Six Strategic Directions for China's Economy to Win the Future Development
Source: Reform Net; Author: Shi Hanxiang; Date: September 29, 2024
1. Credit Network
The market economy is an economy based on credit and the rule of law. In future reforms, further improving the laws and regulations on the credit system and refining the credit network system are inherent requirements for building a high-level socialist market economic system, as well as a fundamental and supportive soft environment for an honest society.
Nowadays, there is an overall lack in the social credit system. The historical backgrounds, credit problems and other aspects of some special groups of people are concealed, and their political stances are ignored. This is one of the root causes of decision-making mistakes, obstacles to development and corruption, and even leads to the leakage of national secrets. In accordance with the principle of "everyone subject to supervision and everyone participating in supervision", the state should implement unified supervision over various information such as the family backgrounds, asset status and credit records of all citizens, especially special groups, and publicly disclose such information in accordance with the law. A strong credit network system should be established to eliminate the problem of lack of integrity.
2. National Defense Science and Technology
The realization of Chinese-style modernization will surely lead to a peaceful and secure China. National defense construction is the responsibility of every citizen. We must adhere to putting the people first and relying on the people to consolidate the mass foundation for national security. Strengthening national defense capabilities with national defense science and technology at the core is not only necessary for building a strong military and a powerful country, but also a hard-power guarantee for national security and people's prosperity. Only in a peaceful environment can the sustainable development of the national economy be achieved.
However, we are facing a jungle-like world where "the weak are bullied by the strong if they fall behind". China loves peace, opposes war and does not seek hegemony. Nevertheless, it must deter hegemony and stop wars with its own strength. Therefore, the country should place the achievement of a leading position in national defense science and technology in a more important strategic position.
3. Circular Economy
China has an urgent demand and broad space for developing the circular economy. On the one hand, the demand for resources and energy will still grow rigidly, resulting in great pressure on resource security. On the other hand, hundreds of millions of tons of industrial solid waste are generated every year, with a historical accumulation of 60 billion tons. These solid wastes contain abundant recyclable resources, but their comprehensive utilization rate is relatively low due to the lack of advanced technologies and even man-made obstacles to the application of such technologies.
After more than 20 years of efforts, I have successfully developed a core circular economy technology that is pioneering in China and advanced internationally. This technology breaks through the limitations of traditional international technologies and realizes the goal of "treating waste with waste, turning waste into treasure and comprehensive utilization of resources". It is applicable to various industrial furnaces and kilns. By using steel slag and fly ash as absorbents, it can efficiently treat waste gas. Moreover, through advanced technical treatment, the by-products can be made into soil binders, which are used for the improvement of saline-alkali sandy wastelands and tailings. The accelerated application of this technology will surely help achieve the full elimination of industrial solid waste, the transformation of saline-alkali land into fertile farmland and deserts into oases at an early date. It is of great and far-reaching significance for industrial transformation and upgrading, solving employment problems, increasing cultivated land area, ensuring food security, meeting industrial land needs, improving the ecological environment and safeguarding human health.
4. Life Sciences
Due to the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment, the earth is facing the "three highs" phenomenon. The excessive exploitation of hot springs and other activities have led to the melting of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic, a rise in temperature, a high incidence of earthquakes and an increase in the frequency of volcanic eruptions. In addition, factors such as the prevalence of viruses and people's living habits have led to a frequent occurrence of human diseases, especially malignant ones, which are increasing year by year.
The fundamental way to cure human diseases lies in the development of life sciences. In particular, the inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) technologies are playing an increasingly important role in enhancing people's health security. China's life science industry is in a stage of accelerated development. It is expected to maintain a rapid growth momentum in the future, embrace broader development prospects and surely become an important field in the development of the national economy.
5. New Rural Construction
The new rural construction in China involves more than one-third of the country's population. Although poverty has been eradicated, the development is extremely unbalanced, which has become a shortcoming and bottleneck in economic and social development. The burden on governments at all levels to support the new rural construction is increasing day by day.
Accelerating the new rural construction is of fundamental and basic strategic significance for industrial transformation and upgrading, realizing the domestic demand cycle, improving the quality of the population, solving the employment problem and achieving common prosperity. It will be the largest future field in China's economic development. Proceeding from the regional characteristics and resource potential of the new rural construction, it is an inevitable path to adhere to the combination of balanced development and independent development. The state should promote the independent development of various provinces and regions as the mainstay through policy support and institutional reforms. With the in-depth advancement of the urban-rural integration and rural revitalization strategies, the future prospects and potential contributions of China's new rural construction will be immeasurable.
6. Non-governmental Think Tanks
The diversification and complexity of modern society determine that the scientific decision-making of the government must rely on extensive think tank consultations. The experience of more than 40 years of reform and opening-up shows that many reforms originated from the non-governmental sector and many scientific and technological innovations were made by non-governmental forces. In particular, non-governmental professional talent think tanks have unique advantages in terms of institutional mechanisms and human resources. Compared with official think tanks, they are more independent and flexible, and can respond more quickly to changes in society and the market.
For China's economy to achieve future development, it cannot do without the wisdom and strength of the non-governmental sector. The state will surely introduce more policy measures and institutional guarantees to promote and support the development and upgrading of non-governmental think tanks. China's non-governmental think tanks are bound to usher in new development opportunities.
Under the guidance of the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and General Secretary Xi Jinping's development concepts such as "building a community with a shared future for mankind", "high-quality development", "new quality productive forces" and "domestic circulation", along with the accelerated advancement of Chinese-style modernization drive, the six strategic directions for China's economy to achieve future development will surely usher in a brand-new historical pattern.