We must practice the system of holding Party branch general meetings, meetings of Party branch committees, Party group meetings, and Party lectures. We will develop new ways for setting up primary-level Party organizations and for them to carry out their activities, strengthen the training of their heads, and expand their reach. We must work harder to address the problems that some primary-level Party organizations are weak, ineffective, and marginalized. We will expand intra-Party democracy at the primary level, make Party affairs more transparent, and ensure channels are open for Party members to participate in Party affairs, oversee Party organizations and officials, and submit opinions and suggestions to the Party organization at the next level up. 

We will do more to recruit new Party members from among industrial workers, young people working in agriculture, well-educated groups, and people working in non-public economic entities and social organizations. We will give more incentives, solicitude, and assistance to Party members. We will make our guidance and management of Party members better targeted and more effective, and handle Party members who do not meet the mark in a prudent and orderly way. 

5. Working ceaselessly to improve Party conduct and enforce Party discipline 

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. In improving Party conduct, we must focus on maintaining the Party's close bond with the people, keep them firmly in mind, develop a closer affinity with them, and keep working to foster stronger public support for the Party's governance. We must earnestly address all issues the people are strongly concerned about, and resolutely correct any behavior that undermines the people's interests. 

Our Party officials should lead by example in consolidating and building on the advances made in implementing the central Party leadership's Eight Rules on improving Party and government conduct. We should continue to address the practice of favoring form over substance, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, and oppose mindsets and acts of privilege seeking. We will focus on strengthening the enforcement of political and organizational discipline, and use this to prompt stricter observance of discipline on upholding integrity, on interacting with the people, and regarding work and life. 

We will continue to carry out criticism and self-criticism in keeping with the principle of learning from mistakes to prevent recurrence and treating the illness to save the patient. We will conduct four forms of oversight over discipline compliance¹⁸, identify problems early and correct them while they are nascent. Party organizations with the power to supervise officials will be given corresponding power to take disciplinary action as called for, and accountability for overseeing compliance will be tightened. We will raise Party members' awareness of discipline and strengthen discipline enforcement, and demand that Party members and officials hold discipline in awe and respect, do not cross the line, and become used to working and living under oversight and constraints. 

6. Securing a sweeping victory in the fight against corruption 

The people resent corruption most; and corruption is the greatest threat our Party faces. We must have the resolve and tenacity to persevere in the never-ending fight against corruption. Only by intensifying efforts to address both the symptoms and root causes of corruption – by making sure that officials are honest, government is clean, and political affairs are handled with integrity – can we avoid history's cycle of rise and fall¹⁹ and ensure the long-term stability of the Party and the country. 

Currently, the fight against corruption remains grave and complex; we must remain as firm as a rock in our resolve to build on the overwhelming momentum and secure a sweeping victory. We will continue to see that there are no no-go zones, no ground is left unturned, and no tolerance is shown for corruption. We will impose tight constraints, maintain a tough stance and a long-term deterrence, punish both those who take bribes and those who offer them, and prevent interest groups from arising within the Party. 

We will institute a system of disciplinary inspection for city and county level Party committees in an intensified effort to address corruption that occurs on the people's doorsteps. Wherever offenders may flee, they will be brought back and brought to justice. We will work for the adoption of national anti-corruption legislation and create a corruption reporting platform that covers both disciplinary inspection commissions and supervision agencies. 

We will strengthen deterrence so officials do not dare to, strengthen the cage of institutions so they are unable to, and strengthen their vigilance so they have no desire to commit acts of corruption. Our political environment will, through tireless efforts, like seas fallen calm and rivers running clear, be clean and free of corruption. 

7. Improving Party and state oversight systems 

To improve the Party's ability to cleanse itself, it is essential that we strengthen Party self-supervision and subject ourselves to public oversight. We must strengthen checks on and oversight over the exercise of power, and ensure that power is exercised under public oversight, in broad daylight, and in an institutional cage. We will strengthen topdown organizational oversight, improve bottom-up democratic oversight, practice peer oversight, and tighten regular supervision over Party members in positions of leadership. We will intensify political inspection to identify problems and ensure that deterrence works; we will establish an oversight network that facilitates coordination in disciplinary inspections conducted at different levels. 

We will deepen reform of the national supervision system, conduct trials throughout the country, and establish supervisory commissions at the national, provincial, city, and county levels, which will each keep their own identity while working together with the Party's disciplinary inspection commissions as one office. This will ensure that supervision covers everyone working in the public sector who exercises public power. A national supervision law will be formulated. Supervisory commissions will be given responsibilities, powers, and means of investigation in accordance with the law. The practice of shuanggui²⁰ will be replaced by detention. 

We will reform the auditing management system and improve the statistics system. We will establish an authoritative, efficient oversight system with complete coverage under the Party's unified command; and integrate intra-Party oversight with oversight by state organs, democratic oversight, judicial oversight, public oversight, and oversight through public opinion. All this will create a powerful synergy for conducting oversight. 

8. Strengthening every dimension of our ability for governance 

To lead a large socialist country of more than 1.3 billion people, our Party must be both politically strong and highly competent. 

