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China's clear blueprint in CPC session

Jiang Qin (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, December 17, 2019

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China's clear blueprint in CPC session China's President Xi Jinping gives a speech at the opening session of the Chinese Communist Party's five-yearly Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2017. (Agence France-Presse/Nicolas Asfuri)

T

he Communist Party of China (CPC) held a highly important conference over a month ago — the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC. The CPC is the governing party of China, with Chinese President Xi Jinping serving as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The conference is essentially about how to uphold and improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and modernize China’s system and capacity for governance. This is an issue that the CPC has been studying and exploring since its establishment. The CPC believes that while leading the Chinese people to achieve independence, liberation and economic and social development, it is even more important to have a complete, mature and well-established system.

A critical part of China’s current reform and opening up is to focus more on system-building, address the deep-seated institutional issues and make top-level design for development.

The CPC is keenly aware that China faces many severe risks and challenges amid the complicated and profound changes in the international landscape. Strengthening system-building holds the key to addressing these risks and challenges. In fact, China’s system has prominent strengths. Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China has maintained rapid economic development and long-term social stability that are rarely seen in the world. It took China only a couple of decades to complete industrialization that took Western countries hundreds of years to achieve.

China remains the world’s second-largest economy and has become the largest manufacturing country, the largest trader in goods, the holder of the largest foreign exchange reserves and the second-largest destination and source of foreign direct investment. China contributes about 30 percent to world economic growth.

More than 700 million Chinese people in rural areas have been lifted out of poverty, 82.39 million in particular since 2012. Yet still China requires further development and improvement.

The Fourth Plenary Session made clear the overall goal of upholding and improving the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and modernizing the country’s system and capacity for governance as follows: Institutions in all fields will be notably more mature and well-established by the time the CPC marks its centenary in 2021; institutions in all fields will be more improved, and China’s system and capacity for governance basically modernized by 2035; when the People’s Republic of China celebrates its centenary (in 2049), China’s system and capacity for governance will be fully modernized, and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics will be further cemented with fully-fledged strengths.

Going forward, the CPC and Chinese people will uphold and improve the system in a total of 13 aspects, such as party leadership, economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, the military and foreign affairs. These are some of the priorities that need highlighting.

First, the system of CPC leadership. History has shown that China would be torn apart and trapped in underdevelopment without the leadership of the CPC. It was decided at the session to uphold and improve the system of party leadership and improve the party’s capacity for conducting sound, democratic and law-based governance.

Second, the system of people’s congresses. It was decided at the session to uphold and improve the system of people’s congresses, ensure the people running the country and develop socialist democracy.

Third, the system of political parties and the unified front. The system of party-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation is a basic political system in China. It was decided at the session to uphold and improve the system and to consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic unified front.

Fourth, the system of rule-of-law. This is the backbone of the national governance system. It was decided at the session to unswervingly follow the socialist path of rule-of-law with Chinese characteristics, ensure sound lawmaking, strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice, the observance of law by everyone and law-based governance in China.

Fifth, the fundamental economic system. It was decided at the session to uphold and improve the fundamental economic system of the dominant role of the public sector and common development of economic entities under diverse forms of ownership, the distribution system whereby distribution according to labor is dominant and a variety of other modes of distribution exist alongside it, and the socialist market economy. Efforts should be made to pursue high-quality economic development.

With the blueprint unfolded, the Chinese people will see their aspirations realized sooner rather than later.

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Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the Chinese Mission to ASEAN



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