Zhu Xiqun: Adhering to High-Quality Development Is an Important Element of the Outlook on Performance
General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly noted: "High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects, and adhering to high-quality development must become an important component of the outlook on performance for leading officials." This important discourse, from the strategic height of the overall development of the Party and state cause, scientifically answers major questions such as what kind of performance is needed in the New Era and how to create it. It points out the direction and provides a follow-up for leading officials at all levels to establish and practice a correct outlook on performance. Adhering to high-quality development is not only the theme of economic and social development in the New Era but also an important yardstick to measure whether a leading official's outlook on performance is correct. Only by continuously promoting high-quality development and "measuring heroes by their solid work" [1] can we create achievements that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history.
Treating the adherence to high-quality development as an important component of the New Era outlook on performance is a scientific conclusion based on historical, theoretical, and practical logic. It reflects a deepening of the Party's understanding of the laws of governance, the laws of socialist construction, and the laws of the development of human society.
It is an urgent need to adapt to the change in the principal contradiction in Chinese society. The principal contradiction in our society has evolved into the contradiction between the people's ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. Past extensive development [2] primarily solved the problem of "whether something exists or not," but it struggled to meet the people's growing, diversified, and multi-level needs in areas such as democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment. Moreover, it could not resolve problems such as unbalanced development between urban and rural areas or the relatively large gap in income distribution. Leading officials can no longer simply "measure heroes" by the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), nor can they pursue high targets and high speeds that are detached from reality. Instead, they must establish correct development thinking, maintain supply-side structural reform as the main line, and promote changes in the quality, efficiency, and drivers of economic development to enhance economic innovation and competitiveness. They must resolve the problem of unbalanced development through the coordinated regional development strategy, achieve harmony between humanity and nature through innovation-driven and green transformation, and better meet the people's aspirations for a better life.
It is an inevitable choice following the laws of economic development. Economic development is a process of spiral ascent; once quantitative accumulation reaches a certain stage, it must shift toward qualitative improvement. China's economic development is currently in a critical period of transforming the development mode, optimizing the economic structure, and shifting growth drivers. Leading officials must respect this objective law, enhance their consciousness and initiative in accelerating the transformation of the economic development mode, and establish a correct outlook on performance. They must shift from pursuing quantitative expansion to focusing more on the effective improvement of quality and reasonable growth in quantity. Violating laws to pursue short-term high growth may seem like "performance," but it is actually a detriment to development; following laws to promote transformation and upgrading, even if it means temporarily sacrificing speed, lays the foundation for long-term development.
It is a strategic measure to respond to risks and challenges and gain the initiative. Currently, the world's changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and technology, quality, and branding are increasingly becoming the focus of international market competition. The traditional extensive development model is unsustainable; relying on the input of low-cost factors and low-level scale expansion can no longer form a competitive advantage. Only by promoting high-quality development, achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and building a modernized industrial system can we gain the strategic initiative in fierce international competition. The outlook on performance for leading officials must adapt to this need, treating the promotion of high-quality development as an important task in fulfilling their duties.
Establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance involves many aspects. For example: persisting in creating benefits for the people; adhering to the philosophy that "success does not have to be mine, but I must contribute to success" [3] while generating performance through solid work; and improving the performance evaluation system to make good use of the "appraisal baton" [4]; among others. Incorporating high-quality development as a core component is a deepening of the connotation of the outlook on performance.
First, high-quality development endows "creating benefits for the people" with new content. Creating benefits for the people is the greatest performance. High-quality development is the prerequisite and foundation for achieving the people’s happiness and well-being, and the people’s happiness and well-being is the ultimate goal of promoting high-quality development. Without high-quality development, the improvement of people's livelihoods lacks sustainability; deviating from creating benefits for the people leaves high-quality development without a value orientation. Promoting high-quality development requires keeping the fundamental interests of the broadest possible range of people in mind, unswervingly improving people's well-being, and incorporating the improvement of livelihoods into the performance evaluation system. We must treat the synchronized growth of resident income and economic growth, as well as the level of equalization of basic public services, as "hard constraints," and coordinate "making the cake bigger" with "dividing the cake well." The process of promoting high-quality development is the process of continuously meeting the people's ever-growing need for a better life—it is the process of creating benefits for the people.
