VI. Advancing Whole-Process People’s Democracy and Ensuring that the People Run the Country
China is a socialist country of people’s democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class based on an alliance of workers and farmers; all power of the state in China belongs to the people. People’s democracy is the lifeblood of socialism, and it is integral to our efforts to build a modern socialist country in all respects. Whole-process people’s democracy is the defining feature of socialist democracy; it is democracy in its broadest, most genuine, and most effective form.
We must firmly stay on the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics, uphold the unity between Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance, and ensure the principal position of the people, so as to give full expression to their will, protect their rights and interests, and spark their creativity.
We will improve the system of institutions through which the people run the country. We will encourage the people’s orderly participation in political affairs and guarantee their ability to engage in democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight in accordance with the law. We will inspire the people’s motivation, initiative, and creativity, so as to consolidate and develop a lively, stable, and united political atmosphere.
1. Strengthening the institutions through which the people run the country
We must uphold and improve our country’s foundational, basic, and important political systems, expand democratic channels, and diversify the forms of democracy, so as to ensure that people participate in various ways in the management of state, economic, cultural, and social affairs in accordance with the law.
We will support and ensure the people’s exercise of state power through people’s congresses, and we will ensure that people’s congresses at all levels are formed through democratic elections, responsible to the people, and subject to their oversight.
We will support and ensure that people’s congresses and their standing committees lawfully exercise the powers of enacting laws, conducting oversight, making decisions, and appointing and removing officials. We will improve the system under which people’s congresses conduct oversight of administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory, and procuratorial organs, and we will uphold the unity, sanctity, and authority of the law.
We will see that deputies to people’s congresses are better able to carry out their work and that they strengthen ties with the general public. We will improve working mechanisms for drawing on public opinion and pooling the wisdom of the people and ensure that local legislative outreach offices are well-run. We will intensify reform and development of trade unions, Chinese Communist Youth League organizations, women’s federations, and other people’s organizations and give full play to their role as bridges connecting the Party and the people. We will follow a Chinese path of human rights development, actively participate in global human rights governance, and promote all-around advancement of human rights.
2. Fully developing consultative democracy
Consultative democracy is an important way by which whole-process people’s democracy is practiced. We will improve the system of consultative democracy, make coordinated efforts to promote consultations carried out by political parties, people’s congresses, government departments, committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), people’s organizations, communities, and social organizations, and improve various institutional consultative platforms, so as to promote extensive, multilevel, and institutionalized development of consultative democracy.
We will uphold and improve the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation and ensure the integration of Party leadership, the united front, and consultative democracy. We will give play to the CPPCC’s role as a specialized consultative body and see that it coordinates efforts to promote democracy and unity while making proposals on state affairs and building consensus. Improvements will be made to institutions, standards, and procedures to help the CPPCC ensure that in-depth consultations and interactions are conducted, opinions are fully expressed, and broad consensus is built. Efforts will be also made to improve the systems and mechanisms through which CPPCC committees conduct democratic oversight and their members stay engaged with people from various sectors.
3. Actively developing democracy at the primary level
Primary-level democracy is an important manifestation of whole-process people’s democracy. We will improve the mechanism for community-level self-governance under the leadership of primary-level Party organizations, build up the strength of primary-level organizations, and improve the institutional and working systems for direct democracy at the primary level to see that urban and rural communities can more effectively manage, serve, educate, and oversee themselves.
We will increase transparency in government affairs, establish more channels for people from various sectors to participate in community-level governance in an orderly way, and ensure that the people manage public affairs and run public-interest programs at the primary level in accordance with the law.
We will rely wholeheartedly on the working class and improve the system of democratic management in enterprises and public institutions, which takes basic shape in the form of workers’ congresses, so as to protect workers’ lawful rights and interests.
4. Consolidating and developing the broadest possible patriotic united front
The people’s support is of the utmost political importance, and the united front is an effective instrument for rallying the people’s support and pooling their strength. We will build a broad united front to forge great unity and solidarity, and we will encourage all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation to dedicate themselves to realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
We will leverage the strengths of our country’s new type of socialist political party system. Following the principles of long-term coexistence, mutual oversight, sincerity, and sharing the rough times and the smooth, we will strengthen our Party’s unity and cooperation with other political parties and prominent figures without party affiliation. We will also support other political parties in improving themselves and performing their roles more effectively.
We will, with a focus on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, continue to take the correct and distinctively Chinese approach to handling ethnic affairs, uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, and improve the Party’s work on ethnic affairs, so as to comprehensively promote ethnic unity and progress.
We will remain committed to the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation and provide active guidance to religions so that they can adapt to socialist society. We will strengthen communication with intellectuals who are not Party members on theoretical and political issues and improve our work concerning people from emerging social groups in an effort to provide better political guidance for pursuing common goals.
We will cultivate a cordial and clean relationship between government and business across the board and facilitate the healthy development of the non-public sector and those working in it.
We will improve and strengthen our work related to Chinese nationals overseas to give shape to a powerful joint force for advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
VII. Exercising Law-Based Governance on All Fronts and Advancing the Rule of Law in China
The comprehensive advancement of law-based governance has been a profound revolution in China’s governance. Law-based governance is important for the Party’s success in governing and rejuvenating the country, for the wellbeing of the people, and for the long-term stability of the Party and the country. We must give better play to the role of the rule of law in consolidating foundations, ensuring stable expectations, and delivering long-term benefits, and we must strive to build a modern socialist country in all respects under the rule of law.
