New Ideas and Practice of Governing the Country： Let Innovation Provide Surging Motive Force for Development

　　A history of human social development is a history of innovation. Innovation brings technology and industry replacement and upgrading, which not only profoundly changes human production and life, promotes social development and progress, but also lays the foundation for a country’s comprehensive strength and international competitiveness. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put innovation at the top of the five development concepts, and put forward "continuously promoting theoretical innovation, institutional innovation, scientific and technological innovation, cultural innovation and other aspects", which grasped the key to planning future development. With the implementation of innovation development concept and innovation-driven development strategy, innovation will provide surging motive force for development and push China out of a new development path from strong talents and science and technology to strong industry, economy and country.

　　The strategic position of innovation in development is further highlighted.

　　After the founding of New China, the central government attached great importance to the role of innovation in national development. The 12-year science and technology development plan formulated in 1950s laid the foundation for the development of science and technology in New China and the success of "two bombs and one satellite". Since the reform and opening-up, from putting forward "science and technology are the primary productive forces" to implementing the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, the strategy of independent innovation, and then the strategy of innovation-driven development, all these reflect the central government’s profound understanding of the important role of scientific and technological innovation and its accurate grasp of the international and domestic development situation.

　　Judging from the international development situation, a new round of scientific and technological revolution is ready to go, and some major subversive technological innovations are creating new industries and new formats, which provides a rare historical opportunity for China’s innovation and development. In the modern history of the world, China missed the scientific and technological revolution many times, which makes people feel sad. Today, China has made great progress in the field of scientific and technological innovation, which gives us the potential to participate in and lead a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. History will not tolerate us losing such a great development opportunity.

　　From the domestic development situation, with the economic development of China entering a new normal, the downward pressure on the economy has increased, and profound changes have taken place in market demand, industrial structure and supply capacity. It is urgent to rely on innovation to promote the structural reform of the supply side, improve the quality and efficiency of the supply system, accelerate the cultivation of new development momentum, and promote the overall leap of social productivity. Innovation has become the key to accelerate the transformation of economic development mode and promote structural adjustment and industrial upgrading.

　　It is at such a critical juncture that the CPC Central Committee, with the Supreme Leader Comrade as the general secretary, sized up the situation and raised the status of innovation in national development to a new height. In September 2013, when the Supreme Leader presided over the ninth collective study in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, he emphasized that the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy determines the future and destiny of the Chinese nation. The whole party and society should fully understand the great role of scientific and technological innovation, keenly grasp the development trend of world scientific and technological innovation, firmly seize and make good use of the opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and implement innovation-driven development as a major strategy facing the future. In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put innovation at the top of the five development concepts and at the core of the overall national development. In May 2016, the Supreme Leader pointed out at the National Science and Technology Innovation Conference: "Implementing the innovation-driven development strategy is an inevitable choice to cope with the changes in the development environment, grasp the development autonomy and improve the core competitiveness, accelerate the transformation of the economic development mode and solve the deep-seated contradictions and problems in economic development, and better lead the new normal of China’s economic development and maintain the sustained and healthy development of China’s economy." These important expositions illustrate the strategic position and important role of innovation in China’s current development stage.

　　As the first driving force for development, innovation is not only a powerful propeller for economic growth, but also an efficient power source for promoting coordinated, green, open and shared development. To promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, regions, economy and society, material civilization and spiritual civilization, it is necessary to analyze and grasp the uncoordinated problems and the reasons behind them through theoretical innovation, and also to fundamentally solve the problems through institutional innovation. Green development and environmental protection are major concerns of the whole society, but the solution of environmental problems is restricted by factors such as extensive economic development mode and backward technical means. Only by starting with the innovation of environmental supervision system and vigorously promoting technological innovation and achievement transformation can green development blossom and bear fruit in China. Open development and innovation development are also closely related. On the one hand, innovation and development require greater openness and cannot be built behind closed doors; On the other hand, opening up without innovation support is tantamount to handing over your own interests in the fierce competition. Similarly, shared development is highly dependent on innovation and development. To achieve shared development, we not only need to improve labor productivity through technological innovation, but also constantly enlarge the "cake"; It is also necessary to rely on institutional innovation to divide the "cakes" so that all people can share the fruits of reform and development fairly. It can be said that innovation and development need the overall implementation of coordinated, green, open and shared development. At the same time, coordinated, green, open and shared development also needs innovation and development to promote it efficiently.

