Better Leveraging the Leading Role of Economic System Reform

Leveraging the leading role of economic system reform is an important experience in the historic achievements and transformations of the Party and state since reform and opening up. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made the major strategic decision to comprehensively deepen reform, incorporated it into the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy, and clearly proposed taking economic system reform as the focus, leveraging its leading role. Through a series of epoch-making ideological transformations and practical innovations, it has opened an entirely new phase of China’s reform and opening up. In the recently published first and second volumes of Xi Jinping’s *On Persisting in Comprehensively Deepening Reform*, the most prominent content running through the entire work is the important exposition on economic system reform. These important expositions are the concentrated embodiment of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new conclusions on comprehensively deepening reform in the economic sphere, demonstrating powerful truth charm and practical force in guiding new practice and leading new transformations.

Continuously deepening in theory, providing fundamental guidance for leveraging the leading role of economic system reform

The first and second volumes of *On Persisting in Comprehensively Deepening Reform* contain a total of 165 important articles by General Secretary Xi Jinping, of which nearly 100 involve economic system reform. In these important articles, General Secretary Xi Jinping, focusing on both domestic and international overall situations and based on the great practice of China’s economic and social development, continuously summarizes and deepens the understanding of the laws governing the promotion of economic system reform in the New Era, creatively proposing a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new conclusions. These are the latest theoretical achievements in adapting Marxist political economy to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, constituting both the economic chapter of reform thought and the reform chapter of economic thought.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC was epoch-making, opening a new journey of comprehensively deepening reform and systematically designing and advancing reform in the New Era, and also turning a new page in economic system reform. Important articles in the first volume of *On Persisting in Comprehensively Deepening Reform*, such as “Explanation of the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform” and “Effectively Unify Thinking with the Spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,” provide profound elaboration on the important status of economic system reform in the New Era. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out that to persist unswervingly in taking economic construction as the central task, we must persist unswervingly in taking economic system reform as the focus. Economic system reform has an important influence and transmission effect on reforms in other areas. We must take economic system reform as the main axis, strive to achieve new breakthroughs in reforms in important areas and key links, and thereby leverage and drive reforms in other areas. In important articles such as “Make Good Use of Both the ‘Invisible Hand’ and the ‘Visible Hand’,” “Unswervingly Uphold China’s Basic Economic System and Promote the Healthy Development of All Forms of Ownership,” and “On Deepening Supply-Side Structural Reform,” General Secretary Xi Jinping provides in-depth elaboration on some directional and principled issues concerning China’s overall development, emphatically stressing that economic system reform is the focus of comprehensively deepening reform, and the core issue is to properly handle the relationship between the government and the market, enabling the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation and the government to better play its role. We must adhere to the direction of socialist market economy reform and uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system. Our country is so large, with such a large population, and is in and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism. To achieve economic and social development, we need all parties to work together with concerted effort; many hands make light work. The public sector and the non-public sector should complement and reinforce each other, rather than exclude or offset each other. After the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, centering on implementing the new development philosophy, General Secretary Xi Jinping scientifically grasped the dialectical relationship between reform and development. In important articles such as “Guide Development with a New Development Philosophy” and “How to View the New Normal and How to Act Under the New Normal,” he points out that adhering to innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development is a profound transformation concerning China’s overall development. We must emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts, and keep pace with the times. In accordance with the development philosophy of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing, we should make innovative theoretical generalizations, make forward-looking policy arrangements, intensify structural reform, correct distortions in factor allocation, expand effective supply, improve the adaptability and flexibility of the supply structure, and increase total factor productivity. As China’s development has reached its current stage, development and reform are highly integrated; every step forward in development requires a step forward in reform, and continuous progress in reform can provide strong impetus for development. We must both guide and lead comprehensively deepening reform with the new development philosophy, and provide institutional and mechanism guarantees for the complete, accurate, and comprehensive implementation of the new development philosophy through deepening reform.

