Resolution of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on the Report of the 18th Central Committee

October 24, 2017

Delegates attend the closing session of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China approves the report delivered by Comrade Xi Jinping on behalf of the Party's 18th Central Committee. The Congress holds high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. On the basis of an analysis of the developments in the international and domestic environments and a review of the Party's work and the historic change over the past five years, the Congress forms the major political judgments that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era and the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life. The Congress elaborates on the Party's historic mission in the new era and establishes the historical position of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

It sets forth the basic policy for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and establishes the goal of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and then embarking on a journey to fully build a modern socialist China. The Congress also sets out an overall plan for advancing the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the great new project of Party building in the new era.

The report of the 18th Central Committee approved by the Congress sketches out an impressive blueprint for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and striving for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, thus charting the course for continued progress in the cause of the Party and the country.

The report is a crystallization of the wisdom of the whole Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. It is a political declaration and a program of action for the Party to unite the Chinese people and lead them in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It is a guiding Marxist document.

The Congress believes that the theme expounded on in the report is of enormous importance to the Party leading the people toward a stronger China through tireless and groundbreaking efforts.

Every one of us in the Party must remain true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind, hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, and work tirelessly to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

The Congress applauds the work of the 18th Central Committee. The five years since the 18th National Congress have been a truly remarkable five years in the course of the development of the Party and the country, with historic achievements made in reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. Over these five years, the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has demonstrated tremendous political courage and a powerful sense of mission as it has developed new ideas, new thinking, and new strategies, adopted a raft of major principles and policies, launched a host of major initiatives, and pushed ahead with many major tasks. It has thus solved many tough problems that were long on the agenda but never resolved, accomplished many things that were wanted but never got done, and prompted historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country.

The Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has acted with courage to confront major risks and tests facing the Party and to address prominent problems within the Party itself. With firm resolve, it has tightened discipline and improved Party conduct, fought corruption, and punished wrongdoing, and removed serious potential dangers in the Party and the country. As a result, both the intraparty political atmosphere and the political ecosystem of the Party have improved markedly. The Party's ability to create, power to unite, and energy to fight have all been significantly strengthened; Party solidarity and unity have been reinforced, and our engagement with the people has been greatly improved. Revolutionary tempering has made our Party stronger and it now radiates with great vitality. With this, efforts to develop the cause of the Party and the country have gained a strong political underpinning.

The achievements of the past five years have touched every area and broken new ground; the changes in China over the past five years have been profound and fundamental.

The Congress stresses that, with decades of hard work, socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. This is a new historic juncture in China's development.

As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved into one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life. This represents a historic shift that affects the whole landscape and that creates many new demands for the work of the Party and the country. Building on continued efforts to sustain development, we must devote great energy to addressing development's imbalances and inadequacies, and push hard to improve the quality and effect of development.

With this, we can be better placed to meet the ever-growing economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological needs of our people, and to promote well-rounded human development and all-around social progress. The Congress stresses that the Party has been presented with the profound question of what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics the new era requires it to uphold and develop, and how it should go about doing it.

In answering this question of an era, our Party has adopted an entirely new perspective to deepen its understanding of the laws that underlie governance by the Communist party, the development of socialism, and the evolution of human society. It has worked hard to undertake theoretical explorations, and has achieved major theoretical innovations, ultimately giving shape to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era builds on and further enriches Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development.

It represents the latest achievement in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, and encapsulates the practical experience and collective wisdom of our Party and the people.

It is an important component of the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and a guide to action for all our members and all the Chinese people as we strive to achieve national rejuvenation. This Thought must be adhered to and steadily developed on a long-term basis.

The Congress highlights the 14 points that form the basic policy underpinning our endeavors to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. They are: Ensure Party leadership over all work; commit to a people-centered approach; continue to comprehensively deepen reform; adopt a new vision for development; see that the people run the country; ensure every dimension of governance is law-based; uphold core socialist values; ensure and improve living standards through development; ensure harmony between human and nature; pursue a holistic approach to national security; uphold absolute Party leadership over the people's forces; uphold the principle of "one country, two systems" and promote national reunification; promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind; and exercise full and rigorous governance over the Party. All our members must fully implement the Party's basic theory, line, and policy so as to better steer the development of the Party and people's cause.

The Congress points out that the period between now and 2020 will be decisive in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We must follow the requirements on building this society set out at our 16th, 17th, and 18th National Congresses; focus on priorities, address inadequacies, and shore up points of weakness. We must take tough steps to forestall and defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation, and prevent and control pollution, so that the moderately prosperous society we build earns the people's approval and stands the test of time.

The Congress believes that the period between the 19th and the 20th National Congress is the period in which the time frames of the two centenary goals converge. In this period, not only must we finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieve the first centenary goal; we must also build on this achievement to embark on a new journey toward the second centenary goal of fully building a modern socialist country.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of the international and domestic environments and the conditions for China's development, we have drawn up a two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of this century. In the first stage from 2020 to 2035, we will build on the foundation created by the moderately prosperous society with a further 15 years of hard work to see that socialist modernization is basically realized. In the second stage from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, we will, building on having basically achieved modernization, work hard for a further 15 years and develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.

