With relation to the guiding thoughts, general approaches, goals, and tasks that have been identified by the plenary session, I would like to put forward some requirements with regard to implementing the guiding principles of this plenary session.

First, we must regard improving and developing the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and promoting the modernization of our national governance system and governance capacity as the overall objective of our efforts to comprehensively deepen reform. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping predicted that it would take China another 30 years to form a full set of well-developed and relatively fixed systems. On the basis of Deng Xiaoping's strategic thinking, this plenary session has introduced the idea of promoting the modernization of our national governance system and governance capacity. The modernization of national governance constitutes an inherent requirement for improving and developing the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, being an essential part of our efforts to achieve socialist modernization. Our decision to focus on the issue of comprehensively deepening reform at this plenary session—that is, to promote reform across all areas as opposed to promoting reform in a single area or several areas—has been made in line with overall considerations regarding our national governance system and governance capacity.

A country's national governance system and governance capacity represent a concentrated embodiment of that country's systems and its capacity to enforce those systems. China's national governance system can be understood as a full set of closely linked and coordinated national systems through which the country is governed under the leadership of the Party. It consists of institutions, mechanisms, laws, and regulations with regard to economy, politics, culture, society, ecological progress, and Party building. China's national governance capacity refers to our capacity to administer various social affairs through the application of national systems. This includes promoting reform, development, and stability, handling domestic affairs, foreign affairs, and national defense, and governing the Party, the state, and the armed forces. A country's national governance system and governance capacity complement one another to form an organic whole. We say this because a sound governance system is essential for theimprovement of governance capacity, while the improvement of governance capacity is a necessary precondition for fully exerting the effectiveness of a governance system.

In fact, the question of how a socialist society—which represents a totally new form of society—should be governed is one that world socialism was never able to answer satisfactorily in the past. Marx and Engels never actually encountered the comprehensive governance of a socialist country in practice, and most of their theorizations on the society of the future came in the form of predictions; Lenin passed away only a few years after the October Revolution, never having the time to delve deeply into this matter; and while the Soviet Union did manage to gain some practical experiences through its explorations, it also made some serious errors, and ultimately failed to answer this question satisfactorily. Since coming to power in China, the CPC has engaged in constant efforts to find an answer to this question. In spite of serious missteps along the way, the CPC has accumulated a great deal of experience, and has gone on to make great achievements in the development of a national governance system and governance capacity. Moreover, our progress in this regard has been especially remarkable since the launch of the reform and opening up drive. China's political stability, rapid economic growth, social harmony, and ethnic solidarity come in stark contrast to the continuous turmoil that has been seen in certain countries and regions of the world. This demonstrates that our national governance system and governance capacity are generally sound, and that they are geared to our national situation and to the needs of our national development.

At the same time, it should also be noted that there are still numerous shortcomings in China's national governance system and governance capacity—many of which need to be addressed urgently—as demonstrated by the needs of China's economic and social development, the expectations of the public, the increasingly fierce international competition that we are seeing at present, and the requirements for achieving enduring national peace and stability. To genuinely achieve social harmony and enduring national peace and stability, we will ultimately need to rely on our institutions, on our excellent capacity for national governance, and on a contingent of highly competent officials. Therefore, if we are to better exert the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, we must promote the modernization of our national governance system and governance capacity in all areas.

In working to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, achieve socialist modernization, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, our most fundamental and pressing task is to further release and develop productive forces. Our efforts to free the mind and unleash and boost the vigor of society are aimed at better releasing and developing productive forces. Deng Xiaoping once said, “Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces, and so does reform… After the basic socialist system has been established, it is necessary to fundamentally change the economic structure that has hampered the development of the productive forces and to establish a vigorous socialist economic structure that will promote their development.” Through our efforts to deepen reform, we will unleash the vitality of all labor, knowledge, technology, managerial expertise, and capital, and give full play to all sources of social wealth. At the same time, we need to maintain the right balance betweenvitality and orderliness. Vitality is necessary for the promotion of social development, but this vitality must be exerted in an orderly manner. A society that is stagnant and devoid of vitality will never get us anywhere, but neither will one with an undercurrent that cannot be kept in check.

