The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China points out that high-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. It clearly states that high-quality development is an essential requirement for China's modernization, and highlights the overall and strategic significance of high-quality development for China's modernization. Promoting China's modernization through high-quality development is not abstract, but concrete. It must be implemented in the strategic plan of "taking two steps" to fully build China into a great modern socialist country. The Report to the Party's 20th National Congress set out the overall goal of basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035, including raising per capita GDP to a new level and reaching the level of moderately developed countries. To achieve a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance, into the forefront of innovative countries; Build a modern economic system and form a new pattern of development; After reaching the peak of carbon emissions, there is a steady decline, and the ecological environment is fundamentally improved. Judging from the profound and complex changes in the external environment and the situation that China faces as it enters a new stage of development, it is still an arduous task to achieve these goals. Only by promoting Chinese modernization with high-quality development can we create conditions for China to realize its socialist modernization goals.

We will strive to raise total factor productivity, promote Chinese-style modernization while promoting effective qualitative and quantitative economic growth, and strive to achieve the goal of reaching the level of moderately developed countries in terms of per capita GDP

What constitutes a moderately developed country is still lacking a clear definition. According to World Bank standards, the threshold value of per capita national income of developed countries is US $20,000, and the average level is as high as US $48,000. Excluding smaller economies, the average level of per capita GDP of developed countries is roughly US $35,000 to US $40,000. If US $35,000 to US $40,000 is the standard for a medium-developed country, China will have to go two steps further by 2035. First of all, per capita GDP will cross the threshold of US $20,000 and enter the ranks of developed countries, which requires an average annual GDP growth of around 4.8% from 2021 to 2035. Second, China's per capita GDP has reached US $35,000 to US $40,000, reaching the level of moderately developed countries. Per capita GDP in current dollar terms is not only affected by economic growth, but also depends on the level of prices and exchange rates, which requires reasonable appreciation of exchange rates through improving the quality of economic development. Therefore, to reach the level of moderately developed countries in 2035, we will not only maintain a high economic growth rate and double our per capita GDP to US $20,000 by 2020, but also raise the quality of development and promote exchange rate appreciation to bring our per capita GDP to the level of moderately developed countries.

The quality of economic development is mainly reflected in the improvement of total factor productivity. In the stage of high-quality development, factors such as capital and labor and marginal output have changed, that is, the production function has changed. At the same time, the hard constraints of resources and environment continue to strengthen. It is no longer possible to rely mainly on factor input to drive economic growth as in the stage of high-speed growth, and it must rely more on the improvement of productivity. From the perspective of international comparison, there is still a big gap between our total factor productivity and that of developed countries. To catch up with developed countries over time, total factor productivity will have to rise faster than developed countries. The level of a medium-level developed country is dynamic, and what we want to achieve is the level of a medium-level developed country by 2035. This requires us, on the one hand, to strive for faster GDP growth and, on the other hand, to raise total factor productivity so as to effectively improve the quality of the economy and achieve reasonable growth in quantity. Increasing total factor productivity and its contribution to economic growth in the face of declining potential economic growth is particularly important for achieving the goal of achieving GDP per capita at the level of moderately developed countries.

We will strive to achieve self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology, promote Chinese-style modernization in accelerating the construction of a powerful country in science and technology, and strive to achieve the goal of entering the forefront of an innovative country

According to the 2022 Global Innovation Index report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China ranks 11th in the world and has entered the ranks of innovative countries and is the only emerging market economy among the top 30. In recent years, China's position in the global landscape of innovation has increased rapidly, and some frontier fields have begun to enter and take the lead. China has become a scientific and technological power with important influence. However, compared with the requirements of powerful countries in science and technology, there are still shortcomings and weaknesses. Some key core technologies are controlled by others, and the "bottleneck" problem needs to be solved. The total investment in basic research is insufficient, the structure is poor, the original innovation capacity is weak, and the original results from zero to one are lacking.

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing rapidly, and scientific and technological innovation has become the commanding height of competition among major countries. In the face of the severe situation of international scientific and technological competition and external suppression, China is required to put innovation in the core of the overall modernization drive, strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, gather strength to tackle scientific and technological problems, enhance the ability of independent innovation, realize the independent control of key core technologies, and enhance the initiative in international scientific and technological competition.  The report to the Party's 20th National Congress stressed that education, science and technology, and human resources are the basic and strategic support for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. We need to better coordinate education, science and technology, and human resources to promote scientific and technological innovation. Through coordination and system integration, we need to achieve strategic breakthroughs in basic research, core technologies, and original innovation capabilities, shape new advantages in scientific and technological innovation, and promote Chinese-style modernization through high-quality development.

