Return 25．Interpretation｜Xi Jinping promotes paradigm shift in Hong Kong - governance is the core of Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong

"Efforts are made to improve the level of governance. Improving the governance system, improving governance capacity, and enhancing governance efficiency is the urgent need to build and develop the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region." President Xi Jinping, despite all odds, came to Hong Kong to attend the inauguration ceremony of the sixth-term SAR government and delivered an important speech, promising to uphold "one country, two systems" for a long time, to support Hong Kong's continued maintenance of its unique advantages such as freedom and openness, international connectivity, and common legal system, so as to "govern Hong Kong by patriots" and Li Jiachao's government to put forward specific governance requirements.

It can be seen from this that Xi Jinping is promoting a "paradigm shift" in Hong Kong's development - with governance as the leading and governance as the core, hoping to establish value goals consistent with national governance, and to improve the SAR's governance system and capabilities, so as to achieve enhanced A benign political ecology that develops, resolves people's worries, maintains harmony, and rebuilds trust.

In the past, Hong Kong was intoxicated by the illusion of singing and dancing, and was accustomed to capital hegemony, turned a blind eye to unfair distribution, and was unaware of deep-seated problems, especially the political and business elites.

(Visual China)

Xi Jinping pushes for 'paradigm shift' in Hong Kong's development

"After the return of Hong Kong, it will be re-integrated into the national governance system." These short words have appeared in the central government from time to time in the past five years since Xi Jinping proposed it at the inauguration ceremony of the fifth SAR government on July 1, 2017. and important communiqués of the SAR government.

On the occasion of the establishment of the new government recently, Xi Jinping reiterated this sentence and put forward four governance requirements for Li Jiachao's government, including improving governance level, enhancing development momentum, resolving people's livelihood worries, and maintaining harmony and stability. The government urgently needs to improve the governance system, improve the governance capacity, and enhance the governance efficiency.

But if you listen a lot, you may not understand.

In fact, from the elites who run Hong Kong to the general public, people always seem to understand at first glance - they either simply understand "governance" as "governance", or they are accustomed to regard it as a central government Empty words declaring sovereignty and governance over Hong Kong rarely go deep into what they mean.

Even though Chief Executive Li Jiachao promised to "strengthen the government's ability to govern" in his campaign platform, he did not elaborate on what governance means, why or how to govern.

Therefore, although many people interpret that Xi Jinping is pointing the way for the future of Hong Kong, and also note that "reforming the governance of the SAR" is the key point, they just can't say why.

In fact,

If analyzed from the framework of national governance as a paradigm (below), his speech at least covers the value goals, institutional systems, governance fields, governance capabilities, and governance performance of SAR government governance—

For example, Xi Jinping emphasized that "the fundamental interests of Hong Kong are consistent with the fundamental interests of the country" and established the "value goal" that the governance of the SAR and national governance are consistent; Only by doing this can we manage the special administrative region well.” He called for the comprehensive improvement of the “institutional system” of the special administrative region’s governance. In addition, he also talked about the authoritative decision-making system, the administrative execution system, and the political interaction mechanism. The "governance field" of the government, as well as the "governance capability" involving strategic planning, legal implementation, institutional innovation, political communication, elite recruitment, scientific decision-making, etc.

As for the specific "governance performance",

-governance, he pointed out directly. "It is necessary to change the governance concept, grasp the relationship between the government and the market, and better combine the promising government with the efficient market." In development, he bluntly pointed out that "the central government fully supports Hong Kong to actively and prudently promote reforms, break down the barriers of solidified interests, and fully release The enormous creativity and development vitality of Hong Kong society”; people’s livelihood, he clearly demanded “to take bolder and more effective measures to overcome difficulties, so that the achievements of development will benefit all citizens more fairly”; harmony and stability, he He stated frankly that "no matter what profession you are engaged in or what philosophy you believe in, as long as you sincerely support the 'one country, two systems' policy, as long as you love Hong Kong as our homeland, and as long as you abide by the Basic Law and the laws of the Special Administrative Region, you will be a positive force in building Hong Kong." It is fervently hoped that "every Hong Kong youth will join the ranks of building a better Hong Kong".

Wang Heng, a lecturer at the School of Marxism at Renmin University of China, published the paper "From Electoral Democracy to National Governance - Paradigm Shift of Hong Kong's Political Development" in 2017, in which he constructed a theoretical framework for Hong Kong's political development with national governance as the paradigm.

(Hong Kong 01 cartography)

"Governance" is the core of "high degree of autonomy"

Seeing this, everyone may be confused - why does the seemingly simple word "governance" involve so many complex concepts?

When it comes to "government governance", in the public administration discussions led by Western countries in the 1990s, it was once defined as the government's use of power to guide, control, and regulate various activities, thereby promoting the maximization of public interests and maintaining social order and stability. However

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There are two main reasons for this narrow understanding:

On the one hand, it is because the western countries with the strongest discourse power have long instilled this concept in the world-the so-called politics is that as long as there is an election, it is equivalent to practicing democracy and can effectively connect with public power, then all governance dilemmas will be solved.

But in reality, democratic elections have been alienated into a fighting arena for power, making people mistakenly think that it is the standard form of politics and forget that governance is the original intention of politics. The fuse of stability and quality decline.

When politics is no longer related to governance, public service is no longer the subject of social concern, and power struggles have become the way to promote social affairs, and democratic elections are just a cover.

On the other hand, in the process of modernization in the past 200 years, large-scale production has replaced the small-scale peasant economy, and the industrial revolution and capital revolution have also turned the economic model upside down. The market has become the core of everything, the role of the government is constantly being degraded, and governance will inevitably become a tool of the market.

When the economy continues to develop, this governance model may be a reasonable existence; but in recent years, the production efficiency of developed economies has continued to decline, the capitalist production structure and distribution relationship have also been changed, and production benefits no longer benefit everyone. The governance structure of "" is obviously unable to cope with new challenges, resulting in the emergence of contradictions and turbulence, and promising government governance has received renewed attention. capacity to serve, whether democratic or not".

There is no doubt that Hong Kong needs to understand governance, and then we must break the myth that governance is based on democracy in the past, and establish a "SAR governance" discourse.

It can be said that governance is the greatest politics - social resources can be distributed fairly and reasonably through the decision-making mechanism, and the establishment of the mechanism can reflect the changes in the relationship between various groups, and changes should be made through civilized exchanges and mutual care in any case. Only by making the distribution meet the needs of each individual as much as possible, keeping the relationship between various groups harmonious, and making people's quality of life continue to improve, can the stable operation of society and the interests of overall development be guaranteed.

More specifically,

From the perspective of the framework of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, "governance" should be the core of "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy", and the SAR government, which is absolutely dominant in the Hong Kong governance system, naturally shoulders the supreme governance responsibility and mission.

However, the governance performance of the SAR government always makes people question the fact that it has long forgotten its own work - when the "market economy" is almost ineffective, it always rationalizes the class antagonism and the gap between the rich and the poor on the grounds of "liberal capitalism"; When it fell into the "myth of democratic elections", it followed the populist "scramble for the bottom line", mistook economic issues as political issues, and failed to resolve deep-seated contradictions through effective governance - it clearly has enough money to rival the country and the power to lead the administration. However, because of the bureaucratic system of the backward era, he has always been self-sufficient, and even turned from the master of the system to the servant of the system; he is clearly the "super-landlord" of Hong Kong, who has absolute right to speak on land development, and should also be fair and reasonable. In the allocation of resources, the "capital" behind the "market" is always allowed to dominate, and the unfair treatment of citizens is ignored.

The government is clearly the "super-landlord" of Hong Kong, has absolute right to speak on land development, and should also undertake a fair and reasonable allocation of resources. .

(file picture)

The country continues to deepen the reform of "governance modernization"

Different from the stagnation of SAR governance, the country has been continuously deepening the reform of "governance modernization" -

Many people think that this is the empty talk of the Chinese Communist Party, but there is a set of values, beliefs and theoretical support behind it.

In particular, Xi Jinping, as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2013, based on Marxist political economy and historical materialism, summed up the practice of Chinese state governance and learned from the experience of Western social governance, and refined "promoting the country". The modernization of governance system and governance capacity” is discussed with the theory of “adhering to and improving the socialist system with Chinese characteristics”, and “Chinese-style governance” has been sublimated into a “fundamental agenda” for solving “fundamental problems”.

Among them, "modernizing the national governance system" refers to injecting scientific norms and improving operational efficiency into the national governance system, including economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, party building, etc., through a series of institutional arrangements and top-level design. The process of improving the relevant systems is mainly aimed at the design ability of the system; while the "modernization of governance capabilities" is the process of transforming the governance system into governance efficiency and gradually strengthening it, and it pays attention to the implementation ability of the practical system.

Why emphasize "Chinese characteristics"?

Xi Jinping once explained that what kind of national system and governance system a country chooses is determined by the country's history, culture, ideological pursuit, social nature, and development level, so the development path must have its own characteristics; Insisting on not forgetting the origin, absorbing outsiders, and facing the future, it also reflects China's position, Chinese wisdom, and Chinese values, and also reflects the theme of the times, practical requirements, and its own characteristics.

He also repeatedly reiterated that the "socialist system with Chinese characteristics" and "modernization of national governance" chosen by the country were formed through revolution, construction, long-term practice, continuous reform, and endogenous evolution, and must be constantly upheld, developed, and improved.

As for what is the "fundamental problem" that "Chinese-style governance" aims to solve?

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the "principal social contradiction" has evolved several times in different development periods, initially it was "the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie", later it was "the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production", and finally Today, it has been transformed into "the people's need for a better life is growing, and the development is unbalanced and inadequate." Therefore, the country needs a set of governance goals and governance measures that can more objectively resolve social contradictions.

Xi Jinping believes that only when the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and the modernization of national governance complement each other,

, can we truly walk out of the path of governance of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.

Xi Jinping further emphasized that promoting the modernization of national governance is inseparable from the adherence to the socialist core value system, that is, people-centered as the essential attribute, fairness and justice as the value orientation, and then to safeguard the country's political stability, economic development, cultural Prosperity, national unity, and national unity are the internal functions; in addition, the key is to strictly abide by and implement the system. It is necessary to strengthen the governance awareness and responsibility awareness of officials at all levels, and to establish a comprehensive legal supervision mechanism.

The SAR government still has a lot to do, and it should reform its future governance thinking on the theme of "governance" itself, so as to have the opportunity to lead Hong Kong from "non-governance" to "good governance".

(Joint interview/Associated Press)

Hong Kong cannot continue to be reduced to 'a city without rule'

However, to Hong Kong people, this set of arguments is very unfamiliar, because every time they face a new agenda, they only rush to ask "how to do it" without thinking about "what" and "why", and they will not take the initiative to study, Summarize experience and summarize theory.

Taking "deep-level contradictions" as an example, Hong Kong society is still talking about different things. In particular, the elites who govern Hong Kong still have misunderstandings about the source of capitalist alienation behind them, making Hong Kong a "city without governance" - misunderstanding The laws of development of capitalism make it impossible to grasp the industrial policies and distribution tools that can manage social transformation. Therefore, it is unable to realistically propose policy measures that meet the needs of Hong Kong’s development today; the role and role of the SAR government in market development is wrongly defined, and it always uses the “active” approach. Condoning "unification of the industrial structure" and "distortion of the distribution structure" on the grounds of non-intervention and "free market" fails to protect the interests of the majority; misunderstands Hong Kong's role and relationship in regional and global economic development, and completely ignores its From the upstream to the downstream, the value chain needs to be organically integrated with the surrounding economies in order to form endogenous power. It has not been able to actively restructure the competition between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Instead, it continues to work behind closed doors, narrow its vision, and wait for the crisis.

In fact, since Xi Jinping put forward the goal of "promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity" in 2013, many mainland research institutions on Hong Kong and Macao have made great efforts to provide theoretical support for "the integration of Hong Kong and Macao into the national governance system", hoping to promote the development of Hong Kong. Paradigm shift, there are no more than three reasons -

First of all, the theoretical misunderstanding of "one country, two systems" mainly lies in the cognition of the nature of socialism and capitalism, while the national governance theory that emphasizes "instrumental rationality" can guide correct concepts, recognize where the contradiction lies, and alleviate related disputes; secondly, it helps to improve The understanding of "one country, two systems" can help improve the central government's governance capabilities, that is, to actively play a central role in the multi-governance subject system of the SAR government, take the initiative to assume the responsibility of ensuring the integrity of the SAR's social mechanism, establish sound institutional arrangements, and promote improvement in different fields. Governance efficiency; finally, it is beneficial to improve the effectiveness of "one country, two systems" and to build a scientific and reasonable evaluation system, because governance, as a political management process, is indispensable for the benign interaction between various groups in society, and it is necessary to formulate effective evaluation standards to effectively supervise the SAR government.

When you have a basic understanding of "SAR governance" and look back at Xi Jinping's important speech at the inauguration ceremony of the sixth SAR government, it can be basically concluded that he is governance-oriented and aligns with the three policy dimensions that Hong Kong should achieve - —

First,

, realize the change from emphasizing "two systems" to emphasizing "one country", highlighting Hong Kong's special status, specific obligations, and special powers and responsibilities in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity; secondly,

, realize the change from focusing

the political field to focusing on the social and economic fields, especially by improving the performance of economic governance and social governance, so that Hong Kong citizens can share the fruits of development fairly;

The transformation of "outside view", to get out of the narrow pattern of "one city, one place" as soon as possible, to integrate into the tide of national development in a timely manner, to seize the opportunity of national rejuvenation, to participate in the process of global governance, and to plan the future of "one country, two systems" with an open vision and a positive attitude. .

Therefore, Xi Jinping's speech promotes the "paradigm shift" of Hong Kong's political development - with governance as the leading and governance as the core, hoping to establish value goals consistent with national governance, and to achieve the improvement of the SAR's governance system and capabilities, so as to achieve A benign political ecology that enhances development, resolves people's worries, maintains harmony, and rebuilds trust.

However, in order for Hong Kong to go from "bad governance" to "good governance", it cannot avoid the overall governance of the central government, but also must grasp the high degree of autonomy of the SAR. This reflects the interdependence between "sovereignty" and "authorization", and also It can be seen that the commanding relationship between "one country" and "two systems" is both mutual construction and interaction.

If we only see "full governance" and ignore its "organic combination" with "high degree of autonomy", it is easy to infinitely magnify the negative impact of the former, and then forget the important role of the latter, thereby lowering the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Positive status and positive role in "One Country, Two Systems".

That is to say, Hong Kong still has a lot to do, and it should reform its future governance thinking on the theme of "governance".

For details, please pay attention to the Hong Kong 01 Electronic Weekly published on July 4, 2022.

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