International community applauds China's reform roadmap

The decisions concerning comprehensively deepening reforms, approved last week at a plenum of the Communist Party of China (CPC), provide a roadmap for the country's development, overseas media, officials and experts have said.

Referred to as a "blueprint for reform," plans such as the abolition of the controversial reeducation through labor system were widely covered by overseas media, with some describing the reforms as "ambitious" and key to the success of China's modernization drive.

A report from the Reuters news agency said the detailed document released on Friday, following the concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, shows China's determination to carry out "the boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades" to put the world's second-largest economy on a more stable footing.

"China would accelerate capital account convertibility, scrap residency restrictions in small cities and townships, integrate urban and rural social security systems and push forward with an environmental tax, among many other measures," said the report.

In an article entitled "China Details Ambitious Reform Plan," the Wall Street Journal said the new Chinese leadership has presented a sweeping plan to remake the economy.

The newspaper went on to say that the document "amounted to a blueprint for reform and proposed a variety of experiments" in the face of a number of major challenges, including faltering economy, a widening wealth gap and deteriorating environment.

Meanwhile, Sitaram Yechury, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and a member of the Upper House of Parliament, said the decision will lead China into further development in the 21st century and push forward the country's socialist construction.

China will implement reforms in such areas as education, employment, social security, healthcare and people's income to tackle the social conflicts that have emerged during the country's rapid economic development, he said, describing the move as key to ensuring the success of China's modernization drive.

Britain's Financial Times hailed the blueprint as the "most ambitious reform plan to come from the party in at least a decade," while Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told Reuters that "whilst further assessment and detail is needed, the policy moves on the surface appear to be a sizeable step in the right direction."

Kazakh newspaper Kazakhstan Business believes that China has set for itself the path for the upcoming decade, saying the reform-related decisions taken at the plenum will boost the confidence of the world's major financial markets.

Such ideas as expanding investment, facilitating the development of free trade zones and further opening inland markets offer fresh opportunities for Kazakh enterprises, the newspaper wrote.

German media also devoted coverage to China's tone-setting meeting, with German News Television saying Beijing is preparing itself for the future, and that through comprehensive reforms, the Communist Party is seeking a turn in its development.

The CNN, the BBC and the New York Times, as well as French paper Le Monde, focused on the abolition of the "reeducation through labor" system, which was approved by the plenary session.

The controversial correction system, commonly known as "Laojiao," began in the 1950s, and usually takes in minor offenders whose offence is not severe enough to take them to court. Giving up the system, which can detain people for up to four years without an open trial, is deemed by many to be key progress in China's effort to improve its judicial system.

Foreign experts also talked about the meeting's overall impact on China's development.

James Brodie, Scotland and China business adviser for the China-Britain Business Council, said it will be conducive to China's economic growth to speed up the perfection of the modern market mechanism and the transformation of government functions while exercising scientific macro-economic measures and effective state governance.