Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century
Part-6
Adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on November 11, 2021
China has established the world’s largest social security system, with 1.02 billion people covered by basic old-age insurance and 1.36 billion people by basic medical insurance.
We have advanced the Healthy China Initiative across the board. Following the principle of putting prevention first, we have deepened reform of the medical and healthcare systems and shifted the focus of medical and health care down to the community level, channeling resources accordingly. We have taken prompt action to improve major epidemic prevention and control systems and mechanisms as well as the national public health emergency management system. We have worked to promote the preservation, innovation, and development of traditional Chinese medicine and strengthened the public health service system covering both urban and rural areas.
As we have stepped up our efforts to build China into a sporting nation, we have launched extensive public fitness activities and vigorously promoted China’s sporting spirit.
We have intensified research on our population development strategy. In response to population aging, we have accelerated the development of elderly care services, and we have adjusted and improved the family planning policy so as to promote balanced development of the population over the long term.
We have given greater weight to strengthening family ties, values, and traditions, and worked to better protect the rights and interests of women and children. We have acted more quickly to develop programs for people with disabilities.
Adhering to the principle that housing is for living in and not for speculation, we have moved faster to build a housing system with multiple types of suppliers and support channels that encourages both renting and buying, and increased investment in the construction of government-subsidized housing. All this has led to significant improvements in urban and rural housing conditions.
To ensure the lasting stability of the country and a happy and comfortable life for the people, the Party has strived to advance the Peaceful China Initiative to a higher level and improve the social governance system. It has enhanced the Party organization-led urban and rural community governance system featuring a combination of self-governance, the rule of law, and the rule of virtue, and it has shifted the focus of social governance down to the community level. This has helped develop a social governance system based on collaboration, participation, and benefit sharing and fostered communities of social governance in which everyone fulfills their responsibilities and shares in the benefits.
We have bolstered disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief efforts, improved workplace safety, and strengthened our national emergency management system and capacity.
We have carried on and developed the Fengqiao model in promoting social harmony in the new era. By continuing to address issues at the source through systematic, law-based, and holistic approaches, and by refining the system for handling public complaints, we have improved integrated mechanisms for preventing, mediating, and defusing social problems. We have adopted a full range of measures to maintain law and order, launching campaigns to combat and root out organized crime, cracking down on Party officials who condoned, covered up, or even provided protection for organized crime, and taking steps to prevent and combat violence and terrorism, new types of cybercrime, and transnational crime.
Since the Party’s 18th National Congress, we have promoted social advancement across the board. The people’s lives have improved in all areas, public participation in social governance is growing, and social governance is becoming smarter, more law-based, and more specialized. We have continued to develop a sound atmosphere in which people are able to live and work in peace and contentment and social stability and order prevail. As a result, China’s miracle of long-term social stability has continued.
9. Spurring ecological advancement
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has paid increasingly greater attention to ecological conservation and environmental protection, a major area in which we are still falling short. China faces increasingly grave problems in the form of tightening environmental and resource constraints and ecological degradation. In particular, environmental pollution and ecological damage of various kinds are becoming increasingly commonplace, impairing our country’s development and people’s wellbeing. We will pay an extremely heavy price unless we reverse the trend of ecological and environmental deterioration as soon as possible.
The Central Committee has emphasized that ecological conservation is of vital importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. To protect the environment is to protect the productive forces, and to improve the environment is to boost the productive forces. We must never sacrifice the environment in exchange for transient economic growth. We must stay true to the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, continue our holistic approach to the conservation of mountain, river, forest, farmland, lake, grassland, and desert ecosystems, and protect and cherish our natural environment as we do our own lives. We must act with greater resolve to promote green, circular, and low-carbon development, and adhere to a model of sustainable development featuring increased production, higher living standards, and healthy ecosystems.
Through all-out efforts in the areas of theory, law, institutions, organization, and conduct, the Party has strengthened ecological conservation and environment protection in all dimensions and regions and at all times. We have promoted the enforcement of red lines for ecological conservation, set benchmarks for environmental quality, imposed caps on resource utilization, and launched a whole raft of pioneering initiatives that will have fundamental and far-reaching significance. We have worked to implement the functional zoning strategy and set up sound systems in the following areas: property rights for natural resource assets, territorial space development and protection, performance evaluation and accountability for ecological conservation, compensation for ecological conservation, designation of river, lake, and forest chiefs, assignment of equal responsibilities for environmental protection to Party committees and governments, and charging officials with environmental protection responsibilities in addition to their prescribed duties. Corresponding laws and regulations have been formulated and/or revised.
We have optimized planning for development and protection of territorial space, built a national park-based system of nature reserves, moved forward with large-scale afforestation, and better protected and improved the ecosystems of major rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and coastlines. We have redoubled efforts to preserve and restore ecosystems and protect biodiversity, and developed spatial layouts, industrial structures, and ways of production and living that help conserve resources and protect the environment.
Under the Party’s leadership, China has achieved initial success in the critical battle against pollution. Three major action plans on addressing air, water, and soil pollution have been fully implemented. We have continued working to keep our skies blue, our waters clear, and our lands pollution-free, improved rural living environments, and completely banned the importation of solid waste. We have carried out central government environmental inspections, strictly investigated and prosecuted a number of major representative cases of ecological damage, and addressed a number of environmental problems that have aroused strong public concern. China has played an active role in global environmental and climate governance, and pledged to reach peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, demonstrating its commitment to act as a responsible major country.
Since the Party’s 18th National Congress, the Central Committee has devoted greater efforts than ever before to ecological conservation. The whole Party and the entire nation have become more conscious and active in pursuing green development, and made significant progress in building a Beautiful China. Our environmental protection endeavors have seen sweeping, historic, and transformative changes.
10. Strengthening national defense and the armed forces
Since the launch of reform and opening up, China has made constant progress in building a more revolutionary, modernized, and standardized military and enhancing its national defense capabilities. This has provided reliable security guarantees for China’s reform, development, and stability. The Central Committee has stressed that a country needs a strong military before it can truly be strong and secure. China must build fortified national defense and a strong people’s military commensurate with its international standing and its security and development interests.
The Party has set objectives for strengthening the military and defined China’s military strategy for the new era. It has formulated the following three-step development strategy for modernizing national defense and the armed forces:
achieving the centenary objectives of the People’s Liberation Army by 2027;
basically completing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces by 2035; and
fully transforming the armed forces into world-class forces by the mid-21st century.
The Party has worked to enhance the political loyalty of the armed forces, strengthen them through reform, science and technology, and training of competent personnel, and run them in accordance with the law. It has accelerated efforts to modernize military theory, organization, personnel, and weaponry and equipment and to integrate mechanization with the application of information and smart technologies within the military. Troop training and battle preparedness have been bolstered across the board. Through these efforts, China has adhered to its own path in building a strong military.
To build strong people’s armed forces, it is of paramount importance to uphold the fundamental principle and system of absolute Party leadership over the military, to ensure that supreme leadership and command authority rest with the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC), and to fully enforce the system of the CMC chairman assuming overall responsibility.
For a period of time, the Party’s leadership over the military was obviously lacking. If this problem had not been completely solved, it would not only have diminished the military’s combat capacity, but also undermined the key political principle that the Party commands the gun. Setting their sights on this problem, the Central Committee and the CMC have worked vigorously to govern the military with strict discipline in every respect and made resolute decisions to enforce political discipline within the military. At the conference on military political work in 2014 in Gutian, Fujian Province, a plan was unveiled for enhancing the political loyalty of the armed forces in the new era, restoring and carrying on the proud traditions and fine conduct of the Party and the military, and improving political work through rectification. An all-around push was made to strengthen the Party’s leadership and Party building, improve Party conduct, build integrity, and fight corruption in the military. Grave violations of Party discipline and state laws including those involving Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, Fang Fenghui, and Zhang Yang were thoroughly investigated and punished, and their negative influence was completely eliminated. With this, the political environment in the people’s armed forces has made a fundamental turn for the better.
The Party has set forth the strategy of strengthening the armed forces through reform, and led efforts to conduct the most extensive and profound reform of national defense and the armed forces since the founding of the People’s Republic. It has reshaped the leadership and command system of the military, its system of modern military forces, and its system of military policies. The number of active service personnel has been cut by 300,000. A new military structure has been established with the CMC exercising overall leadership, the theater commands responsible for military operations, and the services focusing on developing capabilities.
In response to the new global military revolution, we have implemented the strategy of strengthening the armed forces through science and technology. We have made our people’s military more innovative, established a robust modern logistics system, and achieved major progress in developing weapons and equipment and national defense-related science and technology.
We have implemented the strategy of strengthening the armed forces by training competent personnel, established military education policies for the new era, and specified a set of criteria for good military officers. We have worked to develop a new type of military personnel training system consisting of military academies, military training, and military vocational education to train revolutionary officers and soldiers in the new era with faith, ability, courage, and integrity, and to build highly capable forces with ironclad convictions, beliefs, discipline, and sense of duty.
We have implemented the strategy of running the armed forces in accordance with the law, built a Chinese system for law-based administration of military affairs, and expedited fundamental transformations in the way our military is run. We have advanced the development of the military honors system.
