1. Upholding the Party's overall leadership

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has made continued efforts to strengthen and improve its leadership, providing fundamental political guarantees for the cause of the Party and the country. However, there have remained many problems within the Party with respect to upholding its leadership such as a lack of clear awareness and vigorous action as well as weak, ineffective, diluted, and marginalized efforts in implementation. In particular, the Central Committee's major decisions and plans were not properly executed as some officials selectively implemented the Party's policies or even feigned agreement or compliance and did things their own way.

The Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made it clear that the leadership of the Party is the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the pillar upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend. All Party members must maintain a high degree of unity with the Central Committee ideologically, politically, and in action. We need to enhance our capacity to conduct sound, democratic, and law-based governance, and ability to chart our course, craft overall plans, design policy, and promote reform. We must ensure that the Party fully exerts its core role in providing overall leadership and coordinating the efforts of all sides.

The Party has clearly stated that it exercises overall, systemic, and integrated leadership, and that its lifeblood lies in maintaining its solidarity and unity. The centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee is the highest principle of the Party's leadership, and upholding and strengthening this is the common political responsibility of each and every Party member. In upholding Party leadership, all Party members must, first and foremost, take a clear stance in maintaining political integrity to ensure that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee.

The Code of Conduct for Intraparty Political Life under New Circumstances was approved at the sixth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee. The regulations of the Political Bureau on upholding and strengthening the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee were also issued. These documents were designed to strictly enforce the Party's political rules and discipline, to counteract and prevent self-centered behavior, decentralism, liberalism, departmentalism, and the "nice-guy" mentality, to cultivate a positive and healthy intraparty political culture, and to foster a sound political ecosystem featuring honesty and integrity within the Party.

The Central Committee has required leading officials to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation; to remain mindful of the country's most fundamental interests; and to be loyal to the Party, obey its command, and fulfill their duties to it.

The Party has strengthened its leadership systems. It has improved the institutions for Party leadership over the people's congresses, the government, the CPPCC, the supervisory, judicial, and procuratorial organs of the state, the armed forces, people's organizations, enterprises and public institutions, primary-level people's organizations for self-governance, and social organizations, thereby ensuring that the Party plays its role of providing leadership in all these organizations.

The Party has practiced democratic centralism. It has put in place sound systems for ensuring its leadership over major work of the state. The functions and roles of the Central Committee's decision-making, deliberative, and coordinating institutions have been strengthened, and the mechanisms for ensuring implementation of the Central Committee's major policies have been improved. The Party has strictly implemented the system for requesting instructions from and submitting reports to the Central Committee; tightened political oversight and inspection; investigated and handled cases of deviation from the Party's line, principles, and policies as well as instances in which the Party's centralized, unified leadership has been undermined; and rid the Party of members who acted duplicitously. All these measures have helped ensure that the whole Party maintains a high degree of unity with the Central Committee in terms of political stance, political orientation, political principles, and political path.

Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership have remained robust, the Party's leadership systems have improved, and the way in which the Party exercises its leadership has become more refined. There is greater unity among all Party members in terms of thinking, political resolve, and action, and the Party has significantly boosted its capacity to provide political leadership, give guidance through theory, organize the people, and inspire society.

2. Exercising full and rigorous self-governance

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has upheld the principle of the Party exercising effective self-supervision and practicing strict self-governance, making notable progress in Party building.

However, there was a certain period in which we failed to supervise Party organizations effectively or govern them with the necessary stringency. This resulted in a serious lack of political conviction among some Party members and officials, misconduct in the selection and appointment of personnel in some localities and government departments, a blatant culture of pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, and a prevalence of privilege-seeking attitudes and behavior. To be more specific, some officials engaged in cronyism and ostracized those outside of their circle; some formed self-serving cliques; some anonymously lodged false accusations and fabricated rumors; some sought to buy popular support and rig elections in their favor; some promised official posts and lavished praise on each other for their promotions; some did things their own way and feigned compliance with policies while acting counter to them; and some got too big for their boots and made presumptuous comments on the decisions of the Central Committee. Such misconduct interwoven with political and economic issues led to a startling level of corruption that damaged the Party's image and prestige and severely undermined relations between the Party and the people and between officials and the people, arousing the discontent and indignation of many Party members, officials, and members of the public.

Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel and that China's success hinges on the Party, especially on the Party's efforts to exercise effective self-supervision and full and rigorous self-governance. With this understanding, we must make strengthening the Party's long-term governance capacity and its advanced nature and integrity the main tasks, make enhancing the Party politically the guiding principle, make firm commitment to the Party's ideals, convictions, and purpose the foundation, and make harnessing the whole Party's enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity the focus of our efforts. We must keep improving the efficacy of Party building and build the Party into a vibrant Marxist governing party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the wholehearted support of the people, has the courage to reform itself, and is able to withstand all tests.

