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Li Linan and Ren Li: The Generative Logic, Theoretical Connotations, and Guiding Significance of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Expositions on the Reform of State-owned Enterprises

Xi Jinping Thought (New Era)

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, successive leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have attached great importance to the construction and development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has conducted numerous inspection tours and research visits to SOEs, issuing instructions and comments on their reform and development, and delivering several important speeches on the reform and development of the state-owned economy and SOEs. These important discourses formulate new reflections and provide answers to major theoretical and practical questions under new historical conditions—such as the raison d'être of SOEs, their operation, and how to manage them effectively—constituting the essence and connotation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform. These discourses are vital components of Xi Jinping Economic Thought and represent important theoretical achievements in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism. Simultaneously, these discourses provide followable guiding principles and ideological blueprints for the further advancement of SOE reform, possessing strategic and instructional significance for deepening current SOE reforms and achieving the goal of making state-owned capital and SOEs "stronger, better, and larger."

I. The Generative Logic of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourses on SOE Reform

State-owned enterprises are the basic safeguard and fundamental manifestation of the socialist economic system. Article 7 of the Constitution of our country stipulates: "The state-owned economy, namely, the socialist economy under ownership by the whole people, is the leading force in the national economy. The state shall ensure the consolidation and growth of the state-owned economy." Clearly, SOEs are the primary embodiments and executors of the national economy; their basic positioning and main functions are self-evident. In a socialist state, ownership by the whole people is the decisive factor of the system's attributes; thus, the long-term existence of SOEs is an inevitability. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform stem, first, from the explorations of ownership issues by Marx, Engels, and other classical Marxist writers. Second, the practices of socialist construction and socialist reform in China have fostered relevant theories and practical explorations regarding the construction and reform of SOEs, providing a practical foundation for General Secretary Xi Jinping’s discourses. Third, the General Secretary’s own theoretical and practical explorations across different periods have provided a continuous stream of ideological impetus and practical accumulation.

(i) Marxist Explorations of the Issue of Ownership

The explorations of ownership by Marx and Engels in their classical works constituted a critique of capitalist private ownership and provided theoretical guidance for exploring the ownership dimension of future economic and social construction. Marx pointed out: "Capital is not a thing, but a social relation between persons, established by the instrumentality of things, belonging to a specific historical social formation." Hidden behind the appearance of capital are social relations between people; among these social relations, economic or relations of production are the most basic and fundamental, and ownership is the foundation of the relations of production. In capitalist society, the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production manifests specifically as the contradiction between the socialization of production and capitalist private ownership, evolving into periodic economic crises that the capitalist system cannot overcome on its own. Therefore, the fate of capitalism’s inevitable demise is hidden within the capitalist ownership of the means of production, centered on capital. "The positive transcendence of private property as the appropriation of human life, is the positive transcendence of all alienation—that is to say, the return of man from religion, family, state, etc., to his human, i.e., social, existence." Marx believed that the new society must involve the transcendence of capitalist private property to realize true human freedom and liberation. In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels proposed the organizing principle of the future ideal society: "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." Regarding the means and fundamental characteristics of achieving this society, they emphasized: "The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property." Engels pointed out that, unlike the capitalist system, "socialist society" would organize production on the basis of public ownership of the means of production. Of course, due to realistic limitations, this public ownership can first be implemented on the basis of public ownership at the state level. The vision of an ideal society by Marx and Engels was based on developed capitalist countries. Regarding the relations of production in underdeveloped countries, Marx once noted that people "suffer not only from the development of capitalist production, but also from the incompleteness of that development," and that "No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society." The existence and development of relations of production depend on whether they can adapt to and promote the development of productive forces. Therefore, there is no uniform, standard answer to the question of establishing public ownership of the means of production in economically backward countries.

