A New Era with New Characteristics and Contradictions

Abstract

This new era will be an era of building on past successes to further advance our cause, and of continuing in a new historical context to strive for the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will be an era of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and of moving on to all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country. It will be an era for the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work together to create a better life for themselves and achieve common prosperity for everyone. It will be an era for all of us, the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, to strive with one heart to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. It will be an era that sees China moving closer to the center stage and making greater contributions to mankind.

This new era will be an era of building on past successes to further advance our cause, and of continuing in a new historical context to strive for the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will be an era of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and of moving on to all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country. It will be an era for the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work together to create a better life for themselves and achieve common prosperity for everyone. It will be an era for all of us, the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, to strive with one heart to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. It will be an era that sees China moving closer to the center stage and making greater contributions to mankind.

Jinping (2017)

Chinese socialism’s entrance into a new era is, in the history of the development of the People’s Republic of China and the history of the development of the Chinese nation, of tremendous importance. In the history of the development of international socialism and the history of the development of human society, it is of tremendous importance.

Jinping (2017)

As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved. What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development, and the people’s ever-growing need for a better life.

Jinping (2017)

The 19th Party Congress stated that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. This important political assessment was based on three main insights: (1) Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage, the “second half” of the primary stage of socialism, where the core mission in the first 20 years of the twenty-first century is to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society benefiting a population of more than 1 billion people. (2) The new era will be characterized by well-rounded innovation, in which China builds a world power, and we gradually achieve common prosperity for everyone. China will make every effort to realize the dream of national rejuvenation, and will move closer to the center of the world stage, helping to create a shared future for humankind. (3) China now faces a contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development on one side, and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life on the other. This represents a historic shift that affects the entire landscape and creates many new demands on the Party and the country. Hence, while the basic dimension of the Chinese context—that our country remains, and will for a long time, in the primary stage of socialism—has not changed, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society is new.

3.1 General Basis: The First and Second Halves of the Primary Stage of Socialism

A great historical mission requires a long-term grand strategy, and a long-term grand strategy needs to fully reflect the great historical mission. This strategy must be followed throughout the journey,¹ and it must also advance with the times.² Such is the China Road.

China has been on the road to socialist modernization for nearly 70 years, starting with the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The nation’s success so far shows that socialist modernization depends on a clear and rational understanding of the fundamental dimensions of our national context and the scientific formulation of a long-term strategic plan. Looking forward to China in 2050, we need to understand the objective reality in which socialist modernization will be achieved, in terms of the real situations of the state, the Party, and the world.

On this point, General Secretary Xi Jinping has noted that, in contemporary China, the biggest objective reality is that China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism. This represents the base point from which China must understand the present, plan for the future, formulate policies, and advance the cause; China shall not deviate from this point.³

The primary stage of socialism involves a long historical development process of at least 100 years. Following the presentation of this important assessment in the report of the 13th Party Congress, the reports of the various congresses of party representatives reiterated this point, while also including new insights, and proposing new discourses, concepts, and ideas for the new development stage.

The general basis of the “primary stage theory of socialism” comprises the properties of the socialist society and the characteristics of the primary stage, and represents the theoretical and practical innovation of China. With this general basis in mind, we can solve the fundamental issue of how China, as the largest developing country, is to achieve industrialization, IT application, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, while synchronously accelerating these processes in a socialist society in a proper manner. This general basis requires us to comply with economic, social, and natural laws, and to grasp the rules of governance of a Communist party, the development of socialism, and the evolution of human society. It further guides us to address regional disparities and to narrow the gap between rich and poor and between urban and rural, issues that remain unsolved in both developed and developing countries. The essence of socialism is common prosperity, and common prosperity is the largest common interest and the most important objective pursued by all Chinese people.

