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General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
and Chinese President Jiang Zemin delivers a report to the 16th Party's
National Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday
morning. In the report, Jiang said China
will try to quadruple its GDP of the year 2000 by 2020, when China's
overall national strength and international competitiveness will increase
markedly. The following is the full text of Jiang Zemin's report delivered
at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Nov. 8, 2002, entitled "Build a Well-off Society in an All-Round Way
and Create a New Situation in Building Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics":
Comrades,
Now I would like to make a report to the congress on
behalf of the Fifteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
(CPC).
The Sixteenth National Congress of the CPC is the first
of its kind held by our Party in the new century. It is a very important
congress convened by our Party in the new situation in which we have begun
to take the third step of the strategic plan for socialist modernization.
The theme of the congress is to hold high the great
banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory, fully act on the important thought of Three
Represents, carry forward our cause into the future, keep pace with the
times, build a well-off society in an all-round way, speed up socialist
modernization and work hard to create a new situation in building socialism
with Chinese characteristics.
As human society entered the 21st century, we started a
new phase of development for building a well-off society in an all-round
way and speeding up socialist modernization. The international situation is
undergoing profound changes. The trends toward world multipolarization and
economic globalization are developing amidst twists and turns. Science and
technology are advancing rapidly. Competition in overall national strength
is becoming increasingly fierce. Given this pressing situation, we must
move forward, or we will fall behind. Our Party must stand firm in the
forefront of the times and unite with and lead the Chinese people of all
ethnic groups in accomplishing the three major historical tasks: to propel
the modernization drive, to achieve national reunification and to safeguard
world peace and promote common development, and in bringing about the great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on its road to socialism with Chinese
characteristics. This is a grand mission history and the era have entrusted
to our Party.
I. Work of the Past Five Years and Basic Experience of
13 Years
The five years since the Fifteenth National Congress of
the CPC have been a period in which we have held high the great banner of
Deng Xiaoping Theory and kept blazing new trails in a pioneering spirit,
and a period in which we have continued to forge ahead triumphantly on the
road to socialism with Chinese characteristics in spite of difficulties and
risks.
At the Fifteenth National Congress, Deng Xiaoping
Theory was established as the Party's guiding ideology, the Party's basic
program for the primary stage of socialism was put forward, and the
objectives and tasks for China's
cross-century development were specified. Acting in the spirit of the
congress, the Central Committee held seven plenary sessions at which it
made decisions and plans on such major issues as agriculture and rural
work, the reform and development of state-owned enterprises, the
formulation of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) and the improvement of
the Party's work style. Over the past five years, we have traversed an
extraordinary course and scored tremendous achievements in reform, development
and stability, domestic and foreign affairs and national defense and in
running the Party, state and army.
The national economy has maintained a sustained, rapid
and sound development. By pursuing the principle of stimulating domestic
demand and adopting the proactive fiscal policy and the sound monetary
policy in good time, we overcame the adverse effects the Asian financial
crisis and world economic fluctuations had on China,
and maintained a relatively rapid economic growth. The strategic adjustment
of the economic structure has been crowned with success. The position of
agriculture as the foundation of the economy has been strengthened.
Traditional industries have been upgraded. High and new technology
industries and modern services have gained speed. A large number of
infrastructure projects in such areas as water conservancy, transportation,
telecommunications, energy and environmental protection have been
completed. Significant headway has been made in the large-scale development
of China's western region. Economic returns have further improved.
National revenue has kept growing. The Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) was
fulfilled and the Tenth Five-Year Plan has seen a good start.
Reform and opening up have yielded substantial results.
The socialist market economy has taken shape initially. The public sector
of the economy has expanded and steady progress has been made in the reform
of state-owned enterprises. Self-employed or private enterprises and other
non-public sectors of the economy have developed fairly fast. The work of
building up the market system has been in full swing. The macro-control
system has improved constantly. The pace of change in government functions
has been quickened. Reform in finance, taxation, banking, distribution, housing,
government institutions and other areas has continued to deepen. The open
economy has developed swiftly. Trade in commodities and services and
capital flow have grown markedly. China's foreign exchange reserves have
risen considerably. With its accession to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), China has entered a new stage in its opening up.
Notable progress has been registered in improving
socialist democracy and spiritual civilization. Continued efforts have been
made to improve democracy and the legal system. New steps have been taken
in political restructuring. The patriotic united front has grown stronger.
Further progress has been made in the work relating to ethnic, religious
and overseas Chinese affairs. Fresh progress has been made in keeping
public order through comprehensive measures. Science, technology,
education, culture, health, sports, family planning and other undertakings
have moved ahead. The media and publicity work as well as ideological and
moral education have kept improving. The people's cultural life has become
increasingly rich and colorful.
New strides have been taken in strengthening national
defense and army building. Efforts have been redoubled to make the People's
Liberation Army more revolutionary, modernized and regularized. Our
national defense capabilities and the army's defense and combat
effectiveness have further improved. The army, the armed police and the
militia have played an important role in defending and building up our
motherland.
On the whole, the people have reached a well-off
standard of living. The income of urban and rural residents has gone up
steadily. The urban and rural markets have been brisk, and there has been
an ample supply of goods. The quality of life of the residents has been on
the rise, with considerable improvement in food, clothing, housing,
transport and daily necessities. There has been marked progress in building
the social security system. The seven-year program to help 80 million
people out of poverty has been in the main fulfilled.
Fresh progress has been made in the great cause of
national reunification. The Chinese Government has resumed the exercise of
sovereignty over Macao. The principle of "one country, two
systems" has been implemented and the basic laws of Hong Kong and Macao
special administrative regions have been carried out to the letter. Hong
Kong and Macao enjoy social and economic stability. Personnel, economic and
cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Straits have kept increasing. The
fight against "Taiwan independence" and other attempts to split
the country has been going on in depth.
New prospects have been opened up in our external work.
In light of the developments and changes in the international situation, we
have adhered to the correct foreign policy and related principles. We have
carried out both bilateral and multilateral diplomatic activities
extensively and taken an active part in international exchanges and
cooperation. China's international standing has risen still further.
Party building has been strengthened in an all-round
way. All the Party members have steadily intensified their study of Deng
Xiaoping Theory. We have put forward and expounded the important thought of
Three Represents. Good results have been produced in the intensive
education in the need to stress study, political awareness and integrity
and in the study of the "Three Represents". An all-out endeavor
has been made to build up the Party ideologically, organizationally and in
work style. Our ideological and political work has been strengthened. New
steps have been taken in the reform of the personnel system. The endeavor
to build a clean and honest government and combat corruption has been going
on in depth and yielding fresh notable results.
Facts prove that the major policy decisions taken by
the Central Committee at and since the Fifteenth National Congress are
correct and accord with the fundamental interests of the overwhelming
majority of the people. Our achievements are the outcome of the united
endeavor of the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups of the
country. They provide a more solid foundation for the future development of
the cause of the Party and state.
We must be clearly aware that there are still quite a
few difficulties and problems in our work. The income of farmers and some
urban residents has increased only slowly. The number of the unemployed has
gone up. Some people are still badly off. Things have yet to be
straightened out in the matter of income distribution. The order of the
market economy has to be further rectified and standardized. Public order
is poor in some places. Formalism, the bureaucratic style of work,
falsification, extravagance and waste are still serious problems among some
leading cadres in our Party, and corruption is still conspicuous in some
places. The Party's way of leadership and governance does not yet entirely
meet the requirements of the new situation and new tasks. Some Party
organizations are feeble and lax. We must pay close attention to these
problems and continue to take effective measures to solve them.
Our achievements over the past five years have been
scored through reform and opening up, especially through our practice since
the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee in 1989.
These 13 years have witnessed a highly volatile international situation and
a magnificent upsurge of China's reform, opening up and modernization. From
the late 1980s to the early 1990s, there occurred serious political
disturbances in China, drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the
disintegration of the Soviet Union. Socialism in the world suffered serious
setbacks. China was faced with unprecedented difficulties and pressure in
its efforts to develop the socialist cause. At this crucial historical
juncture bearing on the destiny of the Party and state, the Party Central
Committee relied firmly on all the comrades in the Party and the Chinese
people of all ethnic groups and unswervingly adhered to the line prevailing
since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and thus
successfully brought the overall situation of reform and development under
control and safeguarded the great cause of socialism with Chinese
characteristics. After Comrade Deng Xiaoping made remarks on his tour of
the South, the Fourteenth National Congress decided to establish a
socialist market economy as the goal of reform, thus ushering in a new
stage for reform, opening up and the modernization drive. To develop a
market economy under socialism is a great pioneering undertaking never tried
before in history. It is a historic contribution of the Chinese Communists
to the development of Marxism. It has given expression to our Party's
tremendous courage to persist in making theoretical innovation and keeping
pace with the times. The shift from the planned economy to the socialist
market economy represented a new historic breakthrough in reform and
opening up and brought about entirely new prospects for China's economic,
political and cultural progress. After the demise of Comrade Deng Xiaoping,
we held high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and made pioneering
efforts to advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics into
the 21st century in an all-round way.
Over the past 13 years, with clearly defined
objectives, we worked with one heart and one mind and scored historic
achievements. In 2001, China's GDP reached 9.5933 trillion yuan, almost
tripling that of 1989, representing an average annual increase of 9.3
percent. China came up to the sixth place in the world in terms of economic
aggregate. On the whole, the people made a historic leap from having only
adequate food and clothing to leading a well-off life. As is universally
recognized, the 13 years have been a period in which China's overall
national strength has risen by a big margin, the people have received more
tangible benefits than ever before, and China has enjoyed long-term social
stability and solidarity and had a good government and a united people.
