Li Yuju and Lian Xin: Understanding the Bright Foundations of the Chinese Economy — Studying and Applying "Questions and Answers on Studying Xi Jinping's Economic Thought"
Since the 18th Party Congress, in the face of a complex and severe environment at home and abroad, the great ship of the Chinese economy has braved the wind and waves to forge ahead with courage and resolve. Through the magnificent practice of economic construction, Xi Jinping Thought on Economy has been formed and developed, providing scientific theoretical guidance for promoting high-quality development in our country. As the latest achievement in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxist political economy, Xi Jinping Thought on Economy profoundly reveals the internal logic behind the bright prospects of the Chinese economy. Recently, Study Q&A on Xi Jinping Thought on Economy (hereinafter referred to as the "Q&A") was published and distributed. Divided into 14 sections and 50 questions, it adopts a Q&A format to provide in-depth, comprehensive, and precise answers to a series of hot-button issues and difficulties in our country’s economic development. It serves as an important auxiliary reading for the vast number of Party members, officials, and the masses to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Economy. Studying and using the Q&A well to understand the bright undertones of the Chinese economy is of great significance for unifying thinking, building consensus, and opening up new frontiers for the development of our cause.
Understanding the Greatest Advantage: Party Leadership
To manage China's affairs well, the key lies with the Party; to do economic work well, the key lies in persisting with and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership. Marxism holds that the economy is the foundation of politics, and politics is the concentrated expression of the economy. Strengthening the Party’s overall leadership over economic work is the fundamental guarantee for our country’s economic development.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that "the greatest advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China." Economic work is the central task of the Party and the state; doing economic work well is a major mission for the Communist Party of China in governing and administering the country. Since the 18th Party Congress, affected by the sustained sluggishness of the world economy following the international financial crisis, our country's economic development has faced multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical crises. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has shown farsightedness and a holistic grasp of the overall situation, comprehensively strengthening strategic planning and unified leadership over economic work, leading the Chinese economy to achieve historic accomplishments. At key stages of development and major historical junctures, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of major judgments and made a series of major policy deployments, ensuring that the ship of our country's economy sails steadily and reaches far.
The second section of the Q&A systematically explains why we must persist with and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over economic work, how to transform the institutional advantages of the Party’s leadership into governance efficacy, and how to improve the Party's ability and level of leading economic work. It provides clear guidance for a profound understanding of the distinct characteristics and institutional advantages of the Chinese economy. Strengthening the Party's overall leadership over economic work is conducive to giving full play to the greatest advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This advantage is reflected in our complete set of systems and mechanisms for the Party to lead economic work: the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee regularly studies and analyzes the economic situation; the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission (Leading Group) and the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform (Leading Group) promptly study major issues and reforms in economic and social development; the Central Economic Work Conference [1] sets the policy tone every year; and effective supervision through political inspections [2] ensures that the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee are implemented and take root. This advantage is also reflected in our Party’s approach to governance. Taking the formulation of the Five-Year Plan as an example, the Plenum of the Party Central Committee puts forward planning recommendations, the State Council formulates the draft outline of the plan, and the National People’s Congress reviews, approves, and promulgates it for implementation, effectively transforming the Party’s propositions into the will of the state and the collective action of the entire society. This advantage is even more apparent in "concentrating resources to accomplish major undertakings" [3]. By persisting with the "whole country as a single chessboard" [4] and leveraging the advantages of the new-type nation-wide system [5], we concentrate resources in key national areas, helping the Chinese economy respond calmly to risks and challenges and move forward steadily.
Understanding the Primary Productive Force: Innovation
The Chinese economy is often compared to a giant ship or a high-speed train; the reason for its positive development momentum lies in its superior power system. Only with a strong power system can economic development maintain lasting vitality and competitiveness. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "innovation is the primary force driving development" and "to advance Chinese-path modernization, science and technology must lead the way, and technological innovation is the only path," profoundly elucidating the key role of innovation in modernization construction.
