Explanatory Notes to the “Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Continuing the Reform”

On November 9, 2013, Xi Jinping made a statement on the “Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Continuing the Reform” at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC. Contained in from Selection and Compilation of Important Documents since the 18th National Congress (Vol.1 ). The full text is divided into three parts.

The first part: “The Drafting Process of the Decision.” Since the Reform and Opening-up initiative was introduced in1978, all the Third Plenary sessions of later CPC Central Committee meetings have provided the public with important information for judging the governance policy and focus of the new generations of Party leadership. The discussion topics, decisions made, measures to take, and signals released bore great significance for the Party’s work in the five to ten years following the plenary sessions.

The second part is: “The Great Framework and Key Issues of the Decision”, stressed five major considerations in drafting this current Plenary Decision, the framework structure and layout of the decision, and focuses on introducing and explaining several major issues and major initiatives.

First is allowing the market to play the decisive role in allocating resources and letting the government perform its functions better. This is a major theoretical proposition in the “Decision”, because the reform of the economic system is still the focus of continuing the reform comprehensively, and the appropriate handling of the relationship between the government and the market is still the core issue of the reform of the economic system. Second is adhering to and improving the basic economic system. The basic economic system with public ownership playing a leading role and all forms of ownership growing side by side is an important pillar of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Third is continuing the reform of the fiscal and taxation systems" to better play its role. One of the aims of the reform is to develop fiscal and taxation systems that are compatible with the financial resources and authority of office of the central and local governments; and mobilize the initiative of both the central and local governments. Fourth is the establishment of mechanisms and institutions for the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Fifth is promoting wide, multi-tiered and institutionalized consultative democracy. Promoting consultative democracy is conducive to improving the people’s orderly participation in political affairs, strengthening the ties between the Party and the people, and promoting scientific and democratic decision-making. Sixth is reform of the judiciary and its operation mechanism. There are measures of vital significance for ensuring that judicial departments independently exercise their judicial and procuratorial powers according to law, improving the judicial power operation mechanism in which rights and responsibilities are clear, improving judicial transparency and credibility, and safeguarding human rights. Seventh is improving leading and working mechanisms for anticorruption efforts. Eighth is accelerating the improvement of the leadership for the management of the Internet. Ninth is the establishment of the National Security Commission. Tenth is the improvement of the country’s natural resource management and oversight systems. Improving the country’s natural resource management system is an important reform for developing the property right system for natural resources. It is also the intrinsic requirement for building an ecology friendly country with complete support systems for ecological conservation. Elventh is the establishment of the Leading Group for Continuing the Reform Comprehensively under the CPC Central Committee.

The third part titled as the "Several matters that require attention in discussion" has put forward the task of this plenary session is to discuss the guiding thoughts and the strategyfor continuing the reform comprehensively as proposed in the “Decision”. Firstly, we must be more confident and courageous in pushing forward reform; Secondly, we must continue to free our minds and seek truth from facts; Thirdly, we must put the interests of the state first when making deliberations. The explanations made by Xi Jinping at the plenary session have unified the Party's thoughts, clarified the strategic focus, priority order, main directions of work, working mechanism, advancement method and timetable and path map of comprehensively deepening the reform, which is of great theoretical and actual significance for the continuous self-improvement and development of China's socialist system with Chinese characteristics.