Yang Jun: On the Party's Comprehensive Leadership over Planning for Economic and Social Development
Under the Party’s comprehensive leadership, using medium- and long-term planning to guide economic and social development—persistently anchoring goals while uniting in struggle—constitutes an important method and a unique advantage of our Party’s governance of the country. To comprehensively advance the construction of a strong nation and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization is the central task of the Party on the new journey in the New Era. The "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan"), adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [1], closely surrounds this central task. It carries out systematic planning and strategic deployment for China's economic and social development during the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period, continuously advancing the construction of Chinese-path modernization to ensure that decisive progress is made in basically achieving socialist modernization.
"The most essential characteristic of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China; the greatest advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China." The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee clarified "Six Guideline Principles" that must be followed for economic and social development during the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the first of which is upholding the Party's comprehensive leadership. The Party's leadership is comprehensive, systematic, and holistic; it is reflected in all aspects including economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction, as well as national defense and the military, national reunification, foreign affairs, and Party building. It must be implemented in a comprehensive, systematic, and holistic manner. Regarding economic and social development, taking economic construction as the center is the core content of the Party’s basic line for the primary stage of socialism. Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Party exercises overall leadership and coordinates all efforts; economic work is the central work, and the Party's leadership must naturally be fully reflected in this central work." By the same token, since "development is the Party's top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country" and "high-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects," the Party's leadership must also be fully reflected in this "top priority" and "primary task."
To manage China's affairs well, the key lies with the Party. The Party's nature, purpose, beliefs, convictions, original aspiration and founding mission, organizational functions, and the strength of character and disciplinary requirements—combined with the Party's comprehensive leadership position in contemporary Chinese political life and its governance capacity and leadership level, as well as the power of the People's Government under CPC leadership to tax, regulate, and control assets and national income flows—determine that the Party's leadership plays a decisive and dominant role in the nature, goals, tasks, direction, path, momentum, results, and stages of economic and social development. It also points out the political direction, anchors the goals for struggle, plans the strategic principles, consolidates majestic strength, and provides powerful momentum for economic and social development, thereby becoming the key and fundamental basis for the success of China's economic and social development. Consequently, economic and social development must take the Party's comprehensive leadership as the first principle that must be followed, integrating it into all aspects and the entire process of economic and social development, and transforming our country’s institutional advantages into national governance efficacy and developmental advantages.
I. Using Medium- and Long-Term Planning to Guide Economic and Social Development is an Important Method of the Party's Governance
Setting the direction, managing the overall situation, formulating policies, and promoting reform are important manifestations of the Party's leadership. As the highest force for political leadership, the Communist Party of China possesses powerful national governance capabilities, enabling it to choose the correct direction of development, continuously formulate reasonable development goals, and efficiently mobilize resources across society to ensure the completion of these goals. This is a prominent advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Xi Jinping pointed out: "Using medium- and long-term planning to guide economic and social development is an important method of our Party’s governance." [We must] persist in using strategic planning to guide national economic and social development. By proposing recommendations for medium- and long-term plans, the Party's political propositions regarding the guiding principles, main goals, and key tasks of economic and social development are transformed into the will of the state. Furthermore, through the strategic layout of the government, the formulation and implementation of relevant policies, strategies, and supporting measures promote economic growth and social development, enhancing the country's developmental strength. The compilation and implementation of the Five-Year Plans for the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (referred to as "Five-Year Plans") is an important part of using medium- and long-term planning to guide economic and social development. The "Five-Year Plans" primarily plan for major national construction projects, the layout of productive forces, and important proportional relationships in the national economy, stipulating the goals and direction for the long-term prospects of national economic development. Under the Party’s leadership, the internal logic for using medium- and long-term planning to guide economic and social development is as follows:
(1) Ensuring the correct political direction of economic and social development and maintaining sustained and healthy development.
