Third, the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is a legal guarantee for the prosperity and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Achieving modernization has been the great vision and constant goal of generations of Chinese people. Since the reform and opening up policy was adopted over 30 years ago, we have blazed the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and formed a socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics. This is the fundamental reason underlying all the achievements and progress we have made. We will always hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and concentrate our energy and efforts on development, and we will not cower before any risks or be deterred by any interference. We will have attained the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, and we will have basically achieved modernization by the middle of this century. The achievements we have already made would not have been possible without legal guarantees, and we cannot build the more beautiful future we are striving to create without legal guarantees either. The formation of a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics has brought the development of all the country's undertakings within the framework of law and provided the institutional and legal basis for solving fundamental, overarching and long-term issues concerning our national development as well as the issue of stability. It has identified clear values as well as the orientation and fundamental path for constantly improving the socialist market economy, intensively developing socialist democratic politics, making socialist advanced culture increasingly flourish and building a harmonious socialist society. And it has laid a firm legal foundation for building a prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious modern socialist country, and for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The formation of a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is a major accomplishment made by hundreds of millions of Chinese people under the leadership of the Party in developing socialist democracy and improving the socialist legal system.

The first generation of the Party's central collective leadership, with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core, led the people of all our ethnic groups in founding the People's Republic of China after a protracted and bloody struggle and formulating the Common Program and the first Constitution of New China, which created the basic state system, thereby establishing the fundamental political preconditions and institutional basis for developing a socialist democratic legal system and establishing the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics.

The second generation of the Party's central collective leadership, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping at its core, drew profound painful lessons from the "cultural revolution" and, when it made the historic decision to shift the focus of the work of the Party and the country to economic development and carry out reform and opening up, it adopted the strengthening of the socialist democratic legal system as an unshakable principle. This collective leadership emphasized the need for socialist democracy to be institutionalized and codified in order to ensure that institutions and laws do not change whenever leaders change, or whenever leaders change their views or shift their focus of attention. It stressed the need for there to be laws for people to follow, that they are observed and strictly enforced, and that lawbreakers are prosecuted. This ushered in a new era of dynamic development for the socialist democratic legal system.

The third generation of the Party's central collective leadership, with Comrade Jiang Zemin at its core, led the people of all our ethnic groups in successfully advancing the great cause of reform and opening up into the 21st century, and constantly enriched and developed the thinking underlying the socialist democratic legal system with Chinese characteristics. For the first time, they took the rule of law as the basic strategy for the Party to lead the people in governing the country, considered building a socialist country based on the rule of law to be an important part of socialist modernization, and set the clear legislative goal of forming a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics by 2010. All this marked the beginning of a new phase in the development of the socialist democratic legal system.

Since the 16th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, has carried the cause forward into the future, kept up with the times, unwaveringly pushed forward the great cause of reform and opening up in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and put forward the important strategic thought of the scientific outlook on development and the major strategic task of building a harmonious socialist society. The Central Committee has fully implemented the rule of law as the basic strategy and stressed that what is most fundamental in developing socialist democratic politics is intimately integrating the leadership of the Party, the people's position as masters of the country and the rule of law. In doing so, it has opened up new horizons for the development of a socialist democratic legal system.

The formation of a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is the result of prolonged collective efforts on everyone's part. The NPC and its Standing Committee have conscientiously fulfilled the duties bestowed upon them by the Constitution and laws, constantly strengthened and improved legislative work, done all in their power to raise the quality of legislation, and accomplished a huge amount of effective work to form a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. The State Council, in response to needs arising from carrying out economic and social development and implementing laws, has promptly formulated administrative regulations in accordance with the law. Local people's congresses and their standing committees, based on their local realities, have enacted a large number of local statutes in accordance with the law and made important contributions to forming the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. Local people's governments, people's courts and people's procuratorates at all levels; the army; the people; and experts and scholars have all vigorously supported and played an active role in legislative work, and contributed their wisdom and strength to establishing the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics.

Over the past 30-plus years of reform and opening up, we have successfully taken a path of legislation with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee. We have intimately integrated the leadership of the Party, the people's position as masters of their country and the rule of law, and carried out legislative work in a planned, focused and step-by-step manner, with our attention firmly fixed on the overall work of the Party and country. In just a few decades, we have formed a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. Such an arduous legislative task has rarely been seen in the world, and we have overcome unprecedented difficulties in the process. These accomplishments were not easy to come by, but the experiences gained are invaluable. Our five most significant experiences were as follows.