Second, high-quality development requires emphasizing both "manifest performance" (xiǎnjì) and "latent performance" (qiánjì). Fundamental work such as scientific and technological innovation, talent cultivation, institutional building, and ecological governance often does not show results in the short term, but it provides the support for high-quality development. If leading officials only pursue "manifest achievements" [5] that yield instant results while ignoring the "latent achievements" of laying foundations for the long term, they will overdraw the future and delay development. Performance is reflected both in manifest performance that produces immediate effects and in latent performance that lays the groundwork, increases future potential, and benefits the long term. Promoting high-quality development requires strengthening the support of education, technology, and talent; advancing high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology; and firmly following a path of civilized development characterized by productive development, prosperous lives, and a sound ecosystem. We must form a favorable situation where material and spiritual civilizations are coordinated and humanity lives in harmony with nature. We must establish an evaluation mechanism that combines manifest and latent performance, ensuring that officials who are willing to "sit on the cold bench" [6] and brave "no-man's lands" receive recognition, and making the cultivation of new quality productive forces and the construction of a modernized industrial system focal points of appraisal.
Third, high-quality development requires balancing the present and the long term. Leading officials must adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, proceeding step-by-step and continuously. They must both resolve realistic problems based on the present and plan strategic layouts with an eye on the long term, pursuing development that is efficient, high-quality, and sustainable. Promoting high-quality development inevitably involves short-term pains such as phasing out backward production capacity, which requires paying the cost of temporarily sacrificing speed. But only by undergoing the pains of such transformation and upgrading can we gain a rebirth for development. Promoting high-quality development requires leading officials to possess the spiritual realm of "success does not have to be mine" and the historical responsibility of "I must contribute to success," being willing to do foundational work and laying the groundwork for future generations.
Currently, the whole Party is carrying out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance. We must treat the adherence to high-quality development as an important component and guide leading officials at all levels to establish a correct outlook on performance through ideology, capability, and institutions.
Use study and education to fortify the ideological foundation for high-quality development. Guide leading officials to deeply realize that adhering to high-quality development is not a temporary measure but a strategic choice based on the long term and concerning the overall situation. We must fundamentally break traditional mindsets and rectify deviations such as the "speed complex" or "digital performance" (fudging numbers), allowing leading officials to truly focus their minds and energy on transforming development modes, optimizing economic structures, and shifting growth drivers.
Use capacity building to enhance the ability to promote high-quality development. Establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance must ultimately be reflected in the ability to promote high-quality development. We must guide leading officials to improve their professional literacy and fulfillment of duties through practical exercise, enhancing their skills in promoting technological innovation, industrial transformation, and green development. They should establish systems thinking to coordinate development and security, the present and the long term, and quality and speed. They must strengthen risk awareness and actively prevent and defuse risks in areas such as debt, finance, and real estate.
Use institutional mechanisms to ensure that high-quality development is implemented and yields results. Improve the performance appraisal and evaluation methods for promoting high-quality development by implementing differentiated assessments. Increase the weight of indicators reflecting the quality and efficiency of development, making technological innovation, livelihood improvement, ecological protection, and workplace safety important components. Establish mechanisms to prevent and rectify deviations in the outlook on performance, holding officials strictly accountable for "image projects" and "performance projects" [7] that waste money and labor, ensuring that those who pursue fraudulent performance lose more than they gain. Implement the "Three Distinctions," [8] providing support and encouragement for leading officials who take responsibility and engage in reform and innovation, thereby creating a favorable political ecosystem conducive to high-quality development.