With the attitude and resolve to make Party building an unceasing endeavor, the Party has practiced rigorous self-governance and put the spotlight on leading officials, the "key few." It has worked to ensure that responsibilities for taking charge and exercising supervision over self-governance are properly fulfilled, bolstered the enforcement of oversight, discipline, and accountability, and integrated the requirement for full and strict self-governance into all aspects of Party building. The Central Committee has convened meetings on Party building in various sectors and made effective plans in this regard, thus promoting all-around progress in Party building.

The Central Committee has consistently stressed that our Party comes from the people, has its roots among the people, and is dedicated to serving the people. Once the Party becomes disengaged from the people, it will lose its vitality. To exercise strict self-governance in all respects, we must first address issues concerning Party conduct that the people are strongly concerned about.

For this purpose, the Central Committee started with formulating and enforcing an eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and worked to improve the Party's style of work through a top-down approach, with members of the Political Bureau and leading officials taking the lead. The Political Bureau holds meetings every year to hear reports on implementation of the eight-point decision and to engage in criticism and self-criticism on this subject.

With the persistence to keep hammering away, the Central Committee has made consistent efforts to tackle pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance. It has opposed privilege-seeking attitudes and behavior, shut down extravagant and wasteful spending and use of public funds for non-work-related gifts, dining, or travel, and worked to solve prominent problems that invite a strong public response or harm the public's interests. The Central Committee has reduced burdens at the primary level, and encouraged frugality while opposing wasteful spending. Thanks to these efforts, certain unhealthy tendencies that were once considered impossible to control have been reined in, and certain problems that had long plagued us have been remedied, while Party, government, and social conduct have significantly improved.

The Party has always stressed that the whole Party must maintain firm ideals and convictions, well-constructed organizational systems, and strict rules and discipline.

Our faith in Marxism, the great ideal of communism, and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics are our source of strength and the anchor of our political soul as Chinese communists, and they constitute the ideological foundation for maintaining the Party's unity. The Central Committee has stressed that ideals and convictions are like essential nutrients; without them, we would become frail and susceptible to corruption, greed, degeneracy, and decadence.

The Party has remained committed to integrating efforts to strengthen the Party ideologically with those to bolster self-governance through institutional building. In recent years, it has launched campaigns for advancing study and implementation of the mass line; for pushing Party members to be strict with themselves in practicing self-cultivation, exercising power, and maintaining self-discipline and to be earnest in their thinking, work, and behavior; for requiring Party members to study the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and General Secretary Xi Jinping's major policy addresses and to meet Party standards; for raising awareness of the need to stay true to the Party's founding mission; and for encouraging study of the Party's history. Through these efforts, the Party aims to equip its members with its new theories and to turn itself into a learning party. It has worked to educate and guide Party members and officials, especially leading officials, so that they can keep the roots of their convictions healthy and strong and absorb the mental nutrients they need to maintain the right line in their thinking, and ultimately preserve their political character and the backbone of their identity as communists.

The Party has introduced and implemented an organizational line for the new era. It has specified a set of criteria for good officials, which include firm convictions, devotion to serving the people, a strong and pragmatic work ethic, a willingness to take responsibility, and a commitment to being clean and honest. In appointing officials, the Party has adopted a rational approach with a greater emphasis on political integrity. It has adhered to the principle of selecting officials on the basis of both integrity and ability, with greater weight given to the former, and on the basis of merit regardless of background, and it is intent on appointing those who are dedicated, impartial, and upright. The Party has opposed the selection of officials solely on the basis of votes, assessment scores, GDP growth rates, or age, or through open popularity contests. It has strengthened the role of Party organizations in exercising leadership and final oversight in order to rectify misconduct in the selection and appointment of officials.

The Party has mandated that leading officials at all levels cultivate a proper worldview, outlook on life, and sense of values, all of which serve as the "master switch" for their conduct, and that they appreciate the power entrusted to them, manage it well, and use it prudently. They must willingly submit to the oversight from all sides, share the Party's concerns at all times, make contributions to the country, and work for the people's wellbeing.

The Party has adhered to the principle of the Party supervising personnel, pursued a more proactive, open, and effective personnel policy, implemented the strategy of invigorating China by developing a quality workforce in the new era, and moved faster to build world-class hubs for talent and innovation, thus bringing together the brightest minds from all corners.

The Party has constantly strengthened its organizational system with a focus on improving the organizational capacity of Party organizations and enhancing their political and organizational functions. By attaching greater attention to the primary level, the Party has promoted full coverage for its organizational framework and initiatives.

The Party has upheld the principles that Party discipline should be even more stringent than the law and that discipline and law enforcement efforts should go hand in hand. It has conducted four forms of oversight over discipline compliance,[ The four forms are: 1) criticism and self-criticism activities and oral and written inquiries which are to be conducted regularly, to ensure that those who have committed minor misconduct are made to "redden and sweat"; 2) light penalties and minor organizational adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in the majority of cases; 3) heavy penalties and major adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in a small number of cases; and 4) investigation and prosecution, which are to be undertaken in a very small number of cases involving serious violations of discipline and suspected criminal activity.] strengthened political and organizational discipline, and promoted stricter observance of discipline on all fronts. The Party has remained committed to exercising rule-based governance over the Party, strictly abided by the Party Constitution, and developed a sound system of intraparty regulations. It has worked to ensure strict compliance with all Party institutions, and to make Party building efforts more rationally-conceived, institutionalized, and procedure-based.

