Full text: Report on the Work of the Government (3)

7. Actively increasing consumption and promoting effective investment

We need to boost consumption in response to the new changes in consumer demand, focus on making structural adjustments in increasing investment, and create a positive cycle of supply structure upgrading and appropriate expansion of aggregate demand.

We should strengthen the fundamental role of consumption in driving economic growth.

We should promote consumption upgrading and develop new forms and models of consumption. We should extend preferential policies on purchase tax on new-energy vehicles by another three years, and rescind all local policies that restrict sales of non-local second-hand vehicles. We should support private actors in providing more services in healthcare, elderly care, education, culture, and sports.

We should create integrated tourism demonstration zones, and lower ticket prices at key state tourist sites. We should promote the healthy development of online shopping and express delivery services. All types of behavior that infringe on consumers’ rights and interests need to be punished in accordance with law without leniency.

We should enable investment to play the pivotal role in improving the supply structure.

This year we need to see 732 billion yuan invested in railway construction and around 1.8 trillion yuan invested in highway and waterway projects; the scale of investment in ongoing water conservancy projects should reach 1 trillion yuan.

The central and western regions should continue to be the priority for major infrastructure construction. We should carry out a new round of major technology transformation and upgrading projects.

Roughly 537.6 billion yuan of investment should be included in the central government budget, an increase of 30 billion yuan over last year. We should implement policies and measures designed to encourage private investment, introduce a number of attractive projects in sectors like rail, civil aviation, oil and natural gas, and telecommunications, and make sure that private investment can gain entry and is able to develop.

8. Creating a new landscape in comprehensive opening up

China should further expand the scope and raise the quality of its opening up; the structure, layout, institutions, and mechanisms for opening up should be improved, and we should use high-standard opening up to generate high-quality development.

We should advance international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

We are committed to achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, and must act on the outcomes of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. We should work toward building major international corridors and deepen cooperation on streamlining customs clearance along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative. We should expand industrial capacity cooperation with other countries, and with this enable Chinese manufacturing and Chinese services to go global. We should improve the composition of outbound investment. We should expand opening up in the western region, inland areas, and border areas and enhance development in border and cross-border economic cooperation areas, creating new opportunities for China’s opening up and cooperation with other countries.

We should promote a steady growth in foreign investment.

We should strengthen alignment with international business rules, and foster a world-class business environment. The general manufacturing sector should be completely opened up, and access to sectors like telecommunications, medical services, education, elderly care, and new-energy vehicles should be expanded. We should phase in an opening up of bank card clearing and other markets; lift restrictions on the scope of operations of foreign-invested insurance agent companies, and ease or lift restrictions on the share of foreign-owned equity in companies in sectors including banking, securities, fund management, futures, and financial asset management. We should make market entry standards the same for both Chinese and foreign banks.

Overseas investors should be granted tax deferral for the reinvestment of profit made in China. Procedures for setting up foreign-invested enterprises should be simplified, and business filing and business registration should be processed together in one go. We should apply practices developed in pilot free trade zones across the country, and explore opening free trade ports, working toward new heights in reform and opening up.

We should consolidate the healthy trend toward stable growth in foreign trade.

We should expand the coverage of export credit insurance, and shave another third off the total time taken for customs clearance. We should reform the mechanism for developing trade in services. We should foster new forms and models of trade. We should encourage processing trade to shift to the central and western regions.

We should actively expand imports, will host the first China International Import Expo, and should lower import tariffs on automobiles, some everyday consumer goods, and so on. We should open our market wider to promote industry upgrading and more balanced development of trade, and to provide Chinese consumers with a broader range of choices.

We should promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

As China is committed to promoting economic globalization and protecting free trade, and is ready to work with all relevant parties to advance multilateral trade negotiations, we should work for the early conclusion of negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and should speed up efforts to build the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and the East Asia Economic Community. China must stand for the settlement of trade disputes through discussion as equals, must oppose trade protectionism, and must resolutely safeguard its lawful rights.

