3. Reform is a bridge to our dreams

Following his election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi chose Guangdong, the bridgehead of reform and opening up, as the first stop on his grassroots tour. This choice represented a declaration that he was determined to continue with reform and opening up.

The book presents Xi's overall vision of reform, and the particularities of how reform will impact on China's economy, its politics, its culture, society, ecology and national defense. Facing profound changes in both the domestic and international environment, China finds itself confronted by a series of conflicts and challenges, such as unbalanced and unsustainable development, shortcomings in scientific and technological innovation, a sub-optimal industrial structure and an extensive development model, rising social conflict, gaps between rural and urban development and income, and rampant corruption. If these problems are not solved, China's development will be hampered, and the Chinese Dream will remain elusive. What should we do?

Xi emphatically makes the point that reform is vital for the survival and development of a country and nation. Deeper reform and opening up is the only way to solve development problems.

He repeatedly emphasizes that reform and opening up will play the decisive role in determining the destiny of contemporary China, and is the key to realizing the Two Centenary Goals and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The effort must continue free of any contraints – we will reach an impasse if we stall or go into reverse. Reform and opening up is always ongoing and will never end.

China has been admirable in its swift and resolute actions following the 18th CPC National Congress. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee set forth the guidelines for deeper all-round reform, and introduced both timetable and roadmap for carrying out its reform plan by 2020.

After the meeting, a Central Leading Group for Deeper All-Round Reform was set up, and Xi himself leads the group. China's reform has entered a new phase in which genuinely difficult problems will be tackled. For instance, the government has decided to give to the market the decisive role in allocating resources, to streamline powers of administration and delegation, and to press ahead with reform of the administration examination and approval system. In a move that has provided a real incentive to individuals to start their own businesses, the Central Government has abolished or decentralized more than 600 items requiring administrative examination and approval.

In addition, some initiatives having a profound impact on vested interests, which have stagnated for years, are now forging ahead. These include reform of the household registration system, the judicial system, the system of academic tenure, the examination and recruitment system, the system for government use of vehicles, and the remuneration system for executives in centrally-administered state-owned companies.

Some salient problems undermining social equality and justice are gradually being addressed through institutional reform. Dealing first with the issues of greatest concern to the general public, the priority has been to dismantle outdated mechanisms and establish new ones.

4. Changing work conducts and combating corruption to win people's hearts

The seven articles in chapters 16 and 17 present Xi's thinking and policy measures on improving work conducts and combating corruption. Shortly after Xi took office, he convened a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on transforming the Party's working conducts and building closer ties with the people, and produced eight rules dealing with these two key issues.

Implementing these rules is a starting point. The central leadership has taken the lead in accepting public scrutiny and promoting change in the working conducts of the CPC and the government. Meanwhile, a "mass line" education campaign has been launched to tackle the problems of formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance in the Party.

The anti-corruption campaign launched after the 18th CPC National Congress is unprecedented in its scope, and it is winning widespread public support.

The new central leadership, committed to a policy of zero-tolerance with regard to corruption, is firm in its detemination to catch "tigers" and "flies" – high-ranking officials guilty of corruption as well as petty ones. Demonstrating great determination and courage, it has already dealt a series of heavy blows to corruption. Dozens of corrupt officials at ministerial level or above have already fallen from power, and serious cases are under investigation. Clearly committed to combating corruption with "combined blows," Xi has also vowed to have "power being 'caged' by the system," stressing the construction of a system to restrict the exercise of power and subject it to public scrutiny.

The book reflects the central leadership's determination to combat corruption and the resultant actions, including setting up a system of supervision and sanction under which officials will not dare to commit corruption, establishing legal processes that will leave them no space to commit corruption, and conducting ethical education that will leave them with no inclination to commit corruption. Such measures underpin a genuine public expectaion that officials will be honest, that the government will be clean, and that political integrity will be upheld.