Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively Must Adhere to the Systems Concept

Further deepening reform comprehensively is a profound and comprehensive social transformation, and also a complex systems engineering project. The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held in July 2024, focused on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese-path modernization. The "Decision" refers to the resolution adopted at this session. summarizes and applies the valuable experience gained since reform and opening up, especially from the comprehensive deepening of reform in the New Era, and proposes six major principles that must be implemented for further deepening reform comprehensively, one of which is adhering to the systems concept. The systems concept is an important category of Marxist epistemology and methodology, providing a powerful ideological weapon for people to understand the world, grasp laws, and transform the world. Further deepening reform comprehensively must adhere to the systems concept, properly handle major relationships such as between the economy and society, the government and the market, efficiency and fairness, vitality and order, and development and security, thereby enhancing the systemic, holistic, and synergistic nature of reform.

全面深化改革是一场深刻而全面的社会变革，也是一项复杂的系统工程。党的二十届三中全会《决定》总结和运用改革开放以来特别是新时代全面深化改革的宝贵经验，提出进一步全面深化改革必须贯彻的“六个坚持”重大原则，其中之一是坚持系统观念。系统观念是马克思主义认识论和方法论的重要范畴，为人们认识世界、把握规律、改造世界提供了有力思想武器。进一步全面深化改革必须坚持系统观念，处理好经济和社会、政府和市场、效率和公平、活力和秩序、发展和安全等重大关系，增强改革的系统性、整体性、协同性。

Properly handle the relationship between the economy and society. Economic development is the foundation of social development, and social development is the purpose of economic development; the two are closely related and mutually reinforcing. Further deepening reform comprehensively involves all aspects and fields of economic and social development, and every reform may have multifaceted impacts. This requires adhering to the systems concept, strengthening systematic planning and coordinated promotion of reforms, and paying attention to the overall effect of reform measures. Further deepening reform comprehensively must adhere to the systems concept to handle the relationship between the economy and society, identify the conjunction between economic construction and social construction, and achieve their benign interaction and coordinated development. Specifically, promoting economic development requires not only solving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, fully releasing the vitality of economic development and improving the efficiency of economic development, but also ensuring and improving people's livelihoods in the course of development, making development more dynamic, society warmer, and people's livelihoods more secure. Promoting social development requires not only upholding social fairness and justice, creating a clean and upright social environment for economic development, but also strengthening social construction, increasing investment in education and talent development, and transforming these into a strong driving force for economic development.

处理好经济和社会的关系。经济发展是社会发展的基础，社会发展是经济发展的目的，两者密切相关、互促共进。进一步全面深化改革，涉及经济社会发展各方面、各领域，每一项改革都可能产生多方面影响，这就需要坚持系统观念，加强对改革的系统谋划、协同推进，注重改革措施整体效果。进一步全面深化改革，必须坚持以系统观念处理好经济和社会的关系，找准经济建设与社会建设的结合点，实现二者的良性互动与协调发展。具体来讲，推动经济发展既要解决发展不平衡不充分的问题，充分释放经济发展活力、提升经济发展效率，又要在发展中保障和改善民生，让发展更有动力、社会更有温度、民生更有保障。推动社会发展不仅要坚持维护社会公平正义，为经济发展营造风清气正的社会环境，还要加强社会建设，加大对教育事业、人才事业等的投入力度，将其转化为推动经济发展的强劲动力。

Properly handle the relationship between the government and the market. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "A key factor in the great success of our country's economic development is that we have leveraged both the strengths of the market economy and the superiority of the socialist system." [2]2 Quotation from Xi Jinping's speech at the 28th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, November 2020. Developing the socialist market economy is a great creation of our Party, and the key lies in properly handling the relationship between the government and the market. Further deepening reform comprehensively must adhere to the systems concept to handle the relationship between the government and the market, insist on a better combination of an effective market and a competent government, make good use of the "invisible hand" and the "visible hand," use reform to stimulate market vitality, use policies to guide market expectations, use planning to clarify investment directions, and use the rule of law to regulate market behavior. On the one hand, fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, create a fairer and more dynamic market environment, achieve optimal efficiency and maximum benefit in resource allocation, and focus on solving the problems of excessive government intervention and inadequate supervision. On the other hand, better play the role of the government, ensuring it is both "flexible in deregulation" and "capable of effective regulation," better maintain market order and remedy market failures, smooth the national economic cycle, stimulate the endogenous driving force and innovation vitality of the entire society, and strive to form a pattern where the role of the market and the role of the government are organically unified, mutually complementary, mutually coordinated, and mutually reinforcing.

处理好政府和市场的关系。习近平总书记指出：“我国经济发展获得巨大成功的一个关键因素，就是我们既发挥了市场经济的长处，又发挥了社会主义制度的优越性。”发展社会主义市场经济是我们党的一个伟大创造，关键是处理好政府和市场的关系。进一步全面深化改革，必须坚持以系统观念处理好政府和市场的关系，坚持有效市场和有为政府更好结合，用好“看不见的手”和“看得见的手”，用改革激发市场活力，用政策引导市场预期，用规划明确投资方向，用法治规范市场行为。一方面，充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，创造更加公平、更有活力的市场环境，实现资源配置效率最优化和效益最大化，着力解决政府干预过多和监管不到位问题。另一方面，更好发挥政府作用，既“放得活”又“管得住”，更好维护市场秩序、弥补市场失灵，畅通国民经济循环，激发全社会内生动力和创新活力，努力形成市场作用和政府作用有机统一、相互补充、相互协调、相互促进的格局。

