context: The CPC Third Plenum has set forth major social and political reforms to be implemented over the next five years, concentrating on structural changes to improve administrative efficiency and unity. The primary goal is to upgrade the PRC system, necessitating strong Party control. The Party believes that systemic upgrade can back the PRC in countering domestic and external risks, safeguarding state security.
To continue deepening reform, there is a need to break through underlying structural barriers and structural contradictions, contends the People’s Daily. Most notably, there is a need to
- refine and uphold the socialism with Chinese characteristics system
- advancing modernisation in
- the state governance system
- administrative capabilities
According to Xi Jinping 习近平, PRC reforms are a form of self-improvement for the socialism with Chinese characteristics system. Every reform
- serves as an adjustment to the system
- provides innovation to governance
- needs to be extended and strengthened via systemic ways
More than 300 missions in the Resolution involve systemic, mechanic or institutional reforms, including
- maximising the effectiveness of resource allocation
- refining mechanisms and systems to cultivate new productive forces according to local conditions
- accelerate upgrading ecological protection mechanisms and systems
Systemic build-up has been the main line of new era reform, with the following initiatives already in place
- ‘one list’
- introduced the negative list for market access in 2018
- encouraged business entities to surge in the PRC
- ‘one river, mutual protection’
- built testing points on cross-provincial ecological compensation in the Xin’an River basin
- ‘one site for all administrative services’
- reshaped the administrative procedure
- simplified and digitalised services
Overall, the state seeks to enhance administrative efficiency via systemic build-up. In terms of trying to comprehensively build a socialist modernised nation, the PRC’s state and governance systems remain unsatisfactory in certain aspects.
- strengthen top-level design
- advance central-level planning
- safeguard the system before advancing breakthroughs
- build fundamental systems well
- refine basic systems
- innovate major systems
- advance systemic coordination and administrative effectiveness
The systemic build-up process is dynamic, which advances according to reform necessities. The ultimate aim is to transform systemic advantages into governance effectiveness, supporting Chinese-style modernisation.