OPENING REMARKS AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE 20TH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends and Comrades,

Good afternoon! The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will open at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at will last from October 16 to tomorrow morning. The congress I am the spokesman for the congress, and I

would like to extend a warm welcome to all the Chinese and foreign reporters who are here to cover the congress.

Entrusted by the congress, I will now give you a brief on it. The congress will be a meeting of great importance to be held at a critical time as the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups are embarking on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and to realize the Second Centenary Goal. The congress will hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It will comprehensively review the work over the past five years and the great achievements made and valuable experience accumulated over the period since the start of the new era as the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core united and led the entire Party and the whole nation in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will thoroughly analyze the situation both at home and abroad and fully grasp the new requirements for the development of the cause of the Party and the country and new expectations of the people on the new journey in the new era. On this basis, it will formulate programs of action and major policies and make plans and arrangements for the Party and the country’s cause from an overall strategic perspective.
The preparatory meeting of the congress was held this afternoon, during which the agenda of the congress was adopted. The main items on the agenda of the congress are as follows: to hear and examine the report of the 19th Party Central Committee, to examine the work report of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, to deliberate on and adopt the REVISED Constitution of the Communist Party of China, and to elect the 20th Party Central Committee and the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

At the preparatory meeting, the list of members of the congress presidium was approved, and the congress will proceed under the leadership of the presidium. A secretariat was set up to handle congress affairs. Comrade secretary-general of the congress. was approved as

After the preparatory meeting, a meeting of the Credentials Committee was held, and the presidium met for the first time. At its meeting, the presidium

adopted the working agenda of the congress and created its standing committee. The preparations for the congress have been completed, and now I wish to brief you on them. Preparations for the congress started under the leadership of the Party Central Committee after the Resolution on Convening the 20th National

Congress of the CPC was adopted by the 19th Party Central Committee at its Sixth Plenary Session in November last year. The preparations focused on the following four areas: 1. Drafting the political report to the 20th National Party Congress

Drafting the report is an important part of the preparations for the congress. The Party Central Committee attached great importance to the work and set up a group for this purpose. The group was headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping and was comprised of other Party and state leaders, heads of relevant departments and localities, as well as experts and scholars. The group worked under the direct leadership of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee.

To draft the report, the Central Committee organized thorough surveys and studies. It entrusted 54 organs of the Central Committee and the government with the task of conducting surveys and research on 26 key topics, and 80 reports were submitted. Relevant central departments also solicited opinions online regarding work on the congress, receiving more than 8,542,000 comments. All this laid a solid.
foundation for drafting the report to the congress. On July 26, at a seminar for officials at the provincial and ministerial level,

General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech in which he elaborated on major issues to be covered by the report to the congress. He emphasized that rationally defining the goals, tasks, and major policies for the cause of the Party and the country in the next five years or even longer periods to come is crucial to the further development of the Party and the country’s cause, to the future of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to the realization of national rejuvenation. He stressed the need to focus on the Party’s central tasks on the new journey in the new era and to put forward new ideas, strategies, and measures to advance the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy in a coordinated way. He called upon all of the Chinese people to forge ahead with enterprise and fortitude and work hard together to write a new chapter

in building a modern socialist country in all respects. In drafting the report, democracy was fully practiced and opinions and suggestions from both inside and outside the Party were broadly solicited and incorporated. To facilitate the drafting process, the Central Committee issued a circular to solicit opinions from various sectors on the topics to be included in the report.

When the text of the draft report took shape, opinions were sought extensively from more than 4,700 people who had discussions on it. They include members of the 19th Party Central Committee and the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, delegates to the 19th and 20th national Party congresses, heads of the Party committees of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, leading Party officials of the Party, government, and military departments at the central level, heads of the Party committees of major People’s Liberation Army units and the armed police force as well as leading Party officials of the people’s organizations.

General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired five meetings to directly hear opinions and suggestions from various sides. The drafting group also heard opinions of some retired senior Party officials. On August 31, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a meeting to solicit opinions from leaders of other political parties
and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and prominent figures without party affiliation. Many of the opinions sought from both inside and outside the Party were adopted.

During the drafting process, the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee both held multiple meetings to deliberate on the draft. On October 12, the 19th Party Central Committee discussed and approved the text of the report at its Seventh Plenary Session and decided to formally submit it to the 20th National Party Congress for examination.

2. Making revisions to the Party Constitution

Another important task of the 20th National Party Congress is to revise the Party Constitution. It has been a common practice for our Party to make revisions to its Constitution at its national congress in recognition of the Party’s latest innovations in theory and the evolution of practice. The current Party Constitution was revised and adopted at the Party’s 12th National Congress in 1982. Starting with the Party’s 13th National Congress, appropriate revisions have been made to the Party Constitution at successive national Party congresses. Practice shows that making revisions to the Party Constitution in response to new developments and tasks helps all Party members more earnestly study, observe, apply, and uphold the Party Constitution and enables the Party Constitution to play a better role in guiding and regulating the Party’s work and Party building efforts.

When the Party Central Committee solicited opinions in January this year about the topics to be included in the report to the 20th National Party Congress, many localities and departments proposed that appropriate revisions be made to the Party Constitution at the congress in recognition of the Party’s latest innovations in theory and the evolution of practice and in response to the evolving situation and tasks.

