Opening Up New Horizons for Marxist Political Economy

*Xi Jinping: Selected Works on the Economy*, Volume I, brings together Comrade Xi Jinping’s most important and fundamental writings on economic construction from November 2012 to December 2024. It reflects the thinking, exploration and theoretical summation of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core regarding China’s economic development practice since the 18th National Congress of the CPC [n1], and constitutes a new theoretical treasure trove of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, centrally embodying the core content and distinctive qualities of Xi Jinping’s economic thought.

《习近平经济文选》第一卷收入了习近平同志2012年11月至2024年12月期间关于经济建设最重要、最基本的著作，反映了党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央对我国经济发展实践的思考、探索与理论总结，是中国特色社会主义政治经济学新的理论宝库，集中体现了习近平经济思想的核心内容和鲜明品质。

Party Spirit: Strengthening the Party’s Overall Leadership over Economic Work

党性：加强党对经济工作的全面领导

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, in the face of a severe and complex international environment and arduous and heavy domestic tasks of reform, development and stability, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has adhered to observing the general trend, planning the overall situation, and doing practical work, comprehensively strengthening the Party’s strategic planning and unified leadership over economic work, leading China’s economic development to achieve historic accomplishments and undergo historic transformations. This shows that upholding the Party’s leadership is an important magic weapon for the sustained rapid growth of China’s socialist economy. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out, “Socialism with Chinese characteristics has many features and characteristics, but the most essential feature is upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China.” First, strengthening the Party’s leadership over economic work is a manifestation of the superiority of China’s political system. The Party can oversee the overall situation and coordinate all parties, which is conducive to pooling wisdom, building consensus, and mobilizing all sides to form a joint force. Second, strengthening the Party’s leadership over economic work is a manifestation of the superiority of China’s economic management system. The Party Central Committee stands at the level of top-level design, adhering to systematic thinking and scientific planning. Strengthening the Party’s leadership over economic work is conducive to implementing the central authorities’ decisions and deployments down to the grassroots, ensuring that China’s economy develops in the correct direction. Third, strengthening the Party’s leadership over economic work is a manifestation of the superiority of maintaining policy continuity. Whether the world’s second-largest economy can be managed well and whether sustained and healthy economic and social development can be maintained fundamentally depends on how well the Party’s leading core role in economic and social development is played. Our Party, from an overall and strategic height, firmly grasps the direction of development, promptly proposes and adjusts policies and measures, and continuously pushes development forward.

党的十八大以来，面对严峻复杂的国际环境和艰巨繁重的国内改革发展稳定任务，以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚持观大势、谋全局、干实事，全面加强党对经济工作的战略谋划和统一领导，引领我国经济发展取得历史性成就、发生历史性变革。这表明坚持党的领导，是我国社会主义经济保持快速增长的重要法宝。习近平总书记指出，“中国特色社会主义有很多特点和特征，但最本质的特征是坚持中国共产党领导”。第一，加强党对经济工作的领导，是我国政治制度优势的体现。党能够总揽全局、协调各方，有利于集思广益、凝聚共识，有利于调动各方形成合力。第二，加强党对经济工作的领导，是我国经济管理体制优势的体现。党中央站在顶层设计的高度，坚持系统思维和科学谋划。加强党对经济工作的领导有利于将中央的决策部署落到实处，落实到基层，确保我国经济沿着正确方向发展。第三，加强党对经济工作的领导，是保持政策连续性优势的体现。能不能驾驭好世界第二大经济体，能不能保持经济社会持续健康发展，从根本上来说取决于党在经济社会发展中的领导核心作用发挥得好不好。我们党从全局和战略高度，牢牢把握发展方向，及时提出、调整政策措施，不断把发展向前推进。

