Qu Qingshan: On Upholding a Systematic Concept

Essence of the Article

●This is the first time that upholding a systematic concept has been proposed in the CPC Central Committee’s plenary session and the Party’s important document. It is a highlight of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Party and an innovation in the Party’s theories, enriching and developing the methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

●A systematic concept is the method of applying system thinking to analyze the essence and internal connections of things and grasp the laws governing things’ development as a whole. This is a basic requirement of Marxism on our work and a scientific thinking method and working method provided by Marxist philosophy for us.

●Our Party’s history of nearly a hundred years shows that the Communist Party of China is a Marxist party attaching importance to building the Party with ideology and strengthening the Party with theory. In various historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform, our Party always paid great attention to using the systemic concept of Marxist philosophy to guide practice and promote work.

●We must uphold a systematic concept, carry out serious thinking, conduct careful and detailed analysis and comprehensive research and determination, link history and reality, associate international situations with domestic ones, combine theory and practice, and make scientific predictions and conclusions, so as to take precautions, have the upper hand, implement policies accurately, and respond correctly.

●Upholding a systematic concept is an inherent requirement of deepening reform and opening up in an all-around way, an objective need for realizing high-quality economic development, and an inevitable choice for responding to changes in domestic and overseas environment. To complete the main tasks of economic and social development during the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period and realize the long-range objectives of development through the year 2035, we must uphold the guidelines set forth in the Proposals and uphold a systematic concept.

The Proposals for Formulating the 14^th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 (hereinafter referred to as Proposals) adopted during the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Party upon deliberation and the explanations of the Proposals made by General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward and emphasize five principles that must be followed in economic and social development during the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period, i.e. upholding the Party’s overall leadership, upholding a people-centered approach, upholding a new vision for development, upholding deep reform and opening up, and upholding a systematic concept, which are an important part of the guidelines for China’s future economic and social development. Upholding a systematic concept is one of the five principles. This is the first time that upholding a systematic concept has been proposed in the CPC Central Committee’s plenary session and the Party’s important document. It is a highlight of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Party and an innovation in the Party’s theories, enriching and developing the methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Studying and understanding this principle in depth is of important significance to implementing the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Party and completing various tasks of economic and social development in the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period.

A Systematic concept is a scientific thinking method and working method for understanding and solving problems in Marxist philosophy.

General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “A systematic concept is the most basic thinking and working method.” “According to materialist dialectics, things are universally connected, things and their elements influence and restrict each other, and the whole world is an interconnected whole and an interactive system. Upholding materialist dialectics requires us to proceed from objective things’ internal connections to grasp things and understand and deal with problems.”

Marxist philosophy is dialectical materialism and historical materialism. It is the unification of materialism and dialectics, the unification of the theory of practice and the theory of contradiction, and the unification of the materialistic views on nature and history. It is a “great cognitive tool” for mankind.

Marxism holds that the world is material and consists of material. Nature is an objective reality in the material world; human society is also an objective reality in the material world. The world is infinitely big; matter is infinitely small. The world is as big as the whole universe with no boundary; matter is as small as an infinitely divisible cell. The world is in the movement of contradictions. The world is made up of contradictions and would not have existed without contradictions. A thing’s development and change are caused by its internal movement of contradictions; the factor that determines a thing’s nature is the main aspect of contradiction. Time and space are basic forms of material existence. In the world, there is no space separated from time and no time separated from space. Nature is a system; human society is also a system. Human society is inseparable from nature and is an organic part of nature. The systems of nature and human society include big, medium, and small ones. Many small systems constitute a medium system; many medium systems constitute a big system. The whole is not equal to the simple sum of the parts. Different systems have different positions and roles. Different subjects and different elements in a system also have different properties and functions. Various subsystems, components, and elements of the material world are logically related. They are associated with each other, restrict each other, promote each other, and interact with each other. The key point in a system is the main contradiction playing a dominant role among numerous contradictions. If the main contradiction and the main aspect of contradiction are grasped, other problems can be easily solved. The two-point theory and the key-point theory are dialectically unified.

