 |
| Pix Credit here (1956, "Today's Soviet Union is Our Tomorrow") |
Times change; so do the general contradictions that frame the realities of political-economic systems. . . at least those political-economic systems with a strong desire to survive.
The advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, the advantages of a super-large market, the advantages of a complete industrial system, and the advantages of abundant talent resources together constitute the strong foundation and solid support for Chinese development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. These four advantages are closely interconnected and mutually reinforcing, forming an organic whole, which will enable China to gain strategic initiative in a complex and ever-changing international environment and inject strong impetus into achieving the grand goal of socialist modernization. 中国特色社会主义制度优势、超大规模市场优势、完整产业体系优势、丰富人才资源优势，共同构成了“十五五”时期我国发展的强大底气和坚实支撑。四大优势紧密相连、相互促进，形成一个有机整体，将为我国在复杂多变的国际环境中赢得战略主动，为实现社会主义现代化建设的宏伟目标注入强大动力。(Commentary [要论], 深刻理解“十五五”时期我国经济社会发展优势更加彰显 /张占斌 [A Deeper Understanding of the Increasingly Prominent Advantages of China's Economic and Social Development During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period / Zhang Zhanbin].)
And so it is with that great engine of Leninist Marxism applied to a population that must be guided scientifically by its vanguard of leading forces toward the inevitable establishment of a communist society but faster through the equally inevitable historical stages of development in which, in the case of China in the 1940s, the nation lagged its advanced capitalist peers. The initial model was Soviet, what Stalin had wrested from the ideological ideas of Lenin and Trotsky (the later a name that could not be uttered in polite Leninist society not just form the moment of Trotsky's exile in the 1920s but most definitively from the time of his apotheosis into the firmament of Leninist Gods by Stalin's hammer blows in Mexico in 1940); the ideological model German encrusted with the bar5nacles of the Soviet mind and in that form bequeathed to China's vanguard from the 1920s.
 |
| Pix credit here |
To those ends scientific approaches were necessary. Because time has a way of changing everything, and because forward movement itself was both change and its catalyst, such planning was required to be undertaken in temporal segments. Among the most important were the 5 year planning cycles that were meant to serve as the expression of the dialectics between realization, manifestation, and theorization of the Leninist project of this forward movement in concrete terms. It was, in effect, the carrot dangling before the donkey held by the driver that represented the cart of productive forces now moving along the proper path at the proper speed and toward the proper ends.
And so the Five year plans have become the great clock and timer of socialist modernization, and with it the means of measuring progress along the Socialist Path toward Communism. And with that, of course, a means of measuring the effectiveness of the Communist Party's fundamental line as applied in any fice year cycle, and with that (phew) the means for assessing the forward movement of the Communist Party itself as the model, not just a vanguard, but the incarnation of the sort of working style and productive modes toward which the nation ought to aspire. Each five year plan, then, becomes an important assessment and policy element of each cycle of the Congresses of the Communist Party of China.
The 4th Plenum of the Central Committee of the 20th CPC Congress was one such node in this sequence of planning. Like others in these cycles, it incorporated the policy and theoretical bases for approaching modernization in each nodal stage of historical development produced in the 3rd Plenum (traditionally focusing in the applied theory of modernization) and turned that work product into working documents focusing on application--via governance, rule of law, and party building, which could then be implemented in more precisely measurable ways by cadres and patriots across the nation.
In his 深刻理解“十五五”时期我国经济社会发展优势更加彰显 [A Deeper Understanding of the Even More Prominent Advantages of China's Economic and Social Development During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period] (Red Flag Journal, 2025/23), Zhang Zhanbin [张占斌 ] elaborated these old notions its new form wrapped around the concept of the 四大优势 [Four Major Advantages] . "Achieving socialist modernization is a step-by-step, continuously developing historical process. The 15th Five-Year Plan period holds a crucial position in the process of basically achieving socialist modernization, serving as a critical period for consolidating foundations and making comprehensive efforts." [实现社会主义现代化是一个阶梯式递进、不断发展进步的历史过程。“十五五”时期在基本实现社会主义现代化进程中具有承前启后的重要地位，是夯实基础、全面发力的关键时期，] [ 深刻理解“十五五”时期我国经济社会发展优势更加彰显 ].
Underlying this structure, and supporting the contemporary forms of socialist modernization are the advantages that China enjoys. These constitute the 四大优势 [Four Major Advantages]:
长期向好的支撑条件和基本趋势没有变，中国特色社会主义制度优势、超大规模市场优势、完整产业体系优势、丰富人才资源优势更加彰显。这四大优势，是我国在长期发展过程中积累的宝贵财富，是应对外部挑战、实现内部发展的底气所在，更是推动我国经济社会持续健康发展、实现社会主义现代化的关键支撑。[ 深刻理解“十五五”时期我国经济社会发展优势更加彰显 ]. [The underlying conditions and fundamental trends supporting long-term positive development remain unchanged. The advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, the advantages of a super-large market, the advantages of a complete industrial system, and the advantages of abundant human resources are becoming even more prominent. These four advantages are valuable assets accumulated during China's long-term development, the source of confidence in responding to external challenges and achieving internal development, and crucial support for promoting the sustained and healthy development of China's economy and society and realizing socialist modernization.]
On that basis the follow seamlessly, and reflexively:
1. The Advantages of the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics: A Solid Cornerstone for National Stability and Prosperity. The socialist system with Chinese characteristics is a scientific system formed through the arduous exploration of the Communist Party of China leading the Chinese people in long-term revolutionary, construction, and reform practices. [一、中国特色社会主义制度优势是定国安邦的坚固基石. 中国特色社会主义制度，是中国共产党带领中国人民在长期革命、建设与改革实践中艰辛探索形成的科学制度体系]
2. The advantage of a super-large market is a powerful engine driving domestic demand. It acts as a "booster" for the dynamic balance of supply and demand. China's super-large market advantage has become a key force in promoting healthy interaction between supply and demand. [二、超大规模市场优势是内需驱动的强大引擎. 供需动态平衡的“助推器”。我国超大规模市场优势成为促进供需良性互动的关键力量。]
3. The Advantage of a Complete Industrial System: Building a Solid Foundation for the Real Economy. The "accelerator" of cost and innovation synergy. China's complete industrial system demonstrates strong cost control and collaborative innovation capabilities in the manufacturing of complex products. For example, the production of new energy vehicles involves multiple key systems such as batteries, motors, and electronic controls, as well as the supply of numerous components and raw materials. [三、完整产业体系优势筑牢实体经济的坚实底盘. 成本与创新协同的“加速器”。我国完整的产业体系在复杂产品制造中展现出强大的成本控制与创新协同能力。比如，新能源汽车的生产涉及电池、电机、电控等多个关键系统，以及众多零部件和原材料的供应]
4. Abundant Talent Resources Constitute the Core Driving Force of Innovation. A "vanguard" for scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. China's abundant talent resources play a pivotal role in the process of achieving scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. [丰富人才资源优势构成创新驱动的核心动力. 科技自立自强的“先锋队”。我国丰富的人才资源在科技自立自强进程中发挥着中流砥柱的作用。] [ 深刻理解“十五五”时期我国经济社会发展优势更加彰显 ].
What then are the four advantages? Ideological clarity, large unified market, integrated and self-contained supply chains, and self-perpetuating vanguard talent. And this loops back on itself: vanguard talent makes possible the development and operation integrated suppl chains, that enhance market power within a single territorial unit, that then strengthens ideological clarity from practice.
The essay follows below in its original Chinese and in an English translation.