People-Centeredness: Adhering to the People-Centered Development Thinking

人民性：坚持以人民为中心的发展思想

Being people-centered is a consistent concept of our Party in leading socialist economic development and modernization. First, this is a manifestation of the Party’s purpose. Our Party is a party that serves the people wholeheartedly, always represents the fundamental interests of the broadest majority of the Chinese people, and all the Party’s work must take the fundamental interests of the broadest majority of the people as the highest standard. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly stated that the people’s aspiration for a better life is our goal of struggle. The people love life and hope for better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher-level medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, and a more beautiful environment. They hope their children can grow up better, work better, and live better. Therefore, our Party’s responsibility is to unite and lead the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the country to continue emancipating the mind, adhere to reform and opening up, continuously liberate and develop the productive forces, and realize the wishes of the people. Second, this is a manifestation of historical materialism. Historical materialism tells us that the people are the creators of history and the true heroes. We must uphold the principal position of the people, respond to the new expectations of the people, and constantly realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest majority of the people, ensuring that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people. Third, this is a manifestation of the essence of socialism. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out that we must “take enhancing the people’s well

以人民为中心，是我们党领导社会主义经济发展和现代化建设的一贯理念。第一，这是党的宗旨的体现。我们党是全心全意为人民服务的政党，始终代表中国最广大人民的根本利益，党的一切工作必须以最广大人民的根本利益为最高标准。习近平总书记明确提出，人民对美好生活的向往就是我们的奋斗目标。人民热爱生活，期盼有更好的教育、更稳定的工作、更满意的收入、更可靠的社会保障、更高水平的医疗卫生服务、更舒适的居住条件、更优美的环境，期盼孩子们能成长得更好、工作得更好、生活得更好。因此，我们党的责任就是要团结带领全党全国各族人民，继续解放思想，坚持改革开放，不断解放和发展生产力，使人民群众的愿望得以实现。第二，这是历史唯物主义的体现。唯物史观告诉我们，人民是历史的创造者，是真正的英雄。要坚持人民主体地位，顺应人民群众的新期待，不断实现好、维护好、发展好最广大人民的根本利益，做到发展为了人民、发展依靠人民、发展成果由人民共享。第三，这是社会主义本质的体现。习近平总书记指出，要“把增进人民福祉、促进人的全面发展、朝着共同富裕方向稳步前进作为经济发展的出发点和落脚点”。我们党在部署经济工作、制定经济政策、推进经济发展时都牢牢坚持这个根本立场，这正是共同富裕这一社会主义本质要求的体现。

Timeliness: Advancing the Adaptation of Marxism to the Times

时代性：推进马克思主义时代化

Since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the New Era, the domestic and international environment has undergone tremendous changes, presenting many new situations, new problems, and new challenges. This requires our Party to innovate Marxist theory in the New Era and to use new concepts and new methods to solve the new problems encountered on the path forward.

中国特色社会主义进入新时代以来，国内外环境发生了巨大变化，面临许多新情况、新问题和新挑战，这需要我们党在新时代创新马克思主义理论，用新理念、新方法解决前进道路上的新问题。

First, deepening reform. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: "Reform and opening up is the new great revolution our Party is leading the people in under the new conditions of the times; it is the most distinctive feature of contemporary China and the most distinctive banner of our Party." "Facing the future, to solve the various difficulties encountered in development, to defuse risks and challenges from all sides, to better leverage the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to promote sustained and healthy economic and social development, there is no other way than deepening reform and opening up." Since entering the New Era, the Party Central Committee has attached great importance to reform work. In November 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform" and established the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform. In July 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese-Path Modernization," demonstrating that our Party has always held high the banner of reform and opening up in the New Era and is pushing forward comprehensive and deepening reform in breadth and depth on the new journey of the New Era.

