Xi Jinping presided over the third meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, emphasizing that…
Comprehensively advance the building of a Beautiful China.
Improve the regulatory systems and mechanisms for natural monopoly sectors.
Li Qiang, Wang Huning, and Cai Qi attended.

BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) — On the afternoon of Nov. 7, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People’s Republic of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Director of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, presided over the third meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform. The meeting reviewed and approved the “Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China,” the “Opinions on Further Improving the System of State‑Owned Capital Operation Budgets,” the “Implementation Opinions on Improving the Regulatory Mechanisms and Systems for Naturally Monopolized Sectors,” the “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Experts’ Participation in Public Decision‑Making,” and the “Guiding Opinions on Enhancing Zoning‑Based Control of the Ecological Environment.”

While presiding over the meeting, Xi Jinping emphasized that building a Beautiful China is an important goal in the comprehensive effort to build a modern socialist country. He called for firmly anchoring the target of basically achieving a Beautiful China by 2035, continuously deepening efforts to combat pollution, accelerating the green transformation of development models, enhancing the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, safeguarding the safety bottom line, improving the support system, and promoting a fundamental improvement in the ecological environment. The state capital operation budget is an essential component of the national budget system. It is necessary to refine the system of state capital operation budgets, expand its scope of application, strengthen its functions, improve revenue and expenditure management, and enhance the efficiency of fund utilization. We must also improve the regulatory mechanisms and institutional framework for natural monopoly sectors, reinforce institutional design, perfect the regulatory system, boost regulatory capacity, and strengthen the state-owned economy’s control over these sectors, thereby better meeting the needs of building a modern infrastructure system and further ensuring national security. With a view to better serving and supporting public decision-making, we should strengthen oversight and management of experts’ participation in public policy formulation, refine relevant systems and mechanisms, standardize procedures, reinforce full-process management, and foster an environment in which experts can fully leverage their talents, remain dynamic, and operate with integrity and transparency. Ecological and environmental zoning and control plays a foundational role within the system of source‑level prevention for ecological and environmental protection. We must strengthen top‑level design and improve the institutional framework, aiming to safeguard ecological functions and enhance environmental quality, and advance region‑specific, differentiated, and precise ecological and environmental management.

Li Qiang, Wang Huning, and Cai Qi, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairpersons of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, attended the meeting.

The meeting noted that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s ecological progress has undergone historic, transformative, and systemic changes—both in theory and in practice. In response to the new demands of high-quality economic and social development and the public’s growing expectations for a better environment, it is essential to intensify efforts to address pressing ecological and environmental issues, strengthen institutional frameworks for ecological civilization, leverage pioneering initiatives as models to drive broader change, and mobilize nationwide participation. This will ensure coordination between local and overarching priorities, integrate short-term measures with long-term solutions, and align immediate actions with enduring goals. Furthermore, leadership must be reinforced, with policies tailored to local conditions and governance strategies adapted to regional contexts, while pursuing refined and targeted implementation. Through concrete actions, we will steadily turn the vision of a Beautiful China into reality.

The meeting emphasized that budgetary work reflects the will of the Party and the state, and that it is essential to uphold and strengthen the Party’s leadership, leverage the institutional advantages of pooling resources to accomplish major undertakings, and focus on optimizing the layout and restructuring the state‑owned economy. It called for concentrating state capital in key industries and critical sectors that are vital to national security and the lifeline of the national economy, as well as in public services, emergency response capabilities, and public‑interest areas that underpin people’s livelihoods, and in forward‑looking, strategically important emerging industries, so as to better support the establishment of a new development paradigm and the promotion of high‑quality development. All efforts must remain firmly grounded in the principle of “living frugally,” with strengthened scientific coordination and rational allocation of fiscal resources, appropriately calibrated budgetary revenue and expenditure levels, and integrated measures to safeguard and improve people’s wellbeing, while resolutely curbing extravagance and waste. Furthermore, it is imperative to uphold the rule of law in budgeting, reinforce budgetary discipline, advance performance‑based budget management, and enhance the oversight role of the National People’s Congress.

The meeting noted that the network‑related segments of industries such as electricity, oil and gas, and railways exhibit natural monopoly characteristics and constitute key areas in China’s state‑owned economic structure. It is essential to improve the regulatory framework and strengthen regulatory capacity, with a particular focus on overseeing how these naturally monopolistic segments implement major national strategies and planning objectives, fulfill national security obligations, uphold social responsibilities, and adhere to prescribed scopes and conduct of business. This will encourage enterprises operating in these naturally monopolistic segments to concentrate on their core functions and primary businesses, increase state capital investment in network‑based infrastructure, and enhance the cybersecurity and reliability of critical networks. Furthermore, it is necessary to regulate the delineation between monopoly‑related activities and competitive activities within these segments, thereby preventing the exploitation of monopolistic advantages to extend into upstream and downstream competitive sectors.

The meeting emphasized that experts constitute a vital intellectual resource for advancing reform and development. It called for strengthening political guidance over the expert corps, improving policy frameworks and incentive mechanisms to facilitate expert participation in public decision-making, and fully mobilizing their enthusiasm and initiative. A comprehensive, end-to-end management system—covering everything from expert selection to evaluation and oversight—should be established and refined. Furthermore, institutional norms governing expert involvement in public decision-making should be improved by sector and category, clearly defining experts’ roles, rights and obligations, as well as their corresponding responsibilities, thereby encouraging them to actively offer sound advice and recommendations to the Party and the government in support of evidence-based policymaking.

The meeting emphasized that, to strengthen ecological and environmental zoning management, it is necessary to implement the strategy of functional zones, align it with territorial spatial planning and land-use control, and focus on pressing region‑wide and basin‑level ecological and environmental issues. It also called for refining ecological and environmental zoning plans and establishing a zoned, category‑specific management approach that spans from problem identification to solution design. Furthermore, local Party committees and governments at all levels must assume their primary responsibilities, leverage the outcomes of ecological and environmental zoning, support the implementation of major national and regional development strategies, and provide scientific guidance for various development, conservation, and construction activities.

Members of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform attended the meeting, while responsible officials from relevant departments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council were present in an observer capacity.