Zhao Changwen and Zhang Yitian: Deepening the Understanding of the Regularities of Economic Work in the New Era
Since the 18th Party Congress, in the face of a severe and complex international environment and the arduous tasks of domestic reform, development, and stability, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has demonstrated great foresight and maintained a command of the overall situation. It has conducted profound reflections on many major theoretical and practical issues concerning economic development in the New Era, summarized and proposed a series of new concepts, new thoughts, and new strategies, and formulated and developed Xi Jinping economic thought. This has guided China's economic development in achieving historical successes and undergoing historical transformations. As a scientific guide to action for China's economic work in the New Era, much of the content of Xi Jinping economic thought regarding the regular understanding [1] of how to conduct economic work in the New Era is reflected in the spirit of the annual Central Economic Work Conferences. Studying this content deeply and organizing it systematically allows for a more profound understanding of the positions, viewpoints, and methods of Xi Jinping economic thought, thus transforming regular understanding into practical results in economic work.
Deep Understanding from the Perspective of Theoretical Contributions
Xi Jinping economic thought is a scientific and open theoretical system. It contains the summary of practical experiences from China’s economic development in the New Era and continues to deepen and enrich alongside practical developments, thereby exerting a massive guiding role on practice. Systematically organizing these regular understandings from the perspective of theoretical contributions allows us to categorize them into the following aspects:
First: Regular understanding regarding the insistence on the Party's centralized and unified leadership over economic work. The proposal to persist in and strengthen the Party's centralized and unified leadership over economic work is an original contribution of Xi Jinping economic thought.
The 2017 Central Economic Work Conference proposed that "we persist in strengthening the Party's centralized and unified leadership over economic work to ensure that our country's economy develops in the right direction," elucidating this major proposition. Since then, successive annual Central Economic Work Conferences have elaborated on this. For example, the 2018 conference proposed that the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee must be maintained to play its role in "steering the ship at the helm" [2]; the 2020 conference proposed that the authority of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental reliance for the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups to confront difficulties in times of crisis—at major historical junctures and before major tests, the Party Central Committee’s judgment, decision-making, and execution play a decisive role; the 2022 conference proposed that the Party's overall leadership, especially the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, must be upheld; and the 2024 conference explicitly emphasized that the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well. It can be seen that our Party's understanding of why and how to maintain centralized and unified leadership over economic work is continuously deepening.
Second: Regular understanding regarding the promotion of high-quality development.
In 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping made the major judgment at the 19th Party Congress that China's economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. The Central Economic Work Conference of that same year proposed that "promoting high-quality development is the fundamental requirement for determining development ideas, formulating economic policies, and implementing macro-control at present and for a period to come." Most of the regular understandings proposed at subsequent conferences have involved high-quality development. For example, the 2018 conference proposed that the current situation must be understood from the perspective of long-term general trends, recognizing the bright prospects for China's long-term improvement. This pointed out the prerequisite for "turning pressure into momentum to accelerate high-quality development." The 2021 conference proposed that high-quality development must be upheld, and that persisting with economic construction as the center is a requirement of the Party's basic line; the whole Party must concentrate on implementation and promote the steady improvement of economic quality and reasonable growth in quantity. This unified the persistence of taking economic construction as the center with the persistence of high-quality development. The 2022 conference proposed that development is the Party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country, and development must be high-quality development, implementing the new development philosophy fully, accurately, and comprehensively. The 2023 conference proposed that advancing Chinese-path modernization must be regarded as the greatest political priority [3]; under the Party's unified leadership, we must unite the broadest masses of the people, focus on the central task of economic construction and the primary task of high-quality development, and turn the grand blueprint of Chinese-path modernization into a beautiful reality step by step. The 2024 conference proposed that the relationship between cultivating new drivers and updating old drivers must be coordinated, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions; the relationship between improving quality and increasing total volume must be coordinated to consolidate the material foundation of Chinese-path modernization. These important expositions clarify the internal links between Chinese-path modernization, the central task of economic construction, development as the top priority, the new development philosophy, new quality productive forces, and high-quality development. High-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country; it is the concrete manifestation of persisting with economic construction as the center and development as the top priority. It is development that embodies the new development philosophy and takes the development of new quality productive forces as its inherent requirement and important focus. The regular understanding regarding high-quality development and its underlying principles is another original contribution of Xi Jinping economic thought, forming a systematic theoretical framework for promoting such development.
