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The people-centered development philosophy is not an abstract, abstruse concept. We will not restrict ourselves to lip service or idle reflection but put it into practicein all areas of social and economic development.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. This is a historic juncture in China’s development. The report of the 19th Party Congress makes strategic plans on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and requests not only that China should finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus achieving the first centenary goal, but also that we build on this achievement to embark on a new journey towards the second centenary goal of fully building a modern socialist country.

This new era will be an era of building on past successes to further advance our cause, and of continuing in a new historical context to strive for the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will be an era of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and of moving on to all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country. It will be an era for the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work together to create a better life for themselves and achieve common prosperity for everyone. It will be an era for all of us, the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, to strive with one heart to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. It will be an era that sees China moving closer to the center stage and making greater contributions to mankind.

We will stay on the path of peaceful development and continue to pursue a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. China will not only develop, but also highlight its responsibility for and contributions to the world, and we will not only benefit the Chinese people, but also benefit the people of the world. The realization of the Chinese dream will bring peace to the world, instead of turbulence; it will bring opportunities, instead of threats.

The challenge of the road is the primary problem relating to the success or failure of the undertakings of the Party, and it is the life of the Party.

In 1962, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that “it took Western countries more than three hundred years to develop a great capitalist economy.”

We will promote economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, and ecological civilization in all areas, promote coordinated modernization in all respects and processes, and build a beautiful China.

Deepening the reform of medical and health system, greatly focused on by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, is an important part of comprehensively deepening reform and a major livelihood project of hearts and minds to safeguard the health and well-being of the people. After launching a new round of medical and health reform in 2009, and especially since the 18th national congress of the communist Party of China, deepening the medical reform has been put to a more important position in the overall cause of the Party and the state by means of the overall planning, comprehensive promotion, continuous improvement of the top-level design. A relatively perfect institutional framework has been established and the significant progress and mark results in deepening reform made.

The “Outline for Strengthening International Exchanges and Cooperation” has made in-depth expositions on strengthening international exchanges and cooperation and actively participating in global health governance. It has clearly defined the key areas and mechanisms for promoting international exchanges and cooperation in the future and indicated that China will play a more active and constructive role in global health governance, and earnestly fulfill its international commitments and actively assume the responsibility of a big country. This is of great significance to creating a good international environment for building a healthy China, building a community of shared interests, a community of shared responsibilities and a community of shared destiny for human health, and promoting the global achievement of the 2030 health-related sustainable development goals.

Deepening patriotic public health campaigns is a great creation and successful practice by applying the mass line to the preventive sanitation work. It is also an important part of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The “Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan” regulates that patriotic public health campaigns should be deepen, urban and rural environment and sanitary conditions should be comprehensively improved, healthy cities, towns and villages should be built. “Building healthy cities, towns and villages” is an important project for Healthy China. The land supply for public health infrastructure should be secured, and health-related infrastructure, planning and standards should be improved. We will blend health in the urban and rural planning, construction and management process, to improve the coordinated development of the urban development and residents’ health. By 2030, a group of healthy cities, towns and villages will be built for nationwide demonstration.

The next 15 years is the important turning stage for China’s demographic development, the important stage of opportunity for improving family planning policies and promoting the long-term balanced demographic development, and the critical stage of reform for building Healthy China and laying solid foundations for realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. It is of great significance to consider the overall situation and aim far, research on the demographic development, grasp the objective laws, use the international experience, improve strategy and promote the balanced development.

In a report that was presented to the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress in October 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping, on behalf of the 18th CPC Central Committee, stated that socialism with Chinese characteristics had entered a new era. Xi said that the course, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics would “extend the path of developing countries toward modernization, bring new choices to countries and nationalities that hope to accelerate development while retaining their independence, and contribute Chinese wisdom and programs to solving human problems” (from the report presented to the 19th CPC National Congress). That was the first time the CPC had made clear mention of the global impact of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a report to the National Congress. It was a profound acknowledgment of the importance of socialism with Chinese characteristics to all humanity, and it demonstrated the high level of confidence among Chinese communists.

