Attendees applaud at the closing ceremony of the second session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on March 10 in Beijing. Photo: XINHUA 

On March 10 and 11, the second session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), known as the “Two Sessions,” were concluded successively in Beijing. At the annual gathering of the NPC, Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered a government work report, reviewing the achievements of the past year while putting forward general requirements and laying out key tasks for economic and social development in 2024. 

Praising the government work report, scholars, some of whom are NPC deputies and CPPCC members, translated the needs, realistic problems, and consensus of the people identified during their research into proposals and motions for the Two Sessions, contributing insights to building China into a strong country in all respects in the new era.

Government work report hailed

“Concise, pragmatic, people-centered, inspiring, and confident” were the five keywords used by Hong Xianghua, deputy director of the department of scientific research at the Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C. (National Academy of Governance), to describe his feelings towards this year’s government work report. He emphasized that the report provided clear policy orientations and encouraged an enterprising spirit for tackling various difficulties. 

Guo Daojiu, a professor from the Zhou Enlai School of Government at Nankai University, said that the government work report offers a comprehensive summary of “what the government holds,” keeping the public well informed. He noted that the report places significant emphasis on the needs of the people, and is thus a concrete, profound, and emotionally resonant document. 

Guowen Huang, associate dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the City University of Macau, was particularly impressed by the report’s content regarding strengthening the protection and improvement of the ecological environment to accelerate the green transformation of the development model. 

Huang remarked that environmental improvement work in China progressed steadily in 2023. Ongoing efforts towards in-depth pollution prevention and control have led to a sustained decrease in major pollutant emissions. High-quality economic development entails unremitting pollution remediation and ecological protection, he emphasized. 

The government work report maps out a holistic, detailed, and practical blueprint for economic and social development, making targeted strategic arrangements for multiple fields, said Yang Ruixian, dean of the School of Information Management at Zhengzhou University. Among other initiatives, breaking new ground in quantum technology, life sciences, and “Artificial Intelligence+” has fully demonstrated the forward-thinking approach of the CPC and the government towards future industries. 

High-quality economic development 

Technological innovation is the core factor for developing new productive forces and advancing high-quality economic development. With strong innovative momentum and development vigor, medium-sized, small, and micro tech businesses play a crucial role in spurring tech giants to enhance the vitality of economic and social development. 

Nonetheless, Shi Weidong, a CPPCC member and a professor from Nantong University, and Lu Xiaoming, also a CPPCC member and dean of the School of Law at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, have both observed certain challenges hindering high-quality development. 

For example, medium-sized, small, and micro enterprises struggle to attract high-caliber tech talent and garner financial policy support, and need a better business environment. Given these difficulties, Shi highlighted the need to further improve talent support policies for these disadvantaged enterprises alongside the talent service network system. 

Shi suggested encouraging institutions of higher learning to pair with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through targeted fiscal support from the government, thereby effecting active participation from all parties. Moreover, he recommended optimizing the financing environment for private tech companies and urged financial institutions to develop financial products tailored to the needs of these companies.

The high-quality development of the private economy is inseparable from steady, sufficient funding sources as well as diverse financing channels. While bonds have become the second-largest financing instrument for the real economy, the performance of private enterprises in the bond market remains inadequate. Lu proposed taking effective measures to improve the support mechanism for private SMEs to access funds via the bond market. These include optimizing the information disclosure process, guiding and fostering a diverse investor base, promoting the establishment of a robust high-yield bond market system, and enhancing the credibility of the bond rating mechanism. 

Agricultural and rural modernization 

The government work report calls for sustained efforts to deliver good performance in work relating to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents, and urges solid steps to advance rural revitalization across the board. Tasks and topics like ensuring stable production and supply of grain and other major agricultural products, continuous consolidation and expansion of poverty alleviation achievements, and steady advancement of rural reform and development have been focal points of attention. 

The report also proposes enhancing support for major grain-producing counties and improving the mechanism for subsidizing major grain-producing areas. According to Wei Houkai, an NPC deputy and director of the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the current classification includes 13 major grain-producing areas, 7 major grain-selling areas, and 11 regions that both produce and sell grain. This classification, in practice for over two decades, no longer accurately reflects the present conditions of grain production and sales in China. As a result, it has impacted the precision of related policies. Wei suggested revising the criteria used to classify the three types of areas and establishing an interprovincial horizontal interest compensation mechanism to enhance the capacity and self-sufficiency rate of major grain producing areas and areas that both produce and sell grain. 

Talent is a foundational, strategic pillar for building up China’s strength in agriculture, modernizing agriculture and rural areas, and advancing rural revitalization across the board. Song Qing, a CPPCC member and head of the office of humanities and social sciences at Suzhou University of Science and Technology, conducted a research project focused on provinces such as Liaoning, Yunnan, and Zhejiang. Her attention was particularly drawn to the development of talent in the context of agricultural and rural modernization. 

As Song discovered, in recent years, a wave of “new farmers” has emerged, including college and university graduates, as well as technical personnel, who have ventured into the countryside to become rural planners, professional agricultural managers, and entrepreneurial leaders. Contributing new ideas, new technologies, and new business formats to rural development, they constitute a vital force driving rural residents to increase incomes, fueling the development of modern agriculture and all-around rural revitalization. 

Song proposed better leveraging the role of these new farmers in agricultural and rural development, reinforcing the development of a talent service platform, and creating more high-quality employment spaces for agriculture. It is likewise necessary to diversify the talent team in the countryside, cultivating more new farmers who love agriculture and are knowledgeable, skilled, and operation-savvy. This will enable them to contribute to new agricultural and rural prosperity. 

Cultural inheritance and development

The inheritance and preservation of historical and cultural heritage is considered essential to promoting cultural prosperity and building a modern Chinese civilization. In recent years, the protection of major prehistoric sites in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River has received much attention, but pressing problems also loom large, such as inadequate archaeological excavations and research of the sites, as well as poor ecological conditions surrounding them. 

Ma Dongping, a CPPCC member and director of the Institute of Sociology at Gansu Academy of Social Sciences, recommended incorporating the excavation and research of the sites related to ancient civilizations in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River into the national project on tracing the origins of Chinese civilization. Additionally, he underscored the necessity to strengthen the protection and utilization of these sites across the region, and to apply for a project on building a national prehistoric site park to systematically showcase the cohesive power of the Yellow River culture within the region and its ground-breaking nature externally. 

Fine traditional Chinese culture represents the Chinese nation’s deepest intellectual pursuit and provides rich nourishment for opening up a new frontier in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times. 

Inheriting and developing fine traditional Chinese culture requires efforts to intensify education in this regard, said Yang Chaoming, an NPC deputy and a distinguished professor from the Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies at Shandong University. Through research, Yang Chaoming found that education on fine traditional Chinese culture lacks planning and is not systematic or persistent. Meanwhile, regional imbalances are noteworthy, as many schools have yet to introduce education on traditional Chinese culture. 

In view of the situation, Yang Chaoming advised schools of all levels and types across China to open compulsory courses on fine traditional Chinese culture. Nationally, an education commission for fine traditional Chinese culture should be instituted, and the Ministry of Education should establish an executive body for the construction, education, and teaching of related courses. At the school level, the teaching of compulsory courses on traditional culture and school education should be organically integrated, and all sectors of society should be mobilized to participate in the cause, he suggested. 

(Zhang Yixin, Chen Yajing, Wang Guanglu, and Wu Nan contributed to this story.)

Edited by CHEN MIRONG