We will work hard to improve the resilience and safety of industrial and supply chains, promote Chinese-style modernization while accelerating the formation of a new development pattern, and strive to achieve the goal of building a modernized economy

A modern economic system is the basis for building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. When a country is strong, its economic system must be strong. The core of modern economic system is modern industrial system. After more than 40 years of development of reform and opening up, our country has formed a complete industrial system with a huge scale and complete supporting categories. It is the only country in the world that has all industrial categories of the United Nations, but the industrial system on the whole is large but not strong, wide but not deep, complete but not refined. The whole is still in the middle and low end of international division of labor system. There are still many "blocking points" and "stuck points" in the industrial chain and supply chain, and some core links and key technologies are subject to others. At present, global industrial and supply chains are adjusting and reshaping at a faster pace. In the face of profound adjustments in the global industrial chain and supply chain, as well as the practice of decoupling and chain breaking by some Western countries, we must attach greater importance to improving the resilience and safety of industrial chain and supply chain, and strive to build independent, controllable, safe and reliable industrial chain and supply chain.

Accelerating the establishment of a new development pattern is the strategic basis for promoting high-quality development. We should integrate the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reform and speed up the development of a modern industrial system. We will continue to give priority to the real economy in economic development, further promote a new type of industrialization, integrate next-generation information technology with the manufacturing industry, accelerate the transformation of the manufacturing industry into a digital, intelligent and green sector, and enhance the position and competitiveness of traditional industries in the international division of labor. We will seize the new opportunities brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, accelerate research and development and industrial application of cutting-edge technologies, foster and strengthen strategic emerging industries such as new energy, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, new materials, high-end equipment, and environmental protection, and seize the commanding heights of international industrial competition. We will accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote deeper integration of the digital economy and the real economy, build a smart manufacturing ecosystem, promote the "5G+ industrial Internet" development model, open up new areas and new tracks for development, and constantly create new drivers and strengths for development.

We will strive to promote green and low-carbon transformation, promote Chinese-style modernization while promoting harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and strive to achieve the goal of stable carbon reduction after peaking

After reaching the peak, there is a steady decline in carbon emissions, which is actually a process that carbon emissions increment rate drops to zero and then tends to decline. From the perspective of the international carbon emission trajectory, many early industrialized countries reached the carbon peak in the 1990s or even earlier, but the rate of decline of carbon emissions after reaching the peak is very slow. In the decade of the new era, our Party has made unprecedented efforts to promote ecological progress, and made historic, transformational and overarching changes in ecological progress. Over the past 10 years, China's energy consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 3% to support an average economic growth of 6.6%. Carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have dropped by 34.4%, coal's share in primary energy consumption has dropped from 68.5% to 56%, and China ranks first in the world in the scale of development and utilization of renewable energy and the production and sales of new-energy vehicles. However, China's industrial structure is heavy, the energy structure is more coal than coal, and the energy efficiency is low, which brings more challenges to the realization of the goal of stable decline after carbon peak. Strive to reach the carbon peak before 2030, carbon peak after stable decline, the key is to achieve green and low-carbon energy transition.

To actively yet prudently promote green and low-carbon energy transition, the key is to properly handle the relationship between green and low-carbon energy transition and energy security. From the perspective of traditional energy, the basic characteristic of the energy resources of our country is "rich coal, lack oil and little gas", but from the perspective of new energy, our wind, solar energy, biomass energy and other renewable energy is endowed with the most abundant energy resources. It is difficult for China to be self-sufficient in high-quality fossil energy resources such as oil and natural gas, and long-term dependence on coal is not sustainable. However, abundant renewable resources such as wind, solar and biomass energy can guarantee long-term sustainable energy supply and gradually get rid of dependence on fossil energy. From the trend point of view, our carbon emission peak is likely to form a plateau period, and may also occur multi-peaks, fluctuations decline, but the most important thing is to maintain the strategic focus, adhere to promote the process of carbon reduction. This requires China to base on energy and resource endowments, adhere to the principle of creating before breaking, and carry out the carbon pepeak action step by step in a planned way, so that fossil energy will gradually be phased out on the basis of safe and reliable replacement of renewable energy, and gradually increase the proportion of installed power generation and generating capacity such as wind power, photovoltaic power and biomass power generation, so as to better play the role of zero-carbon energy in ensuring and increasing energy supply. To ensure the realization of carbon emissions peak after the goal of stable decline.

In a word, improving total factor productivity, achieving high level of scientific and technological self-reliance, improving the resilience and safety of industrial chain and supply chain, and promoting green and low-carbon transformation are the main focus of promoting Chinese modernization with high-quality development in the coming period. We must firmly adhere to the theme of high-quality development, fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new vision for development, firmly deepen reform and opening up, deepen the transformation of the development model, promote quality reform through efficiency and driving change, and open up new prospects for Chinese-style modernization.

Source: Theory Net