Review of the work in the past five years

It is a glorious mission entrusted to us by the Party and the people to adhere to and improve the system of people's congresses and do the NPC's work well in the new situation. On the foundation of the work of past NPCs and their Standing Committees, especially the Tenth NPC and its Standing Committee, the Eleventh NPC and its Standing Committee adhered to and improved the system of people's congresses more consciously, worked hard, made active explorations, and enriched the theory and practice of the system. They accumulated fresh and valuable experience and ushered in a new stage in the NPC's work. In our work, what we developed the deepest understanding of was these six points.

1. Keeping to the correct political orientation for the NPC's work

The NPC is the highest body of state power and plays an important role in the political life of the country. Keeping to the correct political orientation is the basis for doing the NPC's work well and affects the future and destiny of the country and the nation. We always followed the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development; unwaveringly took the path of making political advances with Chinese characteristics; upheld the unity of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and the rule of law; adhered to the correct political orientation for the NPC's work; and implemented these principles throughout the whole course and in every aspect of performing duties.

First, we upheld the leadership of the Party. The CPC is the firm leadership core of socialism with Chinese characteristics and it takes serving the people wholeheartedly as its fundamental purpose. The Party's stand pools the wisdom of all its members and the whole country, and represents the common aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the people. We consciously upheld the Party's leadership over the NPC's work; implemented its basic theories, line, program, experience and requirements; carried out major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee; turned the views of the Party into the will of the state through statutory procedures; and placed people recommended by the Party organization in leadership positions in bodies of state power through statutory procedures. We provided legal and institutional guarantees that the Party's line, principles and policies were implemented, and ensured that the Party fully played its role as the leadership core in exercising overall leadership and coordinating everyone's efforts. We ensured that all the work of the NPC, be it legislation, oversight, deciding major issues, or exercising the power to appoint and dismiss personnel, was conducive to strengthening and improving the Party's leadership, consolidating its position as the governing party and guaranteeing that the Party led the people in effectively governing the country.

Second, we adhered to and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a fundamental achievement the Party and the people made through practice over a long period of time and it is the basic orientation for contemporary China's development and progress. Only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China. We had firm confidence in the path, theories and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, kept firmly in mind China's basic condition of still being in the primary stage of socialism, focused on the goal of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, kept economic development as the central task, adhered to the Four Cardinal Principles and the reform and opening up policy, pursued development in a scientific way, strived to improve people's wellbeing, and promoted social harmony. We incorporated into law our practical experience in reform, opening up and socialist modernization in a timely manner; gave impetus to the effective enforcement of the Constitution, laws and major decisions and arrangements of the central leadership; and made full use of our role as the highest body of state power in ensuring and advancing the great practice of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Third, we adhered to and improved the system of people's congresses. China is a socialist country with a people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and farmers. The system of people's congresses is the fundamental political system that reflects the nature of China as a state and ensures that the people determine their own destiny. It is also the best possible way for the Party to fully bring democracy into play and implement the mass line in wielding state power. We fully understood the intrinsic nature of China's system of people's congresses, confidently made the most of these characteristics and our strengths, and carried out self-improvement and self-development of the system. We fully understood the essential difference between China's system of people's congresses and Western capitalist countries'systems of state power, resolutely resisted the influence of all kinds of erroneous thought and theories, and maintained a firm and clear position on major issues of principle. We drew on the political achievements of other societies, but never copied the model of Western political systems.

2. Focusing on the overall work of the Party and country in doing the NPC's work

The NPC's work is an important part of the Party and country's work. It touches on every aspect of the overall development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and bears on the smooth advance of reform, opening up and socialist modernization. Our work can satisfy the Party and the people only by being subordinate to and serving the overall work of the Party and country. We always planned and carried out the NPC's work in reference to the overall development of the Party and country's cause, coordinated our legislative and oversight work on the basis of the role and characteristics of the NPC's work, concentrated our strengths, set priorities, sought real results, and worked to spur the implementation of major policies and arrangements of the central leadership.

First, keeping to the main thread of accelerating the change of the growth model, we worked for development in a scientific manner. In light of China's prominent problems, such as a skewed industrial structure, weak capability for scientific and technological innovation, and lagging development of modern service industries, and in response to the impact of the global financial crisis, the Standing Committee, in addition to annually deliberating reports on the implementation of the plans for national economic and social development, also listened to and deliberated reports on responding to the financial crisis, changing the growth model, adjusting the economic structure, developing the service and tourism industries, and the progress report on the implementation of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. It also investigated compliance with the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress and revised the Patent Law. Members of the Standing Committee stressed that China's extensive growth model had already become unsustainable, it was imperative to accelerate economic structural adjustment, and this task had been made more prominent and urgent by the global financial crisis. We should strike a balance between solving immediate difficulties and achieving long-term development, transform serious challenges into development opportunities, transform market pressure into an impetus for adjustment, adhere to the strategic focus of boosting domestic demand, and work harder than before to raise the quality and performance of economic growth, so that the process of combating the global financial crisis becomes a process of making our development more sustainable. One, we should accelerate transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, endeavor to develop strategic emerging industries and advanced manufacturing industries, and elevate enterprises higher up industrial chains and make them more profitable. Two, we should energetically develop service industries, especially modern service industries, integrate their development with that of manufacturing and modern agriculture, and increase their share of the economy. Three, we should improve the technological innovation system that assigns enterprises the leading role, gets its orientation from the market, and connects enterprises, universities and research institutes together, closely integrate science and technology with industry and banking, scale up investment in science and technology, strive to make breakthroughs in key and core technologies, quicken the pace of industrial application of scientific and technological advances, and strengthen IPR protection, to make economic growth more innovation-driven.