Several Relationships to Be Properly Handled in Building a High-Level Socialist Market Economy

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC put forward the major thesis that "a high-level socialist market economy is an important guarantee for Chinese-path modernization," set the strategic goal of fully establishing a high-level socialist market economy by 2035, further deepened the understanding of the laws governing the socialist market economy, and made arrangements for key areas and crucial links of economic system reform. This is an overall plan and strategic deployment for building a high-level socialist market economy, built on the foundation of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC, which had already proposed "building a high-level socialist market economy."

党的二十届三中全会提出“高水平社会主义市场经济体制是中国式现代化的重要保障”这一重大论断，确定了到2035年全面建成高水平社会主义市场经济体制的战略目标，进一步深化了对社会主义市场经济规律的认识，对经济体制改革重点领域和关键环节作出部署。这是在“十四五”规划和党的二十大报告提出“构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制”基础之上，对建成高水平社会主义市场经济体制作出的总体规划和战略部署。

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "Proposing the reform goal of establishing a socialist market economy system is a major theoretical and practical innovation by our Party in the process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics." Since reform and opening up, the Communist Party of China has creatively proposed developing a market economy under socialist conditions, established and improved the socialist market economy system, and led the Chinese people to achieve a development miracle that has attracted worldwide attention. In the process of further deepening comprehensive reform, properly handling the relationships between an "effective market" and a "well-functioning government," between "top-level design" and "practical exploration," and between "high-quality development" and "high-level security" will effectively promote the building of a high-level socialist market economy and lay a solid foundation for fully building a modern socialist country by the middle of the 21st century.

习近平总书记指出，“提出建立社会主义市场经济体制的改革目标，这是我们党在建设中国特色社会主义进程中的一个重大理论和实践创新”。改革开放以来，中国共产党创造性提出在社会主义条件下发展市场经济，建立并完善了社会主义市场经济体制，带领中国人民取得了举世瞩目的发展奇迹。在进一步全面深化改革过程中，处理好“有效市场”与“有为政府”、“顶层设计”与“实践探索”、“高质量发展”与“高水平安全”的关系，将有力推动构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制，为到21世纪中叶全面建成社会主义现代化强国奠定坚实基础。

1. Correctly handling the relationship between the government and the market

1.正确处理好政府和市场的关系

Economic system reform is the focus of comprehensively deepening reform, and the core issue is properly handling the relationship between the government and the market. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC, our Party has continuously deepened its understanding of the relationship between the government and the market in the process of advancing economic system reform and implementing reform and opening up. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee placed building a high-level socialist market economy in a prominent position, emphasizing "fully leveraging the decisive role of the market in resource allocation" and "must better leverage the market mechanism." The socialist market economy can combine the superiority of the socialist system with the strengths of the market economy, organically integrating the decisive role of the market in resource allocation with better government action, thereby forming a greater synergy. The government possesses strong resource integration capabilities and social management functions, enabling it to play a key role in macro-control, public services, social fairness, and other aspects; the market, with its efficient information transmission and resource allocation functions, plays an important role in stimulating enterprise vitality, promoting technological innovation, and increasing economic efficiency.

经济体制改革是全面深化改革的重点，核心问题是处理好政府和市场的关系。党的十一届三中全会以来，我们党在推进经济体制改革和实行改革开放过程中，不断深化对政府与市场关系的认知。党的二十届三中全会把构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制摆在突出位置，强调“充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用”，“必须更好发挥市场机制作用”。社会主义市场经济能够把社会主义制度的优越性和市场经济的长处结合起来，把发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用有机结合起来，从而形成更大合力。政府拥有强大的资源整合能力和社会管理职能，能够在宏观调控、公共服务、社会公平等方面发挥关键作用；市场以其高效的信息传递和资源配置功能，在激发企业活力、促进技术创新、增加经济效益等方面发挥重要作用。

The market's decisive role in resource allocation is a general law of the market economy. The market economy is essentially an economy where the market determines resource allocation and is also the most effective way to develop productive forces. However, the market is not omnipotent. If resources are left entirely to the market for allocation in pursuit of efficiency, it will lead to problems such as insufficient effective demand, unfair distribution, and information asymmetry, exacerbating social polarization and the gap between rich and poor. This requires the government to carry out scientific macro-control, using fiscal, tax, financial, administrative, and legal means to remove barriers that hinder the free flow of factors between regions and in different industries and fields, ensure equal rights for various operators in different industries and fields, guarantee their equal opportunities to use production factors according to law, maintain market order, and correct market failures. However, excessive government intervention may inhibit market innovation and efficiency. Only by reasonably defining the boundaries of responsibilities between the government and the market and rationally dividing their respective scopes of duties, giving full play to the respective advantages and strengths of the government and the market, can the effect of "1+1>2" be achieved. Therefore, we should respect market laws, ensure that the market economy is both "energized" and "well-managed," avoid excessive government intervention in market mechanisms, reduce micro-management affairs and specific approval items, minimize direct government allocation of market resources, and minimize direct government intervention in market activities. For problems that the market cannot effectively solve, such as public safety, environmental protection, and income redistribution, the government must take timely measures, carry out appropriate management and regulation, ensure fair market competition, and promote healthy economic development. In the process of building a high-level socialist market economy, we must accurately grasp the relationship between the market and the government, recognize that the roles of the market and the government complement each other and are organically unified, give full play to the government's important role in strategic planning and policy formulation, while respecting market laws and releasing the vitality of market entities, thereby ensuring that the functions of the market and the government are fully exerted and forming a greater synergy.

