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Yu Zhengsheng

Lovemore Chikova in BEIJING, China
The Communist Party of China has said it has entered its decisive phase in building a truly prosperous society and declared 2016 the first year of such an initiative.

The strategy would include increasing its public diplomacy offensive on the international scene and implementing comprehensive policies meant to uplift lives of the Chinese.

This was revealed in a report on the work of the standing committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that was presented in Beijing yesterday.

The presentation of the paper by CPPCC chairman Mr Yu Zhengsheng, marked the official opening of the important conference whose activities would take place until March 14.

The Chinese have dubbed this period as “China’s political season”, where the top bodies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) meet to review progress made the previous year and chart the way forward.

Mr Yu outlined the achievements made by the party last year and the projected path it would take this year.

“This year is the first year of the decisive stage in finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a crucial year in moving ahead with structural reform,” he said.

Mr Yu said the work ahead included “developing and following the philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development”.

He said other issues of importance were to “adapt to the new normal in economic development, (and) adhere to the major themes of unity”.

Mr Yu said the party would also focus on working to fulfilling its goal of building China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

In all that, Mr Yu said, the party would take the upholding and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the pivot point for consolidating a shared political foundation.

“In accordance with the overall plan for China’s diplomatic work, we will work hard to bring about a favourable international environment by actively carrying out high-level exchange visits, public diplomacy and people-to-people cultural exchanges,” said Mr Yu.

He encouraged party members to discuss problems candidly and suggest pragmatic solutions.

“We must seek truth from facts, carefully analyse and research issues, faithfully reflect the circumstances and provide straightforward suggestions,” said Mr Yu.

“We must be on the frontlines at the community level, ensure our samples for research are representative, focus on key areas, carry out in-depth studies and research, tackle problems where they are most formidable, ensure that our arguments are based on facts and data and pinpoint the real problems, identify their real causes and provide accurate advice.”

Mr Yu said last year, the party made a number of achievements and was the “major year for comprehensively deepening reform, the first year for fully advancing the law-based governance of China”.

“We worked to make inspections and studies more relevant to political consultations, improved the quality of consultations through our investigative studies and promoted the incorporation of study results into policy decisions through consultations,” he said.

Mr Yu said the party also made progress on strengthening its function of democratic oversight, institution building to improve work mechanisms and enhancing the study of theory to consolidate a shared political foundation.

He said the party had also addressed expectations of the people and worked hard to improve their well-being.

On foreign policy, Mr Yu said the CPC party continued to develop high level foreign contacts and shared China’s vision and plans.

“We carried out public diplomacy as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries and advanced pragmatic international co-operation in major areas,” said Mr Yu.

“We held meetings to review the international situation where suggestions and proposals were made on topics such as developing new types of foreign relations, dealing with issues relating to international situation where suggestions and proposals were made.’

Mr Yu said China would continue with its efforts to open up to the world in various sectors.