The 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued a communique at the end of its three-day third plenary session, which concluded Wednesday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, makes an important speech at the third plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The session was held from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made an important speech at the session presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting was attended by 202 CPC Central Committee members and 171 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. Deputy secretaries of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and senior officials of relevant departments were also present at the meeting.

The plenary meeting heard and discussed a work report delivered by Xi, who was entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The session adopted a list of proposed candidates for state leadership, which is scheduled to be recommended to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC).

It also adopted a proposed candidate list for the leadership of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is to be recommended to the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

The plenary session decided to recommend the two lists respectively to the presidium of the first session of the 13th NPC and the presidium of the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, according to the communique.

The annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC National Committee are scheduled to open on March 5 and March 3, respectively.

According to the communique, the plenary session reviewed and adopted a decision by the CPC Central Committee on deepening reform of Party and state institutions as well as a plan for the reform.

The session also agreed to put part of the reform plan to the first session of the 13th NPC for deliberation in accordance with due legal procedures.

The communique said the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee well implemented the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the first and second plenary sessions of the Central Committee in face of complicated international situation and heavy domestic tasks of advancing reform and development and maintaining stability.

The Political Bureau has upheld Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and enhanced Party's leadership over all work, according to the document.

The Political Bureau has upheld the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, had the courage to break new ground, worked diligently, and ensured coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, the document said.

Leading the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups with firm faith and strong motivation, the Political Bureau has worked hard to deepen reform in all areas, maintain stable and healthy economic growth, promote law-based governance and the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, forestall and defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation, prevent and control pollution, exercise strict governance over the Party, improve work style, promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological advancement and management of the Party, the communique said.

The first sessions of the 13th NPC and the 13th CPPCC National Committee are important for mobilizing the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, the document said.

Deeper reform of Party and state institutions is a profound evolution in modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, it said.

Party and state institutions form an important part of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and a significant guarantee for Party's governance, it noted.

Led by the CPC, China established socialism as its basic system and gradually created the system for the function of Party and state institutions with Chinese characteristics after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it read.

During the process of socialist construction and reform and opening up, the Party actively advanced the reform of Party and state institutions and gradually optimized and standardized their functions, it said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has worked toward the overall goal of improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, while modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.

The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core strengthened Party leadership, focused on solving problems, highlighted major fields, deepened reform of Party and state institutions, made major progress in important fields and key areas, which provided a guarantee for the historic achievements and shifts in the cause of the Party and the country, it said.

Faced with new requirements for various tasks in the new era, the current function and structure of Party and state institutions are not completely suitable for coordinately implementing the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, nor for modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, it said.

The whole Party must unite in thought, be confident, grasp opportunities and resolve to tackle obstacles and disadvantages of the system for Party and state institutions during the process of deepening reform in all areas.

The whole Party must accelerate and advance the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance and give full play to the advantages of China's socialist system, it said.

Overall Party leadership must be implemented and upheld, while the people-centered, optimized, coordinated and efficient principle, as well as law-based governance must be upheld in deepening reform of Party and state institutions, according to the communique.

The guiding thought for deepening reform of Party and state institutions is to implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The reform should also adapt to the needs of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, keep the reform in the right direction, take a people-centered approach and adhere to law-based governance.

To carry out the reform, it is essential to take strengthening the Party's overall leadership as the overarching principle, take modernization of state system and capacity for governance as the guidance, and take enhancing efficiency and optimization of Party and state institutions as the focus of efforts, it said.

The communique also called for efforts to reform the institutional setting, optimize function disposition, and improve efficiency and effectiveness to provide an institutional guarantee to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, as well as embark on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist China and realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.  

The goals of deepening reform of Party and state institutions include:

-- establishing a Party and state institutional function system that is well conceived, fully built, procedure based, and efficiently functioning;

-- forming a CPC leadership system that ensures the Party always provides overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all involved, a law-based administrative governance system with clear functions and responsibilities, a world-class armed forces system with Chinese characteristics, as well as a sound work system of people's organizations for bridging and serving the general populace;

-- promoting coordinated actions and resultant forces among the people' s congresses, governments, political advisory bodies, and supervisory, judicial and prosecutorial organs, people's organizations, enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations under the unified leadership of the CPC.

Deeper reform on the CPC and state institutions will improve China's governance level and capacity, according to the communique.

A primary task of deepening reform of the Party and state institutions is to improve the system for upholding overall Party leadership in a bid to strengthen the CPC's leadership in every sector, ensure its all-encompassing coverage and make it more forceful.

Efforts should be made to establish and improve the institutions and mechanisms by which the Party exercises leadership over major tasks, and elevate the status of Party organizations among organizations of the same level.

The reform should also give better play to the role of the Party's functionary department, set up Party and government institutions with integrated plans, and advance reform of the Party's disciplinary inspection and the country's supervisory systems.

The CPC Central Committee has stressed the need to transform government functions and the resolve to remove institutional barriers so that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and the government plays its role better.

The transformation should focus on promoting high-quality development, developing a modernized economy, adjusting and optimizing functions of government institutions as well as allocating the functions of macro-management institutions in a reasonable way, according to the document.

It called on efforts to further streamline administration and delegate powers.

It also stressed better systems of market supervision, natural resources and environmental management, and public service management.

The government must strengthen operational and post-operational oversight, enhance administrative efficiency and government effectiveness to build itself into a service-oriented government able to satisfy the needs of the people, according to the communique.

The CPC will promote coordinated reforms of institutions in the Party, the government, the military and people's organizations, according to the document.

Such reforms are necessities for strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC leadership as well as achieving the coordinated and effective functions of these institutions, according to the communique.

The reform should eye optimizing the functions of Party departments, state organs, people's organizations and public institutions. The arrangement of Party and government organs should be improved, according to the communique.

It calls on deepening reforms for the people's congresses, political advisory bodies and judicial organs.

The reform should strengthen the CPC leadership, enhance the government's administrative capacity, inspire vitality of the people's organizations and social organizations, sharpen military combat capability so that various institutions connect and coordinate with each other.

The CPC Central Committee called for improved relations between central and local authorities.

A relationship with clearly defined responsibilities is key to governing a big country like ours, said the communique.

It said the setup of central and local institutions and the allocation of responsibilities should be improved to build a smooth, vigorous system in which orders are executed without fail.

While the central authorities will strengthen macro-management, the local authorities should carry out orders from the top to the detail and do their jobs well. More decision making power should be given to organs at and below the provincial level.

At local levels, the setup of institutions should be improved, each with clearly defined work responsibilities to strengthen local governance, the document said.

The CPC Central Committee envisions a lean and effective grassroots governance system.

The communique also said it was important to legalize the staffing of institutions. Rules and regulations should be drawn to better define the functions, powers, responsibilities and operations of such institutions.

Identifying reform as a complex project, the plenary session asked Party committees and governments at various levels to concentrate on fully implementing the reform decision and to provide guarantees to reform in accordance with the law and regulations. They were also required to pursue reform in a more systematic, holistic, and coordinated way.

The plenary session called on the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, achieve unity in thought and action, and ensure the full implementation of tasks in institutional reform. Continued efforts are needed to improve the system of Party and state institutions that are well-conceived, fully built, procedure based, and functioning efficiently, said the communique.

It also called for hard work to secure a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to speed up the socialist modernization and to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.