As the core theory of Marxist political economy, the ownership theory of Marx and Engels provided the theoretical basis and ideological foundation for establishing public ownership. The practice of establishing public ownership in a socialist state was completed by Lenin. Based on the practical exploration of socialist construction, Lenin further developed Marxist thought on ownership. First, Lenin believed that socialist ownership must first "expropriate the expropriators." Second, according to the ownership theory of Marx and Engels and the practice of Soviet socialist construction, Lenin discovered that commodity exchange could not be abolished under the immature economic conditions of the time, and that the superiority of the productive forces was the primary content capable of reflecting the advantages of socialism. Consequently, in "On the Tax in Kind," Lenin proposed the preconditions for socialism: "large-scale capitalist techniques," the "dictatorship of the proletariat," and a "planned economy." Lenin argued: "Socialism is inconceivable without large-scale capitalist engineering based on the latest discoveries of modern science. It is inconceivable without planned state organization, which keeps tens of millions of people to the strictest observance of a unified standard in production and distribution." He added: "At the same time socialism is inconceivable unless the proletariat is the ruler of the state." Third, Lenin clarified the attributes of state power and its special significance regarding ownership of the means of production, which is another important manifestation of inheriting and developing Marxist ownership theory.

(ii) China's Exploration of Ownership and SOE Reform During Socialist Construction

In the process of building world socialist countries, including the practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the issue of ownership has always been the primary and key problem needing clear resolution. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, socialist public ownership was established through socialist transformation [1]. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly emphasized two principles: the dominance of the socialist public ownership economy and common prosperity. In 1992, the long-term common development of multiple economic sectors was proposed, with public ownership as the mainstay and individual economies as supplements. In 1997, the basic economic system of the primary stage of socialism was clearly defined as keeping public ownership as the mainstay while allowing diverse forms of ownership to develop together. In 2002, the "Two Unswervinglys" were proposed—namely, that we must unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector and unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector. In 2007, the "Two Unswervinglys" were reaffirmed, alongside a clear commitment to maintaining the dominant position of the public sector.

While exploring ownership issues adapted to the primary stage of socialism, China’s socialist construction has also continuously explored the reform and development of SOEs. At the time of the PRC's founding, it was clearly established that the country was a socialist state of the people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants, with the state-owned economy as the leading force of the entire national economy. In the early days of New China, the three provinces of Northeast China took the lead in implementing the "factory director responsibility system." Beyond this, another distinct feature of SOEs was the clarification of the Party organization's leadership position within them—specifically, the factory director responsibility system under the leadership of the Party committee. The Constitution of the Communist Party of China explicitly defined the oversight and leadership role of primary-level Party organizations.

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, SOEs have continuously improved and developed the modern enterprise system through reform. Under the fundamental principles of the dominance of public ownership and common prosperity, operating mechanisms have undergone significant changes. Most SOEs have completed joint-stock reforms, implemented modern enterprise systems such as the corporate system, and gradually advanced reforms to make SOEs independent market entities. The state successively conducted trials in certain SOEs to clarify their rights as operating entities regarding production, sales, distribution, and employment, granting them greater autonomy. After the Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee, SOE reform focused on establishing a modern enterprise system. (1) The state launched a series of pilot programs to promote corporate joint-stock restructuring, implemented "reducing staff to increase efficiency" and "three reforms and one strengthening," (2) supplemented by the deepening of the social security system to solve the problem of re-employment for laid-off workers. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee emphasized that the corporate governance structure is the core of the corporate system, and the corporate system is an effective organizational form of the modern enterprise system. The 16th Party Congress pointed out the need to reform the state-owned assets management system, adhering to "state ownership and graded representation," thereby separating government functions from enterprise management and ownership from management rights. The 17th Party Congress took the optimization of the state-owned economy's layout as a starting point to deepen the reform of state-owned monopolies. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee further explicitly stated: "We will deepen the reform of state-owned capital and SOEs, improve management and supervision systems and mechanisms, enhance strategic coordination among relevant management departments, promote the optimization and structural adjustment of the layout of the state-owned economy, drive state-owned capital and SOEs to become stronger, better, and larger, enhance their core functions, and improve their core competitiveness." Through more than forty years of SOE reform, traditional state-run enterprises have been transformed into independent market entities operating under market economy conditions, and most SOEs have undergone major changes in their operating mechanisms.

(iii) General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Practical Exploration of Important Discourses on SOE Reform

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform began with his early exploration of collective economy models during his tenure in local government. During his time in Fujian, he focused on the reform of the collective forest tenure system and Party building in enterprises, emphasizing the workers' sense of ownership and advancing joint-stock reforms in SOEs. General Secretary Xi Jinping has always deepened the reform of state-owned assets and SOEs using the principle of the "Two Unswervinglys." While working in Zhejiang, he implemented the "Eight-Eight Strategy" [3] deployment. During his time in Shanghai, based on research into multiple SOEs, he proposed that Shanghai take the lead in exploring the path of reform and development for the state-owned economy, thereby leveraging its leading role.

Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has successively expounded on major issues regarding SOE reform and development—such as the relationship between the public and non-public sectors, the future direction of SOEs, how they should develop, and their corporate governance structures—continuing to explore the path of SOE development and reform in practice. At a symposium in Wuhan in July 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must adhere to and improve the basic economic system, enhance the vitality of the public economy, especially the state-owned economy, guide the development of the non-public economy, improve the fiscal and tax system, develop a high-level open economic system, and continuously enhance the vitality of the micro-foundations of economic development." At the second session of the 12th National People's Congress, he further clarified the question of where SOEs are headed and how they should develop: "SOEs must not only not be weakened, but also be strengthened," emphasizing their social responsibility while increasing the intensity of reform measures. Subsequently, he proposed: "The promotion of SOE reform must be problem-oriented, centered on enhancing enterprise vitality and improving efficiency, boosting the core competitiveness of SOEs, and establishing a modern enterprise system with clear ownership, well-defined rights and responsibilities, separation of government from enterprise, and scientific management." In 2015, he further clarified the "Three Conducives" [4] criteria for SOE reform. The 2016 important thesis of the "Two Consistent Adherences" [5] creatively answered the questions of the path and direction of SOE development and reform in the New Era, namely "adhering to the leadership of the Party," among others.

At the 19th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping made further important deployments regarding the reform and development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), stating: "We must improve the management system for all types of state-owned assets, reform the system for authorized operation of state capital, accelerate the optimization of the layout, structural adjustment, and strategic reorganization of the state-owned economy, promote the preservation and appreciation of state-owned asset value, push for state capital to become stronger, better, and larger, and effectively prevent the loss of state-owned assets." In 2017, while in Jiangsu, he emphasized the social functions and important status of SOEs, clarifying their vital role as the political foundation and material guarantee of socialism with Chinese characteristics. During an inspection tour of Northeast China in 2018, he emphasized using the "Two Consistencies" [6] to promote higher, better, and superior development of SOEs in terms of efficiency, quality, and structure. At the 2018 Central Economic Work Conference, he specified the principles and direction of SOE reform: "We must accelerate the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises, adhere to the principles of separating government functions from enterprise management, separating government functions from asset management, and ensuring fair competition; we must make state capital stronger, better, and larger, and accelerate the transition from 'managing enterprises' to 'managing capital.'" The report to the 20th CPC National Congress further clarified that state capital and SOEs must become stronger, better, and larger, and proposed the goal of enhancing the core competitiveness of SOEs.

II. The Theoretical Content of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Discourses on State-Owned Enterprise Reform

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform are rooted in the investigations of ownership by Marx, Engels, and other classical Marxist writers as their ideological foundation. They take the construction and reform of ownership and SOEs within the practice of China’s socialist construction and socialist reform as their practical foundation. Through theoretical and practical exploration across different periods, the theoretical content of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform has taken shape. Simultaneously, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that only by following a path of reform and development consistent with national conditions can the public ownership nature of SOEs be guaranteed and their developmental vitality be enhanced through reform.

(I) The Important Status of State-Owned Enterprises

Regarding the important role and status of SOEs, General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized multiple times: "State-owned enterprises are an important material and political foundation for socialism with Chinese characteristics... they relate to our country’s socialist system." He emphasizes the vital status of SOEs from the perspectives of consolidating the economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, providing political and material foundations, and ensuring the Party's governing capacity and status. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that SOEs are the "important pillars of the national economy and also play a pillar role in the economic foundation of our Party’s governance and our country’s socialist state power," further highlighting the dominant role of SOEs in economic development and the consolidation of political power.

