Comprehensively deepening reforms as the fundamental driving force for promoting Chinese-style modernization

Reform and opening up are an important magic weapon for the cause of the Party and the people to catch up with the times. "If China wants to move forward, it must comprehensively deepen reform and opening up." General Secretary Xi Jinping's sonorous words are the echo of history and the clarion call of the times.

Adhering to the spirit of thousands of years of reform and opening up, from the beginning of a new era to the entry into a new century, from standing at a new starting point to entering a new era, the Communist Party of China has continued to advance the great revolution of reform and opening up, painted a magnificent historical picture, and created a human miracle that amazes the world.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was epoch-making, ushering in a new historical period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was also epoch-making, ushering in a new era of comprehensively deepening reforms and advancing reforms through overall system design, creating a new situation in my country's reform and opening up.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has personally planned, deployed and promoted the comprehensive deepening of reform, and put forward a series of original, contemporary and guiding new ideas, new viewpoints and new conclusions. The CPC Central Committee has made it clear that the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform is to improve and develop the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and to promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, which has opened up a new reform process with great momentum and grandeur, and has achieved historic changes, systematic remodeling and overall reconstruction in many fields, and has achieved historic and great achievements in comprehensively deepening reform.

The current and future period is a critical period for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization. The new questions posed to us by China, the world, the people and the times are more complex and difficult than in the past.

"To achieve the goals and tasks of the new era and new journey, we must take comprehensive and in-depth reform as the fundamental driving force for advancing Chinese-style modernization."

"To promote China's modernization, we must further deepen reform and opening up in an all-round way, constantly liberate and develop social productivity, and liberate and enhance social vitality."

Focusing on the central tasks and making good use of important magic weapons, General Secretary Xi Jinping made strategic arrangements for further comprehensively deepening reform.

In April this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which stressed that "the whole party must consciously place reform in a more prominent position and further deepen reform in an all-round way around the promotion of Chinese-style modernization."

In May this year, at a symposium with enterprises and experts, General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that "to further comprehensively deepen reform, we must anchor our efforts on the overall goal of improving and developing the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, and closely focus on promoting Chinese-style modernization."

The overall goal is consistent and the theme is very clear.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. my country's development is at a new historical position, and "reform and opening up has reached a new and important juncture."

The problems of imbalance, disharmony and unsustainability in development are still prominent, the development model is still extensive, the gap between urban and rural regional development and residents' income distribution is still large, social contradictions have increased significantly, and there are many problems related to the vital interests of the masses. Formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance are prominent, and negative corruption is prone to occur frequently in some areas...

"The key to solving these problems lies in deepening reform" and "We Chinese Communists have always carried out revolution, construction, and reform in order to solve China's practical problems." General Secretary Xi Jinping's words are deafening.

"Reform and opening up also have a direction, a position and principles." "Not implementing reform and opening up is a dead end, and carrying out 'reform and opening up' that negates the direction of socialism is also a dead end." General Secretary Xi Jinping's words are clear and firm.

History, often after the sedimentation of time, becomes more clear in its context and more profound in its changes.

Since the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has pushed forward reform and opening up with unprecedented determination and strength, creating a new situation in which reform and opening up have driven the party and the country's undertakings to achieve historic achievements and historic changes, and pushed our country onto a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.

General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over more than 70 meetings of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Reform and the Central Committee for Deepening Reform. The goals and tasks set at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee were fully promoted, and all parties launched more than 2,000 reform plans... Comprehensive deepening of reform has advanced in breadth and depth, promoting "China's governance" with "China's system", and injecting an inexhaustible source of power into China's modernization.

Focusing on the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development, the regional coordinated development strategy has activated surging momentum, and the household registration system reform has broken the urban-rural dual system; aiming at enhancing the endogenous driving force of business entities, the fiscal and taxation system reform has been deepened to reduce taxes and fees, and the science and technology system reform has enabled innovation; focusing on the real interests that the masses have strongly reflected, the medical and health system reform has solved the problems of difficulty and high cost of seeing a doctor; to meet the people's higher demands for fairness and justice, the comprehensive and coordinated reform of the judicial system has continued to deepen; in response to the problem of lax and soft party management, the Central Eight Regulations have been used to solve the problem, and the reform of the party building system has been deepened... We have always adhered to the problem-oriented approach, broken through the shackles of ideas and concepts, broken through the barriers of vested interests, and resolutely eliminated the drawbacks of various systems and mechanisms, so that the whole society will form a vivid situation in which the vitality of reform and innovation is competing and flowing fully.