Marxist philosophy’s scientific revelation of the most general laws governing nature, society, and human thinking requires us to understand the world according to the reality of the objective world and transform the world according the laws of the objective world. In the great practice of understanding the world and transforming the world, we must persist in understanding and solving problems from the viewpoints of development, dialectics, comprehensiveness, systems, and universal connection and resolutely avoid using static, one-sided, scattered, and isolated methods to observe and deal with problems. A systematic concept is the method of applying system thinking to analyze the essence and internal connections of things and grasp the laws governing things’ development as a whole. This is a basic requirement of Marxism on our work and a scientific thinking method and working method provided by Marxist philosophy for us.

Using the systematic concept was an excellent tradition and successful experience of our Party in various historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform.

Our Party’s history of nearly a hundred years shows that the Communist Party of China is a Marxist party attaching importance to building the Party with ideology and strengthening the Party with theory. In various historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform, our Party always paid great attention to using the systemic concept of Marxist philosophy to guide practice and promote work.

In the early period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Comrade Mao Zedong emphasized at the Gutian Conference that the Red Army was by no means an armed group simply for fighting and, apart from fighting, must shoulder several major tasks: carrying out propaganda for the masses, organizing the masses, arming the masses, helping the masses establish revolutionary regimes, and establishing communist organizations. Comrade Mao Zedong’s requirement that the Red Army undertake the “three major tasks” allowed the Chinese Red Army to define its own duties and missions from its establishment. In order to clarify the historical tasks of the New Democratic Revolution, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward the new democratic political, economic, and cultural programs and profoundly expounded the lowest program of our Party for the democratic revolution period. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, our Party followed the development and change of history, trends, and tasks, timely put forward the Party’s general line for the transitional period, gradually accomplished the country’s socialist industrialization and socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry, and capitalist industry and commerce, and established the basic socialist system. To realize socialist modernization, our Party proposed a two-step approach in 1964, in order to establish an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system, and fully realize the goal of modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. In the historical course of revolution and construction, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed thinking and working methods such as the holistic approach and “playing the piano” and formed our Party’s concept and strategy for coordinated development.

After the beginning of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping, in view of the new situation and new problems in the new period, said “the tasks of modernization are multi-faceted, so we need to comprehensively balance various aspects instead of focusing on one aspect”. According to the development trend of the times and China’s basic national conditions, he put forward a “three-step” strategy. To effectively and orderly advance various undertakings of the Party and the country, he proposed the Party’s basic line of “one central task and two basic points” for the primary stage of socialism and a series of “two-pronged” strategic policies. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee of the Party, to plan coordinated economic, political, and cultural development of socialism with Chinese characteristics as a whole, Comrade Jiang Zemin put forward the Party’s basic program for the primary stage of socialism and 12 major relationships bearing on the overall situation that must be handled well in the course of advancing socialist modernization. In the new century, in order to always keep our Party at the forefront of the times and win the wholehearted support of the people, he put forward the important thought of “Three Represents”. After the Sixteenth National Congress of the Party, at a new historical starting point, Comrade Hu Jintao put forward the Scientific Outlook on Development to solve the outstanding contradictions and problems in China’s development, emphasizing the issues of comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable development and the holistic approach.

After the Eighteenth National Congress of the Party, socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core upheld the flag to show the direction and made overall plans. General Secretary Xi Jinping successively emphasized and put forward the five-sphere integrated plan and four-pronged comprehensive strategy of socialism with Chinese characteristics, put forward the overall goal of deepening reform in every field, the overall goal of comprehensively advancing law-based governance, and the goal of building a strong military in the new era, put forward the basic policy underpinning our endeavors to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and the general requirements for Party building for the new era, and made strategic arrangements for advancing and realizing the second centenary goal in two stages. These plans, goals, strategies, and requirements are all products of strategic and innovative thinking and the crystallization of the systematic concept, playing a role in leading and guiding various tasks in the new era. General Secretary Xi Jinping specially emphasized the issue of methodology while planning and promoting reform and development tasks. For example, he proposed that we should stick to the unification of reform, development, and stability, take them as three pivots of China’s socialist modernization, and take improvement of the people’s lives as a junction for correctly handling the relationships among them; he proposed that we should carry out top-level design and overall planning for comprehensively deepening reform, come up with an overall plan, roadmap, and timetable, and make reform more systematic, integrated, and coordinated; he proposed that we should realize front-back connection, left-right linkage, top-bottom matching, and systematic integration to strengthen institution building; he proposed that we should take the holistic approach, realize comprehensive balance, grasp key points, make overall plans, and advance in all fields to propel development. All these have provided basic guidelines for us to complete various reform and development tasks.

Thinking and planning work with a systematic concept is a major realistic topic put forward in the face of the current complex and volatile international situation and the arduous task of domestic reform, development, and stability.

Reform and opening up allowed China to stride towards the world and develop rapidly. Today’s China is getting closer and closer to the center of the world stage, deeply integrated into and exerting a profound influence on the world. China’s development cannot be separated from the world; the world’s development and prosperity also need China.

The Proposals points out: “China’s development environment is facing profound and complex changes. China’s development is and will still be in a period of important strategic opportunities, but there will be new developments and changes in opportunities and challenges.” How to carry out analysis make judgements in the face of the current complicated new situations both at home and abroad? This requires us to use correct thinking and working methods. We must uphold a systematic concept, carry out serious thinking, conduct careful and detailed analysis and comprehensive research and determination, link history and reality, associate international situations with domestic ones, combine theory and practice, and make scientific predictions and conclusions, so as to take precautions, have the upper hand, implement policies accurately, and respond correctly.

Internationally, the world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. The new round of science and technology revolution and industrial change is developing in depth; the idea of a community with a shared future for mankind is taking root among the people. At the same time, the international environment is becoming more and more volatile, unstable and uncertain factors are obviously on the rise, and local wars and hot issues are emerging one after another. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is extensive and far-reaching. Economic globalization is encountering countercurrents, the international economic and political landscape is evolving rapidly, the world economy is in a deep recession, and global industrial chains and supply chains are impacted. Governance deficits, trust deficits, peace deficits, and development deficits are still expanding, various forces’ differentiation and combination are accelerating, and the world has entered a period of turbulence and change. Unilateralism, protectionism, hegemony, and power politics constitute serious threats to world peace and development.

Domestically, China’s economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. This is a pivotal stage for transforming our growth model, improving our economic structure, and fostering new drivers of growth. The problem of development’s imbalances and inadequacies is still prominent, structural, systematic, and periodic problems mingle with each other, innovation capabilities cannot meet the requirements of high-quality development, ecological and environmental protection has a long way to go, and there are many areas of weakness in safeguards for public wellbeing, social governance, etc. Under the influence of multiple factors, it is more difficult to maintain stable economic performance at present. Insufficient demand is restricting the economy’ stable recovery, enterprises, especially medium, small, micro, individually owned businesses, have a lot of difficulties in production and operation, and stabilization of employment and safeguarding of public wellbeing are facing great pressure. At the same time, China’s development has advantages and conditions in many areas. We have unique political and institutional advantages and a solid economic foundation. The per capita GDP has exceeded 10,000 US dollars. We have a population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of 400 million with huge market potential, 900 million laborers, and 170 million skilled talents having received higher education. China’s development is hugely resilient and has ample room for growth. The fundamentals of steady long-term improvement in economic development have not changed.

To sum up, China is and will still be in a period of important strategic opportunities, but the connotations and conditions of the period of strategic opportunities have changed. However, there are constants among changes and changes among constants. Crises and opportunities coexist. There are opportunities in crises, which can become opportunities. We should dialectically understand and grasp general domestic and overseas trends, accurately recognize changes, scientifically respond, actively seek changes, enhance opportunity consciousness and risk consciousness, and be good at fostering decisive opportunities in crises and pioneering new situations in changes. Using a systematic concept to analyze situations makes us more determined and confident in completing the preplanned tasks and achieving the expected goals in the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period.

We should stick to making overall plans with a systematic concept to advance various tasks of economic and social development in the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.