The Communist Party of China is a "union of 'isms'" [2]. The first priority of the Party's leadership is to hold high the banner and set the course, leading the political direction of the Chinese people’s advance. As Mao Zedong said in Yan'an: "This political direction is the road indicated to the people of the whole country. The political direction is like a person's head; only with the head can the other parts move." Since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the New Era, Xi Jinping has profoundly pointed out that whether we can successfully navigate the world's second-largest economy and whether we can maintain sustained and healthy economic and social development depends fundamentally on how well the Party's core leadership role in economic and social development is exercised. To this end, we must persist in ensuring that economic and social development strides forward along the correct political direction through medium- and long-term national economic and social development plans. First is ideological guidance. Theory is the precursor to action; the more profoundly theory reveals objective laws, the more powerfully it guides practice. By correctly understanding and grasping major theories at different stages of economic and social development, the CPC formulates strategic steps and policy principles for development and puts them into practice and promotion through the Party's leadership. Xi Jinping's Economic Thought, formed in the New Era, has put forward a series of new viewpoints, judgments, and requirements—such as high-quality development, high-quality life, high-efficiency governance, high-level opening up, and new quality productive forces—providing the guiding ideology and basic compliance for our comprehensive understanding of the goals and tasks of economic and social development, accurate grasp of its laws, and scientific analysis of its operational status. Second is the guidance of development concepts. Development concepts are the precursor to developmental action. Xi Jinping emphasized that development concepts "are things that manage the overall situation, the fundamentals, the direction, and the long-term; they are the concentrated expression of development ideas, directions, and focal points. When the development concept is correct, the goals and tasks are easy to set, and the policy measures will follow accordingly." Specifically, the development concepts embodied in medium- and long-term plans include adapting to changes in the principal contradiction of our society [3] and the central task, implementing the top-level design of Chinese-path modernization in specific steps, upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system and distribution system, ensuring the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation while better playing the role of the government, and adhering to the development requirements of innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing.
(2) Ensuring the people-centered development philosophy and the fundamental purpose of economic and social development to realize the unity of development, security, and stability.
Economic and social development is a practical activity of creating material and spiritual wealth to satisfy interests. Differing purposes of development constitute an important distinction between socialist and capitalist economies. The people’s standpoint is the fundamental political standpoint of the CPC; when the Party pursues reform and promotes development, the starting point and the ultimate goal are to realize the interests of the people. The fundamental purpose of the economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to continuously improve the level of the people’s material and cultural life and satisfy the real needs of the masses for a better life through the development of social productive forces. At the same time, the fundamental purpose of social development under the leadership of the CPC is to reflect the shared nature of development results, enhance the overall level of society, and promote well-rounded human development on the basis of economic growth. In socialist China, the People's Government under the leadership of the CPC possesses powerful national governance capabilities. By virtue of its power to tax and regulate, as well as its ability to control assets and national income flows, it can improve income distribution through taxation, social security, and public services. Under the Party’s comprehensive leadership, the formulation and implementation of medium- and long-term development plans can form a rational distribution pattern, crack the principal contradiction of society, and promote social fairness and justice more efficiently. First, through the setting of the tax system, we must construct an income distribution system in which primary distribution, redistribution, and tertiary distribution [4] are coordinated and integrated. We must strengthen the construction of public welfare, basic, and bottom-line people's livelihoods, solve the "urgent, difficult, and anxious" problems [5] of the masses, create a more inclusive and fair development environment, and allow everyone the opportunity to participate in and share the fruits of economic and social development. Simultaneously, by increasing transfer payments and expanding the coverage of social security such as unemployment insurance, pensions, and medical insurance, we can raise the level of protection, ensure that the basic living needs of vulnerable groups are met, alleviate poverty and inequality, and satisfy the interests of all social strata to the greatest extent.
Theoretically speaking, various aspects of economic and social development are never balanced, nor do they develop at an equal speed; relative balance can only be achieved through dynamic adjustment. This characteristic of imbalance and the state of dynamic adjustment will inevitably lead to the adjustment and reshaping of interest relations and interest patterns, which will generate various contradictions based on interest demands. This entanglement of interests is most evident during reform, because reform is a major adjustment of relevant interests. It inevitably "touches someone's cheese," which encounters the constraints of various complex relations. By formulating medium- and long-term development plans and making a series of strategic deployments in the field of social livelihood, we can promote the full coverage and high-quality construction of the public service system. This can effectively integrate the diverse interest demands of different subjects, optimize the interest pattern, coordinate interest relations across all sectors, and coordinate development and security, which is also conducive to the stability of reform and development. At the same time, in the process of formulating medium- and long-term development plans, the CPC unifies the strengthening of top-level design with the persistence of "consulting the people for advice" (问计于民), encouraging the broad masses and all sectors of society to offer suggestions and advice through various means, thereby consolidating a broad social consensus and stimulating the striving force of all the people.
