Luo Wendong: Providing More Complete Institutional Guarantees for National Rejuvenation
For over 40 years of reform and opening up, our Party has led the people in painting a magnificent and majestic historical scroll. As socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the New Era, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has pushed reform to exert force across all fronts, achieve breakthroughs at multiple points, maintain a "swift yet steady" pace [1], and advance into deep waters. Moving from laying foundations and erecting pillars [2] to comprehensive advancement and accumulating momentum, and then to systemic integration and synergistic efficiency, the foundational institutional frameworks in various fields have been basically established. Historical transformations, systemic reshaping, and holistic reconstruction have been realized in many areas. Great historical achievements have been made in comprehensively deepening reform, writing a brilliant chapter in the history of reform and opening up.
The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee sounded the clarion call for comprehensively deepening reform, making deployments for reforms in the economic system, political system, cultural system, social system, ecological civilization system, national defense and the military, and the Party building system. It clarified that the general goal of comprehensively deepening reform is "to improve and develop the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to promote the modernization of the state governance system and governance capacity." It elucidated the major significance, strategic priorities, priorities, main directions, working mechanisms, promotion methods, timelines, and roadmaps for comprehensively deepening reform, which possesses epoch-making significance. The 19th CPC National Congress established "persisting in comprehensively deepening reform" as a basic strategy for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, emphasizing the construction of a system of institutions that is complete, scientific, standardized, and effective in operation, to give full play to the superiorities of our country's socialist system. The Third Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee adopted the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Deepening Reform of Party and State Institutions and the Plan for Deepening Reform of Party and State Institutions, conducting a systemic and holistic reconstruction of the organizational structures and management systems of the Party and the state, providing a powerful organizational guarantee for improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoting the modernization of the state governance system and governance capacity. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee systemically integrated the theoretical, institutional, and practical fruits of comprehensively deepening reform since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, providing a clearer top-level design for comprehensively deepening reform in the New Era and offering fundamental guidance for the systemic integration and synergistic efficiency of these reforms.
Theoretical innovation brings about breakthroughs in practice. Under the leadership of the Party, we have broken through the shackles of outdated ideas, breached the barriers of entrenched interests [3], and eliminated the defects in various systems and mechanisms. Actively responding to the risks and challenges brought by changes in the external environment, we have realized the transition of reform from local exploration and "breaking the ice" [4] to systemic integration and comprehensive deepening. By the end of 2020, a total of 2,485 reform plans had been launched. The foundational institutional frameworks involving all links—such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, education, medical care, and elderly care—and various fields of economy and society have been basically established. The reform goals and tasks proposed at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee were generally completed on schedule, providing the fundamental momentum for driving the cause of the Party and the state to achieve historical success and undergo historical transformation.
Opening up and reform complement and promote each other. Facing a complex and volatile international situation, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has unswervingly expanded opening up to the outside world, implemented a more proactive opening strategy, and promoted the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. Adhering to the principle of "extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits," we have promoted the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, making it a widely welcomed international public good and platform for international cooperation. We persist in the mutual promotion of domestic and international opening up, better combining "bringing in" [5] with "going global" [6], promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, building a network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world, and promoting institutional opening up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. This has formed a pattern of opening up to the outside world characterized by a wider scope, broader fields, and deeper levels, continuously strengthening our country's new advantages in international cooperation and competition. As the world's largest country in goods trade, the second largest in services trade, and the second largest in the use of foreign capital, China is a major trading partner for nearly 200 economies. It has signed more than 200 cooperation documents for the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative with 149 countries and 32 international organizations, playing a new movement of common prosperity and peaceful development.
Reform and opening up have mobilized the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of hundreds of millions of people, stimulated the vitality of economic and social development, and greatly promoted socialist modernization. In 2021, China’s GDP reached 114.4 trillion yuan, firmly ranking second in the world; GDP per capita exceeded 12,000 USD. The contribution rate of scientific and technological progress exceeded 60%, the output of intellectual property rights ranked among the top in the world, and international patent applications have ranked first globally for three consecutive years. The vitality of market entities has increased significantly, with the total number of registered market entities increasing from 55 million in 2012 to 161 million by the end of June 2022. We have built the world's largest social security system. As of the end of June 2022, the number of people participating in basic old-age, unemployment, and work-related injury insurance nationwide reached 1.04 billion, 233 million, and 286 million respectively, and basic medical insurance covered 1.36 billion people. The Human Development Index (HDI) has significantly improved; among the 47 countries that were in the low human development group in 1990, China is the only one that has entered the high human development group.
The practice of the 10 years of the New Era fully proves that reform and opening up is an important "magic weapon" [7] for the Party and the people to catch up with the times in long strides, the only path for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the "key move" [8] that determines the fate of contemporary China. It is also the key move for achieving the Two Centenary Goals and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As comprehensively deepening reform marches toward greater breadth and depth, the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics has become more mature and finalized, and the level of modernization of the state governance system and governance capacity has been continuously improved, providing a more perfect institutional guarantee for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.