The report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC stated that China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and is in a critical period of transforming the development model, optimizing the economic structure, and shifting growth drivers. At the same time, changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic have intertwined and overlapped, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is flourishing, and China’s development environment faces profound and complex changes. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core accurately grasps the new characteristics of China’s development stage and the new changes in the external environment, takes adhering to high-quality development as the hard truth of the New Era, focuses on the institutional and mechanism obstacles affecting high-quality development, and makes a series of profound expositions and major deployments on deepening economic system reform. Regarding better coordinating the relationship between reform and development, General Secretary Xi Jinping points out in important articles such as “Promote Deep Integration and Efficient Linkage Between Reform and Development” that reform has reached a new critical juncture; only by comprehensively deepening reform can we better implement the new development philosophy, solve development difficulties, enhance development vitality, and strengthen development advantages. We must continue to grasp the internal connection between reform and development, make reform better meet the needs of development, the expectations of the grassroots, and the aspirations of the people, and promote deep integration and efficient linkage between reform and development. Regarding key reform tasks, General Secretary Xi Jinping points out in important articles such as “Accelerate the Building of a Modern Economic System,” “Make All Reforms Focus on Promoting the Formation of a New Development Pattern,” and “Promote Greater Breakthroughs and Greater Achievements in Reform in the New Development Stage” that we should combine the continuous advancement of reform with serving the overall work of the Party and the state, focus on strategic goals and tasks such as implementing the new development philosophy, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development, advance creative and leading reforms, and improve the institutional guarantees of the modern economic system. Regarding preventing and responding to major risks and challenges, General Secretary Xi Jinping points out in important articles such as “Rely on Reform to Respond to Changes and Open Up New Situations, and Be Good at Using Institutional Advantages to Respond to Risk and Challenge Impacts” that we must both prevent and resolve major risks through deepening reform, and ensure the smooth progress of reform through preventing and resolving major risks. We must be good at both accumulating, storing, and planning momentum, and at recognizing, adapting to, and driving change, firmly grasp the key points, actively encourage exploration, highlight reform effectiveness, and promote reform to better serve the overall economic and social development. These important expositions guide us to accurately grasp the requirements of the new development stage and create favorable institutional conditions for the complete, accurate, and comprehensive implementation of the new development philosophy, the construction of a new development pattern, and the promotion of high-quality development.

The 20th National Congress of the CPC established the central task of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, achieving the Second Centenary Goal, and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese-path modernization. It made clear that high-quality development is the primary task in building a modern socialist country in all respects. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC systematically planned and comprehensively deployed further deepening reform comprehensively and advancing Chinese-path modernization, focusing reforms in various fields and aspects on advancing Chinese-path modernization and promoting high-quality development. In Volume II of *On Persisting in Comprehensively Deepening Reform*, General Secretary Xi Jinping, in important manuscripts such as "Making Comprehensively Deepening Reform the Fundamental Driving Force for Advancing Chinese-Path Modernization" and "Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively Must Closely Follow the Theme of Advancing Chinese-Path Modernization," pointed out that we must take comprehensively deepening reform as the fundamental driving force for advancing Chinese-path modernization, as an important lever for stabilizing the overall situation, responding to changes in the situation, and opening up new prospects, keep the direction correct, uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, and work hard and make solid progress, writing a new chapter of reform and opening up on the new journey. We must anchor the overall goal of improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, adhere to the combination of goal orientation and problem orientation, go after problems and focus on solving them, resolutely break down ideological concepts and institutional and mechanistic drawbacks that hinder the advancement of Chinese-path modernization, strive to resolve deep-seated institutional and mechanistic obstacles and structural contradictions, and continuously inject strong impetus into Chinese-path modernization and provide a strong institutional guarantee. In important manuscripts such as "Explanation on the 'Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese-Path Modernization,'" "Deeply Study and Understand the Spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, and Earnestly Grasp Implementation," and "Several Major Theoretical and Practical Issues in Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively," General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that deepening economic system reform remains the focus of further deepening reform comprehensively, and we must uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, neither taking the old closed and rigid path nor the evil path of changing the banner, highlight the focus of economic system reform, resolutely eliminate institutional and mechanistic drawbacks that affect and constrain high-quality development, improve the relations of production that are more compatible with new quality productive forces, and shape new drivers and new advantages for development. Facing the drastic changes in the external environment, General Secretary Xi Jinping, in important manuscripts such as "Promoting Deepening Reform and High-Quality Development through High-Standard Opening Up" and "Comprehensively Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Jointly Building the Belt and Road Initiative," pointed out that we should steadily expand institutional opening up in rules, regulations, management, and standards, accelerate the creation of new high grounds for opening up, build a new system for a higher-standard open economy, and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern. Certain countries engage in "small yard, high fence" and tariff barriers, politicizing, instrumentalizing, weaponizing, and over-securitizing economic and trade issues, forcing enterprises to take sides and make choices that violate economic laws. This does not conform to market rules and the general trend of openness. We must jointly maintain an open and cooperative international environment. These important expositions are both a theoretical distillation of the historical experience of reform and opening up and an innovative creation for promoting high-quality economic and social development under the new situation, bearing the characteristics of the new era, and have important guiding significance for better leveraging the leading role of economic system reform in further deepening reform comprehensively and advancing Chinese-path modernization.