(3) Giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation while better playing the role of the government.
Both theory and practice have proven that market allocation of resources is the most efficient form. Letting the market play a decisive role in resource allocation is the correct choice for China's existing reforms. At the same time, the market mechanism is not omnipotent; it possesses spontaneity, blindness, and lag, and it cannot inherently guarantee the fairness of income distribution. Problems such as information asymmetry, externalities, and insufficient supply of public goods lead to market failure, which requires necessary government intervention and regulation. Persisting in formulating medium- and long-term development plans under the Party’s comprehensive leadership is the fundamental guarantee for effectively overcoming market failure and realizing the organic combination of an effective market and a proactive government: First, through medium- and long-term planning, the government can play an important role in ensuring national economic security, achieving "secure and controllable" status in key areas such as major industries, infrastructure, strategic resources, and major science and technology, and enhancing the anti-shock capability of the industrial system. Second, by innovating and improving the government's macro-control system—with fiscal and monetary policies as the primary means and close coordination with policies on employment, industry, investment, consumption, environmental protection, and regional development—we ensure the synergy and consistency of economic and social development policies, timely "ironing out" fluctuations [6] in economic operation, and keeping the economy running within a reasonable range. Third, we strive to promote the construction of a unified, open, competitive, and orderly market system. On the basis of respecting market laws, through formulating rules, strengthening supervision, and improving the institutions and mechanisms for the market-oriented allocation of factors, we eliminate bottlenecks for factor expansion and efficiency improvement, reduce various institutional transaction costs, and maintain market order and fair competition to effectively protect legitimate rights and interests. Fourth, we must manage matters that the market does not handle well or cannot solve. Under the Party's leadership, through medium- and long-term development plans, we vigorously develop education, broaden employment channels, create space for entrepreneurship, expand social security, solve environmental problems, and improve public safety governance mechanisms to address fields where the market cannot function effectively. Fifth, medium- and long-term planning organically unifies the state's development concepts, development strategies, main goals, key tasks, and major measures within a certain period. This provides a clear attraction in the direction of development and a guide for the development path for the market and society, effectively boosting social confidence and correctly guiding market expectations.
(4) Guiding the rational and effective allocation of resource factors across cycles to efficiently mobilize resources across society and ensure the completion of goals.
The formulation and implementation of Five-Year Plans for National Economic and Social Development involve planning for major national construction projects, the distribution of productive forces, and key proportional relationships within the national economy over the coming five years. This process concerns how to optimize resource allocation and industrial development according to the nation’s economic structure, resource endowments, technical level, and socio-political conditions. It primarily includes the following aspects: First, the rational promotion of the layout of productive forces. This layout involves the rational allocation of factor resources across regions and the collaborative relationships within industrial chains. In the process of leading the formulation of policies for the layout of productive forces, the Chinese Communist Party comprehensively considers the conditions of the socialist market economy, changes in the international environment, and China’s specific national circumstances to ensure that the layout is scientific, precise, and efficient. Second, the rational layout of strategic industries. As a developing country, China urgently needs to enhance its industrial innovation capacity and promote economic development toward higher value-added sectors, seeking to move toward the medium-to-high end of the industrial value chain. This requires both the market mechanism to regulate micro-entities such as enterprises for continuous innovation, and forward-looking government planning and guidance to improve the allocation of production factors, strengthen scientific and technological innovation, and direct resources toward key and future industries to develop new quality productive forces. Third, promoting regional coordinated development and optimizing the spatial development pattern of the national territory. China’s regions possess vastly different natural resource endowments, characterized by strong regional economic imbalances and clear geographical divergence in economic development. Through medium-to-long-term strategic planning, the Party formulates differentiated industrial policies and regional development strategies, promotes the downward extension of high-quality social security resources, and extends a "helping hand" [7] to ensure that all regions give full play to their comparative advantages, deepen the inter-regional division of labor, resolve structural economic imbalances, and achieve mutual promotion and common development. Fourth, the rational planning of infrastructure construction. Infrastructure development has a "multiplier effect," capable of generating social demand and national income several times the initial investment. Whether a country or region’s infrastructure is sound constitutes an essential foundation for long-term, continuous, and stable economic development. Constructing a modern infrastructure system must, on the one hand, take the resolution of the most pressing, direct, and practical interests of the people as its starting point. On the other hand, decisions should be based on objective judgments consistent with actual development trends, "striving for the best while acting within one's means" [8], so that the supply of infrastructure matches the usage requirements and growth trends of related industries.
