Office of the Central Commission for Deepening Overall Reform: The Spiritual Characteristics and Practical Character of Deepening Overall Reform in the New Era

Volume V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, along with the previously published Volumes I through IV, constitutes the authoritative corpus reflecting Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s seminal chapters and significant thoughts on comprehensively deepening reform form a backbone of these volumes. They systematically reflect his strategic planning and grand layout for China’s path of reform and development in the New Era, and comprehensively demonstrate the magnificent journey of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in uniting and leading the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups to promote comprehensively deepening reform. Studying these five volumes as a single entity helps us better understand and grasp the distinct spiritual qualities and practical character of this great revolution of the New Era led by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

— Commanding at the Helm. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that upholding the Party’s overall leadership is our greatest political advantage and the fundamental guarantee for the successful advancement of China’s reform and opening up. Compared to the past, reform and opening up in the New Era possess many new connotations and characteristics. Reform has entered a period of "storming the fortifications" and "entering deep waters" ^[1]; it increasingly faces deep-seated institutional and structural problems, touches upon more profound conflicts of interest, and confronts a more complex environment of "great struggle." The historical responsibility placed before our Party is of unprecedented difficulty and complexity. We must lead and promote a broader and deeper scope of reform with great historical initiative, immense political courage, and a strong sense of responsibility. We must utilize a broad, far-reaching strategic vision and a holistic perspective to conduct top-level design and establish the general framework for reform.

Facing new situations and requirements, General Secretary Xi Jinping has held the helm steady and shouldered heavy burdens. He decided to establish the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform and personally served as its leader, taking responsibility for the top-level design, overall layout, coordination, integrated advancement, and supervision of reform. The Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee later decided to reorganize this group into the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, with General Secretary Xi Jinping serving as its director. This was the first time our Party established a leadership body specifically dedicated to reform at the level of the Central Committee. In the 12 years since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping has presided over more than 70 meetings of the Central Commission (and the former Leading Group) for Comprehensively Deepening Reform. He has deliberated on important reform plans, researched major reform matters, and deployed the implementation of key tasks with grand vision and meticulous order. He has creatively planned and promoted reform and opening up in the New Era, advancing reforms across all fields and aspects with irresistible momentum. In leading the specific work of reform, General Secretary Xi Jinping has devised strategies and taken personal charge. He has personally ensured the correct orientation on major issues of political stance and fundamental principles; personally coordinated and planned major reforms and deployments; personally broken new ground on reform tasks involving complex interests or high sensitivity; and personally demonstrated and promoted precision in reform efforts and implementation. This has effectively enhanced the leadership and authority of the Party Central Committee over comprehensively deepening reform, ensuring that the whole Party always maintains unified thinking, firm will, coordinated action, and strong combat effectiveness in reform.

— Ideological Guidance. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that theoretical innovation plays a major pioneering role in practical innovation, and that comprehensively deepening reform must take theoretical innovation as its guide. The glorious journey of China’s reform and opening up over more than 40 years has also been a process of our Party continuously leading practical innovation through conceptual and theoretical innovation. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has scientifically summarized historical experience, profoundly grasped the laws of reform, and deeply analyzed the reform situation. He has creatively put forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new judgments regarding comprehensively deepening reform, which constitute the "reform chapter" of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has provided profound expositions on aspects such as the essence, role, direction, goals, tasks, driving forces, and methods of reform. He emphasizes that reform must uphold the Party's leadership; reform must remain people-centered; reform must uphold the fundamentals and break new ground—neither following the old path of being closed and stagnant, nor taking the erroneous path of changing banners ^[2]. Reform must uphold the general goal of improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Reform must remain problem-oriented; it must persist in using economic structural reform as the "engine" ^[3]; it must be advanced within the framework of the rule of law; it must combine top-level design with "crossing the river by feeling the stones" ^[4]; it must correctly handle the relationship between reform, development, and stability; and so on. These important discourses profoundly answer major theoretical and practical questions such as what banner to hold and what path to take in the New Era, why we must comprehensively deepen reform, and how to do so. They are permeated with scientific dialectical thinking, systematic strategic layout, profound historical perspective, a broad global vision, a strong spirit of innovation, and deep humanistic concern. They have reached new historical heights in breadth, depth, and elevation, demonstrating powerful "truth-charm" and practical force in guiding new practices and leading new changes. They provide the fundamental blueprint for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization.

