SENSE OF GAIN
The general objectives for reform are improving socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing the state governance system, according to a communique issued after the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013.
Such a vision includes promoting social equity and justice and improving the well-being of the people.
In his latest New Year address, Xi said his top priority was helping the poor.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has presided over a total of 32 meetings of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform since its inception.
Poverty alleviation, health care, employment and education were among the key issues discussed at those meetings, which aimed to improve the lives of the people.
"The ongoing reform drive is not just reform for reform's sake," said Xin Ming, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.
Xin said the past more than four years after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 marked a new phase in the country's reform as it becomes more systematic, interlinked and coordinated.
"The reform now focuses more on increasing people's sense of gain. It is becoming more solution-based and more law-based," he said.
In President Xi's own words, reform must be focused on issues of public concerns. It must serve to resolve outstanding problems in ordinary people's lives and meet their demands and needs. It should be carried out by the people, and for the people.
Eliminating poverty is the first and key step in improving people's lives.
In 2016, tailored measures were designed for, and implemented in, the country's impoverished areas, including a program that allocates profits from local hydropower plants and mining projects to the locals.
Thanks to an array of measures, an additional 10 million people were lifted out of poverty last year, taking the nation one step closer to lifting its remaining 45 million rural poor people out of poverty by 2020.
Along with the poverty relief program, other endeavors to help improve the lives of the population are also taking shape.
More medical resources have been poured in to fill the gap in health services for children, and family doctors are introducing more Chinese to health management. Rural education is also being enhanced to help students compete with their urban peers, while elderly-care services are being better designed to cater to the needs of senior citizens.
At the 14th meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs held last December, Xi was briefed on progress in some major projects, including promoting clean winter heating in northern areas, implementing a waste sorting program in eastern Zhejiang province, disposal and recycling of livestock residue, improving the quality of services in elderly nursing homes, regulating the housing rental market and curbing property bubbles, as well as improving oversight over food safety.
"The fundamental goal of maintaining growth pace and promoting economic development is to seek proper solutions to prominent issues of people's common concerns," said Xi, who heads the central leading group.
Building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by addressing people's concerns is in line with the need to push forward supply-side structural reform, Xi said, adding this will also help nurture new sources of growth and increase potential for long-term growth.