On the extraordinary journey since the new era, under the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, our party has promoted reforms that are all-round, deep-seated and fundamental, and the achievements made are historic, revolutionary and pioneering.

Looking around the world, no country or political party can have such political courage and historical responsibility, dare to make drastic changes, turn the blade inward, and carry out self-revolution, and no country or political party can promote such a large-scale, large-scale, and intensive reform in such a short period of time. As a result, we have a deeper understanding of the decisive significance of the "two establishments", are more determined to "uphold the two", and more truly appreciate the "distinctive characteristics and remarkable advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics."

In Chengdu, Sichuan, is located the national-level civil unmanned aerial vehicle test base "Eye in the Sky". In this airspace with an altitude of less than 1,200 meters and a radius of 5 kilometers, various types of drones shuttle back and forth to complete a series of test tasks.

In the past, companies testing drones had to first report flight missions, then flight plans and flight permits, which took at least a week. After the reform of low-altitude airspace collaborative management, drone testing now only requires reporting one hour in advance. Using the power of reform to help the low-altitude economy "accelerate its takeoff" can help us understand the truth that "to develop new quality productivity, we must further deepen reforms in an all-round way and form new production relations that are compatible with it."

A critical period and an important node. Further deepening reform in an all-round way is not only a continuation of the practice of comprehensively deepening reform since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, but also a new chapter in the era of promoting Chinese-style modernization in the new journey.

"Promoting Chinese-style modernization is a pioneering undertaking unprecedented in history." Facing the established goals, we always maintain strategic confidence, promote the development of our cause through reform and innovation, resolutely break the ideological concepts and institutional mechanisms that hinder the promotion of Chinese-style modernization, promote better adaptation between production relations and productivity, superstructure and economic base, national governance and social development, and provide strong impetus and institutional guarantee for Chinese-style modernization.

"We must never lose ourselves in the applause." In the face of the achievements made in reform and development, we always maintain strategic clarity, with the courage to carry out self-revolution and the firm determination to reform to the end, and we will take real actions and dare to face difficulties, further emancipate our minds, liberate and develop social productive forces, and liberate and enhance social vitality.

"We must never think of relaxing or taking a break." Faced with many complex contradictions and problems that still exist on the road of reform, we always maintain strategic initiative, insist on using reform and opening up as an important magic weapon to solve problems in development and respond to risks and challenges on the road ahead, and promote Chinese-style modernization construction without any obstacles and move forward.

Reform and opening up are only in progress, not completed. "As long as reform and opening up do not stop, China will surely create new and greater miracles that will amaze the world."

Chinese-style modernization puts people’s livelihood first. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “The ultimate goal of promoting reform and development is to make people live a better life.” This important assertion reveals the logical starting point and value purpose of comprehensively deepening reform.

Reform is meaningful only when it is carried out for the people; reform is motivated only when it relies on the people.

One pill bears witness to the original intention of reform. Entecavir is a drug for treating hepatitis B. Through centralized bulk purchase of drugs and medical consumables, the price of one pill from the same manufacturer has dropped significantly, and the cost for patients has also been greatly reduced over the course of a year.

One room shows the warmth of reform. Renting a two-bedroom apartment in Songjiang's affordable rental housing costs less than half of the previous rent after subsidies. In recent years, Shanghai has increased the construction of affordable rental housing to help more new citizens and young people realize their dream of a safe home.

A river, polishing the background of reform. The ecology of Chishui River was once severely damaged, but through the ecological compensation mechanism, the river water is getting cleaner year by year, and the living environment of villagers on both sides of the river is constantly improving.

"The fundamental purpose of our party in advancing comprehensive and in-depth reform is to promote social fairness and justice, and to ensure that the fruits of reform and development benefit all the people more and more equitably." General Secretary Xi Jinping's words are powerful.

For the people - reform started from here and is therefore magnificent.

The integrated reform and development of urban and rural compulsory education will allow people to enjoy fairer education; the coordinated and orderly connection of urban and rural social security will allow people to obtain more reliable protection; the steady implementation of urban renewal actions will continuously improve the quality of people's lives; and the vigorous promotion of supply-side reform of public cultural products will make people's spiritual life more fulfilled...

Reforms must focus on and promote what the people care about and expect. We must grasp and handle major issues related to reform from the perspective of the people, plan reform ideas and formulate reform measures based on the interests of the people, and let the people reap the fruitful results brought about by reform.

