The CPC Central Committee’s Proposal on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development

( 2015 year 10 month 29 Adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China)

By 2020, achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects will mark the first centenary goal of the “Two Centenary Goals” set by our Party. The 13th Five-Year Plan period represents the decisive stage for fully building a moderately prosperous society, and the plan must be formulated with the firm focus on realizing this goal.
　 　The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted a comprehensive analysis of both the international and domestic situations, concluding that achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects on schedule is both well‑grounded and fraught with daunting challenges. It emphasized that, building on the solid foundation laid since the founding of the People’s Republic of China—particularly since the launch of reform and opening up—it is imperative to remain confident, forge ahead with determination, and strive vigorously. The session examined a series of major issues concerning China’s development during the 13th Five-Year Plan period and put forward the following recommendations for formulating the plan.
　　I. Promote balanced regional development. Foster a new pattern of coordinated regional development characterized by the orderly and free flow of production factors, effective constraints on functional zoning, equal access to basic public services, and sustainable resource and environmental capacity.
         We will deepen the implementation of the Great Western Development Strategy, supporting the western region in improving its infrastructure, developing industries with distinctive local advantages, and strengthening ecological and environmental protection. We will promote the revitalization of old industrial bases, including those in Northeast China, foster the rise of the central region, increase national support, and accelerate market-oriented reforms. We will encourage the eastern region to take the lead in development, thereby better spurring growth across other regions. We will also support revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border regions, and poverty-stricken areas in accelerating their development, while stepping up assistance to regions facing severe challenges such as resource depletion, industrial decline, and serious ecological degradation.
　　Cultivate a number of growth poles that drive coordinated regional development. Promote the coordinated development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region by optimizing urban spatial planning and industrial structures, systematically relocating non-capital functions from Beijing, advancing integrated transportation networks, expanding environmental capacity and ecological space, and exploring new models for the optimized development of densely populated and economically vibrant areas. Advance the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt, improve the ecological environment of the Yangtze River basin, build comprehensive, multi‑modal transport corridors at a high standard, and guide the rational spatial distribution and collaborative division of labor among industries.
　　II. Promote coordinated urban–rural development. Uphold the principle of industry supporting agriculture and cities supporting rural areas, improve the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban–rural development, and advance the equal exchange and rational allocation of urban and rural factors, as well as the equalization of basic public services.
         Develop distinctive county-level economies, accelerate the development of small and medium-sized cities and specialized small towns, promote the deep processing of agricultural products and the growth of rural service industries, expand channels for increasing farmers’ incomes, improve the policy framework supporting income growth, and strengthen endogenous drivers of rural development. Advance a new type of urbanization centered on people. Enhance the quality of urban planning, construction, and governance. Deepen household registration system reform, facilitate the full‑family relocation and registration of rural migrants who are able to secure stable employment and livelihoods in urban areas, and ensure they enjoy equal rights and obligations with urban residents. Implement a residence permit system and strive to achieve universal coverage of basic public services for all permanent residents. Improve the mechanism linking fiscal transfer payments to the urbanization of rural migrants, and establish a linkage between the expansion of urban construction land and the number of rural migrants granted urban residency. Safeguard the land contract rights, residential land use rights, and rights to share in collective income of farmers who have registered as urban residents, and support and guide them in transferring these rights voluntarily, on a paid basis, and in accordance with the law. Deepen housing system reform and intensify efforts to renovate dilapidated urban shantytowns and unsafe rural houses.
         Promote the balanced allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas, establish a long-term mechanism for investing in rural infrastructure, prioritize the development of social programs in rural regions and in towns that accommodate large numbers of rural migrants, and extend urban public services to rural areas. Elevate the quality of socialist new‑rural development, launch initiatives to improve the rural living environment, strengthen the protection of traditional villages, historic residences, and culturally significant villages and towns, and build beautiful, livable countryside.
　　III. Promote the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization. Uphold the principle of “grasping both hands firmly,” adhere to the forward direction of advanced socialist culture, maintain a people-centered approach in our work, give priority to social benefits while ensuring the unity of social and economic benefits, strengthen cultural confidence, enhance cultural awareness, accelerate cultural reform and development, reinforce the building of socialist spiritual civilization, and strive to make China a strong country in socialist culture.
         We will continue to arm the entire Party and educate the people with the spirit of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and the series of important speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping, using the Chinese Dream and the core socialist values to build consensus and rally strength. We will deepen research and implementation of Marxist theory, strengthen ideological and moral development as well as social integrity, enhance national consciousness, rule-of-law awareness, and a sense of social responsibility, promote the spirit of science, carry forward traditional Chinese virtues, and ensure that laws and policies effectively guide society toward sound value orientations.