9. Doing more to ensure and improve people’s wellbeing

We should, in line with economic growth, do more to directly benefit the people, address the difficulties that affect their lives, and ensure that their basic living needs are met. Our aim is to help people feel more satisfied, happier, and more secure.

We should focus on boosting employment and business startups.

We should strengthen the full set of public employment services, launch a large-scale vocational skills training initiative, and use the Internet Plus model to create new kinds of jobs. With over 8.2 million college students graduating this year, again reaching an all-time high, we need to expand the channels for employment and support job creation through business startups.

Solid work needs to be done on job resettlement, management, and security provision for demobilized military personnel. We should give stronger support to people with disabilities and other groups having difficulty securing employment. We should create more jobs for rural migrant workers, and take comprehensive measures to address the problem of wage arrears. We should improve labor relations consultation mechanisms, put an end to gender and identity discrimination, and work to make fairer and fuller employment an outstanding highlight of our country’s development.

We should steadily increase people’s incomes.

We should continue raising basic pension payments for retirees and basic pension benefits for rural and non-working urban residents. Minimum wages should be appropriately adjusted. We should improve the wage and subsidy system for the employees of government offices and public institutions, and weight the system toward regions where conditions are harsh and toward special posts. We should raise the personal income tax threshold and create expense deductions for items like children’s education and treatment for serious diseases, appropriately lightening burdens, and encouraging our people to increase their incomes and achieve prosperity through hard work.

We should develop fair, high-quality education.

We should promote the integrated development of urban and rural compulsory education, and continue to weight funding for education toward poor areas and weak links. We need to significantly reduce the rural drop-out rate, move faster to put an end to big class sizes in urban schools, and give attention to addressing the problem of heavy extracurricular burdens on primary and secondary school students.

Children are the hope of their families and the future of our nation. We need to increase the supply of preschool educational resources through multiple channels, give serious attention to preschool teachers and their training, and use the internet and other IT-based approaches to strengthen oversight over the childcare process at preschools, making certain that parents can have peace of mind.

We should work hard to develop vocational education and support and regulate the provision of vocational education by private actors. We should continue working to make senior secondary education universally available. With the needs of economic and social development as our compass, we need to improve the structure of higher education, act faster to develop world-class universities and world-class disciplines, and support the central and western regions in building universities with character and of high quality.

We should continue the higher education admissions scheme with preferential provisions for students from rural and poor areas. We should develop ethnic minority education, special needs education, continuing education, and online education. We should improve the competence of our educators and strengthen teacher ethics. We need to work faster to modernize education, provide education that our people are satisfied with, and ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to change their life and realize their dreams through education.

We should implement the Healthy China strategy.

We should raise basic medical insurance and serious disease insurance benefits. Per capita government subsidies for basic health insurance for rural and non-working urban residents should be increased by 40 yuan, half of which should be used for the serious disease insurance scheme. We should expand the coverage of interprovincial on-the-spot settlement of medical bills through basic insurance accounts and make this applicable to community-level hospitals, and to rural migrant workers and other workers and business owners without local household registration.

We should strengthen efforts to train medical workers, build up the ranks of general practitioners and pediatricians, and make progress in developing tiered diagnosis and treatment and contracted family doctor services. We should continue to increase per capita government subsidies for basic public health services. We should step up prevention and control of serious diseases, treating prevention as particularly important. Maternal and child healthcare should be improved. We should preserve traditional Chinese medicine and support its development through innovation. We should encourage the combination of Chinese and Western medicine.

We should develop new ways of conducting food and drug oversight, and use the internet and big data to increase oversight effectiveness. We need to move faster to see that the entire process can be tracked and all information is traceable. We need to see that there is nowhere to hide for substandard products, that there is no escaping justice for those involved in their production and sale, and that consumers can consume confidently and eat safely.

