7. Persevere in the Party's absolute leadership over the army and take the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese characteristics. The people's army is a staunch pillar of the people's democratic dictatorship. It should meet the general requirements of being qualified politically and competent militarily and having a fine style of work, strict discipline and adequate logistic support, with a view to enabling itself to win battles and never degenerate, paying attention to strengthening itself through science and technology and building itself into a more revolutionary, modernized and regularized army. We must ensure that the army is forever loyal to the Party, socialism, the motherland and the people.
8. Continue to unite with all forces that can be united with and increase the cohesion of the Chinese nation. We should hold high the banners of patriotism and socialism, strengthen the great solidarity of the people of all ethnic groups, and consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front. We need to strengthen our solidarity with the democratic parties and personages without party affiliation. We should handle well the work relating to ethnic minorities, religions and overseas Chinese. We should adhere to the principle of "one country, two systems" and bring into full play every positive factor in a common endeavor to accomplish the grand cause of national reunification and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
9. Pursue the independent foreign policy of peace, safeguard world peace and promote common development. We will, as always, attach paramount importance to our state sovereignty and security. We will develop friendly relations and cooperation with all other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. We will oppose hegemonism and power politics and promote the establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic order. In handling international affairs, we should observe and cope with the situation cool-headedly, adhere to the principle of mutual respect and seek common ground while shelving differences. We need to respect the diversity of the world, promote democracy in international relations and strive for a peaceful international environment and a good climate in areas around China.
10. Strengthen and improve the Party's leadership and propel the new great project of Party building. To run the state well, we must run the Party well first. To do this, we must be strict with the Party members. We must maintain the Party's nature and purposes, strengthen and improve Party building in the spirit of reform, enhance the Party's art of leadership and governance, increase its capability of fighting corruption and guarding against degeneration and risks and make unremitting efforts to combat corruption. The Party must keep its flesh-and-blood ties with the people as well as its progressiveness, purity, solidarity and unity.
The above-mentioned ten principles constitute the basic experience the Party must follow as it leads the people in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. This experience and the historical experience gained by the Party since its founding can be summarized as follows: Our Party must always represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. They are the inexorable requirements for maintaining and developing socialism and the logical conclusion our Party has reached through hard exploration and great practice.
II. Implement the Important Thought of Three Represents in an All-Round Way
To open up new prospects for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and implement the important thought of Three Represents. As a continuation and development of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory, this important thought reflects new requirements for the work of the Party and state arising from the changes in China and other parts of the world today. It is a powerful theoretical weapon for strengthening and improving Party building and promoting self-improvement and development of socialism in China. It is the crystallization of the Party's collective wisdom and a guiding ideology the Party must follow for a long time to come. Persistent implementation of the "Three Represents" is the foundation for building our Party, the cornerstone for its governance and the source of its strength.
The important thought of Three Represents has been put forward on the basis of a scientific judgment of the Party's historical position. Having gone through the revolution, reconstruction and reform, our Party has evolved from a party that led the people in fighting for state power to a party that has led the people in exercising the power and has long remained in power. It has developed from a party that led national reconstruction under external blockade and a planned economy to a party that is leading national development while the country is opening to the outside world and developing a socialist market economy. Keeping in mind the past, present and future of China and other parts of the world, we must accurately comprehend the characteristics of the times and the Party's tasks, scientifically formulate and correctly implement the Party's line, principles and policies, and study and settle questions concerning the promotion of China's social progress and the improvement of Party building. We should neither approach questions out of their historical context nor lose our bearings, and we should neither fall behind the times nor skip the stages, so as to ensure that our cause will advance from victory to victory.
The implementation of the important thought of Three Represents is, in essence, to keep pace with the times, maintain the Party's progressiveness and exercise the state power in the interest of the people. All Party members must be keenly aware of this basic requirement and become more conscious and determined in implementing this important thought.
1. To carry out the important thought of Three Represents, the whole Party must maintain the spirit of keeping pace with the times and blaze new trails for the development of the Marxist theory. Upholding the Party's ideological line, emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts and keeping pace with the times are decisive factors for our Party to retain its progressiveness and enhance its creativity. Keeping pace with the times means that all the theory and work of the Party must conform to the times, follow the law of development and display great creativity. Whether we can persist in doing this bears on the future and destiny of the Party and state.