The voice of the people is the direction of reform. When there are strong reactions to the problems of "difficult, slow and complicated procedures", we will continue to deepen the reform of "delegating power, delegating power and improving administration"; when the burden on the grassroots is too heavy, we will continue to deepen the rectification of formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots... Starting from the things that the masses care about most, a series of reform measures that are both targeted and valuable have made the masses feel the changes and benefited.

As the times develop, the needs of the people are also constantly changing. We should focus on finding the starting points and breakthroughs of reform from the urgent needs of the people, launch more reform measures that are urgent to the people's livelihood and what the people want, and do more practical things that benefit the people's livelihood, warm the people's hearts, and follow the people's will, so as to better support the people's "stable happiness".

Rely on the people - this is where reforms gain momentum and where miracles are created.

Every breakthrough and deepening in the understanding and practice of reform and opening up, the emergence and development of every new thing in reform and opening up, and the creation and accumulation of experience in every field and link of reform and opening up all come from the wisdom and practice of hundreds of millions of people.

September 2020, Changsha, Hunan. General Secretary Xi Jinping specially invited grassroots representatives to listen to their opinions and suggestions on the formulation of the "14th Five-Year Plan". Among them were rural teachers, migrant workers, freight drivers, and large grain growers. General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over 7 such "listening to opinions and suggestions" seminars in 2 months.

"Where does the correct path come from? It comes from the masses." It is through repeated consultation with the people and gathering of their wisdom that the reform has found solutions to the problems and built a consensus for progress.

From adhering to and developing the "Fengqiao Experience" in the new era to consolidate the foundation of "China's governance", to the grassroots exploration of the river chief system, forest chief system and other systems spreading across the country, upholding the people's dominant position, giving play to the people's pioneering spirit, and timely summarizing the new experiences created by the people, the comprehensive deepening of reform has the most solid support, the strongest confidence, and the most surging motivation.

Looking back on the struggles of the past, reform has opened up opportunities, and the country's progress has fulfilled individual dreams; hundreds of millions of people have consciously and voluntarily participated in and supported reform, pushing and promoting reform to forge ahead. Only by fully respecting the will of the people and forming a broad consensus can the people actively support and participate in reform.

Looking ahead to the road of progress, the advancement of all reforms cannot be separated from the power of the people. No matter what the reform is and how far it is carried out, we must keep in mind the purpose and the people, and "take the pursuit of happiness for the people as the standard for testing the effectiveness of reforms" and understand that "modernization should not only be based on indicators and data on paper, but also on the happiness and well-being of the people."

The world is vast, and the people are the foundation. Adhering to the concept of putting people first, adhering to the people-centered reform value orientation, and relying closely on the people to promote reform will gather a deeper and more powerful force.

There is no smooth road to reform. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Reform involves both destruction and construction. If the rules are followed, twice the result with half the effort will be achieved. If the rules are not followed, half the result with twice the effort will be achieved, or even negative effects will be produced." This is a profound summary of the reform experience in the new era and a clear indication of writing a new chapter of reform on the new journey.

"The easy reforms that everyone is happy with have been completed. The delicious meat has been eaten, and what remains are the hard bones that are difficult to chew. This requires us to be bold and steady." In February 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "To be bold, we must push forward the reform no matter how difficult it is, dare to take on responsibilities, dare to chew tough bones, and dare to cross dangerous shoals. To take steady steps, we must be accurate in direction and steady in driving, especially not making subversive mistakes."

Only by adhering to the right path can we avoid losing our way and making subversive mistakes, and only by innovating can we grasp and lead the times. Adhering to the right path and innovating is an important ideological method of our party in governing the country in the new era, and it provides important methodological guidance for further deepening reform and promoting Chinese-style modernization.

"My question is: How do people's congress representatives represent the interests of the people in China?" In September 2023, Pacheco, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, walked into the "Small Courtyard Discussion Hall" on Qianmen Street in Dongcheng District, Beijing, and went straight to the point with grassroots people's congress representatives. From "consultation discussion rooms" to "house talks", from offline "round tables" to online "discussion groups"... the reform and innovation practices of people's democracy throughout the process have interpreted a path of democratic development that conforms to my country's national conditions and demonstrated vigorous vitality and strong vitality.

"No matter how the reform is carried out, the fundamental things such as upholding the overall leadership of the Party, upholding Marxism, upholding the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and upholding the people's democratic dictatorship must never be shaken." This is the consistent strategic clarity and determination. "Reform what should be changed and what can be changed well and in place, and unswervingly grasp it when it is right." It calls for the courage and boldness of reform to dare to take risks and try. By keeping the right path to unite the hearts and souls for innovation, and by injecting vitality into keeping the right path, reform can move forward steadily on the right path.