Continuous expansion in practice has driven economic system reform to achieve historic accomplishments.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, under the personal leadership and command of General Secretary Xi Jinping, economic system reform

Uphold and implement the "two unswervinglys." General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that upholding and improving the basic economic system under which public ownership is the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership develop together is an important pillar for consolidating and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Party and the state uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system, unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector of the economy, and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector of the economy. It is necessary to uphold and implement the "two unswervinglys," ensuring that all forms of ownership use factors of production equally in accordance with the law, participate fairly in market competition, and receive equal legal protection, thereby promoting complementary advantages and common development among all forms of ownership. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have unswervingly consolidated and developed the public sector of the economy. Focusing on resolving the deep-seated contradictions and problems that have long plagued the development of state-owned enterprises, we have worked to strengthen and improve the Party's leadership over state-owned enterprises, improve the state-owned assets management system, strengthen supervision to prevent the loss of state-owned assets, continuously intensify market-oriented reforms, and concentrate on solving a number of long-standing problems that had been difficult to resolve, such as the corporatization reform of state-owned enterprises and the stripping of their social functions. This has promoted the optimal layout of the state-owned economy, facilitated the concentration of state-owned capital in important industries and key fields, and continuously enhanced the vitality, control, influence, and risk resistance of the state-owned economy. We have introduced reform measures from multiple levels to encourage, support, and guide the development and growth of the non-public sector of the economy, formulated and implemented a law to promote the private economy, focused on solving the difficulties and high costs of financing for private enterprises, reduced cost burdens, strengthened property rights protection, and built a new type of cordial and clean government-business relationship, creating a favorable environment and providing more opportunities for the development of private enterprises. We will improve the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, promote the entrepreneurial spirit, accelerate the building of world-class enterprises, and stimulate the endogenous driving force and creative vitality of all types of business entities.

Promote institutional and mechanism innovation conducive to the development of new quality productive forces. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that productive forces are the fundamental driving force of human social development and the ultimate cause of all social changes and political transformations. New quality productive forces are an advanced form of productive forces characterized by innovation playing a leading role, breaking away from traditional economic growth models and paths of productive forces development, featuring high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and conforming to the new development philosophy. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has clarified the strategic direction of innovation-driven development, strengthened the Party's centralized and unified leadership over scientific and technological work, systematically advanced the reform of the science and technology system, improved the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources, deployed national strategic scientific and technological forces, improved the institutional mechanisms for integrating science and technology with the economy, removed institutional obstacles that constrain the initiative of scientific researchers, optimized the open innovation ecosystem, and stimulated the innovation vitality of the whole society. At the same time, we have persisted in using scientific and technological innovation to drive industrial innovation, accelerated the building of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy, improved the system for enhancing the resilience and security level of industrial and supply chains, and promoted the formation of new quality productive forces in practice, demonstrating their strong driving and supporting force for high-quality development. After the 20th National Congress of the CPC, in response to new situations and changes both domestically and internationally, General Secretary Xi Jinping further pointed out that high-quality development requires guidance from a new theory of productive forces, and that developing new quality productive forces is an inherent requirement and an important focal point for promoting high-quality development. It is necessary to further comprehensively deepen reform and form new relations of production that are compatible with them. We will accelerate institutional and mechanism innovation, advance reforms in education, science and technology, and human resources in an integrated manner, improve the system for the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, focus on removing the blockages and bottlenecks that constrain the development of new quality productive forces, promote the concentration of all types of advanced production factors towards the development of new quality productive forces, and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces.