Innovation sustains the progress of a nation. It is an inexhaustible motive force for the prosperity of a country and the source of the eternal vitality of a political party. The world is changing, China's reform, opening up and modernization drive are advancing and our people's great practice is progressing. All this urgently requires our Party to sum up new experience from practice, draw on the achievements of modern human civilization, broaden its fields of vision in theory and come up with new theses with the courage of the theory of Marxism. Only thus can our Party's ideology and theory guide the whole Party and the entire people forward and inspire them to push ahead the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Theoretical innovation based on practice precedes social development and changes. Bringing forth new ideas in institutions, science and technology, culture and other fields through theoretical innovation, exploring the way forward in practice, never becoming conceited and never slackening our effort - these are the ways of running the Party and state, which we should follow for a long time to come.
Innovation requires emancipating our minds, seeking truth from facts and keeping pace with the times. There is no limit to practice nor to innovation. We will surpass our predecessors, and future generations will certainly surpass us. This is an inexorable law governing social advancement. We must adapt ourselves to the progress of practice and test all things in practice. We must conscientiously free our minds from the shackles of the outdated notions, practices and systems, from the erroneous and dogmatic interpretations of Marxism and from the fetters of subjectivism and metaphysics. While upholding the basic tenets of Marxism, we must add new chapters of theory to it. While carrying forward the revolutionary tradition, we must acquire new experience. We should be good at seeking unity in thinking through the emancipation of our minds and guiding our new practice with the developing Marxism.
2. To carry out the important thought of Three Represents, it is essential for the Party to give top priority to development in governing and rejuvenating the country and open up new prospects for the modernization drive. A Marxist ruling party must attach great importance to the liberation and development of the productive forces. Without development, it would be impossible to maintain the progressiveness of the Party, give play to the superiority of the socialist system and make the people rich and the country strong. The progressiveness of the Party is concrete and historical, and it must be judged by whether the Party promotes the development of the advanced productive forces and culture in present-day China and works to safeguard and realize the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. In the final analysis, it must be judged by the Party's role in propelling history forward.
In China, a large developing country with a backward economy and culture, where our Party is leading the people in the modernization drive, a good solution to the problem of development has a direct bearing on the trend of popular sentiment and the success of our cause. Shouldering the historical responsibility to propel the Chinese society, the Party must always keep a firm grip on development —— the top priority for its governance and rejuvenation of the country. It must maintain its progressiveness and give play to the superiority of the socialist system by developing the advanced productive forces and culture and realizing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, speeding up all-round social progress and promoting the all-round development of people. So long as the Party firmly grasps this point, it will have thoroughly understood the aspirations of the people and the essence of the socialist modernization drive, and thus it will be able to keep implementing the important thought of Three Represents and consolidating its position as the ruling party and meet the requirement of making the country strong and the people rich.
Development requires that we always concentrate on economic growth, base ourselves on China's realities, conform to the trend of the times and continue to explore new ways to promote the progress of the advanced productive forces and culture. Development requires that we uphold and deepen the reform. It requires that we do away with all notions which hinder development, change all practices and regulations which impede it and get rid of all the drawbacks of the systems which adversely affect it. Development requires that we trust and rely on the people who are the motive force for pushing forward the advance of history. We will pool the wisdom and strength of the people of the whole country and concentrate on construction and development.
3. To carry out the important thought of Three Represents, it is essential to bring all positive factors into full play and bring new forces to the great cause of rejuvenating the Chinese nation. The interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and the initiative and creativity of the whole society and the entire nation are always the most decisive factors for advancing the cause of the Party and state. In the process of profound social changes in our country and the rapid development of the cause of the Party and state, it is vitally important to properly balance the interests of all quarters and fully mobilize and rally all positive factors.
