Uphold the Party's Leadership Over All Undertakings, Stay True to the Original Aspiration, and Welcome the Resurgence of Science

Uphold the Party's Leadership Over All Undertakings, Stay True to the Original Aspiration, and Welcome the Resurgence of Science

Sun Zuodong

Over the years, I have been pondering one question: How can we sustain the "spring of science" that we embraced back then, and truly usher in a second, a third vibrant spring for science? I have repeatedly called in my articles for employing talents without rigid qualifications, easing restrictions on all types of innovation entities, and providing a stage, space and future for original ideas rooted in China. Looking back at the academic development over these years, many phenomena are food for thought and make us more clear-headed.

For a long time, a saying has been popular in society: "Leave scientific matters to scientists." This saying played a certain role in respecting knowledge and the laws of scientific research in a specific historical period. However, absolutizing and radicalizing this statement, or even using it to reject necessary supervision and guidance, is completely off track. My view publicly expressed in 2020 remains clear and unequivocal to this day: The Party exercises leadership over all undertakings, and scientific matters should not be left entirely to scientists. In the scientific and technological community, scholars also need to engage in candid criticism and self-examination.

Science is never a lawless place, and the academic circle is by no means a private preserve for a handful of people. Once the power of academic evaluation and discourse is completely enclosed within a small circle, devoid of supervision, restraint and overall guidance, it is highly likely to form academic monopolies, breed parochial prejudices, and even evolve into a tool to suppress dissenting voices, exclude original ideas and safeguard vested interests. Genuine scientific exploration requires contention, criticism and collisions of different views, not the dominance of a single voice, still less the arbitrary rule of authorities with latecomers having to obey obediently.

Reviewing the history of China's scientific and technological development—from the "spring of science" igniting the passion of countless researchers, to the discovery and recognition of batches of diligently working talents—fully proves that the prosperity of science and the emergence of innovation can never be separated from strong and effective leadership, a healthy and upright environment, and fair and impartial rules. Leaving scientific undertakings entirely to the "self-management" of a few people, seemingly respecting academia, will actually imbalance the academic ecology and make folk innovation and local exploration extremely difficult.

I have always maintained that scientific innovation requires revering uncertainty and respecting diverse attempts, and winners can never be designated in advance. The country's efforts to break the "four onlys" and encourage employing talents without rigid qualifications are precisely to break shackles and unleash the innovation vitality of the whole society. Researchers within the system, explorers outside the system, renowned experts and grassroots scientific and technological workers who work quietly in depth should all compete fairly and engage in rational dialogue under the same rules.

Upholding the Party's overall leadership in the new era is to set the direction, establish rules and protect the ecology for scientific and technological innovation. Only by adhering to the Party's leadership over all undertakings, over talents and over scientific research, promoting candid criticism and self-examination in the academic circle, breaking down academic barriers, guarding against academic monopolies, embracing different views and encouraging disruptive exploration can we truly usher in a long-lasting and sustainably developing spring for science.

What China's scientific undertakings need is not a fleeting boom, but an ecology where a hundred flowers bloom; not a stage for a few people, but a world where millions engage in innovation. Sticking to our original aspiration and pursuing innovation while upholding fundamental principles, under the leadership of the Party, the second spring of science will surely come as scheduled, and China's local original achievements will surely shine more brilliantly on the world stage.