In different development stages, a society will have different development tasks, themes, and priorities. China continues to pursue socialist modernization, maintaining Chinese characteristics in its choice of development paths and the planning of development strategies. During different development stages, China has had different development tasks, and has guided by different development concepts. With the development of practices, the concept of development is constantly evolving, staying current in the changing times. It constantly guides practices with a more scientific concept, and enables China to constantly move forward.

Catching up with and surpassing America has been the “China’s dream” and “Great Power’s dream” proposed by Mao Zedong. In 1956, He for the first time proposed the assumption in the preliminary conference of the 8th National Congress of CPC to catch up and surpass America in fifty (by 2006) or sixty (by 2016) years. This is the “great strategy” of China. Among the numerous powers in present world, the only country which is qualified and capable is China.

The so-called “China’s road” is the road of China’s rise and the road of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is the real right way of the world. The essence of building of the socialism with Chinese characteristics is the exploration of the modernization road of China, and also the transcendence of the modernization mode in western countries. It is a process ceaselessly absorbing the quintessence and removing the dross from the modernization process of western developed countries, summarizing experiences during the modernization process of China, and trying and correcting after suffering all difficulties, risks and dangers, as well as the process seeking for and selecting the superior (inferior).

The transition of the old and the new used to be a critical problem which had not been settled properly by the Chinese Communist Party in quite a long time. The transition experienced a evolution from failure to success; from setback to smooth; from non-institutionalized to institutionalized; from individual successor chosen by individual leader to successor leadership group chosen by leadership group, and thus formed a central leadership group transition mechanism with Chinese characteristics.

How do we grasp the essential characteristics of the Belt and Road Initiative? Here, I use two key terms: First of all, economically speaking, it is a grand-scale revolution of economic geography, a revolution that reshapes economic geography of China and countries along the routes as well as the world as a whole. Second of all, in terms of international relations, it gives birth to an era of Win-winism, which is neither similar to colonialism and imperialism a few centuries ago nor the post-WW2 hegemonism. The Belt and Road initiative is the first-ever non-zero-sum game of mutual-benefit and win-win cooperation.

The ecological civilization construction becomes the largest innovative points and highlights of the report to the 18th National Congress of CPC.

We deem the National Congress of the Communist Party of China as a classic process of Chinese politics, i.e. a process of political democracy, a process of political consensus and a process of political unity. This is a complicated democratic procedure and democratic process from decentralized opinions to centralized opinions and to overall consensus gradually. The political election and change of state leadership lasts for one year and a half in four stages: the preparation period of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; conference of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; learning and implementation of spirits of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; the second Plenary Session of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and NPC & CPPCC.

Domestic visits (in Chinese 视察、考察、调研) are one of the commonest routine work for political leaders both in the democratic and authoritarian regimes. In this article, we argue that for central authorities, in addition to public presidency in democracy, those domestic visits are one of the most important way to regulate local government’s performance in authoritarian regimes. Based on 9 members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee domestic visits from 2009 to 2012 in China and a longitudinal survey of national level residents conducted by DRC（国务院发展研究中心）, we estimate those domestic visits’ impact on local government performance by using difference in difference method. And we have three main findings. Firstly, we find that for Jintao Hu, the General Secretary, his domestic visits could significantly promote residents’ evaluation of local government administrative efficiency, and after taking selection bias into consideration, this positive effect is still robust. Secondly, after adjustment of covariates balance, this positive effect is valid for all 9 members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Finally, we also find this positive effect only exists for one year, which means when the present incumbent of leaders lose power, those effects will disappear,and we define this phenomenon as Ren Zou Cha Liang Effect(人走茶凉). On the basic of our empirical findings, those state leaders’ domestic visits provide us new vision to recognize Chinese central-local relation. Be regarded as embedded formal institution, we argue that central authorities could use their visits to access to political stability and economic development.

As a huge country with a high population, a vast territory and imbalanced economic development across various regions, China has both the advantages and disadvantages of all large nations, particularly in terms of politics. This means that a careful balance between central and local relations is critical, especially under the governance of a single party. China deals with central-local relations using two initiatives, having learned that one initiative leads to improper handling. Mao Zedong believed that a combination of central and local initiatives was the key to success. In essence, this refers to the formation of a mechanism for incentive compatibility, through which each initiative can play its proper role, and national strength can be united to focus on state affairs.

