Grasping "Five in One" and "Four Comprehensiveness" Based on Ideological System
According to the political judgment and orientation of the CPC Central Committee, "five in one" is the overall layout and "four comprehensive" is the strategic layout. Generally speaking, there is no essential difference between the overall layout and the strategic layout, because they are developed in the same dimension, so they can be expounded together, such as the overall strategic layout. Because the strategic height must be based on the overall situation, otherwise it will be promoted to strategy. Similarly, as long as it is an overall plan or measure, it must have strategic characteristics or be turned into a strategic plan. In that case, why should we separate two layouts? Just to distinguish words? Obviously not, there must be a deeper ideological connotation and logical relationship.
The basic relationship between the overall layout of "five in one" and the strategic layout of "four comprehensive"
China’s modernization road and construction goal and the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s self-construction and improvement of ruling ability are basically reflected in the overall layout of "five in one" and the strategic layout of "four comprehensive". And because both of them have rich connotations and extend to each other, which determines the intersection in some fields and contents. It is for this reason that we need to clarify the relationship between the two and clarify their respective boundaries. This is very important for better understanding the strategic deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the ruling ideology of the Supreme Leader General Secretary in theory, and it is equally important for the whole party and even the whole society to implement the major decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee more consciously.
From the analysis, there is a fundamental or objective consistency between them, that is, to let the people enjoy a better life in economy, politics, culture, society and environment. On this premise, there are also some differences between the two, which determines the necessity and importance of distinguishing the overall layout from the strategic layout.
First of all, there are differences in the time, background and way of the two formulations. "Five in One" was put forward in the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. "The overall basis for building Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the primary stage of socialism, and the overall layout is five in one. The overall task is to realize socialist modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". Therefore, it is required that "comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development must be more consciously regarded as the basic requirement for thoroughly implementing Scientific Outlook on Development, and the five-in-one overall layout of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction should be fully implemented, so as to promote the coordination of all aspects of modernization, production relations and productivity, superstructure and economic base, and constantly explore the road of civilized development with production development, affluent life and good ecology". From this rigorous and comprehensive statement, we can see that the "five in one" is a political behavior that the party’s ideas are turned into the will of the country based on the country’s modernization process and goal.
The "Four Comprehensiveness" was put forward twice by the Supreme Leader General Secretary in the process of grassroots investigation at the end of 2014. Once, when he went to Fujian for investigation, he put forward that "coordinating and promoting the building of a well-off society in an all-round way, comprehensively deepening reforms, and comprehensively promoting the process of governing the country according to law" contained "three comprehensiveness". After that, he went to Jiangsu for investigation, and especially emphasized the extreme importance of strictly administering the party in an all-round way, and put it together with the construction of a well-off society, deepening reform and governing the country according to law, so he had the enrichment and development from "three comprehensive" to "four comprehensive". It is this rich development that has enhanced the height, width and strength of the strategic layout. Because, China’s political system or political design, the most fundamental feature is the leadership of the party. As the saying goes, "the party is the leader of everything in the study of the party, government, military and civilian affairs, east, west, north and south". Since the party leads everything, its mission responsibility is irreplaceable, its ruling ability must be unparalleled, it is not strict with the party, and it is "comprehensive and strict". It is absolutely impossible to reach such a level of ability.
If we probe into the formation process of "Four Comprehensiveness" more deeply, it will better help us to understand the formation, development and deepening of the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era. The 18th National Congress proposed "building a well-off society in an all-round way", the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee proposed "comprehensively deepening reform", the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee proposed "comprehensively promoting the rule of law", and the summary meeting of the party’s mass line education practice activities proposed "comprehensively promoting the strict administration of the party". From this, we can see that the ideological system originates from practice and has an endogenous and rigorous logical relationship. It is by no means a slap in the face and a point of view. More importantly, we can also understand the ideological course of the top leaders of the party and the country.
Secondly, the "two layouts" are developed in different dimensions. "Five in One" is the key aspect of China’s modernization, or the level of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization. In other words, the construction level in all aspects is the development level of China’s modernization. It can also be said that only by realizing the "five in one" can we dare to say that Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s construction is on the right and broad road.