We must follow a path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, develop a Chinese system of socialist rule of law, and establish China as a socialist country under the rule of law. We must, with a focus on protecting and promoting social fairness and justice, pursue coordinated progress in law-based governance, law-based exercise of state power, and law-based government administration and take integrated steps to build a country, government, and society based on the rule of law. We will make all-around efforts to ensure sound legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial administration of justice, and society-wide observance of the law and see that all work of the state is carried out under the rule of law.
1. Improving the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics with the Constitution at its core
Law-based governance and law-based exercise of state power begin with compliance with the Constitution. We must remain firmly committed to leadership of the Party, to the state system of people’s democratic dictatorship, and to the political system of people’s congresses, all of which are mandated by the Constitution. We will better implement the Constitution and conduct constitutional oversight, and we will improve the systems for ensuring full compliance with the Constitution, so as to give better play to the Constitution’s important role in China’s governance and uphold its authority.
We will step up legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields and advance the rule of law in domestic and foreign-related affairs in a coordinated manner, so that good laws are made to promote development and ensure good governance. We will make further headway in making laws in a well-conceived and democratic way and in accordance with the law; we will take coordinated steps to enact, revise, abolish, interpret, and codify laws; and we will see that legislative work is more systematic, holistic, coordinated, and responsive. Improvements will be made to the record and review system for normative documents. We must ensure sound, democratic, and law-based decision-making and fully implement the procedural system for making major decisions.
2. Steadily advancing law-based government administration
Building a law-based government is a key task and major part of comprehensively advancing law-based governance. We will transform government functions, improve the government responsibility system and organizational structure, and establish legal footing for government institutions, functions, powers, procedures, and responsibilities, so as to enhance the efficiency and credibility of government administration. We will deepen reform of public institutions.
With regard to administrative law enforcement, we will advance structural reform to ensure that it is strict, procedure-based, impartial, and civil across the board, and we will intensify it in key areas involving the people’s immediate interests. We will refine law enforcement procedures and the standards for administrative discretion, enhance oversight mechanisms and oversight capacity, and strictly implement responsibility and accountability systems. We will also improve the systems and mechanisms for coordinated law enforcement at the community level.
3. Ensuring strict and impartial administration of justice
An impartial judiciary is the last line of defense for social fairness and justice. We will deepen comprehensive and integrated reform of the judicial system, fully and faithfully enforce judicial accountability, and accelerate the development of a fair, efficient, and authoritative socialist judicial system. We will see that the people feel justice has been served in each and every judicial case.
We will ensure the well-regulated exercise of judicial power and improve the systems and mechanisms that enable public security organs, procuratorates, courts, and administrative agencies for justice to perform their respective functions and to coordinate with and check one another. Checks and oversight on judicial activities will be enhanced to ensure judicial justice. Procuratorial organs will step up legal oversight, and the system of public-interest litigation will be improved.
4. Stepping up efforts to establish the rule of law throughout society
A society based on the rule of law is the foundation on which we can build a country under the rule of law. We will promote socialist rule of law and carry forward fine traditional Chinese legal culture, and we will encourage all our people to truly revere, readily observe, and firmly defend socialist rule of law. We will develop a modern public legal service system that covers both urban and rural populations and carry out intensive activities to raise public awareness of the rule of law. We will advance law-based governance at multiple levels and in multiple areas and enhance the rule of law in social governance. We will see that leading officials play an exemplary role and work hard to make respecting, learning about, observing, and applying the law common practice throughout society.
VIII. Building Cultural Confidence and Strength and Securing New Successes in Developing Socialist Culture
To build a modern socialist country in all respects, we must develop a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and be more confident in our culture. In our efforts to turn China into a country with a strong socialist culture, we will focus on upholding socialism with Chinese characteristics, rallying public support, fostering a new generation of young people, developing Chinese culture, and better presenting China to the world. We will develop a sound, people-oriented socialist culture for our nation that embraces modernization, the world, and the future. We will ignite the cultural creativity of the entire nation and build a powerful source of inspiration for realizing national rejuvenation.
We should uphold the foundational system for ensuring the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain. We will ensure that culture serves the people and serves socialism. We will follow the principle of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and we will encourage creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese culture. Guided by the core socialist values, we will develop advanced socialist culture, promote revolutionary culture, and carry forward fine traditional Chinese culture. In doing so, we will be well-placed to meet people’s ever-growing intellectual and cultural needs, consolidate a common intellectual foundation for the whole Party and all Chinese people to strive in unity, and continuously grow China’s cultural soft power and the appeal of Chinese culture.
1. Developing a socialist ideology that has the power to unite and inspire the people
Ideological work is about forging the character of a country and the soul of a nation. We must ensure that the Party firmly exercises leadership over this work and that the responsibility system for it is fully implemented. We will cement and expand the mainstream thoughts and ideas that inspire hard work in the new era.
We will refine the working systems for arming Party members, educating the people, and guiding our practice with the Party’s new theories. We will make further progress in the project to study and develop Marxist theory. In philosophy and the social sciences, we will work faster to develop Chinese systems for fields of study, academia, and discourse, and we will cultivate a pool of talented philosophers and social scientists.
We will improve the systems for communications across all forms of media and create a new environment of mainstream public opinion. We will improve the system for conducting comprehensive cyberspace management and foster a healthy online environment.