         We will support the creation and production of outstanding cultural works, strengthen the cultivation of cultural talent, and foster the thriving development of literature and art, journalism and publishing, and radio, film, and television. We will implement an innovation initiative for philosophy and the social sciences and build a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics. We will establish a system for the inheritance of China’s fine traditional culture, enhance the protection of cultural heritage, revitalize traditional crafts, and carry out a project to collate and publish China’s classical texts. We will reinforce and improve grassroots publicity, ideological, and cultural work, and deepen various mass‑based initiatives to promote spiritual civilization.
        Deepen reform of the cultural management system, implement major cultural projects, and improve the public cultural service system, the cultural industries system, and the cultural market system. Promote the standardization and equalization of basic public cultural services, channel cultural resources toward grassroots communities in both urban and rural areas, innovate approaches to delivering public cultural services, and safeguard the people’s fundamental cultural rights and interests. Advance the structural optimization and upgrading of the cultural industries, develop leading cultural enterprises and creative cultural sectors, foster new forms of cultural business, and expand and guide cultural consumption. Popularize scientific knowledge, promote nationwide reading, develop sports programs, encourage mass participation in fitness activities, and enhance the physical health of the population. Ensure the successful preparation for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
         Firmly uphold the correct public‑opinion orientation, improve mechanisms for guiding social public sentiment, and promote positive energy. Strengthen the development of online ideological and cultural platforms, implement projects to enhance online content, foster a vibrant and uplifting online culture, and purify the digital environment. Promote the integrated development of traditional and emerging media, accelerate the digital transformation of the media sector, and cultivate a number of new‑type mainstream media outlets. Optimize the media landscape and standardize communication order. Enhance international communication capabilities, innovate approaches to external outreach, cultural exchange, and cultural trade, and advance the global dissemination of Chinese culture.
　　IV. Promote the integrated development of economic and national defense construction. Uphold the principle of balancing development with security and unifying national prosperity with a strong military, implement the strategy of military‑civilian integration, and foster a pattern of deep, all‑element, multi‑domain, and highly efficient military‑civilian integration. In step with the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, comprehensively advance national defense and military development. Guided by the Party’s goal of building a strong military under the new circumstances, we will implement the military strategic guidelines for the new era, strengthen the Party’s leadership over the armed forces and ideological and political work, enhance military preparedness across all domains and in all areas, develop new types of combat forces, accelerate reforms in national defense and the armed forces, and deepen law-based governance and strict management of the military. By 2020, we will have basically completed the objectives and tasks of national defense and military reform, achieved basic mechanization, made major strides in informatization, and established a modern Chinese‑style military force system capable of winning informationized wars and effectively fulfilling its missions and tasks.
         Improve the organizational management system, operational framework, and policy‑institutional framework for integrated military‑civilian development. Establish national and provincial (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) leadership bodies for military‑civilian integration. Formulate special plans to coordinate economic development with national defense construction. Deepen reform of the national defense science, technology, and industry system and establish a mechanism for collaborative innovation in defense‑related science and technology. Advance legislation on military‑civilian integration. Launch a series of major projects and initiatives in areas such as the maritime domain, outer space, and cyberspace; create a number of demonstration zones for military‑civilian integration; and enhance the coordination of advanced technologies, industrial products, infrastructure, and other resources for dual use.
　　Strengthen national defense education for all and the development of reserve forces. Enhance the modernization of the armed police force. Foster close unity between the military and the government, as well as between the military and the people. Mobilize the combined efforts of Party, government, military, police, and civilians to fortify our borders and safeguard national security. Party committees and governments at all levels should actively support national defense and military reform, while the People’s Liberation Army and the armed police forces should proactively assist in economic and social development.
　　V. Uphold green development and strive to improve the ecological environment.
　　We will remain committed to building a green nation that benefits the people, provide them with more high-quality ecological products, and promote the adoption of green development and lifestyles, thereby advancing together the prosperity of the people, the strength of the country, and the beauty of China.
　　(1) Promote harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. Use natural resources in a measured and orderly manner, adjust and optimize spatial structures, delineate red lines for the protection of agricultural and ecological spaces, and establish a scientifically sound and rational pattern for urbanization, agricultural development, ecological security, and the preservation of natural shorelines. Establish unified and standardized national pilot zones for ecological civilization.
Adjust urban scale in accordance with resource and environmental carrying capacity, leverage natural landscapes and topography to optimize urban form and functions, and implement green standards for planning, design, and construction.
　　Support green and clean production, advance the green transformation of traditional manufacturing, promote the establishment of a green, low-carbon, and circular industrial system, and encourage enterprises to upgrade and retrofit their processes, technologies, and equipment. Develop green finance and establish a green development fund.
Strengthen education on China’s resource and environmental conditions and ecological values, cultivate public environmental awareness, and foster a society-wide commitment to green consumption.