When considering the agenda of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, "it was proposed to formulate a plan for comprehensively deepening reform, rather than just talking about economic system reform, or just talking about economic system and social system reform." General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "this consideration is because in order to resolve the prominent contradictions and problems we face, it will be difficult to achieve results by relying solely on reforms in a single area or at a single level."

Systematic thinking is a fundamental thought and working method. One of the important reasons why the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee is "also epoch-making" is that it adheres to the systematic thinking and promotes reform through systematic overall design. Reform and opening up in the new era has many new connotations and characteristics, one of which is that institutional construction is more important, and the requirements for the systematic, holistic and coordinated nature of reform are stronger.

Implementing a large department system and flat management, setting up a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, taking the lead in launching an online system for cross-provincial enterprise migration, and promoting the full coverage of the pilot reform of "license and license separation" in the free trade pilot zone... Hebei Xiong'an New Area is writing new history every day. Interconnected facilities, interoperable ticket systems, mutual trust in security checks, information sharing... From concepts to mechanisms, from standards to rules, adhering to the use of a systematic concept, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has become one of the most economically active regions in the world, with more than one million people commuting across cities every day.

Since the new era, our party has planned and promoted reform with an overall concept and systematic thinking, and has achieved a historic transformation from local exploration and breaking through to system integration and comprehensive deepening. To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must pay more attention to system integration, strengthen the coordination and matching of various reform measures, prevent and overcome the phenomenon of each doing its own thing and hindering each other, so that reform measures in all fields and aspects can work in the same direction and form a strong synergy to promote reform and opening up.

Faced with the severe and complex international environment and the arduous and heavy tasks of domestic reform, development and stability, General Secretary Xi Jinping made decisive judgments that my country's economic development has entered a new normal and that my country has entered a new development stage. He put forward the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing, made major strategic decisions to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, put forward the concept of new quality productivity and made major arrangements... The far-sighted strategic planning and reform measures that take into account the current situation have provided action guidance for accelerating the construction of a modern economic system and promoting high-quality development.

The reform practice since the 18th CPC National Congress tells us that as long as we focus on development as the first priority to deploy reforms in all aspects and firmly grasp the liberation and development of social productive forces, we can provide a strong impetus for reforms in other aspects and influence the corresponding advancement of reforms in other aspects.

High-quality development is the "primary task" and the "hard truth of the new era". To further deepen reform in an all-round way, we must pay more attention to highlighting key points, take economic system reform as the driving force, adhere to and develop my country's basic economic system, build a high-level socialist market economic system, start with the most urgent things, achieve key breakthroughs in the overall advancement, and use key breakthroughs to drive the overall work improvement.

As an important tool for optimizing government services and improving administrative efficiency, promoting "getting things done efficiently" conforms to the people's call and demonstrates the determination to reform. From the State Council's formulation and issuance of guiding opinions and the clarification of the first batch of 13 key items, to the rapid actions of various departments and the acceleration of the establishment of a normalized promotion mechanism, to the implementation of implementation plans in various places and the implementation in light of actual conditions... the timetable for the continuous advancement has a sense of urgency and the execution of not avoiding difficulties.

"Reform requires not only planning, but even more so implementation." General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: "We must implement reform with a spirit of perseverance. We must be proactive and solid, clarify priorities, grasp the timing and effectiveness, do our best and act within our means, and not be divorced from reality." To further comprehensively deepen reform, we must pay more attention to the effectiveness of reform, take reform as a major political responsibility, enhance our ideological and behavioral awareness in promoting reform, and act as both promoters and practitioners of reform.

The clearer you know, the more you will do it. Where is the way to forge ahead in upholding the truth and making innovations, and to overcome difficulties and challenges? The way is under your feet.

Advance in the logic of historical progress and develop in the trend of the times. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Using opening up to promote reform and development is an important magic weapon for my country to continuously achieve new achievements in modernization."

In May 2024, Tesla started construction of another super factory in Lingang, Shanghai. It took only one month from negotiation to signing, once again setting a new record for "Lingang speed". This is inseparable from the support of the system to optimize the business environment.

The first negative list for foreign investment, the first to implement the reform of the commercial registration system, the first wholly foreign-owned public fund company in the country, the first wholly foreign-owned automobile manufacturing company...many "firsts" and "firsts" mark the "daring to be the first" spirit of the free trade pilot zone. From a single flower to a flourishing brocade, the construction of 22 free trade pilot zones in the country has been accelerated, and the Hainan Free Trade Port has set sail. With careful cultivation of this "big experimental field", the "nursery" of institutional innovation has yielded fruitful results.

