The Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the CPC

It was convened in Beijing from November 9 to 12, 2013. The Plenary Session focused on several major issues concerning the comprehensive deepening of reform. The Plenary Session listened to and discussed Xi Jinping's work report entrusted by the Central Political Bureau, and considered and adopted the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform”. Xi Jinping made a statement to the Plenary Session on the “Decision (Discussion Draft)”.

The Plenary Session pointed out that Reform and Opening-up is the most distinctive feature of contemporary China, and is the key choice to determine the destiny of China in modern times. In the face of the new situation and new tasks, it is necessary to comprehensively deepen reform at a new historical starting point. The Plenary Session pointed out that the overall objective of comprehensively deepening reform is to improve and develop the the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and promote the modernization of the national governance system and ruling capacity of the Party. It must be paid more attention to the systemic, holistic and synergistic nature of reform, and accelerate the development of socialist market economy, democratic politics, advanced culture, harmonious society and ecological civilization.The Plenary Session proposed to comprehensively deepen the reform: To focus on making the market play a decisive role in the allocation of resources to deepen the reform of the economic system; focus on adhering to the leadership of the Party, the people in charge, the organic unity of the rule of law to deepen the reform of the political system; focus on building the the system of Socialist core values, to deepen the reform of the cultural system; to focus on better protection and improvement of people's livelihood, to promote social justice and deepen the reform of the social system; to focus on building a beautiful China and deepen the reform of the ecological civilization system; to focus on improving the level of scientific governance, democratic governance, rule of law and deepen the reform of the Party building system.

The Plenary Session made systematic arrangements for deepening reform across the board, emphasizing adherence to and improvement of the basic economic system, accelerating the improvement of the modern market system, accelerating the transformation of government functions, deepening the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, improving the institutional mechanism for the integration of urban and rural development, building a new system of open economy, strengthening the building of socialist democratic political system, promoting the building of China under the rule of law, strengthening the system of constraints and supervision of power operation, promoting the cultural system and mechanism innovation, promote social reform and innovation, innovation in social governance system, accelerate the building of ecological civilization system, deepen the reform of national defense and military, and strengthen and improve the Party's leadership in deepening reform.

The Plenary Session pointed out that the economic system reform is the focus of the comprehensive deepening of reform, the core issue is to deal with the relationship between the government and the market, so that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources and better play the role of the government. The Plenary Session required that by 2020, the reform in important areas and key links to achieve decisive results, the formation of a complete system, scientific norms, effective operation of the system, so that all aspects of the system more mature and more established. The Plenary Session also considered and adopted the Work Plan 2013-2017 for Establishing a Sound System for Punishing and Preventing Corruption, and the Opinions on the Transformation of Local Government Functions and Institutional Reform.