　　(II) Accelerate the development of functional zones. Leverage the role of functional zones as a foundational institutional framework for land‑space development and conservation; implement functional zone plans, refine relevant policies, and release the national map of functional zones along with lists of major agricultural production areas and key ecological function zones, guiding regions to pursue development aligned with their designated functional roles. Based on these plans, coordinate various spatial planning initiatives and advance the integration of multiple plans into a single unified plan. Promote the upgrading of industrial structures in optimized development areas such as the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta, while addressing urban ills and progressively reducing the annual increase in construction land. Encourage key development areas to enhance the concentration of industries and populations. For key ecological function zones, adopt a negative list approach to industrial access. Increase transfer payments to major agricultural production areas and key ecological function zones, strengthen incentive‑based compensation mechanisms, and establish horizontal and river‑basin‑wide ecological compensation schemes. Integrate and establish a number of national parks. Safeguard biodiversity by implementing emergency conservation projects for endangered wild flora and fauna, and by building rescue and breeding centers and gene banks. Strengthen management of wildlife and plant imports and exports to prevent the invasion of harmful alien species. Severely crack down on the illegal trade in ivory and other wildlife products. At the city and county administrative levels, establish a spatial governance system comprising spatial planning, land‑use control, post‑tenure audits of natural resource assets for leading cadres, and differentiated performance assessments.
　　(3) Promote low-carbon, circular development. Advance the energy revolution, accelerate innovation in energy technologies, and build a modern energy system that is clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient. Increase the share of non-fossil energy sources and promote the clean and efficient use of coal and other fossil fuels. Speed up the development of wind, solar, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal energy, and pursue the safe and efficient development of nuclear power. Strengthen energy storage and smart grid infrastructure, develop distributed energy systems, and implement energy‑saving, low‑carbon electricity dispatching. Gradually open up mining rights and actively exploit natural gas, coalbed methane, and shale gas. Reform the energy system to establish a market mechanism characterized by effective competition. Promote low-carbon development in the transportation sector by prioritizing public transit, expanding rail transit networks, and encouraging green modes of travel such as cycling. Implement a new‑energy vehicle promotion program to raise the industrialization level of electric vehicles. Raise building energy efficiency standards and widely adopt green buildings and materials. Proactively manage carbon emissions by tightening energy‑intensive industry controls, effectively curbing carbon emissions from key sectors including power, steel, construction materials, and chemicals, and supporting regions undergoing optimized development to achieve peak carbon emissions ahead of others. Launch pilot projects for near‑zero‑carbon emission zones. Implement a leading circular‑development initiative, promoting circular production practices among enterprises, circular industrial clusters, and circular upgrades of industrial parks, thereby reducing material consumption per unit of output. Strengthen the integration of household waste sorting and recycling with the recovery of secondary resources, and advance the circular linkage between production and residential systems.
　　4. Promote comprehensive resource conservation and efficient utilization. Uphold the principle of prioritizing conservation, and foster a resource management philosophy that emphasizes conservation, intensive use, and circular utilization.
Strengthen management of binding indicators, and implement dual‑control measures on the total amount and intensity of energy and water consumption, as well as on the use of construction land. Launch a nationwide energy‑saving action plan, raise standards for saving energy, water, land, materials, and minerals, and carry out initiatives led by top performers in energy and water efficiency. Put in place the strictest system for managing water resources, aligning production and urban development with available water supplies, and build a water‑conserving society. Reasonably set water pricing, formulate water‑saving plans, advance projects to harness rainwater and floodwater, utilize reclaimed water, and desalinate seawater; establish a national groundwater monitoring system; and undertake comprehensive remediation of areas suffering from excessive groundwater extraction. Uphold the strictest system for conserving land, adjust the structure of construction land, reduce the share of industrial land, promote the redevelopment of inefficient urban land and the reclamation of abandoned industrial and mining sites, and strictly limit the scale of rural collective construction land. Pilot a rotational fallow system for cultivated land. Establish and improve initial allocation mechanisms for energy‑use rights, water‑use rights, pollutant‑discharge rights, and carbon‑emission rights; innovate paid‑use, budgetary management, and investment‑financing mechanisms; and foster and develop trading markets. Promote contract‑based energy management and contract‑based water‑saving management.
　　Promote rational consumption, resolutely curb extravagance and waste, and put a stop to decadent trends. Implement comprehensive conservation measures across all stages—production, distribution, storage, and consumption. Strictly regulate public‑funds‑based spending, launch in-depth campaigns against excessive packaging, food waste, and overconsumption, and foster a social ethos of thrift and frugality.
