Full text of Hu Jintao's report at 18th Party Congress (3)

II. Achieving New Victory for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Looking back at China's eventful modern history and looking to the promising future of the Chinese nation, we have drawn this definite conclusion: We must unswervingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics in order to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, accelerate socialist modernization, and achieve the great renewal of the Chinese nation.

The issue of what path we take is of vital importance for the survival of the Party, the future of China, the destiny of the Chinese nation, and the wellbeing of the people. Exploring a path to national renewal in China that was economically and culturally backward is an extremely arduous task. Over the past 90-plus years, relying firmly on the people and adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China's conditions and the underlying trend of the times, our Party has pursued its own course independently. It has, enduring untold hardships and sufferings and paying various costs, achieved great success in revolution, development and reform, and created and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics, thus fundamentally changing the future and destiny of the Chinese people and nation.

The Party's first generation of central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at the core led the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China in completing the new-democratic revolution, carrying out socialist transformation and establishing the basic system of socialism, thereby accomplishing the most profound and the greatest social transformation in China's history. This created the fundamental political prerequisite and systemic foundation for development and progress in contemporary China. In the course of socialist development, the Party developed distinctively creative theories and made tremendous successes despite serious setbacks it went through, thus providing invaluable experience as well as the theoretical and material basis for launching the great initiative of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new historical period.

The Party's second generation of central collective leadership with Comrade Deng Xiaoping at the core led the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China in conducting a thorough review of China's experiences in building socialism, both positive and negative. On this basis and drawing on the experience of world socialism, they made the historic decision to shift the focus of the Party and country's work to economic development and to pursue the policy of reform and opening up. They gained a keen appreciation of the underlying goal of socialism and established the Party's basic line for the primary stage of socialism. They called for taking our own road and building socialism with Chinese characteristics and provided scientific answers to basic questions in this regard. On this basis, the great initiative of building socialism with Chinese characteristics was successfully launched.

The Party's third generation of central collective leadership with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core led the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China in adhering to the Party's basic theory and line. Standing the severe tests posed by complex domestic and international developments and major setbacks in world socialism, they upheld socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based on China's new realities, they reaffirmed the Party's basic program and its basic experience, set the goal of reform and developed a basic framework for achieving this goal, namely, developing a socialist market economy. They reaffirmed the basic economic system and the system of income distribution in the primary stage of socialism, ushered in a new phase in carrying out all-around reform and opening up, and pressed ahead with the great new undertaking of Party building, thus advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics into the 21st century.

In the new stage in the new century, the Party Central Committee has seized this important period of strategic opportunities and promoted innovation in practice, theory and institutional building in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We have emphasized the need to put people first and to pursue comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development; we have called for building a harmonious socialist society and speeding up ecological progress, and we have adopted overall implementing steps for advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We have strived to ensure and improve the people's wellbeing, promoted social fairness and justice, worked to build a harmonious world, and strengthened the Party's governance capacity and advanced nature. We have thus upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics from a new historical starting point.

Throughout the past 30-plus years of continuous exploration for reform and opening up, we have held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and rejected both the old and rigid closed-door policy and any attempt to abandon socialism and take an erroneous path. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics are the fundamental accomplishments made by the Party and people in the course of arduous struggle over the past 90-plus years. We must cherish these accomplishments, uphold them all the time and continue to enrich them.

Taking the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics means we must, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and basing ourselves on China's realities, take economic development as the central task and adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles and the policy of reform and opening up. It means we must release and develop the productive forces, develop the socialist market economy, socialist democracy, an advanced socialist culture and a harmonious socialist society, and promote socialist ecological progress. It also means we must promote well-rounded development of the person, achieve prosperity for all over time, and make China a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious. The system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a system of scientific theories that includes Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and this system represents the Party's adherence to and development of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The socialist system with Chinese characteristics includes the following: the fundamental political system - the system of people's congresses; the basic political systems - the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and the system of community-level self-governance; the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics; the basic economic system in which public ownership is the mainstay and economic entities of diverse ownership develop together; and the specific economic, political, cultural, and social institutions based on these systems. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the way to reach the goal, the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics offers a guide to action, and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics provides the fundamental guarantee. The three function as an integral whole in the great practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this is the salient feature of the long-term endeavors of the Communist Party of China leading the people in building socialism.

