2024 is a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Faced with a complex and severe situation of increasing external pressure and growing internal difficulties, the Party Central Committee, uniting and leading the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across the country, has responded calmly and adopted comprehensive measures. The economy has generally operated steadily and progressed steadily, high-quality development has been steadily advanced, the main goals and tasks of economic and social development are about to be successfully completed, China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and comprehensive national strength have continued to increase, and the new journey of Chinese-style modernization has taken new and solid steps.

The development process of the past year has been extraordinary, and the achievements are encouraging. First, the economic operation throughout the year was high at the beginning, low in the middle, and rising at the end. The first quarter started well, while downward pressure increased in the second and third quarters. The Central Political Bureau meeting on September 26 decisively deployed a package of incremental policies, effectively boosting the real estate and stock markets, market expectations, and social confidence, leading to a significant economic rebound. This not only facilitated the achievement of the annual goals but also laid a solid foundation for economic development in 2025. Second, new productive forces have steadily developed. Important progress has been made in technological innovation in integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology. The intelligent transformation and digital upgrading of traditional industries have continued to advance. The pace of green and low-carbon transformation has accelerated. Third, reform and opening up have continued to deepen. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China deployed further comprehensive deepening of reforms and the advancement of Chinese-style modernization. High-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative has steadily advanced. Positive results have been achieved in high-level opening up, and the contribution of foreign trade exports to economic growth has increased. Fourth, risks in key areas have been resolved in an orderly and effective manner. Positive changes have appeared in the real estate market, and risks related to local government debt and small and medium-sized financial institutions are being effectively mitigated and controlled. Fifth, people's livelihood has been guaranteed in a solid and forceful manner. Employment and prices have remained stable, and the achievements of poverty alleviation have been consolidated and expanded. Grain production exceeded 1.4 trillion jin for the first time. The quality of the ecological environment has continued to improve. Overall social stability has been maintained. All of these have further strengthened our determination and confidence to forge ahead, overcome difficulties, and steadily advance Chinese-style modernization on the new journey of the new era.

In analyzing the situation, we must adhere to the "two-point approach," fully acknowledging both achievements and shortcomings. Currently, the adverse effects of changes in the external environment are deepening, and China's economic operation still faces many difficulties and challenges. These mainly include insufficient domestic demand; difficulties in production and operation for some enterprises; pressure on employment and income growth for the public; and persistent risks and hidden dangers. At the same time, it must be recognized that China's economic foundation is stable, its advantages are numerous, its resilience is strong, and its potential is great. The supportive conditions and basic trends of long-term positive development remain unchanged. As long as confidence does not falter, there will always be more solutions than difficulties. We must face difficulties squarely, maintain firm confidence, and strive to transform positive factors into actual development achievements. In practice, we continue to deepen our understanding of the laws governing economic work. The greatest consensus among the entire Party is that the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing a good job in economic work. At critical moments and important junctures, the Party Central Committee promptly assesses the situation and makes decisions and deployments to ensure that China's economic ship sails steadily and far through wind and waves. Economic work involves a myriad of tasks, and it is necessary to coordinate several important relationships.

First, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between an effective market and a capable government to form an economic order that is both "flexible" and "controllable". The government should do what it should do and not do what it shouldn't, resolving issues of both absence and overreach. Doing what it should do means continuously building a rule-of-law economy and a credit economy, improving market rules and taking the lead in abiding by them, optimizing the market environment through resolutely punishing corruption and ensuring public safety, focusing on correcting market failures, regulating the competitive order, and making the national unified market a large stage for fair competition among all types of business entities. Not doing what it shouldn't do means respecting and giving play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, preventing improper interference in the activities of micro-entities, and avoiding local protectionism and self-contained small cycles. The more standardized government behavior is, the more effective the market will be.

Second, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between aggregate supply and aggregate demand and ensure smooth circulation of the national economy. We must adhere to the coordinated and dynamic balance of both supply and demand, continuously deepen supply-side structural reforms, advance and retreat, preserve and suppress, and enhance the adaptability and balance of supply and demand. Expanding domestic demand is related to both economic stability and economic security; it is not a temporary measure but a strategic move. We must accelerate efforts to make up for the shortcomings in domestic demand, especially consumption, so that domestic demand becomes the driving force and stabilizing anchor for economic growth.

Third, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between cultivating new drivers and updating old drivers and develop new productive forces in a way that suits local conditions. We must take technological innovation as the guide, vigorously cultivate and expand emerging industries and future industries, occupy the commanding heights of international competition, and shape new driving forces and advantages for economic development. At the same time, we must accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, which serve as the basic foundation for economic growth and employment income, so that they can regain new vitality and promote the smooth transition between old and new development drivers.

Fourth, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between optimizing incremental factors and activating stock factors and comprehensively improve resource allocation efficiency. After long-term development, China needs to strengthen both asset management and liability management, make comprehensive use of various incremental and stock resources, and be good at using the activation of stock resources to drive incremental resources. We must continue to promote the "bird-in-a-cage" transformation of industrial parks, make good use of policies such as replacing stock implicit debt and activating stock land, and comprehensively optimize incremental factors, activate stock factors, manage assets well, and adjust liabilities to expand new development space.

Fifth, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between improving quality and increasing the total quantity and consolidate the material foundation of Chinese-style modernization. China has a huge economic scale, market capacity, and industrial supporting capabilities, which are favorable conditions for improving quality and enhancing excellence. China's per capita national income has not yet reached the world average, and the problems of unbalanced and inadequate development remain prominent. We must adhere to the unity of pursuing quality and leveraging scale effects, make good use of the advantages of the super-large-scale market and rich application scenarios, cultivate more world-class enterprises and leading technologies, and unify the effective improvement of quality and the reasonable growth of quantity in the entire process of high-quality development.

※This is part of a speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Central Economic Work Conference on December 11, 2024.