For the primary stage of socialism to be properly understood, it is necessary to correct two misconceptions: The first is the belief that as long as a socialist society exists, people will feel that they are living in heaven, and everything is good. As Mao Zedong made clear, we cannot live under the illusion that everything is good in socialist countries.⁴ If we forget that China is in the primary stage of socialism, and ignore the fact that the country will remain in this less developed stage for some time, and if we are impatient for success and try to move beyond our national strength, we will be bound to walk down a dogmatic and rigid road. We can find examples of this approach in China’s “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution.” The second misconception is that, because China is in the primary stage, it is significantly inferior to Western countries, and everything is bad in China. This belief leads to blind fantasies about the Western system and an indiscriminate imitation of everything Western. It ignores the fact that China possesses the basic properties of a socialist society and it also separates China from its national context. To follow a path informed by this misconception would be to walk down the road of capitalism, with the inevitable repetition of history. Examples of this type of thinking are the voluntary dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, even though it had defeated Hitler’s fascism, the voluntary disintegration of the Soviet socialist state, and the catastrophe and great regression of Russia.⁵

How then can we dynamically understand and analyze the regular patterns, stages, and characteristics of development in the primary stage of socialism? This requires observations and analyses from multiple perspectives. First of all, from a historical perspective, it is necessary to clarify where China’s development path started, the initial conditions, where exactly China has now arrived, and where China will go in the future. Secondly, a dialectical perspective will enable us to understand that the socialist modernization of China is a process of evolution from quantitative change to partial qualitative change, then from quantitative change to qualitative change; these stages are correlated, and move together in an upward spiral. Thirdly, by taking a development perspective we will better understand that the driving and constraining factors, favorable and unfavorable factors, development and underdevelopment factors affecting the development of China are always changing, and also transform each other via inverse relationships under certain conditions. Finally, an international perspective will enable us to understand China’s relative development level and the change in its international status. Furthermore, by adopting this perspective we will better understand both ourselves and our competitors. Only through a holistic comprehension of the primary stage of socialism, in which we view the situation from all of these multiple perspectives, can we properly understand China’s national conditions and fully grasp the inherent requirements and operation mechanism of the socialist market economy. Furthermore, by doing so we will be able to firmly comprehend the global trends and opportunities of economic and technological development. The multi-dimension knowledge will also enable us to understand and follow the rules of economic development, social development, and natural laws, give play to the superiority of the socialist system, and take advantage of the momentum to further develop.

China’s primary stage of socialism is a historical process that started in the mid-1950s and will be completed in the middle of the twenty-first century. It is a century-long march from poor material foundation and backward culture and science to the construction of a great modern socialist country. The 100-year historical period can be divided into two halves, where the first half spanned the later years of the twentieth century, and the second half is taking place in the early twenty-first century.

The first half of the primary stage of socialism can be further divided into two development stages. The first stage, absolute poverty, is the socialist construction period. It involves the establishment of the institutional, economic, and social foundations for socialist modernization, as well as the construction of various systems (e.g., political, economic, social, and urban systems). It should be noted that at this stage, development occurs at a very poor level. The second stage is that of reform and opening up with economic take-off. China has already realized two strategic plans for economic construction: in the first step, aimed at ensuring that people’s basic needs are met, over the decade from 1980 to 1990 GNP was doubled, the basic needs of the population were met, and people got richer; in the second step (achieving moderate prosperity), by the end of the twentieth century GNP had doubled again, and the people’s living standards reached a level of moderate prosperity.

The second half of the primary stage of socialism can also be divided into two development stages. The first stage represents the first 20 years of continuously high growth, whereby China will become a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus realizing the first centenary goal. In the second stage, following 30 years of continuous and steady growth a stronger China will realize common prosperity and achieve the second centenary goal, that of socialist modernization by the PRC’s centenary.

To illustrate the division of the above stages, 10 key global economic and social development indexes are used for quantitative analysis (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1 Main economic and social development indexes of China (1949–2020)

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country has undergone great changes. As we enter the second half of the primary stage of socialism, China’s productive forces have experienced unprecedented development. Yet despite this progress, they remain relatively backward compared with developed countries. Furthermore, China has some way to go before it catches up with developed countries in the aspects of, for example, labor productivity, innovation capacity and quality. There remains a very large gap with regard to per capita income and standards of living, and China continues to have a high proportion of agricultural employees and a large rural population. Similarly, despite great progress in social development, China continues to lag behind developed countries and is currently failing to meet the ever-growing needs of its nearly 1.4 billion people in terms of education, health, culture, housing, social security, and ecological environment. Consequently, there remains room for further development.