In building socialism with Chinese characteristics, we base ourselves on the basic reality that China is in the primary stage of socialism. Our overall approach is to promote economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress, and our general task is to achieve socialist modernization and the great renewal of the Chinese nation. Socialism with Chinese characteristics both upholds the basic principles of scientific socialism and has distinctive Chinese features that reflect contemporary conditions. It offers from new perspectives a deeper understanding of the laws of governance by the Communist Party, laws of building socialism, and laws of the development of human society. By integrating theory with practice, it has systematically addressed the fundamental questions of what kind of socialism we should build and how we should build it in China, a big country in the East with a huge population and a weak economy to start with. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has brought about fast development and rising living standards in China. This fully shows that socialism with Chinese characteristics is what we must pursue if we are to achieve development and make progress in contemporary China and that only socialism with Chinese characteristics can enable China to develop itself.

Developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is a long-term arduous task of historic importance, and we must be prepared to carry out a great struggle with many new historical features. We must unswervingly adhere to socialism with Chinese characteristics, develop it as required by the times, constantly enrich it in both practice and theory and enhance its distinctive national features in keeping up with the times.

To achieve new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics under new historical conditions, we must have a firm grasp of the following basic requirements and make them shared convictions of the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China.

- We must maintain the people's principal position in the country. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a cause for the people in their hundreds of millions. We should ensure that the people are the masters of the country and we should uphold the rule of law as a fundamental principle by which the Party leads the people in running the country. We should mobilize and organize as many people as possible to manage state and social affairs as well as the economy and cultural programs in accordance with the law and to devote themselves to socialist modernization, and we should better protect the people's rights and interests and ensure that the people determine their own destiny.

- We must continue to release and develop the productive forces. This is the fundamental task of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should take economic development as the central task and pursuing development in a scientific way as the underlying guideline, advance in an all-around way economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress and achieve in a scientific way development that puts people first and is comprehensive, balanced and sustainable.

- We must persevere in reform and opening up. Reform and opening up are crucial to adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should always apply the spirit of reform and innovation to all aspects of governance, keep improving the socialist market economy, adhere to the basic state policy of opening to the outside world, continue to make innovations in theory, in institutions, in science and technology, in culture and in other fields, and continuously promote the self-improvement and self-development of China's socialist system.

- We must safeguard social fairness and justice. Fairness and justice are inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must, relying on the concerted efforts of all the Chinese people and based on economic and social development, step up efforts to develop institutions that are vital to ensuring social fairness and justice; establish in due course a system for guaranteeing fairness in society featuring, among other things, equal rights, equal opportunities and fair rules for all; and foster a fair social environment and ensure people's equal right to participation in governance and to development.

- We must strive for common prosperity. This is the fundamental principle of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should adhere to the basic socialist economic system and the socialist income distribution system. We should adjust the pattern of national income distribution, tighten its regulation by secondary distribution and work hard to narrow income gaps so that all the people can share in more fruits of development in a fair way and move steadily toward common prosperity.

- We must promote social harmony. Social harmony is an inherent attribute of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should give higher priority to ensuring and improving the people's wellbeing, strengthen and conduct social management in an innovative way, strike a balance between reform, development and stability, rally all the forces that can be rallied, maximize factors conducive to harmony and increase the creative vitality of society. We should ensure that the people live and work in contentment, society is stable and orderly, and the country enjoys enduring peace and stability.

- We must pursue peaceful development. Peaceful development is the sure choice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should pursue development through opening up and cooperation to benefit all. We should develop ourselves by securing a peaceful international environment and uphold and promote world peace through our own development. We should expand common interests with all others and work to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.

- We must uphold the leadership of the Party. The Communist Party of China is the leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should uphold the principle that the Party was founded for the public good and that it exercises state power for the people, enhance and improve the Party's leadership and ensure that the Party plays its role as the leadership core in exercising overall leadership and coordinating the efforts of all. We should maintain the Party's advanced nature and purity, strengthen its creativity, cohesiveness and capability and enhance its capacity to govern in a scientific and democratic way and in accordance with the law.

We must be soberly aware that China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will long remain so. This basic condition of China has not changed; nor has the principal problem in our society, that is, how we can meet the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people with backward social production; nor has China's international position as the largest developing country in the world. We must bear in mind under any circumstances the paramount reality that China remains in the primary stage of socialism and will long remain so and base ourselves on this reality in pursuing all of our endeavors of reform and development. The Party's basic line is the lifeblood of the Party and country. We must adhere to the central task - economic development - and the two basic points - the Four Cardinal Principles and the policy of reform and opening up - in our great endeavor to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should neither look down upon ourselves nor be arrogant. We must take solid steps to achieve new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

As long as we remain true to our ideal, are firm in our conviction, never vacillate in or relax our efforts or act recklessly, and forge ahead with tenacity and resolve, we will surely complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects when the Communist Party of China celebrates its centenary and turn China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious when the People's Republic of China marks its centennial. The whole Party should have every confidence in our path, in our theories and in our system.