第一，深化改革。习近平总书记指出：“改革开放是我们党在新的时代条件下带领人民进行的新的伟大革命，是当代中国最鲜明的特色，也是我们党最鲜明的旗帜”，“面对未来，要破解发展面临的各种难题，化解来自各方面的风险和挑战，更好发挥中国特色社会主义制度优势，推动经济社会持续健康发展，除了深化改革开放，别无他途”。进入新时代以来，党中央高度重视改革工作。2013年11月，党的十八届三中全会通过了《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》，并成立了中央全面深化改革领导小组。2024年7月，党的二十届三中全会通过了《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的决定》，表明我们党在新时代始终高举改革开放的旗帜，在新时代新征程上推动全面深化改革向广度和深度进军。

Second, expanding opening up to the outside world. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: "We must accurately grasp the new trends of economic globalization and the new requirements for China's opening up. Reform and opening up is the driving force for China's economic and social development. Continuously expanding opening up and raising the level of opening up, using opening up to promote reform and promote development, is an important magic weapon for China's continuous achievement of new successes in development." The development practices of the world and of China have fully proven that opening up brings progress, while closure leads to backwardness. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has accelerated the implementation of the free trade zone strategy, establishing 22 pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port nationwide, accelerating institutional opening up. At the same time, China has joined multiple regional cooperation agreements and multilateral trade agreements, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, promoting the formation of an autonomous opening-up pattern. In addition, China has put forward the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting the formation of a higher-level opening-up pattern, while also driving the development of the countries and regions involved in the initiative.

第二，扩大对外开放。习近平总书记指出，“要准确把握经济全球化新趋势和我国对外开放新要求。改革开放是我国经济社会发展的动力。不断扩大对外开放、提高对外开放水平，以开放促改革、促发展，是我国发展不断取得新成就的重要法宝”。世界和我国的发展实践已经充分证明，开放带来进步，封闭导致落后。党的十八大以来，我国加快实施自由贸易区战略，已在全国范围内设立了22个自由贸易试验区和海南自由贸易港，加快制度型开放。同时，我国加入了《区域全面经济伙伴关系协定》等多个区域合作协议和多边贸易协议，推动形成自主开放格局。此外，我国还提出了共建“一带一路”倡议，推动形成更高水平的开放格局，同时也带动了共建国家和地区的发展。

Third, advancing scientific and technological innovation. Under the new circumstances, the long-standing model of relying mainly on factor inputs such as resources and labor to support economic growth and scale expansion has become unsustainable. China's development is facing the arduous tasks of power conversion, mode transformation, and structural adjustment. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: "Scientific and technological innovation is the core; grasping scientific and technological innovation means grasping the bull's nose that drives the overall situation of China's development." Since the New Era, the driving force formed by China's low-cost resources and factor inputs has significantly weakened. Social development faces challenges such as population aging, and the requirements of ecological civilization development and the maintenance of energy security, food security, network security, ecological security, biosecurity, and national defense security risks and pressures jointly determine that China needs to rely on more and better scientific and technological innovation to inject new impetus into economic development, promote coordinated economic and social development, build a beautiful China, and ensure national security. It is against this background that the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has deeply promoted the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, fully leveraged the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources, solidly advanced the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, strengthened the principal position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, promoted the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, and effectively supported and advanced economic growth and Chinese-path modernization.

第三，推进科技创新。在新形势下，长期以来主要依靠资源、劳动力等要素投入支撑经济增长和规模扩张的方式已不可持续。我国发展正面临动力转换、方式转变、结构调整的繁重任务。习近平总书记指出，“科技创新是核心，抓住了科技创新就抓住了牵动我国发展全局的牛鼻子”。新时代以来，我国低成本资源和要素投入形成的驱动力明显减弱，社会发展面临人口老龄化等方面挑战，生态文明发展以及维护能源安全、粮食安全、网络安全、生态安全、生物安全、国防安全等风险压力的要求，共同决定了我国需要依靠更多更好的科技创新为经济发展注入新动力、推动经济社会协调发展、建设美丽中国、保障国家安全。正是在此背景下，以习近平同志为核心的党中央深入推动实施创新驱动发展战略，充分发挥新型举国体制优势，扎实推进科技创新和产业创新深度融合，强化企业科技创新主体地位，促进科技成果转化应用，有力地支撑和推进了经济增长与中国式现代化建设。

