The Third Plenum and The Chinese Dream

The Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee provides a transformative vision for China and as such paves the road to the Chinese Dream. In his explanatory address to the CPC Central Committee, President Xi Jinping said, "we must waste no time in deepening reform in important areas with even greater political courage and wisdom, firmly do away with all ideological concepts." He stressed that "the development of practice is boundless, liberated thoughts are boundless, reform and opening up are boundless as well; there is no way out in pausing and withdrawing, reforming and opening up only has a progressive tense, not have a perfect tense." These are the strongest words of reform in a generation, a public commitment that sets a high bar to benchmark policies.

The list is stunning—any one of which, by itself, would be significant: a "decisive role" for the market in allocating resources, private investment in new sectors, state-owned enterprise reform, facilitating small and mid-sized firms; market pricing of commodities (oil, gas, water, electricity, telecommunication services); financial liberalization of interest rates, capital account changes enabling international investments in both directions; China (Shanghai) Free Trade test area; fiscal structural reform (including reducing revenues from land sales), local government reform; integrated systems and mechanisms for urban and rural development, rural land reform (protecting farmers' rights), improving migrant workers rights; enhancing consultative democracy, increasing mass evaluation and feedback mechanisms; judicial system reform (standardization, thus reducing local influence); strengthening anti-corruption mechanisms; increasing environmental protection; relaxing the one-child policy; eliminating the labor camps; etc. The list goes on. Though implementation is complex and will take years, for a major nation, this is remarkable.

Looking backwards, future historians will likely assess the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013 as a visionary milestone in much the same way as they do the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping initiated China's reform and opening up. No one will ever underestimate the axial significance of Deng's changing China's focus from ideological struggle to economic development. Likewise, no one will ever underestimate the transformative complexity of Xi's changing China across a broad spectrum of economic, social and governmental sectors.

The result is a blueprint for China's future. It does not guarantee success but it defines what China's leaders now describe as success. Simply put, the Resolution of the Third Plenum provides substance for The Chinese Dream.

In conclusion, it is good that scholars develop diverse taxonomies for The Chinese Dream. In this manner all can explore its theoretical foundations and augment its practical applications, a process that will at the same time counter cynics and refute critics, and thereby facilitate, in the words of President Xi, "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

By rejuvenating China, The Chinese Dream benefits the entire world.

The author of How China's Leaders Think and the biography of former President Jiang Zemin

(China.org.cn December 7, 2013)