China: The Epoch-Making Event

From July 15 to July 18, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held, the theme of which was the issue of further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization. It was stated that the present and the near future constitute a critical period for our endeavor to build a great country and move toward national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization.

Chinese modernization has been advanced continuously through reform and it will surely embrace broader horizons through further opening up. The most important outcome of this plenary session was the adoption of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on ‘Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization’.

The resolution, with economic structural reform as the spearhead, comprehensively plans reforms in various fields and aspects. It puts forward more than 300 important reform measures, all of which involve reforms on the levels of systems, mechanisms, and institutions. Some of the measures are the improvement and upgrading of past reform measures, and some are exploring new reform measures based on practical needs and pilots. All these reform tasks laid out in the resolution shall be completed by the time China celebrates its 80th founding anniversary in 2029.

Why the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is of epoch-making significance?

For more than 40 years, the reform and opening up has created a miracle of rapid economic growth and ever-rising international prestige, which has demonstrated the significance of China’s reforms with indisputable facts.

The epoch-making third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held in November 2013 ushered in a new stage in China’s reform and opening up by launching a range of historic, systematic and comprehensive reforms.

In more than a decade, the country has rolled out over 2,000 reform plans covering various fields such as economy, politics, culture, society, ecological progress, Party building, and national defense. These reforms have helped put in place foundational institutional frameworks in all

sectors.

Despite its significant accomplishments, China still confronts bottlenecks as well as challenges in achieving high-quality development. Its innovation capacity is not yet strong enough. It’s imperative and crucial for the country to address financial risks, secure food, energy and industrial and supply chains, and resolve issues such as insufficient effective demand, economic flow blockages, inadequate public services, and job creation pressures.

Effectively addressing these problems is pivotal for China’s economic growth prospects and the overall trajectory of its modernization drive.

Having withstood numerous daunting tests and achieved tremendous success from humble beginnings, reform efforts have now entered a “deep-water zone”.

While the easier tasks have been completed, the remaining challenges are tough and require significant political courage and wisdom to overcome.

Amid extensive and profound changes at home and abroad, comprehensive and continuously deepened reforms are the key to addressing all the problems and challenges.

Economic reform has been a focus of the overall reform agenda. Major measures, including shortening the negative list for market entry, implementing supply-side structural reforms and promoting high-level opening up, have led to significant improvements in the country’s market-based and law-based business environment.

Comprehensively deepening reform not only provides an institutional guarantee for Chinese modernization but also serves as a driving force for stable growth in the short, medium and long terms.

Particularly anticipated are reforms aimed at creating a unified domestic market, fostering new quality productive forces, and achieving major scientific and technological breakthroughs. Urgent and practical reforms are also needed in areas such as the fiscal and tax system, finance, income distribution, and urban-rural integration.

Among the highlights of the reform tasks, the various reform measures aim to ensure and enhance the people’s well-being, including improving the income distribution system and the employment-first policy, which will help address the direct concerns of the people.

As widely recognized, it is the people who have directly benefited from these successful reforms. After arduous efforts, nearly 100 million rural residents were lifted out of extreme poverty by 2020, meaning China eliminated absolute poverty for the first time in history.

Through a new urbanization drive, over 140 million former rural residents have gained access to much better public services over the past decade.

The spirit of reform and opening up defines the Chinese people, both in history and in modern days. China is committed to a correct and scientific methodology and a people-centered approach for advancing China’s reform and leading the nation to achieve new successes in any future reform endeavors.

Hence, this year’s third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is epoch-making, because it drew up a sweeping blueprint that would guide China’s reform and opening-up for years to come.

It also laid a solid foundation for the realization of the 2035 goal of realizing socialist modernization and the realization of the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of this century.

Published on: Friday, September 20, 2024, 11:12 PM IST