People’s Daily’s top 10 domestic news events in 2021

① A ceremony celebrating the CPC’s centenary is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing (Xinhua/Li Xiang).

② A volunteer introduces the spirit of the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee to local residents of the Miao ethnic group in Tianba village, Guanba town of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (cpanet.cn/Cao Yonglong)

③ CPC members review the Party admission oath at the memorial of the First National Congress of the CPC in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

④ Aerial photo shows workers of a power transmission and distribution company in east China's Anhui Province working at a construction site of an ultra-high-voltage (UHV) power transmission project over the Yangtze River in Anhui Province. (cpanet.cn/Zheng Xianlie)

⑤ A farmer of Liufeng village, Youjiang district, Baise city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region airs out his anise. (People’s Daily/Zhang Wujun)\

⑥ Photo shows a judge of the people's court of Wenxian county, central China's Henan Province participating in a law education activity. (cpanet.cn/Xu Hongxing)

⑦ Photo shows the scenery of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

⑧ Photo taken at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center shows China's Shenzhou-13 astronaut Zhai Zhigang waving his hand after conducting extravehicular activities outside of the space station core module Tianhe. (Xinhua/Guo Zhongzheng)

⑨ Photo shows an 81MW photovoltaic power project built at the Nanshan Reservoir, Fujia village, Dongjia town, Fengcheng city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (cpanet.cn/Zhan Peilu)

⑩ Photo shows the first China International Consumer Products Expo held in Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan Province. (People’s Daily/Zhang Wujun)

Editor’s note: The year 2021 marked a milestone in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese nation. Over the past year, the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, solemnly celebrated the centenary of the founding of the CPC, successfully held the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, formulated the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century, and carried out Party history education efforts.

Meanwhile, it has united and led the Chinese people in winning the battle against poverty as scheduled, in building a moderately prosperous society, and in embarking on a new journey of turning China into a modern socialist country in an all-round way, signaling a perfect start to the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

Going forward, China is determined to make even greater achievements through dedication and hard work. In 2022, the CPC will convene its 20th National Congress, a significant event for both the Party and the country. As long as it actively takes on its new missions, earnestly learns from its previous experience, and forges ahead courageously, China will certainly witness even greater glories on its new journey in the new era and make the ship of socialism with Chinese characteristics sail smoothly through all the coming waves.

1.　Xi Jinping announces realization of first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects at ceremony marking centenary of the CPC　

A ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC was held at Tian’anmen Square in Beijing on July 1. During his speech at the ceremony, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee reviewed the CPC’s struggle over the past 100 years, spoke highly of the great achievements the Chinese people made under the leadership of the CPC, and announced that China has realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. He summarized the great founding spirit of the Party, which is comprised of the following principles: upholding truth and ideals, staying true to the Party’s original aspiration and founding mission, fighting bravely without fear of sacrifice, and remaining loyal to the Party and faithful to the people.

Xi stressed the importance of upholding the firm leadership of the Party, and noted that as the CPC puts conscious effort into learning from history to create a bright future, the Party must unite and lead the Chinese people in working ceaselessly for a better life, continue to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context, uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, accelerate the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, continue working to promote the building of a human community with a shared future, carry out a great struggle with many contemporary features, strengthen the great unity of the Chinese people, and continue to advance the great new project of Party building. He also called on all party members to score even greater achievements on the journey ahead.

The awarding ceremony for the July 1 Medal and a meeting on awarding the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations were held before July 1 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

It was the first time the CPC Central Committee presented the July 1 Medal, the highest honor in the Party. It was of great significance for encouraging all party members to bear in mind the founding mission of the Party and forge ahead.

2. CPC issues landmark resolution on Party's achievements, experience over past century

The sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee was held from Nov. 8 to 11. At the session, the CPC Central Committee heard and discussed a work report Xi delivered on behalf of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and considered and adopted the Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century and the Resolution on the Convocation of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The CPC Central Committee considered it important in both a practical and historical sense to have a comprehensive review of the major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century as the CPC celebrates its centenary and the fulfillment of the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and moves on towards the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. The Central Committee believed that this review would help build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all members and rally and lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

According to the resolution, the Party has established Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and defined the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This reflects the common will of the Party, the armed forces, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, and is of decisive significance for advancing the cause of the Party and the country in the new era and for driving forward the historic process of national rejuvenation, the document said.

