By Li Wei, DRC

2017-07-11

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important judgments and scientific expositions on coordinated development and in response to China’s socialist modernization drive. These forward-looking, strategic and overarching instructions bear strong features of the times with far-reaching historical significance both in terms of theory and practice.

The fulfillment of the two centenary goals is inseparable from coordinated development. The internal momentum for the development of objective world requires a coordinated relationship between relevant objects. Viewing from the perspective of a country’s development, the fulfillment of coordinated and balanced development in all aspects is an important historical experience both for China and the world. With regard to China’s present development, the realization of the two centenary goals hinges on coordinated development. For such a huge economy as China, coordinated development has always been a daunting challenge. The challenge is even more formidable for China to pursue a rapid growth under the new normal. In the new normal, China is experiencing a strategic stage for the transformation of economic development model. During this stage, China has the opportunity to make remarkable progress but it is also facing multiple challenges like intense conflicts and hidden risks. All these factors have made it imperative for China to pursue coordinated development.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on coordinated development have expounded the meaning of and approaches to realizing the two centenary goals. He put forward a series of guidelines on coordinated development in face of the practical challenges and stressed that we need to properly address various conflicts, coordinate well the relationship of relevant parties, integrate development of all fields, and blaze a trail adaptable to China’s development. His important instructions on coordinated development focus on the following major issues. 1. He laid stress on the overall planning for promoting economic, cultural, social and ecological progress and clarified the specific aspects to be coordinated and the principles to guide their coordinated development. 2. He laid stress on the four-pronged comprehensive strategy to make comprehensive moves to finish building a moderately prosperous society, deepen reform, advance the law-based governance of China and strengthen Party self-conduct, and illustrated the major strategic goals in the current stage as well as the measures to shore up these goals in the longer term. 3. He laid stress on the new-type industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization, and specified the major points and main approaches on consolidating the material basis for modernization in the current stage. 4. He laid stress on coordinated development between regions and between urban and rural areas, and illustrated the major relations that need to be properly dealt with currently. 5. He laid stress on attaching more importance to cultural and ethical progress and the balanced development between hard power and soft power, and made it clear that as China develops further, more attention should be given to meeting people’s cultural needs in a bid to solve the fundamental contradictions during the primary stage of socialism. 6. He laid stress on the integration of economic development and national defense building, and analyzed the important denotations between development and safety for a country in the modernization drive as well as the approaches to pursuing such synergy. 7. He laid stress on the fact that the people are entitled to share in fruits of development, which denotes the nature of socialism and demonstrates the CPC’s principle and stance to serve the people heart and soul. 8. He laid stress on the enforcement of Party’s leadership in pursuing coordinated development and made specific requirements about enhancing the Party’s governance capability.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on coordinated development are the outcomes of the combination of the basic tenets of Marxism with the reality of China in the new era. His instructions are summaries of the social and economic development law related to the building of socialism and in light of a scientific understanding of China’s conditions in the new era. His instructions made it clear what kind of modernization to pursue and how to build it. Materialist dialectics hold that objects are generally related to each other. As the logic goes, smooth development is possible only when the relations between economy, society and other aspects are well organized and coordinated. His instructions on coordinated development are the application of materialist dialectics in China. Based on the Party’s established theoretical findings gained in socialist building, his instructions have enriched China’s experience in coordinated development by responding to the country’s current economic and social needs, set forth the denotations and measures for the enhancement of coordinated development in a forward-looking manner, and opened a new realm for the Party’s innovation of new theories. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions have clarified the fact that the modernization we are pursuing is a “five in one” drive relating to economy, politics, culture, society and ecology with a people-centered approach. He has made it clear that three pairs of relations need to be properly dealt with in the modernization drive between local interests and national interests, between the present interests and the future interests, and between the key issues and non-key issues. He empathizes that dual approaches must be taken in the modernization drive in the following aspects. 1. Focus needs to be placed on cracking the hard nuts and bolstering weak spots while attention should also be given to cultivating new drivers. 2. Balance and disparity need to be considered simultaneously. Coordinated development does not mean equalitarianism, and efforts should focus on fair opportunities and balanced resource allocation. 3. We need to be aware of both China’s weak spots and development potential. Only by tapping the potential could we strengthen the weak links and give a strong impetus to development. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the Party has led the whole nation marching forward and made remarkable progress according to the requirements of the overall plan for promoting economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress as well as the the four-pronged comprehensive strategy. We will rally more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, earnestly study his important instructions on coordinated development, apply these instructions in our work and strive for the realization of the two centenary goals and national rejuvenation.