GREATER PROGRESS IN BUILDING A PEACEFUL CHINA

GREATER PROGRESS IN BUILDING A PEACEFUL CHINA*

January 15, 2019

Reviewing the experience of various countries, we have observed that if social governance does not develop alongside economic growth, and if social conflicts and problems are not addressed effectively, economic growth will be difficult to sustain, and the whole of society may descend into chaos. We should accelerate the modernization of social governance, and achieve greater progress in advancing the Peaceful China initiative.

We must put into practice our Party’s mass line and stick to the principle that social governance is for the people. We must ingeniously combine the best of our Party’s traditions with new technologies and new tools, and creatively improve the mechanisms for organizing and mobilizing the people and for bringing them benefits, serving them and addressing their concerns. Hence, the wisdom and ingenuity of the people will become an inexhaustible source of innovation in social governance. We should strengthen law enforcement and the judicature in key areas concerning the people’s immediate interests so that our people will enjoy bluer skies, clearer waters, fresher air, safer food, more convenient traffic and more harmonious social order.

We should be adept at transforming the strength of Party leadership and Chinese socialism into efficient social governance, improve the law-based social governance system in which Party committees exercise leadership, the government assumes responsibility, non-governmental actors provide assistance, and the public get involved, and create a social governance model that is based on collaboration, participation, and common interests. At present, social problems and threats are becoming more closely connected, transcending sectors, and exerting deeper impact. All commissions for law and order under the Party committees should innovate and create a better coordination mechanism to pool resources of judicial, prosecuting and public security institutions and other relevant departments, and foster a positive synergy for jointly tackling problems, coordinating efforts and maintaining peace and security together. Principal officials of all localities and departments must implement a leadership responsibility system and fulfill their duties in maintaining local stability and safeguarding local security. To modernize social governance, we can start with urban areas and seek breakthroughs. We should then push for innovation in community governance and build a vigorous and efficient new system for community-level governance. 

The most important outcome of the Fengqiao model to date, or its most distinct feature, is that it realizes unity between autonomy and heteronomy, between rigidity and flexibility, between human power and technology, and between rectifying behavior and cultivating morality. We should document this model and popularize it. 

We should vigorously promote the core socialist values, strengthen political and moral education, and improve the nomination and commendation of role models who act bravely for righteousness, so that integrity and righteousness will prevail in the whole society. We must do everything in accordance with the law, apply rule-of-law thinking and take a rule-of-law approach to analyzing and addressing the most complex and most urgent major issues. We should establish clear rules and eliminate hidden rules, to ensure that law-abiding people feel proud and valued and that lawbreakers and unethical individuals suffer the consequences of their wrongdoing. We need to improve mechanisms for community-level self-governance, boost the enthusiasm of urban and rural residents, enterprises, public institutions and social organizations for self-governance, and build a community of social governance in which everyone has responsibilities and fulfills them. We need to improve the public psychological service system, including counseling and crisis intervention mechanisms, curb to the greatest extent violent tendencies in society, and cultivate a rational, calm and composed mentality of self-esteem, self-confidence and amity among our people. We need to accelerate the development of a crime prevention and control system that is multifaceted and informatized, highlight the integration and sharing of data resources as a foundational project, and increase our ability in social governance.

The best approach in social governance is to neutralize potential problems and risks before they take shape. We must address problems and risks at their source through effective monitoring and control, and increase capacity for prediction, early warning and prevention, so that we can identify signs of problems and risks at an early stage, take preventative measures, and address them before they develop into major issues. No one is beyond the law and nobody can do as he or she pleases in our law-based country. Those who gather to create disturbances, storm Party and government institutions, and engage in vandalism and looting, though very small in number, must be punished in accordance with the law. Nobody should be allowed to think that problems can be solved by creating disturbances, and that the bigger disturbances they create, the quicker their problems would be resolved. This kind of thinking should not be allowed to breed or spread. Local authorities should shoulder their responsibilities and address problems as soon as they arise, and before they escalate into social unrest. 

Gangland forces are malignant tumors in society, causing severe disruption to economic and social order and eroding the very foundations of our Party’s governance. Not long after the conclusion of the 19th CPC National Congress in late 2017, I proposed to launch a campaign against criminal gangs and organized crime, which has delivered major results thanks to the concerted efforts made by all localities and departments involved over the past year. We must continue to pursue the goals of the three-year campaign, improve our strategies and measures, adjust the focus of our efforts in the light of the specific conditions in different phases and fields, and maintain an overwhelming momentum. We must focus on severe cases involving criminal gangs and organized crime, target their financial sources, connections and protectors, make real and meticulous efforts in both prevention and punishment, and address both the symptoms and root causes, to ensure that the campaign deliver long-term concrete results.

∗ Part of the speech at the Central Conference on Law and Order.

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