Wang Shengxiao: Accelerate the Formation of Relations of Production That Are More Compatible with New Quality Productive Forces
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out that we must improve relevant rules and policies and accelerate the formation of relations of production that are better adapted to new quality productive forces. Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has deepened its understanding of the laws governing the development of productive forces, advanced the comprehensive deepening of reform, and continuously promoted the development of social productive forces. Practice has proven that better-adapted relations of production constitute the fundamental driving force for the development of productive forces, capable of fully stimulating the vitality and initiative of social production. To develop new quality productive forces, we must further comprehensively deepen reform, clear away institutional and mechanistic obstacles, focus on breaking through the bottlenecks [1] and sticking points [2] that restrict the development of new quality productive forces, and promote a better alignment between the relations of production and the productive forces, the superstructure and the economic base, and national governance and social development, thereby providing a powerful impetus and institutional guarantee for Chinese-path modernization.
I. Improving the New-Type Whole-Nation System and Accelerating High-Level Sci-Tech Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening
Scientific and technological innovation has a decisive impact on the qualitative state of productive forces and industrial transformation; it is the core element for developing new quality productive forces. Currently, a new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation is developing rapidly, new technologies such as artificial intelligence are in the ascendant, and the sci-tech revolution is intertwined with great-power competition. High-tech sectors have become the foremost frontier and primary battlefield of international competition, profoundly reshaping the global order and development landscape. Our country must seize this strategic opportunity for the leap-frog development of productive forces, improve the new-type whole-nation system [3], accelerate the realization of high-level sci-tech self-reliance and self-strengthening, and promote a major shift in our sci-tech and industrial development from being a "follower" to a "leader," thereby gaining strategic initiative in increasingly fierce international competition.
The new-type whole-nation system serves as a powerful support and necessary guarantee for breaking through "chokepoint" [4] core technologies and promoting the development of new quality productive forces. Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has repeatedly emphasized the need to leverage the advantages of the new-type whole-nation system. From an objective-oriented perspective, major sci-tech innovations involve massive investment, high risk, and long cycles, necessitating a powerful organizational mechanism. From a problem-oriented perspective, our country’s original innovation capacity remains relatively weak, and some key core technologies are controlled by others [5]. We also face problems such as a low degree of organized coordination in sci-tech innovation and the dispersion or duplication of sci-tech resources. We must optimize the organizational mechanisms for major sci-tech innovation, give full play to the institutional advantage of "concentrating resources to accomplish major undertakings" [6], and seize the high ground of sci-tech competition and future development. We must improve the new-type whole-nation system under the conditions of a socialist market economy, giving full play to the state’s role as the organizer of major sci-tech innovation. This involves supporting strategic scientific plans and projects characterized by long cycles, high risks, great difficulty, and bright prospects. We must focus on systemic layout, systemic organization, and cross-boundary integration, pulling together the forces of the government, the market, and society into a single rope to form an integrated competitive edge for the future.
To improve the advantages of the new-type whole-nation system and accelerate high-level sci-tech self-reliance and self-strengthening, we must improve the system of the Party Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership over sci-tech work. We must strengthen overall coordination in strategic planning, policy measures, major tasks, scientific research forces, resource platforms, and regional innovation. We should construct a decision-making and command system and an organization and implementation system that are collaborative and efficient. Persisting in facing the world’s sci-tech frontiers, the main economic battlefield, the major needs of the country, and the lives and health of the people, we will optimize the organizational mechanisms for major sci-tech innovation and strengthen the coordinated assault on key core technologies. We will promote the systematization, institutionalization, and coordination of sci-tech innovation forces, factor allocation, and talent teams to create a powerful synergy for scientific and technological progress. We will strengthen the building of national strategic sci-tech forces, improve the national laboratory system, and enhance the integrated capabilities of the national innovation system. We will optimize the positioning and layout of national research institutions, high-level research universities, and leading sci-tech enterprises, scientifically plan major sci-tech infrastructure, strengthen the independent guarantee of basic sci-tech conditions, promote coordination between central and local governments in sci-tech innovation, coordinate the construction of various innovation platforms, and encourage and regulate the development of new-type R&D institutions to promote the integrated development of sci-tech and industrial innovation. We will reinforce the dominant position of enterprises in sci-tech innovation, establish mechanisms to cultivate and strengthen leading sci-tech enterprises, and enhance the deep integration of industry, academia, and research led by enterprises. We will establish a corporate R&D reserve system, build mechanisms to promote the growth of "specialized, refined, differential, and innovative" (SRDI) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [7], and support enterprises in taking the lead or participating in national sci-tech breakthrough tasks. We will encourage sci-tech SMEs to increase R&D investment, raise the ratio of additional tax deductions for R&D expenses, and guide enterprises to cooperate closely with universities and research institutes to jointly define scientific problems based on industrial needs, conduct joint research, and collaboratively train sci-tech talent, thereby promoting enterprise-led collaborative innovation across industry, academia, and research.
