Following is the translation of the full text of the Communiqué of the Sixth Plenum of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which was passed in Beijing Wednesday.
The Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee was held in Beijing from October 8 to 11, 2006.
Present at the plenum were 195 members and 152 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. Members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and leading officials of relevant departments also attended the meeting as nonvoting delegates.
The plenum was presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered an important speech at the plenum.
The plenum listened to and discussed the working report delivered by Hu Jintao, who was entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and adopted the "Resolutions of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Regarding the Building of a Harmonious Socialist Society". Wu Bangguo made an explanatory speech on the draft resolutions to the plenum.
The plenum fully recognized the work of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee since the Fifth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee. The plenum unanimously agreed that the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has firmly followed the guidance of the Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the "Three Represents", thoroughly implemented the guidelines of the 16th CPC National Congress and the Third, Fourth and Fifth plenums of the 16th CPC Central Committee and comprehensively implemented the scientific concept of development. The plenum agreed that the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, uniting and leading the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups, firmly focused on development, the most important task for the Party to govern and construct the country. The plenum agreed that the Political Bureau exerted efforts to speed up reform and opening up, improve the nation's capability of scientific and technological innovation and push the adjustment of economic structures and the transformation of economic growth mode to push for the relatively rapid and stable economic development. It agreed that new achievements have been made in the socialist economic, political, cultural and social construction, the Party's governance capability and advanced nature have been strengthened, and new progress has been achieved in the socialist cause of Chinese characteristics.
The plenum fully analyzed the current situation and tasks and discussed the key issues of building a harmonious socialist society. The plenum unanimously agreed that social harmony is the intrinsic nature of the socialism with Chinese characteristics and an important guarantee of the country's prosperity, the nation's rejuvenation and the people's happiness. The building of a harmonious socialist society is an important strategic task, which was put forward by the CPC under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the "Three Represents" and with full implementation of the scientific concept of development. The task was brought forward on the basis of the overall plan of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics and the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society. To build a harmonious socialist society was the intrinsic demand of constructing a socialist modernized country which is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious. It also embodied the common aspiration of the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups.
The plenum pointed out that social harmony is one of the targets that the CPC will make unremitting efforts to hit. Since the founding of New China, the CPC has made arduous efforts to promote social harmony and has made important achievements with both positive and bitter experiences. Since the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the CPC has been firmly committed to the reform and opening up drive and socialist construction, actively bolstered the comprehensive progress of economic and social development and made tireless efforts to promote social harmony. Since the 16th CPC National Congress, with deepening understanding of social harmony, the CPC has made clear the status of building a harmonious socialist society in the overall plan of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics and made a series of decisions and deployments to strive for new achievements in the building of a harmonious society. After long-term endeavors, a favorable condition for building a harmonious socialist society has been formed.
The plenum said the CPC should take opportunities and face challenges in the new century and lead Chinese people to push forward the great socialist cause with Chinese characteristics. It said the Party must continue to focus on economic development and put the building of the harmonious socialist society to a more prominent place.
The plenum believed that currently the Chinese society is harmonious in general. However, there exist many contradictions and problems, which affect social harmony. Human society has been developing and progressing amid movements of all kinds of conflicts. The building of the harmonious socialist society is a consistent process, during which social conflicts are resolved. We must always remain sober minded, be vigilant in peace time, thoroughly understand the feature of the country in the current phase of development, study and analyze the contradictions and problems and their origins in a scientific way, be more active to face up to the conflicts and solve them, and try utmost efforts to increase harmonious factors and reduce disharmonious factors to consistently boost social harmony. The plenum requested all Party members continue to emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts, keep pace with the times, be realistic, consciously act according to rules, be based on the current situation while keeping eyes on the future, do what our strength allows and exert every effort to continuously advance the building of the harmonious socialist society. The plenum requested all Party members contribute to the building of the socialist harmonious society, which should be regarded as a long-term historical task that runs through the whole process of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics and a vital realistic task for comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society.
