Top-level design, reform pressures, and local adaptations: an interpretation of the trajectory of reform since the 18th CPC Party Congress

Since the 18th Party Congress of the CPC, the Chinese leadership has emphasized ‘top-level design’ in their strategic thinking on reform. In practice, they have attempted to dialectically combine ‘top-level design’ with the approach of ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones’. Such efforts have led to the emergence of a range of decision-making, implementation and supervision institutions primarily aimed at implementing ‘top-level design’. With top-level decision makers demonstrating both ambition and a sense of urgency, the shift in reform strategies has also placed new pressures on local Party and government organizations, which have been forced to accordingly adjust their thinking and behavior. There are some tensions between the current top-down manner of institutionalization and the tradition of lower-level autonomy which began after the initiation of reform and opening up. How to translate such tensions into momentum for reform is an issue meriting further observation and analysis.