China Focus: 20th CPC Central Committee to hold fifth plenary session in October

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The fifth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will be held in Beijing in October, according to a decision made at a CPC Central Committee Political Bureau meeting on Thursday.

The Political Bureau will report its work to the CPC Central Committee, and the session will study major issues on advancing the Party's full and rigorous self-governance, according to the main agenda of the session.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chaired Thursday's meeting.

Despite the significant progress made since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party's full and rigorous self-governance faces new circumstances and challenges amid profound changes in the international and domestic environments and in the conditions the Party faces, according to the meeting.

The meeting called for fully recognizing the significance of unswervingly advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance, adopting higher standards and taking more concrete measures to address the prominent issues facing Party building, while consolidating and building on the sound political environment fostered through the Party's self-governance.

The meeting stressed the importance of upholding and strengthening the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, focusing on efforts to strengthen the Party's long-term governance capacity, preserve its advanced nature and purity, and maintain the Party's close ties with the people, unswervingly adhering to rigorous principles, and improving the systems for exercising full and rigorous self-governance.

It is important to ensure that the Party remains a vibrant Marxist governing party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the wholehearted support of the people, withstands all tests, and serves as the strong leadership core for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the meeting said.

The meeting also analyzed and studied the current economic situation and made arrangements for economic work in the second half of this year.

The meeting noted that since the beginning of this year, China's economy has shown a trend characterized by new growth drivers and improving economic structure.

It emphasized the need to attach great importance to the challenges in economic operations, maintain confidence, meet difficulties head-on, and make good use of various opportunities and advantages to promote steady and sustained high-quality development.

To do a good job in economic work in the second half of the year, it is imperative to adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, the meeting emphasized, urging efforts to accelerate the transition from old growth drivers to new ones and effectively implement a more proactive fiscal policy and an appropriately accommodative monetary policy.

Pragmatic and effective incremental policies will be timely introduced, the meeting said, urging intensified efforts to step up counter-cyclical adjustments, expand domestic demand and optimize supply, effectively safeguard and improve people's wellbeing, and enhance development momentum and boost social vitality, so as to promote sustained innovation-driven, high-quality and sound economic development, ensuring a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

The meeting noted that macroeconomic policies should be more forceful and effective with a view to better advancing the implementation of major national strategies and enhancing security capacity in key areas, as well as promoting large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs. Monetary policy tools should be used comprehensively and adjusted in a timely manner, and policies to boost domestic demand via fiscal-monetary coordination should be optimally implemented.

The meeting called for efforts to advance the planning and development of six major infrastructure networks, strengthen long-term and stable support for basic research, implement the AI Plus Initiative, foster new forms of the smart economy, and improve the governance system for artificial intelligence.

According to the meeting, efforts will be made to achieve breakthroughs in frontier technologies and promote the development of future industries, build emerging pillar industries, and continuously push the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

It urged efforts to foster a fair and orderly market competition environment, formulate and implement regulations for building a unified national market, and curb involution-style competition. It also called for deepening the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises, improving the development environment for the private economy, and promoting the sound and healthy development of the platform economy.

The meeting called for expanding the scope of mutually beneficial international economic and trade cooperation, vigorously developing trade in services, and promoting more balanced trade development. It urged improving the regulatory framework for outbound investment and overseas comprehensive service systems, while actively attracting and utilizing foreign investment.

The meeting also stressed the need to make unwavering efforts in work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and to continue consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation.

Multiple measures should be taken to ensure people's well-being, scale up employment support for key groups, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment, the meeting stressed.

Regarding ecological and environmental protection, the meeting demanded efforts to score new achievements in the crucial stage of the national shelterbelt program in northwest, north, and northeast China, and advance carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in an active yet prudent manner.

The meeting called for stabilizing the real estate market, effectively implementing a package of measures to defuse debt risks, and making solid progress in reforming and mitigating risks at local small and medium-sized financial institutions while reducing their number and improving their quality.

Comprehensive reforms of investment and financing in the capital market should be deepened to enhance its resilience and boost market confidence, according to the meeting.

The meeting also stressed thorough efforts to identify and defuse various risks and hidden dangers to resolutely prevent major and serious accidents and safeguard people's lives and property. ■