The Central Committee has stressed that corruption is the greatest threat to the Party's long-term governance. The fight against corruption is a major political struggle that the Party cannot and must not lose. If we let a few hundred corrupt officials slip through the cracks, we would let down all 1.4 billion Chinese people. We must confine power to an institutional cage and ensure that powers are properly defined, standardized, constrained, and subject to oversight in accordance with discipline and the law.

The Party has made integrated efforts to see that officials do not have the opportunity, desire, or audacity to engage in corruption. It has used punishment as a deterrent, strengthened institutional constraints, and promoted heightened consciousness, so as to ensure that the powers conferred by the Party and the people are always used for the people's benefit. The Party insists that no place is out of bounds, no ground is left unturned, and no tolerance is shown in the fight against corruption. It has imposed tight constraints, maintained a firm stance, and strengthened long-term deterrents against corruption. It has punished both those who take bribes and those who offer them and ensured that every case is investigated and all perpetrators of corruption are punished. The Party has shown the determination to adopt powerful remedies and the courage to take painful measures for the sake of the bigger picture, and taken firm action to "take out tigers," "swat flies," and "hunt down foxes."

The Party has intensified efforts to address corruption that occurs on the people's doorsteps, hunt down corrupt officials who fled overseas and recover state assets they had stolen, and root out all corrupt officials. The Party has focused on dealing with cases involving both political and economic corruption, prevented interest groups from arising within the Party, and investigated and punished corrupt officials such as Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Sun Zhengcai, and Ling Jihua for their serious violations of Party discipline and the law.

The Party has taken the lead in improving Party and state oversight systems, promoted the establishment of the National Commission of Supervision and local supervisory commissions at all levels, and developed an oversight network that facilitates coordination in disciplinary inspections conducted at different levels and mechanisms for promoting coordination between various types of oversight with intraparty oversight playing the main role. Through these efforts, we have strengthened checks and oversight on the exercise of power.

By taking resolute action since the 18th National Congress, we have given full play to the role of full and strict Party self-governance in providing political guidance and guarantees, significantly strengthened the Party's ability to improve and reform itself and maintain its integrity, and addressed the problem of lax and weak governance over Party organizations at the fundamental level. An overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, and this momentum has been consolidated across the board. As serious potential dangers in the Party, the country, and the military have been rooted out, our Party has grown stronger through revolutionary tempering.

3. Pursuing economic development

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has concentrated on economic development as the central task, and led the people in working diligently to bring about a miracle of rapid growth. China's economic strength has thus risen by a significant margin.

However, there existed problems such as undue emphasis on the rate and scale of growth in some localities and sectors and an extensive growth model. They, combined with the impact from sluggish world economy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, led to a stack-up of institutional and structural problems in China's economy. Imbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable development hence became a glaring issue.

The Central Committee determined that China's economy had reached a new normal of development, and was transitioning from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. Our traditional growth model could no longer be sustained in the face of a complex situation in which we must deal with a slowdown in economic growth, make painful structural adjustments, and absorb the effects of previous economic stimulus policies all at once.

The Central Committee noted that applying a new development philosophy represented a profound shift affecting China's overall development. The GDP growth rate could not serve as the sole yardstick of success for development. Rather, it was imperative to achieve high-quality development in which innovation is the primary driver, coordination is an endogenous trait, eco-friendly growth prevails, openness to the world is the only way, and shared growth is the ultimate goal, with a view to propelling transformative changes in the quality, efficiency, and impetus of economic development.

The Party stepped up strategic planning and unified leadership over economic work, and improved its institutions and mechanisms for leading economic development. Through the fifth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee, the 19th National Congress, the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee, and a series of central economic work conferences, it rolled out new plans and made major decisions in this regard. They were as follows: focusing on the main theme of high-quality development and the main task of supply-side structural reform; building a modern economic system; expanding domestic demand as a strategic priority; and fighting effectively in the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution.

The Party has worked with unswerving commitment to consolidate and develop the public sector and to encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector. It has prompted state capital and state-owned enterprises to grow stronger, better, and larger, established a modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, and worked to make the public sector more competitive, innovative, risk-resilient, and capable of exerting a greater level of influence and control over the economy. A cordial and clean relationship has been cultivated between government and business, and steps have been taken to facilitate the healthy growth of the non-public sector and encourage those working in this sector to achieve success.

The Party has been committed to the innovation-driven development strategy. It has made self-reliance in science and technology the strategic pillar for the country's development and developed a new system for mobilizing the resources nationwide for this purpose. It has strengthened China's capabilities in strategic science and technology, intensified basic research, and spurred breakthroughs and original innovation on core technologies in key fields. The Party has bolstered the creation, protection, and application of intellectual property rights, and moved faster to build China into a country of innovators and a global leader in science and technology.

