Zhang Xiaojing: The Historical Context, Core Themes, and Rich Connotations of Xi Jinping's Economic Thought | Marxism Research Network

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era. Over the past decade, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has calmly responded to an extremely complex domestic and international situation. It has withstood the tests of risks and challenges arising from politics, the economy, ideology, and the natural world, successfully steering the overall landscape of China’s economic and social development. The cause of the Party and the state has achieved historical accomplishments and undergone historical transformations. In the midst of this great historical change, General Secretary Xi Jinping, based on a new historical positioning ^[1], has assessed the situation and creatively applied Marxist political economy to propose a series of new theories, ideas, and strategies. These have answered major theoretical and practical questions, such as how to perceive and undertake economic development in the New Era, thereby forming and developing Xi Jinping Economic Thought.

Xi Jinping Economic Thought is the culmination of the Party’s economic theory and practical innovation in the New Era. It is a precious spiritual asset for the whole Party and the people of the entire nation, and serves as the fundamental compliance ^[2] for guiding China’s economic work in the New Era. Currently, the "changes unseen in a century" are accelerating, and the characteristics of changes in the world, the times, and history have become more pronounced. China’s development faces new strategic opportunities, tasks, stages, requirements, and environments; the risks, challenges, contradictions, and problems that must be addressed are more intricate than ever before. Great Thought leads a Great Era. As an important component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Xi Jinping Economic Thought serves as a scientific guide for responding to various risks and challenges and leading the Party and the people toward the Second Centenary Goal ^[3].

I. The Macro-Context of the Times for Xi Jinping Economic Thought

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Currently, China is in its best period of development since modern times, while the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century; the two are intertwined and resonating simultaneously." Coordinating the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the world’s changes unseen in a century (the "Two Overalls") is the fundamental starting point for our work and constitutes the macro-context of the times for Xi Jinping Economic Thought.

From a domestic perspective, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process. Armed with the theme of high-quality development and the fundamental goal of meeting the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, we have promoted changes in the quality, momentum, and efficiency of economic development. We have achieved a great leap forward in the process of national rejuvenation, delivering an answer sheet that satisfies the people, catches the world's attention, and deserves a place in the annals of history. From an international perspective, emerging economies represented by China are rising rapidly, the global economic map is undergoing unprecedented and profound shifts, and the international balance of power is seeing revolutionary changes. The trend of "the East rising and the West declining" ^[4] has become unstoppable.

The strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the world’s changes unseen in a century are not two parallel "overalls," but rather possess multifaceted and deep-level linkages. Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has maintained a steady and rapid development trend, and the process of national rejuvenation has continuously advanced. This has caused the world economic map to trend toward "the East rising and the West declining," driving the international landscape from quantitative to qualitative change and becoming the primary force behind the evolution of the global order. Thus, we see that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is a vital cause of the changes unseen in a century and highlights its most distinctive feature. Mastering the "Two Overalls" hinges on seizing the initiative and leadership of the great rejuvenation; changes in the external environment—or the world’s transformation—depend on China’s own actions and on "running China’s own affairs well."

From a historical perspective, China is in and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism. The final demise of capitalism and the final victory of socialism will inevitably be a long historical process. Therefore, the two social systems of socialism and capitalism will necessarily undergo long-term cooperation and struggle. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "For a considerably long period, socialism in its primary stage must still engage in long-term cooperation and struggle with a more productive capitalism, must earnestly learn from and draw upon the beneficial civilizational achievements created by capitalism, and must even face the reality that people will use the strengths of developed Western countries to compare and criticize the deficiencies in our own socialist development." Over the past 40-odd years, China’s economic development unfolded against the backdrop of integration into the tide of globalization; the socialist and capitalist systems coexisted harmoniously, with cooperation outweighing competition. Today, after more than 40 years, this keynote has changed. It is no longer "harmonious coexistence" but "competitive coexistence." Competition generally outweighs cooperation, necessitates "engaging in a great struggle" ^[5].

The interaction of the "Two Overalls" and the competition between the two systems clearly delineate the macro-context of the era in which we live. Faced with such epochal changes, the questions of how to perceive and undertake future economic development urgently require a new theoretical logic and a new guide for action. Xi Jinping Economic Thought emerged at this historic moment, leading us to scientifically grasp the profound and complex changes in the internal and external development environments, concentrate our energy on running our own affairs, continuously strengthen comprehensive national power, improve the people’s lives, and write a new chapter in socialist modernization.

