China is entering a new stage of development. The development model of “competition for growth” led by the central government for local officials in the past is facing risks and challenges, and it is necessary to explore and transform to a new development model. Based on the important background that China’s development is in a new historical position, this article summarizes its transformation goals as a “competition for development” model. This new model will be led by the central science, inspiring local governments and officials to “compete for development” and focusing on contributing development performance and even institutional assets to the country and nation through innovation. This article sorts out and refines the feasibility, impact effects, mechanism design, and specific methods of this development model, and analyzes the inherent relationship between the new development model and economic performance. Finally, based on the perspective of regional economic development patterns, the real sample of the development model transformation is presented. The theoretical analysis of this article shows that the evolution and improvement of the competition model of local government dominated by the central government constitutes an important part and valuable exploration practice of the construction of China’s national governance system and the modernization of national governance capabilities, and is expected to contribute China’s institutional wisdom to the development of world civilization.