In summary, the Party's leadership over economic and social development emphasizes top-level design, overall layout, comprehensive coordination, holistic advancement, and supervision of implementation, effectively playing the role of setting the direction, managing the big picture, and ensuring implementation. This series of fundamental, directional, and strategic major principles transforms the Party's political, theoretical, and institutional advantages into powerful momentum for economic development. History has proven that the Party's comprehensive leadership is the most profound reason why "in the 70-plus years since the founding of the People's Republic, and especially the 40-plus years of reform and opening up, China has created the 'two miracles' of rapid economic growth and long-term social stability."
II. Planning Economic and Social Development Around the Central Task Under the Party's Leadership
"History is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims." Since its founding, all the struggles, sacrifices, and creations undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party in uniting and leading the Chinese people have been, in the final analysis, for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To realize this rejuvenation, we must build China into a great modern socialist country. Consequently, the Chinese Communist Party emphasized that in carrying out the New Democratic Revolution, "we are fighting not only to establish a New Democratic state but also for the industrialization of China and the modernization of its agriculture." After the founding of the New China, "from the First Five-Year Plan to the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan, the consistent theme has been building our country into a modern socialist country." In other words, the grand strategy of socialist modernization is implemented step-by-step through successive Five-Year Plans under the firm leadership of the Party. It is a conscious modernization characterized by goals, plans, and deployments, through which the CPC exerts historical initiative. It was precisely through these practical struggles that, from the "First Five-Year Plan" through the "Fifth Five-Year Plan," China built an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. From the "Sixth" to the "Thirteenth" Five-Year Plans, China finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, successfully achieving the First Centenary Goal and writing the most magnificent epic in the millennia-long history of the Chinese nation. The path of Chinese-path modernization was successfully opened, continuously advanced, and expanded. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has united and led the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to fulfill the historical task of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realize the First Centenary Goal. Historical changes and achievements have occurred in the cause of the Party and the state. As the era is the mother of thought and practice is the source of theory, in the practice of advancing socialist modernization, Xi Jinping has provided a thorough and in-depth exposition of the Chinese characteristics, essential requirements, and major principles of Chinese-path modernization, and has initially constructed its theoretical system.
The realization of socialist modernization is a historical process of step-by-step progression and continuous development that requires unremitting efforts and successive struggles. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era; this is a major judgment regarding China’s current historical orientation. The 19th CPC National Congress proposed that the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The 19th and 20th National Congresses made a "two-stage" strategic arrangement for the comprehensive buildup of a great modern socialist country. The report to the 20th National Congress clarified the central task of the Party on the new journey of the New Era: "to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese-path modernization." These major political judgments provide an important basis for formulating the Party and state’s major policies and long-term strategies. A prominent feature of the Five-Year Plans is their long-term layout, gradual adjustment, and continuous advancement. Modernization is the consistent theme, while specific goals advance with the times through constant adaptive adjustments. Thus, the objectives, tasks, ideas, and measures for formulating and implementing Five-Year Plans on the new journey must revolve closely around this central task, following the top-level design of Chinese-path modernization to maintain the continuity of the process. In fact, this is exactly what has happened: the 19th National Congress proposed using three Five-Year Plans to basically achieve socialist modernization by 2035. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [9] noted that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China’s economic and social development achieved new major successes, taking a solid step toward the Second Centenary Goal. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030) will be a critical period for consolidating the foundation and exerting full force. Successfully formulating and implementing the "15th Five-Year Plan" will lay a more solid foundation for basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035. Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must seize this window of time to consolidate and expand our advantages, break through bottlenecks, strengthen weak links, win strategic initiative in intense international competition, promote major breakthroughs in strategic tasks concerning the overall situation of Chinese-path modernization, and ensure decisive progress in basically achieving socialist modernization." The fundamental reasons why planning Five-Year Plans around the central task ensures the steady and sustained progress of Chinese-path modernization are as follows:
First, planning economic and social development under the Party's leadership establishes the central task of advancing the building of a strong nation through Chinese-path modernization and guarantees its fundamental direction. "Chinese-path modernization is socialist modernization led by the Chinese Communist Party. It contains features common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features unique to the Chinese context." At the same time, China’s modernization cause faces challenges such as a weak developmental foundation, arduous tasks, and difficulties in exploring the development path. Unlike short-term macroeconomic regulation, the guidance provided by medium-to-long-term planning is strategic, representing an overall deployment for economic and social development based on national strategic goals and the state's collective and long-term interests. The Five-Year Plans formulated under CPC leadership follow the top-level design of Chinese-path modernization, adhering to both the universal laws of modernization and the essential requirements of socialism. They form a strategic goal system regarding the overall, fundamental, long-term, and sustainable development of the state and society, determining the development goals for each stage and specifying key tasks, major projects, and important measures.
