Xin Xiangyang and Liu Xukuan: The most fundamental thing is to manage our own affairs well
General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at a workshop for provincial and ministerial-level leading officials themed "Studying the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Important Speeches and Welcoming the 20th Party Congress." He emphasized: "The whole Party must strengthen its awareness of potential dangers, adhere to bottom-line thinking [1], fortify the will to struggle, and enhance the ability to struggle. We must respond to changes, nurture new opportunities, and open up new vistas through correct strategies and tactics. We must rely on tenacious struggle to open up new horizons for the development of our cause. The most fundamental thing is to do our own business well." This demonstrates the historical clarity and political resolve of the Party Central Committee in coordinating the strategic overall goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the world's profound changes unseen in a century [2]. It reflects a response to the general trends of history and shifting global dynamics. We must unify our thoughts and actions with the strategic judgments and policy deployments of the Party Central Committee. With a spirit of perseverance, a rock-solid resolve, the sentiment that "success must involve my contribution" [3], and the confidence to dare to fight and win, we must do our own business well. In doing so, we will further consolidate the powerful material foundation for national and Party prosperity, continuously enhance our strong resilience in the face of the century of changes, and firmly grasp the time and momentum [4] to control our own destiny.
Profoundly Understanding Why High Emphasis is Placed on "Doing Our Own Business Well"
Placing the development of the country and the nation on the foundation of our own strength. As the lay saying goes: eat your own food, shed your own sweat, and do your own business yourself. This is true for individuals, and equally true for countries and nations. In the history of human development, no country has ever become strong by relying on external forces, nor has any nation achieved revitalization by merely following in others' footsteps or "picking up the scraps of others' wisdom" [5]. Comrade Deng Xiaoping said, "China's affairs must be handled according to China's circumstances and by relying on the strength of the Chinese people themselves. Independence and self-reliance have been, are, and will always be our starting point." General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "Self-reliance is the fighting base for the Chinese nation to stand among the family of nations in the world." The Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party's Centennial Struggle, looking back at the hundred-year journey, pointed out that "independence and self-reliance are the soul of the Chinese national spirit and an important principle for our Party and country." Placing the destiny of the nation and the future of the country on the foundation of our own strength, and unfolding a great cause through self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-strengthening, is both a historical conclusion and a requirement of Marxist dialectics.
Firmly grasping the destiny of development and progress in our own hands. Dreamers with the ambition to revitalize China must also be doers of innovation and entrepreneurship. Only by transforming great dreams into down-to-earth actions, doing our own business solidly, and implementing the tasks of reform, development, and stability can we achieve our dreams step by step. History only favors the steadfast, the enterprising, and the courageous; it does not wait for the hesitant, the apathetic, or those who fear difficulties. Throughout the hundred-year journey of revolution, construction, and reform, and at several major historical junctures over the century, the Party has united and led the people in walking our own path and handling our own business. We have always maintained strategic resolve, stood on the right side of history, and moved from victory to victory while responding to terminal risks and challenges. It is fair to say that without the total commitment to the destiny of the Chinese nation's development, the "splendid achievements that amaze the world" [6] would be impossible. Without the strenuous struggle to control our own destiny, it would be impossible to write the most magnificent epic in the thousands of years of Chinese history.
In the ten years since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the risks and challenges we have encountered have been high-winded and turbulent, sometimes even tempestuous. Various risks and challenges have followed one after another, with an unprecedented level of complexity and severity. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Maintaining resolve, strengthening confidence, and concentrating our energy on handling our own business well is the key to our response to various risks and challenges." Over the past decade, we have persisted in and improved the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, continuously advanced the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance, and established a more mature and well-defined institutional guarantee necessary for national rejuvenation. We have insisted that development is the top priority, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driver. We have strived to build the strategic support of a modernized economic system, laying a more solid material foundation for national rejuvenation. We have cultivated and promoted the core socialist values, firmly practiced the great founding spirit of the Party, and stimulated a more proactive spiritual force for entrepreneurship throughout society... The historical achievements and historical changes in the cause of the Party and the country in the New Era prove with irrefutable facts that as long as we concentrate on doing our own business well, no country and no person can block the historical pace of the Chinese nation in achieving its great rejuvenation.
