Yang Rongrong: Cultural Foundations for Empowering High-Quality Development
Innovation culture refers to cultural forms related to innovation. It is a comprehensive cultural ecosystem encompassing innovative values, institutional arrangements, and practical norms, serving as the most significant internal drive and external environment for leading and promoting innovative practice. Since the 18th Party Congress [1], General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to cultivating a culture of innovation and has delivered a series of important discourses. Deeply studying and implementing these discourses is of profound strategic significance for breaking down the institutional obstacles and cultural barriers that restrict innovative development, empowering economic and social development through culture, and accelerating the construction of a great modern socialist country.
On March 13, 2016, while attending the plenary meeting of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) delegation during the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that all levels must respect the principal status of officers and soldiers, give play to their pioneering spirit, and vigorously promote a culture of innovation. This aims to stimulate the courage to innovate resolutely, the mettle to be the first [2], and a vigorous upward spirit, encouraging everyone to strive to be promoters and practitioners of innovation so that planning, promoting, and implementing innovation becomes a conscious action of the entire military. Innovation capacity is the core competitiveness of an army and a necessary requirement for adapting to military struggle preparations in the New Era and improving the People's Army's ability to win. Currently, the development of military technology presents an unprecedentedly diversified innovation pattern; the coupling effect where "technical foundation determines tactical quality, and tactical innovation forces technical renovation" has become increasingly obvious. Cultivating a pioneering spirit, building an innovation ecosystem, and enriching the soil for innovation are keys to stimulating the vitality of military scientific and technological innovation and ensuring self-reliance and self-strength in military technology. "Those who know how to win battles are among the ranks" [3]; front-line officers and soldiers are at the forefront of reform and transformation. They best understand the difficulties and bottlenecks in military construction and are the practical subjects and powerful force for promoting the continuous deepening of the reforms to strengthen the armed forces. Only by consistently maintaining the unity of the front-line soldiers' principal status and their leading role in innovation—consulting the troops on major decisions, seeking solutions for tactics and training methods from the troops, and pooling the troops' wisdom to tackle difficult problems—can we create a favorable innovation environment for them. This ensures they maintain strategic resolve during technical breakthroughs, dare to act when breaking through bottlenecks, and achieve success in the transformation of results, thereby allowing the spring-wells of innovation to flow fully and the fruits of reform to burst forth, consistently gaining the initiative and seizing the head start in global military transformation.
On October 18, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in the report to the 19th Party Congress the need to advocate a culture of innovation and strengthen the creation, protection, and application of intellectual property rights (IPR). IPR is closely related to innovation and creation; more effective, high-level, and targeted IPR protection can effectively stimulate the vitality and potential of innovation and creation. Currently, our country is transforming from a major importer of IPR to a major creator of IPR; the primary task is to improve the understanding of the importance of IPR protection work. We must strengthen publicity and guidance, proceeding from the height of national strategy and the requirements of entering a new stage of development, to guide all sectors of society to comprehensively strengthen IPR protection, providing a strong guarantee for implementing the new development philosophy, constructing a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development. Driven by digital technology, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing deeply; the transformation and application of IPR is a vital link in innovation-driven high-quality development. We must strengthen the top-level design of IPR protection work, increase the creation and reserve of independent IPR in key fields, steadily improve the level of the rule of law in IPR protection work, strengthen the whole-chain protection of IPR, and coordinate the promotion of international cooperation and competition in the field of IPR. We must continuously release the creative tension that empowers high-quality development to ensure that we march toward "newness" in the process of advancing toward the Second Centenary Goal [4], injecting surging kinetic energy into high-quality economic development.
