Top-Level Design and “Crossing the River by Feeling for Stones”

Top-Level Design and “Crossing the River by Feeling for Stones”

There are no precedents for China’s reform and opening up. It is therefore necessary to take a correct approach and advance through trial and practice.

The relationship between top-level design and “crossing the river by feeling for 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 that is distinctively Chinese and appropriate to China’s conditions. The effort is aimed at seeking objective laws from practice. There is a dialectical unity between top-level design and feeling the way. Top-level design and regional and short-term implementation should be mutually reinforcing processes. Macro planning and top-level design are needed to advance reform in a systematic, integrated and coordinated way. Meanwhile, bold experiments and breakthroughs are encouraged to bring reform to a deeper level. 

顶层设计和摸着石头过河的关系

改革开放是前无古人的崭新事业，必须坚持正确的方法论，在不断实践探索中推进。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，是富有中国特色、符合中国国情的改革方法。摸着石头过河就是摸规律，从实践中获得真知。摸着石头过河和加强顶层设计是辨证统一的，推进局部的阶段性改革开放要在加强顶层设计的前提下进行，加强顶层设计要在推进局部的阶段性改革开放的基础上来谋划。必须加强宏观思考和顶层设计，更加注重改革的系统性、整体性、协同性，同时也要继续鼓励大胆试验、大胆突破，不断把改革开放引向深入。