The Party has carried out supply-side structural reform on all fronts. It has worked to cut overcapacity, reduce excess inventory, deleverage, lower costs, and shore up weaknesses, and implemented the principles of consolidating gains made in this regard, strengthening the dynamism of micro entities, upgrading industrial chains, and ensuring unimpeded flows in the economy. It has increased efforts to build China into a manufacturer of quality, build a modern industrial system, expand the real economy, and develop the digital economy.

The Party has improved its macroeconomic governance, adopted innovative ideas and approaches in macroeconomic regulation, shown greater initiative in macro policymaking, and implemented a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy. The Party has pressed forward with efforts to streamline administration, delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. Steps have been taken to ensure food, energy, and resource security as well as the security of industrial and supply chains. The Party has worked to ensure that the financial sector better serves the real economy, strengthened financial regulation across the board, taken measures to prevent and defuse economic and financial risks, and stepped up market supervision and anti-monopoly regulation. The Party has also taken measures to prevent runaway expansion of capital, maintain order in the market, galvanize market entities of all types, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises, and protect the rights and interests of workers and consumers.

The Party has introduced a coordinated regional development strategy. It has promoted coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin, and high-quality construction of Xiongan New Area to a high standard. The Party has prompted a new phase in the large-scale development of the western region, new breakthroughs in the revitalization of the northeast, and high-quality development of the central region, and encouraged the eastern region to accelerate its pace of modernization. The Party has provided assistance for improving working and living conditions in old revolutionary base areas, areas with large ethnic minority populations, border areas, and impoverished areas. It has promoted a new, people-centered type of urbanization and improved urban planning, development, and management.

The Party has always made issues relating to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents a top priority. It has introduced a rural revitalization strategy and accelerated the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. It has adopted a food crop production strategy based on farmland management and the application of technology, implemented the strictest possible system for the protection of farmland, and worked to increase self-reliance in seed technology and ensure that China's seed resources are self-supporting and under better control. With all these efforts, the Chinese people's food supply has remained firmly in their own hands.

Since the 18th National Congress, our economic development has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable. China's GDP has exceeded 100 trillion yuan, while per capita GDP has topped US$10,000. China's economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities, and composite national strength have reached new heights, and our economy is now on a path of higher-quality development that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and secure.

4. Deepening reform and opening up

After the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee, China's reform and opening up embarked on a remarkable course and scored achievements that captured the attention of the world. Nevertheless, as practice changed, certain deep-seated institutional problems and impediments from vested interests became increasingly evident. China's reform thus entered a critical phase fraught with tough challenges.

The Central Committee is keenly aware that evolving in practice, freeing minds, and reform and opening up are processes without end. Reform is always ongoing and can never be completed, and halting or reversing course would get us nowhere. Therefore, it is imperative to deepen reform in all areas through greater political courage and wisdom, to be well prepared to tackle tough issues and brave risky areas, to make institutional development a priority, to increase interconnectivity and synergy between reforms in different sectors, and to clear a path forward for reform by cutting away institutional barriers on all sides.

At its third plenary session, the 18th Central Committee made arrangements for reforms of economic, political, cultural, and social systems and those pertaining to ecological conservation, national defense and the armed forces, and Party building. It defined the overall objectives, key strategic targets, ranking of priorities, focal points, working mechanisms, methods of implementation, timetable, and roadmap for the endeavor of comprehensively deepening reform.

The third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee was an epoch-making event that ushered in the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. In the same way, the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee was also of epoch-making significance. It enabled the transformation of reform from trials and breakthroughs limited to certain areas into an integrated drive being advanced across the board, and thus marked the beginning of a new stage in China's reform and opening up.

The Party has worked to ensure that reform stays on the right path, that it is inspired and guided by the objectives of promoting social fairness and justice and improving people's wellbeing, that it follows a problem-oriented approach, and that it focuses on further freeing minds, unleashing and developing the productive forces, and unlocking and boosting social dynamism. The Party has strengthened top-level design and overall planning, pursued reform in a more systemic, holistic, and coordinated manner, stimulated people's creativity, and deepened and consolidated reforms in key areas.

The Party has taken swift yet steady steps to promote and deepen reform in all areas, scoring multiple breakthroughs in the process. As we have gone from laying foundations and defining initial structures, to making overall progress and building momentum, to achieving systematic integration and efficient coordination, we have seen basic institutional frameworks put in place in various areas, and witnessed historic, systemic, and holistic transformation in multiple fields.

The Central Committee is keenly aware that opening the door brings progress, while closing it leaves one behind. For China's development to gain the upper hand, seize the initiative, and have a good future, it is essential that we follow the tide of economic globalization, leverage the strengths of China's massive market, and pursue a more proactive opening up strategy. Adhering to the principle of achieving shared growth through consultation and collaboration, China has promoted high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We have advanced a large number of cooperation projects with significant implications for fueling economic development and improving people's lives in countries along the BRI routes, and worked to build the BRI into an initiative of peace, prosperity, openness, green development, and innovation that brings different civilizations closer, and a widely welcomed public good and platform for international cooperation in today's world.

