1. Keep the orientation of advanced culture firmly in hand. In contemporary China, to develop advanced culture means to develop national, scientific and popular socialist culture geared to the needs of modernization, of the world and of the future so as to enrich people's mental world and reinforce their mental strength. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as our guidelines in the realm of ideology and have the important thought of Three Represents in command of the development of socialist culture. We must keep to the orientation of serving the people and socialism and the principle of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend and highlight the themes of the times while encouraging diversity. We should continue to arm people with scientific theory, provide them with correct media guidance, imbue them with lofty ideals, and inspire them with excellent works of literature and art. We must exert ourselves to develop advanced culture and support healthy and useful culture, changing what is backward and resisting what is decadent. Literary and art workers should go deep among the masses and into the thick of life so as to contribute to the people more works worthy of the times. The press, publishing, radio, film and television must give correct guidance to the public, and Internet web sites should serve as important fronts for spreading advanced culture. Basing ourselves on the practice of reform, opening up and modernization and keeping abreast of the latest developments in world culture, we must carry forward the fine tradition of our national culture, draw on the strong points of other nations and make innovations in content and form so as to enhance the attraction and appeal of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.

2. Continue to carry forward and cultivate the national spirit. National spirit is the moral kingpin on which a nation relies for survival and development. Without an inspiring spirit and lofty character, it is impossible for a nation to stand proudly in the family of nations. For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has evolved a great national spirit centering on patriotism and featuring unity and solidarity, love of peace, industry, courage and ceaseless self-improvement. This national spirit has been enriched in light of the requirements of the times and social development by the people under the leadership of our Party over along period of practice. Confronted with interaction of different thoughts and cultures in the world, we must take it as a crucial task in our cultural development to carry forward and cultivate the national spirit and incorporate it into our national education and the entire process of building spiritual civilization so that the entire people are always filled with an enterprising spirit.

3. Promote ideological and ethical progress. Ruling the country by law and ruling the country by virtue complement each other. It is necessary to establish a socialist ideological and ethical system compatible with the socialist market economy and the socialist legal standard and consistent with the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation. We must carry out intensive publicity and education in the Party's basic theory, line and program and in the important thought of Three Represents, and guide people in fostering a common ideal for socialism with Chinese characteristics, correct world outlook, views on life and values. We must carry out the Program for Improving Civic Morality, promote patriotism and, with serving the people at the core, collectivism as the principle and honesty as a priority, intensify education in social and professional ethics and family virtues and especially intensify the ideological and ethical improvement among youth so as to guide people in their pursuit of higher ideological and ethical standards on the basis of observing the basic code of conduct. We must strengthen and improve ideological and political work and encourage popular participation in building spiritual civilization.

4. Develop education and science. Education is the foundation for scientific and technological advancement and personnel training. Playing a vanguard role and having an overall bearing on the modernization drive, education must be placed on our development agenda as a strategic priority. We must carry out the Party's education policy that education should serve socialist modernization and the people and integrate itself with productive labor and social practice so as to train socialist builders and successors featuring an all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and art. We should encourage innovation in education, deepen its reform, optimize its structure, allocate its resources rationally, raise its quality and management levels and promote quality-oriented education to cultivate hundreds of millions of high-quality workers, tens of millions of specialized personnel and a great number of top-notch innovative personnel. We should build up the ranks of teachers and raise their professional ethics and competence. We should continue to make nine-year compulsory education universal across the country, intensify vocational education and training, develop continued education and set up a system of life-long education. We should increase input in education, give more support to rural education, and encourage nongovernmental sectors to run schools. We should improve the state policy and system for aiding students in straitened circumstances. We should formulate a long-term program for scientific and technological development. We should step up the development of infrastructure for research. We should disseminate science and promote the scientific spirit. We must lay equal stress on social sciences and natural sciences and give full play to the important role of philosophy and other social sciences in economic and social development. It is essential to create an atmosphere in society at large favorable for respecting and promoting science, encouraging innovation and opposing superstition and pseudo-science.

5. Develop cultural undertakings and industry. In developing cultural undertakings and industry, it is imperative to meet the requirements of developing advanced culture and always place social effects in the first place. The state supports and protects public cultural undertakings and encourages them to enhance their vigor for self-development. We must continue to improve the policies and measures for the development of public cultural undertakings. We must give our support to the major news media and research institutions of social sciences of the Party and state, to the major cultural projects and art schools and troupes that are up to national standards and embody national characteristics, to the protection of major cultural heritage and outstanding folk arts, and to the cultural development in the old revolutionary base areas, areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, remote areas, impoverished areas and the central and western regions of the country. We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture. We should promote the reform and development of health and sports undertakings and carry on the nationwide fitness campaign to improve the physique of the entire people. We should make the 2008 Olympics a success. Developing the cultural industry is an important avenue to enriching socialist culture in the market economy and to meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people. It is essential to improve policies toward the cultural industry, support its development and enhance its overall strength and competitiveness.