Furthermore, the important status of SOEs is reflected in their significant contributions to China’s socialist construction. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that throughout the history of China’s socialist development, "our SOEs have made historical contributions to our country's economic and social development, scientific and technological progress, national defense construction, and the improvement of people's livelihoods." Taking the "13th Five-Year Plan" [7] period as an example, in terms of the sectors they occupy, SOEs undertake the vast majority of basic energy supply, basic network operations, as well as infrastructure, livelihood projects, and projects critical to the lifeline of the national economy—projects that require massive investment but yield low returns yet are essential for economic and social development. In terms of returns, SOEs have provided strong support for China's economic growth. Enterprises regulated by the national state-owned assets system account for approximately 1/8 of the national GDP during the same period; their total assets, operating income, and total profits all grew faster than the national GDP and the relevant indicators for industrial enterprises above designated size. In terms of tax contributions, SOEs contribute approximately 1/4 of the national tax revenue. Regarding the quality and efficiency of corporate development, 49 central enterprises entered the Fortune Global 500, becoming a core force embodying China's comprehensive national strength.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has corrected the record regarding the rhetoric of certain Western countries that willfully distort and erase the achievements of China’s SOEs. He believes: "Some people in the West point their spearheads at our SOEs and smear them... we must not fall for it!" From the perspective of national political stability and economic security, "state-owned enterprises... must be managed well," and we must "unswervingly make SOEs stronger, better, and larger, continuously increasing the vitality, control, influence, and risk-resistance of the state-owned economy." In the process of technological innovation and enterprise development, "SOEs must take up heavy burdens, dare to lead the charge, and bravely serve as the 'source' of original technology and the 'chain leaders' [8] of modern industrial chains."

(II) The Fundamental Compliance for State-Owned Enterprise Reform

Deepening the reform and development of SOEs requires following a path consistent with national conditions, adhering to the direction of socialist market economy reform, upholding the "Two Unswervinglys" [9] and the "Two Consistencies," implementing the New Development Philosophy, adhering to the "Three Conducives" [10] judging criteria, and anchoring the goals and tasks of the "Three Obvious Successes" [11] as the fundamental compliance.

1. Adhering to the "Two Unswervinglys" In handling the relationship between the public sector and the non-public sector, as well as the roles of the market and the government, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes adhering to and improving the basic socialist economic system and the "Two Unswervinglys." At the same time, we must properly handle the roles of the market and the government in resource allocation; while affirming the decisive role of the market, the government’s role must be better utilized. Clearly, the three basic principles that SOE reform must adhere to are: first, adhering to our country's basic economic system; second, letting the market play the decisive role in resource allocation; and third, properly utilizing the role of the government. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes the socialist market economy direction of SOE reform, which must follow the laws of the market economy to improve resource efficiency, operational capacity, and innovation in market competition, while enhancing vitality, influence, and risk-resistance. We must also avoid the blindness of the market, circumvent market failures, and allow the government to play its proper role.

2. Adhering to the "Two Consistencies" The "Two Consistencies" anchor the path and direction of SOE reform and development. To make SOEs stronger, better, and larger in the New Era, reform and development must first adhere to the Party's leadership. Adhering to the Party's leadership is the "root" and "soul" of SOEs; the advantage of Chinese SOEs lies in Party leadership and Party building. This is a fine tradition that China's SOEs have maintained ever since the 8th CPC National Congress established the status of Party organizations within enterprises. Party leadership is the most fundamental feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics; the greatest advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the CPC is the highest force for political leadership. The building of Party organizations in SOEs is a vital path to consolidating the dominant status of public ownership and an important manifestation of the superiority of our socialist system. Secondly, General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed a series of targeted reform measures to complete the establishment of the SOE system. These measures have improved the modern enterprise system of SOEs, increased operational efficiency, ensured they reasonably fulfill social responsibilities, and allowed SOEs to better exercise their functions and roles.

3. Implementing the New Development Philosophy The New Development Philosophy of innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing is the fundamental compliance for China’s current reforms and socio-economic development. SOEs must also adjust their structure, innovate their development, and optimize their layout according to the requirements of the New Development Philosophy. Within this philosophy, innovation holds the core position. Through technological innovation, SOEs improve backward production capacity and adjust industrial and product structures. Coordinated development requires SOEs to expand their development space, coordinate regional development, achieve "strong-strong alliances" between enterprises, and complete the construction of "soft power" such as corporate systems and culture. Green development requires SOEs to take the path of sustainable development; while developing production, they must promote green and low-carbon industries and avoid ecological environmental issues. Open development requires SOEs to improve the business environment and actively participate in global economic cooperation and competition on the basis of mutual benefit and win-win results. Shared development emphasizes that the fruits of development should be shared by the people, effectively solving problems related to people's livelihoods; the corporate nature and business scope of SOEs are precisely one of the important avenues for implementing the concept of shared development.

