Distinguished guests, Good morning! Hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and undertaken by CASS Academy of Marxism and CASS Academic Division of Marxism, the international academic symposium of “CASS Forum: the 2nd International Marxism Sub-Forum” is held ceremoniously today. On behalf of CASS president Wang Weiguang and CASS, I would like to express my warm welcome to famous experts and friends from around the world. My sincere thanks also go to your vigorous supports to CASS Forum. The theme of this forum, that is, “Socialism and Contemporary World”, is set for the occasion the 3rd plenary session of the 18th CPC National Congress and the official publication of Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensive Deepening of the Reforms last night. I would like to share with you some of my opinions on the profound role of this 3rd plenary session in promoting the reforms and opening up in China in the future. At the plenary session, the overall framework, strategic focuses, sequence of priorities, main directions, working mechanism, ways of acceleration, timetable, roadmap of the reform and opening up in China in the next decade were made, presenting the outline of top design of reforms in the next decade and fully demonstrating the basic program of the new CPC Central Committee led by the Party Secretary-General Xi Jinping, for governing the country, the Party and the army. It is mainly reflected in the following 13 aspects: First of all, it seizes the relationship between economic reform and overall reform and gives priority to economic restructuring in order to deepen overall reform comprehensively. It has been more than 30 years since China launched the reform and opening-up policy, and the economic society in China has become an organism more complicated than ever. Current economic reforms cannot succeed relying simply on the economy, so economic restructuring must be carried out to deepen reforms comprehensively. The key to do that is to speed up modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity and further build a development environment for fair competitions, enhance economic vitality and social development, promote social harmony and stability and improve the Party’s leadership and governance capability. Second, it seizes the relationship between the government and the market, and set the general requirements for letting the market play a decisive role in resource allocation and giving better play to the role of the government. As China is becoming more market-based, with continuously deepened understanding of and improved utilization of the market rules, the macro-control system has become better and both the subjective and objective conditions enable us to make new theoretical generalization of the role of the market economy, and take practical steps forward. To further handle the relationship between the government and the market is actually to answer the question: Which shall play the decisive role in the allocation of resources, the market or the government? Resource allocation through the market is the most efficient way of all. It is a general rule of the market economy that market determines resource allocation. The market economy in itself is a kind of economy where the market decides resource allocation. To improve the socialist market economy, we must obey such rule. In the meantime, to develop the socialist market economy, we have to give play to the role of the market, as well as that of the government. However, they have different functions. China applies the socialist market economic system, and it has to continue to display the superiority of the socialist system and give play to the active role of the Party and the government. Market plays a decisive but not comprehensive role in resource allocation. Third, it seizes the relationship between the public sector of the economy and the nonpublic sector of the economy, and raises new requirements on top of sticking to and improving the basic economic system. It is a must to stay “unwavering” in the following two aspects. It is a must to consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy, stick to its dominant position, give full play to the leading role of the state-owned economy and constantly enhance the vitality, controlling power and influence of the state-owned economy unwaveringly. It proposes to actively develop the mixed ownership economy, highlights that the mixed ownership economy where state-owned capital, collective capital and nonpublic capital have stakes in each other and are integrated is an important way of realizing the basic economic system. It helps amplify capital functions, maintain and appreciate the values of capital and promote competitiveness. At the same time, it has new requirements for reforming state-owned enterprises. When developing the nonpublic sector of the economy unwaveringly, it suggests that reform measures encourage, support and guide the development, as well as stimulate the vitality and creativity of the nonpublic sector of the economy. In terms of functional orientation, it makes clear that both the public sector of the economy and the nonpublic sector of the economy are important components of the socialist market economy and important bases for the economic and social development of China as well; in terms of protecting property rights, it makes clear that the property rights to the public sector of the economy are infrangible, so are those to the nonpublic sector of the economy; in terms of policies and treatment, it stresses equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules, as well as a unified market entrance system; encourages enterprises in the nonpublic sector of the economy to participate in the reform of the state-owned enterprises, encourages mixed ownership enterprises held by nonpublic capital and encourages qualified privately-owned enterprises to build a modern enterprise system. These will all promote the healthy development of the nonpublic sector of the economy. Fourth, it stresses to rationally divide the authorities between the central government and local governments and proposes important measures to deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system. The current fiscal and taxation system took shape and was improved gradually on top of the reform for sharing income tax in 1994, and it played an important role in the augmentation of government finances and rapid economic development. With the development and changes in the situation, it has become unable to completely meet the objective requirement for rationally dividing authorities between the central government and local governments and promoting national governance, get fully adapted to the real need of transforming the mode of economic development and promoting sustained and healthy development of the economy and the society. In this deepened reform in an all-round manner, to reform the fiscal and taxation system is one of the priorities, the key to which is to rationalize the division of responsibilities between the central government and the local governments. It