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.

處理好頂層設(shè)計(jì)和摸著石頭過(guò)河的關(guān)系

頂層設(shè)計(jì)和摸著石頭過(guò)河的關(guān)系，是習(xí)近平提出的全面深化改革需要把握的重大關(guān)系之一。摸著石頭過(guò)河，是符合中國(guó)國(guó)情、富有中國(guó)特色的改革方法，因?yàn)橹袊?guó)的改革開(kāi)放沒(méi)有先例，沒(méi)有現(xiàn)成經(jīng)驗(yàn)可以借鑒，需要走一步看一步，一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)摸索。然而，改革開(kāi)放愈向前推進(jìn)，需要攻克的難題就愈多，需要在繼續(xù)堅(jiān)持摸著石頭過(guò)河的同時(shí)搞好頂層設(shè)計(jì)。頂層設(shè)計(jì)關(guān)注的是全局性、戰(zhàn)略性的事項(xiàng)，強(qiáng)調(diào)的是系統(tǒng)性，著力點(diǎn)在制度建設(shè)。頂層設(shè)計(jì)和摸著石頭過(guò)河是辯證統(tǒng)一的。不告別碎片化的改革，改革難以為繼；沒(méi)有在改革征程中的摸著石頭過(guò)河，頂層設(shè)計(jì)也無(wú)法落地或得到修正。