II. The Core Theme of Xi Jinping Economic Thought: "Economic Development"

"Economic development" is the core theme (or keyword) of Xi Jinping Economic Thought. The recently published Study Outline for Xi Jinping Economic Thought consists of thirteen chapters, twelve of which use the term "economic development" in their subheadings. Centered on the theme of "what kind of development to achieve and how to achieve it," the Outline systematically expounds on thirteen major theoretical and practical propositions regarding China's economic development: its fundamental guarantee, fundamental standpoint, historical positioning, guiding principles, path selection, distinctive theme, institutional foundation, strategic measures, primary driver, main points of focus, important "magic weapon" ^[6], and important safeguards.

Why is economic development so important? The key lies in the fact that China is the world's largest developing country and remains in the primary stage of socialism. Development is always the foundation and key to solving all our country’s problems; we must prioritize development as the Party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country. To realize the ambitious strategic goal of socialist modernization, economic development is the bedrock.

Furthermore, coordinating the "Two Overalls" places new requirements on China’s economic development in the New Era.

From an international perspective, China's economy has maintained sustained high-speed growth for over 40 years, creating a "growth miracle" that has reshaped the global economic order. In the next 30 years, China needs to maintain steady growth under multiple constraints and challenges. Only by doing so can it provide a solid material foundation to resist various risks and challenges and ensure the smooth completion of the Second Centenary Goal.

From a domestic perspective, synthesizing three major constraints—accelerated population aging and an earlier-than-expected population peak, the uncertainty of the pandemic, and the potential risk of China-US technological decoupling—and overlaying these with high debt levels, the wealth gap, and the "Dual Carbon" goals ^[7], China faces severe challenges in maintaining relatively fast economic growth. The downward pressure on growth rates causes institutional and structural problems—previously masked by high growth—to "surface like rocks when the tide recedes." Risks in various fields such as finance, fiscal policy, industry, and trade are intertwining and transforming, testing the bottom line of preventing systemic risk. We must persist in taking economic construction as the center, persist in the "Two Unwaveringlys" ^[8], and persist in the "hard truth" that development is essential. We must strive to maintain the necessary growth rate and effectively improve the quality of development, resolving various risks and challenges through development to ensure the ship of socialist modernization sails steadily and far.

III. The Rich Content of Xi Jinping Economic Thought: The "3+4+5+1" Framework

The content of Xi Jinping Economic Thought is extremely rich. For the sake of brevity, we summarize its main components using the formula "3+4+5+1," which covers four aspects: fundamental compliance, the theme and main line, important levers, and work methods.

(1) The "3": The Fundamental Compliance for China's Economic Development China’s economic development must adhere to three fundamental points (fundamental compliance): the Party’s comprehensive leadership, the people-centered approach, and the basic economic system.

First, strengthening the Party’s comprehensive leadership over economic work is the fundamental guarantee for China's economic development. "Party, government, military, society, and education; east, west, south, north, and center—the Party leads everything." Development is the Party’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country. Strengthening centralized and unified leadership over all economic work is the Party's mission and the fundamental institutional guarantee for contemporary China's progress. Since the 18th National Congress, the historical achievements in reform, development, and stability are fundamentally rooted in the Party’s role in overseeing the big picture and coordinating all parties. Entering a new stage of development, the international environment is more complex, and the contradictions of unbalanced and inadequate domestic development remain prominent. Only by giving fuller play to the core role of the Party Central Committee can we ensure the smooth implementation of central policies and provide a strong political guarantee for economic and social development.

Second, adhering to the people-centered development philosophy is the fundamental standpoint of China's economic development. The CPC always takes the people's yearning for a better life as its goal and unswervingly follows the path of common prosperity. Fundamentally, high-quality development is about shifting from "whether there is enough" to "how good it is"—development that well-satisfies the people's growing needs is people-centered development. First, we must "make the cake" bigger and better through the collective struggle of the people to lay a solid material foundation for social fairness and justice; then, through reasonable institutional arrangements, we must "slice the cake" well to handle the relationship between growth and distribution, allowing the superiority of the socialist system to be fully manifested.

Third, adhering to and improving the basic socialist economic system is the institutional foundation for China's economic development. The basic economic system—with public ownership as the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership developing together, distribution according to work as the mainstay alongside multiple modes of distribution, and the socialist market economy—is a vital pillar of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based in the New Era, we must persist in the "Two Unwaveringlys," maintain the direction of socialist market economy reform, and effectively use both the "invisible hand" and the "visible hand." We must set a more prominent position for the systematic integration of reforms to ensure their effective implementation, promoting a high-efficiency linkage between institutional reform and economic development.