4. Adhering to the "Three Conducives" Judging Criteria SOE reform needs judging criteria for verification and as guidance for advancement. To this end, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed the "Three Conducives" criteria. These are consistent with the ultimate goal of making SOEs stronger, better, and larger and consolidating their status and function as a material and political foundation. Therefore, the "Three Conducives" are the manifestation of the ultimate goal in terms of judging criteria. Adhering to these criteria helps fundamentally eliminate erroneous understandings of SOEs, stop pointless debates, and form a consensus on SOE reform, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of their reform and development.

5. Anchoring the Goals and Tasks of the "Three Obvious Successes" The "Three Obvious Successes" serve as the target for deepening SOE reform. In the New Era, SOE reform has been endowed with new tasks and missions. The CPC Committee of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, starting from the perspective of enhancing the core functions and core competitiveness of SOEs, proposed the achievement goals of the "Three Obvious Successes." These focus on the functions and roles of SOEs in market operation mechanisms, serving national strategic functions, and cultivating world-class enterprises. These three aspects are unified and holistic, interacting with, supporting, and relating to one another. They reflect the organic unity of the political, social, and economic attributes of SOEs, representing an integration of mission-oriented, result-oriented, and efficiency-oriented approaches. They are a fusion of external demands and internal requirements that must be grasped holistically, implemented comprehensively, and advanced in an integrated manner.

(III) The Basic Connotation of the Important Discourses on SOE Reform

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s discourses on the "Two Unswervinglys" and "Two Consistencies" indicate that the economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era must maintain public ownership as the mainstay, and Party leadership within SOEs must be maintained. "The Party’s leadership over SOEs is an organic unity of political, ideological, and organizational leadership." Thus, SOE reform must maintain the economic nature of SOEs as subjects of the socialist market economy, while even more crucially upholding the Party’s leadership and the social responsibilities of SOEs. These missions and responsibilities play a prominent role in "Chinese-path modernization," the realization of the Chinese Dream, and the "Belt and Road Initiative."

Through continuous, high-quality development, SOEs must solidify their function as a material foundation and political guarantee, ensuring that all people share the fruits of development and enhancing the people's sense of gain. On September 7, 2023, while chairing a symposium on promoting the comprehensive revitalization of Northeast China in the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Continue to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises... improve the core competitiveness of SOEs... and strengthen their strategic support role." Building on the pursuit of social benefits, SOEs—as market entities—must through reform improve efficiency, stimulate vitality, and achieve the preservation and appreciation of state-owned asset value, thereby realizing economic benefits. Regarding how to build SOEs, the report to the 19th CPC National Congress clearly stated the goals and tasks of clarifying SOE property rights and becoming world-class enterprises, while the report to the 20th CPC National Congress proposed the long-term goal of further making SOEs stronger, better, and larger through adjustments to the layout and structure of the state-owned economy and enhancing their core competitiveness. Therefore, building a modernized SOE management system and achieving core competitiveness are vital contents of SOE reform.

In summary, the theoretical content of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform is illustrated in Figure 1.

III. The Practical Guiding Significance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Discourses on State-Owned Enterprise Reform

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform possess rich theoretical content and hold significant guiding significance for the practice of SOE reform in China, particularly in further upholding the innovation of governance systems and mechanisms under Party leadership and improving the modern SOE system.

(I) Adhering to the Lead of Party Building

Party leadership is the political guarantee for state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform; it must run through the entire process of reform and development. In terms of governance structure, Party organizations must be embedded within the corporate legal person governance structure. Regarding organizational structure, Party organizations provide the organizational guarantee for enterprise development, ensuring their role is fully manifested at every level. To realize the leadership role of the Party organization, its statutory status within the corporate legal person governance structure must be clarified. Regarding operational goals, the objective of ensuring the maintenance and appreciation of the value of state-owned assets [12] must be the starting point. Additionally, Party organizations in SOEs must closely integrate the fulfillment of their primary responsibilities with the strengthening of their own management and the implementation of effective supervision.

