Xin Xiangyang: Be Adept at Analyzing and Considering Issues from a Strategic Perspective
Attaching importance to strategic and tactical issues is a distinctive characteristic of a Marxist party; it is also an important guarantee for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to win victory after victory. On January 11, 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in a speech delivered at a provincial and ministerial-level leading officials' seminar on studying and implementing the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee: "Strategic issues are fundamental issues for a political party and a country. If the judgment on strategy is accurate, the strategic planning is scientific, and the strategic initiative is secured, then the cause of the Party and the people will be filled with great hope. Throughout the past century, the Party has always been able to understand, analyze, and judge the major historical tasks it faces from a strategic perspective at major historical junctures, and to formulate correct political strategies and tactics. This is a powerful guarantee for the Party to overcome countless risks and challenges and to continuously move from victory to victory." This discourse both expounds on the extreme importance of strategic issues for the development of the cause of a party and a nation, and emphasizes that strategic issues encompass factors such as strategic judgment, strategic planning, and strategic initiative. It is rich in connotation and possesses strong guiding significance.
Strategic issues are fundamental in nature. "Strategy involves making judgments and decisions based on the overall situation, the long term, and the general trend." Our Party is a large party with over 95 million members, leading a large country with a population of over 1.4 billion, and carrying out the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Regarding strategic issues, we must maintain a clear understanding, scientific planning, and a long-term vision. Reviewing the history of the Chinese revolution, construction, and reform, our Party has consistently attached high importance to strategic and tactical issues, insisted on integrating the basic principles of Marxism with China's reality and the characteristics of the times, and continuously proposed scientific strategies and tactics, achieving brilliant accomplishments. Since the 18th National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has comprehensively examined new international and domestic situations. By sizing up the situation [1], making scientific judgments, and engaging in deep reflection, the Party has seized and utilized important strategic opportunities, maintained strategic focus, and exercised overall command over the Great Struggle, Great Project, Great Cause, and Great Dream [2]. Facts have fully proven that an important reason why the series of original new concepts, new thoughts, and new strategies of governance proposed by our Party since the 18th National Congress are correct is that we have always grasped strategic issues: coordinating the Great Changes Unseen in a Century [3] with the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; and coordinately advancing the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives strategic layout.
Leading officials must be adept at strategic thinking and proficient at observing and contemplating problems from a strategic height. At this meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping cited a passage from Comrade Mao Zedong: "To sit on the command platform and see nothing would not be leadership. To sit on the command platform and only see the vast number of commonplace things that have already appeared on the horizon is mediocre and cannot be considered leadership either. Only when things have not yet appeared in large quantities or obviously—when the tip of the mast has just appeared—to be able to see that this is about to develop into something widespread and pervasive, and to be able to grasp it—that is called leadership." He particularly emphasized, "The kind of leadership Comrade Mao Zedong spoke of is strategic leadership." As leading officials in the New Era, one must possess the capacity for strategic thinking, historical thinking, dialectical thinking, innovative thinking, rule-of-law thinking, and bottom-line thinking. Among these, strategic thinking ranks first. On the road ahead, there remain various predictable and unpredictable risks and challenges. Only by continuously improving their capacity for strategic thinking, being adept at scientifically analyzing and judging the situation from the height of the times and the overall picture, correctly grasping the general trend and direction of the development of things, and truly looking ahead, thinking in advance, and planning the layout early, can leading officials plan according to the trend, act in response to the trend, and move with the trend. Only thus can they continuously enhance the principled, systemic, forward-looking, and creative nature of their work, overcome various risks and challenges, and continuously achieve new victories.
A correct strategy requires correct tactics for implementation. Tactics are formed under the guidance of strategy and serve that strategy. "To achieve victory in all aspects of the struggle, we must not only have strategic planning and a firm will to fight, but also tactics, wisdom, and methods." Therefore, we must persist in the dialectical unity of strategy and tactics, and combine strategic firmness with tactical flexibility. The most critical and important aspect is to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhere to the Party’s basic theory, basic line, and basic policy, deeply study and comprehend the decisive significance of the Two Establishments, strengthen the Four Consciousnesses [4], firm up the Four Confidences [5], achieve the Two Upholds, and keep the "top priorities of the nation" [6] in mind. We must coordinately advance the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives strategic layout, and effectively align our thoughts and actions with the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee. We must persist in "standing at a high height and doing work in a down-to-earth manner; simultaneously grasping the direction, major affairs, and long-term planning, while also identifying and managing the entry points and focal points of work; and accounting for both the 'large ledger' of the whole and the 'small ledger' of details." Just as Comrade Mao Zedong said, communists "should have the principled nature of a pine tree and the flexibility of a willow tree." Without strategic focus, tactics lose their anchor; without tactical vitality, strategic goals are difficult to realize. If strategic firmness and tactical flexibility are poorly combined, it will be impossible to turn crises into opportunities or challenges into openings; instead, problems such as being over-cautious [7], worrying about personal gains and losses, wavering, and losing one's footing [8] will arise, leading to missed development opportunities.
Presently, our country has embarked on a new journey toward the Second Centenary Goal [9]. Facing the impact of the pandemic of the century, the accelerating Great Changes Unseen in a Century, and an external environment that is becoming increasingly complex, severe, and uncertain, we must consciously align ourselves [10] with the Party's theories, lines, principles, and policies, calibrate deviations in a timely manner, and resolutely and unconditionally implement the strategic decisions made by the CPC Central Committee.
(Author: Xin Xiangyang, Special Researcher at the CASS Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)