How party selfgovernance powers Chinas economic transformation
How party self-governance powers China's economic transformation
TEHRAN- Geopolitical turbulence, rising protectionism, pressure on the global economy and intensifying technological competition are shaping today's world. Within China, industrial upgrading, demographic shifts and the transition to new drivers of growth are placing greater demands on national governance. To maintain steady progress, China needs strategic resolve and the capacity to adapt its institutions, alongside a vibrant market and effective policy implementation.
The ongoing fifth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) focuses on sustaining full and rigorous Party self-governance. Its significance extends beyond the Party's own development to China's development as a whole.
As President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has emphasized, "China's success hinges on the Party." Understanding China begins with this fundamental political reality: the leadership of the CPC. As the governing party of a country of immense scale, it is responsible for leading state institutions, setting the direction of development, organizing its officials, coordinating action across sectors and guiding social development.
The effectiveness of its leadership, the strength of its organizations and the willingness of its officials to take responsibility shape political unity and social cohesion, the functioning of national institutions, and economic and social development. The principle that running the country well requires first running the Party well follows from this institutional structure.
Through full and rigorous self-governance and the courage to pursue self-reform, the CPC strengthens itself. Discipline, accountability, oversight that identifies and corrects problems, and institutional improvements translate the Party's political and organizational strengths into the capacity to govern.
Connecting Party governance with national governance, and the identification of problems with deeper reform, this process links the Party's leadership system with the country's governance system. It provides important support for institutional resilience, governance capacity and society's ability to advance development.
The Party's inspection system illustrates this connection. After each round of central inspections, inspection teams analyze the problems they have identified, recommend measures addressing both immediate issues and underlying causes, and submit thematic reports to the CPC Central Committee. These reports provide an important basis for national leaders to understand systemic problems in state administration and develop institutional reforms to address them.
The value of institutional reform ultimately becomes clear in development itself. Research by the discipline inspection and supervision team stationed at the Ministry of Science and Technology helped address barriers that had prevented private enterprises from applying for National Natural Science Fund projects. Revised registration rules now allow eligible private enterprises to apply to become host institutions for these projects. Oversight identified a gap in policy, and corrective action helped improve the rules. More businesses gained opportunities to participate, bringing national research resources into closer alignment with enterprises' innovation needs and fostering new drivers of economic development.
Rigorous Party self-governance has also strengthened officials' sense of responsibility and helped put assessments of their performance on a sounder footing. Less paperwork and clearer responsibilities give local officials more time to serve businesses and respond to residents' needs, while making their performance easier to oversee and assess. Tackling pointless formalities and bureaucratism, while supporting officials who take responsibility for reform, helps turn commitment and accountability into practical action to solve problems.
Implementing major initiatives tests a country's capacity to organize work across administrative boundaries. In one case, construction of a bridge linking two provincial-level administrative regions encountered disagreements over design, conflicting approval procedures and unclear responsibilities. Then the discipline inspection and supervision bodies on both sides conducted joint oversight, prompting the transport authorities to assume responsibility together, and parallel approval processes were coordinated. Oversight clarified responsibilities, which in turn improved coordination and enabled the regional development strategy to move forward.
Effective policy implementation often requires unified authority and common rules. China is a unitary state. Local protectionism, violations of rules in investment promotion, and policies skewed toward particular interests can undermine the unity and fairness of the national market. Oversight reaching down to the grassroots, together with accountability, helps ensure that central decisions are implemented and curbs the misuse of local power.
In building a unified national market, oversight has helped correct the creation of market barriers and the granting of improper preferential treatment to particular businesses. This supports local initiative while upholding common national rules, enabling businesses to compete fairly across administrative boundaries. Central authority helps sustain the implementation of long-term strategies across regions, departments and policy cycles.
The effects of rigorous Party self-governance are also evident in improvements to the business environment and relations between government and business. An oversight initiative in Liaoning Province in northeast China helped secure more than 3 billion yuan ($448 million) of contractual payments owed by government agencies, state-owned enterprises and public institutions, and the fulfillment of over 700 unresolved government commitments, according to figures released in June 2023.
Each payment and honored commitment eased immediate business pressures and reduced reliance on personal connections in commercial activity. Government credibility encourages wider respect for commitments, creating better conditions for businesses to operate by the rules and grow through their own efforts. This helps build a supportive environment for long-term investment and sustained innovation.
Rigorous Party self-governance and public participation in oversight reinforce each other, providing a broad social foundation for better governance. Between the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017 and the 20th in 2022, Party inspection bodies at different levels received over 4 million submissions from the public reporting problems, while central inspection teams held 58,000 interviews with officials and members of the public. These channels enabled them to hear people's concerns extensively.
Several provinces have explored arrangements in which residents identify problems, responsible departments take corrective action, discipline inspection and supervision bodies monitor implementation, and the public assesses the results.
Full and rigorous Party self-governance is both a strategic policy of the CPC and an undertaking under its leadership with implications for the country as a whole. As China faces external challenges and profound changes in its development, it connects oversight, reform and implementation, ensuring that the governing party's political responsibilities are fulfilled in practice and that a people-centered approach runs through national governance. This practice has profound significance for political reform and provides sustained impetus for China's economic transformation and higher-quality development.
(Source: CGTN)
source: tehrantimes.com