Director,C3S: For the benefit of viewers and researchers , texts of four official documents released in China , relating to the CCP’s Third Plenum, are provided below:
1. Plenum Communique
(Passed at the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on 12 November 2013)
The 3rd Plenary Meeting of the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Beijing from 9 to 12 November. This Plenary Meeting was attended by 204 Central Committee members and 169 alternate Central Committee members. The Central Discipline Inspection Committee Standing Committee members and responsible comrades from relevant sides attended the meeting as non-voting delegates. A number of grass-roots comrades and expert scholars from among the representatives at the 18th Party Congress also attended as non-voting delegates.
The Plenum was organized by the Politburo. Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech. The Plenum listened to and discussed the work report that the Politburo entrusted Xi Jinping with, and deliberated and passed the “CCP Central Committee Decision concerning Some Major Issues in Comprehensively Deepening Reform”. Xi Jinping explained the “Decision (Discussion Draft)” to the Plenum.
The Plenum fully confirms the work of the Politburo since the 18th Party Congress. It is unanimously thought that, in the face of extremely complex international circumstances and the formidable and heavy tasks of domestic reform, development and stability, the Politburo comprehensively implemented the spirit of the 18th Party Congress and the 1st and 2nd Plenums of the 19th Party Congress, it held high the magnificent banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, took Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important “Three Represents” thought and the scientific development view as guidance, it united and led the entire Party, the entire military and the people from all ethnicities in the entire country, it persisted in the general work theme of seeking progress through stability, it strove for stable growth, structural adjustment and stimulation of reform, it calmly responded to all sorts of risks and challenges, it completely moved Socialist economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction and ecological civilization construction forward, it comprehensively moved the new magnificent project of Party building forward, it soundly moved the Party’s mass line education and practice movement forward, new progress has been achieved in all areas of work, it has promoted that the fruits of developments are extended to the whole body of the people in greater quantities and more fairly, and has realized a fine beginning in the first year of implementing the spirit of the 18th Party Congress.
The Plenum gave high appraisal to the successful practices and magnificent achievements of the Party in the 35 years since the 3rd Plenum of the 11th Party Congress, it researched some major issues in comprehensively deepening reform, and believes that reform and opening up is a new magnificent revolution of the Party leading the people of all ethnicities in the entire country under new circumstances of the times, it is the clearest characteristic of contemporary China, it is the crucial choice that decided the fate of contemporary China, and is an important talisman for the undertaking of the Party and the people to take great strides in catching up with the times. In the face of new circumstances and new tasks, in order to comprehensively construct a moderately prosperous society, and thereby create a wealthy, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious Socialist country, and realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, reform must be comprehensively deepened from a new historical starting point. The Plenum stressed that to comprehensively deepen reform, we must hold high the magnificent banner of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, take Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important “Three Represents” thought and the scientific development view as guidance, persist in beliefs, concentrate a consensus, comprehensively plan matters, move forward in a coordinated manner, persist in the reform orientation of the Socialism market economy, make stimulating social fairness and justice, and enhancing the people’s welfare into starting points and stopover points, further liberate thoughts, liberate and develop social productive forces, liberate and strengthen social vitality, firmly do away with systemic and mechanistic abuses in all areas, and strive to open up an even broader prospect for the undertaking of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The Plenum pointed out that the general objective of comprehensively deepening reform is perfecting and developing the system of Socialism with Chinese characteristics and moving the modernization of the country’s governance structure and governance capacity forward. We must pay even more attention to the systemic nature, general nature and coordinated nature of reform, accelerate the development of the Socialist market economy, democratic politics, advanced culture, harmonious society and ecological civilization, let all vitality in labour, knowledge, technology, management and capital compete and burst forth, let all sources fur the creation of social wealth fully gush out, and let the fruits of development be extended to the whole body of the people in greater numbers and more fairly.
