Implementing Decisions and Plans on Furthering Reform to Provide Institutional Support for Chinese Modernization

The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was a profoundly significant milestone in this critical period of building China into a great country and advancing national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization. The most notable outcome of the plenary session was its approval of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization (hereinafter “the Resolution”). The strategic measures for furthering comprehensive reform which are presented in the Resolution closely focus on the theme of advancing Chinese modernization. The Resolution serves as a general plan and rallying call for broadening and deepening reform on the new journey in the new era. It also serves as a program of action for turning the blueprint for Chinese modernization into reality.

I. Acknowledging historic achievements in deepening reform in the new era and inspiring strategic confidence in further progress

Since the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013, the Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core has united and led the entire Party, the military, and all the Chinese people in evolving reform from a variety of trials and breakthroughs limited to certain areas into an integrated drive being advanced across the board; putting in place foundational institutional frameworks in all sectors as well as achieving historic, systemic, and holistic transformations in many fields; and accomplishing the reform tasks set at the plenary session and attaining our objective of achieving notable results in making all institutions more mature and better-defined by the time of our Party’s centennial in 2021. All of this provided strong institutional support for achieving the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and set China on a new path toward building a modern socialist country.

Coastal scenery at Yangpu Economic Development Zone, a key part of the Hainan Free Trade Port, December 29, 2023. PHOTO BY XINHUA REPORTER PU XIAOXU

First, the CPC Central Committee led by Xi Jinping has consolidated and developed the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics and improved China’s foundational, basic, and vital systems. For example, advances have been achieved in whole-process people’s democracy and further improvements made to the comprehensive, extensive, and well-connected framework of institutions for guaranteeing that the people run the country. There have been improvements to the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics as well as to systems and mechanisms for sound legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice, and society-wide observance of the law. Efforts have also been made to reinforce and uphold a foundational system for ensuring the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain as well as to improve and develop advanced socialist culture.

Tourists enjoy boat tours on Jiuqu Stream in Wuyi Mountain National Park, Fujian Province, October 3, 2023. The establishment of a system of national parks is a major institutional innovation with overarching, guiding, and landmark significance for advancing ecological conservation and the building of a Beautiful China. XINHUA / PHOTO BY CHEN YING

Second, it has given greater impetus to economic development and set China’s economy on the path to high-quality development. It has continued reforms to develop the socialist market economy, improved the modern market system, advanced reforms aimed at the market-based allocation of production factors, and deepened reforms of state-owned capital and state-owned enterprises. It has encouraged strong development of the private sector, built systems and mechanisms to support all-around innovation, and brought reforms of the fiscal, tax, and financial systems to a deeper level. It has also improved institutional mechanisms for integrating urban and rural development, built a more open economy, and continuously improved the economic system by developing effective market mechanisms, dynamic microeconomic entities, and suitable macro-regulation.

Third, it has achieved historic, systemic, and holistic transformations in many fields, and China’s systems and capacity for governance have been further modernized. There have been two major rounds of reform of Party and state institutions, resulting in continual functional improvements. China’s ecological conservation systems have been improved, creating a framework based on the principles of preventing pollution at the source, controlling processes, securing compensation, and punishing wrongdoing. The most extensive and thorough national defense and military reforms since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 have been conducted, resulting in a comprehensive revolutionary restructuring of the people’s military.

Fourth, people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security have increased. Reforms in key areas, such as income distribution, employment, healthcare, and social security have continued in-depth, resulting in the development of the world’s largest education, healthcare, and social security systems. Sound poverty alleviation and reduction mechanisms were established that helped achieve the greatest victory against poverty in human history. Improvements have been made to the centralized, unified, efficient, and authoritative system of national security leadership, with better emergency management mechanisms and the development of a social governance system based on collaboration, participation, and shared benefits.

Fifth, the CPC Central Committee has encouraged the Party to temper itself through revolution in order to grow stronger. There have been continual improvements to the Party’s leadership system as well as the systems of oversight of the Party and state, with unified implementation of systems and mechanisms to ensure officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to engage in corruption. All this has bolstered the Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership and guaranteed that the Party fulfills its core role of exercising overall leadership and coordinating the efforts of all sides.

