Deeply advance the construction of a quality-strong nation

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to insist on focusing economic development on the real economy, promote new industrialization, and accelerate the construction of a manufacturing power, a quality power, a space power, a transportation power, a cyber power, and a digital China. Accelerating the construction of a quality power is a major strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core for the development of the Party and the country. It is key to seizing opportunities and gaining initiative amid fierce international competition, and it is the only way to promote high-quality development and comprehensively build a modern socialist country. Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Outline for Building a Quality Power" (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline"), which systematically elaborates the main tasks of building a quality power from micro, meso, and macro dimensions, combined with two important guarantees: quality infrastructure and quality governance system. It provides an action guide for the medium- and long-term development of quality work in China and has important theoretical and practical significance for accurately understanding and grasping the quality power and unswervingly advancing its construction.

Fully recognize the importance and urgency of building a quality power.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Quality is an important guarantee for human production and life. In the course of human social development, every innovation and reform in the field of quality has promoted the progress of production technology and improved people's quality of life." Quality issues are both livelihood issues and development issues, relating to the vital interests of the people and concerning the overall economic and social development.

　　From an international perspective, with the deepening of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the focus of competition among major powers has gradually shifted from the scale of total volume to the level of quality. China faces new opportunities and challenges in development. Accelerating the construction of a quality power and enhancing China's quality level and competitiveness is a strategic choice to seize new opportunities and meet new challenges in this new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

　　From a domestic perspective, building a quality power is an urgent requirement to deepen supply-side structural reform and form a strong domestic market. On one hand, in the new development stage, people have new demands for the quality of products and services, but currently, the effective supply of high-quality products and services in China is insufficient and cannot keep up with the development of demand in time. The main contradiction lies on the supply side. Against this background, it is urgent to create and lead demand with high-quality supply, take improving product and service quality as the main focus, consolidate the foundation of technological self-reliance and strength, promote quality transformation through efficiency and power transformation, and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy. On the other hand, facing the severe situation of declining external demand and escalating external suppression, restoring and expanding domestic demand is the key task for China's current economic development. It is urgent to accelerate the construction of a quality power, expand consumer demand, and smooth domestic circulation. With the continuous development of the economy and society and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the overall level of social productivity in China has significantly improved. People's aspiration for a better life has shifted from "whether there is" to "how good it is," showing diversified, multi-level, and multi-faceted characteristics. Facing the contradiction between the growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development, it is necessary to focus closely on the most concerned, direct, and realistic interests of the people, transform the achievements of building a quality power into a high-quality life for the people, and truly realize that quality work benefits and serves the people.

　　Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has made historic achievements in building a quality power, fully reflecting the significant advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, our Party has accurately grasped the situation and tasks of quality work, regarded building a quality power as an important lever for constructing a new development pattern, integrated quality improvement into all aspects and links of economic and social development, promoted the transformation from Made in China to Created in China, from Chinese speed to Chinese quality, and from Chinese products to Chinese brands, laying a solid foundation for high-quality economic and social development. Overall, the national quality awareness has significantly improved, quality management and brand development capabilities have been noticeably enhanced, the overall level of product, project, and service quality has steadily increased, quality safety is better guaranteed, and the quality of a batch of major technical equipment, major projects, important consumer goods, and high-tech products in emerging fields has reached the international advanced level. In 2022, the product quality pass rate of China's manufacturing industry was 93.29%, the overall pass rate of routine monitoring of agricultural product quality and safety reached 97.6%, the standards for major consumer goods in key areas basically aligned with international standards, and the satisfaction with quality in key service industries and public services remained stable in the "relatively satisfied" range.

　　However, the road to building a quality power in China is still long and arduous. Currently, China's economy is transitioning from quantity expansion to quality and efficiency improvement. Although the overall quality level shows a steady upward trend, it still lags behind the speed of scale and quantity expansion. The foundation for quality development is not solid enough and does not meet the requirements of high-quality development. Compared with developed countries, China's quality work started late and still faces many problems and challenges. With the accelerated evolution of unprecedented changes in the world in a century, the uncertainty and instability of the international situation continue to increase. China's industry as a whole is at the middle and low end of the global value chain, facing risks such as external suppression and containment and "neck-stuck" in key core technologies. The contradiction of having a large but not strong manufacturing industry and a complete but not excellent one is increasingly prominent. The development of specialized and high-end producer services is relatively insufficient, independent brand building is lagging, and the influence, radiation, and driving force of brands have not been fully released. In addition, the support and guarantee system for building a quality power is still imperfect. On one hand, the overall level of China's quality infrastructure construction is far behind the international advanced level, coordination mechanisms are not yet improved, and the layout of technical institutions is scattered, making it difficult for quality infrastructure to synergistically support the entire process and all fields of building a quality power. On the other hand, China's quality governance effectiveness has not been fully utilized. The quality supervision model dominated by administrative regulation has "gray areas," with problems such as lack of quality supervision and low efficiency. To address these issues, the advantages of the new type of national system should be fully utilized, and the work of building a quality power should be unswervingly promoted, focusing on solving pain points, difficulties, and blockages.

Integrate a systematic perspective throughout the entire process of building a quality power.

　　The quality power strategy is a complex system project with many points, wide scope, and long lines. It is necessary to mobilize and coordinate all forces, work together in a joint effort, and handle the following three pairs of relationships with a systematic perspective.

　　First, properly handle the relationship between the overall situation and local parts. In the process of building a quality power, it is necessary to always adhere to the principle of overall promotion and key breakthroughs. Here, "overall" represents the whole, and "key" represents the part; the two complement each other and are dialectically unified. We must firmly establish the "one chessboard" thinking, establish a coordinated work mechanism for building a quality power, improve the quality supervision and management system, strengthen departmental coordination and vertical and horizontal linkage, ensure synergy, and promote the quality power strategy in an orderly manner overall. At the same time, attention must be paid to grasping the "bull's nose" by focusing on the most decisive areas for the overall situation while coordinating the whole, vigorously implementing major special technology tackling plans, filling key core technology gaps, breaking through Western technology blockades, focusing on key consumer areas such as automobiles, home appliances, home furnishings, and catering, and implementing quality benchmarking and improvement work.

　　Second, properly handle the relationship between the present and the long term. The present and the long term are closely related; the present represents the premise and foundation, and the long term represents the vision and blueprint. Talking only about the long term without reality will cause development to lose its foundation; focusing only on the present and ignoring the long term will cause development to lose direction. Only by coordinating the relationship between the two can we firmly grasp the initiative of development and achieve sustained and effective advancement in building a quality power. In all aspects of quality work, we must base ourselves on the present, do a good job now, solve specific problems, and accumulate small victories into a great victory; at the same time, we must have forward-looking thinking, coordinate short-term responses and medium- and long-term development, grasp the rhythm and intensity of building a quality power, persevere, and proceed step by step.

　　Third, properly handle the relationship between regulation and development. In building a quality-strong nation, it is essential to balance regulatory standards and development promotion, fully leveraging the roles of an effective market and an active government. Through efficient government regulation, create a business environment conducive to the orderly development of market entities. The purpose of regulatory standards is to clarify rules, set bottom lines, and guide and urge enterprises to comply with and serve the overall economic and social development, eliminate unfair competition, market segmentation, monopolies, and other improper behaviors in market operations, and encourage and support enterprises to play an active role in promoting the construction of a quality-strong nation. In the long run, standardizing development and strengthening regulation help form a high-standard market system and fair competition system, solidifying the institutional foundation for the effective operation of the socialist market economy and providing a more solid guarantee for the development of various industries.

Drive the construction of a quality-strong nation through breakthroughs in important fields and key links.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "It is necessary to better coordinate the effective improvement of quality and reasonable growth in quantity, always adhere to quality first and efficiency priority, vigorously enhance quality awareness, regard quality as life, and pursue high quality; it is necessary to unswervingly deepen reform and opening up, deeply transform the development mode, promote quality transformation through efficiency and motivation changes, and accelerate the formation of a sustainable high-quality development system and mechanism." The new national quality system mainly includes elements such as the quality innovation system, quality infrastructure system, and quality governance system. Among them, the quality innovation system provides the core driving force for quality transformation, while the quality infrastructure system and quality governance system together form the support and guarantee system for a quality-strong nation, which is the premise and foundation for ensuring the operational efficiency of market entities during quality transformation. To accelerate the construction of a quality-strong nation, it is necessary to take the quality innovation system, quality infrastructure system, and quality governance system as important levers, driving overall work through breakthroughs in important fields and key links.

　　Improve the quality innovation system to inject vigorous momentum into the construction of a quality-strong nation. Innovation is an important engine driving the high-quality development of China's economy and society and the rapid enhancement of industrial quality competitiveness. Technological innovation can improve supply quality and promote consumption upgrading, thereby forming a higher-level dynamic balance where supply creates demand and demand drives supply. Sustained and effective innovation depends on the support of the quality innovation system. It is necessary to form a deeply integrated quality innovation system of industry, academia, and research, scientifically layout quality innovation platforms that coordinate the industrial chain, innovation chain, capital chain, and talent chain. Taking the coordination of the industrial chain and innovation chain as the main line, guide financial institutions and social capital to precisely connect with the industrial and innovation chains, and assist the application of quality innovation achievements such as technology R&D and standard formulation through "one-stop" scientific and technological services. At the same time, strengthen the effective connection of talent as a link between the industrial and innovation chains, improve the talent "attract, cultivate, retain, and use" ecological chain, and gather talents from all over the world for use.

　　Build a high-level quality infrastructure system to lay a solid foundation for the construction of a quality-strong nation. Quality infrastructure is a system organically integrating elements such as metrology, standards, certification and accreditation, inspection and testing, and quality management, and is the cornerstone for promoting the construction of a quality-strong nation. It is necessary to focus on key areas such as metrology and inspection and testing, accelerate key common quality technology research, carry out frontier basic research such as quantum metrology base standards, quantum sensing, and chip-scale metrology, and achieve independent and controllable hardware and core technologies of quality infrastructure. Broaden the intelligent application scenarios of quality infrastructure, promote the application of new generation information technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, blockchain, and big data in quality infrastructure, build an intelligent certification and accreditation service platform, realize digital certification and accreditation in key areas, and empower quality infrastructure "one-stop" services through technology to provide technical support for the full lifecycle quality upgrade of enterprises. Actively participate in international exchanges and cooperation on quality infrastructure, accelerate the alignment of China's quality infrastructure elements standards with international standards, and enhance the international discourse power and influence in quality infrastructure rule-making.

　　Optimize the quality governance system to provide strong support for the construction of a quality-strong nation. As an organic part of building a quality-strong nation, the quality governance system is the "first move" in creating a good quality development ecology and orderly promoting the quality transformation of market entities. To improve the effectiveness of quality governance, it is necessary to adhere to hierarchical classification and precise policies, formulate quality supervision and law enforcement guidelines by industry and field, and accelerate the construction of a differentiated new quality governance system and mechanism based on enterprises' credit, risk, and capacity and willingness to improve quality. Taking quality social co-governance as a starting point, promote the transformation of quality governance from government unilateral management to a multi-party intersecting social co-governance model. By improving quality policies and regulations, refine the multi-party co-governance principles into the rights, obligations, and responsibility norms of each subject, forming a multi-governance mechanism led by the government, with enterprise autonomy, industry self-discipline, public opinion supervision, and consumer rights protection. Strengthen the role of the social credit system in quality governance, encourage market entities to actively promote quality improvement through measures such as quality credit blacklists and sound dishonesty punishment response and feedback mechanisms, and accelerate the construction of a quality-strong nation with a better business environment.

　　(Author: Liu Huchen, Distinguished Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Distinguished Researcher at the Shanghai Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Center. This article is a phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund Major Project [21ZDA024])