The great rejuvenation of China

1. Uphold and improve the country’s fundamental political system and basic political system

To uphold and develop socialist democratic politics, we must insist that all state power belongs to the people and demonstrate the people’s status as the main body. We must persist in and continuously improve the people’s congress system for a long time, keep pace with the times, improve and improve the basic political system, and constantly strengthen the institutional guarantee and the rule of law guarantee for the people to be masters of their own country.

Continuously improve the people’s congress system. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The people’s congress system is a fundamental political system arrangement that adheres to the party’s leadership, the people are masters of the country, and the rule of law is organically unified, and must be adhered to and continuously improved for a long time.1 This is the fundamental basis for improving the system of the people being masters of their own affairs. The Constitution stipulates that all power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People’s Congress and local people’s congresses at all levels. The people administer state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs through various channels and forms in accordance with the law. The Constitution also stipulates that the State organs of the People’s Republic of China practice the principle of democratic centralism, and that the National People’s Congress and local people’s congresses at all levels are democratically elected, responsible to and supervised by the people. State administrative organs, supervisory organs, judicial organs and procuratorial organs are all elected by the people’s congress and are responsible to and supervised by it.

The people’s congress system is the most reliable and effective democratic system that conforms to China’s national conditions and reality. Over the past 60 years, especially in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the people’s congress system has been continuously consolidated and developed in practice and has played an important political role: First, it can ensure the orderly participation of the masses of the people in state management and realize that the people are masters of their own country.

Second, it can guarantee democratic rights and realize the people’s supervision over state organs at all levels; third, it can mobilize all the people to actively participate in the cause of socialist construction, reform and development; fourth, it can ensure the coordinated and efficient operation of state organs in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism; fifth, it can effectively safeguard national unity and ethnic unity; and sixth, it can ensure the party’s effective leadership over the state and society. By maintaining close ties with the masses, integrating the expression of the interests of the masses, safeguarding the democratic rights of the masses, stimulating the creative vitality of the people, and rallying the majestic force of national rejuvenation, the people’s congress system is an important institutional guarantee for building a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country.

To uphold and improve the people’s congress system in the new era, it is necessary to do a good job in the building of two “organs.” First, it is necessary to strengthen the building of people’s congresses and their standing committees at all levels as working organs exercising their functions and powers in accordance with the law, improve the organizational and working systems of people’s congresses, optimize the composition of people’s congress standing committees and special committees, let people’s congresses fully undertake all the duties entrusted by the Constitution and laws, give play to the leading role of people’s congresses and their standing committees in legislative work, and ensure that people’s congresses exercise their legislative powers, supervisory powers, decision- making powers, appointment and removal powers in accordance with the law. Second, it is necessary to strengthen the building of people’s congresses as representative organs that maintain ties with the masses of the people, solve the problem of further maintaining close ties with the masses of the people in terms of system, give better play to the role of people’s congress deputies, and improve the ability of deputies to perform their duties. Improve and perfect the basic political system. The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the system of grassroots mass autonomy together constitute the basic political system of our country. To improve the institutional system in which the people are masters of their own affairs, it is necessary to improve and perfect the basic political system. The CPPCC is a great achievement of the CPC in integrating Marxist-Leninist united front theory, party theory, and democratic political theory with China’s reality; it is a great creation in the political system carried out by the CPC under the leadership of various democratic parties, personages without party affiliation, people’s organizations, and people of all ethnic groups and all walks of life; it is a new type of political party system that has grown out of Chinese soil; and it is a major contribution to human political civilization. First, it is the product of the integration of Marxist party theory with China’s specific reality, which can genuinely, extensively, and sustainably represent and realize the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, and effectively avoid the drawbacks of the old-style party system of representing a small number of people and minority interest groups; second, it can closely unite all political parties and personages without party affiliation to strive for a common goal, and effectively avoid the drawbacks of lack of supervision by one party or vicious competition between multiple parties taking turns to sit in power;