Innovativeness: Continuously Opening Up New Horizons for Contemporary Chinese Marxist Political Economy

创新性：不断开拓当代中国马克思主义政治经济学新境界

In the long course of socialist revolution and construction, our Party has consistently adhered to integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities, and has continuously developed Marxism in practice. In the field of economics, our Party, guided by the basic principles and methodology of Marxist political economy, has constantly explored ways and paths to accelerate the development of the national economy, elevated these practical experiences into theory, and, based on the practice of China’s socialist economic construction, put forward a series of innovative theoretical viewpoints, enriching and developing Marxist political economy. In the early period after the founding of New China, Comrade Mao Zedong, in the process of exploring the path of socialist construction, put forward original views on developing China’s economy, such as proposing the theory of the basic contradiction in socialist society, proposing the principles of overall consideration and attention to comprehensive balance, and important views such as taking agriculture as the foundation, industry as the leading factor, and the coordinated development of agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry. These are all creative developments of Marxist political economy by our Party. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party [n1], with the deepening of reform and opening up, many important theoretical achievements of contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy have been formed, for example, the theory on the essence of socialism, the theory on the basic economic system of the primary stage of socialism, the theory on establishing and implementing the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing, the theory on the socialist market economy, on enabling the market to play the decisive role in resource allocation and the government to play its role better, the theory on China’s economic development entering a new normal, the theory on promoting the mutual coordination of new-type industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, the theory on the attributes of ownership, contract rights, and management rights of land contracted by farmers, the theory on making good use of both domestic and international markets and resources, and so on. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “These theoretical achievements, which the classical Marxist writers did not discuss and for which we had no practice or understanding before reform and opening up, constitute a political economy that suits contemporary China’s national conditions and the characteristics of the times. They have not only effectively guided China’s economic development practice but also opened up a new realm of Marxist political economy.” In the future, under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s economic thought, research on Marxist political economy will surely yield more theoretical achievements with distinct contemporary relevance and creativity, making greater contributions to constructing an independent knowledge system for Chinese economics.

在长期的社会主义革命和建设过程中，我们党始终坚持把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合，并在实践中不断发展马克思主义。在经济学领域，我们党以马克思主义政治经济学基本原理和方法论为指导，不断探索加快国民经济发展的方式与路径，并把这些实践经验上升为理论，立足中国社会主义经济建设实践，提出了一系列创新性理论观点，丰富和发展了马克思主义政治经济学。在新中国成立初期，毛泽东同志在探索社会主义建设道路过程中对发展我国经济提出了独创性的观点，如提出社会主义社会的基本矛盾理论，提出统筹兼顾、注意综合平衡，以农业为基础、工业为主导、农轻重协调发展等重要观点。这些都是我们党对马克思主义政治经济学的创造性发展。党的十一届三中全会以来，随着改革开放不断深入，形成了当代中国马克思主义政治经济学的许多重要理论成果，比如，关于社会主义本质的理论，关于社会主义初级阶段基本经济制度的理论，关于树立和落实创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享的新发展理念的理论，关于社会主义市场经济、使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用的理论，关于我国经济发展进入新常态的理论，关于推动新型工业化、信息化、城镇化、农业现代化相互协调的理论，关于农民承包的土地具有所有权、承包权、经营权属性的理论，关于用好国际国内两个市场、两种资源的理论，等等。习近平总书记指出，“这些理论成果，马克思主义经典作家没有讲过，改革开放前我们也没有这方面的实践和认识，是适应当代中国国情和时代特点的政治经济学，不仅有力指导了我国经济发展实践，而且开拓了马克思主义政治经济学新境界”。未来，在习近平经济思想的指引下，马克思主义政治经济学研究必将取得更多具有鲜明时代性和创造性的理论成果，为建构中国经济学自主知识体系作出更大贡献。

(The author is Dean and Professor of the Institute of Marxist Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics)

（作者系西南财经大学马克思主义经济学研究院院长、教授）

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