Grasping the Methodology of "Doing Our Own Business Well"
Opposing empty talk, emphasizing practical work, focusing on our main duties, and stressing implementation are the excellent traditions of our Party. In the process of our struggle, our Party has persisted in identifying the right direction, taking steady steps, and walking the path beneath our feet. In the process of opening up new horizons for our cause and creating new situations for development, we have explored and accumulated unique experiences in doing our own business well.
Grasping historical initiative and seizing historical opportunities. The power of initiative is an extremely important matter. As Comrade Mao Zedong said, "The power of initiative is 'the momentum of a house-top water-pour' or 'splitting bamboo'" [7]. To do our own business well, we must first grasp historical initiative and achieve historical insight into the future. Specifically, this means using the Party's historical experience as an important ideological weapon for correctly judging the situation, scientifically predicting the future, and grasping historical initiative, so as to better observe, grasp, and lead the times. We must use the Party's historical experience as an important guideline for thinking about problems, making decisions, and handling affairs, and be adept at drawing from history to enhance the resolve, courage, and ability to win the initiative, gain advantages, and secure the future. At the same time, by seizing development opportunities and making good use of favorable conditions, we can win strategic initiative and usher in the development of our cause. The CPC is the party most adept at making strategic decisions and the party most adept at making strategic determinations at critical moments. At every major historical juncture, our Party always attaches great importance to the analysis and judgment of the development environment, especially opportunities and challenges. We are adept at combining strategic firmness with tactical flexibility. Proceeding from fundamental interests and the long-term overall situation, and with a high sense of historical responsibility and political courage, we set the direction, grasp the general trend, and plan the big picture, thereby seizing opportunities, making decisions, and turning the tide.
Following the theory of internal causes and the theory of points of emphasis to promote the development of our cause. In the process of the development of things, external causes are the conditions for change, while internal causes are the basis for change, and external causes operate through internal causes. The difficulties and problems we currently face are indeed directly related to the influence of external factors such as the rise of anti-globalization and trade protectionism and the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we must recognize that we must grasp the principal contradiction and the principal aspect of the contradiction [8]. We must effectively solve the prominent problems affecting the construction of the new development pattern and the realization of high-quality development, as well as the prominent problems affecting the production and life of the masses. These are the internal causes. We must follow the new development philosophy of innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing. We must make forward-looking arrangements in policy, increase the intensity of structural reforms, correct distortions in factor allocation, expand effective supply, improve the adaptability and flexibility of the supply structure, and increase total factor productivity. Without distinguishing between the primary and the secondary, and "grabbing the eyebrows and the beard all at once" [9], we will be unable to solve problems or do our work well. We must adhere to a problem-oriented approach, base ourselves on the new development stage, and lead deep-level reforms with key breakthroughs. Based on the reality of the transformation of the principal contradiction in Chinese society, our Party emphasizes better meeting the people's growing needs for a better life. This includes meeting their expectations for better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher levels of medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. We strive to resolve the difficult problems of unbalanced and inadequate development. This is the manifestation of adhering to the theory of internal causes and the theory of points of emphasis.
We Must "Do Our Own Business Well" to Walk the New "Road to the Exams"
Embarking on a new journey, to provide a successful answer for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the clarity and resolve of "taking an exam" [10], we must focus on the major practical issues of persisting in and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. We must continue to concentrate our efforts on handling our own business well, continuously enhance our country's comprehensive national strength, and constantly open up new realms of development and progress.
