Poverty alleviation is a top priority on the Party's agenda. Xi has visited all of the 14 regions with high concentrations of the poor since he was sworn in five years ago, and the Party's central leadership has made a solemn pledge to eliminate poverty in China by the end of 2020.
To make sure that reforms stay on track and goals are achieved, the Party and Xi also are striving to get rid of two outstanding hindrances — corruption and bureaucracy.
In the past five years, over 280 officials directly under the management of the CPC Central Committee's organization department, most at or above ministerial level, were deprived of their titles, given internal punishment or sent to prison for graft or other misconduct. They included former senior leaders Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua as well as former military commanders Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.
Stronger and mightier
Xi puts great importance on innovation in science and technology, emphasizing that it determines the further growth of the economy and even the future of the nation.
In the past five years, the country launched two manned space missions, with the most recent lasting over a month. Astronauts conducted dozens of scientific experiments inside the space laboratories. Scientists sent an exploratory rover to the moon and are preparing for a mission that will bring lunar samples back to Earth. They are also planning robotic explorations of Mars and Jupiter.
In the field of supercomputing, China's Sunway TaihuLight is the world's fastest system, capable of performing 93 quadrillion calculations per second.
The nation's aircraft designers have built the C919, a large, advanced jetliner that represents their aspiration to compete with Boeing and Airbus in the most sophisticated industrial field, airliner production.
In the military sphere, the People's Liberation Army is undergoing the biggest and deepest overhaul in decades.
Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, is personally directing the far-reaching reform, which aims to make the PLA stronger, more integrated and more flexible so it will always be able to win modern wars.
The senior governing bodies of the world's largest military have been reshuffled — including the Central Military Commission — to optimize the command chain. Regional command systems were reorganized to boost joint combat ability. Group armies and institutions were merged to improve efficiency, and new high-technology units were set up to prepare for nontraditional fields such as cyberspace. Soldiers now spend more time in combat training and live-fire exercises.
The PLA, benefiting from strengthened efforts in research and development, has added some of the world's top weaponry, including the J-20 stealth fighter jet and DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile.
