Better Upholding and Developing Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

2. The greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Party

The system manages the fundamentals, the overall situation, and the long term. The socialist system with Chinese characteristics is a scientific system formed by the party and the people in long-term practice and exploration, and it is the fundamental, basic and important systems that play the role of “four beams and eight pillars.” This set of institutional systems includes the party’s leadership system, the people’s mastery system, the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, the socialist administrative system and government governance system with Chinese characteristics, the basic socialist economic system, the system for prospering and developing advanced socialist culture, the people’s livelihood security system that coordinates urban and rural areas, the social governance system of joint construction, co-governance and sharing, the ecological civilization system, the party’s absolute leadership system over the people’s army, the “one country, two systems” system, the independent foreign policy of peace, Party and state supervision system.

This system is suitable for China’s national conditions, conforms to the trend of the times, has unique advantages, and has played an irreplaceable and important role in the practice of governing the country and achieved remarkable results. The dominant position in this system is the party’s leadership system. The party’s leadership is the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the party’s leadership system is the fundamental leadership system of our country, which determines the characteristics and advantages of other systems.

First, the Party’s leadership ensures that the people enjoy broader and more fulfilling rights and freedoms, and is conducive to mobilizing the people’s enthusiasm and creativity to participate in national construction and governance. The fundamental purpose of the Communist Party of China is to serve the people wholeheartedly. The Party leads the people to establish a socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics and develop socialist democracy, which is to embody the people’s will, protect the people’s rights and interests, stimulate the people’s creative vitality, use the system to ensure that the people are masters of the country, and realize the organic unity of the party’s leadership, the people’s mastery of the country and the rule of law. Among them, the party’s leadership is the fundamental guarantee for the people to be masters of the country and to govern the country according to law, the people’s mastery of the country is the essential feature of socialist democratic politics, and governing the country according to law is the basic way for the party to lead the people to govern the country, and the three are unified in the great practice of socialist democratic politics. Since the reform and opening up, the leadership system of the party and the state has become increasingly perfect, the comprehensive rule of law has been advanced, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has become increasingly perfect, the institutional guarantee and legal guarantee for the people being masters of the country have become more powerful, the cause of human rights has developed in an all-round way, the patriotic united front has been further consolidated, the content of the people’s enjoyment and exercise of democratic rights in accordance with the law has become richer, the channels more convenient and the forms more diverse, and the Chinese people have shown unprecedented enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. Practice has proved that socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics is the most extensive, authentic and effective democracy, and it is an institutional arrangement in which the people are masters of their own affairs.

Second, the party’s leadership has ensured the effective regulation of major political and economic relations, which is conducive to maintaining a stable and united political situation. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once pointed out: “In a big country like China, it is impossible to conceive of unifying the thinking and strength of hundreds of millions of people to build socialism without a party composed of party members with a high degree of consciousness, discipline and self-sacrifice that can truly represent and unite the masses of the people, and without such a unified leadership of the party.”

It will only fall apart and achieve nothing. “1 Since the reform and opening up, despite all kinds of challenges, risks, resistances and contradictions, China’s overall social stability and political situation of stability and unity have always been maintained, and the most important reason behind this is that the party’s leadership has ensured the effective regulation of major relations in all aspects. For example, in the relationship between political parties, adhering to the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China not only ensures extensive political participation, fully reflects social conditions and public opinion, and the interests of all strata, but also ensures the unity and harmony of political life and the effective convergence of forces of all aspects, and avoids the drawbacks of party rivalry under the multi-party system in the West. For example, in the relationship between the legislative, executive, and judicial departments, the party insists on controlling the overall situation and coordinating all parties, avoiding the situation of fighting and working separately. For example, in terms of different ownership relations, the establishment of a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of various ownership economies, the unswerving consolidation and development of the public ownership economy, and the unswerving encouragement, support and guidance of the development of the non-public economy, which not only conforms to the basic national conditions of the initial stage of socialism, but also reflects the development direction of steadily realizing common prosperity. For example, in the relationship between the government, the market and society, we insist on giving play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, give better play to the role of the government, attach importance to the role of social organizations, and effectively ensure social vitality and order. All these have fundamentally safeguarded the political situation of national stability and unity, social harmony and stability, and the people living and working in peace and contentment. Third, the party’s leadership ensures the overall planning and coordination of forces in all quarters, which is conducive to concentrating forces to do major things. China is a big country, and the Communist Party of China is a big party. To build and develop socialism in a large country with a large population, a weak foundation, and an underdeveloped level of productive forces, a big party must mobilize the enthusiasm of the whole party and the people of all nationalities throughout the country, pool its limited resources and forces, concentrate its forces on doing major things, and concentrate its forces on solving the most direct and realistic interests of the masses of the people. Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “Compared with capitalism, the superiority of socialism lies in its ability to play chess in the whole country, concentrate forces, and ensure key points.“2 Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “Our biggest advantage is that our socialist system can concentrate on doing great things.

