Editor's note: Gao Lei is an associate professor at the Center for Xi Jinping Thoughts on Opening-up, Research Institute of Globalization and China's Modernization, University of International Business and Economics. Xia Lu is an associate professor and research fellow at the National Academy for Development and Strategy, the Academy of Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Renmin University of China. The article reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

This year is the first year of the implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Xi Jinping stressed in a speech while presiding over the first meeting of the commission under the 20th CPC Central Committee on April 21. This year also marks the 45th anniversary of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the very meeting that launched China's reform and opening-up.

One of the keys to the success of China's reforms is that the CPC always conducts periodical review and updates in accordance with the ever-changing situation while still maintaining loyalty to its original intention.

The message is clear and sound that 2023 is the year of comprehensively deepening reform. According to the Party's tradition, it is largely expected that the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee would be held later this year, which would shoulder the similar historic functions of the aforementioned two meetings in laying down strategic frameworks and establishing fundamental engines for the country's reforming causes.

A couple of important documents were approved at Friday's meeting, showing the prioritized concern of the country's reform. Among these documents, three are about the strategic emphasis of real work while the other four are about the working procedures.

In terms of the strategic emphasis of real work, the documents have touched related issues of innovation, state-owned economies, and private sectors. In fact, it is about the fundamental driving force of China's reforms and economic development. Both the 14th Five-Year Plan promulgated in 2020 and the report at the 20th CPC National Congress last year attributed significance to the role of innovation as well as self-reliance of science and technology, which is "essential to high-quality development," according to President Xi. 

The competitions with developed countries have become increasingly fierce, meaning it might be difficult for China to solicit aid from the outside world. In fact, even the normal exchange and communication in the fields of science and technology are encountering obstruction, as we have been seeing certain countries' discriminatory policies against Chinese corporations. 

The realities have left China with no alternative but to rely on scientific and technological innovation. Whether or not China can achieve the goal of building a modern socialist power in an all-round way as scheduled depends on self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology.

And it is just in this sense that the principal role of China's enterprises in innovation shall be strengthened. Chinese companies know exactly the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the current situation of innovation-related issues that China is facing; therefore they could have quick and pertinent responses to these issues. 

But the firms also need the government to allocate resources to facilitate those responses. That's why centralizing and unifying leadership is needed, as the systematic distribution of key resources for innovation, such as funds, projects, platforms, and professional personnel, can provide fundamental support.

In terms of working procedures, a series of regulations for the commission, the specialized groups of the commission, and the general office of the commission have been listed out in detail. Though one may not know the specific content of these regulations, one can detect that these are highly related to the principles of the Party and State institutional reform since mid-March. 

One of the principles is to strengthen reform-related investigation and research. Ever since the CPC was founded over one hundred years ago, different generations of Party leadership have been attaching significance to investigation and research to grasp the real condition and find way out. Almost 100 years ago, Mao Zedong wrote his famous Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society and Investigation Report of Peasantry Movement in Hunan Province, setting good examples for Party leaders to design policies based on the realities. Therefore, always sticking to China's realities has become the key to the success of finding of China's own revolutionary path and final success of the revolution.

Similar logic could certainly be applied to Chinese modernization, as Chinese modernization is fundamentally different from other countries'. Based on China's reality and conforming to China's national conditions, Chinese modernization has its own time-schedules and paces and it will be advanced step by step in a down-to-earth manner.

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