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The CPC Central Committee's Decision on Deepening the Reform of the Cultural System (Full Text)

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 25 - The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Decision on Deepening Cultural System Reform and Promoting the Great Development and Prosperity of Socialist Culture on Several Major Issues

　　(Adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on October 18, 2011)

　　The Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted a comprehensive analysis of the situation and tasks, believing that summarizing the rich practices and valuable experiences of China's cultural reform and development, studying and deploying the deepening of cultural system reform, and promoting the great development and prosperity of socialist culture to further initiate a new high tide of socialist cultural construction holds significant and far-reaching importance for achieving new victories in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, opening up a new situation in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The plenary session made the following decision.

　　1. Fully recognize the importance and urgency of advancing cultural reform and development, and more consciously and proactively promote the great development and prosperity of socialist culture

　　Culture is the lifeblood of a nation and the spiritual home of the people. In the more than five thousand years of civilization development in our country, people of all ethnic groups have closely united and strived unremittingly, jointly creating the profound and extensive Chinese culture, providing a strong spiritual force for the development and growth of the Chinese nation, and making an indelible and significant contribution to the progress of human civilization.

　　Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has been both a faithful inheritor and promoter of China's excellent traditional culture and an active advocate and developer of advanced Chinese culture. Our Party has always attached great importance to using culture to guide the direction forward and to unite and gather strength for struggle, leading people of all ethnic groups across the country to continuously advance the cause of the Party and the people with new awakenings in ideological culture, new achievements in theoretical creation, and new accomplishments in cultural construction. Cultural work has played an irreplaceable and significant role in all historical periods of revolution, construction, and reform.

　　Since the reform and opening up, especially since the 16th National Congress of the Party, our Party has always placed cultural construction in an important strategic position in the overall work of the Party and the country, adhering to the dual focus on material and spiritual civilization, implementing a combination of rule of law and rule by virtue, promoting the simultaneous development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries, and continuously achieving new accomplishments in cultural construction, thus forging a path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics. We insist on emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, and keeping pace with the times, continuously advancing the Sinicization, modernization, and popularization of Marxism, forming and developing the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, providing scientific theoretical guidance for pioneering and expanding the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and establishing and improving the socialist system with Chinese characteristics; we insist on promoting the construction of the socialist core value system, arming the whole Party and educating the people with the latest achievements of Marxism with Chinese characteristics, uniting strength with the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, inspiring fighting spirit with patriotism as the core of the national spirit and reform and innovation as the core of the spirit of the times, and leading social trends with the socialist view of honor and disgrace, consolidating the common ideological and moral foundation for the unity and struggle of the whole Party and all ethnic groups nationwide; we insist on serving the people and socialism, and the policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, promoting the creative spirit of the broad masses and cultural workers, driving the emergence of a large number of outstanding cultural products, enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the people; we insist on advancing cultural system reform, innovating cultural development concepts, liberating and developing cultural productive forces, promoting the comprehensive prosperity of cultural undertakings and the healthy development of cultural industries, significantly improving the basic cultural rights and interests of the people, and greatly enhancing the status and role of culture in economic and social development; we insist on developing a multi-level and broad field pattern of foreign cultural exchanges, learning from and absorbing the outstanding achievements of human civilization, implementing the strategy of cultural going out, continuously enhancing the international influence of Chinese culture, and showcasing the new image of our country's reform and opening up and the spirited outlook of our people to the world. Our country's cultural reform and development have significantly improved the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of the entire nation, promoted the all-round development of people, significantly enhanced the country's cultural soft power, and provided a strong spiritual force for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

　　The world today is in a period of great development, great change, and great adjustment. Multipolarity and economic globalization are deepening, science and technology are advancing rapidly, and exchanges, integration, and clashes of various ideological cultures are becoming more frequent. The status and role of culture in the competition of comprehensive national strength are increasingly prominent, the task of safeguarding national cultural security is more arduous, and the requirements to enhance national cultural soft power and the international influence of Chinese culture are more urgent. Contemporary China has entered a critical period of comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society and a key period of deepening reform and opening up and accelerating the transformation of the economic development mode. Culture is increasingly becoming an important source of national cohesion and creativity, an important factor in the competition of comprehensive national strength, and an important support for economic and social development. Enriching spiritual and cultural life is increasingly the ardent desire of our people. Our country is still and will remain for a long time in the primary stage of socialism. The contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production remains the principal contradiction in society. To build a higher-level moderately prosperous society benefiting more than a billion people, we must enable the people to live a prosperous material life and enjoy a healthy and rich cultural life. We must seize and make good use of the important strategic opportunity period for our country's development, while adhering to economic construction as the center, consciously regard cultural prosperity and development as an important part of the principle that development is the hard truth and the Party's primary task in governing the country, and as a basic requirement for thoroughly implementing the scientific outlook on development. We will further promote the coordinated development of cultural construction with economic, political, social, and ecological civilization construction, better meet the people's spiritual needs, enrich their spiritual world, and enhance their spiritual strength, providing strong ideological guarantees, powerful spiritual motivation, effective public opinion support, and good cultural conditions for continuing to emancipate the mind, uphold reform and opening up, promote scientific development, and foster social harmony.

　　Our country's cultural field is undergoing extensive and profound changes. Promoting the great development and prosperity of culture has many favorable conditions but also faces a series of new situations and problems. Our cultural development is not yet fully adapted to economic and social development and the people's growing spiritual and cultural needs. The prominent contradictions and problems mainly include: some localities and units do not sufficiently recognize the importance, necessity, and urgency of cultural construction; the role of culture in promoting the improvement of the entire nation's civilization quality needs to be strengthened; some areas suffer from moral lapses and lack of integrity; some social members have distorted views on life and values; it is more urgent to guide social ideologies with the socialist core value system; the task of consolidating the common ideological and moral foundation for the unity and struggle of the whole Party and all ethnic groups nationwide is heavy; the ability to guide public opinion needs improvement; network construction and management need strengthening and improvement; there are not enough influential high-quality works; the guidance for cultural product creation and production needs to be increased; the public cultural service system is not sound; cultural development is unbalanced between urban and rural areas and regions; the cultural industry is small in scale and structurally unreasonable; institutional and mechanism problems that restrict cultural productive forces have not been fundamentally resolved; cultural going out is relatively weak; the international influence of Chinese culture needs further enhancement; and the construction of cultural talent teams urgently needs strengthening. To promote cultural reform and development, these contradictions and problems must be addressed promptly.

　　The whole Party must deeply realize that advanced socialist culture is the ideological and spiritual banner of a Marxist party, and cultural construction is an important part of the overall layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Without the positive guidance of culture, without greatly enriching the people's spiritual world, and without fully exerting the spiritual strength of the entire nation, a country or a nation cannot stand tall among the world's nations. Material poverty is not socialism, nor is spiritual emptiness. Without the prosperity and development of socialist culture, there is no socialist modernization. Deepening cultural system reform and promoting the great development and prosperity of socialist culture at the new historical starting point relate to achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, relate to upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and relate to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. We must accurately grasp the new requirements of our country's economic and social development, accurately grasp the new trends of cultural development in the current era, accurately grasp the new expectations of the spiritual and cultural life of all ethnic groups, enhance our sense of responsibility and urgency, emancipate the mind, change concepts, seize opportunities, and ride the momentum to strive to create a new situation in socialist cultural construction in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and on the path of scientific development.

　　2. Adhere to the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics and strive to build a strong socialist cultural country

　　Adhering to the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics, deepening cultural system reform, and promoting the great development and prosperity of socialist culture requires fully implementing the spirit of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, holding high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and the important thought of the "Three Represents." It is essential to thoroughly implement the scientific outlook on development, uphold the forward direction of advanced socialist culture, take scientific development as the theme, build the socialist core value system as the fundamental task, start and end with meeting the people's spiritual and cultural needs, drive reform and innovation, develop a socialist culture that is modern, global, future-oriented, national, scientific, and popular, cultivate a high degree of cultural consciousness and confidence, improve the overall civilization quality of the nation, enhance the country's cultural soft power, promote Chinese culture, and strive to build a strong socialist cultural nation.

　　Building a strong socialist cultural nation means focusing on deeply embedding advanced socialist culture into people's hearts, promoting the comprehensive development of socialist spiritual and material civilization, continuously creating a new situation where the cultural creativity of the entire nation bursts forth continuously, social and cultural life becomes more colorful, the basic cultural rights of the people are better guaranteed, and the people's ideological, moral, scientific, and cultural qualities are comprehensively improved. It aims to build a shared spiritual home for the Chinese nation and make greater contributions to the progress of human civilization.

　　According to the new requirements for achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, by 2020, the goals for cultural reform and development are: the construction of the socialist core value system will be deeply advanced, good ideological and moral customs further promoted, and citizens' quality significantly improved; cultural products that meet people's needs will be richer, and high-quality works will continuously emerge; cultural undertakings will flourish comprehensively, a public cultural service system covering the whole society will be basically established, and efforts will be made to achieve equalization of basic public cultural services; the cultural industry will become a pillar industry of the national economy, with significantly enhanced overall strength and international competitiveness, and a cultural industry pattern dominated by public ownership and jointly developed by multiple ownership forms will be fully formed; the cultural management system and cultural product production and operation mechanisms will be vibrant and efficient, the cultural openness pattern centered on national culture, absorbing beneficial foreign cultures, and promoting Chinese culture to the world will be further improved; a high-quality cultural talent team will grow and develop, providing stronger talent support for cultural prosperity and development. The entire Party and nation must work together to achieve these goals, continuously improve the scientific level of cultural construction, and lay a solid foundation for building China into a strong socialist cultural nation.

　　To achieve the above goals, the following important guidelines must be followed.

　　— Adhere to Marxism as the guide, promote the sinicization, modernization, and popularization of Marxism, arm minds, guide practice, and promote work with the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, ensuring that cultural reform and development proceed along the correct path.

　　— Adhere to the forward direction of advanced socialist culture, serve the people and socialism, uphold the principle of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, unify inheritance and innovation, promote the main theme, advocate diversity, arm people with scientific theory, guide people with correct public opinion, shape people with noble spirit, inspire people with excellent works, and form a positive spiritual pursuit and healthy, civilized lifestyle throughout society.

　　— Adhere to a people-centered approach, be close to reality, life, and the masses, give full play to the people's main role in cultural construction, insist that cultural development is for the people, relies on the people, and its achievements are shared by the people, promote the all-round development of people, and cultivate socialist citizens with ideals, morality, culture, and discipline.

　　— Adhere to putting social benefits first, unify social and economic benefits organically, follow the laws of cultural development, adapt to the requirements of socialist market economy development, strengthen cultural legal construction, grasp both prosperity and management, and promote the comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries. — Adhere to reform and opening up, focus on promoting innovation in cultural systems and mechanisms, promote development and prosperity through reform, continuously liberate and develop cultural productivity, improve the level of cultural openness, promote Chinese culture to the world, actively absorb excellent achievements of civilizations from all countries, and effectively safeguard national cultural security.