Building on the achievement of finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the first centenary goal, the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period will mark the first five years of China’s new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country and march toward the second centenary goal. How to make a good start? General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “After finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, we will embark on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country. China’s development environment is facing profound and complex changes, the problem of development’s imbalances and inadequacies is still prominent, and the contradictions in economic and social development are complex. We must proceed from a systematic concept to make plans, solve problems, and fully coordinate and promote work in various fields and socialist modernization.” Upholding a systematic concept is a principle put forward in the Proposals that must be followed. Upholding this principle is an inherent requirement of deepening reform and opening up in an all-around way, an objective need for realizing high-quality economic development, and an inevitable choice for responding to changes in domestic and overseas environment. To complete the main tasks of economic and social development during the “14^th Five-Year Plan” period and realize the long-range objectives of development through the year 2035, we must adhere to the guidelines set forth in the Proposals and uphold a systematic concept.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must strengthen prospective thinking. We should stick to the goal of fully building a great modern socialist country and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, use Marxist standpoints, viewpoints, and methods, strengthen investigation and research, and think in depth from the height of the overall situation and strategies. We should have a deep understanding of the new characteristics and new requirements brought by the evolution of the principal contradiction in Chinese society in the new era, the new contradictions and new challenges brought by the complex international environment, and the new trends and new changes occurring in China’s economic and social development. We should take all factors into consideration carefully to make scientific forecasts.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must strengthen overall planning. Those who do not make plans for the overall situation are unable to make plans for a single field; those who do not make plans for all ages are unable to make plans for a short period. We must think in big-picture terms, consciously look at problems in view of the overall situation, correctly understand the overall situation, consciously comply with the overall situation, make plans according to the overall situation, act in light of the overall situation, and put our own development into the overall situation of coordinated development. We should combine the major strategic deployments of the CPC Central Committee with the actual conditions of our regions, departments, and units and work creatively. We should make plans for multiple aspects such as deepening reform and opening up, promoting economic development, strengthening ideological and cultural advancement, enhancing social governance, propelling ecological and environmental protection, improving people’s lives, and exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party and strengthen planning of all aspects, all fields, and all processes.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must strengthen the strategic layout. We should ensure coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan on economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy for fully building a modern socialist country, deepening reform in every field, advancing law-based governance in all fields, and exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party. We should show firm resolve in implementing the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, the strategy on developing a quality workforce, the innovation-driven development strategy, the rural vitalization strategy, the coordinated regional development strategy, the sustainable development strategy, the military-civilian integration strategy, and other major strategies bearing on the overall situation.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must strengthen overall advancement. We should properly handle the relationship between parts and the whole, between the present and the long run, between addressing symptoms and addressing root causes, between gradual advancement and breakthroughs, and between key points and non-key points. We should not only pay attention to comprehensive, systematic, and overall advancement, but also pay attention to grasping the main contradiction and the main aspect of contradiction to achieve breakthroughs in important fields and key links. We must reach a new stage in the large-scale development of the western region, accelerate the rise of the central region, make new breakthroughs in the revitalization of old industrial bases in the northeast and other parts of the country, and encourage the eastern region to accelerate modernization. We should steadily promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, the building of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, and other major strategies and propel the overall advancement of China’s development.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must keep in mind both our internal and international imperatives. We should make full use of both domestic and international markets and resources and actively promote coordinated development of domestic and overseas demand, imports and exports, and introduction of foreign capital and overseas investment. We should quicken the pace of fostering a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must ensure both development and security. Security is the precondition of development; development is the guarantee of security. Various contradictions and risks are likely to happen in China at present and in the future. We must ensure both development and security, enhance opportunity consciousness and risk consciousness, establish bottom-line thinking, focus on solidifying the foundation, leveraging our strengths, and tackling areas of weaknesses, take the initiative, take precautions, see how things will develop from the first small beginnings, check erroneous ideas at the outset, make the first move, take the offensive, be prepared to cope with any form of contradictions, risks, and challenges, make preparations for economic, political, cultural, social, diplomatic, and military struggles, make sure that all people at all levels assume responsibility, effectively prevent and defuse various major risks, and especially focus on preventing and controlling overall risks that may delay or interrupt the course of the Chinese nation’s great rejuvenation.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must stick to coordinated national response and give better play to the initiative of the central government, local governments, and various quarters. We should stick to deepening reform in every field, clarify the duties and expenditure responsibilities of the central and local governments, and enhance the ability to ensure community-level public services. We should accelerate transformation of government functions, improve business environment, and pay attention to stimulating the vitality of various market entities. We should improve the system of community-level self-governance and give full play to the role of people’s organizations.

To uphold a systematic concept, we must build greater synergy among quality, structure, scale, speed, efficiency, and security of development. We should implement a new vision for development in depth, stick to innovation-driven development, realize green development, stick to urban-rural integration, promote regional coordination, propel synchronization of new industrialization, IT application, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, implement opening up to the outside world at a higher level, properly handle a series of prominent contradictions and problems we face in development, and achieve development that is of higher-quality and more efficient, fairer, more sustainable, and securer.

 (The author is Director of Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Consulting Committee for the CPC Central Committee’s Project for the Study and Development of Marxist Theory.)