implements a fully regulated, open and transparent budget system, appropriately strengthens the authority and responsibility for expenditures of the central government, and makes national defense, diplomacy, state security and rules and management of a unified national market as matters to be responsible for by the central government; rationalizes the relationship between central and local responsibilities in the construction and maintenance of some social security and major cross-regional projects that are the common responsibilities of the central and local governments; the central government may entrust the local governments to undertake some responsibilities by arranging transfer payments; and the central government may also undertake some local responsibilities by transferring payments in some cross-regional public services or public services that have great influences on other regions. Efforts have to be made to build a fiscal and taxation system where the financial power matches the responsibilities taken so as to better give play to the activeness of the central and local governments. The current central-local fiscal pattern has to be maintained stable as a whole and division of income between the central and local governments shall be further rationalized. Fifth, it seizes urban-rural relationship and proposes to build a mechanism for integrated urban-rural development. The general idea would be: to build a new-type industry-agriculture and rural-urban relationship where industry promotes the development of agriculture, urban areas lead the development of rural areas, workers and farmers benefit each other and the urban and rural areas are one to enable the vast farmers to participate in the modernization process and share the fruits of modernization. To do that, China has to: firstly, build a new-type agricultural management system; secondly, give the farmers more property rights; thirdly, push forward equal swap of urban and rural elements and promote balanced distribution of public resources, such as to protect equal remuneration for migrant workers doing the same job, to ensure the farmers to equally share benefits from land appreciation, to improve the agricultural insurance system, to encourage the investment of social capital in rural construction, to allow enterprises and social organizations to start undertakings of all sorts in the rural area, to make overall planning for balanced distribution of the compulsory education resources in the rural and urban areas, to integrate the basic old-age pension system and basic medical insurance system for rural and urban residents, to advance the overall development of the subsistence security system for rural and urban citizens, to steadily provide basic public services for the permanent population in towns and cities, and to involve the farmers who settle in the city into the urban housing and social security system. Sixth, it seizes the relationship between the domestic market and the international market, and proposes to build a new and open economic system. Efforts have to be made to promote orderly and free flow of domestic and international elements, efficient resource allocation and in-depth market integration, and to cultivate new advantages for participating in and leading international economic cooperation and competitions so as to promote reforms with opening up. Investment access has to be loosened and the construction of free trade zones has to be accelerated. More inland and frontier areas have to be opened. The chance of re-layout of industries around the globe has to be seized to push forward inland trade, investment and coordinated development of technical innovations. The patterns of processing trade have to be innovated to form a mechanism that is conducive to the cluster development of inland industries. Supports have to be given to opening international passenger and freight routes in inland cities, developing multimode transport, and building a foreign economic corridor that runs through eastern, central and western China and connects southern China with northern China. Development-oriented financial institutions have to be built to speed up the construction of infrastructure that connects surrounding countries and regions, push forward the construction of the economic belt along the Silk Road and the Silk Road on sea and build an overall new pattern for opening up. Seventh, it seizes the relationship between the Party’s leadership and deliberative democracy and pushes forward extensive, multilayered and institutional development of deliberative democracy. It decides to make it an important content of the reform of the political system to push forward extensive, multilayered and institutional development of deliberative democracy, highlights major issues in social and economic development and practical issues involving the vital interests of the masses, launches extensive consultations in the society and insists on consultations before making a decision or in the decision-making process. A deliberative democracy system that has rational procedures and complete links has to be built to expand the channels of consultations for state organs, political consultation organizations, parties, schools and societies, grassroots organizations and social organizations; carry out in-depth legislative consultation, administrative consultation, democratic consultation, negotiation politics and society consultation; improve the CPPCC institutional system, regulate the contents and procedures of consultation, expand the forms of deliberative democracy, organize thematic consultations, counterpart consultations, constituency consultations and proposals consultation, intensify consultations, and improve the efficiency of consultations. Eighth, it seizes the relationship between the rule of law and social justice, and proposes to push forward the construction of China ruled by law. To build the rule of law in China, it is a must to adhere to governing the country by law, exercising sate power according to the law and administering the country by law, and to stick to the construction of a country governed by law, a government governed by law and a society governed by law. Reform of the judicial system has to be deepened to speed up building a fair, highly-efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system, protect public rights and interests and enable the masses to feel justice and fairness in each and all judicial cases. Judicial reform is one of the priorities in this comprehensively deepened reform. Major measures to be taken include: to maintain the authority of the Constitution and establish a universal legal advisers system, to deepen the reform of the administrative law enforcement system, to ensure lawful, independent and fair exercise of the adjudicative and procuratorial powers; to improve the mechanism for exercising the judicial power and the judicial system for protecting human rights, to abolish the labor education system, to promote punishments against illegal and criminal behaviors and correct the law, and to improve the neighborhood