　　China has entered the critical stage of building a world innovation power.

　　In 1985, China opened the curtain of scientific and technological system reform, and achieved a historic leap in innovation and development for more than 30 years. The recent great achievements in manned spaceflight and lunar exploration, supercomputing, manned deep diving, neutrino oscillation, quantum anomalous Hall effect and induced pluripotent stem cells have become the pride of China’s innovation system. In the field of basic research, the contribution of China scientists to global scientific papers has been ranked second in the world for many years, and high-level papers have also been among the top in the world in recent years. Major technological breakthroughs such as high-speed railway, hydropower equipment, hybrid rice, gene sequencing, 4G mobile communication and e-commerce and their popularization have played a leading and supporting role in China’s economic and social development. It can be said that China has entered the key development stage of building a world innovation power. However, we must also be soberly aware that the road to a world innovation power is not smooth, and China still faces a series of challenges in building a world innovation power.

　　The imbalance of regional development puts forward higher requirements for formulating and implementing innovative development strategies. After more than 30 years of reform and opening-up, some places along the eastern coast have entered the information age, closely following the frontier development of international science and technology, and some have become the source of international innovation and development; Many places in the central and northeastern regions are still in the stage of industrialization, and a large number of traditional manufacturing industries need to be transformed and upgraded urgently; Traditional agriculture still accounts for a large proportion in many places in the west, with backward technical level and low labor productivity. This puts forward higher requirements for formulating and implementing innovative development strategies. To plan innovative development, we must see this national situation and formulate and implement innovative development strategies more comprehensively and comprehensively.

　　The diversity of innovation models makes it more difficult to make innovation policies. As a big country with dual economic and institutional transformation, China’s innovation models coexist in multiple ways. The market competitive innovation model based on full competition among enterprises is an important driving force to promote innovation and development, which improves the technical level of various industries and enhances the international competitiveness of China’s industrial development. At the same time, in some areas with major infrastructure, national strategic needs and strong public welfare, the government organized and guided them to give full play to the advantages of concentrating on major events, and promoted major innovations in the fields of mobile communication, manned space flight, Beidou navigation and high-speed railway, forming a strategic-oriented innovation model with China characteristics. In addition, in the field of Internet-based digital economy, digital economic stars such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Didi have emerged, forming an innovative model of Internet economy. How to understand the general laws and limitations behind the success of multiple innovation models and how to introduce appropriate innovation policies for different types of innovation models all put forward new and higher requirements for the government’s public policy level.

　　There are still some long-standing problems in the innovation system that need to be solved quickly. For example, the reform of public institutions lags behind, and the personnel and salary system of universities and research institutes lags far behind the requirements of the times of innovation and development; According to the requirements of mobilizing the enthusiasm of scientific and technological personnel for innovation and development, there are still many imperfections in China’s scientific research projects and fund management system; The weakness of intellectual property protection still puzzles the development of innovative enterprises. In addition, how to create a market ecology where industrial giants coexist with small and medium-sized enterprises, and how to organically combine the innovation vitality of small and medium-sized enterprises with the production and marketing ability of industrial giants through capital market operation? How to reform and innovate the government’s public policy of supporting innovation? How to effectively avoid innovation risks while encouraging innovation? These are all questions that we must think about and answer.

　　Let innovation become the strategic basis of economic and social development

　　Recently, policies and measures on innovation-driven development have been introduced intensively. The Outline of National Innovation-driven Development Strategy clearly puts forward the "three-step" goal of building an innovative country. At the National Science and Technology Innovation Conference held on May 30 this year, the supreme leader comrades further put forward specific requirements: to lay a solid foundation for science and technology and rank among the world leaders in important scientific and technological fields; Strengthen strategic orientation and solve the difficult problem of innovation and development of science and technology; Strengthen the supply of science and technology to serve the main battlefield of economic and social development; Deepen reform and innovation, and form a dynamic scientific and technological management and operation mechanism; Carry forward the spirit of innovation and cultivate talents who meet the requirements of innovation and development. It can be said that the key to the clear goal and scientific deployment of innovation-driven development lies in vigorously implementing and accelerating implementation, so as to make innovation a strategic basis for economic and social development as soon as possible.