We need to make good preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Multiple channels should be used to increase sports venues and facilities available for the general public. If our people are fit and healthy, are strengthening social morality, and are striving to succeed, our country is certain to thrive and progress toward prosperity.

We should better address people’s housing needs.

A new three-year renovation plan should be launched to address housing in rundown urban areas, starting with construction this year on 5.8 million units. We should step up efforts to supply public-rental housing so that all eligible low-income families struggling with housing, including eligible non-homeowning first-time workers and migrant workers, are able to access public-rental housing under this scheme.

We must be clear that houses are for living in, not for speculation. We should expect local governments to fulfill their primary responsibility in this respect, and need to continue exercising differentiated regulation and put in place robust permanent mechanisms to promote the steady and healthy development of real estate markets. We should support people in buying homes for personal use, and develop the housing rental market and shared ownership housing.

We need to speed up the establishment of a housing system with multiple types of suppliers, multiple channels for housing support, and encouragement for both renting and buying, so that more people can soon have a place to call home.

We should strengthen efforts to meet people’s basic living needs.

We should steadily raise urban and rural subsistence allowances, social assistance benefits, and benefits for entitled groups. We need to take proactive measures to tackle population aging, including developing at-home, community-based, and mutual-aid elderly care, promoting integrated medical and elderly care services, and improving the quality of services at senior care facilities.

We should give assistance and support to children who remain in rural areas while their parents move to work in the cities. We should provide better security to both urban and rural children in difficult situations. Disabled veterans and the families of military personnel and martyrs need to be well taken care of. Rehabilitation services for people with disabilities should be improved. We should improve social assistance systems, and support the development of public interest activities and charity.

We need to bring empathy and energy to our work to meet basic needs; there should be no reluctance to act because something is not easy, and no failure to act because the benefit seems small; we must ensure that care and compassion reach everyone in need.

We should develop a new model of social governance based on collaboration, co-governance, and common gains.

We should improve the system of primary level self-governance and strengthen community governance. We should see that trade unions, Communist Youth League organizations, women’s federations and other people’s organizations are all playing their due roles. We should promote the healthy development of social organizations, specialized social work, and volunteer services.

We need to strengthen work on building the social credit system. We should improve the public legal service system, and enforce a system of responsibility for popularizing legal knowledge.

We need to foster a positive culture in which women are respected, children are cared for, the elderly are treated with respect, and people with disabilities are treated considerately. We should improve mechanisms for settling social tensions and disputes through multiple means. We need to develop new approaches to handling public complaints, and see that the justified demands of our people are addressed promptly in accordance with law.

We need to see that workplace safety responsibilities are strictly executed to prevent the occurrence of serious and major accidents. We should carry out solid work in seismology, meteorology, and geology, and improve disaster prevention, mitigation, and rescue capacity.

We need to continue the Peaceful China initiative, take strict preventive measures against violent and terrorist activities and see them firmly stamped out, and launch a campaign to crack down on organized crime and local mafia in accordance with law. We need to punish theft, robbery, fraud, pornography, gambling, drug-related crime, and other illegal and criminal behavior, address salient problems such as telecommunications and internet fraud, the abuse of personal information, and internet-based pyramid schemes, and safeguard national and public security.

We must provide rich cultural nourishment to help our people to live better lives.

We should see that our fine traditional Chinese culture is alive and thriving, see our revolutionary culture is inherited and carried on, develop advanced socialist culture, and foster and practice core socialist values. We should strengthen efforts toward building intellectual and moral standards and hold more activities designed for the public to promote cultural and ethical advancement.

We should speed up the development of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, see that art and literature flourish, and develop the press, publishing, radio, film, television, and archiving. We need to ensure China’s cultural relics are more effectively protected and put to better use, and cultural heritage is better preserved and passed on. We need to see that China’s new-type think-tanks are well run. The provision of content on the internet should be improved.