The plenum stressed that the harmonious socialist society we are going to build is a harmonious society built and shared by all Chinese people along the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics and under the leadership of the CPC. We must adhere to the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of "Three Represents", adhere to the Party's basic line, basic program and basic experience, adhere to the guidance of scientific concept of development in overall economic and social development, follow the overall requirement of building a democratic society under the rule of law, a society based on equity and justice, an honest and caring society, a society full of vigor and a stable and orderly society in which humans live in harmony with nature, strive to develop social services, promote social equity and justice, foster a culture of harmony, improve public administration, enhance creativity of the society, pursue the road of common prosperity, and push forward coordinated development of social construction, economic construction, political construction and cultural construction with the emphasis on solving issues people care about most and issues that concern their most immediate and most realistic interests.
The plenum puts forward the main objectives and tasks for building a harmonious socialist society by 2020, which are as follows: the socialist democratic and legal system is further improved; the fundamental principle of administering the country according to law is implemented in an all-around way; people's rights and interests enjoy concrete respect and guarantee; widening of gap between urban and rural development and development between different regions is gradually reversed; a reasonable and orderly income distribution pattern takes shape in general; wealth of households increase universally and people lead more affluent lives; employment rate is relatively high and a social security system covering both urban and rural residents is established in general; basic public service system is further improved and the government attains relatively big improvements in administrative and service levels; the ideological and moral qualities, scientific and cultural qualities and health qualities of the whole nation are improved markedly and further progress is made in fostering a sound moral atmosphere and harmonious interpersonal relationship; creativity of the whole society is enhanced markedly and an innovation-based country is established in general; public administration system is further improved and social order is in good condition; efficiency of utilization of resources is enhanced markedly and visible improvement in ecological environment is achieved; the objective of building a moderately prosperous society of a higher level and in an all-around way to benefit the Chinese people of more than 1 billion is realized and striving to attain a situation in which all people do their best according to their abilities, everyone is provided for and people live together in harmony.
The plenum stressed that the following principles must be followed in building a harmonious socialist society: adhering to putting people first; adhering to development in a scientific way; adhering to reform and opening up; adhering to democracy and the rule of law; adhering to properly handling the relationships between reform, development and stability; and adhering to participation of the whole society under the leadership of the Party.
The plenum pointed out that development is the prerequisite of social harmony. We must adhere to solving problems on the road ahead through promoting development and make great efforts to develop social productive forces and constantly consolidate the material base for social harmony. Meanwhile, we must put more attention to developing social services and push forward economic and social development in a coordinated way. Social equity and justice is a basic condition of social harmony, while a sound system provides the fundamental guarantee to social equity and justice. We must accelerate construction of the system that plays an important role in ensuring social equity and justice to guarantee people's rights and interests in political, economic, cultural and social fields and guide our citizens to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations according to law. Nurturing a culture of harmony is an important task of building a harmonious socialist society, while socialist core value system is the essential element of the culture of harmony. We must adhere to the guiding role of Marxism in ideological fields, firmly control the development direction of socialist advanced culture, advocate harmony concepts and nurture the spirit of harmony to further foster common ideals and beliefs for the whole society and solidify the ideological and moral base for the whole Party and people of various ethnic groups to work hard in unison. Enhancing public administration and maintaining social stability is a prerequisite of building a harmonious socialist society. We must innovate the public administration system, integrate public administration resources, improve the level of public administration, improve the public administration pattern that is under the leadership of the Party committee, the government taking the responsibility with cooperation from other organizations and with participation of the public. Service should be accompanied with administration and administration should reflect service. Socialist harmonious society is both a society full of vigor and a society of unity and harmony. We must stimulate the energy of society to its full, promote the harmony of relationship between political parties, ethnic groups, religions, stratums and compatriots at home and abroad, consolidate the great unity of people of various ethnic groups and consolidate the great unity of Chinese both at home and abroad.