The Plenum pointed out that we must closely revolve around the decisive function that the market has in allocating resources. Deepen economic structural reform, accelerate the perfection of modern market systems, macroeconomic regulation systems and open economic systems, accelerate the transformation of economic development methods, accelerate the establishment of an innovative country, promote even greater economic efficiency, justice and sustainable development; closely revolve around deepening political structural reform on the basis of the organic integration of persisting in the leadership of the Party, the people mastering their own affairs and governing the country according to the law, accelerate moving forward with the institutionalization, standardization and proceduralization of Socialist democratic politics, accelerate the perfection of cultural management systems and cultural production and management systems, establish and complete modern public culture service systems and modern cultural market systems, promoting the grand development and grand flourishing of Socialist culture; closely revolve around guaranteeing and improving people’s livelihoods even better, stimulating social fairness and justice and deepening social structural reform, reform income allocation systems, stimulate common prosperity, move forward with institutional innovation in the social area, move forward with the equalization of basic social services, accelerate the formation of a scientific and effective social governance structure, guarantee that society is full of vitality, as well as harmonious and orderly; closely revolve around the construction of a beautiful China in deepening ecological civilization structure reform, accelerate the establishment of ecological civilization systems, complete land space exploitation, energy savings and use, ecological and environmental protection systems and mechanisms, promote the formation of a new structure for harmonious development, modernization and construction between human and nature; closely revolve around raising levels of scientific governance, democratic governance and governance according to the law in deepening Party building systems and mechanisms, strengthen democratic centralism system construction, perfect the Party’s leadership systems and governance methods, maintain the Party’s advanced nature and pureness, and provide form political guarantees for reform, opening up and Socialist modernization construction.
The Plenum pointed out that to comprehensively deepen reform, we must base ourselves on the largest reality that our country will remain in the preliminary stage of Socialism for a long time, persist in this major strategic judgment that development still is crucial in resolving all of our country’s problems, put economic construction central, give rein to the driving function of economic structural reform, promote relationships of production to be adapted to productive forces and the superstructure to be adapted to the economic base, promote that the economy and society develop in a sustained and healthy manner.
The Plenum pointed out that economic structural reform is the focus point for comprehensively deepening reform, the core issue is handling the relationship between government and the market well, to ensure that the market has a decisive function in resource allocation and to give fuller rein to the function of government.
The Plenum stressed that the successful practice of reform and opening up has provided important experiences for completely deepening reform, and must be persisted in for a long time. The most important matters are persisting in the leadership of the Party, implementing the Party’s basic line, not marching the old road of closedness and fossilization, not marching the evil road of changing banners and allegiances, persisting in marching the path of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, guaranteeing the correct direction of reform and opening up throughout; persisting in liberating thoughts, seeking truth from facts, progressing with the times, seeking truth and being pragmatic, starting from reality in everything, summarizing domestic successful methods, learning from beneficial foreign experience, and daring to move theoretical and practical innovation forward; persisting in putting people first, respecting the dominant role of the people, giving rein to the pioneering spirit of the masses, closely relying on the people to promote reform, stimulating people’s comprehensive development; persisting in correctly handling the relationship between reform, development and stability, we must be bold, our pace must be steady, we must strengthen the integration of top-level design and crossing the river by feeling the stones, both stimulate overall progress and focus breakthroughs, raise the scientific nature of policymaking, broadly concentrate consensus and form joint forces for reform.
The Plenum demanded that decisive results are achieved in important areas and crucial segments by the year 2020, that an institutional structure that is systematic and complete, scientific and standardized, and effective in operation is formed, to ensure that institutions in all areas can become more mature and more finalized.
The Plenum made systematic deployments concerning comprehensively deepening reform, which stress persisting in and perfecting basic economic systems, accelerating the perfection of market economy systems, accelerating the transformation of government functions, deepening financial and fiscal structure reform, completing integrated structures and mechanisms of urban development, building open economic systems, strengthening Socialist democratic system construction, moving the construction of a rule of law country forward, strengthening restraints on the use of power and supervision systems, moving cultural structure and mechanism innovation forward, moving social undertaking reform and innovation forward, innovating social governance systems, accelerating ecological civilization system construction, deepening national defence and military reform, strengthening and improving the Party’s leadership over comprehensively deepening reform.
The Plenum pointed out that the basic economic system with public ownership at the core, jointly developing with many kinds of ownership systems is the main pillar of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and is the basis for the Socialist market economy system. The publicly owned economy and the non-publicly owned economy are both important component parts of the Socialist market economy, and are an important basis for our country’s economic and social development. We must unwaveringly consolidate and develop the publicly owned economy, persist in the dominant role of the public ownership system, give rein to the leading role of the State-owned economy, incessantly strengthen the vitality, control strength and influence of the State-owned economy. We must unwaveringly encourage, support and guide the non-publicly owned economy to develop, and encourage the economic vitality and creativity of the non-publicly owned economy. We must perfect asset protection systems, vigorously develop a mixed ownership economy, promote State-owned enterprises’ perfection of modern enterprise systems, and support the healthy development of the non-publicly owned economy.
