Experts hail emphasis on improved quality of life

The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has unveiled a strategic road map to deepen reform and advance modernization, which will further boost China's socioeconomic development and improve its people's lives, overseas analysts said.

The third plenum concluded last Thursday, with a communique issued to announce the adoption of a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization.

Michael Dunford, emeritus professor at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, said the key meeting was "striking in its extraordinary comprehensiveness and scope of the reform agenda, affecting every aspect of Chinese society".

New quality productive forces have the potential to transform many aspects of life, contribute to China's economic, political, cultural, social and ecological advancements, and drive the growth in productivity, Dunford said, adding that these are "key to improved living standards and an improved quality of life".

Anthony Moretti, department head and an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania, the United States, noted that the communique has vowed to "purposefully give more prominence to reform and further deepen reform comprehensively with a view to advancing Chinese modernization in order to better deal with the complex developments both at home and abroad, adapt to the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and live up to the new expectations of our people".

"Chinese people will be the beneficiaries of the work that begins now," he said.

He added that this call to "enable people to live better lives" comes at a particularly important time. The country alleviated absolute poverty a couple of years ago, and the communique affirmed the need to "pursue greater urban-rural integration in planning, development and governance, and promote equal exchanges and two-way flows of production factors between the cities and the countryside, so as to narrow the disparities between the two and promote their common prosperity and development".

The commitment to high-quality development will assist domestic and international audiences. Such development means that China will continue to move toward establishing itself as the location for better products, he added.

"The electric vehicle industry is merely one example. Consider that China was not prepared to produce such cars just a few years ago. Now, it is the global leader in exporting EVs," he said.

Jasna Plevnik, president of the Croatian think tank Geoeconomic Forum, said the third plenum has set the stage for China to enter an era of high-quality development faster, with the support of new and long-term comprehensive economic reforms.

The communique sends a clear, firm and encouraging message that the country is continuing with peaceful Chinese modernization, a socialist market economic system and economic globalization, she said.

According to Linda Tjia Yin Nor, an associate professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong, the promotion of new quality productive forces by the plenum resolution is not only about developing high-end technology, but also about strengthening innovation.

Innovation doesn't necessarily mean using state-of-the-art technology, but could also mean the smart application of existing technologies, Tjia said, noting that China is focusing on how technology can be used to benefit a greater number of people.

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, CEO of the Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development in Pakistan, said the plenum resolution shows that China is launching a comprehensive governance modernization program.

China has made great efforts to strengthen and advance whole-process people's democracy, he said, adding that Chinese democracy ensures inclusiveness, continuity of interaction among the Party, the government and the people, and rules-based governance.

Zheng Wanyin in London, Xu Weiwei and Prime Sarmiento in Hong Kong and Shao Xinying in Beijing contributed to this story.

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