1. Clarifying the Status of Party Organizations Article 33 of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, newly revised at the 19th CPC National Congress, further points out that Party organizations in enterprises "discuss and decide on major matters of the enterprise in accordance with regulations." General Secretary Xi Jinping has noted: "The role of SOE Party organizations as the leadership and political core boils down to one point: to steer the direction, manage the overall situation, and ensure implementation." This is specifically manifested as "primary-level Party organizations carrying out work centered on production and operations" and "participating in decision-making on major issues of the enterprise." For example, the oversight role of the Party organization in adjusting structures and optimizing the layout of SOEs, as well as its guiding role in business operations, can enable SOEs to integrate, focus on, base themselves upon, and strengthen their core business, thereby enhancing their competitiveness within the industry. Regarding how Party organizations should integrate into corporate governance, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "What is 'unique' about the modern state-owned enterprise system with Chinese characteristics is the integration of Party leadership into all aspects of corporate governance." It is necessary to ensure the status of the Party organization within the corporate governance structure; in governance, there must be clear responsibilities, strict supervision, qualified cadres in place, and organizational implementation. Party organizations must strengthen their own self-construction, leading ideological and political work, the promotion of cultural and ethical progress [13], and social organizations. On the issue of selecting talent and appointing cadres, the Party exercises leadership over cadres and talent, and the Party organization plays its role in the process of selection and appointment. The specific implementation of Party organization work requires combining scientific enterprise decision-making with the Party's democratic centralism, promoting intra-Party democracy as well as making decision-making more democratic and scientific.

2. Strengthening the Construction of Party Organizations SOE Party organizations must earnestly shoulder and implement the responsibility for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party. They must persist in strict Party governance, ideological Party building, and institutional Party governance to enhance the capacity to manage and govern the Party. Addressing prominent problems in SOE Party building and key issues in SOE development, General Secretary Xi Jinping has explicitly put forward the general requirements for SOE Party building in the New Era in terms of basic organizations, basic teams, and basic systems. It is necessary to realize the basic functions of SOE Party organizations in "managing the overall situation, steering the direction, and ensuring implementation," and to guarantee the core role of the Party organization through its own construction. Unlike the requirements for other Party organizations, SOE Party organizations use the ability to achieve production and operational goals as their test of effectiveness. In the management of the SOE talent pool, they must adhere to the principle of the Party exercising leadership over cadres and cultivate a high-quality team of enterprise leaders. In the selection and appointment of talent, the Party organization must not be ambiguous; a strong and powerful Party organization requires a high-quality talent pool to be realized. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the education of leadership personnel, enhance their Party spirit [14], clarify their mission, and strictly enforce discipline, nipping errors and problems in the bud [15]. Regarding the assessment of Party building work, foundational guarantee targets should be improved, and the assessment of Party building should be deployed and promoted alongside the assessment of business operations. Making SOEs stronger, better, and bigger requires the organization and leadership of Party organizations, which must strengthen their own construction to provide the organizational guarantee for the strength of the SOEs.

3. Implementing Effective Supervision SOE Party committees must implement their primary responsibility, and commissions for discipline inspection must implement their supervisory responsibility. Supervision by Party organizations includes two main aspects: first, ensuring the normal operation of the SOE by guaranteeing the implementation of Party and state principles and policies within the enterprise, supporting management bodies and personnel in exercising their powers according to law, protecting the rights and interests of employees, and supporting the work of employee representative congresses [16]. Second, preventing the loss of state-owned assets through the establishment of institutional safeguards. The oversight of SOE assets is the material basis for guaranteeing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. "State-owned assets and resources are the common wealth of the whole people," and "the supervision system for state-owned assets and resources must be improved." "Internal supervision of SOEs, supervision by capital contributors, and supervision through auditing, disciplinary inspection, and inspection tours [17], as well as social supervision, must be strengthened to accelerate the formation of a state-owned asset supervision system characterized by full coverage, clear division of labor, coordination, and effective constraints." This involves combining intra-Party supervision, legal supervision, and supervision by the masses of employees to ensure the secure development of SOEs.

