Xi's political economy renews modernization drive

Championing globalization

Amid attempts to blame globalization for hampering sustained economic growth and security, and even attempts to reverse the trend, China has defended globalization, implemented reforms to better cope with it and tried to chart a course forward.

"Whether you like it or not, the global economy is the big ocean you cannot escape from. Any attempt to cut off the flow of capital, technologies, products, industries and people between economies, and channel the waters in the ocean back into isolated lakes and creeks is simply not possible. Indeed, it runs counter to the historical trend," Xi told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

The right thing to do is to seize every opportunity that economic globalization brings, work with one another to address every challenge it poses, and chart the right course, he said.

According to Zhang Youwen, director of the institute of world economy at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, in recent years, the CPC Central Committee has coped effectively with challenges through the guidance of the sinicized Marxist political economy, structural adjustment and internal reforms.

The central leadership has valued independent pursuit of innovation and innovation-driven development, comprehensively deepened reform to cultivate new engines of development, striven to build the CPC into a better ruling party, built a service-oriented government and improved government regulation of the market, Zhang said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has led the country along a path of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, centered on improving the quality and benefits of development, with the market playing a decisive role in resource allocation and the government's role brought into full play.

The central leadership has expedited the implementation of an innovation-driven development strategy, pushed forward supply-side structural reform, placed work related to agriculture, farmers and rural areas high on the agenda, and promoted people-centered urbanization.

"Over nearly 40 years, China's reform and opening-up policy has proved that development and reform are the cardinal principles for resolving every problem," said Huang Weiping, a professor at Renmin University of China.

China has set an example for the world in this regard by not attributing problems to others, but reforming itself with the spirit of enterprise to adapt to changes, Huang said.