China is getting its millions of communist cadres ready and re-oriented for its new market philosophy—In China, for China. A comprehensive program, which basically teaches total acquiescence to the party leadership, is being implemented to strip cadres of any element of doubt or lack of clarity about the new, insular strategy.
On the face of it, the strategy, that China claims is different from in China to service the world market approach, is about “the high-quality development of China’s economy, carry out in-depth cooperation in the global industrial and supply chains, and work together to address global challenges such as climate change and build mutually beneficial partnerships.”
The Chinese leadership contends for a new strategy to succeed, the army of workers must be of one mind and one thought. It translates to ensuring strong organizational work guarantees internally. An analytical note refers to the range of challenges the leadership faces in installing uniform thoughts among the cadres: “…From emphasizing that ‘once the political line is determined, cadres become the decisive factor’, to clarifying that cadres should be ‘both red and professional’, and further pointing out that ‘China’s stability and the realization of the four modernizations must be guaranteed by a correct organizational line’….”
What the leadership plans is faithfully borrow from Xi Thought that is now part of the communist theoretical tome, which is to “fully implement the (Xi Jinping) thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era, focus on the construction of the organizational system, focus on cultivating loyal, clean and responsible high-quality cadres, and gathering outstanding talents from all walks of life who are patriotic and dedicated.”
In the second phase, it is about making cadres “adhere to the principle of combining virtue with talent, giving priority to virtue, and appointing officials on their merits, providing a strong organizational guarantee for upholding and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership and adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
The re-orientation program will lead to cadre selection for various tasks the communist leadership wants executed. There is a selection process here as well. Cadres will be selected according to a check list of talents they acquire including strict discipline and comprehensive Party governance, theoretical and ideological knowledge, ability to hold democratic life meetings, holding of thematic days and Xi Thought education campaigns.
The third aspect of the re-orientation is the Party’s strengthened management, supervision, assessment and evaluation systems for cadres. Here it gets really personal as it takes into account factors like “personal matters of leading cadres with Chinese characteristics, provisions regulating the behavior of spouses and children of leading cadres in running business and dealing with enterprises”. Those who fail on these parameters, “those who are mediocre are demoted and those who are incompetent are removed…”
Irrespective of how the cadres and the people feel about their economic lot, speaking for them at international forums, Premier Li Qiang recently issued a blanket statement: “China’s development has improved the lives of the Chinese people, and provided people in other countries with a large amount of quality yet inexpensive products. China has served as an important anchor and source of impetus for free trade and stable growth in the world.”
That is the post-training stage of the market philosophy that will drive China. Li said, “We are on track to hit the growth target of around five percent set for the whole year. Some international organizations and institutions have revised up their growth forecasts for China this year, demonstrating their confidence in China’s development prospects. We have full confidence and the ability to achieve the steady growth of the Chinese economy on the track of high-quality development in a long time to come. This will increase the size of the market, create opportunities of cooperation, and provide a consistent source of dynamism to the world economic recovery and growth as well as opportunities of win-win cooperation to investors from all countries.”
The final audience the new philosophy is directed at is the business class. Li expressed hope that entrepreneurs will strengthen their responsibilities in the face of uncertainty, grasp the direction of economic development with certainty, seek out opportunities for certain economic growth(in the domestic market), and gather the forces of certainty to firmly support economic globalization and jointly maintain the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains.
Finally, there is a call to invest, in China and in Chinese products and companies. “China has great potential for economic upgrading, so investing in China means choosing a better future. We are willing to work with entrepreneurs from all over the world to enhance high-quality development momentum with high-level open cooperation and inject more certainty into world economic development.”
The massive mobilization of cadres and businesses and markets is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of regaining as wide an economic foothold globally as in the pre-pandemic years and to seek an end to China’s isolation. Li’s statement is ample proof of this concern: “The world should not, and cannot return to a state of seclusion or isolation. A few days ago, I visited Germany and France, where I had in-depth exchanges with leaders of the two countries and people from both political and business communities. The prevailing view is to reject the zero-sum mindset and keep to the right track of win-win cooperation. We should follow the trend of history, cement the consensus on development, and continue our efforts to build an open world economy. We should oppose the politicization of economic issues and work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and smooth, and deliver the fruits of globalization to different countries and groups of people in a more equitable way.”