1.1　Establishing a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests

How should we govern the Chinese society? The answer can be found in the Report to the 19th CPC National Congress given in October 2017, mainly in three sentences. First, “we will step up institution building in social governance and improve the law-based social governance model under which Party committees exercise leadership, government assumes responsibility, non-governmental actors provide assistance, and the public get involved.” This is primarily about the diversification of participants in social governance (i.e. the ruling party, the government, non-governmental actors and the general public), about consultation, rule of law and collaboration, all of which should be realized through institutional design and arrangements. A special emphasis is given to rule of law. Second, “we will strengthen public participation and the rule of law in social governance, and make such governance smarter and more specialized.” This is about how we can build our capacity of social governance. Specifically, “strengthening public participation” means we should mobilize more members of society to take the initiative to participate in social governance. “Strengthening the rule of law” means we must adhere to laws and legal theories to define rights and obligations, divide responsibilities, regulate social behavior, improve public order, and ensure social governance proceeds smoothly. “Making it smarter” is to build smart platforms to achieve a new type of social governance that is well-targeted, efficient, and convenient. “Making it more specialized” is to train professionals with expertise in social governance. With a profound knowledge of latest ideas and concepts, a scientific attitude, professional methods and carefully developed standards, they provide specialized services to strengthen and innovate social governance. Third, “establishing a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests”. This is the goal of social governance in China, telling people what the desired social governance model will be like. “Collaboration, participation, and common interests” is both the end and the means. It epitomizes the collective wisdom of the Party and the people who have explored the right way of social governance since the 18th CPC National Congress. It reflects the “people-centered approach” , implying a respect for the will of the people, their right to participation, and their interests. It is also an important yardstick for the outside world to evaluate social governance in Zhejiang and across China.

1.1.1　From “social control” to “social management”

China, traditionally an agrarian civilization, had an incredibly stable social structure. The top-down political system epitomized by imperial power and the bottom-up Confucian orthodoxy represented by the gentry marked the dual-track social structure which included the royals, the gentry and all the other classes in between. As the American anthropologist Robert Redfield described it, this is a social structure where the “great tradition” and the “little tradition” coexist.(1) However, as China was invaded by imperialistic powers in the early modern era and the imperial examination system that had been producing the gentry was abolished as a result, the bottom-up “little tradition” was completely destroyed and society became what Karl Marx described as “potatoes in a sack”, getting totally out of control.

Faced with this lack of social cohesion, people began to explore ways and means to reorganize society. The academic concept of “state building”(2) became the primary consensus among the knowledgeable seeking ways to resolve the internal and external crises China was facing. In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, the country followed the Soviet model and sought to advance social development through the socialist transformation of cities and rural areas. In the cities, state-owned and collectively-owned enterprises played a major part in this endeavor, while in the countryside, it was mainly the responsibility of people’s communes. This was the only practicable way at the time. As such, between the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the introduction of the policy of reform and opening-up in 1978, Chinese society was characterized by a model of state control in which the Party, the government, and the social sector were integrated in one dominant political drive. The most salient feature of this model was “centralization”, the greatest advantage of which was the resultant ability to mobilize resources for major tasks. The obvious drawback of this “strong government and weak society” model was that the social system was fully integrated into the Party and government system for the purpose of control, thus severely restricting and weakening the ability of society to develop, to renew itself organically, and to govern itself autonomously. A tremendously negative impact was then exerted on the growth of society over time.

From 1978 on, the second-generation leaders of the Communist Party of China with Deng Xiaoping as the core re-examined the principal contradiction facing the society at that time, which was the “contradiction between the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backward social production”, and boldly emancipated their minds and implemented reforms to create a new path for China’s governance. In the context of transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the government gradually decentralized control over the market, over the social sector, and over enterprises. During this period, although the political drive was still at the forefront, the economic drive gradually emerged and started to play an increasingly important role. One of its key features was the promotion of reform and opening-up with economic development as the central task, and the other was the establishment of law-based governance as a basic strategy. The government gradually improved its functions in the course of social restructuring, and encouraged and guided non-governmental organizations and the people to participate in the management of public affairs. The social sector then began to emerge. Between the adoption of the policy of reform and opening-up in 1978 and the beginning of the 21st century, Chinese society moved from the “strong government and weak society” model featuring the “deep integration of the government and the social sector” towards “the dualistic separation of the government and the social sector”. This is because while the two were beginning to work together they were not organically integrated. As a result of the long-standing role of the “all-round government”, government resources still dominated in the area of social management for a certain period of time. The social sector continued to grow, but it participated in the management of public affairs in a way that lacked both breadth and depth. However, it is quite clear that society was no longer fully “controlled” and there was a shift towards efficient and orderly “social management”.

1.1.2　From “social management” to “social governance”

With the economic growth, urbanization and industrialization, an increasing gap between the rich and the poor has emerged, along with social injustice of a certain degree as seen in increasing social conflicts and accumulated social problems. The need for innovation in social governance and the need for reform of the social system have become more and more urgent. Where there are problems, there are expectations for improvement. To efficiently achieve “good governance”, the Party committee, the government and the public have kept adjusting their relation with each other to iron out a smooth collaboration.

The process of such adjustment in China has been obvious. For example, the governing Party, as the leader of China’s social governance, has kept improving its major strategy in an organized, rapid, stable and innovative way to address social problems. In 1986, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 12th CPC Central Committee proposed the general policy to modernize economy, politics and culture in an integrated way. The 16th CPC National Congress in 2002 established the Scientific Outlook on Development and proposed the task to build a harmonious socialist society. Accordingly, the Party’s strategy was adjusted to an overall plan for economic, political, cultural, social development. In 2012, the report at the 18th CPC National Congress articulated an overall plan for the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, which consists of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological development. The strategy is to start by addressing political and economic issues before gradually expanding the effort to other areas of pan-social problems. Based on the overall plan for economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological development, the 19th CPC National Congress established the Two Centenary Goals: to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the time the Communist Party of China celebrates its centenary in 2021; and to turn China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, and harmonious by the time the People’s Republic of China celebrates its centenary in 2049. The CPC’s continuously deepened understanding of the laws on the Party’s governance has led to a continuously increased understanding of the laws on China’s social governance. With an increased attention to the importance of social progress, the idea of “social management” was transformed to the idea of “social governance.”

Before the 18th CPC National Congress, China promulgated the “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening the Innovation in Social Management” (Z.F. [2011] No. 11), a programmatic document on China’s social governance in the new era. The “Opinions” makes it clear that the general task of China’s social governance is to stimulate the creativity of society to the greatest extent, to maximize factors conducive to harmony and to minimize those detrimental to it. This goal requires innovations in the “idea, system, mechanism, rules and methodology in social governance”. It is also necessary to perfect the system of social governance featuring “Party committee leadership, government execution, non-governmental support and public participation”, and to urge the government and the public to fulfil their mandates in their respective roles in the pursuit of “good governance”. Since then, we have emphasized that China’s social governance is the collaboration of diverse players in the governance of public affairs led by the CPC, organized and guided by the government, and participated in by non-governmental organizations and many other social forces.

Distinguished from “social management” featuring a binary separation of the government and society, social governance underlines the sum of various measures that government departments, private institutions, non-governmental organizations and individual citizens take in their governance of public affairs. From the perspective of development, the theory of governance provides an interpretation of the necessity of interactions among the government, the market and society, and the possibility of their collaboration. From this moment on, China’s social governance begins to feature a “partnership between a strong government and a strong society”.

After the 18th CPC National Congress, the system of social governance was further improved, with the “rule of law” added to the four original features. Aiming at the modernization in the governance system and governance capability, the “Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform” approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee launched the campaign to deepen China’s all-round reform and to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. The “Decision” and the measures that followed have provided a framework of reform for the innovative development of the collaboration in social governance among the Party committees of different levels, governments at different levels, non-governmental organizations of various kinds, and the public. The principles of social governance, including systemic governance, law-based governance, comprehensive governance, and governance that addresses the causes of problems, have been established. China progressively reveals a complete, stable and effective system for a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests.

1.1.3　From “Peaceful Zhejiang” to “a demonstration area of Peaceful China”

The great change in the model of China’s social governance undoubtedly started with the policy of reform and opening-up. As a pioneer in reform and opening-up , Zhejiang is well known as a province with the greatest entrepreneurial zeal, the most active innovation, the most developed market players, and the most rapid economic growth. Zhejiang is also one of the provinces that has the highest per capita income, and the smallest disparity in income between rural and urban areas. Zhejiang is one of the provinces whose residents have the greatest sense of fulfillment, happiness and satisfaction, and one of the provinces that have the best government services. All these strong points of Zhejiang are the result of the province’s continuous effort to break through the limits of the existing institutions and mechanisms in the forty years since the initiation of reform and opening-up. They reflect the evolution of China’s social governance in the last forty years. Zhejiang has left a trace in the reform of China’s social governance from the “strong government and weak society” model, to the binary separation of the government and society and then to the partnership of the government and society.

A review of the history shows that Zhejiang is a province that had played a significant role with excellent performances in the exploration of China’s social governance.

At 2:00 AM on December 28, 1953, the Constitution Drafting Team headed by Mao Zedong arrived in Hangzhou from Beijing by train. In Liuzhuang Guesthouse and 84 Beishan Road, two compounds by the West Lake, the first draft of new China’s first constitution was finished after 77 days and nights of work. Mao Zedong participated in the drafting every day. During the period, the draft was repeatedly sent to Beijing for discussion, and the feedback was repeatedly sent back to Hangzhou for revision. In the two months after its publication in June 1954, the draft constitution was open for the whole country’s discussion. A total of 150 million people from all parts of society participated in the discussion, and submitted 1.18 million notes suggesting amendment and new articles, or pointing out problems. The making of the constitution took nine months and involved one quarter of the country’s population, which was rare in the world history of law. As the birthplace of new China’s first constitution, Hangzhou is remembered for its special role in the making of “Law-based China”.

In November 1963, during the Socialist Education Movement, the carders and people of the Fengqiao Town in Zhuji City of Zhejiang created the “Fengqiao Experience” to solve conflicts at the community level, which was promoted as a popular model for the political-legal work. In the past half century, the “Fengqiao Experience” has advanced with the times with continuous innovation, but has maintained its core values. Today’s Fengqiao, a town of 74,000 residents, has 47 non-governmental organizations of different sizes, including Hongfeng Vigilantes, Fengqiao Aunts, Fengqiao Society of Village Worthies, etc. The non-governmental organizations of over 5,000 people play their parts in various areas such as security patrol, mediation, community correction, and so on. How can the people and non-governmental organizations be entrusted with affairs that they can handle? How can the cost of social governance and social service be lowered? How can the possible conflicts in social governance be reduced? For a long time, the “Fengqiao Experience” has provided a lively demonstration of a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests.

The strategic decision in 2004 about “Peaceful Zhejiang” has provided leverage for Zhejiang’s social governance, as a typical platform for the making of a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests.