3. China secures “complete victory” in fight against poverty, makes solid progress on major livelihood projects

On Feb. 25, President Xi Jinping announced that China had secured a “complete victory” in its fight against poverty at a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and to honor its model poverty fighters. The final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list. Regional poverty has been eliminated on the whole, and the arduous task of eradicating absolute poverty has been completed, representing yet another miraculous achievement.

Remaining committed to the people-centered philosophy of development, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core rolled out a slew of measures to improve people’s livelihood and address their urgent problems, ensuring a strong sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security for them.

In July, China introduced a guideline to ease the burdens of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students undergoing compulsory education, in a bid to promote the well-rounded and healthy development of students. In the same month, the country released a decision on improving birth policies to promote long-term and balanced population development.

Fresh progress was made in ensuring access to medical services, elderly care, housing, and social assistance.

Between January and October, China began the rebuilding and renovation of 53,400 old urban residential communities.

China conducted three rounds of centralized drug procurement. Sixty-one types of medicines listed in China’s fifth-round centralized drug-procurement program were made 56 percent cheaper on average.

China’s basic medical insurance schemes covered 1.36 billion people, or 95 percent of the country’s population. The number of people covered by basic old-age insurance nationwide hit 1 billion, with an insured rate of over 90 percent.

4. China ensures good start of 14th Five-Year Plan, maintains leading position in coordinating epidemic control and economic development

On March 11, the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress approved the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

In 2021, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has calmly responded to the profound changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic, and united and led all the Chinese people to accomplish the arduous tasks of reform and development, securing a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan.

China has made new strides to foster a new paradigm of development and promote high-quality development, and has continued to lead the world in terms of economic development and epidemic control, with significant progress made in improving its strategic scientific and technological strength, industrial chain resilience, people’s well-being, reform and opening-up, and eco-environmental progress.

The country’s GDP expanded 9.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, putting the average growth for the period over the past two years at 5.2 percent. The number of market entities nationwide exceeded 150 million, and total grain output exceeded 650 million metric tons.

China, as the world’s second largest economy, second largest consumption market, and largest trader in goods, has maintained a continuous economic recovery and contributed significantly to stabilizing and promoting recovery in the global economy.

5. CPC launches campaign on studying Party history

The launching of the Party-wide education campaign was a major strategic decision by the CPC Central Committee to open up new prospects for the cause of the Party and the State from the new starting point of the centenary of the founding of the CPC.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, attended the campaign's launch meeting held in Beijing on Feb. 20, and delivered an important speech. Xi stressed the vital necessity of launching the campaign, urging Party committees at all levels to earnestly implement the arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee regarding the campaign.

Over the past year, Party organizations at all levels have conscientiously implemented the arrangements of the Party Central Committee. Through the campaign, the whole Party has notably enhanced its historical consciousness and confidence, and has significantly strengthened its capacity to innovate, unite and fight, thus achieving the goal of studying the Party's history, understanding its theories, doing practical work and making new advances.

6. China introduces targeted reform plans, improves institutional system in all-round way, pushes forward reform and opening up

This year, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, China stressed full, accurate and comprehensive implementation of the new development philosophy to strengthen the integration of systems, take targeted measures and continuously further reform and opening up.

China issued a guideline on building the eastern province of Zhejiang into a demonstration zone for achieving common prosperity in June. This was a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core, which puts promoting the common prosperity of all people in a more important position. It fully reflects the firm determination of the CPC Central Committee to solve the problem of insufficiencies resulting from development imbalances in China.

In July, China issued a guideline to support the high-level reform and opening-up of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai. In September, the country issued a general plan for building a Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone in Hengqin, and a plan on deepening the reform and opening-up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone.

A number of policy documents such as a negative list on cross-border trade in services for the Hainan Free Trade Port and measures to liberalize and facilitate the trade in goods and services at the Hainan free trade port have been issued and implemented.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has successively set up 21 free trade pilot zones, obtained a large number of high-level institutional innovation achievements, and built a number of world-leading industrial clusters.