While ensuring that its efforts to open up internally and externally reinforce each other and better integrating the "bringing in" and "going global" strategies, China has worked to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, build a globally oriented network of high-standard free trade zones, including pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port, and expand opening up on the institutional level in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. Through these efforts, we are advancing opening up on a larger scale, across more areas, and in greater depth, and establishing an open economy that is diverse, balanced, secure, and efficient and brings benefit to all. In this way, China is consistently building new and greater strengths in international economic cooperation and competition.

Since its 18th National Congress, the Party has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is now more mature and well-defined, and the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance has reached a higher level. The cause of the Party and the country now radiates with fresh vitality.

5. Advancing political work

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has led the people in keeping to the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics and developing socialist democracy, and has achieved substantial progress in this regard. Learning lessons from successes and failures in political development both at home and abroad, the Party has become deeply aware of the following: to have full confidence in the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must first and foremost foster strong confidence in the political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics; to promote socialist democracy and socialist political advancement, we must ensure that the political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is deeply rooted in China; and mechanical copying of the political systems of other countries will get us nowhere, and could potentially lead our country to ruin.

We must uphold the unity between the Party's leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance. Efforts must be made to actively develop whole-process people's democracy, and advance comprehensive, extensive, and coordinated development of the systems and institutions through which the people run the country. We must establish diverse, unimpeded, and well-organized democratic channels, diversify forms of democracy, and expand the people's orderly political participation at all levels and in various fields, so as to ensure that China's governance and institutions in all sectors give full expression to the will of the people, protect their rights and interests, and spark their creativity. We must remain on guard against the erosive influence of Western trends of political thought, including the so-called constitutionalism, alternation of power between political parties, and separation of powers.

With a view to maintaining the long-term governance of the Party and the long-term stability of the country, the 19th Central Committee at its fourth plenary session outlined an overall plan for upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, and also laid out major plans for upholding and improving the fundamental, basic, and important systems that underpin socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The Central Committee has stressed the importance of upholding the principal position of the people and ensuring their law-based participation in democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight.

The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of people's congresses. We have supported and safeguarded the right of the people to exercise state power through people's congresses, supported people's congresses in exercising their statutory powers of enacting laws, conducting oversight, making decisions, and appointing and removing officials, and conducted decisive investigations of vote rigging and election bribery cases. Through these efforts, we have upheld the authority and dignity of the system of people's congresses, and given full play to its role as China's fundamental political system.

The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, and to improve systems through which the central committees of other political parties conduct special oversight over the implementation of major decisions and plans and make suggestions directly to the CPC Central Committee. We have stepped up institutional development in promoting the CPPCC's role as a specialized consultative body, advanced extensive, multilevel, and institutionalized development of socialist consultative democracy, and put in place a system of consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics.

The Party has worked to consolidate government and improve democracy at the primary level, and to increase transparency in administration in order to protect the people's rights to be informed, to participate, to be heard, and to exercise oversight.

We have further reformed Party and government institutions to achieve thorough and systematic restructuring of their functions. In this process, we have followed the principles of upholding the Party's overall leadership, committing to a people-centered approach, promoting greater optimization, coordination, and efficiency, and ensuring law-based governance in all dimensions.

The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, followed a correct and uniquely Chinese path to dealing with ethnic affairs, and made fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation the main task in its work related to ethnic affairs. The Party has established policies for the governance of Tibet and Xinjiang in the new era, consolidated and developed socialist ethnic relations characterized by equality, solidarity, mutual assistance, and harmony, and pushed for all ethnic groups to work together in pursuit of common development and prosperity.

In line with the Party's basic policy on religious affairs, we have upheld the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation, and provided active guidance for the adaptation of religions to socialist society.

The Party has worked to build a broad united front with the goal of expanding common ground and the convergence of interests and creating a mighty force to drive our push toward national rejuvenation.

The Party has promoted reform and innovation within trade unions, Chinese Communist Youth League organizations, women's federations, and other people's organizations with the objectives of strengthening their political consciousness, their advanced nature, and their ability to represent the people, so that these organizations can play their role more effectively.

We have worked to promote human rights in all areas, with top priority given to safeguarding the people's rights to subsistence and development.

Since the 18th National Congress, we have made sweeping progress in improving the institutions, standards, and procedures of China's socialist democracy, and given better play to the strengths of the Chinese socialist political system. As a result, our political stability, unity, and dynamism have been reinforced and grown stronger.

6. Comprehensively advancing law-based governance

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has upheld law-based governance and kept advancing socialist rule of law. However, we have also faced serious problems such as laws being ignored or not being strictly enforced, lack of judicial impartiality, and violations of the law going unpunished, while judicial corruption occurring from time to time. Some judicial and law-enforcement personnel have bent the law for personal gain, or even provided shelter for criminals. These phenomena have seriously undermined the authority of the law, and had a negative impact on social fairness and justice.

The Party is deeply aware that power is a double-edged sword. If it is wielded in accordance with the law and rules, it can bring benefit to the people, but if it is abused, it will invariably bring disaster to the country and the people.