Second, we need to further free our minds, further release and develop productive forces, and further unleash and boost the vigor of our society. These three “furthers,” which are prescribed in the decision that we have adopted at this plenary session, represent both objectives and preconditions of China's reforms. Freeing the mind serves as the precondition, being the “master switch” that sets in motion our efforts to release and develop productive forces and unleash and boost the vigor of our society. Without freeing the mind, the Party could not have made the historic decision to shift the focus of the Party and country to economic development and initiate a policy of reform and opening up so soon after the Cultural Revolution ended. That decision helped to usher in a new historical period of development for China. Without freeing the mind, the Party would have been unable to constantly promote theoretical and practical innovations during the course of practice, effectively resolve various risks and challenges that lay in front of it, continually push the reform and opening up drive forwards, and remain at the forefront of the times. Releasing and developing productive forces and unleashing and boosting the vigor of society are not only natural outcomes of freeing the mind, but are also important foundations for freeing the mind further.

In working to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, achieve socialist modernization, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, our most fundamental and pressing task is to further release and develop productive forces. Our efforts to free the mind and unleash and boost the vigor of society are aimed at better releasing and developing productive forces. Deng Xiaoping once said, “Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces, and so does reform… After the basic socialist system has been established, it is necessary to fundamentally change the economic structure that has hampered the development of the productive forces and to establish a vigorous socialist economic structure that will promote their development.” Through our efforts to deepen reform, we will unleash the vitality of all labor, knowledge, technology, managerial expertise, and capital, and give full play to all sources of social wealth. At the same time, we need to maintain the right balance betweenvitality and orderliness. Vitality is necessary for the promotion of social development, but this vitality must be exerted in an orderly manner. A society that is stagnant and devoid of vitality will never get us anywhere, but neither will one with an undercurrent that cannot be kept in check.

We have said that we must have firm confidence in our path, in our theories, and in our system. To achieve this, not only do we need rock-solid inner strength and beliefs, but we also need considerable material strength to underpin such inner strength and beliefs. Therefore, by relying on constant reform and innovation, we need to ensure that socialism with Chinese characteristics is more efficient than capitalism at releasing and developing productive forces, unleashing and boosting the vigor of society, and promoting people's well-rounded development. We need to ensure that it is better at stimulating the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the people as a whole; better at creating favorable conditions for social development; and better at winning comparative advantages in competition. By doing so, we will be able to fully exert the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.

Third, we need to focus on economic reform and give play to its role as a driving force. The decision that we have adopted at this plenary session outlines a six-point roadmap for the comprehensive deepening of reform, with particular emphasis being laid on the need to focus on economic reform and give play to its role as a driving force. At present, China's basic national condition remains unchanged: the country is still in the primary stage of socialism, and will continue to be so for a considerable period of time to come. The ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people are still unable to be met by China's backward social production—which constitutes the principal problem in Chinese society at present—and China's international status as the largest developing country in the world has yet to change. These facts dictate that economic development is still the central task of the entire Party.

Many of the institutional and structural barriers that are constraining scientific development are found in our economic system. This indicates that our tasks in economic reform are far from being fulfilled, and that the potential of economic reform has yet to be fully unleashed. Therefore, in continuing to take economic development as our central task, it is essential that we maintain an unswerving commitment to focusing on economic reform.

The economic base determines the superstructure. Economic reforms are able to play a major role in influencing and guiding reforms in other areas. That is to say, the progression of major economic reform determines the progression of structural reforms in many other areas, with a single step having the potential to affect the overall situation. In his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Karl Marx stated: “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.” As we work to comprehensively deepen reform, we must continue to make economic reform the focus of our efforts, strive to make new breakthroughs in important areas and key aspects of economic reform, and by doing so promote and drive reforms in other areas at the same time. In this way, we will be able to advance various aspects of reform in a coordinated fashion, thereby bringing about a state of cohesion, as opposed to dividing our energies among individual reforms that do not take the overall interest into account.