This year, economic and trade events such as the China International Consumer Products Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and the China International Import Expo have been successfully held, and China's resolve to open wider at a high standard is obvious to any objective observer.

7. China issues guiding document on advancing rule of law in new era, improves whole-process people’s democracy

The CPC Central Committee in January issued a plan on building the rule of law in China (2020-2025). The plan, designed and formulated under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, practically implements the thought in its every aspect. As the first plan on building the rule of law in China, it is a guiding document on comprehensively advancing the rule of law in the new era and is a blueprint, a roadmap and a drawing for coordinated efforts to advance the building of China’s rule of law during the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period.

The plan bears important significance for allowing the rule of law to better play its role as the guarantor for consolidating foundations, stabilizing expectations and bringing long-term benefits, for advancing the modernization of China’s national governance system and capacity, for adapting to people’s new requirements and expectations regarding such aspects as democracy, rule of law, equity, justice, security and environment, and for achieving the goal of basically building a country, government and society based on the rule of law in 2035.

In December, the State Council Information Office issued a white paper titled “China: Democracy That Works,” which is a comprehensive summary of China’s remarkable progress made in whole-process people’s democracy. It says, “With complete institutions and extensive participation, whole-process people's democracy has evolved from an idea into a system and mechanism of governance that has taken root in the soil of Chinese society and has become part of people's lives.” Whole-process people’s democracy has distinctive Chinese characteristics; it also exemplifies common values and contributes China’s ideas and solutions to the political progress of humanity.

8. Principle of ‘patriots governing Hong Kong’ implemented, ending chaos, restoring stability of HKSAR

On March 11, the fourth session of the 13th NPC adopted a decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Under the new electoral system, elections of the Election Committee of the HKSAR and the seventh-term Legislative Council of the HKSAR were successfully held, with the democratic rights of Hong Kong citizens reflected, the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong” implemented, and a political landscape featuring wide and balanced participation from all social groups and constituencies established.

Practice has proven that the new electoral system is a good system that adheres to the “one country, two systems” principle, suits Hong Kong’s realities, and provides strong institutional support for the steady and sustained development of the “one country, two systems” principle as well as the long-term prosperity and stability of the HKSAR.

In the past year, Hong Kong has constantly consolidated its achievements in ending chaos and restoring stability, and has secured a sound impetus for development. It has achieved notable results in COVID-19 control, gradually recovered its economy and maintained social stability.

9. Chinese astronauts enter China’s space station for first time

China sent into space the Tianhe core module of its space station on April 29, which signaled that the country’s space station construction entered the full implementation stage.

On May 15, China’s Mars probe Tianwen-1 landed on the surface of Mars, leaving the mark of the Chinese nation on the Red Planet. It marked an important step in China’s interstellar exploration and a leap from the exploration of the Earth-Moon system to interplanetary exploration.

On June 17, China’s Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship completed a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the Tianhe core module, and Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo entered the orbiting Tianhe module, which marked the first time Chinese astronauts entered their own space station. After completing their three-month mission, including innovative and groundbreaking scientific experiments and space applications, they returned to Earth safely on Sept. 17.

China successfully launched the crewed spaceship Shenzhou-13 on Oct. 16, sending three astronauts to its space station core module Tianhe for a six-month mission.

10. China sets clearly-defined timetable, roadmap for achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality while advancing ecological progress

In October, China unveiled a guiding document on its work to achieve its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals under the new development philosophy, setting a clearly-defined timetable and roadmap and laying out specific targets and measures for the coming decades.

According to the document, China will peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The document outlines five major tasks, including creating a green, low-carbon and circular economy, improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of non-fossil energy consumption, lowering CO2 emissions and boosting the carbon sink capacity of ecosystems. It calls for resolute efforts to curb the haphazard development of energy-intensive and high-emission projects. Besides, China’s national carbon market started online trading and secured stable and orderly operations.

China made headway in its efforts to protect its blue skies, and to defend its rivers and soil from pollution. A 10-year ban on fishing in key waters of the Yangtze River basin came into force from Jan. 1, 2021. The combined proportion of state-controlled water sections with good-quality surface water increased to 83.6 percent. China’s total installed capacity using renewable energy exceeded a billion kilowatts. The total area of afforestation across the country hit 54 million mu, or 3.6 million hectares.