Opening up is also reform. Firmly believing that "opening up brings progress, while closure leads to backwardness", China is determined to promote high-level opening up, adhere to opening up to promote reform, development and innovation, and promote the construction of an open world economy. From implementing the pre-entry national treatment plus negative list management system to building a global high-standard free trade zone network, forming a larger scope, wider fields and deeper level of opening up, the door of opening up is opening wider and wider, further activating the surging spring tide of China's development.

Modernization is inseparable from opening up, and opening up achieves modernization. China's economic development over the past 40 years has been achieved under open conditions, and in the future, China's economy must achieve high-quality development under more open conditions. Continuously expanding high-level opening up, promoting in-depth reforms and high-quality development with high-level opening up, and steadily advancing institutional opening up such as rules, regulations, management, and standards will surely continue to expand the development space of Chinese-style modernization.

In just 6 days, the 6th China International Import Expo reached an annualized transaction value of US$78.41 billion, a record high. With the help of the CIIE platform, Ethiopia exported more than 20,000 tons of coffee beans to China last year. During the 6 years of the CIIE, more than 80 new fruit varieties, including Brazilian melons, Pakistani cherries, and Malaysian jackfruits, were allowed to enter the Chinese market.

"The next 'China' is still China." Since the beginning of this year, AstraZeneca has invested 475 million US dollars in a new small molecule innovative drug factory in Wuxi High-tech Zone, Jiangsu Province, and Valeo has built a "comfort and driving assistance system production and research and development base" in Jiading, Shanghai... Foreign investors continue to invest in China, not only focusing on the huge market, but also on the new quality productivity driven by innovation and marked by the improvement of total factor productivity, which is forming a new attraction in the global industrial landscape.

"Openness is an important driving force for the progress of human civilization and the only way for world prosperity and development." Since the new era, as the world's second largest economy, we have become an important engine of global development with a growth contribution rate of around 30%; leveraging the advantages of China's super-large-scale market to provide a broader space for the growth of world trade and investment; utilizing the most complete industrial chain and supply chain to provide the world with high-quality and good products, and help the global green and low-carbon development transformation... China continues to expand its opening up, injecting strong impetus into the world economy.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "China adheres to the basic national policy of opening up, firmly pursues a mutually beneficial and win-win opening-up strategy, and continuously provides new opportunities for the world with China's new development." Expanding common interests in opening up and sharing opportunities in cooperation, China has always been an important promoter of global common opening up, a stable source of power for world economic growth, and a vibrant market for countries to expand business opportunities. It will surely provide more opportunities for world development.

On May 25 this year, the X8157 China-Europe Express departed from Xi'an International Port Station and arrived at the Polish border town of Malaszewicze a dozen days later. With a total of 90,000 trains and a total mileage of over 700 million kilometers, the China-Europe Express reaches 25 European countries and connects 11 Asian countries, making it a well-deserved "golden channel".

What is more intuitive than the numbers is the sense of gain of people in various countries. Kenyan fresh avocados enter the Chinese market, benefiting thousands of local growers; an Afghan wool carpet is sold in China, increasing the income of four or five local weaving workers' families; China's Juncao technology has taken root in more than 100 countries and regions, creating hundreds of thousands of green jobs in the local area...

British historian Peter Frankopan predicted in his book The Silk Road: A New World History that the Silk Road has shaped the world in the past, even the world today, and will also shape the world in the future. The joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative originated in China, and the achievements and opportunities belong to the world, bringing together the greatest common denominator of common development of mankind.

Since the new era, China's initiative has expanded into international consensus, from a beautiful vision to rich practice, from an idea to a scientific system, and building a community with a shared future for mankind has become a glorious banner leading the times forward. Looking to the future, China will continue to care about the world, firmly stand on the right side of history and the side of human civilization progress, and work with other countries to promote the building of a better world.

To seek happiness for the Chinese people, rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, progress for mankind, and harmony for the world. To comprehensively promote the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization is not only a bright path for the Chinese people to pursue a better and happier life, but also a just path to promote world peace and development.

There is no end to practical development, there is no end to emancipating the mind, and there is no end to reform and opening up.

"We are all fighters. We have fought hard in the past and have achieved such brilliant achievements today. Our future goals are very clear and great. To achieve them, we must continue to work hard. We must have such confidence and courage. Let us work together!" In May this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Shandong and came to Rizhao Port on the coast of the Yellow Sea. His words were inspiring and encouraging.

"We should firmly believe that China's path of reform and opening up will surely succeed."