Properly handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness. Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all the people. It must not only create higher efficiency than capitalism but also more effectively safeguard social fairness, ensuring that the "cake" is both made bigger and divided well, so that the fruits of modernization benefit all the people more and more fairly. Efficiency and fairness are mutually conditional and reinforcing. To better achieve the mutual consideration, promotion, and unity of efficiency and fairness, it is necessary to adhere to the systems concept to handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness. On the one hand, focus on improving efficiency, promote the smooth flow of production factors, efficient allocation of various resources, and full release of market potential, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of development, further liberate and develop productive forces, allow the vitality of all labor, knowledge, technology, management, and capital to burst forth, and let all sources of social wealth fully flow. On the other hand, pay more attention to social fairness, adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, insist on development for the people, development relying on the people, and development achievements shared by the people, continuously enhance the balance, coordination, and inclusiveness of development, and promote well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all to achieve more obvious substantive progress.

处理好效率和公平的关系。中国式现代化是全体人民共同富裕的现代化，既要创造比资本主义更高的效率，又要更有效地维护社会公平，在做大蛋糕的同时分好蛋糕，让现代化建设成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。效率和公平互为条件、相互促进。更好实现效率和公平相兼顾、相促进、相统一，必须坚持以系统观念处理好效率和公平的关系。一方面，着力提升效率，推动生产要素畅通流动、各类资源高效配置、市场潜力充分释放，不断提高发展的质量和效益，进一步解放和发展生产力，让一切劳动、知识、技术、管理、资本的活力竞相迸发，让一切创造社会财富的源泉充分涌流。另一方面，更加注重社会公平，坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，坚持发展为了人民、发展依靠人民、发展成果由人民共享，不断提升发展的平衡性、协调性、包容性，推动人的全面发展、全体人民共同富裕取得更为明显的实质性进展。

Properly handle the relationship between vitality and order. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese-path modernization should and can achieve a dynamic balance of being vibrant without chaos, and active yet orderly." [3]3 Quotation from Xi Jinping's speech at the opening ceremony of a study session for provincial and ministerial-level leading cadres, January 2023. Properly handling the relationship between vitality and order is a difficult problem in the historical process of modernization. In the process of further deepening reform comprehensively and advancing Chinese-path modernization, vitality and order are a dialectically unified and mutually reinforcing organism. Good social order is an important prerequisite for stimulating the vitality of social development, and the vigorous bursting forth of social vitality will in turn promote the formation of good social order. To achieve the embedding of vitality within order and the construction of order upon vitality, it is necessary to adhere to the systems concept to handle the relationship between vitality and order, maintain order while stimulating vitality, stimulate vitality while maintaining order, resolutely break down ideological concepts and institutional mechanism defects that hinder the release of vitality, create a stable, orderly yet vibrant social environment for further deepening reform comprehensively, and achieve a dynamic balance of being vibrant without chaos, and active yet orderly at a higher level.

处理好活力和秩序的关系。习近平总书记指出：“中国式现代化应当而且能够实现活而不乱、活跃有序的动态平衡。”处理好活力和秩序的关系，是现代化历史进程中的一道难题。在进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的进程中，活力和秩序是辩证统一、相辅相成的有机体。良好的社会秩序是激发社会发展活力的重要前提，社会活力竞相迸发又会进一步推动形成良好的社会秩序。实现寓活力于秩序之中、建秩序于活力之上，必须坚持以系统观念处理好活力和秩序的关系，在激发活力中保持秩序，在保持秩序中激发活力，坚决破除妨碍活力释放的思想观念和体制机制弊端，为进一步全面深化改革创造安定有序又充满活力的社会环境，在更高水平上实现活而不乱、活跃有序的动态平衡。

Properly handle the relationship between development and security. Development and security are like the two wings of a bird and the two wheels of a chariot. Development is the top priority, and adhering to high-quality development is the hard truth of the New Era. National security is a matter of paramount importance; only by building a solid dike for national security can we provide a strong guarantee for the great cause of building a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In further deepening reform comprehensively, to coordinate high-quality development with high-level security and promote the mutual reinforcement of development and security, it is necessary to adhere to the systems concept to handle the relationship between development and security. On the one hand, use high-level security to serve high-quality development, use a new security architecture to safeguard the new development paradigm, implement a holistic approach to national security, improve the national security system, and effectively safeguard national political security, institutional security, ideological security, and security in key areas. On the other hand, use high-quality development to promote high-level security, use the new development paradigm to consolidate the new security architecture, enhance the strength and confidence to respond to changes in the domestic and international situation and safeguard national security, and promote a benign interaction between high-quality development and high-level security.

处理好发展和安全的关系。发展和安全是一体之两翼、驱动之双轮。发展是第一要务，坚持高质量发展是新时代的硬道理。国家安全是头等大事，只有筑牢国家安全的堤坝，才能为强国建设、民族复兴伟业提供坚强保障。在进一步全面深化改革中统筹高质量发展和高水平安全，推动发展和安全互促共进，必须坚持以系统观念处理好发展和安全的关系。既要以高水平安全服务高质量发展，以新安全格局保障新发展格局，贯彻总体国家安全观，健全国家安全体系，有力维护国家政权安全、制度安全、意识形态安全和重点领域安全；又要以高质量发展促进高水平安全，以新发展格局巩固新安全格局，增强应对国内外形势变化、维护国家安全的实力和底气，推动实现高质量发展和高水平安全良性互动。

Online Editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