Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended a symposium on private enterprises in Beijing on the morning of February 17 and delivered an important speech. He emphasized that the fundamental policies of the Party and the state on the development of the private economy have been incorporated into the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and will be consistently upheld and implemented; they will not change, and cannot change. The prospects for the development of the private economy on the new journey of the new era are broad and promising, and it is the opportune time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to demonstrate their abilities. We must unify our thinking and strengthen our confidence to promote the healthy and high-quality development of the private economy. He hopes that private enterprises and entrepreneurs will embrace patriotism, focus on development, operate legally and ethically, and promote common prosperity through their own success, making new and greater contributions to advancing Chinese-style modernization.

Li Qiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council; and Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the symposium. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, presided over the symposium.

At the symposium, six representatives of private enterprise leaders, including Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.; Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of BYD Company Ltd.; Liu Yonghao, Chairman of New Hope Group Co., Ltd.; Yu Renrong, Chairman of Shanghai WEI Semiconductor Co., Ltd.; Wang Xingxing, CEO of Unitree Robotics Co., Ltd.; and Lei Jun, Chairman of Xiaomi Corporation, delivered speeches, putting forward opinions and suggestions on promoting the development of the private economy under the new situation.

After listening to everyone's speeches, Xi Jinping delivered an important speech. He stated that private enterprises have flourished along with the great process of reform and opening up. Over the past few decades, the understanding of the role and status of the private economy in the cause of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, and the policies of the Party and the state on the development of the private economy, have been consistent and kept pace with the times in the Party's theory and practice. The Party and the state adhere to and improve the socialist basic economic system, unswervingly consolidating and developing the public economy, and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public economy; the Party and the state ensure that all types of economies enjoy equal and lawful access to factors of production, fair participation in market competition, and equal legal protection, promoting the complementary advantages and common development of various types of economies, and promoting the healthy development of the non-public economy and the healthy growth of non-public entrepreneurs.

Xi Jinping pointed out that China's private economy has now reached a considerable scale and holds significant weight, laying a solid foundation for promoting high-quality development. In the new era and on the new journey, China's social productivity will continue to rise, people's living standards will steadily improve, reform and opening up will be further comprehensively deepened, and in particular, education and science and technology will develop rapidly. The country has a large and high-quality talent pool and labor force, a well-equipped industrial system and infrastructure system, and the huge potential of a super-large market of more than 1.4 billion people, bringing many new opportunities and providing greater development space for the private economy. The socialist system with Chinese characteristics has many significant advantages, and the socialist market economic system and the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics are constantly being improved and perfected, which will provide stronger guarantees for the development of the private economy.

Xi Jinping stressed that the difficulties and challenges currently facing the development of the private economy are generally those that have arisen in the process of reform, development, and industrial upgrading; they are partial rather than systemic, temporary rather than long-term, and surmountable rather than insurmountable. We must unify our thoughts and actions with the Party Central Committee's judgment on the domestic and international situation and with the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments on economic work, seeing the future, the bright prospects, and the future in the midst of difficulties and challenges, maintaining our determination to develop, strengthening our confidence in development, and maintaining our fighting spirit.

Xi Jinping pointed out that earnestly implementing policies and measures to promote the development of the private economy is the current focus of work in promoting the development of the private economy. Whatever the Party Central Committee has decided must be resolutely implemented without any discount. We must resolutely remove all obstacles to the equal and lawful use of factors of production and fair participation in market competition, continuously promote the fair opening of infrastructure sectors to all types of operators, and continue to make great efforts to solve the problems of difficulty and high cost of financing for private enterprises. We must focus on solving the problem of overdue payments to private enterprises. We must strengthen law enforcement supervision, and crack down on arbitrary charges, fines, inspections, and seizures, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises and entrepreneurs. At the same time, we must recognize that China is a socialist country ruled by law, and illegal activities of enterprises of all ownership types cannot evade investigation and punishment. We must earnestly implement various relief policies, improve the accuracy of policies, pay attention to comprehensive measures, and treat enterprises equally. We must further build a close and clean relationship between government and business. All levels of Party committees and governments must proceed from reality and comprehensively do a good job in implementing policies and measures to promote the development of the private economy.

Xi Jinping emphasized that enterprises are the main body of operation, and the endogenous driving force of enterprise development is paramount. Private enterprises and entrepreneurs should be full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm and patriotism, constantly improving their ideals, cultivating a sense of national responsibility, reflecting on their wealth and striving for progress, carrying forward the spirit of entrepreneurship, and focusing on making their enterprises stronger, better, and larger, firmly acting as builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoters of Chinese-style modernization. We must unswervingly follow the path of high-quality development, adhere to our main business, strengthen our real economy, strengthen independent innovation, transform our development mode, and continuously improve the quality, efficiency, and core competitiveness of enterprises, striving to make greater contributions to promoting technological innovation, fostering new productive forces, building a modern industrial system, comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, promoting coordinated regional development, and ensuring and improving people's livelihoods. We must improve the corporate governance structure in accordance with the requirements of the Chinese-style modern enterprise system, regulate shareholder behavior, strengthen internal supervision, and improve risk prevention mechanisms, continuously improving the use, management, and protection mechanisms for factors of production such as labor, talent, knowledge, technology, capital, and data, and paying attention to the cultivation of successors to enterprises. We must operate with integrity and abide by the law, establish correct values and morals, and promote the healthy development of the private economy with practical actions. We must actively fulfill our social responsibilities, actively build harmonious labor relations, do a good job in ecological and environmental protection, and participate in public welfare and charitable undertakings to the best of our ability, contributing more love to society.

Wang Huning, in presiding over the meeting, said that General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech fully affirmed the significant achievements made in the development of the private economy and its important contributions to the country's economic and social development, emphasizing the need to correctly understand the opportunities and challenges facing the development of the private economy, and making comprehensive deployments for promoting the healthy and high-quality development of the private economy in the current period and for some time to come. The speech is far-sighted, profound in thought, incisive in argument, and rich in connotation. We must earnestly study and understand it and resolutely implement it. We must strengthen our confidence in development, strengthen our awareness of the overall situation, systematic thinking, and the spirit of the rule of law, implement all policies in place, and strive to create a new situation for the development of the private economy.

Shi Taifeng, Li Shulei, He Lifeng, Wu Zhenglong, and Mu Hong attended the symposium.

Relevant officials from central and state organs, officials from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and representatives of private enterprise leaders attended the symposium.