Page 8 - Communiqué of the Sixth Plenary Session of the

strategic opportunity, they focused their energy on development, with emphasis
on pursuing comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable development that put the

people first. They worked hard to ensure and improve people’s wellbeing,
promote social fairness and justice, bolster the Party’s governance capacity, and
maintain its advanced nature. In doing so, they succeeded in upholding and
developing socialism with Chinese characteristics under new circumstances.

It was stressed at the session that in this period, the Party upheld and

developed Marxism in light of new practices and the features of the times, and
effectively answered a series of basic questions regarding socialism with Chinese
characteristics, including development path, stage of development, fundamental
tasks, development drivers, development strategies, political guarantee, national

reunification, diplomacy and international strategy, leadership, and forces to rely
on, thereby forming the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics and
achieving a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The
Party led the people in freeing their minds and forging ahead, achieving great

success in reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. China achieved the
historic transformations from a highly centralized planned economy into a socialist
market economy brimming with vitality, and from a country that was largely
isolated into one that is open to the outside world across the board; it achieved the
historic leap from a country with relatively backward productive forces to the

world’s second largest economy; and it achieved the historic strides of raising the
living standards of its people from bare subsistence to an overall level of moderate
prosperity and then ultimately to moderate prosperity in all respects. All these
achievements marked the tremendous advance of the Chinese nation from

standing up to growing prosperous. Through tenacious struggle, the Party and the
people showed the world that reform and opening up was a crucial move in
making China what it is today, that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the
correct road that has led the country toward development and prosperity, and that

China has caught up with the times in great strides.

It was stated at the session that following the Party’s 18th National Congress,
socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. The major tasks facing
the Party in this period are to fulfill the First Centenary Goal, embark on the new
journey to achieve the Second Centenary Goal, and continue striving toward the

great goal of national rejuvenation. The Party has led the people in bolstering

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