6. Continue to deepen cultural restructuring. It is necessary to push forward cultural restructuring in light of the characteristics of the development of socialist spiritual civilization and laws governing it and in response to the needs of the growing socialist market economy. We must lose no time in working out overall planning for cultural restructuring. We must integrate the deepening of reform with structural adjustment and promotion of development and straighten out the relationship between the government and cultural enterprises and institutions. We must build up a legal system concerning culture and intensify macro-control. We should deepen the internal reform of cultural enterprises and institutions and gradually establish a management system and operational mechanism favorable to arousing the initiative of cultural workers, encouraging innovation and bringing forth more top-notch works and more outstanding personnel. In compliance with the principle of both enriching culture and intensifying management, we should improve the system of markets for cultural products and their management mechanism to create a social climate favorable for a flourishing socialist culture.

The Chinese civilization, extensive and profound, and with a long history behind it, has contributed tremendously to the progress of human civilization. We will surely have a new upsurge in building socialist culture and create an even more splendid advanced culture in the great struggle of the Chinese people in the contemporary era.

VII. National Defense and Army Building

Strengthening our national defense is a strategic task in our modernization drive and an important guarantee for safeguarding our national security and unity and building a well-off society in an all-round way. We must uphold the principle of coordinated development of national defense and the economy and push forward the modernization of national defense and the army on the basis of economic growth.

The army must take Mao Zedong's military thinking and Deng Xiaoping's thinking on army building in the new period as the guide to action and fully implement the important thought of Three Represents. It must persist in taking the road of fewer but better troops with Chinese characteristics and become more revolutionary, modernized and regularized in compliance with the general requirements of being qualified politically and competent militarily and having a fine style of work, strict discipline and adequate logistic support and in close connection with the two historic objectives of being capable of winning battles and never degenerating.

The army should give first priority to ideological and political development in all its endeavors and retain the nature, quality and style of work worthy of a people's army. The Party's absolute leadership over the army is the eternal soul of the army. There must be no wavering in upholding the fundamental principle and system that the Party leads the people's army.

The army must implement the military strategic principle of active defense and raise its defense capabilities and combat effectiveness under high-tech conditions. In response to the trend of military changes in the world, it must carry out the strategy of building a strong army through science and technology and improve its qualities. It should attach strategic importance to education and training, carry on intensive science- and technology-related military training and strengthen the building of military academies and schools so as to bring up a large number of high-quality military personnel of a new type. It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories. Efforts should be made to accomplish the historical tasks of mechanization and IT application, thereby bringing about leapfrog development in the modernization of our army.

It is necessary to explore the characteristics and laws for running the army under the new historical conditions and press ahead with reforms in the building of national defense and the army. The formation and structure of the army must be optimized and the related policies and systems should be adjusted and improved. The army must be strict with itself and improve the system of military rules and regulations so as to raise the level of handling its affairs according to law. It is essential to persist in building the army through diligence and thrift and establishing and improving an integrated logistic support system for the three armed services, for both military and civilian purposes and for both peacetime and wartime. It is necessary to deepen the restructuring of defense-related science, technology and industry, combine military efforts with civilian support, establish and improve the mechanism of competition, appraisal, supervision and incentives and enhance the capabilities of independent innovation so as to speed up the development of defense-related science and technology as well as arms and equipment. It is necessary to improve the mobilization system for national defense, strengthen the militia and reserves and develop strategies and tactics of the people's war under high-tech conditions. The armed police should strive for all-round improvement and be loyal guards of the Party and the people forever.

Party organizations and governments at all levels and the people should be concerned with and support the building of national defense and the army. The army should support and take an active part in national construction. We should strengthen education in national defense to enhance the entire people's awareness of its importance. The government and the people should support the army and give preferential treatment to the families of servicemen and martyrs, and the army should support the government and cherish the people so as to consolidate the solidarity between the army and the government and between the army and the people.

VIII. "One Country, Two Systems" and Complete National Reunification

To achieve complete reunification of the motherland is a common aspiration of all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation both at home and abroad. We have successfully resolved the questions of Hong Kong and Macao and are striving for an early settlement of the question of Taiwan and for the accomplishment of the great cause of national reunification.

The return of Hong Kong and Macao to the motherland has enriched the concept of "one country, two systems" in both theory and practice. Facts prove that "one country, two systems" is a correct policy and has strong vitality. We will resolutely implement this policy and act in strict accordance with the basic laws of Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. We will render full support to the chief executives and governments of the two regions in their work and unite with people from all walks of life there in a joint effort to maintain and promote the prosperity, stability and development of Hong Kong and Macao.

We will adhere to the basic principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems" and the eight-point proposal on developing cross-straits relations and advancing the process of peaceful national reunification at the present stage. We will work with our compatriots in Taiwan to step up personnel exchanges and promote economic, cultural and other interflows between the two sides and firmly oppose the Taiwan separatist forces. The basic configuration and development trend of the cross-straits relations remain unchanged. The desire of our Taiwan compatriots for peace, stability and development is growing stronger day by day. The splitting activities by the Taiwan separatist forces are unpopular.