Third, it concentrates opinions and suggestions from all quarters through institutionalized, procedural, and standardized arrangements, promotes scientific and democratic decision-making, and effectively avoids the drawbacks of the old-style party system being limited to party interests, class interests, regional and group interests, and decision-making and governance, resulting in narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness. This new type of party system emphasizes both the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the promotion of socialist democracy, and has unique advantages and distinctive characteristics. The CPPCC is an organization of the united front, an institution for multi-party cooperation and political consultation, an important form of realizing people’s democracy, an important channel and special consultative body for socialist consultative democracy, an important part of the national governance system, and an institutional arrangement with Chinese characteristics. The work of the CPPCC involves all fields of national governance and plays a vital role in political consultation, democratic supervision, participation in and discussion of state affairs, and so on. To strengthen and improve the work of the CPPCC in the new era, it is necessary to take the adherence to and development of social Wang Yi with Chinese characteristics as the main axis of consolidating the common ideological and political foundation, take serving the realization of the “two centenary goals” as the main line of work, strengthen ideological and political guidance and extensive consensus as the central link, adhere to the two major themes of unity and democracy, improve the level of political consultation, democratic supervision, participation in and discussion of state affairs, better condense consensus, and adhere to the CPPCC system well We should develop the cause of the CPPCC well, shoulder the political responsibility of implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the requirements for the work of the CPPCC, pooling the wisdom and strength of the Chinese people at home and abroad, and contribute to the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and then building a modern and powerful socialist country in an all-round way. The system of regional ethnic autonomy is an important content and institutional guarantee for the correct path of solving ethnic issues with Chinese characteristics, and has played an important role in safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity, strengthening ethnic equality and unity, promoting the development of ethnic regions, and enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation. To uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, we must adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, resolutely safeguard the unity of the motherland, adhere to the equality of all ethnic groups, strengthen ethnic unity, and promote the common prosperity, development and progress of all ethnic groups. To uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, it is necessary to adhere to the combination of unification and autonomy, and also adhere to the combination of ethnic factors and regional factors, help ethnic autonomous areas develop their economies, improve people’s livelihood, forge a firm sense of the Chinese national community, and better realize exchanges, exchanges and blending among all ethnic groups.

The system of grassroots mass autonomy is the most direct, extensive, and vivid practice of democracy. To improve the system of grassroots people’s self-government and develop grassroots democracy, we must permeate the party’s leadership throughout the entire process and all aspects of grassroots people’s autonomy, realize the combination of rule of law, rule by virtue, and autonomy, and ensure that the building of grassroots democracy always advances in the right direction. It is necessary to unblock democratic channels and improve mechanisms such as grassroots elections, deliberation, openness, debriefing, and accountability

Promote the masses’ self-management, self-service, self-education, and self-supervision in urban and rural community governance, grassroots public affairs, and public welfare undertakings in accordance with the law, and give play to the role of social organizations, so as to realize benign interaction between government governance and social regulation and residents’ autonomy. It is necessary to improve the democratic management system of enterprises and institutions, take the workers’ congress as the basic form, respect the people’s initiative, and effectively implement the rights of the masses of workers to know, participate, express and supervise. The functional system of the Party and state institutions is an important part of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The purpose of deepening the reform of the party and state institutions is to better promote the development of the cause of the party and the country, better meet the growing needs of the people for a better life, and better promote the all- round development of people, all-round social progress and common prosperity of the people.“1 To deepen the reform of party and state institutions, we must adhere to the party’s overall leadership, adhere to the people-centered, adhere to optimization and coordination, adhere to the comprehensive rule of law, make overall plans to promote the reform of the party, government, military and masses, build a systematic, scientific, standardized, and efficient functional system of party and state institutions, including the party’s leadership system, government governance system, armed forces system and mass work system, and comprehensively improve the country’s governance capacity and governance level.