China’s basic conditions are those of a large population, scarce per capita resources, and a weak ecological foundation. Because of these obstacles, for the foreseeable future it will continue to face various development constraints in the areas of energy supply, resource supply, environmental quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. While the regional development gap is shrinking, regional development around China continues to be unbalanced. Similarly, while there has been a reduction in the income gap between urban and rural areas, it remains large. Furthermore, although those populations currently living below the poverty line will be lifted above it by 2020, there will still be many people living on minimum subsistence allowances.

Even in the second half of the primary stage of a socialist society, China faces a significant challenge to achieve the second centenary goal. If we were to be careless we might fail while only halfway, and all of our previous efforts would be wasted. Therefore, we shall never be blindly self-satisfied or arrogant. We shall keep a cool head and possess a conscious understanding. As the saying goes, “the strong pass of the enemy is like a wall of iron, yet with firm strides, we are conquering its summit.”

3.2 China’s Entry into a New Era

The report of the 19th Party Congress clearly defined a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.⁶ This new era can be explained through five key features.⁷

First, China will enter an era of securing a great victory. The socialist development process of the People’s Republic of China comprises three eras. The first was an era of national economic recovery and socialist economic construction. From its founding in 1949, the PRC underwent a long period of effort, eventually creating a national economy and economic system, and establishing a relatively independent and complete industrial system. Furthermore, it laid the foundation for various types of capital, namely material, human, technological, and institutional, for later economic take-off and socialist modernization. The second era was one of reform and opening up. During a period of accelerated economic catch-up, China’s GDP enjoyed an average annual growth rate of 9.9%, an international record high of long-term economic growth, and the nation reached a level of moderate prosperity. The third era is that of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China has now entered a new normal in economic development, from rapid growth to high-quality development, from growing rich quickly to common prosperity for everyone, and from being a big country in the world to being a great world power. At present, China is at a stage in which the timeframes of the two centenary goals converge. It is currently striving to realize the first centenary goal and to determine how to better realize the second centenary goal.

Second, China will enter an era of building a great modern socialist country in all respects. The report of the 18th Party Congress proposed four goals toward the construction of a strong socialist China, namely creating a country that is strong in talent, rich in human resources, a great modern socialist country, and a strong maritime country. Subsequently, the report of the 19th Party Congress added to that list the ensuring of manufacturing quality and strength in science and technology, product quality, aerospace, cyberspace, transportation, trade, physical culture, and education. For example, “Made in China 2025” is a blueprint for creating a quality manufacturer, and the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy Outline is a blueprint for building an innovation-oriented country. In accordance with the spirit of the report of the 19th Party Congress, relevant departments are working on the formulation of a special medium- and long-term plan (2020–2035) to build a strong strategic system and implementation system to realize the goal of building a strong country. The report of the 19th Party Congress also put forward six major goals to be achieved by 2050, namely to complete the creation of a great modern socialist economic power, a great modern socialist democratic and political power, a great modern socialist cultural power with Chinese civilization, a more harmonious great modern power with a socialist society, a more beautiful, great modern socialist ecological power, and a world-class armed force. In short, the report of the 19th Party Congress advocated building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.

Third, China will enter an era of achieving common prosperity for everyone. The process of China’s economic development can be divided into several periods. In the extremely low-income stage (1949–1978), China had 250 million people living in poverty according to the 1978 rural poverty standard. This increased to 770 million in 2010, with 97.5% of the population living in poverty according to the 2010 rural poverty standard. Then during the low-income stage (1978–1990), China’s poverty-stricken population in rural areas was reduced to 658 million, with 73.5% of the population living in poverty by the end of that period. In 1990 China entered the middle-income stage (1990–2000), during which the poverty-stricken population in rural areas was reduced to 460 million, and the incidence of poverty was reduced to below 50%. During the first two decades of the twenty-first century China has been in the middle- and high-income stage (2000–2020). During this period the poverty-stricken population living in rural areas has reduced to 43,350,000, with just 4.5% of China’s population living in poverty by the end of 2016. It is expected that poverty will be eliminated in all rural areas by 2020. After 2020, China will continue to develop towards a high-income stage and will enter an era of common prosperity. The income gap between urban and rural areas will continue to shrink until 2035, and common prosperity for everyone will be realized by 2050.

