Chen Yulu
China Daily
March 5, 2015
The “Four Comprehensives” strategic layout mapped out by China’s top leader Xi Jinping, a comprehensive elaboration of the overall framework for China’s future administration and development, will guide the modernizing of the nation’s governance system and capability.
They are also of great significance to global governance ideology. The “End of History” and “Clash of Civilization” theories dominated mainstream governance ideas in the West for a time after the Cold War. Under the influence of the “End of History” theory, which believes Western political and economic systems have become the final form of the human society, Western theories and ideas have pervaded the world in recent years, causing many countries to loose a grip on financial derivatives and finally contributing to the 2008 global financial crisis. The proponents of the “Clash of Civilizations” theory claim that the main contradiction of the international order is the clash of different civilizations, and under its influence the anti-terror war led by the United States has swept across the world. As a result, the US has got mired a quagmire in the Middle East and the terrorist group Islamic State has emerged as big threat to global security.
However, these two theories became less valid after the eruption of the global financial crisis and Western countries’ implementation of emergency measures for self-rescue, which ignored the pressing need to create new and systematic global governance ideas. The “Four Comprehensives” not only offer a guide to realizing the common dream of Chinese people, they offer new vitality to global governance theory.
To comprehensively build an all-round well-off society is the grand goal China has vowed to realize by 2020. According to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, to comprehensively build a moderately well-off society, China will not only work for continuous and healthy economic development and raising people’s living conditions, it will also promote continuous expansion of democracy and remarkably build up its cultural soft power. In particular, the country seeks to achieve significant progress in the construction of an ecological civilization that features the sustainable use of resources and an environmentally friendly society. Such a broad governance blueprint shows China’s confidence it can realize the Chinese Dream.
Comprehensively deepening reforms will help realize the goal of building a well-off society in all-round way. Only with systematic, comprehensive and coordinated reforms, can the country drive its modernization. Similarly, only with deepened reforms, can China resolve the problems that have emerged on its development road and realize its rejuvenation in a healthy manner.
Establishing the rule of law offers the fundamental guarantee for building a well-off society in an all-round way. To build a society ruled by law requires China also bring its manner of leadership and governance under the rule of law. With rule of law, China can promote institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of various affairs concerning the Party, the nation and society, and realize modernization of its national governance system and capability.
But the country must first push for stricter governance of the Party. Comprehensively governing the Party in a stricter manner will reforge the core power of China’s governance system, enabling the comprehensive deepening of reforms and the implementation of the rule of law.
To realize a well-off society in an all-round way, China must comprehensively deepen reforms guided by the leadership of the CPC governing under the rule of law and mobilize people nationwide to work for the Chinese Dream. This will represent an important ideological contribution to global governance.
The author is president of Renmin University of China.