We should be good at learning. We will foster a strong atmosphere of learning and practicing in the Party, and build our Party into a Marxist learning party. We will nurture a love of learning in our people. 

We should be good at exercising political leadership. We should adopt a strategic perspective, and develop creative thinking and a dialectical approach to thinking; we should think in terms of the rule of law, and think about worst-case scenarios. We should formulate sound Party lines, principles, and policies and resolutely implement them, ensuring that the Party exercises overall leadership and coordinates work in all areas. 

We should be good reformers and pioneers. We should be enterprising, work creatively in light of actual conditions, and adeptly apply information technology, including the internet, in our work. 

We should be good at promoting sound development. We should effectively put into practice the new development philosophy, and continue to break new ground in development. 

We should be good at exercising law-based governance. We will act more quickly to put in place a system of Party rules and regulations that covers all aspects of Party leadership and Party development, and strengthen and improve Party leadership over bodies of state power. 

We should be good at engaging with the people. We will develop new systems, mechanisms, ways, and means for this work. We will urge trade unions, Chinese Communist Youth League organizations, women's federations, and other people's organizations to strengthen their political consciousness, become more advanced, and better represent the people; to play their role as bridges linking the Party with the people; and to organize and motivate the people to follow the Party. 

We should be good at implementing policy. We should be open and frank, take effective measures to address real issues, and seek good outcomes. We should be ready both to act resolutely and swiftly and to make sustained efforts to tackle tough issues head-on. We should have the perseverance to hammer away until a task is done, and make concrete, meticulous, and effective efforts in all our work. 

We should be good at managing risks. We will improve risk prevention and control mechanisms in all areas, skillfully handle various complex issues, overcome all difficulties and obstacles that we meet on our way, and keep a firm hold on the initiative in our work. 

Comrades, 

A great cause calls for leadership of a strong party. As long as our Party keeps itself competent and strong, always remains true to the people's aspiration and works in concert with the people, we can and will navigate the great ship bearing the great dream of the Chinese people to conquer the waves and reach our destination. 

Comrades, 

The Chinese nation is a great nation; it has been through hardships and adversity but remains indomitable. The Chinese people are a great people; they are industrious and brave; and they never pause in the pursuit of progress. The Communist Party of China is a great party; it has the courage to fight and the mettle to win. 

The wheels of history roll on; the tides of the times are vast and mighty. History looks kindly on those with resolve, with drive and ambition, and with plenty of guts; it does not wait for the hesitant, the apathetic, or those shy of a challenge. 

All of us in the Party must work hard and live simply, guard against arrogance and impetuosity; and lose no time in progressing along the long march of the new era. 

We must consciously safeguard the solidarity and unity of the Party, maintain the Party's deep bond with the people, and strengthen the great unity of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and the great unity of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation at home and abroad. We must unite all the forces that can be united and work as one to progress towards the brilliant future of national rejuvenation. 

A nation will prosper only when its young people thrive; a country will be full of hope and have a great tomorrow only when its younger generations have ideals, ability, and a strong sense of responsibility. The Chinese Dream is a dream about the past, the present, and the future. It is a dream of our generation, but even more so, a dream of the younger generations. The Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation will be realized ultimately through the endeavors of young people, generation by generation. 

All of us in the Party should care about young people and set the stage for them to excel. To all our young people, you should have firm ideals and convictions, aim high, and have your feet firmly on the ground. You should ride the waves of your day; and in the course of realizing the Chinese Dream, fulfill your youthful dreams, and write a vivid chapter in your tireless endeavors to serve the interests of the people. 

A just cause should be pursued for the common good. Rooted in a land of more than 9.6 million square kilometers, nourished by a culture of more than 5,000 years, and blessed with the strength of more than 1.3 billion people, we have an infinitely vast stage of our era, a heritage of unmatched depth, and incomparable resolve that enable us to forge ahead on the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. 

We, the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, should rally closely around the Party Central Committee, and uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should keep on working with great determination to accomplish the three historic tasks of advancing modernization, realizing China's reunification, and preserving world peace and promoting common development; we should secure a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, and see that our people realize their aspirations for a better life. 

* Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. 

Notes 

¹  This refers to China's overall plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, that is, to promote coordinated progress in the economic, political, cultural, social and eco-environmental fields. 

²  This refers to China's strategic plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, that is, to make comprehensive moves to complete a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to further reform, to advance the rule of law, and to strengthen Party self-governance.

³  This refers to the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It was first proposed by Xi Jinping in September and October 2013 during his visits to Central and Southeast Asia. – Tr. 

⁴  The united front under the leadership of the CPC is the broadest revolutionary, socialist and patriotic united front formed by all ethnic groups, all political parties, all social strata and people of all circles in China during the New Democratic Revolution (1919-1949), socialist construction and reform, to achieve national independence, democracy and prosperity and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. – Tr. 

⁵  The core socialist values: Prosperity, democracy, civility and harmony are values that underpin our nation; freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law are values that buttress our society; patriotism, dedication, good faith and amity are values that underlie individual conduct. 