(2) The "4": The Theme and Main Line of China's Economic Development The "Three News and One High"—basing ourselves on the New Development Stage, implementing the New Development Philosophy, and constructing the New Development Pattern, thereby promoting High-Quality Development—constitutes the theme and main line. The New Development Stage defines our historical positioning; the New Development Philosophy is the guide for action; and the New Development Pattern is the strategic path. Together, they aim to achieve changes in the quality, efficiency, and momentum of development.

The New Development Stage is the basic context for analyzing development in the journey toward the Second Centenary Goal. We must continue to promote Chinese-path modernization and achieve the quantitative accumulation necessary for a qualitative leap to become a great modern socialist power.
The New Development Philosophy is the theoretical precursor for practice, answering questions regarding the purpose, power, and path of development.
Constructing the New Development Pattern is the primary direction of attack. The key is to rely on the advantages of the massive domestic market to ensure the economy functions normally and society stays stable even under extreme conditions.
High-quality development is the solution to the problem of "unbalanced and inadequate development," which is the concentrated expression of the problems in China's development in the New Era.

(3) The "5": Important Levers for China's Economic Development The following five strategic measures are the important levers for implementing the New Development Philosophy:

First: Deploying major national strategies such as Rural Revitalization, Coordinated Regional Development, and People-Centered New-Type Urbanization. These aim to implement the concept of coordinated development, ensuring that low-income populations and underdeveloped regions share in the fruits of development and do not fall behind in the modernization process.

Second, adhering to innovation-driven development serves as the primary engine for China’s economic development. This aims to implement the concept of innovative development and provide new kinetic energy for growth. It is essential to maintain the core position of innovation in the overall context of China’s modernization drive. We must organically combine the advantages of the whole-nation system ^[9] in concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks, the market mechanism’s strength in efficiently allocating resources, and the new kinetic energy provided by digital technologies and data factors. This involves establishing a technological innovation system where enterprises are the main body, the market is the orientation, and there is deep integration of production, education, and research. We must enhance our capacity for independent innovation and promote high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology.

Third, vigorously developing manufacturing and the real economy is the primary focus of China’s economic development. The real economy is the foundation of a nation’s economy and the source of its wealth; manufacturing is a crucial component of the real economy. We must insist on placing the focus of economic development on the real economy, advancing the upgrading of the industrial foundation and the modernization of industrial chains. We must promote a strategic shift in manufacturing from quantitative expansion to quality improvement and facilitate the integrated development of the digital and real economies. It is necessary to properly manage the relationship between the real economy and finance, allocating more financial resources to key areas and weak links in economic and social development to better satisfy the diverse financial needs of the people and the real economy.

Fourth, unswervingly expanding opening-up in an all-round manner is an important "magic weapon" for China’s economic development. This aims to implement the concept of open development, using opening-up to promote reform and development. Opening-up brings progress, while closure inevitably leads to backwardness; only through open cooperation can the path become broader. Through deepening internal reforms and expanding external opening-up, we must build a new system for a higher-level open economy. This will realize a new development pattern where high-level, sustainable domestic circulation and domestic-international dual circulation mutually reinforce and interact positively, more efficiently connecting internal and external markets and sharing factor resources.

Fifth, coordinating development and security is an important guarantee for China’s economic development and an inevitable requirement for achieving safe development. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee formally incorporated the coordination of development and security into the guiding ideology for China’s economic and social development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. This closely links "achieving development of higher quality, higher efficiency, greater fairness, more sustainability, and greater security" with adherence to the new development philosophy. We must comprehensively implement the new development philosophy and the holistic approach to national security ^[10], basing innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development on the foundation of safe development. We must dialectically grasp the relationship between development and security, maintaining that development is the greatest form of security. By firmly grasping the initiative in development and maintaining a dynamic balance between development and security, we can achieve a positive interaction and dynamic equilibrium between high-quality development and high-level security.

(4) "1": The methodology for performing economic work

A distinct feature of Xi Jinping’s economic thought is that it simultaneously focuses on solving practical problems in economic reform and development—establishing correct ideas and policies and deploying the tasks for "crossing the river"—while also emphasizing scientific epistemology and methodology, adhering to correct working methods and strategies to solve the problem of "the bridge or the boat" ^[11].

First, adhering to the general principle of seeking breakthroughs while maintaining stability. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The general principle of seeking breakthroughs while maintaining stability is an important principle for our governance of the country and a methodology for performing economic work." There is an organic, unified, and mutually reinforcing dialectical relationship between "stability" and "breakthroughs." "Stability," with its focus on steady economic operation, is the tone and the overall situation for economic work. Only by establishing this major prerequisite can steady economic and social development be achieved. On the premise of "stability," we must seek progress in key areas, acting proactively while maintaining a proper sense of degree to strive for new progress, breakthroughs, and results in economic and social development.