The tenth section of the Q&A systematically explains the important significance of innovation-driven development, as well as the focal points for developing new quality productive forces, achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and comprehensively cultivating, introducing, and utilizing talent. It provides authoritative theoretical guidance for unswervingly following the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics. By understanding the innovation drive, one understands the secret and bright prospects of China's economic development miracle. Currently, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, and global competition is focused on technological innovation. Only by grounding development in innovation can we break free from traditional path dependency and achieve a transition in momentum. Since the 18th Party Congress, our country has maintained the core position of innovation in the overall modernization drive, taking self-reliance and strength in science and technology as the strategic support for national development. In 2025, total social R&D investment exceeded 3.92 trillion yuan, with an R&D intensity of 2.8%, and the innovation index ranking rose to tenth globally. Significant breakthroughs have been made in fields such as manned spaceflight and lunar and Mars exploration. Innovation has become a powerful engine for promoting high-quality development.
Advancing innovation-driven development fundamentally depends on enhancing the capacity for independent innovation, and the key lies in utilizing talent as the primary resource. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "In today's world, competition in comprehensive national strength is, in the final analysis, a competition for talent and the quality of laborers," and "innovation-driven development is, in essence, talent-driven." Our country has become a major power in human resources, training more than 5 million STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates annually. Total scientific and technological human resources and the total number of R&D personnel rank first in the world. The continuous release of the talent dividend provides a solid foundation for innovative development.
Looking to the future, we must unswervingly place innovation at the core of the overall national development situation, persist in the integrated advancement of education, technology, and talent, optimize the innovation ecosystem, lead industrial innovation through technological innovation, and actively cultivate and develop new quality productive forces to inject inexhaustible momentum into the high-quality development of the Chinese economy.
Understanding the Foundation: The Real Economy
Looking at the history of industrialization, the world powers of the past were generally powers in the real economy. A survey of the global development landscape over the past half-century shows that some countries that neglected the real economy and allowed for industrial hollowing-out [6], even if they enjoyed brief financial prosperity, eventually and inevitably faced development dilemmas such as structural imbalances, social fragmentation, and declining competitiveness. An important reason why some countries fell into the "middle-income trap" was the weakening of their real economies.
The real economy is the foundation of a country's economy, the fundamental source of wealth creation, and an important pillar of national strength. Manufacturing is the basis of the real economy. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that our economy started with the real economy and must rely on the real economy to move toward the future. The eleventh section of the Q&A profoundly explains the important position of the real economy in the national economy, as well as the focal points for promoting high-quality development in manufacturing and making the digital economy stronger, better, and larger, providing a detailed commentary for vigorously developing manufacturing and the real economy.
Since the 18th Party Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the development of the real economy, unswervingly grasping it so that industrial competitiveness has gradually improved, making our country’s "national foundation" stronger and its "family assets" thicker. In 2025, the added value of manufacturing as a share of GDP remained stable at around 25%, and the scale of manufacturing has ranked first in the world for 16 consecutive years. Our country is the only one in the world to possess all industrial categories. Traditional industries have accelerated their transformation and upgrading, with the newly installed capacity of industrial robots accounting for over 50% of the global total. The comprehensive energy consumption per unit of products such as steel and cement clinker has generally reached advanced world levels. Emerging industries have accelerated their lead, with the production and sales of new energy vehicles ranking first in the world for 11 consecutive years, and the international market share of the shipbuilding industry leading globally. Future industries have made breakthroughs, with the overall level of laser manufacturing technology entering the world's top tier, and the application of brain-computer interfaces expanding from the medical field to education and other sectors.
No matter how much the economy develops, the real economy is the foundation for our country’s economic development and for winning the initiative in international economic competition. We must persist in placing the focus of economic development on the real economy, unswervingly build a country strong in manufacturing, quality, cyberspace, and digital technology, promote the advancement of the industrial foundation and the modernization of the industrial chain, and improve economic quality, efficiency, and core competitiveness.
Understanding the Important Magic Weapon: Comprehensively Expanding Opening-Up
Opening-up brings progress, while closure inevitably leads to backwardness; this is a correct conclusion tested by history and practice. In the past, China's economic development was achieved under open conditions; in the future, the realization of high-quality development must also be carried out under even more open conditions. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "an important driver for the continuous and rapid development of our country's economy is opening up to the outside world." The twelfth section of the Q&A profoundly explains the strategic considerations and practical requirements for building a new system for a higher-level open economy, promoting the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, and leading economic globalization. it provides an action guide for unswervingly and comprehensively expanding opening-up, participating in and leading global economic governance, and promoting win-win cooperation.