市场决定资源配置是市场经济的一般规律，市场经济本质上就是市场决定资源配置的经济，也是发展生产力最为有效的途径。然而，市场并非无所不能，若一味放任市场配置资源、追求效率，将会导致有效需求不足、分配不公平、信息不对称等问题，加剧社会两极分化和贫富差距。这就需要政府进行科学的宏观调控，通过财税、金融、行政和法律等手段，破除阻碍要素在区域间、在不同行业领域自由流动的壁垒，保障不同行业、不同领域的各类经营者的平等权利，确保各自依法享有平等使用生产要素的机会，维护市场秩序、矫正市场失灵。然而，政府过度干预又可能会抑制市场的创新和效率，只有合理界定政府与市场的责任边界、合理划分二者的职责范围，充分发挥政府和市场各自的优势和长处，才能达到“1+1＞2”的效果。因此，应尊重市场规律，确保市场经济既“放得活”又“管得住”，避免政府过度干预市场机制，减少微观管理事务和具体审批事项，最大限度减少政府对市场资源的直接配置，最大限度减少政府对市场活动的直接干预。对于市场无法有效解决的问题，如公共安全、环境保护、收入再分配等，政府必须及时采取措施，进行适度的管理和调控，保障市场公平竞争，促进经济健康发展。在构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制的进程中，必须准确把握市场与政府的关系，认识到市场作用和政府作用相辅相成、有机统一，充分发挥政府在战略规划、政策制定方面的重要作用，同时尊重市场规律、释放市场主体活力，从而确保市场与政府功能得以充分发挥，形成更大合力。

2. Combining top-level design with practical exploration

2.坚持顶层设计与实践探索相结合

Fully establishing a high-level socialist market economy is a complex and long-term systemic project. Achieving this goal requires overall planning and scientific design. It is necessary to do a good job in both top-level design and overall planning to ensure firm reform direction and clear feasible paths, guarantee smooth circulation of the national economy, and also pay attention to practical exploration and grassroots creativity, stimulate the endogenous dynamics and innovation vitality of the whole society, and promote comprehensive economic and social progress.

全面建成高水平社会主义市场经济体制是一项复杂且长期的系统工程。实现这一目标需要统筹全局、科学谋划，既做好顶层设计和整体规划，确保改革方向坚定不移、路径明确可行，保障国民经济循环顺畅无阻，又注重实践探索与基层创造，激发全社会的内生动力和创新活力，推动经济社会全面进步。

The socialist market economy is a great undertaking unprecedented in history, lacking ready-made models and experience for reference. Decades of reform practice have profoundly demonstrated that "crossing the river by feeling the stones" and strengthening top-level design are dialectically unified. Organically combining top-level design with practical exploration is not only an important experience of China's reform, opening up, and economic and social development but also an important thinking model for solving development bottlenecks and promoting institutional innovation. Currently, China's economic system reform has entered a critical period and deep-water zone, with new problems constantly emerging and new challenges following one after another. To effectively address these unprecedented difficulties, we must focus on the long term to improve top-level design, concentrate on prominent issues and key links that constrain high-quality economic development, unswervingly uphold the overall leadership of the Party, firmly safeguard the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, give full play to the Party's core leadership role in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties, integrate Party leadership into all aspects and the entire process of reform, clarify the goal orientation, problem orientation, and effect orientation of economic system reform, so as to promote reforms by connecting point to line, using lines to promote areas, and combining points and areas. Deploy innovation chains around industrial chains, build an innovation ecosystem with large enterprises driving and small and medium-sized enterprises collaborating, highlight key reform tasks in various fields, give full play to the advantages of the ultra-large-scale market, accelerate reform and structural adjustment, smooth the production, distribution, circulation, and consumption of the national economy, release domestic demand potential, deepen reform of state-owned assets and enterprises, optimize the layout of the state-owned economy, adjust the economic structure, give full play to the advantages of state-owned enterprises and state-owned capital in energy, resources, and funds, and promote the concentration of state-owned capital in important industries and key fields related to national security and the lifeline of the national economy. Encourage and guide social funds to flow into emerging industries, scientifically lay out forward-looking strategic industries such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, promote industrial innovation through technological innovation, establish a high-standard market system, drive the development of new quality productive forces with a sound socialist market economy system, and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces to provide impetus for economic system reform. At the same time, it should also be noted that improving top-level design cannot do without practical exploration. This requires respecting the people's pioneering spirit, being good at leveraging the creative power of hundreds of millions of people, vigorously enhancing independent innovation capabilities, and breaking through key core technologies as soon as possible; advocating pooling wisdom and collective efforts, deeply removing market access barriers, supporting capable private enterprises to take the lead in undertaking major national technological research tasks, and further opening up national major scientific research infrastructure to private enterprises; adhering to the development steps of "first trial, then summary, then promotion," courageously exploring and innovating in practice, seeking effective strategies to solve new contradictions and new problems, and striving to create replicable and promotable fresh experiences, promoting the benign interaction and mutual reinforcement of top-level design and practical exploration.

