China’s grass-roots party members must fall in line to maintain economic stability, President Xi’s top aide says
- Some Communist Party authorities across the country are quick to applaud Beijing’s economic decisions, but may not implement them when there is a conflict with local interests
- Ding Xuexiang encourages local governments to take the initiative in promoting local economic and social development to realise nation’s 2035 vision
A top aide to President Xi Jinping says the Chinese Communist Party’s centralised command of the nation’s economic and social development must be improved in an era of turbulence and uncertainty.
Ding Xuexiang, director of the General Office of the Central Committee, wrote in an article published in People’s Daily last week that China is in need of a strong leadership core to deal with an increasingly unstable world.
“The more severe and complex the situation is, the more conflicts, risks and challenges there are [and] the more we need to have a strong core of leadership,” wrote Ding, the chief of staff to Xi.
While Xi has enhanced the Communist Party’s control of economic matters since he came to power in 2012, by establishing a number of “leading groups” that were later upgraded into commissions to function as supreme decision-making platforms, Ding wrote that there is still room for improvement, as not all departments and local authorities are listening to Beijing wholeheartedly.
Ding wrote that the principle of “two safeguards” – a requirement for the country’s 92 million party members to “firmly safeguard the status of Xi as the core of the Central Committee and of the Communist Party as a whole, and safeguard the authority and the centralised leadership of the party’s Central Committee” – is not always implemented in the economic sphere.
“Some [cadres] think the principle of ‘two safeguards’ is mainly for political issues and has little to do with economic or social works,” Ding wrote. “Some are quick and loud to applaud the Central Committee’s decisions but are hesitant and reluctant to implement them when local interests conflict with overall interests,” while others adhere to the belief that “the higher authorities have policies, but the localities have countermeasures”.
Meanwhile, Ding encouraged local governments, especially grass-roots authorities, to take the initiative in promoting local economic and social development.