Second, adhering to the systems concept. The systems concept is a foundational ideological and working method. Upon entering the new stage of development, China’s development environment faces profound and complex changes. Problems of unbalanced and inadequate development remain prominent, and contradictions in economic and social development are intricate. We must plan and solve these from a systems perspective, coordinating the promotion of work in all fields and the building of socialist modernization. In the process of implementing the new development philosophy and constructing the new development pattern, we must adhere to the systems viewpoint and the unity of the "two-point theory" and "priority theory" ^[12]. Following the integrity and interconnectedness of the new development philosophy, we must conduct systematic design around the overall strategic requirement of "taking the domestic circulation as the mainstay while the domestic and international dual circulations mutually reinforce each other," ensuring they advance together rather than acting in isolation or neglecting one for the other.

Third, adhering to the combination of goal-orientation and problem-orientation. Emphasizing goal-orientation is significant for building consensus, clarifying direction, and highlighting priorities. Adhering to problem-orientation means being adept at using the recognition and resolution of contradictions as a breakthrough point to open up new situations in work. In economic work, we must combine these two orientations to formulate reform and development strategies—taking the goal as the aim to enhance the sense of direction and planning, while taking the problem as the focus to enhance precision and effectiveness.

Fourth, concentrating energy on managing our own affairs. In today's world, the combined impact of changes unseen in a century and the pandemic of the century means we will face an external environment with more "headwinds and contrary waters." The key to responding to these changes is to concentrate energy on managing our own affairs. We must transform external pressure into a driving force for deepening reform and expanding opening-up, responding to various risks and challenges by continuously liberating social productive forces, improving the quality of development, and enhancing comprehensive national strength, thereby gaining the initiative in international competition and shifting the international balance of power in a direction favorable to us.

Fifth, adhering to the "spirit of driving nails" in implementation. Success depends ten percent on deployment and ninety percent on implementation. Once strategic goals are determined, the key lies in maintaining stability and continuity in work, "drawing one blueprint to the end." ^[13] We must organically combine vigorous, swift action with persisting over the long term, using the "spirit of driving nails" ^[14] to persevere in deployment, implementation, and supervision, turning established scientific goals into reality through down-to-earth efforts.

IV. Taking Xi Jinping’s economic thought as a guide to construct an independent Chinese system of economic knowledge

Xi Jinping’s economic thought is not only a scientific guide for future economic work but also the fundamental instruction for advancing the innovative development of political economy with Chinese characteristics. We must fully grasp the scientific, people-centered, epochal, practical, and open nature of Xi Jinping’s economic thought, as well as the "Chinese characteristics" it contains. More importantly, we must profoundly grasp its originality—it answers many major theoretical and practical questions of the New Era that classical Marxist writers did not address, that our predecessors never encountered, and that Western economic theories have consistently failed to explain, thus enriching and developing Marxist political economy. This includes: creatively proposing the strengthening of the Party's comprehensive leadership over economic work, enriching the theory on the relationship between economics and politics; creatively proposing the people-centered development philosophy, enriching the theory on the essence of the socialist economy; creatively proposing the establishment of and adherence to the new development philosophy, enriching the theory on the principles of economic development; creatively proposing the major judgment that China’s economy has transitioned from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, enriching the theory on the stages of economic development; creatively proposing important ideas on improving the socialist market economy system, enriching the theory on the market economy; creatively proposing the major policy of supply-side structural reform, enriching the theory on the relationship between production and demand; creatively proposing the major strategy of constructing the new development pattern, enriching the theory on social reproduction; and creatively proposing the important ideas of promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity and promoting the healthy development of economic globalization, enriching the theory on the world economy. The original theoretical contributions of Xi Jinping’s economic thought are undoubtedly an important ideological source for an independent Chinese system of economic knowledge.

Standing at a new historical starting point, economic theorists must take Xi Jinping’s economic thought as their guide, adhere to problem-orientation, grasp Chinese characteristics, face the important phenomena in China’s economic reform and development, and respond to the "questions of the era" in the economic field. We must unfold the Chinese economic narrative from a Chinese perspective, Chinese logic, and Chinese framework to accelerate the development of Chinese economics. In this process, we must maintain the guiding position of Marxism, extract the essence of the CPC’s century-old economic thought, draw nourishment from China’s excellent traditional economic thought, and simultaneously absorb and learn from the beneficial components of modern Western economic theory. By continuously integrating the economic development practice of the New Era, we will sublimate Chinese experience into Chinese theory, distilling a series of original and iconic new categories and paradigms, promoting the innovative development of Xi Jinping’s political economy with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, and constructing an independent Chinese system of economic knowledge.