　　(5) Strengthen environmental governance. With improving environmental quality as the core objective, implement the strictest environmental protection regime and establish an environmental governance system based on joint efforts by government, enterprises, and the public. Promote integrated prevention and control of multiple pollutants and comprehensive environmental management; adopt coordinated prevention and control measures and basin‑wide collaborative governance; and vigorously implement action plans for preventing and controlling air, water, and soil pollution. Implement a plan to ensure that all industrial pollution sources meet emission standards, achieve full coverage and stable operation of urban domestic wastewater and waste‑treatment facilities, and expand the scope of total pollutant‑load control, incorporating environmental quality indicators such as fine particulate matter into binding targets. Uphold the equal emphasis on urban and rural environmental governance, intensify efforts to prevent and control agricultural nonpoint‑source pollution, coordinate rural drinking‑water safety, water‑supply and sanitation improvements, and waste management, and advance the resource‑based utilization and harmless treatment of agricultural and livestock waste. Reform the foundational systems of environmental governance, establish an enterprise‑based emissions‑permit system covering all stationary pollution sources, and institute a vertically managed system for monitoring, inspection, and law enforcement at environmental protection agencies below the provincial level. Build a nationwide, unified real‑time online environmental monitoring system, improve the environmental information disclosure mechanism, explore the establishment of interregional environmental protection agencies, and conduct environmental inspections and oversight, while enforcing environmental laws rigorously.
　　(6) Strengthen the ecological security barrier. Adhering to the principle of prioritizing conservation and relying primarily on natural restoration, we will implement ecological protection and restoration projects for mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, and wetlands; build ecological corridors and biodiversity conservation networks; and comprehensively enhance the stability and ecosystem service functions of natural ecosystems, including forests, rivers and lakes, wetlands, grasslands, and marine environments.
　　Launch large-scale land greening initiatives, strengthen key forestry projects, improve the system for protecting natural forests, and comprehensively halt commercial logging of natural forests, thereby increasing both forest area and timber stock. Leverage the leading role of state-owned forest areas and forestry farms in national greening efforts. Expand programs to return farmland to forests and grasslands, and enhance grassland conservation. Strictly prohibit the transplantation of large, mature trees into urban areas. Innovate property‑rights models to attract investment from all sectors for afforestation and tree planting. Strengthen aquatic ecosystem protection, carry out systematic remediation of river basins, connect river, lake, and reservoir systems, and implement measures to restore wetlands and reclaim tidal flats. Advance integrated management of desertification, stony desertification, and soil and water loss. Reinforce ecological protection of river headwaters and water‑source recharge zones. Launch initiatives to restore and rehabilitate coastal bays. Enhance prevention and control of geological hazards.
　　VI. Uphold open development and strive to achieve win-win cooperation.
To break new ground in opening up to the outside world, we must enrich the substance of our external engagement, elevate its level, and coordinate efforts to strengthen strategic mutual trust, advance economic and trade cooperation, and foster people-to-people and cultural exchanges, thereby striving to forge a pattern of mutually beneficial cooperation deeply integrated across all domains.
　　(1) Increase the supply of public services. Adhering to the principles of universality, basic coverage, equal access, and sustainability, we will start by addressing the most pressing, immediate, and practical concerns of the people, strengthen government responsibilities, and enhance our capacity to co‑build and share public services.
Strengthen basic public services, including compulsory education, employment services, social security, basic medical care and public health, public culture, and environmental protection, and strive to achieve universal coverage. Increase transfer payments to old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border regions, and impoverished areas. Enhance support for specific groups facing particular hardships.
Innovate the delivery of public services: where services can be procured through government contracting, the government will no longer provide them directly; where public‑private partnerships are feasible, actively engage private capital. Accelerate reforms in social programs.
　　(II) Implement the poverty alleviation campaign. Eradicating poverty among rural residents is the most daunting task in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We must fully leverage our political and institutional strengths to secure a decisive victory in the battle against poverty. We will pursue targeted poverty reduction and precise poverty alleviation, tailoring measures to individual circumstances and local conditions to enhance the effectiveness of poverty‑alleviation efforts. We will provide differentiated support to impoverished households: for those capable of working, we will promote the development of distinctive industries and facilitate employment transfers; for areas where “the land cannot sustain its people,” we will carry out relocation programs; for regions of particularly high ecological value or vulnerability, we will implement eco‑friendly poverty‑alleviation initiatives; for those who have lost their capacity to work, we will put in place a safety‑net social assistance policy; and for those driven into poverty by illness, we will offer medical assistance and insurance coverage. We will ensure seamless coordination between subsistence allowances and poverty‑alleviation policies, guaranteeing that all eligible impoverished individuals receive the support they need.
　　Expand infrastructure coverage in poverty-stricken areas and, tailored to local conditions, address issues such as access to roads, potable water, electricity, and internet connectivity. For projects that develop hydropower or mineral resources in these areas and require the use of collectively owned land, pilot a compensation mechanism that grants collective equity shares to the original resident communities, and explore the establishment of an asset-income support system for impoverished populations.