The Plenum pointed out that establishing unified, open, competitive and ordered market systems are the basis for the market’s decisive function in resource allocation. We must accelerate the formation of a modern market system in which enterprises do business autonomously, with fair competition, free consumer choice, autonomous consumption, free flow of products and factors, and equal exchange, strive to eliminate market barriers, raise the efficiency and fairness of resource allocation. We must establish fair, open and transparent market rules, perfect mechanisms in which process are mainly decided by the market, establish a uniform construction and land use market across town and country, perfect financial market systems and deepen science and technology structure reform. The Plenum pointed out that scientific macro-economic regulation and effective governmental governance are immanent requirements to give rein to the superiority of the Socialist market economy. We must realistically transform government functions, deepen administrative structural reform, innovate administrative management methods, strengthen government credibility and implementation, and establish a rule of law government and a service-type government. We must complete macro-economic management systems, comprehensively and correctly implement government functions, optimize government organization and structuring, and raise scientific management levels.
The Plenum pointed out that finance is the basis and an important pillar of national governance, scientific financial and fiscal structures are an institutional guarantee to optimize resource allocation, safeguard market unity, stimulate social fairness and realize a long period of peace and order for the country. We must perfect legislation, clarify duties and responsibilities, reform the fiscal system, stabilize tax burdens, have transparent budgeting, raise efficiency, establish modern financial systems, and give rein to the vigour of both the Centre and the localities. We must improve budget management systems, perfect tax revenue systems and establish systems in which duties, responsibilities and payment obligations are mutually adapted.
The Plenum pointed out that the dual structure of town and country is the main obstacle restraining the integration of urban and rural development. We must complete structures and mechanisms, shape new types of industry-agriculture and urban-rural relationships where industry stimulates agriculture, cities stimulate the countryside, industry and agriculture work in a mutually beneficial manner, and town and country become one, to let the broad peasants equally participate in the process of modernization and jointly enjoy the fruits of modernization. We must accelerate the construction of new types of agricultural management systems, endow peasants with more property rights, move forward equal exchange of urban and rural production factors and a balanced allocation of public resources, and perfect urbanized healthy development systems.
The Plenum pointed out that to adapt to the new circumstances of economic globalization, we must promote mutual stimulation of domestic and international opening up, integrate bringing things in and matching out even better, stimulate the orderly and free flow of international and domestic production factors, high-efficiency resource allocation and deep market integration, accelerate the fostering of, participation in and development of competitive advantages in international economic cooperation, so that openness stimulates reform. We must relax investment access, accelerate the construction of free trade zones and expand inland and coastal openness.
The Plenum pointed out that to develop Socialist democratic politics, we must take guaranteeing that the people master their own affairs as the root, persist in and perfect the People’s Congress system, the system in which the Chinese Communist Party leads multi-party cooperation and political consultation, the ethnic autonomous region system as well as the grass-roots masses’ autonomy system, pay more attention to completing democratic systems, enriching democratic forms and fully giving rein to the superiorities of our country’s Socialist political system. We must promote that the People’s Congress system progresses with the times, move broad multi-level institutionalization and development of consultative democracy forward, develop grass-roots democracy.
The Plenum pointed out that to construct a rule of law country, we must deepen judicial structural reform, and accelerate the construction of a fair, high-efficiency and authoritative Socialist judicial system, safeguarding the people’s rights and interests. Let the authority of the Constitution and the law be safeguarded, deepen administrative law enforcement structure reform, guarantee that judicial power and prosecutorial power is exercised according to the law, independently and fairly, perfect judicial guarantee systems for human rights.
The Plenum pointed out that persisting in using institutions to manage power, manage affairs and manage people, let the people supervise power, let power be wielded in the sunlight, which are basic policies to lock up power in a cage of rules. We must build operational systems for scientific policymaking, firm implementation and powerful supervision, complete systems for corruption punishment and prevention, construct a clean and honest government, strive to realize that cadres are upright and just, government is clean and honest, and politics are bright and clear. We must shape scientific and effective mechanisms to restrain and coordinate power, strengthen anti-corruption system and mechanism innovation and institutional guarantees, and complete regularized institutions to improve work styles.
The Plenum pointed out that to construct a strong Socialist culture country and strengthen national cultural soft power, we must persist in the progressive orientation of advanced Socialist culture, persist in the cultural development path of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, persist in the work orientation of putting people central, and further deepening cultural structural reform. We must perfect cultural management systems, establish and complete modern cultural market systems, build modern public cultural systems and raise cultural openness levels.