Second, by formulating scientific medium-to-long-term plans centered on the Party’s central task, we can effectively integrate resources, balance interests, and prevent or resolve risks. In the process of basically achieving socialist modernization, the "15th Five-Year Plan" period holds an important position as a bridge between the past and the future. During this period, China's economic foundation is stable, its advantages are numerous, its resilience is strong, and its potential is vast. The supporting conditions and basic trend for long-term improvement remain unchanged. However, the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development remains prominent, and we face deep-seated contradictions that cannot be avoided or bypassed, as well as an international situation with increasing uncertain and unpredictable factors—perhaps even "major tests of high winds, choppy waters, or even dangerous storms." The Chinese Communist Party is a modern political party organization with strong capabilities for integration and leadership. By formulating medium-to-long-term plans, assessing the situation, and grasping the dialectical relationship between crisis and opportunity, and certainty and uncertainty, the Party can more proactively respond to challenges and promote development. Meanwhile, guided by the people-centered development philosophy, the process of formulating medium-to-long-term plans allows for broad consultation and the formation of scientific, democratic decisions. This achieves a dialectical unity between instrumental rationality and value rationality in economic and social development, thereby helping to coalesce the strength of all parties, mobilize various resources, and inject inexhaustible momentum into Chinese-path modernization.
Third, through the formulation of development plans, the Party leverages its leadership advantages to ensure united struggle toward fixed goals with consistency. The Chinese Communist Party is a party with grand and firm ideals, possessing immense strategic resolve and historical patience. It is not disturbed by "high winds or choppy waters" nor misled by temporary events. Moving toward established goals, it can formulate scientific medium-to-long-term plans centered on the Party's central task and the laws of economic and social development. This ensures that Chinese-path modernization remains anchored to its struggle objectives and maintains the continuity of the modernization process. On this basis, by giving full play to the Party's core leadership role in overseeing the big picture and coordinating all parties, resources are mobilized toward key fields and critical links, guiding the efficient and optimized allocation of various resources and promoting synergistic efforts across society to continuously build the magnificent edifice of Chinese-path modernization.
Finally, reform is the "crucial move" [10] that determines the fate of contemporary China, and reform and innovation are the fundamental drivers of economic and social development. Through the formulation of medium-to-long-term development plans, we ensure that under the Party’s leadership, reform is further deepened across the board, providing strong momentum and institutional safeguards for advancing Chinese-path modernization. Practice has fully proved that reform "is the key to liberating and developing the social productive forces and the fundamental driver for national development." At the same time, only by exercising the Party's core leadership role in overseeing the big picture and coordinating all parties can we ensure that reform always serves the overall situation of economic and social development and the grand goals of Chinese-path modernization. This allows us to be less constrained and interfered with by various local interests and better promote transformations that benefit society as a whole. On the new journey of the New Era, we must integrate the promotion of economic and social development centered on high-quality development with the all-round deepening of reform centered on economic structural reform. By further deepening reform comprehensively, we must adjust and optimize social structures, economic systems, and political institutions, breaking down the institutional obstacles that restrict Chinese-path modernization and liberating and enhancing social vitality.
III. The More Effective Party Governance Is, the Stronger the Safeguards for Economic and Social Development
Fundamentally, the Chinese Communist Party's position of comprehensive leadership is rooted in its advanced nature. The "advanced nature" [11] of the Party refers to the traits inherent in its components, structure, and functions that are superior to those of other political parties. This advanced nature is concentrated in...
