Xi Jinping on governance and the socialist market

[TaiShang]

Xi Jinping on governance and the socialist market
By Heiko Khoo

"The Governance of China" is a compilation of Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on this question. It provides in-depth insight into the thoughts of China's leadership and the problems and solutions that the Party grapples with today. It is essential reading for those who want to grasp the intellectual framework within which China's system actually operates.
This article looks at one speech from the book, titled "Align Our Thinking with the Guidelines of the Third Plenary Sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee." In this speech, Xi identifies China's governance capacity as a system of institutions led by the Party that address economic, political, cultural, social and ecological issues in addition to building laws, regulations and the Party structure. Governance capacity is defined as a government's overall ability to effectively administer society and the state. Xi explains that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels only made predictive statements on socialist governance, while Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, was primarily concerned with urgent questions of defense and reconstruction and died too soon to leave any legacy on the question of peacetime governance. The system established in the Soviet Union under Stalin and his successors provided some experience, but the system's flaws eventually led to the USSR's collapse.

Xi says that China has been able to refine its methods of administrative power based on strong economic growth, but the quality of governance must be defined by its capacity to meet popular expectations in an environment in which global affairs also influence and shape opinions and attitudes. Therefore, the level of personal and institutional success in China is decided by the extent to which the advantages of socialism are realized. To ensure that Party governance is democratic and effective, legal and administrative forms and procedures need to be modernized and standardized, making them transparent and rule-based.

Echoing Deng Xiaoping, Xi explains that revolution and reform were both designed to "emancipate the productive forces" and "establish a vigorous socialist economic structure" in order to unleash the potential of society and technology "to open an abundance of social wealth." In Xi's opinion, China is at the "primary stage of socialism." It is the world's largest developing country with "backward social production" and rising material and cultural needs among the masses. This contradiction compels the Party to focus primarily on economic work.

Xi cites Karl Marx when he explains that the totality of relations of social production "constitute the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises the legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness."

Reforms should be seen as an integrated whole designed to "establish a socialist market economy." Xi argues that the market-government balance remains in an unstable equilibrium and that the market should play "a decisive role" that will enable the government to more effectively carry out its role. As China's economy rapidly progresses, this simultaneously exacerbates inequality and "people's awareness of equality, democracy, rights and interests" also grows, "hence people's sense of injustice becomes more pronounced." So the Party must make social fairness, justice and the well-being of the masses the "starting point and ultimate goal." Reform, Xi says, will lose its meaning and cannot be sustained "if we cause more inequality".

Whilst material development necessitates that some people will get rich before others, the Party can and must ensure that as the cake gets cut fairly as it gets bigger. This must start with ensuring access to education, well-paid work, healthcare, old age care and housing. All this requires the popular support of the masses, the "creators of history." In order to remain at the helm of China's transformation, the Party must implement the mass line by working as one with the masses, sharing their "weal and woe." This focus on the expectations, needs and interests of the masses must be combined with the mobilization of their participation, enthusiasm, initiative, creativity, wisdom and strength to make 1.3 billion people into a unified force moving towards socialism.

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@LeveragedBuyout , this article might give an interesting insight on President Xi's vision of China's domestic govrenance.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Whilst material development necessitates that some people will get rich before others, the Party can and must ensure that as the cake gets cut fairly as it gets bigger. This must start with ensuring access to education, well-paid work, healthcare, old age care and housing. All this requires the popular support of the masses, the "creators of history." In order to remain at the helm of China's transformation, the Party must implement the mass line by working as one with the masses, sharing their "weal and woe." This focus on the expectations, needs and interests of the masses must be combined with the mobilization of their participation, enthusiasm, initiative, creativity, wisdom and strength to make 1.3 billion people into a unified force moving towards socialism.

This is interesting, because while many in the West get excited about the potential for market liberalization, we may see a strengthening of the welfare state first, in order to prepare society for some of the changes that may take place after market reforms are enacted. If SOEs are privatized, or if interest rates are allowed to be set by the market, there will be some dislocation (unemployment, cost of living pressures, etc.) and a welfare state/safety net will help soften the blow. I always thought the anti-corruption drive was a way to earn political capital in order to implement the market reforms, but now I suspect that political capital will instead be spent on building out the welfare state first. Is this your sense?

 

[TaiShang]

This is interesting, because while many in the West get excited about the potential for market liberalization, we may see a strengthening of the welfare state first, in order to prepare society for some of the changes that may take place after market reforms are enacted. If SOEs are privatized, or if interest rates are allowed to be set by the market, there will be some dislocation (unemployment, cost of living pressures, etc.) and a welfare state/safety net will help soften the blow. I always thought the anti-corruption drive was a way to earn political capital in order to implement the market reforms, but now I suspect that political capital will instead be spent on building out the welfare state first. Is this your sense?

I agree that relative wealth-equalization seems to be higher in the agenda than a dramatic market liberalization. Probably, these two reforms will go hand in hand and incrementally. In fact, "ensuring access to well-paid jobs" or affordable healthcare can hardly be possible without reforming the industrial/market structure. I see these two as complementary (welfare state and open but well-regulated economy).

 

[TaiShang]

Second volume of Xi's book on governance published
Xinhua, November 7, 2017

The second volume of Chinese President Xi Jinping's book on governance has been published in both Chinese and English, the publisher said Tuesday.

The second volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" collects 99 of Xi's speeches, conversations, instructions and letters, as well as 29 photos of the Chinese leader, between Aug. 18, 2014 and Sept. 29, 2017, the Foreign Languages Press said in a statement.

The articles are divided into 17 topics and the book also adds some necessary annotations to improve readers' understanding, according to the statement.

Over the three years since the publishing of the first volume in September, 2014, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has continued to put forward a series of new concepts, thoughts and strategies, enriching the CPC's theories, it said.