China's influence in the world has grown notably, and the cohesion of the
nation has increased remarkably. The hard work of our Party and people and
their great achievements have attracted worldwide attention and will surely
go down as a glorious page in the annals of the great rejuvenation of the
Chinese nation.
A review of these 13 years shows that we have traversed
a tortuous course and that our achievements are hard won. We have responded
confidently to a series of unexpected international events bearing on
China's sovereignty and security. We have surmounted difficulties and risks
arising from the political and economic spheres and from nature. We have
gone through one trial after another and removed all kinds of obstacles,
thus ensuring that our reform, opening up and modernization drive have been
forging ahead in the correct direction like a ship braving surging waves.
We have attained these successes by relying on the correct guidance of the
Party's basic theory, line and program, on the high degree of unity and
solidarity of the Party and on the tenacious work of the whole Party and
the people of all ethnic groups around the country.
Here, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, I wish to
express our heartfelt thanks to the people of all our ethnic groups, the
democratic parties, people's organizations and patriots from all walks of
life, to our compatriots in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,
the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan as well as overseas
Chinese, and to our foreign friends who care about and support China's
modernization drive!
The practice of the 13 years has helped us acquire a
deeper understanding of what socialism is, how to build it, and what kind
of Party to build and how to build it, and we have gained most valuable
experience in this regard.
1. Uphold Deng Xiaoping Theory as our guide and
constantly bring forth theoretical innovation. Deng Xiaoping Theory is our
banner, and the Party's basic line and program are the fundamental
guidelines for every field of our work. Whatever difficulties and risks we
may come up against, we must unswervingly abide by the Party's basic
theory, line and program. We should persist in arming the entire Party
membership with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping
Theory and using them to educate our people. We should continue to
emancipate our minds, seek truth from facts, keep pace with the times and
make innovations in a pioneering spirit. We should respect the creativity
of the general public and test and develop the Party's theory, line,
principles and policies in practice.
2. Keep economic development as the central task and
solve problems cropping up on our way forward through development.
Development is the fundamental principle. We must seize all opportunities
to accelerate development. Development calls for new ideas. We should stick
to the principle of expanding domestic demand and implement the strategy of
national rejuvenation through science and education and that of sustainable
development. While seeking speed, we should pay attention to structure,
quality and efficiency, and while propelling economic development, we
should take into consideration population, resources and the environment.
On the basis of economic growth, we need to promote all-round social
progress, constantly better people's lives and ensure that all the people
share the fruits of development.
3. Persevere in reform and opening up and keep
improving the socialist market economy. Reform and opening up are ways to
make China powerful. We must press ahead with the reform in all areas
resolutely. The reform must be promoted realistically, comprehensively and
progressively with breakthroughs made in key areas and emphasis placed on
institutional improvement and innovation. We should follow the orientation
of reform toward the socialist market economy and make sure that the market
forces playan essential role in the allocation of resources under the
state's macroeconomic control. By both "bringing in" and
"going out", we should actively participate in international
economic and technological cooperation and competition and open wider to
the outside world.
4. Adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles (*Note 1) and
develop socialist democracy. The Four Cardinal Principles are the very
foundation on which we build our country. We must uphold leadership by the
CPC and consolidate and improve the state system-a people's democratic
dictatorship and the system of political power - the people's congresses.
We should uphold and improve the system of multiparty cooperation and
political consultation led by the Communist Party and the system of
regional ethnic autonomy. We should promote political restructuring,
develop democracy, improve the legal system, rule the country by law, build
a socialist state under the rule of law and ensure that the people exercise
their rights as the masters of the country.
5. Attach equal importance to both material and
spiritual civilization and run the country by combining the rule of law
with the rule of virtue. Socialist spiritual civilization is an important
attribute of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Basing ourselves on
China's realities, we must carry forward the fine tradition of our national
culture and absorb the achievements of foreign cultures in building
socialist spiritual civilization. We should unceasingly upgrade the
ideological and ethical standards as well as the scientific and cultural
qualities of the entire people so as to provide a strong motivation and
intellectual support for the modernization drive.
6. Ensure stability as a principle of overriding importance
and balance reform, development and stability. Stability is a prerequisite
for reform and development. We should take into full consideration the
momentum of reform, the speed of development and the sustainability of the
general public. Continued improvement of people's lives must be regarded as
an important link in balancing reform, development and stability. We should
press ahead with reform and development amidst social stability and promote
social stability through reform and development.
7. Persevere in the Party's absolute leadership over
the army and take the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese
characteristics. The people's army is a staunch pillar of the people's
democratic dictatorship. It should meet the general requirements of being
qualified politically and competent militarily and having a fine style of
work, strict discipline and adequate logistic support, with a view to
enabling itself to win battles and never degenerate, paying attention to
strengthening itself through science and technology and building itself
into a more revolutionary, modernized and regularized army. We must ensure
that the army is forever loyal to the Party, socialism, the motherland and
the people.
8. Continue to unite with all forces that can be united
with and increase the cohesion of the Chinese nation. We should hold high
the banners of patriotism and socialism, strengthen the great solidarity of
the people of all ethnic groups, and consolidate and develop the broadest
possible patriotic united front. We need to strengthen our solidarity with
the democratic parties and personages without party affiliation. We should
handle well the work relating to ethnic minorities, religions and overseas
Chinese. We should adhere to the principle of "one country, two
systems" and bring into full play every positive factor in a common
endeavor to accomplish the grand cause of national reunification and the
great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
9. Pursue the independent foreign policy of peace,
safeguard world peace and promote common development. We will, as always,
attach paramount importance to our state sovereignty and security. We will
develop friendly relations and cooperation with all other countries on the
basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. We will oppose
hegemonism and power politics and promote the establishment of a fair and
rational new international political and economic order. In handling
international affairs, we should observe and cope with the situation
cool-headedly, adhere to the principle of mutual respect and seek common
ground while shelving differences. We need to respect the diversity of the
world, promote democracy in international relations and strive for a
peaceful international environment and a good climate in areas around
China.
10. Strengthen and improve the Party's leadership and
propel the new great project of Party building. To run the state well, we
must run the Party well first. To do this, we must be strict with the Party
members. We must maintain the Party's nature and purposes, strengthen and
improve Party building in the spirit of reform, enhance the Party's art of
leadership and governance, increase its capability of fighting corruption
and guarding against degeneration and risks and make unremitting efforts to
combat corruption. The Party must keep its flesh-and-blood ties with the
people as well as its progressiveness, purity, solidarity and unity.
The above-mentioned ten principles constitute the basic
experience the Party must follow as it leads the people in building
socialism with Chinese characteristics. This experience and the historical
experience gained by the Party since its founding can be summarized as
follows: Our Party must always represent the development trend of China's
advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and
the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese
people. They are the inexorable requirements for maintaining and developing
socialism and the logical conclusion our Party has reached through hard
exploration and great practice.
II. Implement the Important Thought of Three Represents
in an All-Round Way
To open up new prospects for the cause of socialism
with Chinese characteristics, we must hold high the great banner of Deng
Xiaoping Theory and implement the important thought of Three Represents. As
a continuation and development of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and
Deng Xiaoping Theory, this important thought reflects new requirements for
the work of the Party and state arising from the changes in China and other
parts of the world today. It is a powerful theoretical weapon for
strengthening and improving Party building and promoting self-improvement
and development of socialism in China. It is the crystallization of the
Party's collective wisdom and a guiding ideology the Party must follow for
a long time to come. Persistent implementation of the "Three
Represents" is the foundation for building our Party, the cornerstone
for its governance and the source of its strength.
The important thought of Three Represents has been put
forward on the basis of a scientific judgment of the Party's historical
position. Having gone through the revolution, reconstruction and reform,
our Party has evolved from a party that led the people in fighting for
state power to a party that has led the people in exercising the power and
has long remained in power. It has developed from a party that led national
reconstruction under external blockade and a planned economy to a party
that is leading national development while the country is opening to the
outside world and developing a socialist market economy. Keeping in mind
the past, present and future of China and other parts of the world, we must
accurately comprehend the characteristics of the times and the Party's
tasks, scientifically formulate and correctly implement the Party's line,
principles and policies, and study and settle questions concerning the
promotion of China's social progress and the improvement of Party building.
We should neither approach questions out of their historical context nor
lose our bearings, and we should neither fall behind the times nor skip the
stages, so as to ensure that our cause will advance from victory to
victory.
The implementation of the important thought of Three
Represents is, in essence, to keep pace with the times, maintain the
Party's progressiveness and exercise the state power in the interest of the
people. All Party members must be keenly aware of this basic requirement
and become more conscious and determined in implementing this important
thought.
1. To carry out the important thought of Three
Represents, the whole Party must maintain the spirit of keeping pace with
the times and blaze new trails for the development of the Marxist theory.
Upholding the Party's ideological line, emancipating the mind, seeking
truth from facts and keeping pace with the times are decisive factors for
our Party to retain its progressiveness and enhance its creativity. Keeping
pace with the times means that all the theory and work of the Party must
conform to the times, follow the law of development and display great
creativity. Whether we can persist in doing this bears on the future and
destiny of the Party and state.
Innovation sustains the progress of a nation. It is an
inexhaustible motive force for the prosperity of a country and the source
of the eternal vitality of a political party. The world is changing,
China's reform, opening up and modernization drive are advancing and our
people's great practice is progressing. All this urgently requires our
Party to sum up new experience from practice, draw on the achievements of
modern human civilization, broaden its fields of vision in theory and come
up with new theses with the courage of the theory of Marxism. Only thus can
our Party's ideology and theory guide the whole Party and the entire people
forward and inspire them to push ahead the cause of building socialism with
Chinese characteristics. Theoretical innovation based on practice precedes
social development and changes. Bringing forth new ideas in institutions,
science and technology, culture and other fields through theoretical
innovation, exploring the way forward in practice, never becoming conceited
and never slackening our effort - these are the ways of running the Party and
state, which we should follow for a long time to come.