— Strategic Planning. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, the fundamental driving force remains comprehensively deepening reform. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, proceeding from the overall situation of the cause of the Party and the state, General Secretary Xi Jinping has integrated comprehensively deepening reform into the "Five-Sphere Integrated Plan" and the "Four Comprehensives" strategic layout. Focusing closely on the Party’s central tasks, and centering on the realization of the Two Centenary Goals and the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, he has personally planned and continued writing the magnificent blueprint for comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee was epoch-making. It made deployments for reforms of the economic system, political system, cultural system, social system, and ecological civilization system, as well as reforms of national defense and the armed forces, and the system of Party building. It determined the general goals, strategic priorities, priorities, main directions, working mechanisms, advancement methods, timetables, and roadmaps for comprehensively deepening reform, launching a new journey of systemic and holistic reform design and advancement in the New Era. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee made the decision to comprehensively advance the law-based governance of the country, proposing a large number of reform measures of great significance for the rule of law, forming a "sister piece" to the decision of the Third Plenary Session. The Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee specifically researched the deepening of the reform of Party and state institutions, deploying the improvement of the Party leadership system, the government governance system, the armed forces system, and the system for organizations of the masses, promoting the systemic and holistic restructuring of the functions of Party and state institutions. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee specifically researched upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. It systematically integrated the theoretical, institutional, and practical achievements of comprehensively deepening reform since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, sketching a clearer top-level design for reform in the New Era. The Second Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee researched and deployed the continued deepening of institutional reform in key areas, making the Party’s leadership over socialist modernization more scientific in institutional setup, more optimized in functional configuration, more refined in systems and mechanisms, and more efficient in operational management. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee researched the issues of further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-path modernization, deploying more than 300 major reform measures to provide institutional and mechanical guarantees for the cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization. In addition to these landmark meetings, every Party Congress and relevant Central Committee Plenary Session since the 18th National Congress has made continuous arrangements for reform, pushing reform tasks to evolve and deepen, and opening a new situation where reform and opening up drive the cause of the Party and the state to achieve historical achievements and undergo historical changes.

— The People Above All. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that reform is meaningful only if it is for the people; reform has momentum only if it relies on the people. In the heart of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the people carry the most weight, which is vividly reflected in the process of comprehensively deepening reform. He always considers issues from the standpoint of the people, taking the promotion of social fairness and justice and the enhancement of people’s well-being as the starting point and ultimate goal of reform. He ensures that planning reform draws on the wisdom of the people, advancing reform gathers the strength of the people, and testing reform relies on the judgment of the people, making the process of comprehensively deepening reform one of wide participation and universal benefit.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes identifying the entry points and breakthroughs for reform by solving the benefit issues that concern the masses most directly and realistically. He insists on doing one's utmost while acting within one's means. In areas such as income distribution, employment, education, medicine and health, social security, elderly and childcare, public culture, and primary-level governance, he has introduced a large number of "hard-hitting" and effective measures that are widely recognized and supported by the masses. For example, in promoting the reform of the household registration system (hukou), urban and rural registration has been unified, the residence permit system has been fully implemented, and the historical problem of "unregistered persons" ^[5] has been basically resolved. Addressing the problems of expensive and difficult medical care about which the public complained strongly, he fully launched the comprehensive reform of public hospitals, abolished the "markup on medicine" mechanism, and cancelled the surcharges on drugs and medical consumables that had been in place for more than 60 years. He improved the drug supply guarantee system and the mechanism for ensuring the supply of drugs in short supply. During the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the shortcomings and deficiencies exposed in the medical and health system, he insisted on holistic planning, systematic reshaping, and comprehensive improvement. Centering on improving the mechanism for major epidemic prevention and control and the national public health emergency management system, he worked to iron out relationships and strengthen responsibilities at the institutional level to effectively protect people’s lives and health. Addressing the issue of educational equity, which is of general social concern, he coordinated the high-quality balanced development of compulsory education and urban-rural integration, optimized the allocation of regional educational resources, strengthened the inclusive development of preschool and special education, improved the modern vocational education system, and reduced the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education ^[6]. The educational gaps between urban and rural areas, regions, schools, and groups have been continuously narrowed. In response to trend-based issues such as aging, low fertility, and regional population shifts, he adjusted and improved policies on elderly care and childbirth, improved the population service system with a focus on "the elderly and the young," grasped the laws of population flow, promoted the principle of public services "following the person," and facilitated the rational concentration and orderly flow of urban and rural populations, bringing a real sense of gain to the people.