With the deepening of reform and opening up and economic and cultural development, the working class in China has expanded steadily and its quality improved. The working class, with the intellectuals as part of it, and the farmers are always the basic forces for promoting the development of the advanced productive forces and all-round social progress in our country. Emerging in the process of social changes, entrepreneurs and technical personnel employed by non-public scientific and technological enterprises, managerial and technical staff employed by overseas-funded enterprises, the self-employed, private entrepreneurs, employees in intermediaries, free-lance professionals and members of other social strata are all builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should unite with the people of all social strata who help to make the motherland prosperous and strong, encouraging their pioneering spirit, protecting their legitimate rights and interests and commending the outstanding ones in an effort to create a situation in which all people are well positioned, do their best and live in harmony.
We must respect work, knowledge, competent people and creation. This should be an important policy of the Party and state to be conscientiously implemented in society at large. We need to respect and protect all work that is good for the people and society. All work that contributes to the socialist modernization drive in China, physical or mental and simple or complicated, is glorious and should be acknowledged and respected. All investors at home or from overseas should be encouraged to carry out business activities in China's development. All legitimate income, from work or not, should be protected. It is improper to judge whether people are politically progressive or backward simply by whether they own property or how much property they own. But rather, we should judge them mainly by their political awareness, state of mind and performance, by how they have acquired and used their property, and by how they have contributed to the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics through their work. It is necessary to foster notions and form a business mechanism inconformity with the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism and create a social environment in which people are encouraged to achieve something and helped to make a success of their career, so as to unleash all the vitality contained in work, knowledge, technology, management and capital and give full play to all sources of social wealth for the benefit of the people.
In building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the fundamental interests of the people of the whole country are identical, on the basis of which concrete interest relations and internal contradictions can be adjusted. In the formulation and implementation of the Party's principles and policies, a basic point of departure is that we should represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and correctly reflect and take into account the interests of different groups of people, enabling the whole people to advance steadily toward the goal of common prosperity. We should protect the vitality for further growth of the developed regions, strong industries and people who have become rich first through hard work and lawful business operations and encouraging them to create social wealth. More importantly, we must pay great attention to less developed areas and the industries and people in straitened circumstances and show concern for them. In particular, we must see to it that the people in financial difficulties have subsistence allowances, and we must take effective measures to help them find jobs and improve their living conditions so that they will truly feel the warmth of our socialist society.
4. To carry out the important thought of Three Represents, it is essential to push forward Party building in a spirit of reform and instill new vitality in the Party. Attaching vital importance to and strengthening Party building is a magic weapon with which our Party has grown from a small and weak force to a large and strong one, risen in spite of setbacks and matured gradually in surmounting difficulties. As the historical experience of the Party over the past 80 years and more shows, the most important point is that we must build up the Party according to its political line, central task and general goal for building it with a view to enhancing its creativity, cohesion and fighting capacity.
Persisting in self-examination in compliance with the requirements of the times and pursuing self-improvement in a spirit of reform are the fundamental guarantee that our Party will always remain a Marxist party, will never be divorced from the people and will be full of vitality. We must be good at both reviewing our useful experience and learning lessons from our mistakes. We must be good at both leading the people ahead by putting forward and implementing the correct theory and line and acquiring the motivation for progress from the people's creations in practice and their desire for development. We must be good at both understanding and changing the objective world and organizing and guiding cadres and other Party members to strengthen their efforts to change their subjective world in practice. Bearing these requirements in mind, we must integrate adherence to the basic tenets of Marxism with efforts for theoretical innovation, maintenance of the fine tradition of the Party with promotion of the spirit of the times, and consolidation of the Party's class base with expansion of its mass base so that the Party serves as a strong core of leadership that is consolidated ideologically, politically and organizationally and always stands in the forefront of the times leading the people forward in solidarity.
All in all, the important thought of Three Represents is always in a process of development and progress. The whole Party must continue to emancipate the mind, come up with new ideas in respect of theory and create something new in practice. It must carry out the important thought of Three Represents in all endeavors of the socialist modernization drive and in all aspects of Party building so that it always advances with the times and shares weal and woe with the people.
III. Objectives of Building a Well-off Society in an All-Round Way
Thanks to the joint efforts of the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups, we have attained the objectives of the first two steps of the three-step strategy for China's modernization drive, and by and large, the people have become well-off. This is a great victory for the socialist system and a new milestone in the history of the development of the Chinese nation.