　　Enhance the quality of basic education and the level of medical services in poverty-stricken areas, and promote equal access to basic public services across these regions. Establish and improve a care‑and‑support system for left‑behind children, women, and elderly people in rural areas. Implement a responsibility‑based accountability system for poverty alleviation. Further refine the working mechanism of central coordination, overall responsibility at the provincial (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) level, and implementation at the city (prefecture) and county levels. Strengthen performance assessments of poverty‑alleviation efforts, with a particular focus on measuring outcomes in impoverished counties. Increase central and provincial fiscal allocations for poverty reduction, leverage the complementary roles of policy‑oriented and commercial finance, integrate various poverty‑alleviation resources, and develop new financing channels for poverty‑reduction and development initiatives. Improve mechanisms for east–west collaboration and for designated poverty‑alleviation support by Party and government organs, the armed forces, mass organizations, and state‑owned enterprises, while encouraging enterprises, social organizations, and individuals to voluntarily participate through contracted, targeted assistance. Prioritize revolutionary old base areas, ethnic minority areas, border regions, and contiguous impoverished areas as key targets in the battle against poverty.
　　(3) Enhance the quality of education. Fully implement the Party’s educational policy, fulfill the fundamental task of fostering virtue and cultivating talent, strengthen education in socialist core values, and nurture well-rounded socialist builders and successors who excel in moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic development. Deepen educational reform, making the cultivation of students’ sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit, and practical abilities a central priority throughout the entire national education system. Promote balanced development of compulsory education and comprehensively improve the quality of teaching and learning. Expand access to senior secondary education, gradually advance tuition‑free secondary vocational education on a category‑by‑category basis, and take the lead in providing tuition‑free senior secondary education to students from registered impoverished households. Develop preschool education and encourage the growth of inclusive kindergartens. Improve financial aid mechanisms to achieve full coverage of assistance for students from economically disadvantaged families.
　　Promote educational equity. Accelerate the standardization of public compulsory education schools in both urban and rural areas, strengthen the teaching workforce—particularly in rural regions—and advance teacher exchanges between urban and rural areas. Ensure high-quality special education. Enhance the academic standards and innovative capacity of higher education institutions, striving to bring a number of universities and select disciplines up to or near world-class levels. Build a modern vocational education system and promote industry–education integration and school–enterprise cooperation. Optimize the structure of academic disciplines and talent-development mechanisms, and encourage eligible general undergraduate institutions to transition toward an applied‑oriented model. Implement and deepen reforms of the examination and admissions systems as well as of teaching and learning. Establish individual learning accounts and a credit‑accumulation system to facilitate pathways for continuing education and lifelong learning. Advance educational informatization, develop distance education, and expand access to high‑quality educational resources. Improve educational oversight and strengthen social accountability. Support and regulate the development of private education, encouraging social forces and private capital to provide diversified educational services.
　　4. Promote employment and entrepreneurship. Uphold the employment-first strategy, implement more proactive employment policies, create additional job opportunities, and focus on addressing structural employment imbalances. Improve policies supporting entrepreneurship, encourage entrepreneurship to drive employment, and establish an entrepreneurship service platform accessible to all.
　　Coordinate the human resources market, dismantle urban–rural, regional, and sectoral barriers, and eliminate discrimination based on identity or gender, thereby safeguarding workers’ right to equal employment. Strengthen support for flexible and new forms of employment, and promote self‑employment. Implement initiatives to boost employment and entrepreneurship among college graduates, thereby stimulating youth employment and start-ups. Enhance employment assistance to help those facing difficulties in finding work secure jobs. Establish a lifelong vocational skills training system. Launch a program to upgrade the vocational skills of the new generation of rural migrant workers. Provide free vocational training to children from impoverished families, junior and senior high school graduates who do not pursue further education, rural migrant workers, the unemployed, workers undergoing job transitions, and demobilized military personnel. Promote a model of technical worker training that integrates work and learning and fosters collaboration between schools and enterprises, and introduce a new apprenticeship system in enterprises. Improve the remuneration of skilled workers, refine the professional title evaluation system, and extend practices linking professional titles and skill levels to household registration eligibility in major cities. Raise the quality of the workforce, increase labor force participation and labor productivity, enhance labor market flexibility, and facilitate the free flow of labor across regions, sectors, and enterprises. Foster harmonious labor relations and protect the legitimate rights and interests of both employees and employers. Improve the employment service system and strengthen its capacity to provide effective services. Refine the statistical indicator framework for employment and unemployment.
　　(5) Narrow the income gap. Ensure that increases in residents’ incomes keep pace with economic growth, and that rises in labor compensation are aligned with improvements in labor productivity, thereby continuously boosting the incomes of both urban and rural residents. Adjust the pattern of national income distribution, standardize primary distribution, and strengthen the role of secondary redistribution.