"[The Party's overall leadership is] reflected in the Party's scientific theory and correct line, principles, and policies, in the Party's governing capacity and level of governance, and also in the Party's rigorous organizational system and powerful organizational capacity." The Communist Party of China (CPC) stands at the forefront of the times and the people by virtue of its advanced nature, exercising "political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social mobilization" to lead the conduct of a great social revolution. At the same time, "an advanced Marxist party is not born, but is tempered through continuous self-revolution." If the CPC is to remain the backbone of the nation and the pioneer of the times, it must itself remain "tempered like steel." [12] If the vanguard leading the social revolution cannot manage itself—if its own capacity, conduct, organizational state, cadre quality, and leadership abilities cannot adapt to objective requirements—it will be unable to effectively lead the social revolution aimed at transforming the objective external world. How, then, can the Party ensure it remains "tempered like steel"? Xi Jinping emphasized: "It means having the courage to carry out self-revolution, the courage to turn the blade inward, to scrape the bone to treat the poison, [13] and to cut off one's own wrist like a brave warrior [14] to prevent 'trouble arising from within the palace walls.' [15] This is the fundamental significance of why our Party must continuously carry out self-revolution." In short, to govern the country, one must first govern the Party; only when the Party flourishes can the country be strong. Only through self-revolution, rendering itself "tempered like steel," can the CPC lead the social revolution.
On the new journey of the New Era, advancing Chinese-path modernization and promoting economic and social development are the fundamental requirements of the new great social revolution led by the CPC, and these must be advanced through the Party's self-revolution. Xi Jinping explicitly pointed out: "The more effective the governance and management of the Party, the stronger the guarantee for economic and social development." Simultaneously, he profoundly indicated the dialectical unity between the Party's self-revolution and economic and social development: "By means of the Party's self-revolution, promoting a new atmosphere of integrity, curing chronic ailments, creating a sound political ecosystem, encouraging cadres to take responsibility and act, and consolidating the hearts and strength of the people, we can continuously inject positive energy into economic and social development."
First, the great social revolution led by the Party—including economic and social development, Chinese-path modernization, and comprehensively deepening reform—is guided by principles and direction. The Party must maintain a clear head and understanding through self-revolution to ensure that the social revolution always maintains the correct forward direction amidst complex situations of struggle. Second, the continuous advancement of Chinese-path modernization and the fulfillment of economic and social development goals place higher requirements on the ideological realm, moral standards, mental state, Party spirit cultivation, and personal character of the vast number of party members and cadres. Through the Party's self-revolution, these cadres continuously enhance their own theory, spirit, perspective, quality, and capacity, thereby strengthening their leading, pioneering, and exemplary roles in leading economic and social development, ensuring they always keep pace with the requirements of the times, practice, and the people. Third, using the spirit of self-revolution to "turn the blade inward," the Party continuously breaks down those ideological concepts that lag behind the development of the times and social needs. It dares to touch deep-seated interest relations and contradictions, focuses on breaking down deep-seated institutional barriers and structural contradictions, and continuously resolves prominent problems existing in the promotion of economic and social development, clearing obstacles for the steady and sustained progress of Chinese-path modernization. Fourth, governing the Party with a spirit of reform and strict standards ensures the Party's unity and solidarity, improves the creativity, cohesion, and combat effectiveness of Party organizations at all levels, and injects systematically integrated organizational efficacy into the advancement of Chinese-path modernization, ensuring that various economic and social development policies are implemented effectively. Fifth, strengthening study and practice through the spirit of self-revolution resolves the problem of "competence anxiety," [16] improves the Party's ability and level in leading economic and social development, and enhances the capacity, quality, vision, courage, thinking ability, and "struggle spirit" [17] of party members and cadres, injecting a steady stream of positive energy into economic and social development.
In short, on the new journey of the New Era, Chinese-path modernization is the broad road, economic and social development is the central field, comprehensively deepening reform is the fundamental driving force, and the Party's self-revolution is the political guarantee; these four are unified under the supreme political principle of the Party's overall leadership. Together, they constitute a rigorous system of interlocking goal-guidance, power-support, and political-guarantee, forming the core paradigm of China's development in the New Era. This, in turn, demonstrates the historical consciousness and historical initiative achieved by a Marxist party in leading revolutionary changes in the economy and society.