The Central Committee issued a circular in May this year to solicit opinions on revising the Party Constitution from all localities and departments. The consulted localities and departments submitted written reports in which they expressed agreement that appropriate revisions to the Party Constitution should be made at the 20th National Party Congress. They also made comments and suggestions for revisions in their reports. Some retired senior Party officials and ordinary Party
members also wrote to relevant departments of the Party Central Committee to propose that the Party Constitution be revised. After taking into account the opinions from all sides, the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee met to discuss the matter and decided that appropriate

revisions should be made to the Party Constitution and a Party Constitution revision panel should be set up to carry out this work. It was stressed that in revising the Party Constitution, the major theoretical viewpoints and major strategic thinking set down in the report to the 20th National Party Congress should be incorporated into the Party Constitution. It was also stressed that the revised Party Constitution should fully embody the latest achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of our times, the new ideas, new thinking, and new strategies on governance the Party Central Committee has developed since the 19th National Party Congress, and the new experience the Party has gained in its work and Party building, in order to meet the new demands placed on the Party’s work and Party building by new developments and tasks.

Acting in accordance with the requirements of the Central Committee, the Party Constitution revision panel conducted an in-depth study of the opinions submitted by all localities and departments and produced a proposal for revisions. The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the Political Bureau deliberated over the proposal respectively, after which revisions to the Party Constitution were drafted. On August 4, the texts of the draft revised Party Constitution and the draft report to the 20th National Party Congress were issued to select Party members for consultation.

The Party Constitution revision panel then made careful revisions based on

opinions from all sides, and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the Political Bureau held meetings one after the other to review the text of the draft revised Party Constitution. The draft of the revised Party Constitution, which is a product of the collective wisdom of the entire Party, was discussed and approved by the 19th Party Central

Committee at its Seventh Plenary Session and will be submitted to the 20th

National Party Congress for deliberation.

3. Electing delegates to the 20th National Party Congress Election of delegates to the Party’s 20th National Congress began in November 2021. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to this work. General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over meetings of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee to study related issues. After deliberation, the Circular of the CPC Central Committee concerning the Election of Delegates to the 20th National Party Congress was adopted, specifying the overall requirements, policies, and rules for the election. During elections, all electoral units acted in accordance with the Central Committee’s arrangements and requirements, upheld the Party Constitution as the fundamental guide, kept in mind the Party’s nature and purpose, and ensured strong Party leadership throughout the whole process of election. They gave full play to the role of democracy within the Party, applied rigorous criteria for candidate eligibility, followed due procedures, observed a strict code of discipline, and formulated plans based on local conditions. These efforts have seen the electoral units doing a good job in organizing elections. All primary-level Party organizations in the electoral units took part in the election with an average participation rate of 99.5% among their Party members.

The 38 electoral units across the country convened their respective Party or conferences of delegates, during which delegates to the 20th congresses or National Party Congress were elected. A total of delegates have had their credentials confirmed by the Credentials Committee. They will attend the congress, representing more than 4.9 million primary-level Party organizations and over 96.

million Party members. These elected delegates meet the criteria set by the Party Central Committee,

their composition is balanced across every category as required by the Central Committee, and hence they are broadly representative. They are from different sectors including economy, science and technology, national defense, politics and law, education, public communication, culture, public health, sports, and social management; they are from different levels of localities ranging from provinces, cities, counties, towns, townships and subdistricts, to villages and communities; and they come from different types of working units including Party and state organs, enterprises, public institutions, and people’s organizations.
Representation of people from the frontline of production and work are ensured, with their delegates making up 33.6% of the total, which includes 8.4% for workers (including migrant workers from rural areas), 3.7% for farmers, and 11.6% for professional and technical personnel. The number of female delegates increases, with their proportion reaching 27%. The share of ethnic minority delegates remains stable, standing at 11.5%. The composition of the delegates is also balanced in terms of age brackets. Delegates under the age of 55 account for 59.7% of the total and those under 45 make up 18.9% of the total. The delegates are generally well-educated. Those who have received junior college education or higher take up 95.4%, among whom 36% have a bachelor’s degree and 52.7% have a master’s or doctor’s degree. Some delegates joined the Party during the new-democratic revolution period, some in the period of socialist revolution and construction, some in the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, and others after the Party’s 18th National Congress. Those who joined the Party after the launch of reform and opening up account for 96.9% of the total.

As an established practice, the Party Central Committee has decided that some veteran Party members who have left leading positions will attend the congress as special delegates. 4. Making preparations for electing a new central committee and a new

central commission for discipline inspection

As required by the Party Constitution, a new central committee and a new central commission for discipline inspection will be elected at this congress. To facilitate these elections, the Party Central Committee set up a special working group with General Secretary Xi Jinping as head of its leading team. Under the leadership of the Standing Committee of the Party Central Committee Political Bureau, the group had charge of the recommendation, evaluation, and nomination of candidates for the new central committee and the new central commission for discipline inspection. On the basis of the work of the group, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and the Political Bureau convened meetings respectively for discussion and prepared a proposed list of preliminary candidates for the new central committee and the new central commission for discipline inspection, which will be submitted to the presidium of the 20th National Party Congress for deliberation.
Upon conclusion of the congress, the 20th Party Central Committee will hold its First Plenary Session and the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection

will hold its first full assembly to elect their respective new leading bodies. After the plenary session of the 20th Party Central Committee, members of the new Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee will

meet Chinese and foreign reporters.

The 20th National Party Congress has opened a press center, which will

organize press conferences and group interviews and make full use of the Internet and other technologies to provide services for reporters and facilitate their reporting on the congress. Now I will be happy to take questions from you regarding the 20th National

Party Congress.

Thank you!