Residential buildings stand orderly under a blue sky in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, on July 16, 2024. Photo: VCG

In one of his most recent public remarks regarding the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a meeting with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Beijing on July 8 that China will further deepen overall reform and promote high-quality development and high-level opening up, which will provide new opportunities and create new momentum for China-Hungary cooperation. The remarks succinctly highlighted the focus of the critical session and its profound significance for both China and the world. 

The third plenary session, which is commonly referred to as the third plenum, officially kicked off on Monday and will run through Thursday. As many in China and around the world are closely following the meeting for major reform measures for the world's second-largest economy, Xi's recent remarks on reform and opening-up at various major meetings provide a crucial window into the tone of the session, the priority of China's reform agenda and the overall goal of further deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. 

China's institutional advantage with the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee also inspires confidence in the Chinese system and China's development, experts also noted. 

While detailed reform measures won't be unveiled till after the conclusion of the closed-door meeting, experts interviewed by the Global Times said the recent discourse by the top leader indicated that the session will draw a blueprint for reform on all fronts, with a focus on improving China's governance system and capacity, removing the ideological and institutional barriers and resolving deep-seated institutional challenges and structural issues, so as to promote high-quality development and advance Chinese modernization. 

Xi attaches great importance to comprehensively deepening reform, calling reform a "driving force for development," and under Xi's leadership, China will continue to unwaveringly deepen reform and expand opening-up, which will help ensure China's high-quality development, while tackling risks and challenges arising from rapidly shifting global geo-economic situations, according to the experts. 

Vision on deepening reform 

Since a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 30 decided to hold the third plenum in July, Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has made important remarks regarding reform at various occasions, setting the tone for the ongoing session. 

The Political Bureau meeting, chaired by Xi, further elevated the position of reform for the CPC and set the focus of reform. The whole Party must put reform in a prominent position and deepen reform in all respects with a focus on promoting Chinese modernization, the meeting said. More specifically, the meeting said that further comprehensive reform should be led by reform of the economic system, with advancing social equality and justice and improving people's well-being as both the starting point and the ultimate goal, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC leadership has set a very clear path for reform that aims to both ensure sustained development and improve governance capabilities, according to Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration. 

"The goal is to achieve high-quality development and realize national rejuvenation through advancing Chinese modernization," Cong told the Global Times, noting that under such a grand goal, the third plenum will focus on institutional and systemic reforms that address various challenges to pave the way to achieving the goal. 

While chairing a symposium in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province, on May 23, Xi said that China should take resolute steps to remove the ideological and institutional barriers hindering the advancement of Chinese modernization, and double down on its efforts to resolve deep-seated institutional challenges and structural issues. 

Economic system reform should start from meeting realistic needs and tackling the most urgent matters, and should advance theoretical and institutional innovation in the process of solving practical problems, he added, according to Xinhua.

Xu Baoli, a research fellow at the research center of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said China's reform focuses on addressing its own challenges to promote economic development, while expanding opening-up to the outside world.

"The key to reform is solving problems, and China has been focused on continuously solving its own problems," Xu said, pointing to China's efforts to build an advanced industrial system and boost innovation so as to achieve self-reliance. Meanwhile, to succeed, China must also mobilize all sectors, including private enterprises and foreign businesses. 

China has also been stepping up efforts to bolster its scientific and technological innovation capabilities and support private and foreign businesses, key themes that are expected to be highlighted by the ongoing third plenum, analysts said.  

While presiding over the fifth meeting of the Central Commission for Deepening Overall Reform (CCDOR) on June 11, Xi stressed the importance of driving innovation with further opening-up, perfecting the system and mechanism for opening-up in the science and technology sector, and improving the globally-oriented innovation system to actively integrate into the global innovation network. The CCDOR meeting reviewed and adopted several documents, including Guidelines on Improving the Modern Corporate System with Chinese Characteristics, which aims to foster more world-class enterprises.

Deepening reform, opening-up instills confidence  

Since taking the top office more than a decade ago, Xi has attached great importance to comprehensively deepening reform, which has not only underpinned China's high-quality development over the past decade or so despite global challenges, but also signaled continuous efforts to further deepen reform and expand opening-up in the future that will ensure China's continuous high-quality growth. 

During the two sessions in March, Xi sounded the clarion call for reform during the country's annual key political season, dispelling concerns about whether China's reform is "stagnating," or its economy is "losing steam."

Over the past decade, more than 2,000 reform measures have been rolled out, which helped, among a slew of social and economic achievements, China to more than double its economy since 2012, cementing China's global status as a major growth driver, according to Xinhua.    

Xi has said that "reform and opening-up is always an ongoing task and will never end." And the Political Bureau meeting on April 30 also said that China's reform must continue in the face of complex international and domestic situations, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial changes, and the new anticipation of the people.

As China is at a critical juncture marked by both domestic and global risks and challenges, including an ongoing economic transition and rising global tension and competition, China will further accelerate reform to address those challenges, experts said. 

"The purpose of reform is to resolve problems, and amid many lingering challenges, China's reform will always be ongoing," Cong said, noting that there will always be new problems and new challenges in the process of development, and reform is the way to tackle these challenges and problems. 

Continuously deepening reform requires confidence in the Chinese system. An article by Xi published by the Qiushi Journal on Tuesday said that there will be no courage to further reform without unwavering confidence in the system.

"Deepening reform needs institutional confidence," Xu said, noting maintaining self-confidence and self-reliance and further deepening reform at its own pace will spur innovation and bolster self-strength.