Fourth, China will enter an era of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly stated that it will be an era for all of us, the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, to strive with one heart to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. In 1956, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed a grand strategic vision in which it would take 50 (by 2006) or 60 years (by 2016) to catch up with and surpass the United States. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China has accelerated its catch-up with the United States, and has even surpassed that country in some areas. Furthermore, China has continuously narrowed the relative gap with the United States in respect to the main development indexes (e.g., per capita GDP, per capita life expectancy, per capita schooling years, and the HDI). The catch-up coefficient of China’s HDI relative to that of the United States increased from 51% in 1980 to 80% in 2015, and is expected to reach 97% by 2050. In the twenty-first century, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, China will realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through the joint efforts of the whole Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. It will not only achieve a wonderful Chinese dream, but will also provide a great Chinese contribution to promote the common development of the world.

Fifth, China will enter an era of moving onto the center of the world stage. Since its founding, the People’s Republic of China has transformed from “loose sand,” a state of disunity, to national independence and liberation. The country once characterized by a poor material foundation and backward culture and science, is now able to largely meet its people’s basic needs. Despite this progress, per capita GDP still lags behind that in the developed world, and China is still some distance from standing in the actual center of the world stage. Since adopting its policy of reform and opening up, China has improved its economic aggregate, moving up from 11th to 2nd place in the world rankings, equivalent to 1st place in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), and has improved its import and export volume from 29th to 1st place in the world rankings. Improvements have also been made in foreign exchange reserves, where China has advanced from 38th place to number 1. Furthermore, China now has the highest number of patent applications and granted patents in the world, and is the biggest driving force of global economic growth, trade growth, and technological innovation. China’s development has also benefited the world. It is predicted that by 2050, China will have emerged as a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and will possess the greatest comprehensive national strength and international influence in the world. The Chinese people will then inevitably make great and continuing contributions to human development.

In conclusion, as can be seen from the development course of the People’s Republic of China, the most prominent feature of China’s development and progress in the twenty-first century is well-rounded innovation. Since the 18th Party Congress, with its reform and opening up in a new era, we have constantly advanced theoretical innovation, practical innovation, institutional innovation, cultural innovation, as well as other kinds of innovation. Thus, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and with the publication of the report of the 19th Party Congress, a systematic assessment by the CPC Central Committee on the new historical position of the development of China is recorded in Chinese history forever.

3.3 The Transformation of the Principal Social Contradiction in the New Era

An understanding of our national context, and in particular a deep understanding of the principal contradiction facing Chinese socialist society, provides the theoretical foundation to determine the development strategies appropriate to different eras. The basic contradictions facing Chinese modern society have always been those between productive forces and productive relations, and between the superstructure and the economic base.⁸ These contradictions will exist as long as a socialist society exists, and they stipulate the basic properties of the socialist development process. In contrast, the principal contradiction changes with the development era, and can be expressed in different forms in different development stages. During the current stage of China’s development process, the principal contradiction is dominant, decisive, and all-encompassing.

The report of the 19th Party Congress pointed out that because socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved. What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development on one side, and the people’s ever-growing need for a better life on the other.⁹ This is a new and important political assessment on the fundamental dimension of our national context, reflecting the basic characteristics of our society in the new era. It also represents the third significant theoretical innovation and great social practice transition after the 8th Party Congress and the 3rd plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee.

The transformation of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society is an inevitable result, and an important characteristic, of the law of economic and social development in China. How then, has the principal contradiction evolved historically? How can we properly understand the new contradiction? What influence will the significant transformation of the contradiction have?

