REFORM AND OPENING UP KNOWS NO BOUNDS

REFORM AND OPENING UP KNOWS NO BOUNDS*

December 7-11, 2012

Currently, China is facing a range of prominent problems and challenges in its further development. To resolve them, we must drive reform to a deeper level and open wider to the outside world. At the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Central Committee emphasized that we must show greater political courage and wisdom, lose no time in furthering reform in key areas, build a complete set of effective and standardized systems, and ensure that all our systems are more mature and better-defined. This is a new declaration and mobilization order for the whole Party and the entire nation to extend reform and opening up in the decisive stage of achieving all-round moderate prosperity. 

China’s reform and opening up has entered a tough stage characterized by unforeseeable challenges. In furthering reform, we must adopt a systematic, holistic and coordinated approach, particularly in major fields and at key links. Here, I would like to emphasize four requirements – stay confident, build consensus, improve overall planning, and coordinate all endeavors. 

Staying confident means advancing reform and opening up with firm resolve. Reform and opening up has been a crucial move in making China what it is today, and is an essential step in realizing the Two Centenary Goals and national rejuvenation. It remains a powerful instrument in accomplishing all our current undertakings. Development knows no bounds. Intellectual emancipation knows no bounds. Reform and opening up knows no bounds; stasis and regression lead only to complete failure. 

Despite the daunting problems and difficulties facing our reform, we must press ahead without faltering. We should show courage in cracking hard nuts, steering the right course, and navigating uncharted waters. We will fear nothing in breaking free from ideological shackles and challenging vested interests. On the road of reform and opening up, we will never stop. 

Our reform and opening up is proceeding in the right direction. We have taken a clear stance, and are following sound principles. Some people claim that reform in the real sense must be oriented towards Western universal values and political systems. This is false positioning of concepts. It is a misinterpretation of reform in China. Our reform carries the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Along this road, we will neither retrace our steps to the rigidity and isolation of the past, nor take the wrong turn by changing our nature and abandoning our system. 

Building consensus means creating synergy for reform and opening up. As an old Chinese saying goes, “When people work with one mind, they can even move Mount Tai.” Without broad consensus, reform can neither proceed smoothly nor achieve success. Today, as China’s economic system, social structure, interest relationships, and ideological values are undergoing profound change, it is increasingly difficult to build consensus for further reform and to balance the interests of different social groups. These difficulties require a greater effort in order to broaden consensus. 

Building consensus is of great importance, particularly in seeking the widest possible convergence of interests where there are disagreements. Once reached, among our 1.3 billion people, including 82 million Party members, plus our overseas compatriots, this consensus is in itself a great strength. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that different views indeed exist in different localities, fields, sectors, and social strata. So we must consider where we can seek common ground, where we can convert disagreement into agreement through discussion, and where we can reserve differences. By finding the convergence of interests and creating synergy for reform and opening up, we can yield twice the result with half the effort. 

Sharpening a hatchet will not slow down the work of cutting firewood. We should take our time to broaden consensus, as patience allows one to work out good solutions to a problem. Pilot reform programs serve as a test for different views and proposals. We should respect the people’s creativity and maximize collective wisdom. To forge a powerful synergy for deeper reform and wider opening up, we must unite all the forces that can be united inside and outside the Party, and mobilize all the positive elements that can be mobilized inside and outside the country. 

Improving overall planning means making decision-making for reform more rational. One who does not plan for the whole cannot plan for the part. As China has reached this stage in reform, we must strengthen top-level design and overall planning for deeper all-round reform based on in-depth research and studies. In elaborating our plans, we must specify the focus, objectives, priorities, directions, mechanisms and approaches. We must formulate master plans, road maps, and timetables. These tasks should be in compliance with the Two Centenary Goals. To realize the Two Centenary Goals, we must rely on reform and opening up and adopt corresponding measures. 

Top-level design refers to overall planning for economic, political, cultural, social and eco-environmental systems. To this end, we must analyze and assess the relationships between all our reform endeavors, ensuring policy compatibility between part and whole, addressing both symptoms and root causes, and striving for both short-term breakthroughs and steady long-term progress. Deeper reform requires a differentiated approach based on an accurate assessment of the problem – we should remove institutional barriers to ensure smooth policy implementation, and at the same time reinforce our fundamental systems and institutions to build up our strength, so as to maximize the impact of all our reform endeavors. 

Coordinating all endeavors means improving the consistency between all reform measures. Our reform has always been comprehensive. I do not agree with the general comment that China’s reform lags behind in some respects. The reform process has indeed been quicker or slower in some fields and for certain periods of time, but on the whole, it is not true to say that some fields have seen reform while other fields have not. The real question is what to reform and what not. Those areas that cannot be and have not been reformed will remain so, no matter how long we have spent on overall reform, and this should not be regarded as a failure to reform in these areas. 

Currently, all our major reform initiatives are interrelated, and this requires comprehensive decision-making and coordinated implementation. In this sense, we should not give excess weight to any single reform, as breakthroughs in a single field are hard to achieve. Instead, we should resolutely advance those reforms that we have targeted, striving to achieve results as early as possible. Concerning those reforms that cover a wide range of fields, we should integrate relevant supporting reforms and increase their synergy. Concerning those reforms in which we cannot yet see progress but must make breakthroughs, we should launch pilot programs and draw experience from practice, encouraging bold exploration and innovation to open new routes and roll out successful experience. 

“Crossing a river by feeling for stones” is a reform approach with distinctive Chinese characteristics and suited to China’s actual conditions. It is not the case that this approach was only practicable in the early stage of reform and can no longer be applied today. Why? In governing a vast and populous country, we must never make fatal mistakes on fundamental issues, because such mistakes are irreversible and irremediable. But neither will we stand still and reject reform, because this would represent rigidity, isolation and conservatism. So what should we do? We should estimate the depth of the well by dropping a rock into it. Once we have gained experience from pilot programs and reached consensus on feasible approaches, we can extend the scope of reform when the time is ripe. The strengths of progressive reform lie in the fact that small victories combine to form big ones. 

Looking back at the past 30-plus years of reform and opening up, we all recognize that China has undergone dramatic changes. Henry Kissinger once told me that before his icebreaking trip to China, he had thought of the possible changes that might take place in China and made plans to improve US-China relations, but today’s China has gone far beyond his imagination and expectations. 

In pursuing reform, we must always guard against confusion that could lead to disarray. Rather, we will build greater confidence in our socialist path, theory and system. Governing a huge country is as delicate as cooking a small fish. Good governance of a huge country depends on consistency in policies. Endless changes do not represent new thoughts but unsound practices. Such an approach is unwise and will not work.

∗ Part of the speech during a visit to Guangdong Province.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)