CCTV:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress points out the need to invigorate China through science and education and develop a strong workforce for the modernization drive. Compared with the reports to previous Party national congresses, this is different in terms of the content arrangement, as it puts education, science and technology, and human resources together in one section. This has caught the public's attention. What are the strategic intentions of this arrangement? Thank you.

Mu Hong:

Thank you for the question. Indeed, the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, the workforce development strategy, and the innovation-driven development strategy are all major national strategies proposed by the CPC Central Committee, which need to be adhered to over the long term and concern key issues involved in the high-quality development of China's modernization drive. Based on the Party's historic mission on the new journey and in the new era, the CPC Central Committee holds the perspective of highlighting the core position of innovation in China's overall modernization drive and has made coordinated arrangements on science and technology, education, and human resources as a whole in the fifth section of the report to the 20th CPC National Congress.

As you said, in the reports to previous CPC national congresses, science and technology were set out under the section of economic development, education was under the section of social development, and human resources was under the section of Party building. Following the requirement put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping on strengthening systems thinking, the report to the 20th CPC National Congress has for the first time put these three major strategies together. This is an innovative step and has profound significance. While insisting that education, science and technology, and human resources are the fundamental and strategic pillars for building a modern socialist country in all respects, such an arrangement also stresses the links between the three in creating and developing new driving forces and advantages through coordination and systematic efforts.

These three major strategies jointly serve the development of an innovative country. First, we will continue to give high priority to the development of education. We will fully implement the Party's educational policy, carry out the basic task of fostering virtue through education, and nurture a new generation of capable young people with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills who will fully develop socialism and carry forward the socialist cause. We will continue to follow a people-centered approach to developing education, move faster to build a high-quality educational system, promote fairness in education, promote people's well-rounded development, and improve the overall caliber of the population. Second, we will continue the innovation-driven development strategy. We will improve the new system for mobilizing resources nationwide to make key technological breakthroughs. We will strengthen basic research, and work to make breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and enhance innovation capacity. We will also improve systems for scientific and technological innovation, and move faster to achieve great self-reliance and strength in science and technology. Third, we will continue regarding talent as our primary resource. We will improve the strategic distribution of human resources, speed up efforts to build a contingent of personnel with expertise of strategic importance, and further reform the systems and mechanisms for talent development. We will cultivate a large workforce of high-quality talent who have both integrity and professional competence and attract the brightest minds from all over. Thank you.