The improvement of China’s productive forces and the development of various structural imbalances have brought about new and ongoing changes in the principal contradiction. Nevertheless, further development is needed, particularly in the following four aspects:

First, the development of social productive forces is not yet sufficient to meet the ever-growing material needs of the people. While China has significantly enhanced its per capita GDP ranking, it still ranks only 97th among 217 economic entities, meaning that it is in the bottom 45% globally. The relative gap between China’s labor productivity and that of the United States has been significantly reduced, but remains sizable. Consequently, significant improvements to China’s per capita income and per capita consumption levels are required. Similarly, while the level of China’s social productive forces has improved, from absolute backwardness to relative backwardness, a large gap remains compared with the advanced level of developed countries, and there is still room for improvement regarding catch-up, innovation, and transcendence.

Although China’s social production capacity enjoys a top ranking in many aspects, the country is not yet able to meet the needs of its nearly 1.4 billion people in terms of a range of different product structures, services, and quality. While the strength of China’s science and technology ability and its innovation capability are improving rapidly, they lag behind the current global frontiers of science and technology. China has the highest number of scientists and engineers in the world, but still lacks high numbers of world-class scientists, scientific and technological leaders, top talents, experienced and young talent, and high-skilled talent. Furthermore, while China has for some time been the largest manufacturer in the world, many industries remain in low- and middle-ranking positions in the global value chain.

Second, the development is unbalanced. Regarding China’s industries, agriculture has maintained sustained growth, and has enjoyed an annual average growth rate of 4.0% over the past 16 years. This is one of the highest growth rates in the world, but the development of agriculture and non-agricultural industries remains unbalanced. Indeed, agriculture remains China’s biggest impediment and bottleneck. From the perspective of the urban–rural relationship, since 2009 China has narrowed the income gap between urban and rural areas. Nevertheless, this income gap remains one of the largest in the world, and China’s rural areas are still underdeveloped. In terms of regional structure, since 2004 China has steadily narrowed the regional development gap. However, it remains a country with significant gaps and imbalances in regional development.

The public service system also requires attention. Under China’s middle-income conditions, the main health indicators are generally better than the average level of middle- and high-income countries, but there is a clear contradiction between the shortages in overall health service supply and the ever-growing health demands of 1.4 billion people. China’s level of education sits above the average level worldwide. However, the disparities in urban–rural education are still large, there are insufficient high-quality education resources, and those that are available are not distributed equally. Regarding social security, China has established the world’s largest social security system, covering the largest population. China’s basic endowment insurance covers more than 900 million people, and the basic medical insurance covers more than 1.3 billion people. Despite this, it is still necessary to fully implement a social security system that covers the entire population, bring pension schemes under national unified management, and improve the basic medical insurance system for both urban and rural residents.

Third, China’s cultural industry and infrastructure are unbalanced and inadequate. Although China’s system for providing public cultural services covers both urban and rural populations, it is currently unable to meet the ever-growing demands and diversified needs of the people, especially rural populations. For example, two-thirds of rural households still have no access to radio and television.¹⁰ The added value of China’s cultural industry exceeds 4% of GDP, but the gross scale is not yet large enough; both quality and efficiency need upgrading, and there is much room for improvement as well as unrealized potential. For example, China has become the world’s largest movie market, but the box office income of domestic movies is less than 60%. China has the highest number of talents in the world, but has relatively few artists and writers, and very few eminent literary and artistic figures. While many literary and artistic works are being produced in China, nurtured by an atmosphere of cultural creation that allows the arts free expression and diverse schools of thought to contend without restrictions, this productivity has failed to fully reflect the golden era of rapid development and the great rejuvenation of China. China has a remarkably abundant cultural heritage, is the second largest country in terms of world heritage sites, and the world’s largest in terms of intangible cultural heritage. Despite these achievements, many cultural heritage resources require significant funding and technological restoration and protection. Scientific, preventive, and on-going protection is also necessary. Chinese culture has entered the international arena at a high level, and China now participates in cultural exchanges with two-thirds of the world’s countries and regions. It is now important to address the remaining gap, to establish cultural exchange with the remaining one-third of countries and regions worldwide. China’s foreign cultural trade is growing rapidly, but still accounts for just a small proportion of the world’s cultural trade. While China has experienced an unprecedented improvement in its international influence, it is still failing to meet the ever-growing demand for Chinese culture from more than 240 countries and regions.