We should launch more cultural projects to benefit the people, work to foster new forms of cultural businesses, and accelerate the development of the cultural industry. We should foster a love of reading in all our people and build a learning society. China’s cultural and people-to-people exchanges with other countries should be enhanced, and Chinese culture should have greater appeal. We need to see that a rich and thriving socialist culture with distinctive Chinese features acts as a powerful source of inspiration for the whole Chinese nation to achieve rejuvenation.

Fellow Deputies,

Entering a new era, the government’s work in the new year must bring new steps and make new advances. We must become deeply conscious of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment. We must strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must resolutely uphold the core position of General Secretary Xi Jinping, resolutely uphold the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, and act on the requirement for full and rigorous Party self-governance. We need to improve our government, intensify efforts to transform government functions, raise our ability in every respect to execute our duties, and deliver to the people high-quality and efficient services.

All governance must be exercised in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

We must strictly observe the Constitution and the law, and speed up work on building a government based on the rule of law, seeing that all government activities are consistent with the rule of law. We must work to ensure that the law is enforced in a strict, procedure-based, impartial, and civil manner. Power cannot be used as one pleases; the exercise of power must be supervised.

We, at every level of government, must subject ourselves, as required by law, to the oversight of the people’s congresses at that level and their standing committees; we must readily accept the democratic oversight of CPPCC committees, and we must actively accept public oversight and oversight through public opinion. We should earnestly solicit opinions from deputies to people’s congresses and CPPCC committee members, and listen to the views of other political parties, federations of industry and commerce, public figures without party affiliation, and people’s organizations.

We in government must honor our commitments; new officials must not be allowed to disavow obligations undertaken by their predecessors. We should make government affairs more transparent across the board. We should promote the legal consultation system for government. Decisions need to be made in a sound and democratic way on the basis of law, and before making decisions on any major issue related to public interests, we should solicit input, including criticism, from all parties.

Ours is a government of the people, and everything we do should reflect their will. Whether we’ve done a good job only the outcomes can tell and ultimately it is for the people to judge.

All initiatives to improve Party conduct and ensure clean government should be strengthened.

All Party members should gain a good command of the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses, and meet Party standards; we should work to see this become a regular and institutionalized practice. And we need to keep reminding ourselves of our commitment to our original aspiration and have our mission always in mind.

We must resolutely put into action the central Party leadership’s eight-point decision on improving conduct and staying engaged with the people along with its detailed rules for implementation. We should work ceaselessly to address the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, with particular focus on seeing the first two stamped out.

We should strengthen auditing-based oversight. We need to consolidate and build on the overwhelming momentum of the anti-corruption campaign, locking power in an institutional cage, and cracking down on all manifestations of corruption.

All government employees must cultivate personal integrity, have a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility, and readily accept the oversight of the law, supervisory bodies, and the people; we must keep our hands clean and work hard for the people, and never fail to live up to the name of people’s public servants.

All aspects of government performance should be improved.

We need to improve the composition and responsibilities of the institutions of government, deepen institutional reform, form a system of governance by government with clearly defined duties and obligations and administration in line with law, and strengthen government credibility and executive capacity.

Every last achievement in China’s reform and development has been made by doing. To us—all levels of government and all government employees—getting things done for the people is our unquestionable duty; not doing is a dereliction of that duty.

We need to improve incentive and constraint mechanisms and mechanisms to allow for and address errors, give unequivocal backing to the driven and the doers, and hold strictly to account the incompetent and the idle. Talking big and setting ambitious goals but taking little action to achieve them should not be tolerated; nor should sitting around in a government post and getting nothing done.

We in government need to improve our political integrity and professional competence, be realistic and pragmatic, and make doing our top priority. Only by doing can we make solid new achievements, earn public endorsement, and contribute to a dynamic atmosphere in which everyone is motivated and driven to get things done.

Fellow Deputies,

The Chinese nation is a big family in which we live together in peace, unity, and amity. We need to uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy and fully implement the Party’s policies on ethnic groups. We should continue to strengthen support for development in areas of mainly ethnic minorities and for the development of ethnic groups with smaller populations.