— Striving to Overcome Hardships. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that reform is a revolution; it changes systems and mechanisms and touches vested interests—it cannot be done without "real swords and spears" ^[7]. We must dare to "gnaw on hard bones" and "wade through dangerous shoals," directing reform toward the places where contradictions and problems are most prominent. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping, with the courage of self-revolution and the determination of "a warrior cutting off his own wrist" ^[8], has led and promoted comprehensively deepening reform. He has taken the knife to chronic ailments and "stubborn diseases" ^[9] accumulated over many years, marched toward the most difficult fortresses and dangerous passes, resolutely eliminated institutional and mechanical defects in all aspects, solved many difficult problems that had long been sought but not resolved, and accomplished many major tasks that had long been desired but not achieved.

In view of the deep-seated contradictions and problems that have long existed in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), General Secretary Xi Jinping, from the strategic height of consolidating the important material and political foundation for the cause of the Party and the state, determined to solve problems through institutional mechanisms. He strengthened and improved the Party's leadership over SOEs, promoted the optimized layout of the state-owned economy, improved the state-owned asset management system, strengthened supervision to prevent the loss of state-owned assets, and rationally determined and strictly regulated the compensation of SOE executives. By breaking through barriers and taking pragmatic actions, the Party's overall leadership over SOEs has been fundamentally strengthened, and the vitality, control, influence, and risk-resistance capacity of the state-owned economy have been continuously enhanced. General Secretary Xi Jinping regards the construction of ecological civilization as a fundamental plan for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation and has incorporated it into...

The "Five-Sphere Integrated Plan" overall layout begins with Party codes, national laws, and institutional mechanisms, adhering to an all-encompassing layout, systematic construction, and multi-layered advancement. It utilizes the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law to protect the ecological environment. This includes deploying the compilation of an ecological and environmental code; formulating or revising the Environmental Protection Law and over 30 other ecological and environmental laws and regulations; and issuing major reform plans for the overall system of ecological civilization ^[10] reform, natural resource asset property rights and use control, territorial space development and protection, ecological protection red lines, ecological environment zoning control, and compensation for ecological environmental damage. It has improved the ecological environment management system, established the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection system, and carried out a series of pioneering tasks. The construction of ecological civilization has become a prominent hallmark of the historic achievements and transformations in the cause of the Party and the state in the New Era. Facing a complex external environment where Great Changes Unseen in a Century ^[11] are intertwined with the pandemic of the century, General Secretary Xi Jinping has scrutinized the great changes with a grand vision and confronted great challenges with immense courage. He has taken the comprehensive deepening of reform as a critical handle for responding to changes and opening new horizons. Through forward-looking layouts and proactive actions, he has deepened reforms in key areas such as promoting high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and strength, building a modernized industrial system, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, building a strong domestic market, expanding high-level opening up to the outside world, and smoothing the domestic and international dual circulation, thereby injecting powerful vitality into economic and social development.

— Scientific advancement. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that reform and opening up is a brand-new undertaking without precedent, and we must adhere to a correct methodology and advance through continuous practical exploration. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly grasped the laws of reform, conducted in-depth investigations and research, used scientific methods to solve practical problems, and persisted in the unity of reform and the rule of law, and reform and opening up. He has maintained the dialectical unity of "breaking" and "establishing" ^[12], focusing on properly handling the relationships between emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, overall advancement and key breakthroughs, top-level design and "crossing the river by feeling the stones," being bold while taking steady steps, and deployment versus implementation. This has opened a new path and methodology for advancing reform scientifically and efficiently.