社会主义市场经济是一项前无古人的伟大事业，缺乏现成的模式和经验可供参照。几十年的改革实践已深刻表明摸着石头过河和加强顶层设计是辩证统一的，将顶层设计与实践探索有机结合，既是我国改革开放、经济社会发展的一条重要经验，又是解决发展瓶颈、推动制度创新的一种重要思维模式。当前，我国经济体制改革进入攻坚期和深水区，新问题不断涌现，新挑战接踵而至。为有效应对这些前所未有的难题，我们要着眼长远完善顶层设计，聚焦制约经济高质量发展的突出问题和关键环节，毫不动摇坚持党的全面领导，坚定维护党中央权威和集中统一领导，充分发挥党总揽全局、协调各方的领导核心作用，把党的领导贯穿改革各方面全过程，明确经济体制改革的目标导向、问题导向、效果导向，以促进改革串点成线，以线促面，点面结合。围绕产业链部署创新链，构建大企业带动、中小企业协同的创新生态，突出各领域重点改革任务，充分发挥超大规模市场优势，加快改革和结构调整，畅通国民经济的生产、分配、流通、消费，释放内需潜力，深化国资国企改革，优化国有经济布局，调整经济结构，充分发挥国有企业和国有资本在能源、资源、资金等方面的优势，推动国有资本向关系国家安全、国民经济命脉的重要行业和关键领域集中。激励引导社会资金流向新兴产业，科学布局前瞻性战略性的大数据、云计算、人工智能等产业，以科技创新推动产业创新，建立高标准市场体系，以完善的社会主义市场经济体制推动新质生产力的发展，以加快发展新质生产力为经济体制改革提供动力。同时也要看到，完善顶层设计，离不开实践探索。这就需要尊重人民首创精神，善于发挥亿万人民的创造伟力，大力提升自主创新能力，尽快突破关键核心技术；倡导集思广益、群策群力，深入破除市场准入壁垒，支持有能力的民营企业牵头承担国家重大技术攻关任务，向民营企业进一步开放国家重大科研基础设施；秉持“先试验、后总结、再推广”的发展步骤，勇于在实践中探索创新，寻求解决新矛盾新问题的有效策略，努力创造可复制、可推广的鲜活经验，促进顶层设计与实践探索良性互动、相得益彰。

3. Achieving benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security

3.实现高质量发展与高水平安全良性互动

High-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and is also a fundamental requirement put forward as China's economic development enters a new stage. In the process of building a high-level socialist market economy, development and security are like two wheels of a cart or two wings of a bird, mutually reinforcing and indispensable. We must fully implement the holistic approach to national security, adhere to the benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security, promote high-level security through high-quality development, and ensure high-quality development with high-level security.

高质量发展是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的首要任务，也是我国经济发展进入新阶段提出的根本要求。在构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制过程中，发展和安全犹如车之两轮、鸟之两翼，相互促进、缺一不可。必须全面贯彻总体国家安全观，坚持高质量发展和高水平安全良性互动，以高质量发展促进高水平安全，以高水平安全保障高质量发展。

At present and for some time to come, China's economic development remains in an important period of strategic opportunity, but both opportunities and challenges have undergone new developments and changes. China's economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. High-quality economic development does not merely refer to the growth of material indicators; it is a comprehensive and integrated development model that must grasp, measure, and promote development through the internal unity of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing. Facing short-term problems, cyclical factors, and long-term structural contradictions in China's economic operation, the key is to solve the problems of balance and wholeness in the socialist market economy, unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy, unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector of the economy, focus on developing the real economy, and create a good environment for the development of the non-public sector by continuously strengthening advantages and making up for shortcomings. Focus on solving the structural contradictions and institutional mechanism obstacles that constrain high-quality development, promote better adaptation between relations of production and productive forces, between the superstructure and the economic base, and between national governance and social development, take into account the economic development of developed and underdeveloped regions, urban and rural areas, and the eastern, central, and western parts, coordinate key development areas in various localities, form a regional economic layout with complementary advantages, higher levels, and higher quality, build a unified national market, smooth the reasonable flow of factors, and achieve a nationwide chessboard. Improve the modernization level of industrial chains and supply chains, vigorously promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and achieve economic transformation, upgrading, and quality and efficiency improvement.