Experience from all over the world shows that the period when the per capita GDP is between USD 1,000-3,000 is at once a golden period for rapid development and a period when various conflicts emerge. Zhejiang’s per capita GDP reached USD 2,400 in 2003. As a province in more developed eastern China and a pioneer in the rise of market economy, it was one of the first areas to be challenged by a wide range of conflicts and problems, with the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, accelerated stratification and diversified demands for interests brought by the adjustment of the economic structure, the social structure and the structure of interests. In addition, while the economy is growing rapidly, social programs regarding education, technology, medical care, public health, culture and environment, etc., lagged behind. Accidents in production and transportation increased rapidly. The problems of public safety became more urgent. These tendencies and symptoms of economic and social incongruities received intensive attention of Xi Jinping, then Secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee. In May 2004, after a period of thorough investigations and research, the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee made the major strategic decision about the policy of “Peaceful Zhejiang”, on the initiative of Xi Jinping. The decision responded to the people’s wishes and demands, such as the “demand for both a rich material life and an active spiritual life”, the “demand for the prosperity for all, along with equity and justice”, the “demand for both a prosperous economy and a protected environment”, and so on. In the promotion of the policy of the “grand peace”, Zhejiang starts by addressing hot issues highly concerned by the people, with a focus on the more serious problems and the areas with more complicated problems. Seeking to address both symptoms and root causes of social issues with a focus on the latter, the province has clearly specified the strategic goals and measures of “Peaceful Zhejiang” with “Six Guarantees”(3) in “Twenty-Eight Areas”. Obviously, “Peaceful Zhejiang” aims to achieve more than peace in the narrower sense, meaning increased safety and a lowered crime rate. It aims at the “grand peace” in a broader scope, in more spheres and at more levels, for economy, politics, culture, society and the environment.

The “grand peace” cannot be achieved only with the efforts of the government and the Party committee. It calls for the great chorus of the whole society. For example, we focus on addressing social issues at their sources, reducing social problems and solving social conflicts in a timely manner. With the goal of the “grand peace” and to prevent and solve social conflicts, Zhejiang carries forward the tradition with consideration of the tendency of social development in the exploration for its policies targeting the root causes of social issues.

The first strategy is to establish a social stability risk-assessment mechanism for major decisions. Before launching or approving any major policy, project, endeavor, and action related to the interests of the people, the government must reach out for views and ideas in the format of public presentations and hearings, fully consider all possible social risks, environmental impacts, conflicts and disputes, and different factors of instability, and detect in time problems that show symptoms, tendencies or potentials of social issues. The social stability risk-assessment is established as an obligatory procedure and a rigid prerequisite. The process of major decision making is a process of the government and Party committee trying to listen to the people’s opinions, improve the people’s livelihood, and solve the people’s problems. Between 2010 and 2016, Zhejiang Province assessed 31,835 proposals, 30,827 of which were approved, and 1,008, or 3.16%, of which were rejected or delayed. So far none of the assessed and approved decisions caused any mass incident.

The second strategy is to establish a diversified dispute resolution mechanism, and improve the integrated system of community mediation, administrative mediation and judicial mediation. First, the province has established and developed a mediation network of four levels—counties (cities, prefectures), sub-districts (towns, townships), neighborhoods (villages), and residential quarters, buildings and units (community groups)—to give full play to civilian resources, local rules and all kinds of social forces in the mediation and resolution of conflicts and disputes. Second, it has reformed the administrative review system, improved the proceeding of case hearing and execution in administrative review, duly handled cases of administrative review and administrative mediation, and corrected illegal or inappropriate administrative acts. Third, it has improved working pattern of the judicial mediation, implementing the principle of “giving priority to mediation” in law enforcement and case proceeding. At last, it has created a synergy of social governance through “grand mediation”, to resolve conflicts at the community level in a timely manner, and to make sure the cases are closed, the disputes are handled, and the people are reconciled.

The third strategy is to establish an open and orderly mechanism under which people can express their grievances, psychological intervention is conducted, conflicts are mediated, and rights and interests are guaranteed, to give better play to the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The role of the provincial people’s congress, the CPPCC provincial committee, people’s organizations, trade associations and the media as channels for the expression of public interests is brought into play. The system of keeping the public informed about public decisions, the public hearing system and the expert consulting system are improved. The channel for public participation through the Internet is smoothed. The people are encouraged to express their concerns related to their interests through reasonable and lawful means. At the same time, efforts are intensified to resolve social conflicts with repeated analyses and examinations of the hot, important and difficult issues in the social governance of the area, and the inspections and examinations of key projects, special groups, in key areas and during sensitive periods are strengthened, before solving the discovered problems in accordance with the laws and policies.

