Daily Times

President Xi Jinping delivered a speech Monday morning at the closing meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s national legislature.

President Xi Jinping said that the people’s trust is the biggest motivation that drives him to march on and a great responsibility he shoulders. “I will faithfully fulfill my responsibilities bestowed by the Constitution, with the nation’s needs as my mission and the people’s interests my yardstick,” he said when addressing the closing meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress, the national legislature.

Xi pledged to perform his duty scrupulously, do his utmost, and prove worthy of the trust of all NPC deputies and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. He called for due contributions to building a great modern socialist country and advancing national rejuvenation. From this day forward to the mid-21st century, the central task of the entire Communist Party of China and all Chinese people will be to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts, said Xi. “The relay baton of building a great modern socialist country and advancing national rejuvenation has been historically passed on to our generation,” he said. Xi stressed accelerating Chinese modernization in accordance with the strategic decisions made at the 20th CPC National Congress. China will unswervingly advance high-quality development on the new journey of building a great modern socialist country and advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, President Xi Jinping said. The country should fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts and accelerate efforts to create a new pattern of development, he said. He called for fully implementing the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, the workforce development strategy and the innovation-driven development strategy. China should work to achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, advance coordinated urban-rural and regional development, and foster green and low-carbon economic and social development, Xi added. Efforts should be made to effectively upgrade and appropriately expand the economy, and continuously increase the country’s economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities and composite national strength, he said. It is a must to put the people first on the new journey of building China into a great modern socialist country and advancing national rejuvenation, he added.

Xi said the people are the decisive force in building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. He urged efforts to actively develop whole-process people’s democracy, and to uphold the unity of the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance.

He said a people-centered philosophy of development must be implemented so that the gains of modernization will benefit all people fairly, and that more notable and substantive progress will be made in promoting prosperity for all. He also stressed strengthening and expanding the great unity of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and the great unity of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation at home and abroad. “By doing so, we will mobilize all favorable factors and form a mighty force that will facilitate the building of a great modern socialist country and the advancement of national rejuvenation,” Xi said.

President Xi stressed better coordinating development and security. “Security is the bedrock of development, while stability is a prerequisite for prosperity,” Xi said, and underscored the need to pursue a holistic approach to national security, improve the national security system, strengthen China’s capacity for safeguarding national security, enhance public safety governance, improve the social governance system, and safeguard China’s new development pattern with a new security architecture.

Xi also demanded efforts to advance the modernization of national defense and armed forces on all fronts, and build the people’s armed forces into a “Great Wall of steel” that is capable of effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.

President Xi Jinping stressed solid efforts in advancing the practice of “one country, two systems” and the cause of national reunification. He stressed the need to fully, faithfully and resolutely implement the policy of “one country, two systems,” under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong and the people of Macao administer Macao, both with a high degree of autonomy. Xi underscored the importance of remaining committed to law-based governance in Hong Kong and Macao, and supporting the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao SAR in growing their economies, improving their people’s lives, and better integrating themselves into the country’s overall development. He stressed adhering to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, actively promoting the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, resolutely opposing external interference and “Taiwan independence” separatist activities, and firmly advancing the process of national reunification.