　　Improve the mechanisms for determining wage levels, ensuring regular wage growth, and guaranteeing timely payment, and implement a system of collective bargaining on enterprise wages. Refine the mechanism for increasing the minimum wage, enhance the system whereby market forces assess the contributions of various factors of production and remunerate them accordingly, and further develop a wage system tailored to the specific characteristics of government agencies and public institutions.
　　Implement policies that help narrow the income gap, substantially increase the incomes of low-income workers, and expand the share of the middle-income group. Accelerate the establishment of a personal income tax system that combines comprehensive and categorized approaches. Diversify channels to boost residents’ property‑related income. Regulate the order of income distribution, protect legitimate income, bring informal income into the formal system, curb income derived from non‑market factors such as power and administrative monopolies, and outlaw illegal income. Support the development of charitable causes, and mobilize broad social forces to carry out social assistance, mutual aid, and volunteer services. Improve tax policies that encourage giving back to society and alleviating poverty.
　　(6) Establish a social security system that is more equitable and sustainable. Implement a universal insurance coverage plan to achieve near‑universal coverage of all legally insured individuals. Uphold actuarial balance, refine the funding mechanism, and clearly delineate responsibilities among the government, enterprises, and individuals. Appropriately reduce social insurance contribution rates. Further improve the social insurance system.
　　Improve the individual account system for employees’ basic old-age insurance and strengthen the incentive mechanism that rewards higher contributions with greater benefits. Achieve nationwide unified administration of the basic pension for employees and establish a sound mechanism for the rational adjustment of basic pensions. Broaden investment channels for social insurance funds, enhance risk management, and boost investment returns. Gradually increase the proportion of state‑owned capital revenues remitted to the public treasury, and transfer a portion of state‑owned capital to replenish the social security fund. Introduce a phased policy to gradually raise the retirement age. Develop occupational pensions, enterprise annuities, and commercial pension insurance.
　　Improve the mechanisms for ensuring stable and sustainable financing of medical insurance and for adjusting reimbursement rates, and explore policies to require retired employees to pay premiums and enroll in medical insurance. Fully implement the serious illness insurance system for both urban and rural residents. Reform medical insurance payment methods to enhance their role in controlling costs. Refine individual accounts and introduce pooled funding for outpatient expenses. Enable direct settlement of inpatient medical expenses for retirees who are resettled in locations outside their place of registration. Integrate urban and rural resident medical insurance policies and administrative services. Encourage the development of supplementary medical insurance and commercial health insurance, and promote the participation of commercial insurers in managing medical insurance programs. Merge maternity insurance with basic medical insurance. Coordinate the social assistance system, strengthen policy coordination, advance institutional integration, and ensure the basic living needs of people in financial difficulty.
　　(7) Advance the building of a Healthy China. Deepen reform of the medical and healthcare system, implement coordinated reforms in medical services, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals, separate medicine from healthcare, promote tiered diagnosis and treatment, and establish a basic medical and healthcare system that covers both urban and rural areas, along with a modern hospital management system.
　　We will comprehensively advance the comprehensive reform of public hospitals, uphold their public‑service orientation, dismantle profit‑driven mechanisms, and establish a personnel and compensation system tailored to the characteristics of the healthcare sector. We will optimize the spatial distribution of medical and health institutions, improve a tiered, interconnected, and mutually complementary healthcare service system, refine primary‑care delivery models, and develop telemedicine. We will facilitate the flow of medical resources to the grassroots and rural areas, enhance the capacity of general practitioners, family doctors, and healthcare services in urgently needed fields, and promote the development of electronic health records. We will encourage social entities to develop the health‑services sector and ensure that non‑profit private hospitals receive the same treatment as public hospitals. We will strengthen oversight of medical quality, improve dispute‑resolution mechanisms, and foster harmonious doctor–patient relationships. We will give equal emphasis to both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and promote the development of TCM and ethnic medicines. We will refine the essential‑medicine system, bolster the mechanisms for ensuring drug supply, rationalize drug pricing, and expand free provision of special medications, including those for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. We will raise drug quality and guarantee medication safety. We will intensify integrated prevention and control of major diseases—such as infectious, chronic, and endemic illnesses—as well as occupational hazards, and adopt multiple measures to reduce the medical costs associated with serious and chronic conditions. We will advocate healthy lifestyles and strengthen mental‑health services. We will implement a food‑safety strategy, establishing a rigorous, efficient, and collaboratively governed food‑safety management system, so that the public can eat with confidence.
　　(8) Promote balanced population development. Uphold the basic national policy of family planning and refine the population development strategy. Fully implement the policy allowing couples to have two children. Enhance the quality of public services in reproductive health, maternal and child health care, and early childhood care and education. Provide support to family-planning families facing special difficulties. Attach great importance to family development.