The fourth strategy is to deepen the reform of the letter-and-visit(4) system, integrating the efforts to protect the legal rights and interests of the people and to maintain the judicial authority. The laws and policies are enforced to make sure that petitioners’ reasonable appeals receive proper treatment, that petitioners with unreasonable appeals receive proper education, that financially challenged petitioners receive proper assistance, and that illegal acts are handled according to law. The Party’s mass line is closely followed to implement the system under which carders receive, visit, revisit, and keep in contact with the people, seeing the treatment of petitioning as part of the work of serving the people. Petitions related to the people’s interests are duly solved, and petitioners are seen as family, their letters as family letters, and the issues they present as family issues.

These actions and practices have efficiently integrated resources of the whole society. Zhejiang has particularly adhered to the principle of “letting the people decide whether it is peaceful or not”. To build “Peaceful Zhejiang”, the people’s awareness rate, participation rate, and rate of satisfaction with safety have been included as important parts of the assessment of the government performance. In the last ten years, Zhejiang has planned and carried out “peace-building” as part of the overall strife for more developed economy, more stable politics, more active cultural life, more harmonious society, and better-off life of the people. For fourteen consecutive years, Zhejiang has ranked among the top provinces in the country by the people’s rate of satisfaction with safety.

In the past year of 2017, the people of Zhejiang’s rate of satisfaction with safety reached 96.58%. The province’s work accidents and deaths caused by accidents were reduced respectively by 26.3% and 19.2% from the prior year. The four traffic accident control indexes (number of accidents, number of deaths, number of injured people, and direct losses) were reduced respectively by 11.61%, 5.11%, 13.78% and 16.89% from the prior year. The number of filed criminal cases was reduced by 26.34% from the prior year, making Zhejiang the No. 2 province in this regard. The number of mass incidents was reduced by 42.53% from the prior year.

These optimistic data are backed up by a rigorous network of public safety risk control established in Zhejiang. “We address whatever issues concerned by the people.” In recent years, the people care about food safety, and water and air quality more than anything else, so we have increased the joint law enforcement in events related with food and drug safety, and actions that pollute and damage the environment to make sure that all cases are investigated, that law-breakers are prosecuted, that the investigations are thorough, and that laws are strictly enforced. A survey shows that in 2017, the people of Zhejiang’s rate of satisfaction with food and drug safety and that with environmental safety reached 93.67% and 94.85%, both showing a significant year-on-year growth. In particular, the rate of satisfaction with food and drug safety increased by 7.4 percentage points. In recent years, the frequent telecom frauds threatening the safety of the people’s property have attracted much attention in the process of building “Peaceful Zhejiang”, so the police force has coordinated relevant departments to continuously increase the ability to fight against telecom frauds by means of source prevention and comprehensive measures. In 2017, the number of the telecom fraud cases the police departments of Zhejiang handled was reduced by 18.85% from the prior year.

In the 14th CPC Provincial Congress of Zhejiang in 2017, we decided to further develop Peaceful Zhejiang on the base of the past achievement, with a new five-year goal of building “a demonstration area of Peaceful China”. To be more specific, we will implement the CPC’s mass line in every aspect of the endeavor to build a Peaceful Zhejiang. We will encourage more non-governmental support and public participation in social governance. We will combine the active government and the effective market. By coordinating the specialized and non-governmental organizations, by integrating the institutional reform and the application of modern technology, and by combining the rule of law and the rule of virtue, we will focus on increasing the abilities to predict, prevent and resolve all kinds of risks in political stability, public order, public security, financial markets, social conflicts, Internet safety, and so on. By this means, we will further increase our capabilities for social governance and for the building of Peaceful Zhejiang. So far, Zhejiang has established a complete and effective peace-building system. Zhejiang’s experiment has provided experience for the strategy of “Peaceful China” at a higher level, and has provided an important platform for the practice of a social governance model based on collaboration, participation and common interests.