The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China not only summarized the experience of reform and opening-up since the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, but also provided a comprehensive and clear construction blueprint for reform in the next five to 10 years. The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization is no less than a milestone by any measure.
The central authorities encouraged the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to step up its efforts in taking full advantage of Hong Kong’s unique strengths in integrating its own development into the overall development strategy of the country. The city should take the initiative to pursue reforms to grow stronger by tapping the future opportunities.
During more than 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has accomplished what Western developed countries did in hundreds of years in socioeconomic development. This great achievement resulted from China’s commitment to advancing with the times, experimenting with new ideas, learning the lessons in the process, theorizing the experiences and constantly revising and improving the country’s national development programs as they proceeded.
In the resolution, I noticed that the word “reform(s)” appears 145 times, the phrase “system and mechanism” 43 times and the word “persist” 36 times. Such frequent emphasis on those words allows us to better understand reform and opening-up. Similarly the words “improve” and “optimize” appear 197 times and 164 times, respectively, reflecting the central government’s profound scrutiny of the existing system and its determination to solve problems, and emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement. The essence of the resolution and the role and opportunities of Hong Kong fall into six perspectives.
First, top-level design and the overall goal of reform. The resolution is a strategic plan that makes it clear that the overall goal of further comprehensively deepening reform is to continue to improve and develop the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promote the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance. This means reform and opening-up, to make the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics more market-oriented, protected by rule of law and enhanced through international cooperation, in order to lay a solid foundation for building a top-notch socialist market economy system by 2035 and for turning the country into a socialist and modernized great power in the first half of this century.
Second, the core of economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is the focus of comprehensively deepening reform, and the core lies in properly handling the relationship between the government and the market. The policy overview is “flexible and controllable”, which aims to optimize the efficiency of resource allocation and maximize the benefits, emphasizing the balance between market vitality and government regulation, so as to promote sustainable economic development and social stability.
Third, the construction of a unified nationwide market. To promote the unified nationwide market and improve the basic system of the market economy, this round of reform also comes with clarified division of labor and positioning of State-owned enterprises and private enterprises. In promoting, optimizing and expanding the State-owned economy, the resolution draws a clear boundary for the future development of State-owned capital that includes national security and vital sectors such as nation defense, power supply and finance, public services and public welfare (such as education and health care), and strategic emerging industries (such as artificial intelligence and new energy sources), which will become the key development direction in the next five years.
Fourth, the real estate market and control measures. The property market on the Chinese mainland is currently experiencing a slump and the central authorities have responded with timely policy adjustments under macromanagement of the economy, so as to help local governments tide over their real estate market crisis. For example, the resolution tells local governments to speed up the adoption of a new property market development model, with an eye on increasing the construction and supply of economical housing for grassroots workers in first-tier cities and low-income residents in small towns and rural areas.
Meanwhile, the resolution also gives local governments necessary authority in the real estate market adjustment in a “city by city” fashion with an array of measures designed to simplify developer financing and commercial housing pre-install practices, avoid unfinished projects as much as possible and optimize local real estate tax systems.
All these are aimed at freeing local governments from excessive bureaucracy and red tape, adjusting the tax ratio between the state and local governments, and unburdening local governments’ overlapping responsibilities.
Fifth, the development of new quality productive forces. One of the key objectives of the mainland’s economic development mapped out by the central government this year is to expand the development of new quality productive forces, including detailed planning in talent raising through full-scale reform of education, science and technology and talent promoting mechanisms. This endeavor demands meticulous attention to policy details in attracting and hiring talent by hi-tech research institutions, universities and enterprises as they see fit, with an eye over coordination with the central authorities and supporting enterprise innovation.
Sixth, Hong Kong’s role and opportunities. This time the resolution devotes more words to matters concerning Hong Kong than did the one reached at the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC in November 2013, but not by a big margin. It reiterates the strengthening and upgrading of Hong Kong’s status as a center of international finance, shipping and trade as well as a high ground for top-caliber talent from around the world, and improving the mechanism that allows Hong Kong to do better in the country’s opening-up. One may find this reserved treatment of Hong Kong in the resolution wanting in terms of detail but I believe it is the central government’s way of encouraging the HKSAR government to step up its efforts in taking full advantage of the city’s unique strengths in integrating its own development into the overall development strategy of the country.
It is up to Hong Kong to figure out how it should pursue reform and give full play to its unique strengths in better integrating its own development into the nation’s overall development strategy and grow stronger in the process.
The author is a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress and a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
