'Scientific outlook on development'

Were it not for a decision last weekend to enshrine the term in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) charter, such a banal phrase hardly seems worth explaining. It joins a number of other tortuous catechisms that have been written into the constitution, notably "Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought", "Deng Xiaoping Theory", and "the important thought" of the "Three Represents".

Yet adding the "scientific outlook on development" is a way of honouring current party head Hu Jintao. It makes Hu's take on development an inescapable priority, and places him firmly in the pantheon of leaders of successive generations, in his case, fourth after Mao, Deng and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin. However, like Jiang, he does not get his name in the document. Hu is no Deng, and certainly no Mao.

The phrase means little more than that a reforming China realises that balance is important. It is an exhortation to policymakers to think carefully about the implications of the policy they make. No more unbridled rush for growth. Think inequality; think environmental degradation; act to avoid both.

The word "scientific" is there to give the term a seal of objectivity, to highlight that the process of development needs to be rational. In fact, all of the CCP's guiding ideology is considered by the party to be scientific. Most of the elite nine-man Politburo Standing Commission are science graduates, and so it is unsurprising if they continue to see much virtue in it.

The subtext is caution, which is not in the lexicon of provincial and local governments, for which the bad old ways are good ways. Unbridled growth generates more money than restrained growth, boosting influence and prestige, as well as revenues.

This route proved the downfall of former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu, but Hu may have faced a battle royal levering him out of power on misappropriation charges and dismantling high-end corruption in the city. Now, he can fall back on the party charter. Party members have to have a scientific outlook on development, because Hu says so, but more than this, because it is mandated in the party constitution.