Fourth, we need to continue to orient our economic reform towards the socialist market economy. The Party has identified the establishment of a socialist market economy as a target of China's reform. This represents a major theoretical and practical innovation that the Party has made during the course of its efforts to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. In identifying this goal, we have found the answer to a major issue that has long puzzled other socialist countries in the world.

For more than 20 years, we have been promoting economic reform as well as reform in other areas with a view to establishing a socialist market economy. Through the course of these efforts, we have succeeded in achieving a historic transformation from a highly centralized, planned economy to a fully vitalized socialist market economy, and from a society that was largely closed to one that is open to the outside world in all respects. In a historic leap forward, we have raised the living standards of our people from bare subsistence to moderate prosperity, and turned China into the world's second largest economy. These achievements have done a great deal to bring out the enthusiasm of millions upon millions of Chinese people. They have promoted the development of productive forces, and energized both the Party and the country.

However, it should also be noted that although we have established the initial framework of a socialist market economy, our market system is still inadequate, and our market is still underdeveloped. In particular, the relationship between the government and the market has yet to be clearly defined, and there are a number of factors that are preventing the market from effectively playing its role in the allocation of resources. For this reason, arduous efforts will still be required if we are to fulfill the strategic task of accelerating the improvement of the socialist market economy, which was set out in the report to the Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC.

In continuing to orient our economic reform towards the socialist market economy, our core task should be to properly balance the relationship between the government and the market, so that the market is able to play the decisive role in the allocation of resources while the government is able to exert its own role more effectively. This represents another major theoretical and practical advance that the Party has made.

Continuing to orient our economic reform towards the socialist market economy not only represents the basic principle of China's economic reforms, but also constitutes an important foundation for the comprehensive deepening of reform. While our initiatives to enable the market to play the decisive role in the allocation of resources will primarily involve economic reforms, they will inevitably exert an influence on politics, culture, society, ecological progress, and Party building as well. Therefore, we need to coordinate reforms in different areas so that they proceed in line with the goal of establishing a sound socialist market economy. At the same time, we also need to ensure that the relevant aspects of reform in each of these areas can better meet new requirements for the development of the socialist market economy.

Fifth, we need to regard promoting social equity and justice and improving the people's wellbeing as the fundamental purpose of our initiatives to deepen reform. Since the launch of the reform and opening up drive, China's huge achievements in economic and social development have provided it with solid material foundations and favorable conditions for the promotion of social equity and justice. Despite this, however, we have to admit that at our current level of development, violations of the principles of social equity and justice are still commonplace in our society. In particular, as China has continued to develop economically and socially and the living standards of the people have risen constantly, the public have become increasingly aware of issues such as equity, democracy, and rights, and have begun to react increasingly strongly to social injustices.

Having fully examined and scientifically analyzed the current situation and trends of China's economic and social development, the CPC Central Committee holds that if these issues are not promptly addressed, they will not only undermine the people's confidence in the reform and opening up drive, but will also have an adverse impact on our social harmony and stability. The report to the Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC clearly stated, “Equity and justice are inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must, relying on the concerted efforts of all the Chinese people and based on economic and social development, step up efforts to develop institutions that are vital to ensuring social equity and justice; gradually establish a system for guaranteeing fairness in society that features, among other things, equal rights, equal opportunities, and fair rules for all; work hard to foster a fair social environment; and safeguard people's right to participate in governance and develop as equals.”

As emphasized in the decision that we have adopted at this plenary session, we must regard promoting social equity and justice and improving public wellbeing as the fundamental purpose of our efforts to comprehensively deepen reform. This represents an inherent requirement that we must meet in adhering to our Party's fundamental purpose of serving the people whole-heartedly. In working to deepen reform in a comprehensive manner, we must attach great importance to creating a more equitable social environment, make continued efforts to prevent various violations of the principles of equity and justice, and ensure that all people can benefit from the fruits of development more fairly and more thoroughly. Reform will be both meaningless and unsustainable if it fails to bring tangible benefits to the people, if it is unable to create a fairer social environment, and if it becomes a cause of greater unfairness.