⁶  This refers to an oral agreement reached at a November 1992 meeting between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits representing the mainland and the Straits Exchange Foundation based in Taiwan. The meeting discussed how to express the one-China principle in negotiations on general affairs, and agreed that "both sides of the Straits belong to China and both sides will work together for the realization of reunification of the country". 

⁷  It is a cherished tradition that enables the CPC to maintain its vitality and combat capability. The CPC has always been and will always be obligated to do everything in the interests of the people and rely on their strength, and carry out the principle of "from the people, to the people", translating its policies into the people's conscientious action and implementing the mass line in all its activities. – Tr. 

⁸  The Three Guidelines for Ethical Behavior and Three Basic Rules of Conduct require all officials to be strict with themselves in self-cultivation, in the exercise of power, and in self-discipline, and act in good faith when performing official duties, undertaking initiatives, and interacting with others. 

⁹  The Eight Rules were set by the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee to urge all officials to improve their ways of doing things and maintain close ties with the people. They are summarized as follows: improving investigation and fact-finding trips, streamlining meetings and other activities, reducing documents and briefings, standardizing arrangements for visits abroad, improving security procedures, improving news reports, imposing restrictions on publishing writings, and practicing diligence and frugality. 

¹⁰ This refers to keeping to the socialist road and upholding the people's democratic dictatorship, the leadership of the CPC, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. 

¹¹ Mao Zedong Thought has always been the fundamental guiding thought of the CPC. It is a series of theoretical summarizations and conclusions that Chinese Communists represented by Mao Zedong drew from their unique experience in China's revolution and development in accordance with the basic tenets of Marxism. It includes correct theories, principles and systems of scientific thinking on China's revolution and development which have been attested by facts. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the CPC, and the principal proponent is Mao Zedong. – Tr. 

¹² Deng Xiaoping Theory is an important component of the system of theories of Chinese socialism, and a guiding thought of the CPC. For the first time, Deng Xiaoping Theory systematically answered a series of basic questions concerning the building of socialism in economically and culturally backward China, and the consolidation and development of socialism there. The principal proponent is Deng Xiaoping. – Tr. 

¹³ The Theory of Three Represents is a major component of the system of theories of Chinese socialism, and a guiding thought of the CPC. This theory emphasizes that the CPC must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. The principal proponent is Jiang Zemin. – Tr. 

¹⁴ The Scientific Outlook on Development is an important component of the system of theories of Chinese socialism, and a guiding thought of the CPC. It gives top priority to development, puts people first and seeks all-round, balanced and sustainable development with a holistic approach. The principal proponent is Hu Jintao. – Tr. 

¹⁵ The Two Centenary Goals were put forth by the CPC at its 18th National Congress in November 2012 for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The two goals are to complete a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the centenary of the CPC (founded in 1921) and to build China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, and harmonious by the centenary of the PRC (founded in 1949). The CPC drew up a development plan for the new era at its 19th National Congress. In the first stage from 2020 to 2035, we will build on the foundation of the moderately prosperous society with a further 15 years of hard work to see that socialist modernization is basically realized. In the second stage from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, having achieved basic modernization, we will work hard for a further 15 years and develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful. 

¹⁶ The three-step strategic plan for modernization refers to China's development strategy for realizing initial modernization in three steps. The 13th CPC National Congress in October 1987 put forth doubling the 1980 GNP by the end of the 1980s and ensuring that the people would have adequate food and clothing as the first step; doubling the 1990 GNP by the end of the 20th century and ensuring the people a moderately prosperous life as the second step; and increasing the per capita GNP level to that of moderately developed countries, ensuring the people a relatively affluent life, and realizing basic modernization by the middle of the 21st century as the third step. 

¹⁷ The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are the principles of mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and cooperation for mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. From December 1953 to April 1954 delegates of the Chinese government and the Indian government held negotiations on China-India relations concerning the Tibet region of China. On December 31, 1953, the first day of the negotiations, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai met with the delegation from India, and first put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Later, the five principles were officially written into the preamble to the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse Between the Tibet Region of China and India. During his visit to India and Burma (Myanmar) in June 1954, Zhou Enlai issued joint declarations with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Burmese Prime Minister U Nu successively, advocating the establishment of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as the basic norm governing relations between states. – Tr. 

¹⁸ The four forms are: (1) criticism and self-criticism meetings and oral and written inquiries which are to be conducted regularly, to ensure that those who have committed minor misconduct are made to "flush and sweat", be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves; (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. 

¹⁹ In a conversation with Mao Zedong during a visit to Yan'an in July 1945, Huang Yanpei, a prominent non-Party individual, expressed the hope that the government to be established by the CPC would bring an end to the cycle of rise and fall characteristic of governments in Chinese history. Mao Zedong replied that the CPC had found a new path to break this cycle, and that the new path was democracy. Only under public scrutiny, will a government be clean and efficient; only when everyone takes responsibility, will good governance prevail. 

²⁰ A form of intra-Party disciplinary action that requires a Party member under investigation to cooperate with questioning at a designated place and a designated time. – Tr.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)