Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 10. The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing on December 8-10. The conference was attended by Xi Jinping (General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Chairman of the Central Military Commission), Li Keqiang (Politburo Standing Committee member), Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, and Han Zheng.

Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the conference summarizing the economic work of 2021, analyzing the current economic situation, and laying out the economic work of 2022. Li Keqiang, in his speech, presented specific arrangements for next year’s economic work, and gave concluding remarks.

The view of the conference was that this year was one with historic milestone significance in the history of the Party and the nation. We celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, achieved the first centennial objective, set out on a new journey towards the second centennial objective, calmly coped with change rarely seen in a century and a once-in-a-century epidemic, made new strides toward building the new development pattern, achieved new results in high-quality development, and got off to a good start in the 14th Five-Year Plan. China’s economic development and epidemic prevention and control maintained world-leading positions, the growth of the nation’s strategic science and technology (S&T) strength accelerated, the resilience of the production chain was improved, reform and opening up was promoted to a deeper level, livelihood assurance was strong and effective, and the construction of ecological civilization was continuously promoted. These achievements were the result of the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and were the result of the whole party and people of all nationalities working together and striving hard.

The conference pointed out that, while fully affirming the achievements, it is necessary to see that China’s economic development faces triple pressures, in the form of contracting demand, supply shocks, and a weakening of expectations. Under the impact of a once-in-a-century epidemic and the accelerating evolution of change rarely seen in a century, the external environment is becoming more complex, harsh, and uncertain. We must both face the difficulties, and also strengthen our confidence. China’s economic resilience is strong, and the long-term positive trend in fundamentals will not change. However, the international situation changes, we must be unwavering in doing our own things well, continuously strengthen our economic base, enhance our S&T innovation capabilities, adhere to multilateralism, take the initiative to benchmark with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and promote deep-level reform and high-quality development with a high degree of openness.

The view of the conference was that, in the practice of responding to risks and challenges, we have further added to our understanding of the regular patterns of economic work. We must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee, respond calmly to major challenges, and go forward in unison. We must adhere to high-quality development, and insist that being centered on economic construction is the requirement of the Party’s basic line: The whole Party must be focused on its implementation, pushing the economy to achieve steady improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity. We must adhere to pursuing progress while ensuring stability. In adjusting policies and promoting reform, we must have a good grasp of timing, extent and effectiveness, and adhere to establishing [the new] before breaking [the old], standing firmly and fighting steadily. We must strengthen overall coordination, and adhere to the system concept.

The Party’s 20th National Congress will be held next year, and the conference stressed that this is a major event in the political life of the Party and the nation, so it will be necessary to maintain a stable and healthy economic environment, a social environment of peace and prosperity, and a clean and upright political environment. To do a good job in next year’s economic work, we must be guided by Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress and all of its plenums, carry forward the great founding spirit of the Party, and adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while ensuring stability; completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, accelerate construction of the new development pattern, deepen reform and opening up across the board, adhere to innovation-driven development, promote high-quality development, and adhere to supply-side structural reform; coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and coordinate development and security; continue to do a good job of ensuring “stability in six areas” and “security in six areas,” and continue to improve the people’s livelihood, focusing on stabilizing the macroeconomic climate, keeping economic operations within a reasonable range, and maintaining general social stability, so as to pave the way for the successful convening of the Party’s 20th National Congress.

The conference called for next year’s economic work to make stability the key term, and pursue progress while ensuring stability. All regions and departments must assume responsibility for the stability of the macroeconomy, all parties should actively put forward policies conducive to economic stability, and the thrust of policies should be appropriately forward-leaning.

First, macroeconomic policies must be robust and effective. We must continue to implement proactive fiscal policies and robust monetary policies. The effectiveness of proactive fiscal policies must be improved, with greater emphasis on precision and sustainability. We must guarantee the intensity of government fiscal expenditures, and speed up the progress of expenditures. We must also implement new tax and fee reduction policies, strengthen support of micro, small and medium enterprises, sole proprietors, the manufacturing industry, and risk mitigation, and appropriately advance infrastructure investment. Party and government agencies must adhere to belt tightening, with stern financial discipline. New hidden debts by local government must be resolutely curbed. Robust monetary policies must be flexible and moderate, so as to maintain reasonably ample liquidity. We must guide financial institutions to enlarge their support for the real economy, especially small and micro enterprises, S&T innovation, and green development. Fiscal policy and monetary policy should be coordinated and linked, and cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical macroeconomic control policies should be organically combined. We shall properly implement strategies to expand domestic demand, and enhance the endogenous power of development.

Second, microeconomic policies must continuously stimulate the vitality of market entities. We must boost the confidence of market entities, deeply implement fair competition policies, strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition efforts, and use impartial regulation to assure fair competition. We shall strengthen protection of intellectual property, and create a good environment for the competitive development of enterprises with all types of ownership. And we shall strengthen the contract spirit, and effectively control malicious arrears and evasion of debts.

Third, structural policies must concentrate on unblocking the national economic cycle. Supply-side structural reforms must be deepened, with the focus on smoothing the flow of the domestic great circulation, breaking through supply constraint blockages, and opening up blocked production, distribution, circulation, and consumption links. We must: Increase the manufacturing industry’s core competitiveness, launch a number of industrial base reengineering projects, and stimulate the emergence of a large number of “specialized, refined, distinctive and novel” enterprises. Accelerate the formation of an internally and externally connected, secure and efficient logistics network; accelerate digital transformation, and promote the upgrading of traditional industries. We must: Insist that houses are for living in, not for speculation; strengthen guidance of expectations, and explore new development models; insist on having both purchasing and renting, accelerate development of the long-term rental market, promote construction of assured affordable housing, support the commercial housing market in better meeting the reasonable housing requirements of house buyers, and promote the healthy, virtuous circle development of the real estate industry, with housing policies tailored to local conditions.

Fourth, S&T policies must be solidly implemented. We must: Implement a three-year action plan to reform the S&T system, and formulate and implement a ten-year basic research plan. Strengthen national strength in strategic S&T, make full use of the role played by national laboratories, reorganize the key laboratories nationwide, and promote the reform of scientific research institutes. Strengthen the positioning of enterprise innovation entities, and deepen the combining of industry, universities and research institutes. Refine and optimize the S&T innovation ecosystem, and forge a solid research style. Continue to carry out international S&T cooperation.

Fifth, reform and opening up policies must spur development momentum. We must: Properly grasp comprehensive reform pilot projects for the market-oriented allocation of factors, fully implement the registration system for stock issuance, complete the three-year action plan tasks for the reform of state-owned enterprises, and steadily promote the reform of natural monopolies such as power grids and railroads. Mobilize enthusiasm for local-level reform, and encourage active reform according to local conditions. Expand high-level opening to the outside, promote system-based opening, put into effect the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises, attract investment by more multinational companies, and promote the accelerated implementation of major foreign-funded projects. Promote high-quality “Belt and Road” development.

Sixth, regional policies must make development more balanced and coordinated. We must: Deeply implement major strategic and regional coordination development strategies for regions, and promote the coordinated development of the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions. Promote rural revitalization across the board, and raise the quality of new urbanization construction.

Seventh, social policies must adhere tenaciously to the bottom line on people’s livelihood. We must: Have overall coordination on promoting economic development and assurance of people’s livelihood, and improve the system for providing basic public services in places of permanent residence. Successfully solve the employment problems of college graduates and other young people, and improve the labor use and social security policies for flexible employment. Promote overall nationwide coordination of basic pension insurance. Push the new maternity policy to be put into effect, and actively address the aging of the population.

The view of the conference was that, as we enter a new development stage, profound changes have occurred in China’s internal and external environment for development, and we face many new and significant theoretical and practical issues that must be understood and grasped correctly.

We must correctly understand and grasp the strategic goals and practical routes for achieving common prosperity. In the context of China’s socialist system, we must constantly liberate and develop the society’s productive forces, constantly creating and accumulating social wealth, and must also prevent polarization To achieve the goal of common prosperity, we must first make the “pie” bigger and better through the joint struggle of the people nationwide, and then divide the “pie” well through rational institutional arrangements. This is a long-term historical process, and we must make steady progress toward this goal. In promoting high-quality development, we must strengthen the employment-first orientation, increasing the job-creating power of economic growth. We must give full play to the role and function of distribution, and while adhering to distribution according to work as the mainstay, we must refine policies for distribution according to factors, and augment adjustments such as taxation, social security, and transfer payments. We shall support willing and able enterprises and social groups in actively participating in public welfare and philanthropy. We must insist on doing our best and living within our means, refine the system of public service policies and institutions, and provide basic public services with precision in areas of greatest concern to the people—education, healthcare, pensions, housing, etc.

We must correctly understand and grasp the nature of capital and the laws of behavior. The socialist market economy is a great creation. There will inevitably be various forms of capital in it, and we must make full use of the positive role capital plays as a factor of production, while effectively controlling its negative influence. We must set “traffic lights” for capital, strengthen the effective regulation of capital according to law, and prevent capital from growing wildly. We must support and guide the well-regulated and healthy development of capital, adhere to and refine the basic socialist economic system, unwaveringly consolidate and develop the public sector economy, and unwaveringly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector economy.

We must correctly understand and grasp assuring the supply of primary goods. We must adhere to the priority of conservation, and implement a comprehensive conservation strategy. On the production side, we will promote the comprehensive conservation, intensive use, and recycling of resources. On the consumption side, we will enhance national awareness of conservation, and advocate lifestyles that are simple and moderate, green and low-carbon. We must enhance our ability to assure domestic resource production, accelerate the development and application of advanced extraction technology for oil and gas and other resources, and accelerate the building of the waste recycling system. We must give more prominence to improving comprehensive agricultural production capacity, continuously promote high-standard farmland construction, implement seed industry revitalization actions in depth, improve the level of agricultural equipment, and assure farmers get reasonable returns for growing food. The Chinese people’s rice bowl must be firmly in their own hands at all times.

We must correctly understand and grasp the prevention and defusing of major risks. We must: Continue to follow the policy of ensuring the stability of the big picture, overall coordination, differentiated policy implementation, and precise defusing; have a good grasp of risk handling, and strengthen the rule of law in finance; firm up the responsibilities of localities, financial regulators, industry supervisors and other parties, and firm up the primary self-rescue responsibility of enterprises. We must strengthen capacity building, and bolster construction of financial regulatory teams. We must have sufficient resources for defusing risks, and study and formulate policies to defuse risks; we must cooperate widely, and refine financial risk handling mechanisms.

We must correctly understand and grasp peak carbon and carbon neutrality. Achievement of peak carbon and carbon neutrality is an inherent requirement for promoting high-quality development. It should be firmly promoted, but the job cannot be finished all at once. We should adhere to the principles of nationwide overall coordination, conservation as the priority, being driven by two wheels (proper government and effective markets), smooth internal and external flows, and risk prevention. The gradual withdrawal of traditional energy sources should be established on a foundation of safe and reliable replacement with new energy sources. We must be firmly grounded in the basic national condition of coal being dominant, grasp the clean and efficient use of coal, increase new energy consumption capacity, and promote the optimal combination of coal and new energy. We must pay close attention to green and low-carbon technology research. We must scientifically consider not including new renewable energy and its raw material energy under controls on total energy consumption, create conditions for achieving an early transition from the “double control” of energy consumption (amounts and intensities) to the “double control” of total carbon emission amounts and intensities, accelerate the formation of incentive and constraint mechanisms to reduce pollution and carbon, and avoid simple layer-by-layer decomposition. We must ensure the supply of energy. Large enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises, should take the lead in supply assurance and price stability. We must deepen promotion of the energy revolution and accelerate construction of an energy superpower.

The view of the conference was that we must: Continue doing a good job on “stability in six areas” and “security in six areas,” especially on ensuring employment, people’s livelihood, and the operations of market entities; centered around keeping economic operations within reasonable bounds, strengthen and improve macroeconomic regulation, intensify cross-cyclical adjustment of macroeconomic policies, and make macroeconomic regulation more forward-looking. Market entities are tasked with providing employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for hundreds of millions of people We must: Continue to implement new tax and fee reductions for market entities, and help them (especially medium, small, and micro enterprises, and sole proprietors) to alleviate their burdens and difficulties, and get back on track. Intensify financing support for the real economy, and promote greater, broader, and lower-cost financing for medium, small, and micro enterprises. Do a good job on employment for key group, and implement detailed measures to stabilize employment. Promote the flow of financial resources toward lower levels of government, better support grassroots government in implementing policies to help enterprises alleviate difficulties, and ensure basic livelihood, wages, and business operations. Strengthen the regulation of coal, electricity, oil, gas, and transportation, and promote the adequate supply of electricity. We must deepen the reform of key areas, step up stimulation of market vitality and development of endogenous driving force, and use market-based mechanisms to encourage enterprises to invest in innovation. Promote the joint development of multiple types of economic ownership, optimize the environment for private sector development, and protect the property rights and legitimate rights and interests of all types of market entities according to law. Policies must treat all equally. Expand high-level openness, stabilize foreign trade using multiple measures, assure the stability of production chains and supply chains, and increase efforts to attract foreign investment.

The conference required Party committees and governments at all levels, and leading cadres at all levels, to consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee, and raise their judgment, comprehension, and implementation abilities in political matters. They must also learn historical knowledge, deeply cultivate cultural heritage, and strengthen ecological concepts. These must be implemented into action, reflected in the practical actions taken to implement the Party’s line and policies and to promote high-quality development, and in the practical actions taken to share the Party’s concerns, be responsible for the country, and contribute to the people.

The conference pointed out that leadership on economic work must respect objective reality and the needs of the masses, and must have systematic thinking and scientific planning. Leading cadres must improve their professional ability to lead economic work. Economic and social development is a system project, and as such, overall consideration must be given to political and economic, current and historical, and material and cultural aspects, as well as development and people’s livelihood, resources and ecology, and domestic and international factors. Leading cadres must strengthen their study of economics and S&T, and in particular must understand the people-centered development philosophy, adhere to the correct view of political achievement, humbly respect history, culture, and ecology, and practice prudent decision-making and the prudent exercise of power. They must strengthen investigation and research, adhere to “three strict, three steady,” resolutely prevent simplification and indiscriminate acts, and resolutely oppose responsibility shifting and inaction.

The conference stressed the need to do a good job of scientific and precise epidemic prevention and control, adhering to “prevention of importation externally, and prevention of a rebound internally.” We must: Coordinate arrangements to assure the supply of coal, electricity, oil, gas, and transportation. Do a good job of supply and price stability for grain, oil, meat, eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables. Assure payment of wages to migrant workers, and reinforce safe production and public security. We must strive to do a good job on services and assurance for the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympic Games, ensuring that simple, safe and wonderful Olympic events are held.

The conference called on all party comrades to closely unite around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, enhance the “four consciousnesses,” firmly establish the “four matters of confidence,” achieve the “two upholds,” make good use of the results of Party history learning and education, and take practical action to put in place the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, thereby paving the way for a successful 20th Party Congress.

The conference was attended by the members of the Politburo of the CCP Central Committee, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, the leading comrades of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Councilor, the President of the Supreme People’s Court, the Procurator General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the leading comrades of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and members of the Central Military Commission.

Also attending the conference were the leading Party and government comrades of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and the leading comrades of the relevant departments of central and state organs, the relevant people’s organizations, some financial institutions and enterprises managed by the central government, and departments of the Central Military Commission.