The realization of social equity and justice is determined by many factors, among which the most important is our level of economic and social development. People from different social strata and with different ideological inclinations tend to demonstrate different perceptions of and demands for social equity and justice at different stages of development and different periods of history. In promoting social equity and justice, we need to put the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people first, and afford more consideration to our level of social development, to our overall social situation, and to the interests of the people as a whole as we are approaching this issue. Most violations of the principles of equity and justice in China at present are developmental issues, and may be resolved through a constant process of development, and through institutional arrangements, laws, norms, and supporting policies. Therefore, we must maintain a strong commitment to taking economic developmentas our central task, promote sustained and sound economic development, and make further efforts to “make the pie bigger,” with a view to laying down stronger material foundations for the safeguarding of social equity and justice.

That said, in no way does this mean that we intend to wait until our economy is more developed before tackling issues pertaining to social equity and justice. Every period is characterized by its own problems—this is true for both highly-developed societies and less developed societies. As we are working to “make the pie bigger,” we also need to divide it fairly. There has long been a belief in Chinese society that inequality is far more worrisome than want. Bearing that in mind, we need to do as much as possible to promote social equity and justice on the basis of continued development. By doing the best that we can within the scope of our capabilities, we must strive to make continued progress towards our goals of ensuring that every individual can receive a quality education, that every working person can receive fair pay for a hard day's work, that every patient can receive affordable and accessible medical care, that every elderly resident can receive sufficient care, and that every family can enjoyadequate housing conditions.

Institutions represent an important guarantee for equity and justice in any society, regardless of how developed that society may be. Through the innovation of institutional arrangements, we must strive to overcome violations of the principles of equity and justice that take place due to human factors, thereby guaranteeing people's right to participate in governance and develop as equals. We must regard the goal of promoting social equity and justice and improving public wellbeing as a mirror through which we can reflect on our institutions, mechanisms, policies, and regulations in various areas. Reform is required wherever practices that do not conform to the goals of promoting social equity and justice are present; while the focus of reform should be placed wherever such practices are most prominent. We should promptly address violations of the principles of equity and justice that are attributable to inadequacies in our institutional arrangements. By doing so, we will ensure that our institutional arrangements are able to better embody the socialist principle of equity and justice, and that they are more conducive to realizing, safeguarding, and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people.

Sixth, we need to rely firmly on the people in promoting reform. The people are the creators of history and the source of our strength. From its outset, the reform and opening up drive has been deeply rooted in the people. This constitutes the fundamental reason why the people have shown sincere support for reform and opening up, and why they have been so actively involved in it. The decision that we have adopted at this plenary session presents a summary of the precious experience that we have gained during the course of reform and opening up. One of the most important aspects of our past experience has been to emphasize the necessity of putting people first, respecting the principal role that they play, giving full play to their creative spirit, and relying closely on them whilst promoting reform. No reform will have a chance of succeeding without the support and participation of the people. But as long as we have the support and participation of the people, there is no difficulty or challenge in our reforminitiatives that we cannot overcome. Therefore, by implementing the Party's mass line, we need to maintain close affinity with the people, stand alongside the people through times of hardship and times of joy, and mount a common effort with the people.

In the case of all major reforms, we need to ensure that major issues pertaining to reform are approached and addressed from the people's perspective. We need to put the interests of the people first as we are making reform plans and taking reform measures. Wang Fu, a philosopher of the Han Dynasty, once said, “A bird cannot soar into the sky using only one feather, and a horse cannot gallop using only one hoof.” If China wants to fly high and run fast, it must rely on the strength of its 1.3 billion people.

When we come across intricate conflicts of interest that are hard to balance during the course of our efforts to comprehensively promote reform, we need to afford serious thought to the following questions: What are the actual conditions of the people? What are the people really expecting? How can we safeguard people's interests? Are the people satisfied with our reforms? To ensure that our reform decisions are soundly made, it is important that we widely solicit people's opinions and suggestions, promptly draw on the fresh experience that the people have gained, and fully leverage people's active, assertive, and creative efforts in promoting reform. By doing so, we will be able to pool the wisdom and strength of the overwhelming majority of the people in a concerted effort to push reform forwards.