Firmly upholding the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Direction determines the path, and the path determines destiny. To keep destiny in our own hands, we must have the resolve not to change our aspirations or our path. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Walking our own road is the starting point for all the Party's theories and practices, and it is the historical conclusion drawn from the Party's hundred-year struggle." In its hundred years of struggle, the Party has always persisted in proceeding from China's national conditions, exploring and forming the correct path that fits China's reality. This is a path "trampled out from a place where there was no road, and opened up from a place where there were only thorns." The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a broad road for contemporary China to catch up with the times in long strides, create a better life for the people, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Standing on Chinese soil, inheriting Chinese civilization, and walking the correct path that fits China's national conditions, the Party and the people have an incomparably vast stage, a profoundly deep historical heritage, and an incomparably powerful forward resolve.
The people are the source of strength that facilitates the great development of our cause. "Of all things in heaven and earth, the people come first" [11]. The people are the creators of history and the greatest source of resolve for the CPC in responding to all changes in the global situation. To ensure the Party always possesses an inexhaustible source of strength, to ensure the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics always has the most reliable backbone, and to ensure the maximum mobilization of the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the masses, we must do more good and practical deeds that satisfy the people. We must prioritize the people's interests, keep the people's expectations in mind, sincerely listen to the voices of the masses, truthfully reflect their wishes, and genuinely care about their hardships. We must distribute the "cake" [12] that we continue to grow properly, so that the superiority of the socialist system can be more fully demonstrated, and the masses can have a greater sense of gain, happiness, and security. As long as we adhere to the principal position of the people, respond to the people's yearning for a better life, and continuously realize, maintain, and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest masses—ensuring that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people—all tempestuous waves will be overcome.
Breaking the "stranglehold" [13] dilemma with self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology. If a country's scientific and technological lifeblood is held in the hands of others, it is equivalent to having its throat gripped by destiny. Countless painful lessons warn us that the only way to climb the world's scientific and technological heights is independent innovation, and enhancing scientific and technological innovation capability is the only "magic weapon" to break the "stranglehold" bottleneck. Today, we are moving toward high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology. From achieving world leadership in quantum communication, artificial intelligence, and 5G, to the Chang'e-5 mission's sampling from an extraterrestrial body, the Tianwen-1 mission's journey to Mars, and the Xihe satellite's breakthrough in solar exploration, "China Innovation," "China Smart Manufacturing," and "China Creation" have become the bright name cards of China in the New Era. However, we must remain sufficiently clear-headed. Faced with Western patent barriers and suppression of cutting-edge technology, we must compensate for "short boards" [14] in weak areas, create "long boards" in strong areas, and deploy "innovation boards" aimed at future needs. We must persist in the core position of innovation in the overall modernization drive, take scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development, and fortify the determination of the Chinese people to do their own business well. Carrying forward the tenacious will of independence, we must break through the scientific "Iron Curtain" woven by the West and the technical blockades that overseas forces are constantly intensifying. We should actively implement a strategy of international scientific and technological cooperation, gradually leaping over territorial limitations and man-made barriers.
Staying at one's post and performing one's duties, serving the people and serving the motherland with a "selfless state" [15]. In 2017, when General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in a thematic organizational life meeting of his Party branch as an ordinary member, he emphasized: "I hope everyone first builds themselves well. During this critical period, take special care to do your own business well, demand strictly of yourselves by the standards of a Communist Party member, and make no mistakes in your work." For ordinary Party members and cadres, doing their own business well primarily means performing their duties and striving to overcome the problems of insufficient competence, the "sense of competence anxiety" [16], and lagging competence, avoiding the plight of being "lost due to little knowledge, blind due to no knowledge, and chaotic due to ignorance." Whether it is a new problem or an old one, whether it is a long-standing problem or an old problem in a new form, the only way to recognize and solve it is to enhance one's own capability. To this end, we must constantly enhance the scientific, predictive, and proactive nature of our work. Our actions should reflect the spirit of the times, grasp the laws of reality, and be rich in creativity. Facing the future with a strong sense of political responsibility and historical mission, we must not be disturbed by specious opinions or trapped by the malice of hostile forces. We must distinguish priorities in thousands of complex tasks, follow the Party's call, implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, always prioritize the cause of the Party and the people, and welcome the successful opening of the 20th Party Congress with practical actions.