The Congress endorses the report's plans for promoting socialist economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement in China. It stresses that we must apply a new vision of development and develop a modernized economy. We should put quality first and give priority to performance, pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task, and work hard for better quality, higher efficiency, and more robust drivers of economic growth through reform. We should accelerate the building of an industrial system that promotes coordinated development of the real economy with technological innovation, modern finance, and human resources, and endeavor to develop an economy with more effective market mechanisms, dynamic micro-entities, and sound macro-regulation. With this we can steadily strengthen the innovation capacity and competitiveness of China's economy. We should further supply-side structural reform, move faster to make China a country of innovators, pursue a rural vitalization strategy and the strategy for coordinated regional development, accelerate efforts to improve the socialist market economy, make new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts, and strive to achieve better quality, more efficient, fairer, and more sustainable development.

We should improve the system of institutions through which the people run the country and develop socialist democracy. We should uphold the unity of Party leadership, the people running the country, and law-based governance. This requires us to strengthen institutional guarantees to ensure the people run the country, give play to the important role of socialist consultative democracy, and advance law-based governance.

We should deepen reform of Party and government institutions and the system of government administration, consolidate and develop the patriotic united front, and consolidate and enhance political stability, unity, and vitality. We should build stronger cultural confidence and help socialist culture to flourish. We must hold firmly the leading position in ideological work, cultivate and observe core socialist values, and raise intellectual and moral standards. We should work to see socialist literature and art thrive, promote the development of cultural programs and industries, and inspire the cultural creativity of our whole nation.

We should grow better at ensuring and improving people's well-being and strengthen and develop new approaches to social governance. We must focus on the most pressing, most immediate issues that concern the people the most. We should give priority to developing education, improve the quality of employment and raise incomes, strengthen the social security system, win the battle against poverty, carry out the Healthy China initiative, establish a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests, and effectively safeguard national security. With this we should see that our people always have a strong sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

We should speed up reform to develop sound systems for building an ecological civilization, and build a Beautiful China. We should promote green development, solve prominent environmental problems, intensify the protection of ecosystems, reform the environmental regulation system, and work to develop a new model of modernization with humans developing in harmony with nature.

The Congress stresses that, confronted with profound changes in our national security environment and responding to the demands of the day for a strong country with a strong military, we must stay committed to the Chinese path of building strong armed forces, fully implement Xi Jinping's thinking on strengthening the military, adapt military strategy to new conditions, build a powerful and modernized army, navy, air force, rocket force, and strategic support force, develop strong and efficient joint operations commanding institutions for theater commands, and create a modern combat system with distinctive Chinese characteristics. With this we can fully advance the modernization of national defense and the military and transform our people's armed forces into world-class forces.

The Congress stresses that, to maintain long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao, it is imperative to fully and faithfully implement the policies of "one country, two systems", "the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong", "the people of Macao governing Macao", and a high degree of autonomy for both regions, and to act in strict compliance with China's Constitution and the basic laws of the two special administrative regions.

We shall see that our compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao share both the historic responsibility of national rejuvenation and the pride of a strong and prosperous China. We must uphold the principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems," expand economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, encourage people from both sides to work together to promote Chinese culture, work for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, and advance the process toward the peaceful reunification of China. We will never allow anyone, any organization, or any political party, at any time or in any form, to separate any part of Chinese territory from China.

The Congress endorses the report's analysis of the international situation and the guiding principles it sets out for China's foreign affairs. The Congress stresses that China will keep to the path of peaceful development, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, and uphold its fundamental foreign policy goal of preserving world peace and promoting common development. China remains firm in its commitment to strengthening friendship and cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It will actively promote international cooperation through the Belt and Road Initiative, and continue to take an active part in reforming and developing the global governance system. It will work toward a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation and a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together with the people of all countries to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.

The Congress stresses that it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel. For the Party to unite the people and lead them in carrying out our great struggle, advancing our great cause, and realizing our great dream, we must unwaveringly uphold and improve Party leadership and make the Party still stronger. The general requirements for Party building for the new era are: Uphold and strengthen overall Party leadership and ensure that the Party exercises effective self-supervision and practices strict self-governance in every respect; take strengthening the Party's long-term governance capacity and its advanced nature and purity as the main thrust, take enhancing the Party's political building as the overarching principle, take holding dear the Party's ideals, convictions, and purpose as the underpinning, and take harnessing the whole Party's enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity as the focus of efforts; make all-around efforts to see the Party's political building enhanced, its theory strengthened, its organizations consolidated, its conduct improved, and its discipline enforced, with institution building incorporated into every aspect of Party building; step up efforts to combat corruption and continue to improve the efficacy of Party building; and build the Party into a vibrant Marxist governing party that is always at the forefront of the times, enjoys the wholehearted support of the people, has the courage to reform itself, and is able to withstand all tests.

The Congress stresses that we must put the Party's political building first. All of us in the Party must strengthen our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment. We must uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, closely follow the Party's political line, strictly observe its political discipline and rules, and closely align ourselves with the Central Committee in terms of political stance, direction, principle, and path.

The Congress calls on the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and earnestly study and put into practice Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

We will keep on working with great determination to accomplish the three historic tasks of advancing modernization, realizing China's reunification, and preserving world peace and promoting common development, and make continued efforts to secure a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, and see that our people realize their aspirations for a better life.