Since the 18th Party Congress, our country has persisted in the correct direction of economic globalization, steadily expanding institutional opening-up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. We have built a network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world, forming a pattern of opening-up to the outside world characterized by a wider scope, broader fields, and deeper levels. Our country's total trade in goods has ranked first in the world for many years, the scale of trade in services remains among the world's leaders, digital trade is developing rapidly, and the "Invest in China" gold-lettered brand continues to shine. The resilience and vitality of the open economy have opened up greater development space for China and provided brand-new development opportunities for the world.
In today's world, changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and the global economy is searching for direction amidst the mist. To profoundly understand the bright undertones of the Chinese economy, one must understand the role China plays and the responsibilities it shoulders within the grand coordinates of global economic governance. The inherent contradictions of the traditional economic globalization model led by a few Western countries have become increasingly prominent, and the logic of neoliberalism has exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, bringing global governance to a new crossroads.
The greatness of a major power lies not in its physical size, but in its contribution and sense of responsibility. Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping, with the whole world in mind, has creatively put forward the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity and four global initiatives [7], contributing Chinese wisdom to solving global development problems. China is an advocate of new concepts of global governance and, moreover, a man of action who integrates knowledge with practice. We firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, promote the implementation of the RCEP, and develop the "Belt and Road" Initiative with high quality. "Luban Workshops" [8] cultivate talent, and "small yet beautiful" [9] livelihood projects benefit thousands. We actively promote the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the improvement of artificial intelligence governance, expanding from "hardware" public goods to "software" and institutional public goods.
Unswervingly and comprehensively expanding opening-up is an important magic weapon for our country's economic development. Only by unswervingly following the path of open development, developing ourselves through integration into the world, and benefiting the world through our own development—while promoting the construction of an open world economy—can we shape a favorable external environment for our own high-quality development and paint a new picture of win-win cooperation between China and the world.
Understanding the Important Guarantee: Coordinating Development and Security
From the principles of economics and sociology, security is the most basic "public good" for the operation of a market economy and social prosperity. From the logic of national prosperity and development, a stable economic order helps guarantee employment and allows the masses to live and work in peace and contentment, providing a solid support for internal national stability. Solid economic security is the prerequisite for our country to seize the initiative in international competition and cooperation. The thirteenth section of the Q&A profoundly explains the major principles, key areas, and practical requirements for coordinating development and security, providing a framework for promoting the positive interaction between high-quality development and high-level security.
Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions on coordinating development and security, creatively putting forward the Holistic Approach to National Security. He has emphasized promoting the positive interaction between high-quality development and high-level security, providing scientific guidance for responding to the complex changes in the international and domestic environments. In recent years, our country's economic resilience has significantly increased. Grain production has shifted from "having enough to eat" to "eating well," with total grain output firmly on the 1.4-trillion-jin plateau [10] and per capita grain possession exceeding 500 kilograms. We have focused on creating industrial and supply chains that are self-controllable, safe, and reliable, forming strong advantages in fields such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and 5G. Breakthroughs in key core technologies in key areas such as integrated circuits and basic software have been continuously made, effectively offsetting the risk of external "decoupling and breaking chains" [11]. We have woven a tight and solid social safety net, with basic medical insurance covering over 1.33 billion people in 2025. The protection capabilities of network infrastructure have been continuously enhanced, with a cumulative 21,000 various network security threats handled in 2025. The process of the rule of law in cyberspace has been accelerated, effectively safeguarding cyber sovereignty and the legitimate rights and interests of the people.
Practice has fully proved that, from high social stability to solid economic resilience, and to the self-controllability of grain, energy, industrial and supply chains, and science and technology, a solid foundation has been laid for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. We must firmly hold the bottom line of secure development, effectively prevent various "black swan" and "gray rhino" events, and achieve high-level security within high-quality development while guaranteeing high-quality development with high-level security, providing important support for achieving long-term stable development.