“The Annual Report of National Governance Innovation (2017)” was Published by NADS, RUC

On 9th April, “The Annual Report of National Governance Innovation (2017)” held by NADS, RUC was convened in Keyan building at RUC. Joined the report release were Liu Yuanchun, vice President of RUC and Executive Dean of NADS; Yang Guangbin, director of the Center for Research on State Governance; Sun Baiying, director of the School of Public Administration and Policy, RUC; Qi Fanhua, deputy director of the Center for Research on State Governance and the author of main report; along with Ou Shujun, the author of sub-report, research fellows Liu Peng and other scholars and experts.

The report release was presided by Yang Guangbin.

The vice president Liu gave a speech on behalf of the host. Liu regarded“The Annual Report of National Governance Innovation (2017)” as the first white paper that systematically reveals national governance innovation. It was released to the public since 2015, and has now become one of the branding programs of NADS. The core of the report is “Three in-lines”: in line with the times; in line with the era; in line with the role of NADS.

Professor Qi first published “The Annual Report of National Governance Innovation” which contained political, government, law, social governance and also challenges. This report gives a systematic review of innovation and the logics behind reform in 2016, and concludes that the modernization of national governance in China is steadfastly moving towards our goals.

In 2016, in terms of political governance, under the tone of “deepen reform and strengthen the party discipline”, the central leadership has made much efforts ranging from macroscopic to microscopic aspects of authority construction, anti-corruption and cadre management, consolidating the achievement. Overall, the political reform in 2016 is in fact under the new authority with Xi Jinping as the core of leadership, to strengthen the party discipline and improve 10 times stronger leadership, so as to rejuvenate our nation and realize China dream.

Besides, the reform also focused on streamlining administration, delegating power and improving service, making sure to delegate power, improve regulation and optimize services at the same time. In confrontation with the downward pressure, the central government pushed forward “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” and “Internet Plus”, enhanced “Made in China” and accelerated urbanization. Moreover, 2016 also marks the first year of supply-side reform. Our government has realized the expected goals with a focus on overcapacity. The 2016 government reform has shown its early form. Our central government maintained stability and balance under pressure and is marching toward “post-tournament times”.

In terms of the rule of law, 2016 witnessed the comprehensive deepening of reform and the pushing forward of the rule of law. It was also an essential year in implementing what can be drawn from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The legislation in important fields such as energy, environment and cyber security has been improved. The mechanism of legal counsel and public defendant has been settled to enhance the standardization of public security and law enforcement. The concept of lawsuit is now centered on judgment and interrogation and testimony have also been upgraded during the reform. The civil law was also improve in the aspect of cyber finance, information transmission and IPR protection. It can be conclude that the reform in 2016 has “three more”: more attention on the coordination of law, more attention on civil rights and people’s livelihood, more value guidance of fairness and justice.

In terms of social governance, the main focuses are as following: to improve diverse supply of public service and to make list of national public service so as to enhance poverty elimination and protection of deprived citizens; to strengthen responses to environmental protection, scientific system, elderly care and other hot topics; to break social management bottleneck and improve contribution of various social organization to basic level governance system. The social governance innovation in 2016 is shown in targeted public service, the balance of “power delegation” and “regulation improvement” and also the positive move of social organization.

At the end of the report, it concluded that the national governance were facing new difficulties and challenges. Now the three difficulties are as follows: the first is how to transfer development concept into national governance location; the second is how to eradicate “Bad money drives out good” phenomenon in cadre selection; the third is how to reduce public anxiety.

Ou Shujun, research fellow at RUC and associate professor from the School of International Relations, gave a report named “The Role of State in Market Economy” under the theme of the relationship between state and market. The report first laid down two political economic concepts: “govern for the market” and “govern because of the market”, and pointed out that the former was up to the core from economic liberalism to neoliberalism, with an emphasis on the basic principle of market economy is unrestrained freedom. On the contrary, German Historical School, Institutional School and Keynesianism are in line with “govern because of the market”, emphasizing the formation and operation of market cannot go without government intervention. Besides, with an analysis of the practical change of relations between state and market, the report also concluded that the role of China’s government in economy is much more than a “night watch”. In recent year, the contradiction between these two concepts reveals the complexity of “China’s issues”. The report also laid an initial prospect of the future relationship between state and market, pointing out that China should be practical, targeted and problem-oriented, instead of adhering to “spontaneous liberal market”.

Liu Peng, research fellow at RUC and associate professor from the School of Public Administration, made a report named “Set up the Version 3.0 Supervision System for Socialist Market Economy” from the perspective of market supervision. This report said our market supervision system has undergone three stages: Version 1.0 (1992-2001), Version 2.0 (2002-2012) and also Version 3.0 (since 2013). Since 2013, we have entered into a new stage featuring supervision concept and culture, system, instrument and institution. At the same time, the report also summarized 10 challenges Version 3.0 facing in pushing forward reform of the market supervision system. The report ended itself with recommendations in terms of the top-level design and its innovation, regulation mechanism in major risk fields, distribution of power and responsibilities to the central and the local, the third party and public participation, grassroots capacity building, big data supervision system, supervision assessment mechanism and relevant measures.

Professor Sun gave interesting comments after the report release, and group members interacted with the media representatives in discussion on the topic of state governance.

National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University upholding the mission of the first group of high-end think tanks, will continue to build up “The Report of National Governance Innovation” as a branding program reflecting features of the times.