The Central Committee has stressed that when the rule of law prevails, the country will prosper, but should it weaken, the country will descend into chaos. Comprehensively advancing law-based governance is an essential requirement and important guarantee for socialism with Chinese characteristics; it is also a profound revolution in China's governance. Law-based governance and law-based exercise of state power begin with compliance with the Constitution. We must remain committed to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; implement Chinese socialist rule of law theory; pursue coordinated progress in law-based governance, law-based exercise of state power, and law-based government administration; promote integrated development of the country, the government, and society based on the rule of law; and comprehensively enhance people's awareness of the need to respect, study, and abide by the law and their ability to apply the law.

At the fourth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee and the central conference on the rule of law, dedicated efforts were made to analyze the issue of advancing law-based governance in all respects. Top-level designs and major plans were put forward on ensuring sound legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice, and observance of law by all. Coordinated progress was made in advancing the development of the system of laws and regulations, the system for enforcing the rule of law, the system for overseeing the rule of law, the system for guaranteeing the rule of law, and the system of Party rules and regulations.

The Party has emphasized that since the people make up the broadest and deepest foundation for comprehensively advancing law-based governance, we must ensure that their interests and wishes are reflected, their rights are protected, and their wellbeing is enhanced in every aspect throughout the entire process of law-based governance. We must protect and promote social fairness and justice, and work to ensure that the people feel fairness and justice prevails in every law, every law enforcement decision, and every judicial case.

The Party has led efforts to improve systems and mechanisms for ensuring full enforcement of the Constitution. We have established the system of pledging allegiance to the Constitution, and promoted the spirit of socialist rule of law. We have enhanced the ability of state institutions to perform their duties in accordance with the law, boosted the ability of officials at all levels to think and act under the guidance of the rule of law as they work to solve problems and promote development, and raised awareness about the rule of law throughout society.

Amendments to the Constitution have been adopted; laws including the Civil Code, the Foreign Investment Law, the National Security Law, and the Supervision Law have been formulated; revisions have been made to the Legislation Law, the National Defense Law, and the Environmental Protection Law; and legislation has been stepped up in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields. All these efforts have accelerated the improvement of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics, at the heart of which is the Constitution.

The Party has led efforts to deepen reform of the judicial system, with the focus on enforcement of judicial accountability, and to advance all-around reform in the judicial, procuratorial, and public security domains. Checks and oversight on law enforcement and judicial activities have been strengthened; action has been taken to educate and consolidate judicial, procuratorial, and public security personnel; unjust and erroneous rulings have been redressed in accordance with the law; and vigorous measures have been taken to punish corruption in law enforcement and judicial work. All these efforts have contributed to ensuring the justice, integrity, efficiency, and authority of law enforcement and judicial work.

Since the 18th National Congress, the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics has constantly been improved, solid progress has been made in advancing the rule of law in China, the rule of law has played a greater role in consolidating foundations, ensuring stable expectations, and delivering long-term benefits, and the Party's ability to lead and govern the country through law-based methods has been notably enhanced.

7. Driving cultural advancement

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has attached equal emphasis to material progress and cultural-ethical progress. As a result, socialist culture has thrived, the national spirit has been lifted, and national solidarity has grown stronger. At the same time, however, misguided ideas have often cropped up, such as money worship, hedonism, ultra-individualism, and historical nihilism, online discourse has been rife with disorder, and certain leading officials have demonstrated ambiguity in their political stance and a lack of fighting spirit. These phenomena all have a serious impact on people's thinking and the environment for public discourse.

The Party has maintained an accurate perspective on the trends of collisions taking place worldwide between different ideas and cultures, as well as of the profound changes in Chinese people's ways of thinking. It has stressed that ideological work shapes the collective mind of a country and forges the soul of a nation, and that confidence in one's culture, which is a broader, deeper, and more fundamental form of self-confidence, is the most essential, profound, and enduring source of strength for the development of a country and a nation. Without a thriving culture and firm confidence in it, the Chinese nation cannot achieve rejuvenation.

We must adhere to a people-centered approach in ideological work, uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics, rally public support, foster a new generation with sound values and ethics, develop Chinese culture, and build a better national image. We must have a firm hold on leadership in ideological work, develop socialist ideology that has the power to unite and inspire the people, and build China into a country with a strong socialist culture. We must ignite the cultural creativity of the whole nation, and bolster the Chinese spirit, Chinese values, and Chinese strength in order to consolidate the common ideological foundation for the concerted efforts of all Party members and all Chinese people.

With a focus on addressing the issue of lax Party leadership in the ideological sphere, the Party has replaced faulty practices with effective ones in an effort to clear up muddy waters. It has made arrangements on a number of strategic issues of guiding significance in the ideological sphere, and established and upheld a fundamental system for ensuring the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain. By strengthening the responsibility system for ideological work, the Party has engaged all members in improving communication and outreach. Under this system, every Party member is charged to do their best to fulfill their duties, to be proactive in their work, and to take a clear stand against erroneous views.

