Four Comprehensives

The Four Comprehensives, or the Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy^[1] (Chinese: 四个全面战略布局) is a list of political goals for China, put forward by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2014. They are:

1. Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society
2. Comprehensively deepen reform
3. Comprehensively govern the nation according to law
4. Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.^[2]

Some scholars argue that as a matter of fact, there are exactly the same or very similar statements of the “four comprehensives” in Deng Xiaoping Theory. ^[3]

Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society (Xiaokang society)

The term "moderately prosperous society" dated back to 1979, when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said to visiting Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira that "Xiaokang society was the goal of Chinese modernization".^[4]

In 1997, the term "building a moderately prosperous society" was officially adopted in General Secretary Jiang Zemin's report to the 15th CPC National Congress. ^[5]

In 2002, the term was changed to "comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society" in the report to the 16th CPC National Congress. ^[6]

In 2012, "Completing the Building of a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects" was first introduced in Hu Jintao's report to the 18th CPC National Congress.^[7]

This article is part of a series about Xi Jinping 习近平
Leadership of Xi Jinping 2012 election as General Secretary 2017 re-election as General Secretary
Paramount leader of China Chinese Dream Four Comprehensives "Comprehensive Deepening Reforms" Anti-corruption campaign Power consolidation Foreign policies Eight-point Regulation 2015 Xi–Chu meeting 2015 United States visit 2015 United Kingdom visit 2015 Ma–Xi meeting 2018 China–United States trade war Important speech series Governance of China Xi Jinping Thought

Timeline

The Four Comprehensives have been developed incrementally during the early years of Xi's tenure:^[8]

• November 2012: "Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society" put forward at the 18th Party Congress
• November 2013: "Comprehensively deepen reform" put forward at the 3rd Central Committee Plenum
• early October 2014: "Comprehensively strictly govern the Party" put forward at the summary meeting of the Mass Line Campaign
• late October 2014: "Comprehensively govern the nation according to law" put forward during the 4th Central Committee Plenum
• November 2014: "Three Comprehensives" (absent the Party governance clause) formulated as a strategic bundle during Xi's tour of Fujian Province
• December 2014: "Three Comprehensives" amended to "Four Comprehensives" during Xi's tour of Jiangsu Province
• February 2015: Four Comprehensives unveiled as official Party and national strategy in advance of the Lianghui, the annual sessions of China's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

References

See also

• Four Cardinal Principles
• Three Represents