We must be aware that China is in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a long time to come. The well-off life we are leading is still at a low level; it is not all-inclusive and is very uneven. The principal contradiction in our society is still one between the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of social production. Our productive forces, science, technology and education are still relatively backward, so there is still a long way to go before we achieve industrialization and modernization. The dual structure in urban and rural economy has not yet been changed, the gap between regions is still widening and there are still quite a large number of impoverished people. China's population continues to grow, the proportion of the aged is getting larger, and the pressure on employment and social security is mounting. The contradiction between the ecological environment and natural resources on the one hand and economic and social development on the other is becoming increasingly conspicuous. We still feel pressure from developed countries as they have the upper hand in such fields as the economy, science and technology. The economic structure and managerial systems in other fields remain to be perfected. There are still some problems we cannot afford to overlook in improving democracy and the legal system as well as the ideological and ethical standards. We need to work hard over a long period of time to consolidate and uplift our current well-off standard of living.
An overview of the situation shows that for our country, the first two decades of the 21st century are a period of important strategic opportunities, which we must seize tightly and which offers bright prospects. In accordance with the development objectives up to 2010, the centenary of the Party and that of New China, as proposed at the Fifteenth National Congress, we need to concentrate on building a well-off society of a higher standard in an all-round way to the benefit of well over one billion people in this period. We will further develop the economy, improve democracy, advance science and education, enrich culture, foster social harmony and upgrade the texture of life for the people. The two decades of development will serve as an inevitable connecting link for attainting the third-step strategic objectives for our modernization drive as well as a key stage for improving the socialist market economy and opening wider to the outside world. Building on what is achieved at this stage and continuing to work for several more decades, we will have in the main accomplished the modernization program and turned China into a strong, prosperous, democratic and culturally advanced socialist country by the middle of this century.
The objectives of building a well-off society in an all-round way are as follows:
—— On the basis of optimized structure and better economic returns, efforts will be made to quadruple the GDP of the year 2000 by 2020, and China's overall national strength and international competitiveness will increase markedly. We will in the main achieve industrialization and establish a full-fledged socialist market economy and a more open and viable economic system. The proportion of urban population will go up considerably and the trend of widening differences between industry and agriculture, between urban and rural areas and between regions will be reversed step by step. We will have a fairly sound social security system. There will be a higher rate of employment. People will have more family property and lead a more prosperous life.
—— Socialist democracy and the legal system will be further improved. The basic principle of ruling the country by law will be implemented completely. The political, economic and cultural rights and interests of the people will be respected and guaranteed in real earnest. Democracy at the grassroots level will be better practiced. People will enjoy a sound public order and live and work in peace and contentment.
—— The ideological and ethical standards, the scientific and cultural qualities, and the health of the whole people will be enhanced notably. A sound modern national educational system, scientific, technological and cultural innovation systems as well as nationwide fitness and medical and health systems will take shape. People will have access to better education. We will make senior secondary education basically universal in the country and eliminate illiteracy. A learning society in which all the people will learn or even pursue life-long education will emerge to boost their all-round development.
—— The capability of sustainable development will be steadily enhanced. The ecological environment will be improved. The efficiency of using resources will be increased significantly. We will enhance harmony between man and nature to push the whole society onto a path to civilized development featuring the growth of production, an affluent life and a sound ecosystem.
The objectives set at this congress for building a well-off society in an all-round way are objectives of comprehensive economic, political and cultural development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, objectives well geared to the efforts to speed up modernization. They tally with the national conditions, the realities of the modernization drive and the people's aspirations. They are of great significance. In order to attain the Party's objectives for the new stage in the new century, it is imperative to come up with new ideas for development, make new breakthroughs in reform, break new ground in opening up and take new moves in all fields of endeavor. All localities and departments must proceed from their actual conditions and take effective measures to attain the objectives. Places where conditions permit may develop faster and take the lead in accomplishing modernization by and large on the basis of building a well-off society in an all-round way. We are sure that after attaining the objectives of building a well-off society in an all-round way, our motherland will become stronger and more prosperous, the people will live a better and happier life, and socialism with Chinese characteristics will further demonstrate its great superiority.