Build a unified, open, competitive, and orderly market system. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes adhering to the reform direction of the socialist market economy, focusing on giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better leveraging the role of the government, accelerating the construction of a unified national market, and accelerating the improvement of the macroeconomic governance system. Building a unified, open, competitive, and orderly market system is the foundation for the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have adhered to the reform direction of the socialist market economy, combined an effective market with a competent government, and promoted market-oriented reform in breadth and depth. We have improved basic market institutions, strengthened systems for property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit, promoted reforms in bidding and tendering management, standards system construction, and economic statistics, built a law-based economy and a credit economy, and consolidated the foundational support for market operations. We have constructed a unified national market, reformed the market supervision system, strengthened supervision over monopolies and unfair competition, eliminated and abolished various regulations and practices that hinder the construction of a unified national market and fair competition, promoted reforms in the market-oriented allocation of factors, improved the market-determined price mechanism, improved the circulation system, facilitated the smooth flow of various factors and the efficient allocation of resources, and promoted the full release of market potential. Centering on smoothing the domestic economic cycle, we have organically combined the implementation of the strategy to expand domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reform, accelerated the cultivation of a complete domestic demand system, focused on promoting the improvement of a long-term mechanism for expanding consumption, deepening reform of the investment and financing system, improving the system and mechanism for government investment to effectively drive social investment, and improving the long-term mechanism for private enterprises to participate in the construction of major national projects, fully leveraging the advantages of China's super-large market, and promoting the rapid formation of a high-standard market system.

Improve the macroeconomic governance system. Improving a macroeconomic governance system that takes national development planning as the strategic guide, fiscal and monetary policies as the main means, closely coordinates employment, industrial, investment, consumption, environmental protection, and regional policies, and features optimized objectives, reasonable division of labor, and efficient coordination is a major innovation by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core in macroeconomic regulation theory and practice. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have grasped the requirements of macroeconomic governance, improved the institutional system for macroeconomic regulation, coordinated the promotion of reforms in key areas such as fiscal, tax, and finance, enhanced the consistency of macro policy orientations, and effectively improved the effectiveness of macroeconomic governance. We have improved the national strategic planning system and policy coordination mechanisms, incorporated economic and non-economic policies into the consistency assessment of macro policy orientations, improved expectation management mechanisms, and perfected cross-cycle policy design and counter-cyclical adjustment mechanisms. We have deepened fiscal and tax system reform, continuously deepened reform of the budget management system, fully implemented budget performance management, straightened out the fiscal relationship between the central and local governments, improved the fiscal transfer payment system, promoted fiscal system reform below the provincial level, and improved the government debt management system. We have improved the tax system and tax collection and management system, optimized the tax structure, and improved the local tax and direct tax systems. We have deepened financial system reform, accelerated the construction of a modern central banking system, continuously improved the dual-pillar regulatory framework of monetary policy and macroprudential policy, deepened market-oriented reform of interest rates and exchange rates, improved the incentive and constraint mechanism for financial services to the real economy, improved the construction of a multi-level capital market, regulated and guided the healthy development of capital according to law, improved the financial regulatory system, and held the bottom line of preventing systemic risks.

Improve the institutional foundation for promoting common prosperity. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that Chinese-path modernization is the socialist modernization of common prosperity for all people. We insist on taking the realization of the people's aspiration for a better life as the starting point and goal of modernization, strive to maintain and promote social fairness and justice, strive to promote common prosperity for all people, and resolutely prevent polarization. It is necessary to implement the people-centered development philosophy, seize the most direct and realistic interests of the people that concern them most to promote reforms in key areas, continuously enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security, and steadily promote common prosperity. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have firmly grasped the essential requirements of common prosperity, centered on ensuring and improving people's livelihood, and launched a number of practical reform measures in promoting high-quality and full employment, improving the income distribution system, improving the social security system, running education to the satisfaction of the people, building a Healthy China, and promoting the equalization of basic public services, striving to solve the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people. Focusing on narrowing regional gaps and urban-rural differences, we have improved the systems and mechanisms for promoting coordinated regional development, promoted the formation of a new pattern in the large-scale development of the western region, achieved new breakthroughs in the comprehensive revitalization of the northeast, accelerated the rise of the central region, and accelerated the modernization of the eastern region; promoted the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta; promoted ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin; accelerated the construction of a regional economic layout and territorial space system with complementary advantages and high-quality development; improved the systems and mechanisms for urban-rural integrated development; steadily promoted the reform of the rural land system; actively constructed a new type of agricultural management system; improved the support system for strengthening agriculture, benefiting farmers, and enriching farmers; innovated the poverty alleviation work mechanism; won the battle against poverty; established a mechanism for consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and effectively linking them with rural revitalization; and held the bottom line of preventing large-scale return to poverty.