This is an important weapon for us to achieve our career.”1 Practice has shown that important fields, key industries, and major projects related to the national economy and people’s livelihood are difficult to achieve by relying only on the strength of a certain region or department, and must be promoted by the strength of the whole country. It is precisely because we have given full play to the institutional advantages of concentrating forces to do great things that we have completed the “two bombs and one satellite” project, which can be called a historical monument, and successively completed the Three Gorges Project, high-speed railways throughout the country, world-class projects that have attracted worldwide attention, such as the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project, the West-to-East Power Transmission, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and the Cross- Sea Bridge; completed high-tech projects such as the “Shenzhou”, “Tiangong”, “Tianhe”, “Jiaolong”, quantum communications, and large aircraft. Major natural disasters or major diseases such as major earthquakes, and major livelihood projects such as aid to Tibet, aid to Xinjiang, and targeted poverty alleviation have been effectively implemented. It is precisely because of the institutional advantages of concentrating on major things that we have effectively realized unified leadership, unified command and unified action for the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, formed a strategic pattern of comprehensive mobilization, comprehensive deployment, and comprehensive strengthening of epidemic prevention and control, initially curbed the spread of the epidemic in more than a month, controlled the daily new cases in the local area within single digits in about two months, and achieved the Wuhan defense battle in about three months. The decisive results of the Hubei defense war, the national epidemic prevention and control battle has achieved major strategic results. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The strength of everyone is limited, but as long as we are united in one heart and one mind, there will be no difficulties that cannot be overcome.“2 In a few decades, we have completed the process of industrialization that developed countries have gone through for hundreds of years. In the hands of Chinese people, the impossible becomes possible. This vividly reflects the extraordinary role and great significance of the party’s leadership, which is the essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Fourth, the party’s leadership ensures the stability and continuity of the country’s major policies and policies, which is conducive to safeguarding the fundamental and long-term interests of the country. Doing a good job of current affairs in a down-to-earth manner and strategically planning for long- term development is the consistent leadership method of the Communist Party of China and an important experience of the party in ruling and rejuvenating the country. This is conducive to maintaining the stability and sustainability of the country’s major policies, combining current interests with long-term interests, and aligning partial interests with overall interests.

The reason why the road of rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has been moving fast and steadily, and the reason why the cause of reform and opening up has achieved great success, is inseparable from the work of the Chinese Communists from generation to generation and drawing a blueprint to the end. Focusing on the realization of socialist modernization, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward the “two-step” strategic consideration in 1963; at the beginning of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping put forward the “three-step” strategic concept; in 1997, Comrade Jiang Zemin put forward the new “three-step” strategic goal at the 15th CPC National Congress and put forward the “two centenary goals” for the first time; and in 2007, Comrade Hu Jintao further perfected the “two centenary goals” at the 17th CPC National Congress In 2017, Comrade Xi Jinping proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in “two steps” after building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. These major strategies are all top-level designs and practical arrangements focusing on the long-term development of the country, reflecting the ruling character of the Communist Party of China that is both in the same vein and advancing with the times. Although some ruling parties in Western countries also try to plan for the long-term development of the country, they are bound by the dilemma of interest games and the rotation of political parties, and long-term reforms often become difficult. Political parties fight, focusing only on short-term interests and ignoring long-term interests, focusing only on term goals and ignoring strategic goals, which is the norm in Western multi-party politics. Political parties and politicians compete to curry favor with voters for the sake of votes, and the ballot becomes the baton of the party. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once pointed out sharply: “The United States has blown its system so well, but it was a statement when the president campaigned, a statement just after taking office, a statement in the midterm elections, and another statement when the next general election was approaching.” The United States also says that our policy is unstable, and that our policy is much more stable than that of the United States. “1 Fifth, the Party’s leadership ensures the concrete implementation of the principle of fairness and justice, which is conducive to achieving common prosperity for all the people. Realizing social fairness and justice and achieving common prosperity for all the people are the most fundamental values of the Communist Party of China and the goal of the Chinese Communists. The most fundamental thing for the Party to lead the people to socialize in China is to liberate and develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. The reason why China has been able to do this is because it has established a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of various ownership economies, the state-owned economy firmly controls the country’s economic lifeline, and the material and economic forces that dominate society are always in the hands of the broad masses of the people.

Today, China’s basic national conditions that are still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain for a long time have not changed, China’s international status as the world’s largest developing country has not changed, and the problems of the gap between the rich and the poor and the problems of fairness and justice facing our country are all in the process of being resolved. We must not only give play to the decisive role of the market, but also avoid the negative impact of the market; we must not only make various factors of production, including capital, active, but also avoid the capriciousness of capital logic. Only by adhering to and strengthening the party’s overall leadership and adhering to the party’s basic economic system in the initial stage of socialism can we ensure that the development of the socialist market economy always advances in the right direction and makes the fruits of development more and more equitable to benefit all the people. In short, the party’s leadership, as the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, has been fully reflected in China’s practice and widely recognized by more and more foreign people of insight. Of course, any system must be continuously improved and developed in practice, and the embodiment of any system’s advantages will be a historical process. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with the advancement of the cause of the Party and the country, the socialist system with Chinese characteristics will certainly be more systematic, scientific and standardized, and effective in operation, and the systems in all aspects will be more mature and more formalized, and the greatest advantages of the leadership of the Communist Party of China will be brought into full play.