Innovation requires emancipating our minds, seeking
truth from facts and keeping pace with the times. There is no limit to
practice nor to innovation. We will surpass our predecessors, and future generations
will certainly surpass us. This is an inexorable law governing social
advancement. We must adapt ourselves to the progress of practice and test
all things in practice. We must conscientiously free our minds from the
shackles of the outdated notions, practices and systems, from the erroneous
and dogmatic interpretations of Marxism and from the fetters of
subjectivism and metaphysics. While upholding the basic tenets of Marxism,
we must add new chapters of theory to it. While carrying forward the revolutionary
tradition, we must acquire new experience. We should be good at seeking
unity in thinking through the emancipation of our minds and guiding our new
practice with the developing Marxism.
2. To carry out the important thought of Three
Represents, it is essential for the Party to give top priority to
development in governing and rejuvenating the country and open up new
prospects for the modernization drive. A Marxist ruling party must attach
great importance to the liberation and development of the productive
forces. Without development, it would be impossible to maintain the
progressiveness of the Party, give play to the superiority of the socialist
system and make the people rich and the country strong. The progressiveness
of the Party is concrete and historical, and it must be judged by whether
the Party promotes the development of the advanced productive forces and
culture in present-day China and works to safeguard and realize the
fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. In the
final analysis, it must be judged by the Party's role in propelling history
forward.
In China, a large developing country with a backward
economy and culture, where our Party is leading the people in the
modernization drive, a good solution to the problem of development has a
direct bearing on the trend of popular sentiment and the success of our
cause. Shouldering the historical responsibility to propel the Chinese
society, the Party must always keep a firm grip on development -- the top
priority for its governance and rejuvenation of the country. It must
maintain its progressiveness and give play to the superiority of the
socialist system by developing the advanced productive forces and culture
and realizing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the
people, speeding up all-round social progress and promoting the all-round
development of people. So long as the Party firmly grasps this point, it
will have thoroughly understood the aspirations of the people and the
essence of the socialist modernization drive, and thus it will be able to
keep implementing the important thought of Three Represents and
consolidating its position as the ruling party and meet the requirement of
making the country strong and the people rich.
Development requires that we always concentrate on
economic growth, base ourselves on China's realities, conform to the trend
of the times and continue to explore new ways to promote the progress of
the advanced productive forces and culture. Development requires that we
uphold and deepen the reform. It requires that we do away with all notions
which hinder development, change all practices and regulations which impede
it and get rid of all the drawbacks of the systems which adversely affect
it. Development requires that we trust and rely on the people who are the
motive force for pushing forward the advance of history. We will pool the
wisdom and strength of the people of the whole country and concentrate on
construction and development.
3. To carry out the important thought of Three
Represents, it is essential to bring all positive factors into full play
and bring new forces to the great cause of rejuvenating the Chinese nation.
The interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and the initiative
and creativity of the whole society and the entire nation are always the
most decisive factors for advancing the cause of the Party and state. In
the process of profound social changes in our country and the rapid
development of the cause of the Party and state, it is vitally important to
properly balance the interests of all quarters and fully mobilize and rally
all positive factors.
With the deepening of reform and opening up and
economic and cultural development, the working class in China has expanded
steadily and its quality improved. The working class, with the
intellectuals as part of it, and the farmers are always the basic forces
for promoting the development of the advanced productive forces and
all-round social progress in our country. Emerging in the process of social
changes, entrepreneurs and technical personnel employed by non-public
scientific and technological enterprises, managerial and technical staff
employed by overseas-funded enterprises, the self-employed, private
entrepreneurs, employees in intermediaries, free-lance professionals and
members of other social strata are all builders of socialism with Chinese
characteristics. We should unite with the people of all social strata who
help to make the motherland prosperous and strong, encouraging their
pioneering spirit, protecting their legitimate rights and interests and
commending the outstanding ones in an effort to create a situation in which
all people are well positioned, do their best and live in harmony.
We must respect work, knowledge, competent people and
creation. This should be an important policy of the Party and state to be
conscientiously implemented in society at large. We need to respect and
protect all work that is good for the people and society. All work that
contributes to the socialist modernization drive in China, physical or
mental and simple or complicated, is glorious and should be acknowledged
and respected. All investors at home or from overseas should be encouraged
to carry out business activities in China's development. All legitimate
income, from work or not, should be protected. It is improper to judge
whether people are politically progressive or backward simply by whether
they own property or how much property they own. But rather, we should
judge them mainly by their political awareness, state of mind and
performance, by how they have acquired and used their property, and by how
they have contributed to the cause of building socialism with Chinese
characteristics through their work. It is necessary to foster notions and
form a business mechanism inconformity with the basic economic system in
the primary stage of socialism and create a social environment in which
people are encouraged to achieve something and helped to make a success of
their career, so as to unleash all the vitality contained in work,
knowledge, technology, management and capital and give full play to all
sources of social wealth for the benefit of the people.
In building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the
fundamental interests of the people of the whole country are identical, on
the basis of which concrete interest relations and internal contradictions
can be adjusted. In the formulation and implementation of the Party's
principles and policies, a basic point of departure is that we should represent
the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and
correctly reflect and take into account the interests of different groups
of people, enabling the whole people to advance steadily toward the goal of
common prosperity. We should protect the vitality for further growth of the
developed regions, strong industries and people who have become rich first
through hard work and lawful business operations and encouraging them to
create social wealth. More importantly, we must pay great attention to less
developed areas and the industries and people in straitened circumstances
and show concern for them. In particular, we must see to it that the people
in financial difficulties have subsistence allowances, and we must take
effective measures to help them find jobs and improve their living
conditions so that they will truly feel the warmth of our socialist
society.
4. To carry out the important thought of Three
Represents, it is essential to push forward Party building in a spirit of
reform and instill new vitality in the Party. Attaching vital importance to
and strengthening Party building is a magic weapon with which our Party has
grown from a small and weak force to a large and strong one, risen in spite
of setbacks and matured gradually in surmounting difficulties. As the
historical experience of the Party over the past 80 years and more shows,
the most important point is that we must build up the Party according to
its political line, central task and general goal for building it with a view
to enhancing its creativity, cohesion and fighting capacity.
Persisting in self-examination in compliance with the
requirements of the times and pursuing self-improvement in a spirit of
reform are the fundamental guarantee that our Party will always remain a
Marxist party, will never be divorced from the people and will be full of
vitality. We must be good at both reviewing our useful experience and
learning lessons from our mistakes. We must be good at both leading the
people ahead by putting forward and implementing the correct theory and
line and acquiring the motivation for progress from the people's creations
in practice and their desire for development. We must be good at both
understanding and changing the objective world and organizing and guiding
cadres and other Party members to strengthen their efforts to change their
subjective world in practice. Bearing these requirements in mind, we must
integrate adherence to the basic tenets of Marxism with efforts for
theoretical innovation, maintenance of the fine tradition of the Party with
promotion of the spirit of the times, and consolidation of the Party's
class base with expansion of its mass base so that the Party serves as a
strong core of leadership that is consolidated ideologically, politically
and organizationally and always stands in the forefront of the times
leading the people forward in solidarity.
All in all, the important thought of Three Represents
is always in a process of development and progress. The whole Party must
continue to emancipate the mind, come up with new ideas in respect of
theory and create something new in practice. It must carry out the
important thought of Three Represents in all endeavors of the socialist
modernization drive and in all aspects of Party building so that it always
advances with the times and shares weal and woe with the people.
III. Objectives of Building a Well-off Society in an
All-Round Way
Thanks to the joint efforts of the whole Party and the
people of all ethnic groups, we have attained the objectives of the first
two steps of the three-step strategy for China's modernization drive, and
by and large, the people have become well-off. This is a great victory for
the socialist system and a new milestone in the history of the development
of the Chinese nation.
We must be aware that China is in the primary stage of
socialism and will remain so for a long time to come. The well-off life we
are leading is still at a low level; it is not all-inclusive and is very
uneven. The principal contradiction in our society is still one between the
ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness
of social production. Our productive forces, science, technology and
education are still relatively backward, so there is still a long way to go
before we achieve industrialization and modernization. The dual structure
in urban and rural economy has not yet been changed, the gap between
regions is still widening and there are still quite a large number of
impoverished people. China's population continues to grow, the proportion
of the aged is getting larger, and the pressure on employment and social
security is mounting. The contradiction between the ecological environment
and natural resources on the one hand and economic and social development on
the other is becoming increasingly conspicuous. We still feel pressure from
developed countries as they have the upper hand in such fields as the
economy, science and technology. The economic structure and managerial
systems in other fields remain to be perfected. There are still some
problems we cannot afford to overlook in improving democracy and the legal
system as well as the ideological and ethical standards. We need to work
hard over a long period of time to consolidate and uplift our current
well-off standard of living.
An overview of the situation shows that for our
country, the first two decades of the 21st century are a period of
important strategic opportunities, which we must seize tightly and which
offers bright prospects. In accordance with the development objectives up
to 2010, the centenary of the Party and that of New China, as proposed at
the Fifteenth National Congress, we need to concentrate on building a
well-off society of a higher standard in an all-round way to the benefit of
well over one billion people in this period. We will further develop the
economy, improve democracy, advance science and education, enrich culture,
foster social harmony and upgrade the texture of life for the people. The
two decades of development will serve as an inevitable connecting link for
attainting the third-step strategic objectives for our modernization drive
as well as a key stage for improving the socialist market economy and
opening wider to the outside world. Building on what is achieved at this
stage and continuing to work for several more decades, we will have in the
main accomplished the modernization program and turned China into a strong,
prosperous, democratic and culturally advanced socialist country by the
middle of this century.