II. Improving Institutional Mechanisms for Industrial Transformation and Upgrading to Promote the Integrated Development of Sci-Tech and Industrial Innovation
Sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths for developing new quality productive forces. Sci-tech innovation must focus on building a modernized industrial system, while industrial innovation must remain anchored in the real economy, placing equal emphasis on promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and opening up new tracks for strategic emerging industries and future industries. To grasp the integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation, we must build platforms, improve institutional mechanisms, and reinforce the dominant position of enterprises in innovation so that the innovation chain and the industrial chain are seamlessly connected. Improving the institutional mechanisms for industrial transformation and upgrading requires focusing on the translation and application of sci-tech achievements. We must use disruptive and frontier technologies to give birth to new industries, new models, and new growth drivers. We must promote the "supplementing of chains" for weak industries, "extending of chains" for advantageous industries, "upgrading of chains" for traditional industries, and "building of chains" for emerging industries, accelerating the construction of a modernized industrial system and promoting the integrated development of sci-tech and industrial innovation.
A modernized industrial system provides the material and technical foundation for a modernized country. We must place the focus of economic development on the real economy to provide a strong material guarantee for achieving the Second Centenary Goal [8]. Since the 18th Party Congress, our industrial system has become more robust and our industrial chains more complete. The overall strength, quality, efficiency, innovation capacity, competitiveness, and risk-resistance of our industry have significantly enhanced. The real economy, especially manufacturing, has achieved steady growth in quantity and a significant leap in quality. At the same time, we must recognize that our industrial system still faces problems such as being "large but not strong" or "comprehensive but not refined," and overcapacity in some sectors. Therefore, we must further comprehensively deepen reform to build a modernized industrial system.
To build a modernized industrial system and promote the integrated development of sci-tech and industrial innovation, we must improve the mechanisms for optimizing and upgrading traditional industries. We will use the elevation of national standards to lead this process, revising national standards in fields such as technology and environmental protection, and strengthening institutional constraints regarding environmental and safety issues to drive technological upgrades, equipment renewals, and quality improvements. We will actively utilize digital and green technologies to transform and upgrade traditional industries, improve the system for promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and build a group of common technology platforms for various industries. We will accelerate changes in industrial models and corporate organizational forms, speed up the all-around and full-chain popularization and application of next-generation information technology, develop the Industrial Internet, and create globally competitive digital industrial clusters. We will improve policy and governance systems for promoting strategic industries and enhance fundamental industrial capacities. We will promote the integrated and clustered development of strategic emerging industries, build a tiered development system for industrial clusters, optimize the regional layout of industry, continuously expand market space, and participate deeply in the global industrial division of labor, nurturing a group of strategic emerging industrial clusters in key fields characterized by distinct features, complementary advantages, and reasonable structures. We will establish mechanisms for increasing investment in future industries, accounting for their high uncertainty in incubation, high growth potential, and multi-path technological iteration. We will strengthen forward-looking planning and policy guidance, constructing an industrial cultivation chain that covers innovation sourcing, translation and incubation, application pulling, and ecosystem creation. We will strengthen innovation in frontier-leading and disruptive technologies and implement the dominant status of enterprises in innovation decision-making, R&D investment, scientific research organization, and achievement translation through institutional means. We will strengthen the institutional supply for new fields and tracks, explore the establishment of an inclusive and paternalistic [9] adaptive regulatory system for new industries, formats, and models, support enterprises—especially the vast number of SMEs—in bold exploration and trial-and-error, and support local governments in carrying out pilot reforms and policies related to future industries.
III. Constructing Institutional Mechanisms to Support Comprehensive Innovation and Enhancing the Overall Efficiency of the National Innovation System
Science and technology are the primary productive forces; talent is the primary resource; and innovation is the primary driver. Sci-tech innovation depends on talent, and talent cultivation depends on education. Education, science and technology, and talent are internally consistent and mutually supportive. They constitute the foundational and strategic support for building a modernized socialist country in all respects. We need to deeply implement the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, the strategy of strengthening the country through talent, and the innovation-driven development strategy. We must open up new fields and tracks for development and constantly shape new momentum and advantages for growth. It is necessary to coordinately promote the integrated reform of institutional mechanisms for education, science and technology, and talent, smoothing the virtuous cycle between them to allow all sources of innovation to flow fully, and accelerating the formation of a future-oriented innovative economic structure and development model.
Constructing institutional mechanisms to support comprehensive innovation is an important guarantee for further liberating and developing productive forces and for consolidating the material and technical foundation of Chinese-path modernization. Developing new quality productive forces requires promoting comprehensive innovation with sci-tech innovation at its core, maximizing the liberation and stimulation of the enormous potential latent in science and technology as the primary productive force. Since the 18th Party Congress, China has built the world's largest education system, entered the ranks of innovative countries, and possesses a vast talent pool of high quality, optimized structure, and increasingly prominent impact. In the New Era, historic achievements and transformations have occurred in education, science and technology, and talent work. At the same time, we must see that it remains difficult to apply sci-tech innovation achievements to specific industries and chains in a timely and effective manner, and there is a shortage of top-tier sci-tech talent. Therefore, we must deepen reforms in the sci-tech, education, and talent systems to clear the bottlenecks and sticking points that restrict the development of new quality productive forces.
In constructing institutional mechanisms to support comprehensive innovation, we must deepen comprehensive reform in education. This includes establishing a scientific education evaluation system, improving the school management system, and building a more rational and efficient mechanism for allocating educational resources. We should implement breakthrough plans for basic and interdisciplinary subjects, create joint innovation platforms between universities, enterprises, and local governments, and improve the mechanism for aligning talent cultivation with the needs of economic and social development. We will implement the national education digitalization strategy and build a learning society. We will deepen the reform of the sci-tech system, improve the management of sci-tech plans, and strengthen the forward-looking and leading layout of basic research, frontier interdisciplinary fields, and key areas. We will increase the proportion of sci-tech expenditure used for basic research and improve the mechanism for basic research investment that combines competitive support with stable support. We will establish a system for the separate management of assets of job-related sci-tech achievements, deepen the reform of granting rights to job-related sci-tech achievements, and encourage universities and research institutes to license sci-tech achievements to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises using a "use first, pay later" approach. We will strengthen the construction of the national technology transfer system and accelerate the layout and construction of platforms for concept verification and pilot testing. We should grant scientists greater power over technological routes, greater control over funds, and greater resource scheduling authority, allowing sci-tech personnel greater autonomy in the distribution of income from the translation of sci-tech achievements. We will deepen the reform of the institutional mechanisms for talent development, focusing on cultivating and creating strategic scientists, first-class sci-tech leaders, and innovation teams, as well as outstanding engineers, "Great Country Craftsmen" [10], and highly skilled personnel, while building a first-class team of industrial technical workers. We will improve the system for ensuring that researchers can focus on their work, and establish a talent evaluation system oriented toward innovation capacity, quality, effectiveness, and contribution, clearing the channels for talent exchange between universities, research institutes, and enterprises. We will build a more internationally competitive mechanism for attracting talent, maintaining a global vision and world-class standards, improving the support and guarantee mechanisms for talent introduced from overseas, and exploring the establishment of an immigration system for high-tech talent.