(II) Implementing Modern Corporate Management Systems As the material basis and political guarantee of the socialist system, the social benefits of SOEs are an important goal they pursue. As market entities, SOEs also need to pay special attention to their own economic efficiency. As market entities, they need to stimulate vitality and improve efficiency through reform to achieve their tasks and objectives. Therefore, all of this must be realized through the optimization of industrial structure, the improvement of SOE operation and management systems, the strengthening of the SOE talent pool, and the construction of corporate culture—socialist modern corporate management systems.

1. Strengthening Status through Industrial Structure Optimization In SOE reform, the layout of the industrial structure must first be optimized. The optimization and adjustment of the SOE industrial layout structure should be guided by the New Development Philosophy [18]. One of its purposes is to stimulate the endogenous motivation of enterprises, create a favorable external environment, and improve the quality of supply from SOEs. Second, the direction of SOE investment must be clarified. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out: "We will further clarify the functional positioning of different types of SOEs, improve the management of their primary responsibilities and core businesses, and define the key investment areas and directions for state-owned capital. We will promote the concentration of state-owned capital in important industries and key fields related to national security and the lifeblood of the national economy; in public services, emergency response capabilities, and public welfare fields related to the national economy and people's livelihood; and in forward-looking, strategic emerging industries." Based on history and their own advantages, SOEs are gradually concentrating in important industries, fields, and infrastructure related to national security, the lifeblood of the national economy, and the national economy and people's livelihood—such as telecommunications, electricity, petroleum, and the defense industry. Additionally, they are concentrating in forward-looking strategic industries, such as new energy, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology, eventually forming advantageous industries with core competitiveness. Most enterprises in these key fields and forward-looking industries are SOEs. These enterprises relate to the national economy and people's livelihood and often involve long R&D cycles and high investment costs; SOEs can use their own advantages to transform these into industries with core competitiveness. In short, through the optimization and adjustment of the SOE industrial structure, the ultimate goal is to enhance the strength of state-owned assets, improve the layout of state-owned capital, and continuously strengthen the control, vitality, influence, risk resistance, and international competitiveness of the state-owned economy.

2. Improving SOE Operation and Management Systems The improvement of SOE operation and management systems is the concrete path to achieving reform goals. The reform of operation and management systems starts from both micro and macro levels. In specific micro-level management, the principles of separating government functions from enterprise management, separating government functions from state-owned asset management, and separating ownership from management rights must be upheld. First, further promote the reform of SOE property rights, increase state capital investment in public welfare enterprises, and improve operational efficiency by implementing diversified reforms that form a modern corporate system within SOEs. Second, emphasize the leadership role of SOE Party committees and promote the transformation of operational mechanisms. Third, regulate the official consumption, benefits, business expenses, and salary levels of enterprise management personnel. Fourth, improve the corporate legal person governance structure, establish a system of professional managers, promote the tenure system and contractual management for members of the board of directors and management, establish long-term incentive and constraint mechanisms, and explore the disclosure of major information such as enterprise financial budgets. At the macro supervisory level, the supervisory functions of regulatory bodies must be realized and efficiency improved to prevent asset loss. SOEs should become market entities that are responsible for their own profits and losses, operate independently, bear their own risks, develop themselves, and exercise self-restraint according to the law, ensuring they compete fairly with non-public enterprises. "Establish an evaluation system for SOEs to fulfill their strategic missions, improve the classified assessment and evaluation system for SOEs, and carry out accounting for the added value of the state-owned economy."

3. Strengthening the Construction of the SOE Talent Pool Regarding the construction of enterprise talent, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Market vitality comes from people, especially from entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial spirit." This emphasizes the great importance of the entrepreneurial spirit for the socialist market economy and enterprise construction. Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of talent in enterprises—especially cadres at all levels and innovative talent in SOEs. We must "focus on cultivating and creating excellent engineers, master craftsmen [19], and highly skilled talents, improving the quality of all types of talent; and build a world-class team of industrial technical workers." We should "allow more qualified SOEs to carry out various forms of medium- and long-term incentives for researchers, oriented toward innovation and creation." SOE leaders also play a vital role in the reform and development of SOEs; they are first and foremost the backbone for the Party in executing specific tasks in the economic field, and they are also important versatile talents for the Party and the state's economic and social construction, playing a key role in the supervision of state-owned assets and the realization of their maintenance and appreciation. Therefore, the construction of the SOE talent pool is particularly important. SOE talent must first be loyal to the Party; second, they must achieve results in innovation and enterprise governance; finally, requirements for the integrity and self-discipline of SOE cadres are essential. In the selection process, we must focus on cultivating a high-quality team of enterprise leading cadres, and adhere to the leadership and oversight role of Party organizations in the process of selecting and appointing talent.

