This article is the 699th original article published by Xijing Research Institute and the 658th original article by Dr. Zhao Jian.
Chinese are considered to have a general lack of faith. However, for most contemporary Chinese, especially those who have experienced the special experience before and after the reform and opening upReform and opening up has risen to the height of faithShaking the basic concept of reform and opening up is equivalent to shaking people's faith, shaking people's confidence and hope.
When we talk about the achievements of reform and opening up, we are often accustomed to measuring it from the perspective of economic performance, from the perspective of China's economic growth miracle, and praising its greatness and glory. But in my opinion,The greatest achievement of reform and opening up is that it has opened people's minds through the enlightenment of the value of seeking truth from facts and emancipating the mind。It lifts the ideological shackles in people's hearts and the fear in the collective subconscious, and allows everyone, whether ordinary or elite, to break free from the mutual harm of sports-style struggle and the predicament of everyone's self-dangerAn open, inclusive, hopeful and trusting society
From this point of view, in terms of historical achievements, the contribution of reform and opening up to Chinese history is no less than that of the Reformation and Enlightenment in the European Middle Ages. We know that the Reformation and the Enlightenment allowed Europeans, who had been suppressed by theocracy for thousands of years, to break free from the shackles of the supreme authority of "God" and live as they were like the ancient GreeksBeautiful, unrestrained, creativeswept away the haze of the harsh theocracy of the Middle Ages. When man, the most creative spirit of all things, was liberated, the flame of the great industrial revolution was first ignited on the land of Europe. As a result, European countries took the lead in completing the modernization process. At that time, in the far east, China continued to sleep under the oppression of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Industrialization is a great cause of the millennium in China, and it has a strikingly similar historical process to that of Western countries. Europe was preceded by a wave of nation-statesThe state plays an important role in the process of industrialization(especially in continental European countries). 1949 yearThe People's Republic of China wasIt also laid the foundation of the country for industrialization and created a stable social environment. However, due to the organizational structure of the warring countries and the inertia and path dependence of wartime economic thinking, the first 30 years still focused on struggle and security, and the planned economy was the main way of allocating resources. Individuals are subject to collective order and organizational distribution, both politically and economically. It is difficult to give full play to the initiative and differences of individuals, and it is also difficult to fully release the enthusiasm of social resources and production factors under the centralized planned economy model. However, the historical role of these thirty years cannot be denied - toThe transformation of the former modernization led by the state forces
Only reform and opening up, canFully liberate the individual value of life of every Chinese person。The power of the market economy,Every humble individual has been mobilized to form the broadest "united front for economic construction."The flame of the Industrial Revolution was ignited and burned into a raging fire in the vast land of China, creating a great Chinese miracle - it took more than 40 years to complete the course of hundreds of years in Western countries. This shows that the leading force of Chinese-style modernization lies in the peopleLet everyone be seen by the times, and let everyone's life value be fully played, rather than drowning in a uniform collective order just as a number, a pixel. People-centered is the core feature of Chinese modernization, and Chinese modernization is people-oriented modernization. In this regard, China is not fundamentally different from the WestThey are all about making "people become what they are", and they are all the revival of humanism
The reason why people regard reform and opening up as their belief is, in the final analysis, that they give ordinary people the opportunity to develop-- The all-round development of economic, social and intrinsic values has achieved the goal of "being a human being" that has never been seen in thousands of years of history. Tear off the "origin" mark on the person, bid farewell to thousands of years of feudal identity politics (of course, identity politics is still ubiquitous in modern society, but it is different from feudalism and class style).Let every ordinary person have the opportunity to go to school, choose a job, start a business, and choose a residence。We have shaken off the uncertainty of the rule of man and the harsh environment in which everyone is in danger, and have come out of the fear of potential victims and moved towards a society governed by the rule of law. From a gloomy society in which mutual vigilance, suspicion, hatred, and reporting are commonplace, to a clean and upright society characterized by mutual trust, cooperation, love, and tolerance。In such a social atmosphere, it is difficult for hard-working Chinese to create miracles if they do not want to. Therefore, the economic achievements in reform and opening up are only one of the consequences of "doing the right thing".