IV. Improving Factor Market Systems and Rules to Guide the Gathering of Resource Factors toward New Quality Productive Forces
With the development of productive forces, the scope and importance of resource factors themselves are also constantly changing. For example, in the era of the internet economy, data—as a new factor—is a foundational and strategic resource, as well as an important productive force. The basic connotation of new quality productive forces is the qualitative leap in laborers, labor materials, labor objects, and their optimal combination. Optimizing the allocation of factor inputs and enhancing the effectiveness of factor combinations are the key paths for the development of new quality productive forces. The factor market is the foundation of the entire market system. Improving factor market systems and rules is conducive to optimizing the allocation of resource factors, enabling them to flow from low-quality, low-efficiency fields to high-quality, high-efficiency fields. This expands the supply of high-quality increments, improves factor allocation efficiency, and drives the realization of optimized efficiency in factor allocation.
Improving the systems and rules of factor markets focuses on deepening market-oriented factor reforms, breaking down institutional and mechanistic barriers that hinder the flow of factors, fully unleashing market potential, and efficiently allocating various resources to guide resource factors toward clustering in new quality productive forces. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to market-oriented factor reform. It has clarified the targets, directions, tasks, and measures for market-oriented factor reforms in fields such as labor, capital, land, technology, and data. The construction of factor market systems and rules has continued to deepen: reforms to the basic system of capital factors have been smoothly implemented, the construction of the technology factor market and the transformation of achievements [11] have been vigorously advanced, and important progress has been made in policy legislation and standard-setting for data factors. Traditional modes of factor allocation have been continuously innovated, and new types of factors are accelerating their transformation into actual productive forces. At the same time, it must be seen that our country still faces problems such as imperfect systems and rules in certain fields, relatively lagging development of factor markets, and local protectionism and market fragmentation. The development of new business formats and new fields also places new demands on factor market systems and rules, making it urgent to improve these systems and rules through further comprehensively deepening reform.
To improve factor market systems and rules, we must construct a science and technology financial system compatible with scientific and technological innovation. We must improve diversified "relay-style" financial services that correspond to the characteristics of each stage in the full life cycle of scientific and technological innovation and industrial development. We should encourage and regulate the development of angel investment, venture capital, and private equity investment, better leverage the role of government investment funds, and develop patient capital [12]. We should strengthen financial support for major national scientific and technological tasks and small and medium-sized technology enterprises, improve support policies for long-term capital to "invest early, invest small, invest for the long term, and invest in hard tech" [13], refine risk-dispersion mechanisms for major technical breakthroughs, and establish a science and technology insurance policy system. We must cultivate a national integrated market for technology and data, promote the interconnection of regional or industrial technology trading institutions, and improve basic systems and standard specifications for data resource property rights, transaction circulation, cross-border transmission, and security. We should construct and operate national data infrastructure to promote data sharing; enhance data security governance and supervision capabilities; and accelerate the establishment of systems for data ownership determination, market trading, distribution of rights and interests, and protection of interests. We must establish an efficient, convenient, and secure mechanism for cross-border data flow and actively participate in the formulation of global standards and rules in the digital field. We must improve a unified and efficient factor market system, strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition efforts, and clean up and abolish various regulations and practices that hinder a national unified market and fair competition. We must standardize local regulations and systems for attracting investment, strictly prohibit illegal or non-compliant policy incentives, and prevent "involution-style" [14] cutthroat competition. We must improve the mechanism where factor prices are primarily determined by market supply and demand, preventing improper government intervention in price formation. We must innovate and optimize the market access environment for new business formats and new fields. Following the principle-based path of "standard-leading, scenario-opening, market-driven, industrial-clustering, and system-upgrading," we should formulate implementation plans to optimize the market access environment by field to improve market access efficiency.
(The author is a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the Central Party School of the CPC [National Academy of Governance] and a researcher at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)
Web Editor: Ma Jingren Source: Hongqi Wengao [15], Issue 5, 2025