Third: Regular understanding regarding the starting point and the supporting forces of economic work. Development for the people is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy and a main thread running through Xi Jinping economic thought.
The 2017 Central Economic Work Conference proposed that the people-centered development philosophy must be maintained and integrated into the coordinated advancement of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives. In the practice of implementing the people-centered development philosophy, our Party has deepened its regular understanding of the starting point and supporting forces of economic work. For example, the 2018 conference proposed that the enthusiasm of all parties must be fully mobilized to form a powerful synergy for the overall work; the 2020 conference proposed that "putting people first" is the fundamental prerequisite for making correct choices—as long as the people are always in our hearts and their interests are placed in the highest position, we will surely be able to make correct decisions, determine the optimal path, and rely on the people to overcome all difficulties and obstacles.
Fourth: Regular understanding regarding macroeconomic governance. General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively proposed supply-side structural reform and pointed out that "the supply side and the demand side are the two basic means of managing and regulating the macroeconomy." This transcends Western economic macro-control theories that are limited to demand management and short-term regulation, pointing the way for improving the macroeconomic governance system. The 2018 conference proposed that the degree of macro-control must be accurately grasped, with proactive pre-adjustments, fine-tuning, and strengthened policy coordination; social concerns must be responded to in a timely manner to actively guide market expectations. The 2019 conference proposed that the intensity of counter-cyclical macro-policy adjustments must be handled scientifically and steadily, the vitality of micro-entities must be enhanced, and the main thread of supply-side structural reform must run through the entire process of macro-control. The 2023 conference proposed that we must persist in the synergistic force of deepening supply-side structural reform and focusing on expanding effective demand, leveraging the advantages of an ultra-large-scale market and strong production capacity so that the domestic cycle is built on the primary engine of domestic demand, while improving the quality and level of the international cycle. The 2024 conference proposed that the relationship between total supply and total demand must be coordinated to smooth the circulation of the national economy. These regular understandings of macroeconomic governance have made a series of major new judgments and expositions on strengthening macro-control and coordinating supply and demand. Since the New Era, our Party has correctly handled the relationship between supply management and demand management, achieving the organic unity of short-, medium-, and long-term goals; it has strengthened range-based, targeted, and discretionary control [4], proactively guided market expectations, and matured China's macroeconomic governance, playing a huge role in resisting economic risks and promoting high-quality development.
Fifth: Regular understanding regarding the enhancement of economic development momentum and vitality through deepening reform and opening up. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "More than 40 years of China's reform and opening up practice shows that reform is the key to liberating and developing social productive forces." Regarding this enhancement, the Central Economic Work Conferences have proposed a series of regular understandings. For example, the 2019 conference proposed being adept at using reform to break down institutional and mechanistic barriers to development and activate dormant development potential. The 2020 conference proposed that institutional advantages are the fundamental guarantee for forming a majestic force to overcome difficulties; as long as we remain firm in the "Four Confidences" and persist in the institutional advantage of concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks, we will surely unite the entire Party and people to exert powerful energy. The 2022 conference proposed to persist in and improve the basic socialist economic system, persist in the direction of socialist market economy reform, and adhere to the "Two Unswervinglys" [5]; it also emphasized high-level opening up and the steady expansion of institutional opening up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. The 2023 conference proposed relying on reform and opening up to enhance endogenous development momentum, coordinating deep-level reform and high-level opening up. The 2024 conference proposed coordinating the relationship between an effective market and a capable government to form an economic order that is both "dynamic" and "under control." These regular understandings cover the relationship between reform and development and reform and opening up, as well as the core of deepening reform, its direction, goals, and paths. Based on these, reform and opening up in the New Era has always been accompanied by the process of economic quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, forming a favorable situation where reform, opening up, and high-quality development promote each other.