We persist in being daring and enterprising in strategy while remaining steady and sure in tactics. Centering on the realization of the general goal of comprehensively deepening reform and balancing current and long-term interests, we proposed phased goals: achieving decisive results in reforms of important areas and key links by 2020; achieving significant results in making the systems in all aspects more mature and defined by the centenary of the founding of the CPC; and further improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and basically achieving the modernization of the state governance system and governance capacity by 2035. Reforms are advanced in steps and with specific priorities. We organically combine overall coordination with highlighting key points, emphasizing the leading role of economic structural reform. Priority is given to major reforms of a "four beams and eight pillars" ^[13] nature—such as state-owned assets and enterprises, science and technology, land, regional development, fiscal and tax systems, finance, green development, and opening up—to provide foundational support for other reforms. We select key issues where "pulling one hair moves the whole body" ^[14] as breakthroughs for reform, playing a role in driving the whole from a single point and activating the entire landscape. We focus on clarifying the logical relationships between major reforms, strengthening systematic integration, and launching a series of reform "combination punches" in key areas. We grasp the synergy of plans, implementation, and results, promoting the coordinated advancement, mutual support, and comprehensive implementation of relevant reform measures to improve the overall effectiveness of reform. We focus on encouraging exploration and innovation. For reforms that must achieve breakthroughs but lack practical experience for the time being, we deploy pilot programs and encourage differentiated exploration. We define the target direction and bottom-line requirements while granting sufficient autonomy for reform, supporting local grassroots innovation to continuously create and accumulate fresh experience that can be replicated and promoted.

— Vigorous implementation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that "one part deployment, nine parts implementation" ^[15]; if one does not settle down to focus on implementation, even the best goals and blueprints will be nothing but "flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water" ^[16]. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has led by example and practiced what he preaches. For major reform tasks affecting the overall situation and important reform measures concerning the vital interests of the masses, he has always carried them on his shoulders, held them in his hands, and kept them in his heart, following through to the end with the "spirit of driving a nail" ^[17] to promote the implementation and effectiveness of reforms, setting an example for the whole Party.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has chaired numerous meetings of the Central Commission (and formerly the Leading Group) for Comprehensively Deepening Reform to review implementation reports on important reforms and pilot tasks. He has arranged special meetings to study reform implementation, listened to reports from special groups, responsible departments, and principal leading comrades of local governments on their progress, summarized and exchanged experiences, and deployed related work. He emphasizes the role of reform inspections, stressing that we must not only inspect tasks, progress, and results, but also examine understanding, responsibility, and work style. The implementation of major reforms is integrated into supervision, inspections, and disciplinary tours to ensure that the direction of reform determined by the Party Central Committee does not deviate and that the tasks clarified by the Party Central Committee are not left unfulfilled. We focus on stimulating and mobilizing the initiative and creativity of all parties in implementing reform, combining ideological and political work with the improvement of personnel selection criteria. We strictly implement the "Three Distinctions," ^[18] improve incentive and constraint mechanisms, and strictly evaluate performance to promote a clear orientation that encourages cadres to be enterprising and proactive in their careers. We focus on conducting publicity and guidance for reform, promptly releasing policy measures, vigorously promoting progress and achievements, closely tracking hot spots and difficulties of wide social concern, strengthening authoritative interpretations, and reasonably guiding expectations to create a favorable atmosphere for comprehensively deepening reform.

The reform and opening up of our country, especially the comprehensive deepening of reform in the New Era, is unprecedented and rare in the world. Looking across the globe, no other country or political party could have such political courage and historical responsibility to dare to take such drastic measures, "turn the blade inward," and carry out self-revolution. Nor could any other country or party promote such a wide-ranging, large-scale, and high-intensity reform in such a short period of time. This is fundamentally due to the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core being at the helm, and the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The special topic "Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform" in the fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China mainly collects General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourses on further comprehensively deepening reform since the Second Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. It points out the forward direction, strategic priorities, and scientific path for the continued advancement of reform. We must deeply study and comprehend General Secretary Xi Jinping’s latest ideological and theoretical achievements on comprehensively deepening reform, systematically and comprehensively understand and grasp the scientific connotation and spiritual essence of his series of new ideas, viewpoints, and judgments. We must advance the great cause of comprehensively deepening reform with a stronger sense of historical initiative, providing a powerful impetus and institutional guarantee for Chinese-path modernization.