Chinese society is harmonious and stable as a whole, but the country is also faced with some contradictions and problems. These contradictions are problems appeared in our advance. Some of them are deep-rooted contradictions left over from history, some are new ones appeared when the reform drive is at the crucial stage of development and tackling difficult tasks.

Today a commentary carried on the Jiefang Daily says that at present an important question placed before our cadres at various levels is to further actively defuse contradictions and promote harmony and stability. This concerns the general situation, is the need for the building of socialism and a harmonious society, and the requirement for safeguarding and realizing the fundamental interests of the broad masses of people.

There are inevitably contradictions in any society in its development stage. China has entered the stage of comprehensively building a well-off society with per-capita GDP increasing from US$1,000 to US$3,000. Against this background nationwide, Shanghai is required to attain the goal of "basically becoming the lead in two aspects". In this specific stage, there will inevitably some particular contradictions and problems that require us to solve. Fundamental solutions of problems call for development that is the fundamental way to solve all problems, this does not mean that we can ignore, neglect or belittle various concrete contradictions placed before us. If we turn a blind eye to some contradictions and problems, and fail to actively and timely solve them one by one, then these problems accumulated over the years can hardly be resolved overnight and will affect the general situation of development.

The article points out that our cadres in general, especially those at the grass-roots level, are in the frontline facing contradictions straightly, they have done a lot of painstaking work in order to solve contradictions and safeguard stability. But under the current situation, we should further take the initiative to work hard and tackle existing problems and to be models and master-hands in actively solving contradictions. Initiative is crucial for the solution of contradictions. Initiative means the need to proceed from the general situation of building a harmonious society and safeguarding social stability and, under this general situation, we should engage in in-depth thinking and take voluntary actions. Initiative means the need to straightly face the masses and tackle contradictions, go deep into the frontline and seize the prime time to nip contradictions in the bud. Initiative means keenness, means taking precautions beforehand, means understanding the phenomenon that "a halo round the moon indicates the rising of wind, the damp on a plinth is a sign of approaching rain". We should be good at discovering the symptom of a trend and at grasping the development trend of the situation, we must never allow ourselves to fall into a passive position simply because "it is too late to discover the matter". Taking the initiative to solve contradictions is, in the final analysis, the need to place the Party's interest in the uppermost of our hearts and to put the fundamental, long-term and overall interests of the people in the most important position in our hearts; we must set people's interests as the top goal and the aspirations of the masses as the first signal; we should both give play to the political superiority of ideological-political work and guide and soothe the sentiments of the masses and try as far as possible to help the masses get rid of their difficulties and anxiety, solve their concrete problems and dispel their piled-up grievances. Only by doing so is it possible to soothe the sentiment of the masses and to solve one by one the contradictions that affect development, reform and stability.

The article states that it is valuable to take the initiative to solve contradictions, it is also necessary for us to enhance our ability and level in solving complicated contradictions, this is also part of improvement of the Party's ruling capability. In actively solving contradictions, the emphasis is placed on solving mechanistic problems.

The article holds that mechanistic innovation is very important, besides doing a good job in systematic ideological work and doing our best to help the masses solve concrete problems, it is necessary to rely on the establishment and perfection of a brand-new mechanism for the solutions of many contradictions. When we talk about mechanisms, we need to mention innovation and improving the coordinating mechanism for social benefits, gradually make the distribution of social benefits more fair and just, on the basis of overall benefits for whole society, gradually lead it to a more reasonable and balance-oriented profitable mechanism. When we mention mechanisms, we mean the mechanisms under which we act according to law, so that some of our contradictions and problems can be resolved by way of rule of law, and the reasonable demands of the people can be smoothly reflected and lawfully solved through the channel of the legal system.

By People's Daily Online