Chen Zhigang: Making the Promotion of High-Quality Development a Crucial Component of Leading Officials' Performance Evaluation Outlook
The issue of the outlook on official performance is a fundamental matter concerning the Party building for the public and exercising power for the people. The outlook on official performance is linked to the outlook on development, and the outlook on development embodies the outlook on official performance; the two are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. If problems arise in the outlook on development, the outlook on official performance will fall into error; if deviations occur in the outlook on official performance, the outlook on development will veer off the scientific track. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that "adhering to high-quality development must become an important component of leading officials' outlook on official performance." High-quality development is not only the primary task in comprehensively building a modern socialist country but also an important benchmark for measuring whether a leading official’s outlook on official performance is correct.
I
High-quality development concerns the overall situation of China’s socialist modernization construction and relates to whether the great cause of building a powerful nation and national rejuvenation can be realized. Whether a leading official’s outlook on official performance is correct directly determines the caliber and effectiveness of high-quality development. Taking the promotion of high-quality development as an important part of leading officials' outlook on official performance is a necessity dictated by the situation, practice, objective laws, and our missions and tasks.
It is an inevitable requirement for maintaining the healthy development of China's economy. Entering the New Era, and faced with a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, the extensive growth model [1] has become unsustainable due to rising labor costs and increasing constraints on resources and the environment; we must shift to a stage of high-quality development. High-quality development is the "hard truth" [2] of healthy economic development on the new journey in the New Era. Without high-quality development, it will be difficult to meet the challenges of the new technological revolution, and building a powerful nation and achieving national rejuvenation will become empty words. This requires leading officials to establish a correct outlook on official performance, not simply "judging heroes by GDP growth rates" [3], but taking the quality of development, innovation momentum, and improvement of people’s livelihoods as core indicators for measuring performance.
It is an inevitable requirement for adapting to the change in the principal contradiction in Chinese society and comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Entering the New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society [4] has evolved into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. This dictates that only by promoting high-quality development can we continuously satisfy the people’s aspirations for a better life. At the same time, the distinct characteristics of Chinese-path modernization also dictate that high-quality development is not only a general requirement for all aspects—economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological—but also a direction that all regions must adhere to over the long term. Only by making high-quality development an important part of the outlook on official performance can we comprehensively advance Chinese-path modernization and lay a solid foundation for the well-rounded development of the individual and common prosperity for all people.
It is an inevitable requirement for following the laws of economic development. The global experience of modernization shows that economic development is a process of spiral ascent; once the accumulation of quantity reaches a certain stage, it must shift toward an improvement in quality, otherwise it will fall into stagnation and find it difficult to enter the ranks of high-income economies. To persist in creating achievements for the people and through solid work, one must consciously act according to objective laws, shifting from focusing on quantitative growth to qualitative improvement, and from "whether or not there is" to "how good it is," while putting an end to behavior characterized by seeking quick success and instant benefits [5], fraud, or acting blindly and brashly. This requires leading officials to establish a correct outlook on official performance, persist in high-quality development, act according to economic laws, respect objective reality, and seek truth from facts.
It is an intrinsic requirement for realizing the strategic deployments of the Party Central Committee during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030), the environment for China’s development will undergo profound and complex changes, with strategic opportunities and risks/challenges coexisting, and an increase in uncertain and unpredictable factors. Faced with a world intertwined with change and disorder, a complex and intense situation of major power competition, and the accelerated breakthrough of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, only by persisting in high-quality development can we consolidate and expand China’s advantages, break through bottleneck constraints, strengthen weak links, and continuously enhance the certainty and sustainability of development. This requires leading officials to take the promotion of high-quality development as an important part of their outlook on official performance, enhance their strategic resolve, and—with the spirit that "success does not have to happen during my term" [6] and the responsibility that "I must contribute to the ultimate success"—lay a solid foundation for development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
II
Taking the promotion of high-quality development as an important part of leading officials' outlook on official performance and implementing it at the level of action requires adhering to and applying scientific methods. Specifically, this means effectively handling the relationships between stability and progress, "establishing" and "breaking" (li and po), the virtual and the substantial, the symptoms and the root causes, and the near-term and the long-term.
Handle the relationship between stability and progress. Stability is the overall situation and the foundation; it is the prerequisite for development. Progress is the direction and the power; it is the goal of development. Only by moving steadily can one go far, and only with progress can there be greater stability. On the new journey, we must guarantee higher-quality progress with more comprehensive stability, both doing our utmost and acting within our capacities, while avoiding both an over-eagerness for quick success and being too ambitious or far-fetched. We must maintain both strategic confidence and historical patience, effectively forestall and defuse various risks and challenges, and focus on stabilizing employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations, thereby promoting the effective improvement of economic quality and reasonable growth in quantity.
Handle the relationship between "establishing" and "breaking" (li and po). "Reform involves both breaking and establishing; if the method is correct, one achieves twice the result with half the effort; if the method is incorrect, one gets half the result with twice the effort or even produces negative effects." To advance high-quality development, we must further comprehensively deepen reform and adhere to the principle that "breaking is the means, and establishing is the end," ensuring that "establishing" comes first and using it to promote "breaking." That which should be established must be actively and proactively established, and it must be established firmly, sustainably, viably, and effectively; that which should be broken must be broken timely, resolutely, and thoroughly on the basis of what has been established. We must never "break before establishing," which would leave an institutional vacuum, leaving people at a loss and even causing disorder, chaos, and corruption.
Handle the relationship between the virtual and the substantial. The way of governance values solid work. Without a spirit of solid work and effort made step-by-step, even the grandest development goals cannot be realized. Seeking truth from facts is a manifestation of Party spirit and an intrinsic requirement of a correct outlook on official performance. High-quality development cannot be built on fraud, grandstanding, or opportunism. "Head-patting" decision-making [7] and "chest-thumping" brashness [8] not only fail to produce real achievements but also delay the development of the cause. Leading officials must tell the truth, observe the real situation, plan practical moves, and do solid work, pursuing development that is substantial, "moisture-free," and characterized by the unity of speed, quality, and efficiency.
Handle the relationship between symptoms and root causes. Symptoms (biao) and root causes (ben) are closely related; there is no root cause separate from the symptoms, and no symptoms separate from the root cause. Faced with intricate contradictions and problems, promoting high-quality development must adhere to a systems thinking approach, distinguishing between the urgent and the less pressing. We must both base ourselves on immediate needs to grasp the treatment of symptoms and base ourselves on the overall long-term situation to effectively treat root causes, achieving a combination of powerful symptomatic treatment and long-term causal treatment. We must correct the behavioral bias of "emphasizing symptoms while neglecting root causes," overcome the formalism of "treating symptoms but not the root," and persist in treating both while focusing on the root.
Handle the relationship between the near-term and the long-term. High-quality development cannot be achieved overnight. To advance high-quality development, we must coordinate current and future goals, as well as long-term and short-term goals, both doing our utmost based on the present and acting within our capacities with an eye on the long term. We must both perform "visible feats" (xian gong)—doing practical things that the common moves can see, touch, and benefit from—and perform "latent feats" (qian gong)—doing good deeds that pave the way, lay foundations, and benefit the long term for future generations. Only by scientifically coordinating the relationship between the near and the far can high-quality development move steadily and go far, truly creating official performance that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history.