BEIJING, Oct. 1 -- Du Jinxing, 88, was among 55 business leaders in east China's Fujian Province who made a joint appeal in newspapers asking for free entrepreneurship 33 years ago, one of the strongest drives for market-oriented economic reform in China.
The former head of the Fuzhou Electric Wire Plant attended a meeting of Fujian entrepreneurs organization last week to discuss the latest guideline on entrepreneurship, released on Sept. 26 by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council.
"The guideline defines the meaning of entrepreneurial spirit and gives legal rights and interests to entrepreneurs," Du said.
In the old planned economy, companies were obliged to execute government orders. There was no free entrepreneurship. The guideline makes creating a favorable environment for entrepreneurship a government priority.
Through a simpler approval process, lower corporate fees and better technology, the government is transforming itself to achieve its goal of shifting from "Made in China" to "Created in China."
One of the reasons behind China's stable performance during global instability or domestic economic slowdown is the role of the CPC in political and economic activity.
Businesses have remained ahead in creativity, prompted by improved education, research, government support and investment. UBS claims that China's investment in research and development has exceeded some European countries and will surpass that of the United States in 2018.
Nomura analyst Ying Zhongxi believes China is beginning an era of high-speed development in artificial intelligence (AI), following a State Council guideline in July. Goldman Sachs said in a recent report that AI and machines will be the next area of major area of creativity in China.
"The government understands the 'new normal' in the economy, and has formed a mode of development which centers on structural reform," said Chen Hongyu, a professor at CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Party School. "It is an important CPC economic theory."
The Party has ensured that better social governance solved various social problems through advanced theory, a scientific attitude, professional methods and appropriate standards.
Over the past five years, officials have come up with new ideas, mechanisms and methods, solving a number of problems, improving the sense of security and satisfaction of the people, and creating a stable environment for reform and development.
At a corruption reporting center in Foshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, an LED screen displays a map showing villages in different colors: the deeper the color, the more complaints about the village committee. The complaints are about "si feng," the four forms of decadence: formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.
In December 2017, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee came up with an eight-point frugality code to address "si feng." In April 2017, Foshan set up the country's first online reporting platform, receiving information and complaints from the public.
As of September this year, it had dealt with more than 4,000 complaints, through which 444 officials were punished. The high efficiency of the platform has earned it the nickname "the e-commission for discipline inspection."
The CPC has been taking advantage of big data as new means to dig for possible violations and corruption in officials. The platform analyzes the performance of officials and public servants in different areas, industries and levels and sounds an alarm when complaints rise markedly, according to Pei Guangming, deputy secretary of CPC discipline inspection committee in Foshan.
Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, said that with new methods, CPC should select more capable staff in promoting officials.
"The Party needs to ceaselessly tackle problems found in promotions, such as those based only on scores, GDP or age," Yao said.