correction system. Ninth, it seizes the relationship between the anti-corruption institutional mechanism and power restriction and supervision system, proposes to strengthen the system for power operation restriction and supervision and makes priority deployments for strengthening innovation and institutional protection of the anti-corruption system. It proposes to improve and intensify the restriction and supervision of power exercise by major leading cadres, and strengthen administrative supervision and audit supervision. Measures have to be taken to strengthen unified Party leadership over the construction of an honest government and the work against corruption, make clear that the Party committee takes the main responsibility and the commission for discipline inspection takes the supervisory responsibility, and develop before carrying out the accountability system; an anti-corruption leadership system and working mechanism has to be established to reform and improve the functions of the anti-corruption coordination teams at different levels, and provide that superior commission for discipline inspection shall be the mainstay when handling anti-corruption cases; highlight the leadership of the higher-level commission for discipline inspection over lower-level commission for discipline inspection, and provide that the handling of clues and cases must be reported to the Party commission of the same level and higher-level commission for discipline inspection. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection sends disciplinary bodies to the central Party and state organs, and improves the system of central, provincial, regional and municipal inspection tours in all local governments, departments, enterprises and public utilities. Tenth, it seizes the relationship between economic power and powerful cultural country and makes major deployments over mechanism innovation of the cultural system. It proposes to establish a sound modern culture market system and improve the cultural market entrance and exit mechanism, encourages market entities of different types to compete fairly, enables the efficient market entities to prosper and eliminates the inefficient market entities, promotes the nationwide flow of cultural resources, continues to encourage state-owned operating cultural units to transform into enterprises and restructure, and speeds up corporate restructuring and joint-stock reforms. Efforts have to be made to explore special management unit system in important state-owned media enterprises that undergo structural reforms as provided; to encourage cultural enterprises to carry out cross-region, cross-industry and cross-ownership mergers and reorganizations; and to make the cultural industry larger, more intensive and professional. Development of the cultural enterprises in the nonpublic sector has to be encouraged; threshold for social capital has to be lowered; foreign publications and online publications are allowed; the form of shareholding may be adopted to participate in the restructuring and operation of state-owned film and television production agencies and art troupes; and supports will be given to small and micro cultural enterprises of all forms. Culture will be made more open. It proposes to adhere to government leadership, the mainstay of enterprises, market-based operation and social involvements, expand foreign cultural exchanges, strengthen the construction of international communication capacity and external discourse system, and push the Chinese culture to the world. It also proposes to actively absorb and borrow all excellent cultural results from abroad, introduce talents, technologies and operational and management experience that are conducive to the development of the Chinese culture, and effectively protect the safety of national culture. Eleventh, it seizes the relationship between satisfying people’s demands for education, employment and medical care and hygiene and solving the problems of unbalanced income distribution and social securities, and proposes new measures for pushing forward social reforms. It allows employees in mixed ownership economy to hold shares and form a community of interests for capital owners and the laborers. It adheres to the basic national policy of family planning; starts to launch the policy of allowing couples, one of which is the only child in his/her family, to give birth to two babies; gradually adjusts and improves the childbirth policy and promotes lasting and balanced development of population. Twelfth, it seizes the relationship between the government and the society, and proposes to establish an innovative social governance system. Measures include: to improve the ways of social governance, to stimulate the vigor and vitality of social organizations, to build new systems to effectively prevent and solve social conflicts, to speed up improving the Internet management and leadership system, to follow the principle of active utilization, scientific development, management in accordance with the law and security guarantee, to intensify the management of the Internet in accordance with the law and to perfect the Internet management and leadership system. Thirteenth, it seizes the relationship between social and economic development and the protection of resources and the ecology, and proposes to speed up the construction of an eco-civilization system. To construct eco-civilization, it is a must to establish a complete eco-civilization system, implement the strictest source protection system, damage compensation system and accountability system, implement the environment improvement and ecology restoration system, and protect the eco-environment with systems. Also two important decisions were made at the plenary session: one is to set up National Security Council, which is mainly responsible for developing and carrying out national security strategies, pushing forward the construction of national security, drafting the guiding principles and policy on national security work and studying and solving major issues in the work of national security. The other is to set up the CPC Central Leadership Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, which is responsible for the overall design of reform, unified planning and coordination, overall advancement and supervision of implementation. To deepen the reforms comprehensively is a complicated systematic project. Relying on one or several departments is not enough, so it calls for a higher-level leadership mechanism. It is for better giving play to the core role of the Party in taking into consideration the overall situation and coordinating powers in all aspects and for ensuring smooth reforms and implementing different reform tasks. It is mainly responsible for making overall deployments on major national reforms, coordinating and advancing the reforms in all fields, coordinating powers in all aspects to form one great force for reforms, strengthening supervision and inspection and pushing forward the overall implementation of the reform goals and tasks. Lastly, may this forum a complete success!