "Party building-led immediate response to complaints" [15], "Party building-led grassroots governance," and "Party building-led urban and rural community development and governance," demonstrating the new characteristics and new atmosphere of grassroots governance in the New Era.
(The author is the Director of the Institute of Chinese-path Modernization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)