Photo: Global Times

Editor's Note:

In 2023, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping first proposed the concept of new quality productive forces during a local inspection tour. Since then, he has made important statements and arrangements regarding leveraging local conditions to develop new quality productive forces on a series of important occasions.

In Volume V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, a chapter is dedicated to "New Quality Productive Forces for High-Quality Development." This chapter includes Xi's speech at the 11th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, in which he emphasized new quality productive forces as "a primary driver of high-quality development." In excerpts from Xi's speeches made between March and December 2024 on leveraging local conditions to develop new quality productive forces, he stressed that "we should focus on the primary goal of high-quality development and leverage local conditions to develop new quality productive forces."

The fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee will be held in Beijing from October 20 to 23. It will review the opinions solicited from in and outside the CPC on the CPC Central Committee's proposals for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), drawing up a blueprint for China's development in the next five years, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

On April 30, when presiding over a symposium on China's economic and social development in the 15th Five-Year Plan period in Shanghai, Xi said higher strategic priority must be given to fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions in the next five years. Highlighting the roles of technological innovation and the real economy, he urged efforts to transform and upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and make forward-thinking arrangements for industries of the future, so as to accelerate modernization of the industrial system.

In the 14th installment of the special series "Decoding the Book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," the Global Times (GT), along with People's Daily Overseas Edition, continues to invite Chinese and foreign scholars, translators of Xi's works, practitioners with firsthand experience and international readers to discuss the theme of "new quality productive forces for high-quality development" and deeply explore the important practical significance and value of this concept.

Here are the stories:

1. Scholars' Perspectives: Whether in calm waters or stormy seas, China will always forge ahead by fostering new quality productive forces: Justin Yifu Lin

2. Translators' Voices: 'Leveraging local conditions' shows respect for universal laws of modernization, transcends a single devt model 

3. Practitioners' Insights: Unitree's elevator offers key to understanding China's success in tech innovation

4. Readers' Reflections: China's new quality productive forces offer constructive path forward for global sustainable development