The second volume depicts the practices of the CPC Central Committee, with Xi at the core, in uniting and leading Chinese people to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era, the statement said.

It reflects the development and main contents of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The newly-published volume is also expected to help the international community better understand the path, concept and model of China's development, it added.

An amendment to the CPC Constitution, approved at the Party's 19th national congress last month, has made Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era a new component of the Party's guide for action.

As of August, the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" had sold 6.42 million copies in 21 languages in more than 160 countries and regions.

 

[TaiShang]

Excerpts from "The Governance of China" by President Xi on the features of China's governance.


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•How to govern a socialist society, a completely new society, has not been clearly addressed by world socialism so far

•Marx and Lenin had no practical experience in the comprehensive governance of a socialist country, as their theories about a future society were mostly predicative

•Lenin, who passed away a few years after the October Revolution, was thus unable to explore this question in depth

•Our Party has worked on the same question steadily ever since it came to national power

•In spite of serious setbacks, it has accumulated rich experience and achieved great success in improving our governance system and enhancing our governance capacity

•At the same time, we should realize that, compared with China’s needs for social and economic development and our people’s expectations, and compared with today’s increasingly intense international competition, and the need to ensure prolonged stability at home, we still have many shortcomings to overcome in improving our national governance and capacity

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•1. Adopt properly to changing times

•2. Further free our mind, further release and develop the productive forces, and further stimulate and strengthen the vigor of society

•Freeing our mind is a prerequisite or the ultimate switch for releasing and developing the productive forces, and strengthening the vigor of society

•“Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces, and so does reform. After the basic socialist system has been established it will be necessary to fundamentally change the economic structure that has hampered the development of the productive forces and to establish a vigorous socialist economic structure that will promote their development (Deng Xiaoping)”​

•3. Keep our focus on economic reforms, and give full play to their catalytic role

•Our economic reforms have not been completed, nor has the potential of such reforms been fully released​

•4. Uphold the direction of reform towards a socialist market economy

•Although our socialist market economy has taken shape initially, it is not complete as a system, and it is not yet mature.​

•In particular, a balance between the role of the government and that of the market in effectively and unrestrictedly allocating resources is yet to be established.​

•5. Make the promotion of social fairness and justice, and the implementation of well-being both the starting point and ultimate goal

•We must take the economic development as the central task, promote sustained and sound growth, and “make the cake bigger,” thereby laying a more solid material foundation for greater social fairness and justice​

•Even when the “cake” has indeed become bigger, we must cut it fairly​

•“Inequality, rather than want is the cause of trouble” (Analects)​

•6. Rely on the people to promote reform. The people are the creators of history and the source of our strength

•“The roc soars lithely not merely because of the lightness of one of its feathers; the steed runs fast not merely because of the strength of one of its legs" (Wang Fu, Eastern Han Dynasty, 25-220)
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@Mangus Ortus Novem

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

@TaiShang my friend,

Thanks for the tag to an extremely interesting topic!

You see we have great threads in this section about China's development from infrastructure to semi-conductors and from AI to Biotech/gene editing.. all brilliant in their own right.

However, all of the above came as a result of the new governance model with typcial Chinese Characteristics. And it all started with Mao!

And from then on every generation of leaders...from county level to big cities...and from provinces to the Standing Committee... each generation has advanced in methodic and systematic manner the governance of the PRC.

With each generation having more means than previous one..hence advancing the Human Condition in China... which is the quint essence of Socialist Thought.

Nowhere has this been successful than China...everywhere else socialism failed...even in the land of its inception.

This brings us to a fundamental junction... the difference in achievement between the West and China.

Here we have to baseline the starting point, availablity of material means, intellectual capacity/education, health care, industry and overall development level.

If we can factor in all these vectors then we can have a rational model to measure the relative progress.

China was devastated, hungry, sick and just coming out of brutal Japanese occupation and destruction combined with civil war of Western sponsored KMT.

On the opposite side we have a the West with the US in lead... Europe destroyed systematically and then burdened with loans as help for rebuilding.. resulting in vassalage to the empire. @Götterdämmerung
But the governance experience and functional states were still intact. Hence the quick rebuild to accelerate Brentwood Accord.
[The rebirth of the same empire... Pheonix rises from the ashes of Europe. WWI and WWII are instructive study for this.]

Not so in case of China.

China had practically NOTHING.

Even Indians after their independence had a fully functioning military, civil service, judiciary, railways, hospitals and established industrial base.
[BTW Pak had none of it..kinda of China only on a much smaller scale...and Pak hasn't achieved much though].

Anyhow, when we take the above departing point and come fast forward to NOW we see a distinctly different picture.

China has started to Become what China was...not there by any means...but on the path to recovery.

2030 to 2050 are going to be transformative times. Hence, the troublemakers making troubles left and right.
Xi has appeared at the right time for China in these critical times.

You have been the US and Europe... now tell me what do we have here?

Our Dialectics in the West have been stuck in counter productive, even destructive policies... We have rising, well hidden poverty and our decline is accelerating. There is no vision or intellectual clarity apart from this obsession with rules and more rules...

The Way teaches us that when there are more rules, people will become dishonest.

The heart of the matter is that China has been able to Manage the Paradox and the West can't.

For the rest we can induldge in democracy and all that jazz... however, at the end of the day the purpose of any government is to provide services, perserve the Culture/Civilisation and keep the state healthy and intact.

You can clearly see which Civilisation is becoming alive and which has chosen self destruction.

As a sidebar: Had China become democracy...China would still be in Civil War and hungry!

I wish all a very happy Christmas!

Regards,

Mangus

PS. Rather long post...but the subject matter deserves due attention. I know nobody reads such posts!