The Plenum pointed out that to realize that the fruits of development are extended to the whole body of the people in greater numbers and more fairly, we must accelerate the reform of social undertakings, resolve issues of interests that the masses are most concerned about, are most direct and are most real, and even better satisfy the people’s demands. We must deepen comprehensive reform in the educational area, complete systems and mechanisms to stimulate employment and entrepreneurialism, shape rational and orderly income allocation structures, establish fairer and sustainable social security systems and deepen structural reform in healthcare and hygiene.
The Plenum pointed out that to innovate social governance, we must focus on safeguarding the basic interests of the broadest people, increase harmonious factors to the broadest possible extent, strengthen the vitality of social development, raise social governance levels, safeguard national security, guarantee that the people can live and work in peace and contentment, and that society is stable and orderly. We must improve social governance methods and stimulate the vitality of social organizations, innovate effective systems to prevent and resolve social contradictions, complete public security systems, establish a National Security Committee, and perfect national security systems and a national security strategy, to guarantee national security.
The Plenum pointed out that to establish an ecological civilization, we must establish systematic and integral ecological civilization institutions and systems, and use institutions to protect the ecology and the environment. We must complete natural resource property right systems and use management systems, draw red lines for ecological protection, implement paid-for resource use systems and ecological compensation systems, and reform ecological and environmental protection and management systems. The Plenum pointed out that [we must] closely revolve around the objective of building a line of strong armies for this Party under new circumstances, people’s armies which listen to the Party’s instructions, can be victorious in battle and have a fine work style, strive to resolve prominent contradictions issues and issues that restrain national defence and military construction and development, innovate and develop military theory, strengthen military strategy and guidance, perfect new-era military strategies and policies, and build a modern military force system with Chinese characteristics. We must deepen military structural and personnel allocation adjustment and reform, move adjustment and reform of military policies and institutions forward, and promote the integrated and deep development of the military and the people.
The Plenum stressed that to completely deepen reform, we must strengthen and improve that Party’s leadership, fully give rein to the Party’s core leadership function in assuming all responsibility for the entire picture and coordinating all sides, raise the Party’s leadership levels and governance abilities, to guarantee that reform is successful. The Centre is to establish a Leading Small Group on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, which is to be responsible for general planning of reform, comprehensive coordination, overall direction, and supervision of implementation. All levels’ Party Committees must realistically implement their leadership responsibilities over reform. We must deepen cadre human resource system reform, establish structures and mechanisms to concentrate talent, fully give rein to the vigour, initiative and creativity of the popular masses, encourage the local grass roots and masses to explore boldly and summarize experiences timely.
The Plenum has analysed the present circumstances and tasks, it stressed that the comrades in the entire Party must unite their thoughts and actions around the Centre’s major policies and deployments on comprehensively deepening reform, strengthen an enterprising mentality, an awareness of opportunities and a sense of responsibility, closely grasp orientations, boldly engage in practice and exploration, stress comprehensive planning and coordination, concentrate a consensus for reform, implement leadership responsibility, and unwaveringly realize the Centre’s reform policies and deployments. We must, according to the Centre’s deployments and policies, persist in seeking progress through stability, act on the basis of stability, realistically do all work matters well, maintain economic and social development momentum, be concerned about the lives of the masses and especially the masses in difficulties, stimulate social harmony and stability, continue to soundly push forward the Party’s mass line education and practice movement, and strive to realize the expected objectives of economic and social development.
The Plenum called upon comrades in the entire Party, who must closely revolve around the Party Centre with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary, to forge ahead with tenacity, storm fortifications and overcome difficulties, compose a new historical chapter in the magnificent undertaking of reform and opening up, and struggle to comprehensively construct a moderately prosperous society, incessantly seize new victories for Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
(source: Translated from Xinhua Chinese language version. Published at http://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/communique-of-the-3rd-plenum-of-the-18th-party-congress)
Also must see:
2. http://www.china.org.cn/china/third_plenary_session/2013-11/16/content_30620736.htm- “The Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms in Brief- in 5 parts, China Daily , 16 .11. 2013
3.http://eng.mod.gov.cn/TopNews/2013-11/16/content_4475171.htm- “Xi Explains China’s Reforms, Xinhua, 16.11.2013
4.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-11/15/c_132892155.htm; “Xi Expounds Security Commission Role”, Xinhua, 15.11.2013
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