The third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee adopted a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to continue improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize China’s system and capacity for governance. 

It is envisaged that by 2035, the country will have finished building a high-standard socialist market economy in all respects, further improved the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, generally modernized its system and capacity for governance, and basically realized socialist modernization. All of this will lay a solid foundation for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of this century.

This was the first time China’s ruling party set a clear goal of building a high-standard socialist market economy in all respects by 2035, which will provide an important guarantee for Chinese modernization, as the third plenary session communique declared. In other words, the Central Committee has decided that improving and developing the socialist market economy is both a goal and a means: Improving and developing the existing socialist market economy per se is a goal, and building a high-standard socialist market economy is a means to achieve Chinese modernization.

The Central Committee members set three conditions for the achievement of the proposed high-standard socialist market economy:

First, a fairer and more dynamic market environment is created by allowing market forces to play a bigger role to make resource allocation as efficient and productive as possible, to better maintain order in the market and remedy market failures, and to ensure smooth flows in the national economy and unleash the internal driving forces and creativity of the Chinese society as a whole.

Second, the State will unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector and unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the nonpublic sector, ensuring that economic entities under all forms of ownership have equal access to factors of production in accordance with the law, compete in the market on an equal footing, and are protected by the law as equals, thus enabling entities under different forms of ownership to complement each other and develop side by side.

Third, the State will build a unified national market and refine the systems underpinning the market economy.

In the midst of a rapidly accelerating paradigm shift in global governance, the CPC Central Committee requires that the reform tasks laid out in the resolution adopted in the third plenary session shall be completed by the time the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2029. Among them, building a unified national market by 2029 will signify the creation of a new development pattern.

China’s reform and opening-up complement each other from the outset. The Central Committee emphasizes that opening-up is a distinct feature of Chinese modernization. The country must remain committed to the basic national policy of opening to the outside world and continue to promote reform through opening-up. Leveraging its enormous market, the country can enhance its capacity for opening-up during the course of expanding cooperation with other countries, and build a new institutional framework for developing a higher-standard open economy. The country will steadily expand institutional opening-up, deepen the foreign trade structural reform, further reform the management systems for inward and outward investment, improve planning for regional opening-up, and refine the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The communique of the third plenary session emphasized that in the process of deepening reform comprehensively and developing a high-standard socialist market economy, the Party’s overall leadership in every aspect of the reform process must be upheld, a people-centered approach must be taken to ensure the reforms are for the benefits of the people and rely on their support and cooperation, and that socialism with Chinese characteristics must be adhered to.

In the reform process, institutional development should be treated as a key task, with an emphasis on strengthening top-level design and overall planning. The State must also adhere to law-based governance, advance reforms and promote Chinese modernization in accordance with the law, and include reform outcomes in the country’s legal regime.

As I see it, the most important of all of the above-mentioned decisions is the emphasis on upholding the Party’s leadership and taking a people-oriented approach. This might have disappointed those who had hoped for a no-holds-barred process of reform and opening-up.

Hong Kong is starting a new chapter of transitioning from good governance to greater prosperity. The city should make full use of its existing institutional features and advantages under “one country, two systems” in developing its economy and improving people’s livelihoods while accelerating its integration into national development by aligning, in light of its actualities, with the national strategies adopted in the third plenary session.

The author is a senior research fellow of China Everbright Holdings.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.