The plenum made the deployment for building a harmonious socialist society for present time and future: Construction of social cause should be strengthened through adhering to coordinated development; new socialist countryside construction should be earnestly pushed forward; the general strategy of regional development should be implemented; active employment policies should be carried out; education should be topped the agenda of development; health care services should be enhanced; development of cultural cause and cultural industries should be speed up; environmental protection and pollution control should be strengthened; institutional construction should be enhanced and social equality and justice should be safeguarded. The system of safeguarding democratic rights, the legal system and judicial system and mechanism, as well as systems of public finance, income distribution and social security should be improved. Harmonious culture should be built. Ethnic foundation for social harmony should be consolidated. Socialist core value system should be upheld. Socialist concept of honor and disgrace should be established. Civilized public morality should be fostered. Active and healthy ideological atmosphere should be built. A movement of creating harmonious society should be widely launched.
Social administration should be improved and good public order should be maintained. Service-oriented government should be established, community construction should be pushed forward and social organizations should be healthily developed. Interests of various sides should be coordinated in an overall manner. Emergency response system and overall management of public order should be improved. National security and national defense work must be strengthened.
Social vigor should be stimulated and social unity and harmony be enhanced. People's creative spirit should be brought into play and the broadest patriotic united front be consolidated. The long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao should be maintained, the great cause of national reunification should be pushed forward and the peaceful development road be adhered to.
The plenum stressed that to build a harmonious socialist society, the CPC's role as the core leadership must be brought into full play. The principles -- the Party is built for the public and exercises the power for the people -- must be adhered to. CPC's efforts in improving governance capacity and maintaining advanced nature are the political guarantee for the construction of a harmonious socialist society. Leadership and cadres at various levels should improve their capability of leading people to construct a harmonious socialist society. Party committees at various levels should put the construction of a harmonious socialist society at a prominent position and make efforts in judging direction, stipulating policies, pooling strengths and power, fostering favorable environment and shouldering the leadership accountability for the construction of a harmonious socialist society. Democratic centralism should be adhered to and improved. Efforts should be made in improving inner-Party democracy, increasing transparency of Party affairs, strictly regulating the inner-Party life, strictly enforcing the Party's discipline, promoting the party's unity. Inner-Party harmony will promote social harmony. Party committees at various levels should build the scientific leadership and work system of high-efficiency, clearly classify responsibilities, provide coordinated instruction, sharpen political sensitivity, strengthen investigation and research into major issues of social construction for the effectiveness of their policies and properly handling prominent contradictions and issues that affect social harmony in their localities. The work should be intensified in the grass-roots, the characteristics of the Party's work concerning the masses should be earnestly studied, and great effort should be made on the work concerning the masses. Party committees at various levels should always maintain flesh-and-blood relations with the masses and train a large number of professionals who are good at dealing with social issues.
Party committees at various levels should toughen the internal discipline and strengthen studying of the Party Constitution, laws and disciplines. Party members and cadres should strengthen ideological and moral cultivation. The anti-corruption mechanism should be improved and the supervision over the leading cadres and organizations should be intensified. The fight against corruption and the construction of a clean and honest Party should be fortified. Sound ethos within the Party should be introduced to foster healthy ethos among the general public and government officials, so as to create harmonious relations between the Party and the masses.
The plenum reviewed and passed a resolution on the convening of the 17th National Congress of the CPC, which is to be held in second half of 2007. The national congress, to be held at a crucial period of China's economic and social development, will be of vital importance for the Party to unite and lead all the Chinese people in building a moderately prosperous society and accelerating the nation's socialist modernization drive.
The plenum called on the whole Party to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with comrade Hu Jintao as the General Secretary; to hold high the banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Important Thought of "Three Represents" and further implement the scientific concept of development; to blaze new trails, unite and lead all Chinese people to build a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern nation.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2006)