In intensifying its efforts to improve communication and outreach, the Party has started with the most fundamental issues. It convened a national conference on communication and outreach, as well as forums on literature and art, the Party's press and public communications work, cybersecurity and IT application, philosophy and social sciences, and ideological and political work at institutions of higher learning. Through these events, it has clarified its principles and stance on a number of fundamental issues, distinguished right from wrong regarding theories, and kept its work on the right track. As a result, a healthy trend is gathering steam in the sphere of ideology and culture.

The Party endeavors to use its new theories to equip its members, educate the people, and guide practice. It has worked harder to study and develop Marxist theory, and made advances in constructing disciplinary, academic, and discourse systems for philosophy and social sciences with Chinese features.

The Party puts heavy emphasis on developing and creating new means of communication. It has promoted integrated development of media, and worked to strengthen the penetration and credibility of the media and its ability to guide and influence. The Central Committee has made it clear that failure in the cyberspace domain will spell disaster for the Party's long-term governance. The Party therefore attaches great importance to the Internet as the main arena, battleground, and frontline of the ideological struggle. It has improved the leadership and management systems for the Internet, regulated the cyberspace according to the law, and strived to foster a clean online environment.

The Party has guided cultural development with the core socialist values, and paid close attention to nourishing the roots and forging the soul of our nation with advanced socialist culture, revolutionary culture, and China's fine traditional culture. It has carried out extensive public awareness activities on socialism with Chinese characteristics and the Chinese Dream, promoted regular and institutionalized education on ideals and convictions, and improved the system of ideological and political work. We have established sound systems of Party and state awards and honors, instituted Martyrs' Day, carried out initiatives to raise the public's cultural-ethical standards, built centers for promoting cultural and ethical advancement in the new era, and nurtured a love of learning among our people.

The Party has encouraged the people to study the history of the Party, the People's Republic of China, reform and opening up, and the development of socialism, and built the Museum of the Communist Party of China. It has also organized events to celebrate the centenary of the Party, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, and the 40th anniversary of the launch of reform and opening up; to commemorate the 70th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the global war against fascism; and to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers' departure for Korea to resist US aggression and aid Korea. These events vividly illustrated the solidarity of our Party and our people and the strength of our country and our military while championing China's underlying values and spreading positive energy throughout society.

Putting social benefits first while also stressing economic returns, the Party has advanced all-around development of cultural programs and industries. Art and literature are flourishing, and public cultural services have improved, providing people with richer cultural nourishment.

The Central Committee has stressed that China's fine traditional culture is a prominent strength of our nation that enables us to gain a firm footing amidst global cultural interaction. We must adapt to new conditions so that we can carry on our traditional culture in the new era. For this purpose, we have launched projects to pass on and develop our fine cultural traditions, promoted their creative transformation and development, raised public awareness of the importance of preserving our cultural heritage, and stepped up preservation efforts.

We have accelerated work to strengthen our international communication capacity, with the goal of telling well China's stories and the Party's stories, making China's voice heard, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations. Our cultural soft power and the appeal of Chinese culture have increased significantly.

Since the 18th National Congress, we have seen a sweeping and fundamental shift in the ideological domain, a notable boost in confidence in our culture among all Party members and all Chinese people, and a major increase in cohesiveness throughout society. All of this has provided solid ideological guarantees and powerful inspiration for opening up new horizons for the cause of the Party and the country in the new era.

8. Promoting social advancement

Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Chinese people have witnessed notable improvements in their living standards and in social governance. Meanwhile, in pace with the changing times and social progress, they have developed an increasingly strong desire for a better life and growing demands for democracy, rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and a better environment.

The Central Committee has stressed that satisfying the people's aspirations for a better life is the goal of all the Party's work; that improving the people's wellbeing is an essential requirement in the Party's commitment to serving the public good and governing for the people; that ensuring a better life for the people is the immutable aim of all the Party's endeavors; and that addressing inadequacies in support for people's basic needs and solving the most pressing difficulties of great concern to the people are urgent tasks in advancing social development.

We must, therefore, strengthen social development by laying stress on ensuring and improving people's wellbeing. We must do everything within our capacity and keep working year by year to tackle one issue after another. In particular, we need to make steady progress in ensuring people's access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance, and we need to strengthen social governance by developing new practices, so that the people will have a more robust, solid, and sustainable sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

In the push to moderate prosperity, the Party was deeply aware that raising the living standards of rural residents was critical. Only by securing a victory in the fight against poverty, which is a fundamental task in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, could China fulfill its First Centenary Goal. Therefore, extraordinary moves were needed to advance the fight against poverty with greater resolve, more targeted approaches, and more powerful measures.

To this end, the Party introduced a strategy of targeted poverty alleviation and set the objectives of guaranteeing food and clothing needs and ensuring access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing for the impoverished rural population. It applied a responsibility system whereby heads of Party and government bodies pledged themselves to win the fight against poverty in their localities. The whole Party, the entire nation, and all sectors of society were mobilized in the most extensive and aggressive anti-poverty campaign in human history. As they tackled the most daunting challenges and surmounted the most difficult obstacles, the Chinese people forged a great spirit in the fight against poverty.

