Party leadership helps market play due role

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is a new development philosophy as socialism with Chinese characteristics steps into a new era. It is a strong guidance to ensure China's healthy economic development, and highlights the role of the Communist Party of China's strong leadership and the market's decisive role in resource distribution in the country's high-quality development in the new era.

China's economy is shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development, or the new normal. Promoting high-quality development is necessary for sustainable and healthy economic growth, as well as to achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

The Party's centralized and unified leadership is essential for promoting a new development concept, people-oriented development thought and the new normal of development, ensuring the market plays a decisive role in resource distribution, dealing with the change in the major contradiction of economic development, and consolidating the new development strategy as well as perfecting its method.

The importance of the seven elements is best explained by China's successful economic development experience since the 18th CPC National Congress; they are also the concrete requirements of Xi Jinping Thought for promoting China's economic work.

To achieve high-quality development, strengthening the Party's centralized and unified leadership in economic work is of great significance. The CPC is a party that is committed to serving the people, and the most fundamental characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the Party's leadership. The Party's leadership is also the biggest institutional advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which in turn is the political guarantee for the overall healthy development of China.

Since the 18th Party Congress, China has been facing some external challenges due to slow global economic recovery, rising regional conflicts and increasing global uncertainty. The country has also been undergoing some profound changes such as the economy stepping into new normal. Therefore, a strong Party leadership is vital to lead the country through these odds.

Given the new changes and new tasks, China should resolutely stick to the Party's centralized and unified leadership on the economic front, in order to ensure better quality, fairer, and more efficient and sustainable development, and meet people's ever-increasing demand of a better life.

Sticking to the Party's centralized and unified leadership on economic work doesn't mean preventing the market from playing its due role. It means the opposite, that is, helping the market to play a decisive role in resource distribution while the government takes measures to remove the institutional and systemic obstacles impeding development.

Socialist market economy, which combines socialism with market economy, is a significant theoretical innovation of the Party. And only a reform-orientated socialist market economy that combines the advantages of the market and government will enable China to continuously instill vitality into enterprises, make economic operations more efficient, and become more creative and competitive in economic matters, and these achievements will help China lay a solid foundation for high-quality development.

It is true that inappropriate or excessive government interference will prevent the market from playing a decisive role in resource distribution, by hindering efficient resource distribution. But it is also true that proper government guidance and rules are vital to the effective operation of market economy, as they help maintain economic stability, fairness and order, improve public services, promote sustainable development and make up for the market's failure.

Socialist market economy is also important because it uses the advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is devoid of the disadvantages of capitalist economy. And for the success of socialist market economy, the Party's centralized and unified leadership in economic work is mandatory.

It will be wrong to consider the Party leadership as contradictory to the market's decisive role, because they complement each other and will help achieve high-quality development.

The author is a professor of economics at Renmin University of China.