We need to understand fully the historical context and significance of this plenary session as well as the complexities and challenges we will face in furthering comprehensive reform on the new journey in the new era. Moreover, we need to draw strategic confidence from the potential and inevitable success of reform as demonstrated by our historic achievements since the introduction of the policy of reform and opening up in 1978 and particularly in the new era since 2012, maintain our confidence and resolve, and advance resolutely in the chosen direction and along the chosen path.

II. Studying and implementing Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on furthering comprehensive reform

Historic, revolutionary, and groundbreaking achievements attained in furthering comprehensive reform are ultimately the result of the effective leadership of Xi Jinping and the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. President Xi has articulated the mission and direction of reform as well as its objectives, strategies, drivers, and methods, and put forward new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on furthering reform across the board. He has also provided well-conceived answers to the major theoretical and practical questions of the new era, such as the guidelines to uphold, the path to follow, the reason for us to carry forward comprehensive reform, and the way to do so. All of this has provided us with the theoretical arsenal required to further comprehensive reform.

Making decisions, plans, and arrangements regarding furthering comprehensive reform requires us to implement fully Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions. The conclusions, overall objectives, general principles, and reform measures set out in the Resolution take as their fundamental guidelines Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on furthering comprehensive reform, and they are specific applications of the stances, perspectives, and methods contained therein.

First, we will uphold the Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership over furthering comprehensive reform. We will facilitate the smooth implementation of reforms through improvements to our Party’s leadership system and working mechanisms while also strengthening the Party’s leadership over all areas of work by continuously deepening reform. We will also enable the Party to exert fully its core role of providing overall leadership and coordinate the efforts of all sides to ensure that reform always advances in the correct political direction.

Second, we will firmly remain on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Everything should be measured against whether it fulfills the overall objectives of improving and developing Chinese socialism and advancing the modernization of our national governance system and capabilities. We will reform that which should and can be reformed, while setting aside that which should not and cannot be reformed. We must not return to the isolation and rigidity of the past, or veer off course by changing our nature or abandoning our system.

Third, we will adopt a people-centered approach. We must ensure that the principal role and pioneering spirit of the people are respected, and plan and promote reforms based on the overall, fundamental, and long-term interests of the people. We will introduce more reform measures that are of pressing concern in people’s lives and accord with the common aspirations of the people. We will also make reform measures highly responsive to the calls of the people, so as to ensure that reform is for the people and by the people and that its fruits are shared among the people.

Fourth, we will adopt a problem-oriented approach. We will tackle tough problems, navigate potential dangers, and remedy issues that have plagued us for years. We will strive to eliminate bottlenecks hindering the creation of a new development dynamic and promotion of high-quality economic development, weaknesses and problems in the development environment and affecting people’s wellbeing, central issues and flashpoints that compromise social fairness and justice, and major institutional problems that need to be addressed to push forward Chinese modernization.

The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), a major national scientific infrastructure project located in Huairou District, Beijing, December 11, 2023. The storage ring of HEPS completed its full-ring vacuum circuit on July 1, 2024, marking the full connection of the entire storage ring. The project is now entering into the joint testing phase. PHOTO BY XINHUA REPORTER JIN LIWANG

Fifth, we will focus on the main task of institution building. We will boost top-level design and overall planning as well as always establish new systems before abolishing old ones while attaching equal importance to efforts in both respects. We will also uphold and consolidate, improve and develop, and respect and administer institutions, in order to promote and integrate institution building and effective governance.

Sixth, we will promote reform under the rule of law. We must be adept at using law-based thinking and methods to solve problems and consolidate achievements in reform. We will seek unity between reforms and the rule of law, ensuring that all reforms have a solid legal basis and that reform achievements are elevated to law in a timely manner.

