Reform: Nation's major initiatives
'consequential'
BEIJING, July 15,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report
from chinadaily.com.cn:
China's policymakers are
gathering in Beijing on Monday for
an epoch-making meeting to advance the nation's reform and
opening-up, amid high expectations that key steps will be
introduced to further energize the world's second-largest economy
and bolster its modernization drive.
The third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China
Central Committee, scheduled from Monday to Thursday, will
deliberate on a key policy document on deepening reform across the
board and advancing Chinese modernization, the CPC's core
leadership announced last month.
Ahead of the historic session, Xi Jinping, general secretary of
the CPC Central Committee, presided over a host of meetings to set
the tone for the key plenum and chart the direction for the
nation's future reform.
He highlighted that "the furthering of reform must focus on
refining and developing the system of socialism with Chinese
characteristics, and advance modernization of the country's
governance system and governance capacity".
"Our efforts in reform and development ultimately aim to enable
the people to live better lives," Xi, who is also Chinese
president, told a symposium attended by experts and entrepreneurs
in May.
A readout of a key Party meeting presided over by Xi in February
said: "Reform measures need to be sharply focused, targeting the
most pressing problems. Reform efforts must be substantial and
impactful."
Historically, third plenums have been pivotal in setting the
direction for major economic and political reforms. The third
plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 marked the
beginning of China's reform and
opening-up drive under Deng
Xiaoping, setting the country on a path to economic
transformation.
Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, said that President
Xi has persisted in using the key strategy of reform and opening-up
to address developmental challenges and respond to risks and
challenges along the path of progress.
"Since 1978, China has
introduced major initiatives to advance reform and opening-up to
higher levels almost every decade, unleashing significant dividends
for its economic development," Wang said.
The policy dividends from this week's plenary session will
enable Beijing to better navigate
complexities in global landscapes, advance transformation,
upgrading and high-quality growth of the economy, and enhance the
people's sense of gain, he said.
China, after having lifted more
than 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades,
is now facing a new strategic goal of ensuring common prosperity
for all, he noted.
To meet such a policy goal, Wang said the Party should continue
to carry out broader reforms to close the divide between urban and
rural areas, including steps to reform the rural land system and
allow farmers to transfer the right to use their homesteads, to
boost urbanization and further energize growth.
Other analysts have underlined the session as pivotal in shaping
China's policy directions in the
next five years and beyond.
Bert Hofman, adjunct professor at
the East Asian Institute of National
University of Singapore, said this week's plenary session
presents a key opportunity for developing a comprehensive reform
agenda and anchoring the expectations of businesses and households
on a common agenda.
"There is wide recognition among China's leadership that further reforms in the
economic system are essential for achieving high-quality growth,"
Hofman said.
"Fiscal policies are critical for more shared growth,
but hukou (household registration), education and
health policies are equally critical in building a society that
offers equal chances for all," he said.
Hofman said the session would be "a time for delivering on the
details, on how these concepts translate into policy frameworks and
specific policy measures".
Einar Tangen, a senior fellow
with the Beijing-based Taihe
Institute, said he is impressed by the host of reforms China has undertaken over the past decade,
including the eradication of extreme poverty and reducing the
negative list for market access of foreign businesses. "The need
for efficiency and accountability has been the overriding goal of
President Xi and the CPC," he said.
Going forward, Tangen highlighted the need for China to move up the global value chain and
develop new quality productive forces, essentially higher-value
innovative products and services for which Chinese companies own
the intellectual property, enabling businesses to increase their
margins and the wages paid to their workers.
"As an economy that contributes to one-third of the global
growth, any major initiative by the Chinese government is
consequential," he added.
Zheng Yongnian, a professor of politics at Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), said in an interview last month
that Xi has provided the direction for advancing China's reform in sectors of high
complexities, where the deepening of comprehensive reform must
align closely with the theme of advancing Chinese
modernization.
"Chinese modernization represents the highest standard of
modernization today, encompassing material modernization,
institutional modernization and human modernization," he said.
Zheng highlighted the significance of China optimizing its visa policies for many
countries and making it easier for foreigners to live and work in
China, saying that such moves hold
"strategic significance" in the nation's opening-up.
"China, in spite of the
internal and external pressures it is facing, will not slow down
its pace of reform and opening-up. This commitment is not only for
the nation's own benefit, but also for global stability and
prosperity."
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SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn