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In his New Year address delivered on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed China's solid steps toward high-quality development.

Reform, which has turned out to be one of the key words for China in 2024, is vital for the achievements China has gained in the past year.

The determination to improve and widen reform epitomizes the central leadership's resolve to improve and develop the socialist system with Chinese characteristics while modernizing governance systems and capabilities. In July, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the cornerstone event of the year, laid down the directives for future reform work.

The plenum adopted the resolution on further deepening reform to advance Chinese modernization, a landmark document that outlines the significance and overarching goals for reforms. It also introduces over 300 specific reform measures, covering a wide range of areas from the economy, culture and social development to ecological sustainability, national security, and the CPC's leadership and governance capacity.

Following the plenum, the directives began to be implemented with a "hammer-and-nail" approach to ensure the reforms hit their targets.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee laid out plans to implement the major reforms identified at the plenum. High on the agenda was boosting consumption to expand domestic demand, nurturing emerging and future industries, and advancing a high-standard opening-up. They also unveiled a series of targeted policies to tackle pressing economic challenges.

"New business sectors, forms and models have kept emerging. For the first time, China has produced more than 10 million new energy vehicles in a year," President Xi said in his New Year address.

To translate the plenum's vision into reality, the government too issued a series of reform-focused documents. Meanwhile, legislative efforts were made to tackle hot-button issues like gradual extension of the statutory retirement age, providing support for the private sector, and restructuring local government debt.

The policies related to opening-up, in particular, garnered significant international attention. For instance, transit visas for travelers from select countries were extended from the original 72 and 144 hours to 240 hours. Starting November 30, nine more countries were added to the visa-free list. Moreover, ordinary passport holders from 38 countries covered by the visa-free policy can now stay in China for up to 30 days without a visa for business, tourism, family visit, exchange visit and transit purposes.

As a result, China recorded over 29 million foreign visits between January and November 2024, up 86.2 percent year on year, according to official data.

In the field of trade and investment, restrictions on foreign investment access in the financial and manufacturing sectors were gradually removed this year, scrapping the last few hurdles for global manufacturers to enter pillar industries of the world's second largest economy.

Amid the growing uncertainties in the global economy, these policies and measures have sent a clear signal to the international community: China's resolve in reform remains unwavering. In response, a host of foreign entrepreneurs have significantly increased their investments to embrace the opportunities of the Chinese market.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, for instance, announced in December it will invest nearly 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion) to establish a new insulin production base in Beijing. This will be Sanofi's largest single investment in China since entering the country in 1982. The move demonstrates global investors' consistent trust in the Chinese market.

Global investors' confidence is a result of China's determination to reform. The decisions, policies and actions in the past year reflect its distinctive approach of combining strategic steadiness with tactical adaptability – a hallmark of its governance style.

The results speak for themselves. The Chinese economy has rebounded noticeably after the introduction of a package of pro-growth policies. "We have adopted a full range of policies to make solid gains in pursuing high-quality development," President Xi said on Tuesday.

As President Xi Jinping summarized at the Central Economic Work Conference in December, the Chinese economy has maintained overall stability and made steady progress. High-quality development has been promoted, and the main goals and tasks of economic and social development are expected to be successfully completed.

It is evident that the decisions made at the third plenum and the actions taken since embody China's commitment to reform and an unwavering sense of responsibility to the mission.

The author Li Junru is the former vice president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

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