Fourth, human and natural development is unbalanced, and is far from meeting the people’s ever-growing ecological and environmental needs. The concept of ecological civilization currently enjoys strong support in China, but the directors of some regional departments remain “GDP-centered,” and many existing systems and policies are not conducive to ecological civilization. The governance of the ecological environment has been strengthened and improved, but China’s ecological deficits and environmental defects, which have accumulated over the years, are still an obstruction to development. China is the world’s largest consumer of energy, water resources, mineral resources, and various materials, and there exists great potential to make significant savings in these areas. China has also become the largest consumer market in the world, but its proportion of green consumption is extremely low. Consequently, there is the potential for considerable improvement. Society as a whole is expressing an ever-growing demand for environmental quality, but so far very few people have become conscious participants in, builders of, and contributors to “Beautiful China” (i.e., a green China). As China enters a new era of ecological civilization, the international community has high expectations for the building of a beautiful China. We must also make ever greater contributions to international cooperation in the fight to tackle climate change, protecting the planet for the sake of human survival and global ecological security.

In addition, among China’s people there is an ever-increasing demand for democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, and security. Steps must be taken to address these factors, which are crucial to meeting the people’s increasing needs for a better life.¹¹

The evolution of China’s principal contradiction in a new era represents a historic shift that affects the whole landscape. It also places many new demands on the Party and the country. Consequently, the development philosophy, goal, plan, strategy, and steps for China’s development have all undergone significant changes to advance with the times.

With regard to China’s development philosophy, there has been a change from GDP-centered to people-centered. China now adheres to the concept that the people are the creators of history, and are the main players in development. The Party must always focus on the aspirations of the people to live a better life, and this quest must be at the core of national development. While continuing to promote well-rounded human development and to address the imbalances and inadequacies that still exist in that regard, we must also strive for all-round social progress and address the imbalances and inadequacies in social development. Guided by the certainty that sound development is the key to solving all our country’s problems, we will steadfastly pursue China’s vision of innovative, coordinated, green, and open development for everyone.

The development goal has also undergone a significant change, with a shift in focus from rapid growth to high-quality development. The report of the 19th Party Congress made no mention of the goal to double GDP. Instead, it placed a greater emphasis on putting quality first, giving priority to performance, improving total factor productivity, developing a modernized economy, and accelerating the promotion of scientific and technological innovation. The aim now is to gradually achieve common prosperity for everyone as opposed to unevenly rapid wealth accumulation. Furthermore, the “five accesses” proposed in the report of the 17th Party Congress have been expanded to seven: access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance. These will be adopted as multiple indexes for measuring the people’s livelihoods in the five-year plan, so that fair development will become an important objective in the new era. As proposed in the report of the 19th Party Congress, China, once merely a big country in the world, will become a great world power.

Similarly, China’s development plan has been revised. The modernization plan has changed from being economic construction-centered to become a “five-sphere” integrated plan of socialist modernization. Similarly, the objectives of China’s economic construction plan have shifted from the synchronous development of industrialization and IT application to the synchronous development of new industrialization, IT application, urbanization, and agricultural modernization. The focus of the plan, opening up to the outside world, has also changed. Originally, China’s opening up served the general domestic situation. Now, however, the aim is to actively participate in and promote economic globalization, develop an open economy with higher standards, build a community with a shared future for humankind, and create a new and wider pattern of favorable climatic, geographical and human conditions.

In line with the above changes, the development strategy has undergone a considerable shift. Based on the original national development strategy and the objective to build a strong country, we have built a grand strategic system to strengthen China. Ability to implement national strategies has also been enhanced, with consequent effects on China’s innovation-driven development strategy, the strategy to invigorate China through science and education, and the strategies to develop a quality workforce, revitalize rural areas, and to ensure coordinated regional development. Further strategies concern sustainable development, military–civilian integration, employment, the Healthy China initiative, food security, national security, the armed forces, and opening up. These efforts will give full play to the strategic guiding role and advantages of the national development plans.

Finally, significant adjustments have been made to the development steps. On the basis of the existing national development strategy, the three-step Strategy, we have made strategic arrangements in two stages to embark on a new journey to successfully build a modern socialist China.