When we talk about economic growth, we tend to focus on the accumulation of physical capital. Actually,Reform and opening up has accumulated more of a kind of "social capital".If we fail to recognize this, we will lack an understanding of the nature of the current problems in China's economy, and it will be difficult to prescribe the right medicine. There is only one core of this social capital, and that is trustTrust private entrepreneurs internally and foreign capitalists externally；**Trust the society, the law does not prohibit it;Social trust, actively support various policies, the implementation efficiency is very high, and there will be no idling of documents;Within the governance system, the superior trusts the subordinate and trusts the locality, can achieve full authorization, distributed governance, and deal with various problems to perform their duties, which is efficient and agile.
In terms of differences in spiritual structure, unlike Western metaphysics, the Chinese are pragmatic and difficult to rise to the level of faithUnless you can see tangible benefits。For pragmatism, painting pies is useless. The party wins the hearts and minds of the people by seeking truth from facts for the people and giving the people tangible benefits. Reform and opening up has also given tangible benefits to the Chinese people, so that ordinary people and systems have been fully respectedThere are rules for doing things, and there are clear expectations and confidence. Reform and opening up is truly people-centered and a real starting point for realizing Chinese-style modernization.
ButThis does not mean that reform and opening up is omnipotent, and the process is smooth sailing。Like everything else, reform and opening up is also a historical process of "wave-like development and tortuous progress." The modernization process of the West is also full of dangers and crises, and there is even the possibility of interruption on several occasions. Economic depression, financial crisis, environmental pollution, social unrest, etc., especially the two world wars that killed nearly 100 million people, are the greatest disasters in the history of human civilization. China's reform and opening up has also been full of setbacks and difficulties, and it has encountered many major crisesFor example, the bad debts of banks and the bankruptcy of state-owned enterprises at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century forced us to speed up our integration into globalization and pushed reform and opening up to a higher level。Today, reform and opening up has entered the most critical and complex deep-water area and hard-core stage, and more and more problems cannot be avoided, and we must bravely face them head-on. In the first stage of reform and opening up, we relied on speed, and development was the last wordHigh-quality development is the last word。It is necessary to put the big game of reform and opening up into the century-old and thousand-year-old plan of Chinese-style modernization and national rejuvenation.
It is necessary to put reform and opening up at the height of Chinese faithRespect the unique spiritual structure of the ChineseIt is necessary to seek truth from facts and give people a real sense of gain. We can't be like some Western countries, who will only draw a big pie and sing high tunes for the sake of temporary votes. Chinese-style modernization should be more pragmatic and closer to the people. This needs to be recognizedThe core of high-quality development is developmentWithout development, without a certain rate of economic growth and an increase in the people's disposable income, it will be impossible to absorb the employment of tens of millions of people every year, nor will it be possible to resolve the risk of repaying principal and interest on tens of trillions of existing debts. Without development, people's wages and property income will fall instead of rising, and the financial assets in the accounts and the properties purchased with their life savings will generally shrink, and it is difficult to say that they are of high quality. Without development, people see no hope, the wage earners are facing the anxiety of losing wages and unemployment, and entrepreneurs are afraid of losing money and going bankrupt and dare not expand reproduction, because the rule of law guarantees are insufficient and lack of confidence, and the high quality will be greatly reduced. The most recent ** economic work conference,The importance of development has been emphasizedRe-examining the spirit of reform and opening up, and clearly proposing "promoting stability with progress" and "establishing first and then breaking", is actually a rebalancing and reunification of the dialectical relationship between high quality and development.
If we realize that reform and opening up has risen to the height of contemporary Chinese faith, we should look for ideological resources from "what China has done right" in the past 40 years of reform and opening upThe core and most precious thing of Chinese modernization。Here it is:Respect for people and institutions, create a relaxed, free and positive social environment, from the accumulation of material capital to the construction of trust, the largest social capital。The theory of China's economic brightness is the brightness of people's hearts and the brightness of the system and the rule of law. When society and people's hearts are bright, the reactionary forces of darkness will naturally have nowhere to hide.
In December 1949, Xinhua News Agency published a New Year's message"Carry the Revolution to the End".；In December 2023, the same Xinhua News Agency published"Carry out reform and opening up to the end".。From "carrying out the revolution to the end" to "carrying out reform and opening up to the end", the magnificent and glorious course of suffering in the past hundred years has shownThe painful and great process of transforming an ancient traditional country into a modern one。On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of reform and opening up, every beneficiary of reform and opening up and believers in the spirit of reform and opening up should raise its spirit to the height of faith and pass it on until the realization of Chinese-style modernization and great national rejuvenationModern Chinaof the real establishment.