Adherence to the one-China principle is the basis for the development of cross-straits relations and the realization of peaceful reunification. There is but one China in the world, and both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. China's sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division. We firmly oppose all words and deeds aimed at creating "Taiwan independence", "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan". The future of Taiwan lies in the reunification of the motherland. To conduct dialogue and hold negotiations on peaceful reunification has been our consistent position. Here we repeat our appeal: On the basis of the one-China principle, let us shelve for now certain political disputes and resume the cross-straits dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible. On the premise of the one-China principle, all issues can be discussed. We may discuss how to end the cross-straits hostility formally. We may also discuss the international space in which the Taiwan region may conduct economic, cultural and social activities compatible with its status, or discuss the political status of the Taiwan authorities or other issues. We are willing to exchange views with all political parties and personages of all circles in Taiwan on the development of cross-straits relations and the promotion of peaceful reunification.

We place our hopes on the people in Taiwan for the settlement of the Taiwan question and the realization of the complete reunification of China. Our compatriots in Taiwan have a glorious patriotic tradition and are an important force in developing cross-straits relations. We fully respect their life style and their wish to be the masters of our country. The two sides should expand mutual contacts and exchanges and work together to carry forward the fine tradition of the Chinese culture. As the direct links of mail, air and shipping services, and trade across the Taiwan Straits serve the common interests of the compatriots on both sides, there is every reason to take practical and positive steps to promote such direct links and open up new prospects for cross-straits economic cooperation.

"One country, two systems" is the best way for the reunification between the two sides. After its reunification with the mainland, Taiwan may keep its existing social system unchanged and enjoy a high degree of autonomy. Our Taiwan compatriots may keep their way of life unchanged, and their vital interests will be fully guaranteed. They will enjoy a lasting peace. Taiwan may then truly rely on the mainland as its hinterland for economic growth and thus get broad space for development. Our Taiwan compatriots may join the people on the mainland in exercising the right to administer the country and sharing the dignity and honor of the great motherland in the international community.

The 23 million Taiwan compatriots are our brothers and sisters of the same blood. No one is more eager than we are to resolve the Taiwan question through peaceful means. We will continue to implement the basic principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems" and act on the eight-point proposal. We will work in utmost sincerity and do all we can to strive for a peaceful reunification. Our position of never undertaking to renounce the use of force is not directed at our Taiwan compatriots. It is aimed at the foreign forces' attempts to interfere in China's reunification and the Taiwan separatist forces' schemes for "Taiwan independence". To safeguard national unity bears on the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. We Chinese people will safeguard our state sovereignty and territorial integrity with firm resolve. We will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China in any way.

China will be reunified, and the Chinese nation will be rejuvenated. The Taiwan question must not be allowed to drag on indefinitely. We are convinced that with the concerted efforts of all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, the complete reunification of the motherland will be achieved at an early date.

IX. The International Situation and Our External Work

Peace and development remain the themes of our era. To preserve peace and promote development bears on the well-being of all nations and represents the common aspirations of all peoples. It is an irresistible trend of history. The growing trends toward world multipolarization and economic globalization have brought with them opportunities and favorable conditions for world peace and development. A new world war is unlikely in the foreseeable future. It is realistic to bring about a fairly long period of peace in the world and a favorable climate in areas around China.

However, the old international political and economic order, which is unfair and irrational, has yet to be changed fundamentally. Uncertainties affecting peace and development are on the rise. The elements of traditional and non-traditional threats to security are intertwined, and the scourge of terrorism is more acutely felt. Hegemonism and power politics have new manifestations. Local conflicts triggered by ethnic or religious contradictions and border or territorial disputes have cropped up from time to time. The North-South gap is widening. The world is far from being tranquil and mankind is faced with many grave challenges.

No matter how the international situation changes, we will, as always, pursue the independent foreign policy of peace. The purpose of China's foreign policy is to maintain world peace and promote common development. We are ready to work with all nations to advance the lofty cause of world peace and development.

We stand for going along with the historical tide and safeguarding the common interests of mankind. We are ready to work with the international community to boost world multipolarization, promote a harmonious coexistence of diverse forces and maintain stability in the international community. We will promote the development of economic globalization in a direction conducive to common prosperity, draw on its advantages and avoid its disadvantages so that all countries, particularly developing countries, can benefit from the process.

We stand for establishing a new international political and economic order that is fair and rational. Politically all countries should respect and consult one another and should not seek to impose their will on others. Economically they should complement one another and pursue common development and should not create a polarization of wealth. Culturally they should learn from one another and work for common prosperity and should not exclude cultures of other nations. In the area of security, countries should trust one another and work together to maintain security, foster a new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination, and settle their disputes through dialogue and cooperation and should not resort to the use or threat of force. We oppose all forms of hegemonism and power politics. China will never seek hegemony and never go in for expansion.

We stand for maintaining the diversity of the world and are in favor of promoting democracy in international relations and diversifying development models. Ours is a colorful world. Countries having different civilizations and social systems and taking different roads to development should respect one another and draw upon one another's strong points through competition and comparison and should develop side by side by seeking common ground while shelving differences. The affairs of each country should be left to the people of that country to decide. World affairs should be determined by all countries concerned through consultations on the basis of equality.