　　Accelerate the innovation of system and mechanism, and realize the two-wheel drive and balanced development of scientific and technological innovation and institutional mechanism innovation. Innovation-driven development is a systematic project, which needs the balance and coordination of scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation. Judging from the actual situation, governments at all levels are enthusiastic and practical in promoting scientific and technological innovation, and have set up various projects and funds to support innovation and development, but they often do not do enough in promoting institutional and institutional innovation. In fact, it is the reform and innovation of the system and mechanism that can fundamentally mobilize people’s enthusiasm, stimulate the innovation vitality of the organization, and have a lasting incentive effect on innovation activities. Therefore, the incentive mechanism of government departments should be reformed, and the reform of system and mechanism should be regarded as an important part of assessing the implementation of the concept of innovation and development. Changing ideas, abandoning old thinking that is not conducive to innovation, and adjusting production relations that are not suitable for innovation and development should become the central work of innovation-driven development, so that the two wheels of scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation can turn faster and more harmoniously.

　　Put innovation diffusion in the same important position as cutting-edge innovation, and promote comprehensive and overall industrial innovation. The diversity and huge volume of China’s economy make the economic transformation and development not only need a breakthrough in the frontier innovation field, but also need innovative technology to spread throughout the economic system and play a role in various industries. The essence of innovation diffusion is to let cutting-edge innovative thinking and advanced science and technology spread and penetrate into all aspects of economic and social development, thus greatly improving the overall operating efficiency of the economy. In fact, what determines the success or failure of a country’s innovation development is often not the number of cutting-edge innovations, but the scope and speed of their diffusion. Some scholars have observed that there are two worlds in China’s industrial space: one is the world of "playing with cool black technology", doing artificial intelligence, clean energy and nano-material … … These are the hot spots of talents, funds, policies and media. The other is the world of traditional industries, with outdated technological processes, low technical content, shrinking market and even drifting away from the times. Such a scene is not what we want to see, and it is not conducive to achieving innovation-driven development. A large number of international and domestic facts show that the development of cutting-edge innovation is not necessarily at the expense of the decline of traditional industries. As long as the policy is appropriate and we pay enough attention to innovation diffusion while promoting cutting-edge innovation, traditional industries can be transformed, upgraded and rejuvenated under the impetus of new technologies and new ideas. This requires governments at all levels and industries to attach great importance to innovation diffusion.Let innovation diffusion become an important fulcrum for the implementation of a series of policies to revitalize the manufacturing industry, such as Made in China 2025, realize the organic combination of cutting-edge innovation and innovation diffusion, make cutting-edge technology and innovation ideas radiate to every corner of China’s economy, and stimulate the innovation vitality of every industry and enterprise.

　　Handle the relationship between the government and the market well, so that all policies to promote innovation and development can be accurately exerted. In the final analysis, innovation activity is a kind of market behavior, and the government’s policy intention to promote innovation must be realized through market mechanism. Therefore, the government’s primary responsibility in promoting innovation is to solve the problem of market failure, play the role of "referee", create a more favorable market ecological environment, and remove obstacles to innovation, so as to make enterprises’ innovation more efficient and effective. Of course, the active role of the government in guiding innovation cannot be ruled out. In the process of socialist market economy from immaturity to maturity, the guiding role of the government is very important in the case of insufficient innovation ability of enterprises. However, with the continuous improvement of the socialist market economic system and the growth and expansion of enterprises, only enterprises can be more aware of the innovation opportunities and reasonable investment direction of this industry. In this case, the role of the government as a "coach" should be gradually weakened. If the government interferes too much with the innovation behavior of enterprises, it may be counterproductive and inhibit the innovation vitality of enterprises. Therefore, strengthening policy study and handling the relationship between government and market in the new environment has become a compulsory course for local governments to promote innovation. The innovation practice in today’s era is rich and colorful. The emergence of some new ideas and technologies will often have a subversive impact on the traditional technology paradigm and regulatory system. It is necessary for government departments to adopt the idea of adaptive governance to give these new ideas and technologies greater tolerance and more support.Let China become the most dynamic innovation space and stage in the world.

　　(The author is Dean of School of Public Administration, Tsinghua University)