Actively implement measures to address population aging, promote a social ethos of respecting, supporting, and assisting the elderly, and build a multi-tiered elderly care service system that is home-based, community-supported, and supplemented by institutional care. Integrate medical and health services with elderly care services, and explore the establishment of a long-term care insurance system. Fully liberalize the elderly care services market, and support various market entities in expanding the supply of elderly care services and products through service procurement, equity partnerships, and other mechanisms. Uphold the fundamental national policy of gender equality and safeguard the rights and interests of women and minors. Support the development of disability-related undertakings and improve the system of services for persons with disabilities.
　　VIII. Strengthen and improve Party leadership to provide a strong guarantee for the implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan.
Development is the Party’s top priority for governing the country and rejuvenating it. Party committees at all levels must deepen their understanding of the laws governing development, enhance their capacity and competence in leading development, advance the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, and better promote economic and social development.
　　(1) Improve the systems and mechanisms for Party leadership over economic and social development. Uphold the Party’s overall leadership and its role in coordinating all sides, give full play to the core leadership role of Party committees (Party leading groups) at all levels, strengthen institutional development, refine working systems, mechanisms, and methods, and enhance the decision-making and oversight functions of the Party committees. Raise the scientific level of decision-making by improving the mechanisms through which Party committees formulate strategies for economic and social development, regularly analyze the economic situation, and deliberate on major policies and guidelines, and by establishing a sound decision‑making advisory system. Perfect the information‑release system. Optimize the knowledge and professional profiles of leading teams, with a focus on cultivating and selecting cadres who are politically strong, professionally competent, good at governance, willing to take responsibility, and of upright conduct, thereby elevating their professional expertise. Deepen reform of the cadre and personnel system, improve the performance‑assessment and evaluation framework as well as the reward‑and‑punishment mechanisms, and stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of cadres at all levels. Strengthen Party organization building at all levels, reinforce the overall functions of primary-level Party organizations, give full play to their role as bastions of combat and to the exemplary and pioneering role of Party members, and inspire the broad ranks of cadres to forge ahead, overcome difficulties, and better lead the people in achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
　　The fight against corruption and the promotion of integrity is an ongoing endeavor; we must never halt or relax our efforts. We must uphold comprehensive and rigorous Party self‑governance, earnestly implement the requirements of “Three Stricts and Three Earnests,” strictly enforce Party discipline and rules, fulfill the principal and supervisory responsibilities for building a clean and honest Party, establish sound and lasting mechanisms for improving conduct, strengthen checks and oversight over the exercise of power, consolidate the achievements made in combating corruption, and forge effective systems that ensure officials dare not be corrupt, cannot be corrupt, and have no desire to be corrupt. In doing so, we will strive to foster a clean and upright cadre corps, a transparent and incorruptible government, and a clear and upright political environment, thereby creating a favorable political ecosystem for economic and social development.
　　(II) Mobilize the people to unite and strive together. Fully uphold democracy, implement the Party’s mass line, enhance our capacity to publicize and organize the masses, strengthen consultation on major issues of economic and social development as well as on matters that directly affect the vital interests of the people, safeguard all the rights and interests of the people in accordance with the law, and inspire a sense of ownership among all ethnic groups in building the motherland.
　　Strengthen ideological and political work, innovate the systems, mechanisms, and approaches of mass work, and give full play to the roles of trade unions, the Communist Youth League, the All-China Women’s Federation, and other mass organizations. Properly handle contradictions among the people, and maximize consensus and mobilize the strength of the entire society to advance reform and development and safeguard social harmony and stability. Attach great importance to work in the ideological sphere and effectively uphold ideological security. Consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front; fully implement the Party’s policies on intellectuals, ethnic groups, religions, overseas Chinese affairs, and other areas; give full play to the roles of the democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and non‑party personages; conduct in-depth publicity and education on ethnic unity and progress; guide religions to adapt to socialist society; promote harmony in relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religions, social strata, and compatriots at home and abroad; consolidate the great unity of all the peoples of China; and strengthen the great unity of Chinese sons and daughters both at home and overseas.
　　(3) Accelerate the development of a country strong in talent. Deeply implement the strategy of prioritizing talent development, advance institutional reforms and policy innovations in talent management, and establish institutional advantages that are internationally competitive. Promote strategic adjustments to the talent structure, emphasizing a focus on high‑level, specialized, cutting‑edge, and urgently needed talent; launch major talent initiatives; and concentrate on identifying, cultivating, and attracting strategic scientists, leading scientific and technological talents, entrepreneurial leaders, and highly skilled professionals. Adopt more open policies for attracting innovative talent, intensify efforts to recruit urgently needed and scarce expertise, and harness the wisdom and capabilities of talented individuals from around the world. Leverage the guiding role of government investment, and encourage enterprises, universities, research institutes, social organizations, and individuals to participate in an orderly manner in talent development and recruitment.