The objectives of building a well-off society in an
all-round way are as follows:
-- On the basis of optimized structure and better
economic returns, efforts will be made to quadruple the GDP of the year
2000 by 2020, and China's overall national strength and international
competitiveness will increase markedly. We will in the main achieve
industrialization and establish a full-fledged socialist market economy and
a more open and viable economic system. The proportion of urban population
will go up considerably and the trend of widening differences between
industry and agriculture, between urban and rural areas and between regions
will be reversed step by step. We will have a fairly sound social security
system. There will be a higher rate of employment. People will have more
family property and lead a more prosperous life.
-- Socialist democracy and the legal system will be
further improved. The basic principle of ruling the country by law will be
implemented completely. The political, economic and cultural rights and interests
of the people will be respected and guaranteed in real earnest. Democracy
at the grassroots level will be better practiced. People will enjoy a sound
public order and live and work in peace and contentment.
-- The ideological and ethical standards, the
scientific and cultural qualities, and the health of the whole people will
be enhanced notably. A sound modern national educational system,
scientific, technological and cultural innovation systems as well as
nationwide fitness and medical and health systems will take shape. People
will have access to better education. We will make senior secondary
education basically universal in the country and eliminate illiteracy. A
learning society in which all the people will learn or even pursue
life-long education will emerge to boost their all-round development.
-- The capability of sustainable development will be
steadily enhanced. The ecological environment will be improved. The
efficiency of using resources will be increased significantly. We will
enhance harmony between man and nature to push the whole society onto a
path to civilized development featuring the growth of production, an
affluent life and a sound ecosystem.
The objectives set at this congress for building a
well-off society in an all-round way are objectives of comprehensive
economic, political and cultural development of socialism with Chinese
characteristics, objectives well geared to the efforts to speed up
modernization. They tally with the national conditions, the realities of
the modernization drive and the people's aspirations. They are of great
significance. In order to attain the Party's objectives for the new stage
in the new century, it is imperative to come up with new ideas for
development, make new breakthroughs in reform, break new ground in opening
up and take new moves in all fields of endeavor. All localities and
departments must proceed from their actual conditions and take effective
measures to attain the objectives. Places where conditions permit may
develop faster and take the lead in accomplishing modernization by and
large on the basis of building a well-off society in an all-round way. We
are sure that after attaining the objectives of building a well-off society
in an all-round way, our motherland will become stronger and more
prosperous, the people will live a better and happier life, and socialism
with Chinese characteristics will further demonstrate its great
superiority.
IV. Economic Development and Restructuring
In building a well-off society in an all-round way, it
is of vital importance to take economic development as the central task and
keep releasing and developing the productive forces. In light of the new
trends in the economy, science and technology of the world and the
requirements of our national economic development in the new period, we
should undertake the following main tasks for economic development and
reform in the first two decades of this century: to improve the socialist
market economy, promote strategic adjustment of the economic structure,
basically accomplish industrialization, energetically apply IT, accelerate
modernization, maintain a sustained, rapid and sound development of the
national economy and steadily uplift the people's living standards. In the
first decade, we will accomplish all the objectives set in the Tenth
Five-Year Plan and for the years up to 2010 so as to bring the economic
aggregate, overall national strength and the people's living standards up
to a much higher level and lay a solid foundation for even greater
development in the second decade.
1. Take a new road to industrialization and implement
the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and
that of sustainable development. It remains an arduous historical task in
the process of our modernization drive to accomplish industrialization. IT
application is a logical choice if industrialization and modernization of
our country are to be accelerated. It is, therefore, necessary to persist
in using IT to propel industrialization, which will, in turn, stimulate IT
application, blazing a new trail to industrialization featuring high
scientific and technological content, good economic returns, low resources
consumption, little environmental pollution and a full display of
advantages in human resources.
We must press ahead to optimize and upgrade the
industrial structure so as to bring about an industrial pattern with high
and new technology industries as the leader, basic and manufacturing
industries as the kingpin and the service industry developing in all areas.
We must give priority to the development of the information industry and
apply IT in all areas of economic and social development. We must develop
high and new technology industries to provide breakthroughs in stimulating
economic growth. It is necessary to transform traditional industries with
high and new technology and advanced adaptive technology and invigorate the
equipment manufacturing industry. We should continue to strengthen
infrastructure. We should accelerate the development of the modern service
sector and raise the proportion of the tertiary industry in the national
economy. We must correctly handle the relationships of development between
the high and new technology industries and traditional industries, between
capital-and-technology-intensive industries and labor-intensive industries
and between virtual economy and real economy.
In taking a new road to industrialization, we must give
play to the important role of science and technology as the primary
productive force and pay close attention to improving the quality and
efficiency of economic growth by relying on scientific and technological
progress and raising the qualities of labor force. We must strengthen basic
research and research in high technology, promote key technological
innovation and systems integration so that technology will develop by leaps
and bounds. We must encourage scientific and technological innovation and
acquire key technology and independent intellectual property rights in key
areas and a number of domains in frontier science and technology. We must
deepen the reform of the administration systems of science, technology and
education, strengthen the integration of science, technology and education
with the economy, improve the service system for the development of science
and technology and quicken the pace of translating research achievements
into practical productive forces. We must press ahead with the building of
a national innovation system. We must give play to the role of venture
capital and develop a mechanism of capital operation and human capital
pooling for promoting scientific and technological innovation and
start-ups. We must improve the system of intellectual property rights
protection. We must give top priority to sustainable development, adhere to
the basic state policies of family planning and environmental and resources
protection, keep the birthrate low and rationally develop and economically
utilize all kinds of natural resources. We must lose no time in solving the
problem of water shortages in some areas and build the south-to-north water
diversion project. We should promote marine development and do well in the
comprehensive improvement of land and resources. It is necessary to help
the whole nation see the importance of environmental protection and do a
good job of ecological conservation and improvement.
2. Make the rural economy flourish and speed up
urbanization. A major task for building a well-off society in an all-round
way is to make overall planning for urban and rural economic and social
development, build modern agriculture, develop the rural economy and
increase the income of farmers. We must strengthen the position of
agriculture as the foundation of the economy, carry on the restructuring of
agriculture and the rural economy, protect and raise the comprehensive
grain production capacity, improve the system for ensuring the quality of
farm produce and enhance the competitiveness of agriculture in the market.
We must push forward the industrialized operation of agriculture, better
organize farmers in their access to the market and improve the overall
efficiency of agriculture. We must develop farm produce processing industry
to boost the county economy. We must open up more rural markets and enliven
the distribution of farm produce by improving its market system.
It is an inevitable trend of industrialization and
modernization for surplus rural labor to move to non-agricultural
industries and to cities and towns. It is essential to raise the level of
urbanization gradually and persist in the coordinated development of large,
medium and small cities and small towns along the path to urbanization with
Chinese characteristics. We should develop small towns on the basis of
existing county seats and of organic towns where conditions permit, make
scientific planning and a rational layout, integrating their development
with the expansion of township and village enterprises and the rural
service sector. All the institutional and policy barriers to urbanization
must be removed and the rational and orderly flow of rural labor guided.
We must adhere to the basic rural policies of the Party
and keep stabilizing and improving the two-tier management system that
integrates unified with separate management on the basis of household
contract management. Wherever conditions permit, the transfer of the
contractual right of land can be carried out according to law and on a
voluntary and compensatory basis so as to develop scale operation step by
step. We must respect farmer households as market players and encourage
innovation in the rural management system. We must enhance the economic
strength of the collectives. We should establish and improve a
commercialized rural service system. We must invest more in agriculture,
give it more support and accelerate the progress of agricultural science
and technology and the building of rural infrastructure. We should improve
financial services in rural areas. We must continue with the reform in tax
and fee in rural areas to lighten the burdens of farmers and protect their
interests.
3. Advance the development of the western region and
bring about a coordinated development of regional economies. The
implementation of the strategy for the development of the western region
bears on the overall situation of national development, the ethnic unity
and the stability in border areas. To lay a solid foundation and go ahead
in a down-to-earth manner, we must give priority to infrastructure and
ecological environment improvement and strive for breakthroughs in a
decade. We must develop industries with local advantages and propel the
development of key areas. We should develop science, technology and
education and train and make the best use of all human resources. The state
should provide the western region with greater support in such areas as
investment projects, tax policies and transfer payments, gradually build up
long-term and stable sources of funds for its development, improve the
investment environment, and guide foreign investment and domestic capital
toward that region. People there should further emancipate their minds,
enhance their self-development capabilities and explore a new path to
accelerated development in reform and opening up.
The central region should redouble its efforts toward
structural adjustment, giving impetus to industrialized operation of
agriculture, transforming traditional industries, cultivating new economic
growth points and speeding up industrialization and urbanization. The
eastern region should quicken the pace of upgrading its industrial
structure, develop modern agriculture, high and new technology industries
and high value-added processing and manufacturing industries and further
develop the outward-looking economy. We should encourage the special
economic zones and the Pudong New Area in Shanghai to spearhead, among
other things, institutional innovation and greater openness. We should
support the northeastern region and other old industrial bases in
accelerating their adjustments and transformation and support cities and
areas mainly engaged in natural resources exploitation in their efforts to
develop alternative industries. We should support the old revolutionary
base areas and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities in expediting their development.
The state should give more support to main grain producing areas. The
eastern, central and western regions should strengthen economic exchanges
and cooperation to complement one another and secure common development so
as to form a number of distinctive economic zones and belts.
4. Stick to and improve the basic economic system and
deepen the reform of the state property management system. In line with the
requirements of releasing and developing the productive forces, we must
uphold and improve the basic economic system, with public ownership playing
a dominant role and diverse forms of ownership developing side by side.
First, it is necessary to consolidate and develop unswervingly the public
sector of the economy. Expansion of the state sector and its control of the
lifeline of the national economy is of crucial importance in displaying the
superiority of the socialist system and reinforcing the economic strength,
national defense capabilities and national cohesion. As an important
component of the public sector, the collective sector of the economy plays
a significant role in achieving common prosperity. Secondly, it is
necessary to encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public
sectors of the economy. The non-public sector of self-employed, private and
other forms of ownership is an important component part of the socialist
market economy. They play an important role in mobilizing the initiative of
all quarters of the society to quicken the development of the productive
forces. Thirdly, we must stimulate the development of the non-public
sectors while keeping the public sector as the dominant player,
incorporating both into the process of the socialist modernization drive
instead of setting them against each other. All sectors of the economy can
very well display their respective advantages in market competition and
stimulate one another for common development.
Continuing to adjust the layout and structure of the
state sector and reform the state property management system is a major
task for deepening economic restructuring. We should give full play to the
initiative of both the central and local authorities on the precondition of
upholding state ownership. The state should make laws and regulations and
establish a state property management system under which the Central
Government and local governments perform the responsibilities of investor
on behalf of the state respectively, enjoying owner's equity, combining
rights with obligations and duties and administering assets, personnel and
other affairs. The Central Government should represent the state in
performing the functions as investor in large state-owned enterprises,
infrastructure and important natural resources that have a vital bearing on
the lifeline of the national economy and state security while local
governments should represent the state in performing the functions as
investors with regard to other state property. The Central Government and
the provincial and municipal (prefectural) governments should set up state
property management organizations. We should continue to explore systems
and modes for managing state property effectively. Governments at all
levels must strictly abide by the laws and regulations concerning the
management of state property, persisting in the separation of government
functions from enterprise management and separation of ownership from
management so that enterprises can operate independently, assume sole
responsibility for their profits or losses and preserve and increase the
value of state property.
State-owned enterprises are the pillar of the national
economy. We should deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and further
explore diversified forms for effectively realizing public ownership,
especially state ownership. We should promote institutional, technological
and managerial innovations in enterprises. Except for a tiny number of
enterprises that must be funded solely by the state, all the others should
introduce the joint-stock system to develop a mixed sector of the economy.
Sources of investment must be diversified. The controlling shares in
lifeline enterprises must be held by the state. Large and medium
state-owned enterprises must continue their reform to convert themselves
into standard companies in compliance with the requirements of the modern
enterprise system and improve their corporate governance. Monopoly
industries should carry out reforms to introduce competition mechanisms. We
should form large internationally competitive companies and enterprise
groups through market forces and policy guidance. We should give a freer
rein to small and medium state-owned enterprises to invigorate themselves.
We should deepen the reform of collective enterprises and give more support
and help to the growth of the various forms of the collective sector of the
economy.
We must give full scope to the important role of the
non-public sector of self-employed, private and other forms of ownership of
the economy in stimulating economic growth, creating more jobs and
activating the market. We should expand the areas for the market access of
domestic nongovernmental capital and adopt measures with regard to
investment, financing, taxation, land use, foreign trade and other aspects
to carry out fair competition. We should strengthen the supervision and
administration of the non-public sectors according to law to promote their
sound development. We should improve the legal system for protecting
private property.
5. Improve the modern market system and tighten and
improve macroeconomic control. We should give a fuller play to the basic
role of the market in the allocation of resources and build up a unified,
open, competitive and orderly modern market system. We should go ahead with
reform, opening up, stability and development of the capital market. We
should develop markets for property rights, land, labor and technology and
create an environment for the equal use of production factors by market
players. We must deepen the reform of the distribution system and introduce
modern ways of distribution. We must rectify and standardize the order of
the market economy and establish a social credit system compatible with a
modern market economy. We must get rid of trade monopolies and regional
blockades to allow free movement of goods and production factors on markets
around the country.
We must improve the government functions of economic
regulation, market supervision, social administration and public services,
and reduce and standardize administrative procedures for examination and
approval. We must stimulate economic growth, create more jobs, stabilize
prices and maintain balance of international payments as the main
macroeconomic control objectives. Stimulating domestic demand is an
essential and long-standing factor underlying China's economic growth. We
must stick to the policy of stimulating domestic demand and implement
corresponding macroeconomic policies in light of actual needs. We must
adjust the relationship between investment and consumption to raise the
proportion of consumption in GDP gradually. We should improve the
macroeconomic control system featuring the coordination of state planning
and fiscal and monetary policies to give play to economic leverage. We
should deepen the reform of the fiscal, taxation, banking, investment and
financing systems. We should improve the budgetary decision-making and
management system, step up the supervision of revenue and expenditures and
intensify tax administration. We should carry out the reform steadily to
deregulate interest rates to leave them to market forces, optimize the
allocation of financial resources, strengthen regulation and prevent and
defuse financial risks so as to provide better banking services for
economic and social development.
6. Deepen the reform of the income distribution system
and improve the social security system. Rationalizing the relations of
income distribution bears on the immediate interests of the general public
and the display of their initiative. We should adjust and standardize the
relations of distribution among the state, enterprises and individuals. We
should establish the principle that labor, capital, technology, managerial
expertise and other production factors participate in the distribution of
income in accordance with their respective contributions, thereby improving
the system under which distribution according to work is dominant and a
variety of modes of distribution coexist. We should give priority to
efficiency with due consideration to fairness, earnestly implementing the
distribution policy while advocating the spirit of devotion and guarding
against an excessive disparity in income while opposing equalitarianism. In
primary distribution, we should pay more attention to efficiency, bringing
the market forces into play and encouraging part of the people to become
rich first through honest labor and lawful operations. In redistribution,
we should pay more attention to fairness and strengthen the function of the
government in regulating income distribution to narrow the gap if it is too
wide. We should standardize the order of income distribution, properly
regulate the excessively high income of some monopoly industries and outlaw
illegal gains. Bearing in mind the objective of common prosperity, we
should try to raise the proportion of the middle-income group and increase
the income of the low-income group.
Establishing and improving a social security system
compatible with the level of economic development constitutes an important
guarantee for social stability and long-term peace and order in the
country. We should stick to and improve the basic old-age pension and
medical insurance systems for urban workers, combining socially pooled
funds with personal contributions. We should improve the systems of
unemployment insurance and subsistence allowances for urban residents. We
should try various channels to raise and accumulate social security funds.
Reasonable standards for social security benefits should be set in light of
local conditions. We should develop social relief and welfare programs in
urban and rural areas. Wherever conditions permit, we should try to
establish systems of old-age pensions, medical insurance and subsistence
allowances in rural areas.
7. Do a better job in opening up by "bringing
in" and "going out". In response to the new situation of economic
globalization and China's entry into the WTO, we should take part in
international economic and technological cooperation and competition on a
broader scale, in more spheres and on a higher level, make the best use of
both international and domestic markets, optimize the allocation of
resources, expand the space for development and accelerate reform and
development by opening up.
We should expand trade in goods and services. We should
implement the strategy of market diversification, bring into play our
comparative advantages, consolidate our existing markets and open new ones
in an effort to increase exports. We should sharpen the competitive edge of
our goods and services for export by ensuring good quality. We should
optimize our import mix and focus on bringing in advanced technology and
key equipment. We should deepen the reform of the system of trade and
economic relations with other countries, encouraging more enterprises to
engage in foreign trade and improving relevant taxation systems and the
trade financing mechanism.
We should attract more foreign direct investment and
use it more effectively. We will open the service sector to the outside
world step by step. We will utilize medium- and long-term foreign
investment in many ways, combining it with the domestic economic
restructuring and the reorganization and transformation of state-owned
enterprises and encouraging multinational corporations to invest in
agriculture and manufacturing and high and new technology industries. We
should try to bring in from overseas large numbers of professionals and
other intellectual resources in various areas. We should improve the
environment for investment, grant national treatment to foreign investors
and make relevant policies and regulations more transparent. Implementation
of the strategy of "going out" is an important measure taken in
the new stage of opening up. We should encourage and help relatively
competitive enterprises with various forms of ownership to invest abroad in
order to increase export of goods and labor services and bring about a
number of strong multinational enterprises and brand names. We should take
an active part in regional economic exchanges and cooperation. In opening
wider to the outside world, we must pay great attention to safeguarding our
national economic security.
8. Do everything possible to create more jobs and
improve the people's lives. Employment has a vital bearing on the people's
livelihood. The task of increasing employment is arduous now and will
remain so for a long time to come. It is a long-term strategy and policy of
the state to expand employment. Party committees and governments at all
levels must take it as their major obligation to improve the business
environment and create more jobs. We should open up more avenues for
employment and develop labor-intensive industries. We should give policy
support to enterprises that increase jobs or reemploy laid-off workers. We
should help the general public to change their mentality about employment,
introduce flexible and diverse forms of employment and encourage people to
find jobs on their own or become self-employed. We should improve the
system of pre-job training and employment services and raise workers'
skills for new jobs. We should strengthen employment management in
accordance with law, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of
workers, pay great attention to safety at work and protect the safety of
state property and people's life.
The fundamental goal of economic development is to
uplift the living standards and quality of life of the people. As the
economy develops, we should increase the income of urban and rural
residents, expand the scope of their consumption and optimize the
consumption structure so as to meet the people's multifarious material and cultural
needs. Further efforts should be made to develop public service facilities,
better people's living environment and expand community services in order
to make life easier for the people. We should establish a medical service
and health care system that meets the requirements of the new situation. We
should improve medical and health conditions in rural areas and the medical
and health care for urban and rural residents. We should build up various
programs to help the handicapped. We should intensify our efforts to fight
poverty through development, build on the achievements we have scored in
this regard, strive to accomplish the task of providing adequate food and
clothing for the impoverished rural population and gradually enable them to
lead a well-off life.
Accomplishing the tasks set for economic development
and restructuring is of decisive significance to accelerating our socialist
modernization. So long as the whole Party and the people of all ethnic
groups work hard with one heart and one mind, we will definitely establish
a mature socialist market economy and maintain a sustained, rapid and sound
development of the national economy at the new stage in the new century.
V. Political Development and Restructuring
Developing socialist democracy and establishing a
socialist political civilization are an important goal for building a
well-off society in an all-round way. Adhering to the Four Cardinal
Principles, we must go on steadily and surely with political restructuring,
extend socialist democracy and improve the socialist legal system in order
to build a socialist country under the rule of law and consolidate and
develop the political situation characterized by democracy, solidarity,
liveliness, stability and harmony.
Our Party has always deemed it its duty to realize and
develop people's democracy. Since the beginning of reform and opening up,
we have pressed on with political restructuring and improved socialist
democracy. The key to developing socialist democracy is to combine the need
to uphold the Party's leadership and to ensure that the people are the
masters of the country with the need to rule the country by law. Leadership
by the Party is the fundamental guarantee that the people are the masters
of the country and that the country is ruled by law. The people being the
masters of the country constitutes the essential requirement of socialist
democracy. Ruling the country by law is the basic principle the Party
pursues while it leads the people in running the country. The CPC is the
core of leadership for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Governance by the Communist Party means that it leads and supports the
people in acting as the masters of the country and mobilizes and organizes
them on a most extensive scale to manage state and social affairs and
economic and cultural undertakings according to law, safeguarding and
realizing their fundamental interests. The Constitution and other laws
embody the unity of the Party's views and the people's will. All
organizations and individuals must act in strict accordance with the law,
and none of them are allowed to have the privilege to overstep the
Constitution and other laws.
Political restructuring is the self-improvement and
development of the socialist political system. It must help enhance the
vitality of the Party and state, demonstrate the features and advantages of
the socialist system, give full scope to the initiative and creativity of
the people, safeguard national unity, ethnic solidarity and social
stability and promote economic development and social progress. We must
always proceed from our national conditions, review our experience gained
in practice and at the same time learn from the achievements of political
civilization of mankind. We should never copy any models of the political
system of the West. We must concentrate on institutional improvement and
ensure that socialist democracy is institutionalized and standardized and
has its procedures.
1. Uphold and improve the systems of socialist
democracy. It is essential to improve the systems of democracy, develop
diverse forms of democracy, expand citizens' participation in political
affairs in an orderly way, and ensure that the people go in for democratic
elections and decision-making, exercise democratic management and
supervision according to law and enjoy extensive rights and freedoms, and
that human rights are respected and guaranteed. We should uphold and
improve the system of people's congresses and ensure that the congresses
and their standing committees exercise their functions according to law and
that their legislation and policy decisions better embody the people's
will. We should optimize the composition of the standing committees. We
should uphold and improve the system of multiparty cooperation and political
consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party. We should uphold
the principle of "long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, treating
each other with all sincerity and sharing weal and woe", step up our
cooperation with the democratic parties and better display the features and
advantages of the Chinese socialist system of political parties. We will
ensure that the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
plays its role in political consultation, democratic supervision and
participation in and deliberation of state affairs. We will consolidate and
develop the broadest possible patriotic united front. We will fully
implement the Party's policy toward ethnic minorities, uphold and improve
the system of regional ethnic autonomy, consolidate and enhance socialist
ethnic relations of equality, solidarity and mutual assistance and promote
common prosperity and progress for all our ethnic groups. We will implement
the Party's policy toward the freedom of religious belief, handle religious
affairs according to law, encourage the adaptability of religions to the
socialist society and uphold the principle of self-administration and
running religious affairs independently. We will conscientiously carry out
the Party's policy toward overseas Chinese affairs.
Extending democracy at the grassroots level is the
groundwork for developing socialist democracy. We will improve grassroots
self-governing organizations, their democratic management system and the
system of keeping the public informed of matters being handled, and ensure
that the people directly exercise their democratic rights according to law,
manage grassroots public affairs and programs for public good and exercise
democratic supervision over the cadres. We will improve self-governance
among villagers and foster a mechanism of their self-governance full of
vitality under the leadership of village Party organizations. We will
improve self-governance among urban residents and build new-type and
well-managed communities featuring civility and harmony. We will uphold and
improve the system of workers' conferences and other democratic management
systems in enterprises and institutions and protect the legitimate rights
and interests of workers.
2. Improve the socialist legal system. We must see to
it that there are laws to go by, the laws are observed and strictly
enforced, and law-breakers are prosecuted. To adapt to the new situation
characterized by the development of a socialist market economy, all-round
social progress and China's accession to the WTO, we will strengthen
legislation and improve its quality and will have formulated a socialist
system of laws with Chinese characteristics by the year 2010. We must see
to it that all people are equal before the law. We should tighten
supervision over law enforcement, promote the exercise of administrative
functions according to law, safeguard judicial justice and raise the level
of law enforcement so that laws are strictly implemented. We must safeguard
the uniformity and sanctity of the legal system and prevent or overcome
local and departmental protectionism. We will extend and standardize legal
services and provide effective legal aid. We should give more publicity to
the legal system so that the people are better educated in law. In
particular, we will enhance the public servants' awareness of law and their
ability to perform their official duties according to law. Party members
and cadres, especially leading cadres, should play an exemplary role in
abiding by the Constitution and other laws.
3. Reform and improve the Party's style of leadership
and governance. This is a matter of overall significance to improving
socialist democracy. Leadership by the Party mainly refers to its
political, ideological and organizational leadership. The Party exercises
leadership over the state and society by formulating major principles and
policies, making suggestions on legislation, recommending cadres for
important positions, conducting ideological publicity, giving play to the
role of Party organizations and members and persisting in exercising state
power according to law. Party committees, playing the role as the core of
leadership among all other organizations at corresponding levels, should
concentrate on handling important matters and support those organizations
in assuming their responsibilities independently and making concerted
efforts in their work. We will further reform and improve the Party's
working organs and mechanisms. Acting on the principle that the Party
commands the overall situation and coordinates the efforts of all quarters,
we will standardize relations between Party committees on the one hand and
people's congresses, governments, CPPCC committees and mass organizations
on the other. We will support people's congresses in performing their
functions as organs of state power according to law, in ensuring that the
Party's views become the will of the state and that candidates recommended
by Party organizations become leading cadres of the organs of state power
through legal procedures, and in exercising supervision over them. We will
support the government in fulfilling its legal functions and performing its
official duties according to law. We will support CPPCC committees in
performing their functions by centering on the two major subjects of unity
and democracy. We will strengthen the Party's leadership over trade unions,
the Communist Youth League organizations, women's federations and other
mass organizations and support them in working according to law and their
own constitutions and acting as a bridge between the Party and the people.
4. Reform and improve the decision-making mechanism.
Correct decision-making is an important prerequisite for success in all
work. We will improve the decision-making mechanism by which
decision-makers will go deep among the people and get to know how they are
faring, reflect their will, pool their wisdom and value their resources,
putting decision-making on a more scientific and democratic basis.
Decision-making organs at all levels should improve the rules and procedures
for taking major policy decisions, establish a system of reporting social
conditions and public opinion, a system of keeping the public informed and
a system of public hearings on major issues closely related to the
interests of the people, perfect the expert consulting system and implement
a verification system and a responsibility system in making policy
decisions with a view to preventing arbitrary decision-making.
5. Deepen administrative restructuring. We should
further change the functions of the government, improve the methods of
management, introduce e-government, uplift administrative efficiency and
reduce costs so as to form an administrative system featuring standardized
behaviors, coordinated operation, fairness and transparency, honesty and high
efficiency. We should standardize the functions and powers of the Central
Government and local authorities according to law and properly handle
relations between the departments directly under the Central Government and
the local governments. Following the principle of simplification,
uniformity and efficiency and meeting the requirements of coordination in
decision-making, execution and supervision, we will continue to promote the
restructuring of government departments, standardize their functions in a
scientific manner, rationalize their set-ups, and optimize their
composition in order to delimit the structures and sizes statutorily and
solve the problems of too many levels, overlapping functions, overstaffing,
divorce between powers and responsibilities and duplicate law enforcement.
We will reform the management system of institutions in accordance with the
principle of separating the functions of government from those of
institutions.
6. Promote the reform of the judicial system. A
socialist judicial system must guarantee fairness and justice in the whole
society. In accordance with the requirements of judicial justice and strict
law enforcement, we should improve the setups of judicial organs, the
delimitation of their functions and powers and their management systems so
as to form a sound judicial system featuring clearly specified powers and
responsibilities, mutual coordination and restraint and highly efficient
operation. We should institutionally ensure that the judicial and
procuratorial organs are in a position to exercise adjudicative and
procuratorial powers independently and impartially according to law. We
should improve judicial proceedings and protect the legitimate rights and
interests of citizens and legal persons. We should solve the problem of
difficult enforcement of judgments. We should reform the working mechanisms
of judicial organs and the management system of their human, financial and
material resources and gradually separate their judicial adjudication and
procuratorial work from their administrative affairs. We will tighten
supervision over the judicial work and punish corruption in this field. We
will build up a contingent of judicial personnel who are politically
steadfast and professionally competent, have a fine style of work and
enforce laws impartially.
7. Deepen the reform of the cadre and personnel system.
Efforts should be made to form a vigorous personnel mechanism under which
we can gather large numbers of talented people, put them to the best use
and get them prepared for both promotion and demotion, calling them to the
service of the Party and state. In reforming and perfecting the cadre and
personnel system and improving the system of public servants, we should
focus on establishing a sound mechanism of selection, appointment,
management and supervision, with a view to making it scientific, democratic
and institutionalized. In the matter of cadre selection and appointment,
Party members and ordinary people should have more right to know, to
participate, to choose and to supervise. With regard to leading cadres of
the Party and government, it is necessary to implement the system of fixed
tenures, the system of resignation and the system of accountability for
neglect of supervisory duty or the use of the wrong person. It is necessary
to improve the system of giving cadres both positions and ranks and
establish an incentive and guarantee mechanism for them. We should explore
and improve the system of classified management of cadres and personnel in
Party and government organs, institutions and enterprises. We should reform
and improve the system of dual control over cadres. We should break with
the notions and practices of overstressing seniority in the matter of
selection and appointment, encourage the rational flow of trained people
and create a sound environment which makes it possible for outstanding
people to come to the fore in all fields.
8. Tighten the restraint on and supervision over the
use of power. We should establish a mechanism for the exercise of power featuring
reasonable structure, scientific distribution, rigorous procedures and
effective restraint so as to tighten supervision over power in terms of
decision-making, execution and other links and ensure that the power
entrusted to us by the people is truly exercised for their benefits. We
should focus on tightening supervision over leading cadres and especially
principal ones, stepping up supervision over the management and use of
human, financial and material resources. We should tighten internal supervision
of leading groups and improve the procedures for deciding on important
matters and the appointment or dismissal of cadres in important positions.
We should reform and improve the system of Party discipline inspection and
introduce and improve the system of inspection tours. We should give play
to the role of judicial, administrative supervision and auditing organs and
other functional departments. We should implement the system under which
leading cadres report in various ways on their work and their efforts to
perform their duties honestly, and improve the systems of reporting on
important matters, of making inquiries and of democratic appraisal. We
should conscientiously implement the system of making government affairs
known to the public. We should tighten organizational and democratic
supervision and give play to the supervisory function of the media.
9. Maintain social stability. To accomplish the heavy
tasks of reform and development, we must have a harmonious and stable
social climate for a long time to come. Party committees and governments at
all levels should enthusiastically help the people solve practical problems
they may confront in their work and life. They must carry out in-depth
investigations and study, strengthen ideological and political work in
light of different cases, and employ economic, administrative and legal
means to handle the contradictions among the people properly, those
involving their immediate interests in particular, so as to maintain
stability and unity. It is essential to improve procuratorial, judicial and
public security work, cracking down on criminal activities according to
law, guarding against and punishing crimes committed by evil cult gangs and
eliminating social evils so as to ensure the safety of the lives and
property of the people. We must combine punishment and prevention, with
emphasis on the latter, take comprehensive measures to maintain law and
order and improve social management so as to keep public order. We must
strengthen state security, keeping vigilance against infiltrative,
subversive and separatist activities by hostile forces at home and abroad.
Socialist democracy enjoys strong vitality and
superiority. The CPC and the Chinese people have full confidence in the
road to political development they have chosen and will press ahead with
political development under socialism with Chinese characteristics.
VI. Cultural Development and Restructuring
To build a well-off society in an all-round way calls
for major efforts to develop socialist culture and spiritual civilization.
In the present-day world, culture is interactive with economic and
political activities, and its status and functions are becoming more and
more outstanding in the competition in overall national strength. The power
of culture is deeply rooted in the vitality, creativity and cohesion of a
nation. All Party members must fully understand the strategic significance
of cultural development and make socialist culture develop and flourish.
1. Keep the orientation of advanced culture firmly in
hand. In contemporary China, to develop advanced culture means to develop
national, scientific and popular socialist culture geared to the needs of
modernization, of the world and of the future so as to enrich people's
mental world and reinforce their mental strength. We must uphold
Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as our
guidelines in the realm of ideology and have the important thought of Three
Represents in command of the development of socialist culture. We must keep
to the orientation of serving the people and socialism and the principle of
letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend
and highlight the themes of the times while encouraging diversity. We
should continue to arm people with scientific theory, provide them with
correct media guidance, imbue them with lofty ideals, and inspire them with
excellent works of literature and art. We must exert ourselves to develop
advanced culture and support healthy and useful culture, changing what is
backward and resisting what is decadent. Literary and art workers should go
deep among the masses and into the thick of life so as to contribute to the
people more works worthy of the times. The press, publishing, radio, film
and television must give correct guidance to the public, and Internet web
sites should serve as important fronts for spreading advanced culture.
Basing ourselves on the practice of reform, opening up and modernization
and keeping abreast of the latest developments in world culture, we must
carry forward the fine tradition of our national culture, draw on the
strong points of other nations and make innovations in content and form so
as to enhance the attraction and appeal of socialist culture with Chinese
characteristics.
2. Continue to carry forward and cultivate the national
spirit. National spirit is the moral kingpin on which a nation relies for
survival and development. Without an inspiring spirit and lofty character,
it is impossible for a nation to stand proudly in the family of nations.
For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has evolved a great national
spirit centering on patriotism and featuring unity and solidarity, love of
peace, industry, courage and ceaseless self-improvement. This national
spirit has been enriched in light of the requirements of the times and
social development by the people under the leadership of our Party over
along period of practice. Confronted with interaction of different thoughts
and cultures in the world, we must take it as a crucial task in our
cultural development to carry forward and cultivate the national spirit and
incorporate it into our national education and the entire process of
building spiritual civilization so that the entire people are always filled
with an enterprising spirit.
3. Promote ideological and ethical progress. Ruling the
country by law and ruling the country by virtue complement each other. It
is necessary to establish a socialist ideological and ethical system
compatible with the socialist market economy and the socialist legal
standard and consistent with the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.
We must carry out intensive publicity and education in the Party's basic
theory, line and program and in the important thought of Three Represents,
and guide people in fostering a common ideal for socialism with Chinese
characteristics, correct world outlook, views on life and values. We must
carry out the Program for Improving Civic Morality, promote patriotism and,
with serving the people at the core, collectivism as the principle and
honesty as a priority, intensify education in social and professional
ethics and family virtues and especially intensify the ideological and
ethical improvement among youth so as to guide people in their pursuit of
higher ideological and ethical standards on the basis of observing the
basic code of conduct. We must strengthen and improve ideological and
political work and encourage popular participation in building spiritual
civilization.
4. Develop education and science. Education is the
foundation for scientific and technological advancement and personnel
training. Playing a vanguard role and having an overall bearing on the
modernization drive, education must be placed on our development agenda as
a strategic priority. We must carry out the Party's education policy that
education should serve socialist modernization and the people and integrate
itself with productive labor and social practice so as to train socialist
builders and successors featuring an all-round development in morality,
intelligence, physique and art. We should encourage innovation in
education, deepen its reform, optimize its structure, allocate its
resources rationally, raise its quality and management levels and promote
quality-oriented education to cultivate hundreds of millions of
high-quality workers, tens of millions of specialized personnel and a great
number of top-notch innovative personnel. We should build up the ranks of
teachers and raise their professional ethics and competence. We should
continue to make nine-year compulsory education universal across the
country, intensify vocational education and training, develop continued
education and set up a system of life-long education. We should increase
input in education, give more support to rural education, and encourage
nongovernmental sectors to run schools. We should improve the state policy
and system for aiding students in straitened circumstances. We should
formulate a long-term program for scientific and technological development.
We should step up the development of infrastructure for research. We should
disseminate science and promote the scientific spirit. We must lay equal
stress on social sciences and natural sciences and give full play to the
important role of philosophy and other social sciences in economic and
social development. It is essential to create an atmosphere in society at
large favorable for respecting and promoting science, encouraging
innovation and opposing superstition and pseudo-science.
5. Develop cultural undertakings and industry. In
developing cultural undertakings and industry, it is imperative to meet the
requirements of developing advanced culture and always place social effects
in the first place. The state supports and protects public cultural
undertakings and encourages them to enhance their vigor for
self-development. We must continue to improve the policies and measures for
the development of public cultural undertakings. We must give our support
to the major news media and research institutions of social sciences of the
Party and state, to the major cultural projects and art schools and troupes
that are up to national standards and embody national characteristics, to
the protection of major cultural heritage and outstanding folk arts, and to
the cultural development in the old revolutionary base areas, areas
inhabited by ethnic minorities, remote areas, impoverished areas and the
central and western regions of the country. We should strengthen cultural
infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture. We should
promote the reform and development of health and sports undertakings and
carry on the nationwide fitness campaign to improve the physique of the
entire people. We should make the 2008 Olympics a success. Developing the
cultural industry is an important avenue to enriching socialist culture in
the market economy and to meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the
people. It is essential to improve policies toward the cultural industry,
support its development and enhance its overall strength and competitiveness.
6. Continue to deepen cultural restructuring. It is
necessary to push forward cultural restructuring in light of the
characteristics of the development of socialist spiritual civilization and
laws governing it and in response to the needs of the growing socialist
market economy. We must lose no time in working out overall planning for
cultural restructuring. We must integrate the deepening of reform with
structural adjustment and promotion of development and straighten out the
relationship between the government and cultural enterprises and
institutions. We must build up a legal system concerning culture and
intensify macro-control. We should deepen the internal reform of cultural
enterprises and institutions and gradually establish a management system
and operational mechanism favorable to arousing the initiative of cultural
workers, encouraging innovation and bringing forth more top-notch works and
more outstanding personnel. In compliance with the principle of both
enriching culture and intensifying management, we should improve the system
of markets for cultural products and their management mechanism to create a
social climate favorable for a flourishing socialist culture.
The Chinese civilization, extensive and profound, and
with a long history behind it, has contributed tremendously to the progress
of human civilization. We will surely have a new upsurge in building
socialist culture and create an even more splendid advanced culture in the
great struggle of the Chinese people in the contemporary era.
VII. National Defense and Army Building
Strengthening our national defense is a strategic task
in our modernization drive and an important guarantee for safeguarding our
national security and unity and building a well-off society in an all-round
way. We must uphold the principle of coordinated development of national
defense and the economy and push forward the modernization of national
defense and the army on the basis of economic growth.
The army must take Mao Zedong's military thinking and
Deng Xiaoping's thinking on army building in the new period as the guide to
action and fully implement the important thought of Three Represents. It
must persist in taking the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese
characteristics and become more revolutionary, modernized and regularized
in compliance with the general requirements of being qualified politically
and competent militarily and having a fine style of work, strict discipline
and adequate logistic support and in close connection with the two historic
objectives of being capable of winning battles and never degenerating.
The army should give first priority to ideological and
political development in all its endeavors and retain the nature, quality
and style of work worthy of a people's army. The Party's absolute
leadership over the army is the eternal soul of the army. There must be no
wavering in upholding the fundamental principle and system that the Party
leads the people's army.
The army must implement the military strategic
principle of active defense and raise its defense capabilities and combat
effectiveness under high-tech conditions. In response to the trend of
military changes in the world, it must carry out the strategy of building a
strong army through science and technology and improve its qualities. It
should attach strategic importance to education and training, carry on
intensive science- and technology-related military training and strengthen
the building of military academies and schools so as to bring up a large
number of high-quality military personnel of a new type. It is necessary to
innovate and develop military theories. Efforts should be made to
accomplish the historical tasks of mechanization and IT application,
thereby bringing about leapfrog development in the modernization of our
army.
It is necessary to explore the characteristics and laws
for running the army under the new historical conditions and press ahead
with reforms in the building of national defense and the army. The
formation and structure of the army must be optimized and the related
policies and systems should be adjusted and improved. The army must be
strict with itself and improve the system of military rules and regulations
so as to raise the level of handling its affairs according to law. It is
essential to persist in building the army through diligence and thrift and
establishing and improving an integrated logistic support system for the
three armed services, for both military and civilian purposes and for both
peacetime and wartime. It is necessary to deepen the restructuring of
defense-related science, technology and industry, combine military efforts
with civilian support, establish and improve the mechanism of competition,
appraisal, supervision and incentives and enhance the capabilities of independent
innovation so as to speed up the development of defense-related science and
technology as well as arms and equipment. It is necessary to improve the
mobilization system for national defense, strengthen the militia and
reserves and develop strategies and tactics of the people's war under
high-tech conditions. The armed police should strive for all-round
improvement and be loyal guards of the Party and the people forever.
Party organizations and governments at all levels and
the people should be concerned with and support the building of national
defense and the army. The army should support and take an active part in
national construction. We should strengthen education in national defense
to enhance the entire people's awareness of its importance. The government
and the people should support the army and give preferential treatment to
the families of servicemen and martyrs, and the army should support the
government and cherish the people so as to consolidate the solidarity
between the army and the government and between the army and the people.
VIII. "One Country, Two Systems" and Complete
National Reunification
To achieve complete reunification of the motherland is
a common aspiration of all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation both at
home and abroad. We have successfully resolved the questions of Hong Kong
and Macao and are striving for an early settlement of the question of
Taiwan and for the accomplishment of the great cause of national
reunification.
The return of Hong Kong and Macao to the motherland has
enriched the concept of "one country, two systems" in both theory
and practice. Facts prove that "one country, two systems" is a
correct policy and has strong vitality. We will resolutely implement this
policy and act in strict accordance with the basic laws of Hong Kong and
Macao special administrative regions. We will render full support to the
chief executives and governments of the two regions in their work and unite
with people from all walks of life there in a joint effort to maintain and
promote the prosperity, stability and development of Hong Kong and Macao.
We will adhere to the basic principles of
"peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems"
and the eight-point proposal on developing cross-straits relations and
advancing the process of peaceful national reunification at the present
stage. We will work with our compatriots in Taiwan to step up personnel
exchanges and promote economic, cultural and other interflows between the
two sides and firmly oppose the Taiwan separatist forces. The basic
configuration and development trend of the cross-straits relations remain
unchanged. The desire of our Taiwan compatriots for peace, stability and
development is growing stronger day by day. The splitting activities by the
Taiwan separatist forces are unpopular.
Adherence to the one-China principle is the basis for
the development of cross-straits relations and the realization of peaceful
reunification. There is but one China in the world, and both the mainland
and Taiwan belong to one China. China's sovereignty and territorial
integrity brook no division. We firmly oppose all words and deeds aimed at
creating "Taiwan independence", "two Chinas" or
"one China, one Taiwan". The future of Taiwan lies in the
reunification of the motherland. To conduct dialogue and hold negotiations
on peaceful reunification has been our consistent position. Here we repeat
our appeal: On the basis of the one-China principle, let us shelve for now
certain political disputes and resume the cross-straits dialogue and
negotiations as soon as possible. On the premise of the one-China
principle, all issues can be discussed. We may discuss how to end the
cross-straits hostility formally. We may also discuss the international
space in which the Taiwan region may conduct economic, cultural and social
activities compatible with its status, or discuss the political status of
the Taiwan authorities or other issues. We are willing to exchange views
with all political parties and personages of all circles in Taiwan on the
development of cross-straits relations and the promotion of peaceful
reunification.
We place our hopes on the people in Taiwan for the
settlement of the Taiwan question and the realization of the complete
reunification of China. Our compatriots in Taiwan have a glorious patriotic
tradition and are an important force in developing cross-straits relations.
We fully respect their life style and their wish to be the masters of our country.
The two sides should expand mutual contacts and exchanges and work together
to carry forward the fine tradition of the Chinese culture. As the direct
links of mail, air and shipping services, and trade across the Taiwan
Straits serve the common interests of the compatriots on both sides, there
is every reason to take practical and positive steps to promote such direct
links and open up new prospects for cross-straits economic cooperation.
"One country, two systems" is the best way
for the reunification between the two sides. After its reunification with
the mainland, Taiwan may keep its existing social system unchanged and
enjoy a high degree of autonomy. Our Taiwan compatriots may keep their way
of life unchanged, and their vital interests will be fully guaranteed. They
will enjoy a lasting peace. Taiwan may then truly rely on the mainland as
its hinterland for economic growth and thus get broad space for
development. Our Taiwan compatriots may join the people on the mainland in
exercising the right to administer the country and sharing the dignity and
honor of the great motherland in the international community.
The 23 million Taiwan compatriots are our brothers and
sisters of the same blood. No one is more eager than we are to resolve the
Taiwan question through peaceful means. We will continue to implement the
basic principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one
country, two systems" and act on the eight-point proposal. We will
work in utmost sincerity and do all we can to strive for a peaceful reunification.
Our position of never undertaking to renounce the use of force is not
directed at our Taiwan compatriots. It is aimed at the foreign forces'
attempts to interfere in China's reunification and the Taiwan separatist
forces' schemes for "Taiwan independence". To safeguard national
unity bears on the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. We Chinese
people will safeguard our state sovereignty and territorial integrity with
firm resolve. We will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China in
any way.
China will be reunified, and the Chinese nation will be
rejuvenated. The Taiwan question must not be allowed to drag on
indefinitely. We are convinced that with the concerted efforts of all sons
and daughters of the Chinese nation, the complete reunification of the
motherland will be achieved at an early date.
IX. The International Situation and Our External Work
Peace and development remain the themes of our era. To
preserve peace and promote development bears on the well-being of all nations
and represents the common aspirations of all peoples. It is an irresistible
trend of history. The growing trends toward world multipolarization and
economic globalization have brought with them opportunities and favorable
conditions for world peace and development. A new world war is unlikely in
the foreseeable future. It is realistic to bring about a fairly long period
of peace in the world and a favorable climate in areas around China.
However, the old international political and economic
order, which is unfair and irrational, has yet to be changed fundamentally.
Uncertainties affecting peace and development are on the rise. The elements
of traditional and non-traditional threats to security are intertwined, and
the scourge of terrorism is more acutely felt. Hegemonism and power
politics have new manifestations. Local conflicts triggered by ethnic or
religious contradictions and border or territorial disputes have cropped up
from time to time. The North-South gap is widening. The world is far from
being tranquil and mankind is faced with many grave challenges.
No matter how the international situation changes, we
will, as always, pursue the independent foreign policy of peace. The
purpose of China's foreign policy is to maintain world peace and promote
common development. We are ready to work with all nations to advance the
lofty cause of world peace and development.
We stand for going along with the historical tide and
safeguarding the common interests of mankind. We are ready to work with the
international community to boost world multipolarization, promote a
harmonious coexistence of diverse forces and maintain stability in the
international community. We will promote the development of economic
globalization in a direction conducive to common prosperity, draw on its
advantages and avoid its disadvantages so that all countries, particularly
developing countries, can benefit from the process.
We stand for establishing a new international political
and economic order that is fair and rational. Politically all countries
should respect and consult one another and should not seek to impose their
will on others. Economically they should complement one another and pursue
common development and should not create a polarization of wealth.
Culturally they should learn from one another and work for common
prosperity and should not exclude cultures of other nations. In the area of
security, countries should trust one another and work together to maintain
security, foster a new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual
benefit, equality and coordination, and settle their disputes through
dialogue and cooperation and should not resort to the use or threat of
force. We oppose all forms of hegemonism and power politics. China will
never seek hegemony and never go in for expansion.
We stand for maintaining the diversity of the |