China's development has reached a crucial stage.

Only 10 years is left for us to achieve the goal of turning ourselves into an all-round xiaokang (moderately well-off) society. In the long term, China's growing prosperity and progress is beyond doubt and difficult to stop. In the short term, new, profound and complex changes will take place in domestic and international spheres.

China's development faces new risks and challenges. Various challenges brought about by complex external environments, and problems of imbalance, disharmony and non-sustainability are cropping up constantly and becoming difficult to avoid.

Does the period of significant strategic opportunities for the country's development still exist? Can we continue to strive for a favorable international environment for our development? These are important matters of awareness that involve making scientific judgments about and correctly handling international and domestic situations. These are major strategic subjects, too, which concern fulfillment of the goals of China's reform and development.

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said the country was still in a period of significant strategic opportunities, during which it could accomplish a great deal. Also, its development has precious historical opportunities.

We should grasp the law of development in a scientific manner, actively adapt to environmental changes, and firmly seize the historical opportunities to effectively resolve all kinds of contradictions, and more energetically and efficiently push forward our country's reform and opening-up, and socialist modernization. The major strategic judgment, which concerns the overall situation of the CPC and the country's cause, clearly points out the historical position of present-day China, and would determine the direction of our march into the future.

Internationally, peace, development and cooperation are still the trends of the times. The world is going on the road of multi-polarization and economic globalization. Our country has seen conspicuous improvements in its international influence and international status. There are still opportunities for us to fully participate in economic globalization.

The international environment is generally conducive to China's peaceful development. Industrialization, application of information technology, urbanization, marketization and internationalization keep making new headways in the country.

Per capita national income is growing steadily. Economic restructuring is accelerating. Potential market demands are huge. Qualities of laborers keep improving. Institutional designs and mechanisms are being improved all the time in all aspects. And the overall social and political situation is stable. All these factors have created favorable conditions and provided a broad space for maintaining the good momentum of economic and social development in the country.

Judging from international and domestic situations both, the basic conditions for the existence of the period of significant strategic opportunities for China's development and the essential truth that we have more opportunities than challenges have not seen fundamental changes because of the changing situations.

Opportunities are fleeting. From the perspective of either our history of development or the development processes of other countries, whether a country can seize opportunities to promote development is a key determinant of whether it can gain the initiative, get a foothold and ultimately prosper.

For China, which is still in the process of modernization, the period of significant strategic opportunities is a time full of uphill tasks in reform and a critical stage in its development. Although we have made great achievements that have drawn the world's attention, the basic national condition that China is still at the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a very long time has not changed. There has been no change either in the contradiction between people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production, the main contradiction in society, or China's attribute as the largest developing country in the world.

The consistency of the three aspects mentioned above, in close association with the period of strategic opportunities, outlines a series of basic characteristics of contemporary China, and presents the responsibilities and mission that we face. It tells us that compared with developed countries and given the ambitious targets we have set, China has a long way to go.