Seventh, we will apply systems thinking and rigorous methods to deepening reform. We will focus on properly handling important relationships, such as those between the economy and society, government and the market, efficiency and fairness, vitality and order, and development and security. We will also properly handle the relationships between overall advancement and key breakthroughs, overall and local interests, top-level design and community-level exploration, and boldness and caution, as well as between reform, development, and stability. This approach will enable us to pursue reform in a more systematic, holistic, and coordinated manner.

Eighth, we will implement reforms with relentless perseverance. From the planning of reforms to their arrangements and implementation, we will aim to facilitate their realization and overcome issues by establishing whole-process, efficient, and verifiable implementation mechanisms; promoting targeted efforts and implementation in reforms; and guarding against and overcoming negative tendencies, such as emphasizing strategy formulation over implementation.

Ninth, we will apply both the spirit of reform and rigorous standards to Party self-governance. We will maximize the roles of Party and government leaders at all levels, encourage Party members and officials to uphold the spirit of reform, boost the resilience and skills required for reform, and be both promoters and practitioners of reform.

Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on furthering reform across the board are comprehensive and systematic. They rationally summarize the epistemology and methodology of reform and serve as a guide to the underlying laws of implementing reforms in various fields. We must deepen our understanding of Xi Jinping’s new ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions on furthering comprehensive reform; uphold and apply the stances, perspectives, and methods contained therein; and regularly check our alignment with them and make the necessary alterations, in order to ensure that our endeavors advance in the correct direction.

III. Understanding measures in the Resolution on furthering comprehensive reform

Xi Jinping has stressed that the Resolution of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee plays an overarching and leading role in furthering comprehensive reform and that our focus must be put on key areas and major strategic reform measures related to Chinese modernization. The Resolution is both goal- and problem-oriented. Centered on achieving the overall objective of furthering comprehensive reform, it focuses on solving major issues with systems and mechanisms that facilitate advancing Chinese modernization, promotes the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy^*, and sets out the top-level design and overall plans for furthering comprehensive reform. It also introduces a large number of strategic and wide-ranging reform measures, giving it a distinct reform-based orientation and tone.

First, it emphasizes leveraging the leading role of economic reform. Furthering economic system reform remains the focus of efforts to further comprehensive reform. Presently and in the coming period, the main task of economic structural reform is to improve systems and mechanisms that facilitate high-quality development and foster new growth drivers and new strengths.

The Resolution sets out six plans for economic structural reform, namely, building a high-standard socialist market economy; improving the systems and mechanisms underpinning high-quality development; developing supporting institutions and mechanisms for all-around innovation; improving macroeconomic governance systems; improving the institutions and mechanisms for urban-rural integrated development; and refining the institutions and mechanisms for high-standard opening up. These plans address the majority of important aspects and issues involved in creating a new development dynamic and promoting high-quality development.

To implement these plans from the Resolution, it is necessary to focus firmly on key areas and critical links of economic structural reform. We must uphold and fulfill the commitments to the public and non-public sectors, build a unified national market, and refine the systems underpinning the market economy. We must also develop new quality productive forces in line with local conditions; deepen reform of the fiscal and taxation systems; enhance supporting systems to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich rural areas; and steadily expand institutional opening up.

In light of China’s current economic conditions, we need to combine deepening reforms of institutions and mechanisms with solving issues encountered in the course of development and the transformation of our growth model, promptly introduce feasible reform measures that suit present conditions, and use reforms to promote stable growth, make structural adjustments, and mitigate risks.

Second, the Resolution emphasizes building institutions and mechanisms to support all-around innovation. The general requirements are to coordinate advances in the integrated reform of systems and mechanisms related to education, science and technology (S&T), and human resources, in order to boost the overall performance of our country’s innovation system. The Resolution states that, “Education, S&T, and human resources function as basic and strategic underpinnings for Chinese modernization,” and it sets out systematic plans for relevant work. The plenary session devised coordinated plans for reforms of institutions and mechanisms in the areas of education, S&T, and human resources, which maximize the institutional advantages of all sectors and will accelerate all-around innovation.