Since the 18th National Congress, 832 counties, 128,000 villages, and nearly 100 million rural residents that fell below the current poverty line have been lifted out of poverty. China has thus achieved the poverty reduction target laid out in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ten years ahead of schedule, brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and created a miracle in the human history of poverty reduction.

In 2020, facing the sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the Central Committee responded calmly and decisively, and set out the general requirements to stay confident, stand united, and adopt a science-based approach and targeted measures. With the commitment to putting the people and human life above all else, the Central Committee led the whole nation in an all-out people's war to curb the spread of the virus. It made well-conceived plans for the battles to defend Hubei Province and its capital city Wuhan and pooled nationwide resources to save lives on an unprecedented scale. It worked to ensure constant vigilance against imported cases and domestic resurgences, coordinated the Covid-19 response with economic and social development, and thus protected the health and safety of the people to the greatest extent possible. These efforts enabled China to lead the world in getting the epidemic under control, restarting work and production, and resuming economic and social development. With this major strategic success through our response, we have forged a great spirit in the fight against Covid-19.

To ensure and improve people's wellbeing, the Party has introduced a range of major measures concerning income distribution, employment, education, social security, healthcare, and housing support in accordance with the principles of meeting basic needs, prioritizing key areas, improving institutions, and guiding expectations. Efforts have been focused on providing inclusive public services, meeting essential needs, and ensuring basic living standards, with progress made in providing equal access to basic public services.

We have worked to develop an income distribution system that emphasizes efficiency while promoting fairness. By adjusting excessive income, prohibiting illicit income, increasing the income of low-income groups, and steadily expanding the size of the middle-income group, we have promoted the formation of an olive-shaped pattern of distribution and ensured that personal incomes generally grow in step with economic growth and that rural income grows faster than urban income. We have implemented an employment-first policy and worked to achieve fuller and higher-quality employment.

We have worked to implement the Party's education policy in full and given priority to educational development. We have made it clear that the fundamental task of education is to foster virtue and nurture a new generation of capable young people with the moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility, and work skills needed to join and carry on the socialist cause. We have bolstered reform and innovation in education and teaching in order to promote fair and higher-quality education. We have worked to promote balanced development and urban-rural integration in compulsory education, make education and instruction in the standard spoken and written Chinese language available across the country, and keep off-campus tutoring well-regulated. We have taken active steps to develop vocational education and worked to bring out the full potential of higher education. Through these efforts, we have strived to develop a strong education system that the people are satisfied with.

China has established the world's largest social security system, with 1.02 billion people covered by basic old-age insurance and 1.36 billion people by basic medical insurance.

We have advanced the Healthy China Initiative across the board. Following the principle of putting prevention first, we have deepened reform of the medical and healthcare systems and shifted the focus of medical and health care down to the community level, channeling resources accordingly. We have taken prompt action to improve major epidemic prevention and control systems and mechanisms as well as the national public health emergency management system. We have worked to promote the preservation, innovation, and development of traditional Chinese medicine and strengthened the public health service system covering both urban and rural areas.

As we have stepped up our efforts to build China into a sporting nation, we have launched extensive public fitness activities and vigorously promoted China's sporting spirit.

We have intensified research on our population development strategy. In response to population aging, we have accelerated the development of elderly care services, and we have adjusted and improved the family planning policy so as to promote balanced development of the population over the long term.

We have given greater weight to strengthening family ties, values, and traditions, and worked to better protect the rights and interests of women and children. We have acted more quickly to develop programs for people with disabilities.

Adhering to the principle that housing is for living in and not for speculation, we have moved faster to build a housing system with multiple types of suppliers and support channels that encourages both renting and buying, and increased investment in the construction of government-subsidized housing. All this has led to significant improvements in urban and rural housing conditions.

To ensure the lasting stability of the country and a happy and comfortable life for the people, the Party has strived to advance the Peaceful China Initiative to a higher level and improve the social governance system. It has enhanced the Party organization-led urban and rural community governance system featuring a combination of self-governance, the rule of law, and the rule of virtue, and it has shifted the focus of social governance down to the community level. This has helped develop a social governance system based on collaboration, participation, and benefit sharing and fostered communities of social governance in which everyone fulfills their responsibilities and shares in the benefits.

We have bolstered disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief efforts, improved workplace safety, and strengthened our national emergency management system and capacity.

We have carried on and developed the Fengqiao model in promoting social harmony in the new era. By continuing to address issues at the source through systematic, law-based, and holistic approaches, and by refining the system for handling public complaints, we have improved integrated mechanisms for preventing, mediating, and defusing social problems. We have adopted a full range of measures to maintain law and order, launching campaigns to combat and root out organized crime, cracking down on Party officials who condoned, covered up, or even provided protection for organized crime, and taking steps to prevent and combat violence and terrorism, new types of cybercrime, and transnational crime.

Since the Party's 18th National Congress, we have promoted social advancement across the board. The people's lives have improved in all areas, public participation in social governance is growing, and social governance is becoming smarter, more law-based, and more specialized. We have continued to develop a sound atmosphere in which people are able to live and work in peace and contentment and social stability and order prevail. As a result, China's miracle of long-term social stability has continued.