BEIJING -- The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held a grand meeting at the Great Hall of the People on the morning of Sept 14 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the NPC. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the meeting and delivered an important speech. He stressed the need to further firm up confidence in the path, theory, system and culture, develop whole-process people's democracy, and continuously uphold, improve and run the system of people's congresses to good effect to provide a solid institutional guarantee for the Party and the people to achieve their goals on the new journey in the new era.

Li Qiang, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, who are members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Vice-President Han Zheng, attended the event. The meeting was presided over by Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

The meeting commenced amidst the resounding national anthem. Xi delivered an important speech. He pointed out that the system of people's congresses is the result of the arduous exploration and long-term struggles of the Chinese people under the CPC leadership. It is an entirely new political system that has grown from the Chinese soil and a great invention in the evolution of political institutions. The establishment of this system marked a great transformation in China's political system, signifying a great shift from a power structure where the power was concentrated in the hands of a few while the majority faced oppression and exploitation, to one that is led by the Party and empowers the people to govern the country as its masters.

Xi emphasized that over the past 70 years, the system of people's congresses has, under the Party's leadership, effectively ensured that our country continues to advance along the socialist path. It has demonstrated significant political advantages in guaranteeing that the Party leads the people in governing the country according to law, ensuring that the people are the masters of the country, maintaining political life that is both vibrant and orderly, promoting the rule of law in all aspects of national governance, and safeguarding long-term stability and peace. This system has provided an important institutional guarantee for creating miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Practice has proven that the people's congress system is a sound system that accords with China's national conditions and realities, embodies the nature of socialist countries, and effectively rallies the strength of all Chinese people to advance Chinese modernization.

Xi pointed out that since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, our Party has stood at a new historical juncture, gained a deep understanding of the new changes to the principal contradictions in Chinese society, actively responded to the people's new demands and aspirations for democracy and rule of law, and improved the organizational and working systems of people's congresses, making historic achievements in its work. We adhere to adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China's specific realities and fine traditional Chinese culture, deeply grasp the laws governing the development of socialist democracy, and continuously promote theoretical and practical innovations in the system of people's congresses. Noting that the system of people's congresses is an important institutional vehicle for realizing whole-process people's democracy in China, Xi said it is imperative to uphold the CPC's leadership, adhere to the use of a system of institutions to ensure that the people run the country, exercise law-based governance on all fronts, uphold democratic centralism, and stick to the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics. Efforts must be made to modernize China's system and capacity for governance, give full play to the role of deputies to people's congresses, strengthen the self-improvement efforts of people's congresses at various levels to uphold their four-fold role as political, working, representative institutions, and institutions of state power. This series of new concepts, ideas and requirements form the Party's important thoughts on upholding and improving the system of people's congresses, providing fundamental guidance for the high-quality development of people's congresses in the new era, Xi said.

Xi emphasized the need to give full play to the role of people's congresses in ensuring full and effective implementation of the Constitution and laws. People's congresses at all levels and their standing committees must fully perform their functions, firmly safeguard the unity, dignity, and authority of the country's legal system, ensure effective implementation of the Constitution and laws, and make sure that all state organs fulfill their duties and carry out their work within the scope permitted by the Constitution and laws.

It is important that people's congresses play a leading role in legislative work, Xi said. He urges efforts to improve the legislative framework featuring guidance from Party committees, the leading role played by people's congresses, support from the government, and participation by all parties. Efforts should be made to step up legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields, improve the quality of legislation, and continuously improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. He also urged efforts to accelerate the improvement of a legal system featuring equal rights, equal opportunities and fair rules for all to ensure that citizens fully enjoy their rights.

Xi emphasized the need to give full play to the key role of the oversight by people's congresses in the Party and state supervision systems. It is imperative to improve the system through which people's congresses oversee the government, the supervisory commissions, the people's courts and the people's procuratorates. Xi urged people's congresses to strengthen oversight of the implementation of the Constitution and laws, and intensify the review and oversight of government budgets and final accounts and the oversight over the management of state-owned assets and government debts. People's congresses should work to promote the implementation of the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans, and ensure that all state organs exercise their powers by law and that the legitimate rights and interests of the people are safeguarded and realized. Administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory and procuratorial organs at various levels should readily accept oversight from people's congresses and effectively fulfill their respective supervisory duties, he said.

Xi pointed out that people's congresses should play an exemplary role in maintaining close ties with the people. All state organs and their employees must foster a strong sense of service to the people, put the people above all else, and maintain close ties with them. Deputies to people's congresses shoulder the honorable duties entrusted to them by the people, Xi noted, urging them to faithfully represent the interests and will of the people, and serve as the bridge that links the Party and the state with the people. He stressed the need for all state organs to provide support for the deputies to the people's congresses to perform their duties in accordance with the law, improve the systems and mechanisms for contact with deputies, and ensure that deputies reach out to the public on a greater variety of issues and in more diversified ways.

Xi emphasized that party committees at all levels should strengthen their overall leadership over the work of the people's congresses, and support the people's congresses and their standing committees in exercising their powers and carrying out their work in accordance with the law. The leading Party members groups of the standing committees of the people's congresses at all levels should always adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, fulfill their main responsibilities for comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, and strengthen the political, ideological, organizational, work style, and disciplinary construction of the people's congresses in line with the requirement to uphold the four-fold role. They should train personnel that maintain political resolve, serve the people, respect the rule of law, promote democracy, and are diligent and responsible, and continuously improve the quality and level of the people's congress work in the new era and on the new journey.

While presiding over the meeting, Zhao Leji said that General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech reviewed the glorious course of the CPC leading the Chinese people in establishing and improving the system of people's congresses, and profoundly expounded on the remarkable political advantages of the system. The speech has systematically summarized the major achievements in theoretical and practical innovations of the system in the new era, and made comprehensive arrangements and clear requirements for upholding, improving, and running the system at a new historical starting point. The speech is forward-looking and inspires people to forge ahead. It enriches and develops Xi's important thoughts on upholding and improving the system, and is a guiding document shining with the brilliance of the truth of Marxism. We must study and comprehend it earnestly and firmly implement it. We must gain a deep understanding of the decisive significance of establishing Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and consciously uphold Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We must unwaveringly keep to the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics, and uphold, improve and run the system of people's congresses to good effect.

The meeting was attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee, State Councilors, president of the Supreme People's Court, procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, some vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, senior comrades who had assumed leading positions at the NPC Standing Committee, as well as members of the Central Military Commission in Beijing.

Approximately 3,000 people attended the meeting, including leaders from various departments of the CPC Central Committee, government, military and people's organizations as well as leading officials from Beijing, leaders of the central committees of democratic parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, representatives of non-party personages, members of the NPC Standing Committee and various special committees, senior officials from the standing committees of people's congresses at the provincial, regional and municipal levels, some NPC deputies, representatives from all walks of life in the capital, and foreign envoys in China.