Promote a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out that properly handling the relationship between development and protection is a worldwide challenge and an eternal subject facing the development of human society. Throughout the entire process of Chinese-path modernization, we must grasp the dialectical unity of high-quality development and high-level protection. It is necessary to plan development from the perspective of harmony between humanity and nature, take the carrying capacity of resources and the environment as the premise and foundation, consciously limit economic activities and human behavior within the limits that natural resources and the ecological environment can bear, and promote qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of development through green transformation. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has incorporated ecological civilization construction into the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan, coordinated high-quality development and high-level protection, systematically laid out and comprehensively promoted the reform of the ecological civilization system, and accelerated the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. We have issued the overall plan for ecological civilization system reform and major reform plans for natural resource asset property rights, territorial space development and protection, spatial planning, environmental governance, total resource management and comprehensive conservation, paid use of resources, and ecological compensation; formulated and revised the Environmental Protection Law and more than 30 ecological and environmental laws and regulations; established and improved the central ecological and environmental protection inspection system; and constructed a basic institutional framework for ecological and environmental protection featuring strict prevention at the source, strict management in the process, and severe punishment for consequences. Guided by the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, we have strengthened the top-level institutional design for green development, focusing on deepening reforms in areas such as coordinating and optimizing industrial layout, planning and building a new energy system, establishing a dual control system for total carbon emissions and intensity, establishing and improving a green development standards system and market-oriented mechanisms, and improving green consumption incentive mechanisms, to accelerate the construction of a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system.

Establish a new system for a higher-standard open economy. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that establishing a new system for a higher-standard open economy is our strategic measure to take the initiative in promoting reform and development through opening up. It should focus on serving the construction of a new development pattern, prioritize institutional opening up, concentrate on deepening institutional and mechanism reforms in key areas of foreign exchange and cooperation such as investment, trade, finance, and innovation, improve supporting policies and measures, and proactively raise China’s opening up to a new level. To accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, it is necessary to scientifically understand the relationship between the domestic great circulation and the dual domestic and international circulations, and implement opening up on a larger scale, in broader fields, and at a deeper level. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC [10], the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has implemented a more proactive opening-up strategy, continuously launching a series of combined measures to accelerate the establishment of a new system for an open economy. We have deepened reforms in the fields of trade and investment, expanded market access, fully implemented a pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system, completely abolished foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, and created a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment. We have actively aligned with high-standard international economic and trade rules, created a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment, expanded independent opening up, orderly expanded the opening up of China’s commodity markets, service markets, capital markets, and labor markets, and actively participated in the reform of the global economic governance system. We have optimized the layout of regional opening up, accelerated the construction of highland for opening up such as pilot free trade zones and free trade ports, promoted high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, and built multi-level, high-standard opening-up platforms. We have implemented a holistic approach to national security, coordinated opening up and security, enhanced the capacity and level of open supervision, strengthened the ability to dynamically maintain national security in an open environment, and provided safeguards for high-level opening up.

Continuously improve the reform system and mechanisms, providing important guarantees for deepening economic system reform.

Economic system reform affects the whole situation and requires a strong leadership system and scientific and effective mechanisms to ensure the smooth progress of reform. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at

Strengthen the Party’s leadership over reform work. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that upholding the Party’s overall leadership is our greatest political advantage and the fundamental guarantee for the successful advancement of China’s reform and opening up. Party leadership must be integrated into every aspect and the entire process of reform, ensuring that reform always proceeds in the correct political direction. The historic achievements of reform and opening up are fundamentally attributable to upholding and strengthening Party leadership, advancing reform in an organized, step-by-step, and disciplined manner, and fully leveraging our institutional advantages. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has led and promoted comprehensive deepening of reform with unprecedented resolve and intensity. A reform leadership body was established at the central Party level, with General Secretary Xi Jinping

Strengthen the systemic integration of reforms. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that strengthening the systemic integration and coordinated efficiency of reforms involves not only coordinating reform plans, but also coordinating the implementation of reforms, and even more so coordinating the effects of reforms, promoting mutual alignment in policy orientation, mutual reinforcement in the implementation process, and mutual enhancement in the reform outcomes of various reform measures, focusing efforts toward the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have systematically planned and advanced economic system reform, adhered to the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform of perfecting and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, integrated the implementation of reform tasks with completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, comprehensively building a great modern socialist country, implementing medium- and long-term strategic plans, and achieving annual economic and social development goals, driving various reforms to focus efforts toward established goals. We have strengthened the top-level design of reforms in important fields, coordinated the advancement of reforms of a "four beams and eight pillars" nature [10] in areas such as fiscal and taxation, finance, state-owned enterprises, science and technology, agriculture and rural areas, ecological protection, and opening up, ensured coordination of plans, implementation, and effects, achieving mutual echo, mutual cooperation, and the formation of an integrated whole.

Encourage grassroots exploration and innovation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that crossing the river by feeling the stones is