4. Constructing Corporate Culture Corporate culture plays a role in enhancing enterprise cohesion, coordinating the relationship between the collective and the individual, and forming a value and goal orientation for enterprise development. In addition to the cultural soft power that any enterprise needs, the cultural construction of SOEs must reflect their status as the economic base and political guarantee of a socialist country. On one hand, SOE culture must have characteristics of the era and the enterprise, giving full play to the tradition of ideological and political work by Party organizations, the vanguard and exemplary role of Party members, and the role of primary-level Party organizations as "fortresses." It should uphold the values of loving one's job, professionalism, unity, and dedication, closely linking the fate of the enterprise with the development of the employees. On the other hand, SOE culture must adhere to the value orientation of serving the people, relying wholeheartedly on the working class, promoting the spirit of model workers, exercising the status of the working class as masters of the country, and safeguarding their legal rights and interests. This includes improving the system of employee representative congresses to ensure the full realization of the working class's rights to participate, to be informed, to supervise, and to express themselves.

IV. Conclusion General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform are an essential component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. His important discourses on Party building in SOEs represent a new achievement in the development of Sinicized Marxist Party-building theory. This demonstrates that in the process of SOE reform, using high-quality development to consolidate the role of SOEs as the political guarantee and economic base of our country's socialist system is key, and upholding Party leadership is the crux. One method of realization is to persist in the Party’s leadership over SOEs during the reform process, ensuring the direction of the socialist economic system, maintaining and increasing the value of state-owned assets and capital, making SOEs stronger, better, and bigger, fully realizing the superiorities of the socialist economic system, and enhancing the social benefits of SOEs. At the same time, we must strive to build SOEs into world-class enterprises, improving economic efficiency and strengthening their status as main entities in the socialist market economy.

The theoretical connotations of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are reflected in four dimensions: the fundamental guarantee, the strategic support, the principal path, and the vital driving force. First, "strengthening the leadership of the Party over SOEs" is the fundamental guarantee. The leadership of the Party is the unique strength and "root and soul" [20] of SOEs. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the leadership of the Party must be integrated into all aspects of corporate governance, ensuring that the Party organization plays a core leadership and political role in "setting the direction, managing the overall situation, and ensuring implementation." Second, "making state-owned capital and SOEs stronger, better, and larger" is the strategic support. This is the fundamental goal of SOE reform in the New Era, aiming to improve the core competitiveness and core functions of SOEs to better serve national strategies. Third, "perfecting the modern corporate system with Chinese characteristics" is the principal path. This requires organically combining the leadership of the Party with the improvement of corporate governance, transforming the institutional advantages of the Party's leadership into corporate governance effectiveness. Fourth, "stimulating the vitality of micro-entities" is the vital driving force. By deepening the reform of the Three Systems [21] and actively and steadily promoting mixed-ownership reform, the initiative and creativity of the broad masses of cadres and employees are fully mobilized.

In terms of guiding significance, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on SOE reform provide the fundamental follow-through [22] and action manual for deepening SOE reform in the New Era. These discourses have enriched and developed the Marxist theory of the state and the theory of state-owned economy, marking a new height in our Party's understanding of the laws governing the reform and development of SOEs. Under the guidance of these important discourses, the "1+N" policy system [23] for SOE reform has been continuously refined, and the Three-Year Action for SOE Reform has achieved decisive results. Looking ahead, to promote the high-quality development of SOEs on the new journey, we must persist in upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, focusing on the development of new quality productive forces. We must persist over the long term, deepening reform to enhance the core functions and improve the core competitiveness of SOEs, thereby providing a solid material and political foundation for the comprehensive advancement of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.