"Four Comprehensiveness" is the overall judgment and planning made by the top leaders of the Party and the country from a strategic perspective based on the current international and domestic political ecology and development status, focusing on the historical mission shouldered by the ruling party, and combining the main contradictions and problems faced. In a sense, it is standing at the intersection of history and times, looking for the general plan of governing the party and the country, and exploring the direction and breakthrough of the country and society. Therefore, as long as we make efforts in several aspects and achieve results, the development goals we have set can be achieved. What needs to be particularly emphasized here is that the "four comprehensiveness" is more personalized than the "five in one", with more vivid efforts and more obvious results.
Thirdly, the formation mode and process of "two layouts" are different. The overall layout is gradually formed and enriched by the Party in the process of promoting modernization, based on practical and ideological achievements, thus reflecting the process and height of the Party’s self-improvement. Including the "trinity" (economic construction, political construction and cultural construction) proposed in the report of the 16th National Congress, the "four-in-one" (economic construction, political construction, cultural construction and social construction) proposed in the report of the 17th National Congress, and the "five-in-one" (economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction) proposed in the 18th National Congress. Three party congresses have achieved three leaps.
The strategic layout has also gone through a process of gradual enrichment and development, which contains the ruling thoughts and ideas of the top leaders of the party and the country, and follows the law of exploration in practice, exploration in practice, or practice to theory and theory guiding practice, so it can achieve more results. This also enables us to further understand that the supreme leader’s thought of governing the country is rooted in practice, so it is more targeted and instructive.
The overall layout of "five in one" and the strategic layout of "four comprehensiveness" are both important categories of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era is the latest and important achievement of the third China of Marxism, which guides China’s road to great power, supports the "community of human destiny" under construction and inspires the development direction of human civilization. It is grand and systematic, which determines that the connotation is very rich and the ideological and theoretical significance is particularly significant.
Further analysis along this line of thought shows that Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era guides the Communist Party of China (CPC) to complete a new historical mission. So far, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has undertaken and is undertaking three historical missions, namely, "stand up, get rich and become strong" as clearly stated in the report of the 19th National Congress. The first two missions have been completed or basically completed, or the basic structure and main body construction have been completed. The latter is based on the first two, but it needs a bigger and more difficult breakthrough. Because it involves many fundamental propositions of the times that must be answered.
As the supreme leader of the party and the country, the supreme leader undertakes the historical mission of leading the whole party and the people of the whole country to pursue the century-old dream and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. At the same time, as the leader of a big country and the highest decision-maker of the world’s second largest economy, he inevitably has to focus on and answer the question of where the world is going. What distinguishes a big country from a small country lies in its international responsibility or the responsibility of leading the world. In this sense, his ideological theory must coordinate the international and domestic situations.
We should answer the direction and path choice of human development in thought and theory. Where the world goes is not a natural or inevitable thing. It must be worked hard and won, and the key point is the choice of big countries and their leaders. The classic Marxist writers have long given an answer to what road mankind will take, that is, "Socialism will destroy capitalism and eventually realize communism." This ultimate goal has not changed so far, but the way and path to achieve it must change. Because, at that time, because the proletariat had not yet seized power, or after some countries seized power, the proletarian movement was generally in a weak position, and the political state of the whole world, various factors decided to take the road of violent revolution. This choice was in line with the world political ecology and its requirements at that time, but it had historical limitations. When history comes to the present, China has participated in the formulation of world rules. Since it is an important participant in the formulation of rules, the will can be realized in the game process, and there is no need to resort to violent means. Therefore, standing at the height of the times, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader clearly put forward "jumping out of the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game", emphasizing that "the Chinese dream and the American dream are interlinked", especially establishing the common mission of "building a community of human destiny" and proposing and actively promoting the construction of the Belt and Road. All these are different from "institutional confrontation to the death".It belongs to a new path of civilized development.