　　Optimize the allocation of human capital, remove barriers to talent mobility, and enhance both horizontal and vertical social mobility. Improve talent evaluation and incentive mechanisms as well as the support and service system, fostering a societal environment that enables everyone to realize their potential and allows young talents to stand out. Furthermore, refine the policy framework to facilitate the flow of talent to grassroots levels and to the central and western regions.
　　(4) Promote development by applying rule-of-law thinking and approaches. Upholding the rule of law is an intrinsic requirement for developing the socialist market economy. We must adhere to governance in accordance with the law and comprehensively enhance the Party’s capacity and competence to govern the country and administer state affairs in accordance with the Constitution and laws, as well as to manage the Party and exercise self‑discipline in accordance with Party regulations.
　　Strengthen the Party’s leadership over legislative work. Accelerate legislation in key areas, adhere to a balanced approach of enacting, amending, abolishing, and interpreting laws, and deepen efforts to promote science-based and democratic lawmaking, thereby expediting the establishment of a comprehensive system of legal norms. Enhance the building of a law-based government by defining, exercising, restraining, and supervising power in accordance with the law; regulate and govern the economy in compliance with the law; implement integrated law enforcement; and ensure that all government activities are brought firmly within the framework of the rule of law. Deepen reform of the judicial system, respect the inherent principles of justice, promote judicial fairness, and improve judicial safeguards for rights and judicial oversight of power. Uphold the spirit of socialist rule of law, strengthen throughout society—particularly among public officials—the awareness of respecting, studying, observing, and applying the law, and foster a favorable climate and established habits of the rule of law across the entire population.
　　(5) Strengthen and innovate social governance. Build a safe and secure China by improving the social governance system characterized by Party leadership, government guidance, social collaboration, public participation, and rule-of-law safeguards; advance the refinement of social governance; and foster a governance framework in which all people jointly build and share. Enhance mechanisms for articulating, coordinating, and protecting interests, and guide the public to exercise their rights, express their demands, and resolve disputes in accordance with the law. Strengthen community service functions and promote positive interaction among government governance, social regulation, and resident self-governance.
　　Strengthen the institutional foundations of social governance by establishing a national population database, a unified social credit code system, and related real-name registration mechanisms; improve the social credit system; and enhance the social psychological service system, along with mechanisms for psychological counseling and crisis intervention.
　　Improve the institutional mechanisms for comprehensive social security governance, leverage information technology to accelerate the development of a multi-layered, integrated public‑security prevention and control system, and establish a foundational platform for integrated service and management. Implement the system of social stability risk assessments for major policy decisions, refine the comprehensive mechanism for identifying, early warning, mediating, and resolving social conflicts, strengthen and enhance work related to letters and visits and mediation, and effectively prevent and resolve disputes and conflicts. Vigorously guard against and, in accordance with the law, punish illegal and criminal activities to safeguard social order.
　　Firmly establish the concept of safe development, put the people’s interests first, strengthen public awareness‑raising on safety, and improve the public safety system. Enhance and enforce systems for accountability and management in workplace safety, implement the principle of joint responsibility of Party and government leaders, dual responsibility for each post, and accountability for dereliction of duty; reinforce preventive measures at their source; reform the safety review system; improve early‑warning and emergency response mechanisms; intensify regulatory oversight and law enforcement; promptly identify and address safety hazards; and resolutely curb the frequent occurrence of serious and extremely serious accidents. Carry out projects to relocate hazardous chemical facilities and chemical enterprises—covering production, storage, safety, and environmental protection—and bolster basic capabilities for workplace safety as well as disaster prevention and mitigation, thereby effectively safeguarding the lives and property of the people.
Implement the holistic approach to national security, carry out the national security strategy, enforce national security policies in key areas, improve the national security review system, strengthen the rule of law on national security, and establish a comprehensive national security framework. In accordance with the law, rigorously prevent and severely crack down on infiltration, subversion, and sabotage activities by hostile forces, as well as violent terrorist acts, ethnic separatist activities, and extremist religious practices, thereby resolutely safeguarding national security in the political, economic, cultural, social, informational, and defense domains.
　　(6) Ensure that the goals and tasks set forth in the Proposals for the 13th Five-Year Plan are effectively implemented. When formulating the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan and sector-specific plans, it is imperative to resolutely carry out the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and to implement the development philosophy, key objectives, priority tasks, and major initiatives outlined in these Proposals. All regions shall, based on their specific circumstances, draw up their own 13th Five-Year Plans. Planning at all levels and across all sectors should incorporate indicators that clearly reflect the development concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and shared benefits, as well as binding targets for the government’s fulfillment of its duties, thereby ensuring the effective implementation of all decisions and arrangements adopted at the Plenary Session.
　　Achieving the development goals set for the 13th Five-Year Plan period holds bright prospects but entails a formidable task. All Party members and all ethnic groups across the country must rally even more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, unite as one, strive arduously, and jointly secure a great victory in the decisive stage of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects!