Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addressed a grand gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec. 18.

In his speech, Xi expressed his confidence and resolve that China’s reform and opening up is always an ongoing task and will never end, and that reform and opening up will always be ahead. He put forward the goals of unswervingly and comprehensively deepening reform, expanding opening up, and continuously advancing reform and opening up in the new era.

He Zukun, president of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, said that Xi’s speech is a mobilizing call for advancing reform and opening up in the new era.

One basic experience of China’s reform and opening up over the past four decades has been a shift from a single public ownership to an economic system with public ownership serving as its main body but allowing for the development of all types of ownership. There has been no irresolution about working to consolidate and develop the public sector, and there has been no irresolution about working to encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector, said Leng Zhaosong, a research fellow from the Institute of Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It is precisely because of the establishment and implementation of the basic economic system that China has witnessed remarkable economic growth, Leng asserted.

Liang Qidong, vice president of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, said that the peopleoriented approach fully shows that the Party prioritizes the people. In Xi’s speech, “the people” appeared 82 times. The key words of the speech are reform and opening up, of which the purpose is to serve the people. The people-oriented approach must be adhered to and efforts should be made to keep delivering on the people’s aspirations for a better life.

Xi advocated the Core Socialist Values and traditional Chinese fine culture in the speech. Chen Yanbin, director of the Center for Ethics and Moral Education at Jiangsu Normal University, said that the 40 years of reform and opening up prove that traditional Chinese fine culture is the cultural root of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Traditional Chinese fine culture is indispensable for developing the cause and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Xi’s speech has established a new historical position and strategic deployment of the reform and opening up in the new era, and it has fully embarked on a new historical journey in China’s great cause of reform and opening up.

Summarizing the successful experience of reform and opening up is not only the best commemoration of the 40 years of hard exploration and practice, but also a powerful driving force for the great cause of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the new era.