We should answer China’s current development path theoretically. It is a proposition of the times and a historical proposition that what shortcomings should be made up for the party’s governance or system construction in order to achieve the set goals faster and better. One of the measures to make up for the shortcomings is reform. Our reform has been clearly defined as "neither taking the old road of closed and rigid, nor taking the evil road of changing the flag." At the same time, it is also emphasized that "the great social change in contemporary China is not a master that simply continues our history and culture, a template that simply applies the ideas of classic Marxist writers, a reprint of socialist practice in other countries, or a replica of foreign modernization." This brings a major problem, how to theoretically answer what kind of road we are taking, which determines the system construction and renewal. There is no doubt that we are taking a pioneering road that has never been seen before. Lu Xun said: "There is no road on the ground. If there are more people walking, it will become a road." A truly pioneering road, as a pioneer, must theoretically explain the external performance and essential connotation of its own road, especially the endogenous logic and scientific laws. Only in this way can it provide new choices for countries and nations in the world who want to accelerate their development and maintain their independence. To answer this question well, we must learn from or include the overall layout of "five in one" and the strategic layout of "four comprehensive".
Only by deeply understanding and grasping the essential connotation of the theoretical system of the supreme leader’s thoughts on governing the country can we better promote and implement the "five in one" overall layout and the "four comprehensive" strategic layout.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era was born to meet the needs of the times, concentrating the wisdom of the whole Party. It is a grand ideological and theoretical system, including the overall layout of "five in one" and the strategic layout of "four comprehensive", but not limited to this. To be more accurate, both of them occupy an important position in the whole ideological and theoretical system, and they are indispensable, but not all of them. There are still many important ideas in them. Therefore, we need to master the whole ideological and theoretical system from a higher position, and only in this way can we dare to deepen the overall layout of the "five in one" and the "four comprehensive" strategic layout.
On the one hand, the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era was formed and developed at the height of the construction of Marxist political parties and the development direction of human civilization. Wang Huning put forward "four profound understandings" in his speech at the symposium on the publication of the second volume of The Supreme Leader’s Talks on Governing the Country, including "grasping the background of the emergence of the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, grasping this important thought profoundly has made great original contributions to the development of Marxism, providing an action guide for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and pointing out the direction for promoting the construction of a community of human destiny and opening up a better development prospect for mankind".
On the other hand, the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era was born out of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s historical mission, and it was also built and deepened to fulfill the mission. Therefore, not only can we not understand a speech or a certain ideological point of view in isolation, but we can also not understand the "five in one" and "four comprehensive" in isolation. We must comprehensively and systematically understand and grasp the ideological connotation and logical relationship between them, otherwise we may generalize and even split.
This involves methodology. Generally speaking, the reason why a generation of leaders undertake the historical mission undertaken by a political party is because they are guided by systematic thought and theory with strict logic and rich endogeneity. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping can undertake the historical mission of "standing up" and "getting rich" because they have formed a scientific ideological and theoretical system, which contains three major elements: political outlook, ideological line and ruling strategy. The party has a political line and leaders have a political view. Mao Zedong’s political view is class struggle, that is, people’s liberation is achieved through class struggle, the ideological line is seeking truth from facts, and the ruling strategy is to grasp revolution to promote production and lead production with revolution. Deng Xiaoping’s political view is peaceful development, that is, according to the development of the times, he jumped out of "taking class struggle as the key link", his ideological line is emancipating the mind, and his ruling strategy is to focus on economic construction and reform and opening up, that is, to stimulate productivity through reform and introduce productivity through opening up.
The historical mission undertaken by the supreme leader is to "strengthen", that is, to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. What is national rejuvenation? That is, to surpass ourselves and go to the forefront of human civilization to play a leading role, which requires the ability to provide "public goods" to the world. The supreme leader is leading our party to improve this ability, and has provided such products to the world, for example, proposing to build a "community of human destiny"; Advocate "to discuss, build and share ‘ Belt and Road ’ The principle of construction is guided by the Silk Road spirit of peaceful cooperation, openness and tolerance, mutual learning and mutual benefit, and the goal of cooperation is to build a community of destiny and interests "; Established the development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing", and so on.
In short, only by comprehensively and profoundly understanding and grasping the thoughts of the Supreme Leader on governing the country, especially the essential connotation and basic characteristics of the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, can we better clarify the basic relationship between the various elements or categories, and then effectively promote the "five in one" overall layout and the "four comprehensive" strategic layout.
(Author Gong Fangbin is a special researcher at the Beijing Supreme Leader New Era Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center)
[References]
① Supreme Leader: "Decisive victory to build a well-off society in an all-round way and win the great victory of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era — — Report in The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xinhuanet, October 27, 2017.