Sixth: Regular understanding regarding the coordination of development and security. As the "changes unseen in a century" [6] accelerate their evolution and the world enters a new period of turbulence and transformation, the security risks facing China's development have risen significantly, making the importance of coordinating development and security increasingly prominent.
The 2019 conference proposed strengthening risk awareness and firmly holding the bottom line of preventing systemic risks. The 2020 conference proposed that scientific and technological self-reliance is the fundamental support for the overall development situation; as long as we uphold the scientific spirit, grasp scientific laws, and vigorously promote independent innovation, we can build national development on a safer and more reliable foundation. The 2023 conference proposed that we must persist in the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security, promoting high-level security through high-quality development and guaranteeing high-quality development through high-level security, so that development and security achieve dynamic balance and complement each other. These regular understandings provide new ideas and directions for sustainable development and open up new theoretical and practical horizons for secure development.
Seventh: Regular understanding regarding the methodology of economic work.
The 2017 conference proposed sticking to a problem-oriented approach in deploying new economic strategies; maintaining correct work strategies and methods, seeking progress while maintaining stability, maintaining strategic resolve, and adhering to bottom-line thinking. The 2020 conference proposed that scientific decision-making and creative responses are the fundamental methods for turning crises into opportunities. The 2021 conference proposed persisting in seeking progress while maintaining stability, grasping the timing, degree, and effectiveness of policy adjustments and reforms, and insisting on "establishing the new before breaking the old" [7] while making steady progress; it also emphasized strengthening coordination and persisting in the systems concept. The 2022 conference proposed the general work guideline of seeking progress while maintaining stability, persisting in seeking truth from facts, respecting laws, the systems concept, and bottom-line thinking, taking practice as the standard for testing various policies and work effectiveness. These are the methodologies for doing economic work. The formulation of "seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, establishing the new before breaking the old, and system integration and coordination" from the 2024 conference is a comprehensive embodiment and innovative application of these methodologies.
Reflecting the Dialectical Unity of the Three Logics
Xi Jinping economic thought’s content regarding the regular understanding of economic work in the New Era profoundly refines and summarizes the regular results of China's economic development practice. It possesses scientificity and truth, a people-centered nature and practicality, and an openness and timeliness, reflecting the dialectical unity of theoretical logic, historical logic, and practical logic.
These regular understandings [8] deeply grasp the essential attributes and temporal characteristics of China's economic development, profoundly elucidating the fundamental guarantee and fundamental standpoint of our economic development, thereby opening up new frontiers for contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy. Strengthening the Party's comprehensive leadership over economic work is the fundamental guarantee; adhering to the people-centered development philosophy is the fundamental standpoint; and adhering to and improving the basic socialist economic systems—such as the dominance of public ownership alongside the common development of multiple ownership forms, the dominance of distribution according to work alongside the coexistence of multiple distribution modes, and the socialist market economy system—constitute the institutional foundation. These regular understandings profoundly reveal that under the conditions of profound changes in the principal contradiction of our society [9], development must be high-quality development; we must implement the new development philosophy completely, accurately, and comprehensively, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, and accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces. These regular understandings contain a series of original concepts with rich connotations and scientific value, making important principled contributions to the enrichment and development of Marxist political economy.
These regular understandings run through the past, present, and future, representing the inheritance and innovation of experiences in advancing Chinese-path modernization, particularly economic construction, across different historical periods. Chinese-path modernization is a major achievement attained by our Party leading the people of all ethnic groups through long-term exploration and practice, enduring countless hardships and paying a massive price. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Party united and led the people in self-reliance and hard struggle, completed the socialist transformation, and established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. In this process, our Party formed valuable experiences such as adhering to seeking truth from facts and adjusting the relations of production. In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, our Party made the historic decision to shift the focus of Party and state work to economic construction and to implement reform and opening up; it established and continuously improved the socialist market economy system, joined the World Trade Organization, and actively integrated into the world economic system. The economy sustained rapid development, achieving a historic breakthrough from a state of relatively backward productive forces to the world's second-largest economy by aggregate volume. In this process, our Party formed valuable experiences such as accurately grasping changes in the principal contradiction of our society and formulating correct lines, principles, and policies for economic work. Since the 18th National Congress [10], the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has coordinated the overall strategy for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the world's profound changes unseen in a century. It has coordinately advanced the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives, deeply implemented a series of major strategies such as the strategy for invigorating the country through science and education, the strategy on developing a quality workforce, and the rural revitalization strategy, and promoted transformations in quality, efficiency, and momentum, leading the nation's economic strength, technological prowess, and comprehensive national power to new heights. The regular understandings gained in this process not only inherit the precious experience gained from the Party's leadership over economic construction in history but also form new insights and construct a scientific theoretical system based on new developmental practices.
These regular understandings originate from the economic practice since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the New Era, and are innovative achievements made by the Party leading the people to adapt to changes in the developmental stage, environment, and conditions. From the new development philosophy and high-quality development to the solid promotion of common prosperity, the logical main thread is adapting to the change in the principal contradiction of society, focusing on resolving the contradiction between the people's ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. From the "triple overlapping of factors" [11] and the new normal of economic development to the new development stage, and from supply-side structural reform to winning the "three tough battles" [12] and expanding domestic demand, the logical main thread is the profound understanding and effective resolution of new major problems arising in the operation of China's economy. From the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" to the construction of a new development pattern, the logical main thread is adapting to and grasping profound changes in the external environment. These are all major decisions made in accordance with the principal contradiction and the principal aspect of the contradiction [13] faced by China's economic development.
Better Guiding Practice with Regular Understandings
The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference proposed the regular understanding of "one maximum consensus and five must-proportional-coordinations" [14]. Since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, this regular understanding has been transformed into powerful practice for promoting high-quality economic development, ensuring that the Chinese economy overcomes risks and challenges and demonstrates strong vitality and resilience.
Handling the relationship between the government and the market is the core issue of economic structural reform. We must coordinate the relationship between an effective market and a proactive government, focusing on building a high-level socialist market economy system, creating a fairer and more dynamic market environment, and stimulating the endogenous impetus and innovative vitality of the whole society.
Supply and demand are a dialectical relationship of both opposition and unity in a market economy. We must coordinate the relationship between total supply and total demand, organically combining the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reform. Effort must be applied and coordinated on both the supply and demand ends to form a higher-level dynamic equilibrium where demand pulls supply and supply creates demand, thereby smoothing the national economic cycle.
The transition of momentum in economic development is essentially a continuous process of technological progress and industrial upgrading. We must coordinate the relationship between cultivating new momentum and updating old momentum, giving full play to the comparative advantages of various regions, and insisting that the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries proceed hand-in-hand with the cultivation and consolidation of emerging and future industries, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions.
From the perspective of the national economic cycle, optimizing the increment and revitalizing the stock [15] can, in a sense, be understood as seeking progress while maintaining stability and promoting stability through progress. We must coordinate the relationship between optimizing the increment and revitalizing the stock, using optimized increments to revitalize the stock and revitalizing the stock to optimize increments, forming a virtuous cycle between existing assets and new investment to comprehensively improve the efficiency of resource allocation.
Economic development is a process of unifying "qualitative change" and "quantitative change." We must coordinate the relationship between improving quality and expanding the total volume. We must value both the continuous and incremental "quantitative change" characterized by expanding scale and total volume, as well as the fundamental and abrupt "qualitative change" characterized by enhancing quality and increasing efficiency, unifying the effective improvement of quality with the reasonable growth of quantity throughout the entire process of high-quality development.
The Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (hereinafter referred to as the Suggestions), adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, provide a top-level design and strategic blueprint for development over the next five years. Studying and grasping the regular understandings of doing economic work in the New Era not only helps us further implement Xi Jinping Economic Thought in depth but also enables us to better understand the general ideas, important principles, main goals, strategic tasks, and major measures for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period proposed in the Suggestions. This ensures that the developmental blueprint drawn in the Suggestions becomes a beautiful reality and ensures that decisive progress is made in basically achieving socialist modernization.