当前和今后一个时期，我国经济发展仍然处于重要战略机遇期，但机遇和挑战都有新的发展变化。我国经济已由高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段，经济的高质量发展并非仅指物质指标的增长，而是一种全面、综合的发展模式，必须以创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享的内在统一来把握发展、衡量发展、推动发展。面对我国经济运行中的短期问题、周期性因素和长期结构性矛盾，关键是要解决社会主义市场经济中的均衡性、整体性问题，毫不动摇巩固和发展公有制经济，毫不动摇鼓励、支持、引导非公有制经济发展，着力发展实体经济，通过持续强化优势、弥补短板，为非公有制经济发展营造良好环境。着眼于解决制约高质量发展的结构性矛盾、体制机制障碍，推动生产关系和生产力、上层建筑和经济基础、国家治理和社会发展更好相适应，兼顾经济发达地区和欠发达地区、城乡、东中西部的经济发展，统筹各地重点发展领域，形成优势互补、更高层次、更高质量的区域经济布局，构建全国统一大市场，畅通要素合理流动，做到全国一盘棋。提升产业链供应链现代化水平，大力推进传统产业改造升级，实现经济转型升级和提质增效。

In the process of economic development, we must adhere to the concept of big security, be highly vigilant against "black swan" incidents, and effectively guard against "gray rhino" incidents. Adhere to taking the promotion of social fairness and justice and the enhancement of people's welfare as the starting point and ultimate goal, closely follow and commit to meeting the people's ever-growing needs for a better life, and strive to improve people's living standards. Consciously practice the principle of the rule of law, standardize reform within the framework of the rule of law, further deepen the reform and improvement of the property rights system, build an efficient, comprehensive, and systematic comprehensive intellectual property management system, ensure that property rights of various ownership economies receive lasting and equal legal protection; strengthen enterprise compliance construction and clean risk prevention and control, establish a complete internal management system, ensure that all business activities comply with laws, regulations, and industry norms, and that rights are not abused and resources are not wasted. Tighten the main responsibility of enterprises, the regulatory responsibility of departments, and the territorial responsibility of localities, improve disposal efficiency, firmly hold the bottom line of preventing systemic risks, strengthen interim and ex-post supervision, standardize administrative inspections involving private enterprises, clarify the scope, methods, and frequency of inspections, ensure the fairness and effectiveness of inspections, keep enterprises operating on the track of compliance, and ensure healthy and orderly development of enterprises; regulate local investment promotion laws and regulations, strictly prohibit illegal and non-compliant policy concessions, ensure the rationality and effectiveness of fiscal expenditures, prevent local protectionism, market monopolies, and unfair competition, encourage "upward competition," comprehensively rectify "involution-style" competition, promote fairness and transparency in market competition, and create a fairer and more dynamic market environment.

在经济发展过程中，要坚持大安全理念，高度警惕“黑天鹅”事件，切实防范“灰犀牛”事件。坚持以促进社会公平正义、增进人民福祉为出发点和落脚点，紧密关注并致力于满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要，努力提升人民生活水平。自觉践行法治原则，在法治框架内规范改革，进一步深化产权制度的改革与完善，构建一个高效、全面、系统的知识产权综合管理体制，确保各种所有制经济的产权得到持久且平等的法律保护；加强企业合规建设和廉洁风险防控，建立完善的内部管理制度，确保所有经营活动都符合法律法规和行业规范，权利不被滥用、资源不被浪费。压实企业主体责任、部门监管责任、地方属地责任，提升处置效能，坚决守住不发生系统性风险的底线，加强事中事后监管，规范涉民营企业行政检查，明确检查的范围、方式和频率，确保检查的公正性和有效性，使企业始终在合规的轨道上运行，确保企业健康有序发展；规范地方招商引资法规制度，严禁违法违规给予政策优惠行为，确保财政支出的合理性和有效性，防范地方保护主义、市场垄断和不正当竞争等问题，鼓励“向上竞争”、综合整治“内卷式”竞争，促进市场竞争的公平性和透明性，创造更加公平、更有活力的市场环境。

(The author: Li Chungeng, is the Vice President of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, and a Distinguished Researcher of the Jiangxi Provincial Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.)

（作者：李春根，系江西财经大学副校长、江西省中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心特约研究员）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