To implement the relevant reform plans, we must set accurate objectives and focus on key points. The key points for deepening education reform are to focus on higher education institutions as loci of education, S&T, and human resources, as well as use category-specific reforms in higher education institutions to refine the mechanisms for facilitating S&T innovation in universities, improve the efficiency of applications of S&T advances, and improve universities’ capacity for S&T innovation.

The key points for reforming S&T systems are to strengthen the coordination of allocations of national S&T resources, improve the management of S&T projects and spending, and boost the role of enterprises as leaders of S&T innovation.

The key points for institutional reforms of talent development are to improve mechanisms for independently training talent, quickly build a contingent of personnel with expertise of strategic importance, and improve support mechanisms for recruiting talent from overseas.

We need to strengthen coordination and links between these three areas of reform to create a positive environment for innovation.

Third, it emphasizes advancing reforms in a comprehensive manner. The Resolution coordinates the advancement of reforms in the political, cultural, social, and ecological spheres. It seeks to channel greater energy into making our reforms integrated and focused, so as to make systems and mechanisms coordinated and interlinked as well as to create synergies for promoting Chinese modernization.

To implement properly the decisions and arrangements contained in the Resolution, we need to be aware of the bigger picture and apply a systematic mode of thinking as we strive to achieve the main task of furthering comprehensive reform. We need to constantly improve the system of whole-process people’s democracy, refine the system of China’s socialist rule of law, and deepen reform in the cultural sector. We also need to refine the system for ensuring and improving people’s wellbeing and further reform the system of ecological conservation. We must focus on wider objectives and key points, in order to solve common, grave issues affecting people in recent years, including issues with income distribution, employment, social security, medical and healthcare, population development, cyberspace governance, and environmental governance. In so doing, we will enhance people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

Fourth, the Resolution emphasizes balancing development and security imperatives. Presently, China’s national security has more profound connotations and implications, has a broader spatial and temporal reach, and is more complex domestically and internationally than at any time in history. In response to these new situations and requirements, the Resolution highlights the importance of safeguarding China’s national security, setting out general objectives and principles and emphasizing reforms in the realm of security. In terms of specific measures, in addition to the plans detailed in Section XIII (“Modernizing China’s National Security System and Capacity”) and Section XIV (“Deepening National Defense and Military Reform”) of the Resolution, various parts of the document refer to the need to coordinate development and opening up with security.

To promote implementation of the Resolution, we must fully apply a holistic approach to national security. We need to focus on key reform measures related to modernizing China’s national security system and capacity and strengthening the development of national defense and the military, as well as on coordinating national security reforms and reforms in various areas of economic and social development. We must emphasize preventing and mitigating security risks in key areas, such as local government debt, real estate, finance, industrial development, and foreign trade, in order to ensure that high-quality development and greater security are mutually reinforcing.

Fifth, it emphasizes strengthening the Party’s leadership over reform. Efforts to further comprehensive reform touch upon all areas of economic and social development and a host of major theoretical and practical issues. We need to coordinate and plan all aspects, levels, and elements of reform; accurately assess situations; plan systematically; strive to overcome challenges; and pool strength from far and wide. All of this must be done under the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee.

Section XV (“Improving the Party’s Leadership”) of the Resolution sets out plans for creating a political environment that is conducive to furthering comprehensive reform as well as ensuring that advancements in reform are made in all areas. In the course of implementing the guiding principles of the plenary session and the plans contained in the Resolution, our foremost principle must be to uphold the overall leadership of the Party. We need to strive to refine the mechanisms through which the decisions and plans of the Central Committee are implemented, further reform the management system for officials and personnel, and strengthen the political and organizational functions of Party organizations. We also need to improve mechanisms for ensuring that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to be corrupt; maximize the Party’s core role of exercising overall leadership and coordinating the efforts of all sides; and ensure that the whole Party is united in thought and has a steadfast will, coordinated action, and formidable strength.

* The Five-Sphere Integrated Plan is to promote coordinated economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement. The Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy is to make comprehensive moves to build a modern socialist country, deepen reform, advance law-based governance, and strengthen Party self-governance.

(Originally appeared in Qiushi Journal, Chinese edition, No. 16, 2024)