Properly Handling the Relationship Between Top-level Design and "Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones"
The relationship between top-level design and "crossing the river by feeling for the stones" (feeling the way proceeding by careful and limited experimentation – "feeling the way" so to speak) is one of the major relationships that must be handled well in the course of comprehensively expanding the in-depth reform that Xi Jinping has called for.
"Feeling the way" is a method of reform which is appropriate to China's conditions and which is characteristically Chinese, because there are no precedents for China's reform and no readymade experiences to draw upon. It is therefore necessary to go step by step, feeling the way a little at a time.
However, the further that reform and opening up proceed advance, the more they will encounter difficult problems there will be to tackle, so even as we continue to feel our way, there must also be good top-level design. The latter focuses on strategic issues and the big picture; it emphasizes the need to be systematic, and its work is centered on institutional development.
There is a dialectical unity between top-level design and feeling the way. It will be hard for reform to continue if it is fragmented, while without feeling the way during reform, top-level design cannot be firmly grounded or amended.
处理好顶层设计和摸着石头过河的关系
顶层设计和摸着石头过河的关系，是习近平提出的全面深化改革需要把握的重大关系之一。摸着石头过河，是符合中国国情、富有中国特色的改革方法，因为中国的改革开放没有先例，没有现成经验可以借鉴，需要走一步看一步，一点一点摸索。然而，改革开放愈向前推进，需要攻克的难题就愈多，需要在继续坚持摸着石头过河的同时搞好顶层设计。顶层设计关注的是全局性、战略性的事项，强调的是系统性，着力点在制度建设。顶层设计和摸着石头过河是辩证统一的。不告别碎片化的改革，改革难以为继；没有在改革征程中的摸着石头过河，顶层设计也无法落地或得到修正。