At its third plenary session held in November 2013, the 18th CPC Central Committee stated that the overarching goal of comprehensively expanding in-depth reform is to refine and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to modernize the national governance system and capacity.
The governance system and capacity of a country are embodied in its institutions and its ability to execute the institutions.
China's national governance system is a system of institutions for managing the country under the CPC's leadership. These include economic, political, cultural, social, eco-environmental, and Party development mechanisms and institutions, as well as laws, regulations and plans. These are a complete set of tightly linked and coordinated national institutions.
China's national governance capacity is defined by its ability to use these institutions to manage various aspects of society, including reform, development and stability; internal affairs, foreign relations and national defense; and governance of the Party, the nation and the armed forces.
At its fourth plenary session held in October 2019, the 19th CPC Central Committee adopted a decision on upholding and improving China's socialist system and modernizing the national governance system and capacity. The document set the following goals: rendering systems in all areas better-defined and more mature by the time of the CPC's centenary; further improving systems in all fields and achieving basic modernization of the national governance system and capacity by 2035; and realizing full modernization of the national governance system and capacity by the time of the PRC's centenary, with China's socialist system further consolidated and its strengths fully deployed.
The governance systems that a country adopts are determined by its history and culture, the nature of its society, and the stage of economic development it has reached. China's socialist system and governance system did not appear from nowhere, but emerged from Chinese soil through a long process of revolution, economic development, and reform. They result from the application of the tenets of Marxism to China's conditions and are the outcome of a range of innovations in theory, practice and systems. They crystalize the wisdom of the Party and the people, and are in alignment with the Party's history, theory and practice.
The fundamental reason that the Chinese nation has risen up, become prosperous, and grown in strength over the seven decades since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 is that the CPC has led the people in establishing and improving the Chinese socialist system, in forming and developing systems for the Party's leadership, the economy, politics, culture, society, eco-environmental conservation, the military, and foreign affairs, and in enhancing national governance.