On October 16, 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in the report to the 20th Party Congress the need to cultivate a culture of innovation, carry forward the spirit of scientists, cultivate a fine style of study, and create an atmosphere for innovation. Scientific achievements cannot be separated from spiritual support. Entering the New Era, Chinese science and technology has gradually shifted from "following" to "running alongside" and "leading" in more fields, marching toward the goal of building a global power in science and technology. We need to vigorously carry forward the spirit of scientists more than ever before. We must strengthen mission-driven incentives and spiritual leadership within the culture of scientific and technological innovation. Since the 18th Party Congress, our country’s scientific and technological undertakings have achieved historical transformations and historical achievements, which are inseparable from the selfless struggle of scientists; we must continue to carry forward the patriotic spirit of having the motherland in one's heart and serving the people. We should leverage the value-leading and demonstrative role of innovation culture construction to further inspire and encourage the vast number of scientific and technological workers to strive to be creators of major scientific research achievements and practitioners of promoting Chinese-path modernization through scientific and technological modernization, better promoting the continuous emergence of scientific ideas and innovative results. We must practice scientific views on talent and achievement evaluation, earnestly strengthen the construction of study styles, and help scientific and technological workers strengthen their ideals, focus on scientific research, and become dedicated contributors to building a scientific and technological power. We should give full play to talent advantages, actively prepare talent reserves, and pave the way for the growth of young scientific and technological talents through institutional design and development paths, providing sufficient reserve forces for the implementation of our country's innovation-driven development strategy and the construction of a modern industrial system through the cultivation of scientific and technological talent.
On March 5, 2023, while participating in the deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation at the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system, vigorously cultivate a culture of innovation, improve the scientific and technological evaluation system and incentive mechanisms, and create a favorable environment for innovative talents to stand out and display their talents. Deepening the reform of the scientific and technological system is the institutional guarantee for cultivating a culture of innovation. Innovation is not "water without a source" [5]; the cultivation of innovation culture must be based on China's national conditions and rely on the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Institutional guarantees are first reflected in the establishment of innovation incentive mechanisms, making the crystallization of researchers' wisdom truly create value through the improvement of the transformation mechanism for scientific and technological achievements, and letting all kinds of innovative talents stand out by optimizing the innovation evaluation system. We must create an atmosphere that is tolerant of failure and establish a sound mechanism for allowing and correcting errors, giving innovators more room for trial and error in areas such as research fund management and performance appraisal, so that "encouraging innovation and tolerating failure" is transformed from a concept into specific institutional arrangements. We must break down institutional obstacles, adhere to the integrated connection of the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain, take the deep integration of industry, academia, and research as the lead, improve the technology-finance system, and refine the talent mobility mechanism. This allows innovation elements to achieve optimal allocation under the action of market laws, which can both leverage the advantage of "concentrating resources to accomplish large undertakings" [6] and stimulate the innovation vitality of the market and society, continuously transforming institutional advantages into innovation efficiency, and making the culture of innovation truly a distinct hallmark of Chinese-path modernization.
On June 24, 2024, at the National Science and Technology Conference, the National Science and Technology Award Conference, and the General Assembly of the Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the adherence to cultivating a culture of innovation, inheriting the innovative genes of fine traditional Chinese culture, and creating a favorable environment that encourages exploration and tolerates failure, so that respecting science and pursuing innovation become common practice throughout society. Advancing with the times and renewing according to the situation. The Chinese nation has been an innovative nation since ancient times, and its profound innovation culture has nurtured numerous innovations and creations that shine in the annals of history. We must inherit the innovative genes of fine traditional Chinese culture and make them the deep soil for cultivating the spirit of innovation. We should cultivate a culture of innovation that possesses both national depth and contemporary vitality, deepen the modern interpretation of traditional ideological resources, promote the application of traditional wisdom in fields such as scientific and technological innovation and social governance, and promote the deep integration of traditional culture with modern innovation. We must strive to build an open and inclusive innovation ecosystem, advocate for multicultural dialogue, promote exchange and mutual learning between traditional culture and modern civilization, improve the policy support system, create a social atmosphere that encourages exploration and tolerates failure, guide social resources to tilt toward the field of traditional cultural innovation, and stimulate the innovation vitality of the entire nation. The five thousand years of innovative wisdom of Chinese civilization enlighten us that only by combining the cultural gene of "if you can renovate yourself one day, do so from day to day, and let there be daily renovation" [7] with contemporary scientific and technological innovation practices, and by cultivating a culture of innovation within the promotion of the "Second Combination" [8], can we form an innovation paradigm with Chinese characteristics and provide a majestic spiritual force for accelerating the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strength.