It should be seen to that celebrations to mark the 60th anniversaries of the founding of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region are a great success. We should encourage more exchanges and interactions among our ethnic groups to strengthen the foundations and bonds of the Chinese national community.

We must fully implement the Party’s basic policy on religious affairs, uphold the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation, promote harmony between religions, and encourage religious leaders and believers to actively involve themselves in promoting economic and social development.

We need to fully implement policies related to overseas Chinese nationals, protect the legal rights and interests of overseas Chinese nationals, Chinese nationals who have returned from overseas, and relatives of overseas Chinese nationals residing in China. We should create better conditions for them to use their unique strengths and play their important roles in our country’s modernization. We encourage all Chinese, both at home and overseas, to work together with one heart and achieve together great things.

Fellow Deputies,

Faced with profound changes in the national security environment, we must treat the Party’s goal of building stronger armed forces for the new era as our guide, and firmly uphold the guiding position of Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the armed forces as we develop national defense and the armed forces. We must stick to the Chinese path in strengthening our armed forces, advance all aspects of military training and war preparedness, and firmly and resolvedly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

The fundamental principle and system of absolute leadership by the Party over the armed forces must be observed, and the system of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission assuming full responsibility for military affairs should be fully enforced.

We need to continue to reform national defense and the armed forces, and build strong and solid modernized border, coastal, and air defense. We should improve our national defense mobilization system and strengthen public awareness about national defense. We should protect the legal rights and interests of service personnel and their families, and make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect. We should further implement the strategy for military-civilian integration and deepen reform of defense-related science, technology, and industry.

We, at every level of government, must take more effective measures to support the development and reform of our national defense and armed forces and carry out extensive activities to encourage government and public support for the military and preferential treatment for families of service personnel and martyrs and to encourage the military to support the government and love the people, so that the unity between the military and government and between the military and the people is always strong as stone, and deeply rooted as an evergreen.

Fellow Deputies,

We must continue to implement, both to the letter and in spirit, the principle of “one country, two systems,” and act in strict compliance with China’s Constitution and the basic laws of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. The governments and chief executives of the two regions have our full support in exercising law-based governance and in their efforts to achieve strong economic growth, improve living standards, progressively advance democracy, and promote social harmony.

We should support Hong Kong and Macao in integrating their own development into overall national development, and should boost exchanges and cooperation between the mainland and the two regions. We have every confidence that Hong Kong and Macao will develop and thrive together with the mainland.

We must continue to implement the principles and policies on our work related to Taiwan, uphold the one-China principle, promote the peaceful growth of cross-Strait relations on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, and advance China’s peaceful reunification. We must remain firm in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and must never tolerate any separatist schemes or activities for “Taiwan independence.”

We should expand cross-Strait economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation, and ensure that over time, people from Taiwan come to enjoy the same treatment as mainlanders when they pursue study, do business, work or live on the mainland.

As fellow Chinese living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, we share a bond of kinship. As long as we go with the tide of history and work together for our nation’s greater good, we will together create the future—a beautiful future of national rejuvenation.

Fellow Deputies,

China’s development is closely connected with that of all other countries; we share a common future and a common stake in that future. China’s commitment to peaceful development should not change and we should work to build a new type of international relations. We should get actively involved in reforming and improving global governance and should strive to make the global economy more open.

We should promote coordination and cooperation among major countries, deepen friendships and achieve common development with our neighbors, and enhance unity and cooperation with other developing countries.

We should ensure the success of the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and other diplomatic events that will be hosted here in China.

China should continue to play its part as a responsible major country in resolving international and regional hotspot issues. We should strengthen and improve institutions for safeguarding Chinese interests and security overseas. China stands ready to work with all other countries to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

Fellow Deputies,

Unity gives us strength; good solid work will shape our future. We must rally even closer around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

We must be enterprising, work hard, and promote sustained, healthy economic and social development. We are working to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to ensure the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. Let us make new contributions to make these goals a reality. 

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