Towards an accurate understanding of ‘new quality productive forces’

‘Developing new quality productive forces’, one of the Chinese government’s top priorities for 2024, has garnered significant attention and discussions both domestically and internationally since its proposal. It is a strategic initiative aimed at resolving the principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era, aligning with policies like ‘supply-side structural reform’, ‘high-quality development’, and ‘a new pattern of development’. It is not a mere policy slogan. While ‘traditional productive forces’ contributed to China’s economic miracle, their limitations have been increasingly apparent in the evolving socioeconomic conditions, exemplified by the failure of supply systems to adapt to shifts in the demand structure, which has resulted in the principal social contradiction in the current Chinese society. Developing new quality productive forces entails promoting scientific and technological innovation-driven transformation in the mode of production, cultivating emerging industries with novel means of production and consumption, digitally transforming traditional sectors, forming network-based and intelligent production organisations and digitalised industrial ecosystems, and reshaping production relations to foster high-quality economic development.