On February 17, 2014, Xi Jinping delivered a speech (hereinafter referred to as the Speech) at the opening ceremony of a seminar at which provincial and ministerial-level leading cadres discussed the deepening of reform laid out in the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the C.P.C.

On November 8, 2012, Hu Jintao issued a report at the 18th National Congress of the C.P.C. in which he emphasized the importance of the road ahead: ‘Forging an onward path is the lifeblood of the Party. It is the future and destiny of the nation, and is crucial to the wellbeing of the people.’

First, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the C.P.C. was a milestone in China’s reform. Reform and Opening lasted 35 years in China. The Third Plenary Session became an important symbol of staged reform, reflecting the development and historical logic of Chinese reform itself. Xi Jinping said that since Reform and Opening, all topics discussed, all decisions made, all measures taken, and all signals released in previous third plenary sessions are the basis for judging the administrative policy and focus of the new leading group. They are great significant to completing the work of the next five or even 10 years.

The basis of human civilization has transformed from hunting to agriculture and then to modern industry; now a new ecological civilization, or green civilization, is needed. Although industrial civilization has achieved great things with “more massive and more colossal productive forces than…all preceding generations,” it has also adversely impacted nature more than all preceding generations, and the dissonance between humanity and nature is larger than ever. What is the biggest challenge for human development in the 21st century? We face unprecedented and serious natural crises, extreme climate change, unprecedented shortages of resources and energy, and continuing degradation of the global ecological environment. The question is one of survival as human development reaches a new crossroads: Which path will the world follow? What role will China play? The only correct answer is to resolutely develop an ecological civilization.

The history of the new China tells us this: its greatest successes come from successful strategic decisions; its worst failures stem from poor strategic decisions. As Jiang Zemin observed, correct decisions on the part of the Standing Committee, and their comprehensive implementation, have a tremendous bearing on the party, the country, and the people (Zemin Jiang 2006a, p. 553).

The innovation, formation, and development of the collective presidency with Chinese characteristics did not come about by accident: it is the historical product, function, and outcome of an era. It has certainly undergone change. The initial form of this system was the collective leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC); that system was formed during a harsh period of war, and it gradually evolved thereafter. Subsequently, the system became the decision-making and coordinating mechanism of the ruling party tasked with governing a modern country with the largest population in the world. In over 60 years since the founding of the new China, the collective presidency with Chinese characteristics has developed along a long course that has involved considerable making and fixing of mistakes. From efficient collaboration to failure, from reconstruction and recovery to enhancement and completion, this system has finally matured into a system of political leadership and political decision making that is the most appropriate for the current situation in China and in the face of international competition.

In the 91 years since its establishment, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has made innovative efforts as it developed the system of its central leadership—its core institution. The historical experience of the party boils down to one point: it constantly needs to adhere to and improve the collective leadership of the Central Committee of the CPC. As the largest governing party in the most populated country in the world, the CPC has to continue making efforts to improve its collective presidency with Chinese characteristics. Those Chinese characteristics are the basic attributes of this institution, and collective leadership is its fundamental feature.

I first addressed the whole Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the autumn of 2007. I stated that the Standing Committee had brought about a scientific approach to development and established a governing philosophy characterized by harmony. I noted that in this way, the Standing Committee had turned over a new page in Chinese socialism, and that its efforts were acknowledged and supported by all CPC members, all the servicemen and women of the People’s Liberation Army, and the Chinese people as a whole. Further, these efforts had won global attention and been applauded the world over. I also asked a series of important questions. How should the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau be run politically? How should a good Standing Committee be ensured? Through what kinds of processes does the Committee reach its decisions? According to what standards does it operate? What mechanisms are in place to ensure that the committee makes the correct major decisions? (Angang Hu 2007b).

International competition has become fiercer with the onset of the twenty-first century. The essence of this competition lies in the area of science and technology. Whoever scales the peak of global science and technology innovation will become the leader in global economic development. China is now becoming a forerunner in such areas. In 2006, the Chinese government published the “Outlined Medium- and Long-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development (2006–2020)”, drawing a grand blueprint for building an innovative country. The United States, Japan and the EU have since followed with similar directive documents regarding developments in science and technology.