The Party has set the missions and tasks for the armed forces in the new era. It has created new methods for providing military strategic guidance, improved the military strategic layout, and strengthened the armed forces’ strategic functions in shaping our military posture, managing crises, and deterring and winning wars. Devoting intense focus to combat effectiveness as the sole criterion that matters most and to their fundamental purpose of being able to fight and win, the people’s armed forces have strengthened their strategic forces and new-domain forces with new combat capabilities, and they have improved command systems and capacity for joint operations. They have worked hard to address “peacetime ills,” vigorously strengthened training under combat conditions, and built strong, well-structured, and modern border defense, coastal defense, and air defense systems. The armed forces have remained committed to carrying out military struggles in a flexible manner to counter military provocations by external forces, and they have created a strong deterrent against separatist activities seeking “Taiwan independence.” They have conducted major operations related to border defense, protecting China’s maritime rights, countering terrorism and maintaining stability, disaster rescue and relief, fighting Covid-19, peacekeeping and escort services, humanitarian assistance, and international military cooperation.
Since the Party’s 18th National Congress, the people’s military has been through an all-around revolutionary restructuring under the firm leadership of the Party in preparation for the next stage, while our defense capabilities have grown in step with our economic strength. Integration of national strategic systems and capabilities has accelerated, sound administrative and support systems for ex-service members have been established, defense mobilization has become more efficient, and greater unity has been cultivated between the military and the government and between the military and civilians. Firmly carrying out the missions of the new era, the people’s military has taken concrete actions to safeguard our national sovereignty, security, and development interests with an indomitable fighting spirit.
11. Safeguarding national security
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has attached great importance to properly handling the relationship between reform, development, and stability. With this in mind, it has defined safeguarding national security and social stability as a fundamental task for the Party and the country in order to cultivate a sound security environment for reform, opening up, and socialist modernization.
In the new era, China is faced with more acute national security challenges, as evidenced by unprecedented external pressure, intertwined traditional and non-traditional security threats, and frequent “black swan” and “grey rhino” events. China’s ability to safeguard national security falls short of what is required of us by the current circumstances and tasks. We need to strengthen our capacity for responding to various major risks, and improve mechanisms for coordinating efforts to safeguard national security.
The Central Committee has stressed that the most fundamental and universal desire of our people is to live in a safe and peaceful nation. We must always be prepared for worst-case scenarios and mindful of potential dangers. We must uphold the primacy of our national interests and take the people’s security as our ultimate goal, political security as our fundamental task, economic security as our foundation, military, technological, cultural, and social security as means of guarantee, and international security as the support. We must find a balance between development and security, between opening up and security, between traditional and non-traditional security, between China’s domestic security and the common security of the world, and between safeguarding national security and creating conditions conducive to it.
Comrade Xi Jinping has stressed that our Party should make national security its top priority. He has put forward a holistic approach to national security, which covers political, military, homeland security, economic, cultural, social, technological, cyberspace, ecological, resource, nuclear, overseas interests, outer space, deep sea, polar, and biological security issues, among others. He has urged all Party members to enhance their fighting spirit and fighting capacity and to fulfill their responsibilities for guarding against and defusing various risks as they exercise leadership and carry out their work.
The Central Committee is acutely aware that, confronted with various types of external encirclement, suppression, disruption, and subversion, we must not be misguided or intimidated, and we must fight to the end with any forces that would attempt to subvert the leadership of the Communist Party of China and China’s socialist system, or to hinder or obstruct China’s advance toward national rejuvenation. Constant concessions will only invite more bullying and humiliation.
The Party has redoubled its efforts to strengthen the national security system and capacity building in this regard. It established a national security commission under the Central Committee, and it has improved the centralized, high-performing, and authoritative leadership system and the legal, strategy, and policy systems for national security. It has also put in place coordination and emergency management mechanisms for national security.
The Party has incorporated security imperatives into all areas throughout the process of national development, placed emphasis on guarding against and defusing major risks that may affect China’s modernization process, and resolutely safeguarded political, institutional, and ideological security. The Party has enhanced efforts to raise public awareness about the importance of national security and national defense and consolidated the public line of defense for national security. Solid steps have been taken to boost development, raise living standards, and ensure stability in border areas and to strictly prevent and crack down on in?ltration, sabotage, subversion, and separatist activities by hostile forces. The Party has withstood and pushed back against extreme external pressure, stood up on issues such as those related to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, and territorial waters, and moved faster to build a strong maritime country. Through all these efforts, we have effectively safeguarded national security.
Since the 18th National Congress, we have enhanced national security on all fronts and overcome many political, economic, ideological, and natural risks, challenges, and trials. This has helped ensure that the Party and the country thrive and enjoy lasting stability.
To be Continued…
