In his report to the Party's Twenty National Congress, the General Secretary emphasized the "Five essential paths to follow", clarifying that "This is a crucial understanding of the law that we have acquired through long-term practice and must be cherished and adhered to all the time". The first is that upholding the Party's overall leadership is the only way to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Upholding the leadership of proletarian political parties is a basic principle of scientific socialism. Marx pointed out: "In order to ensure the victory of the social revolution and the realization of the supreme goal of the revolution -- the elimination of classes, the proletariat is thus organized into a political party is necessary." Lenin in leading the Russian revolution and Soviet socialist practice stressed: "All the political and economic work of the state power is led by the Communist Party, the vanguard of working-class consciousness." The socialist cause is the cause of Communists, and the establishment, improvement and consolidation of the socialist system cannot be achieved without the leadership of the Communist Party.

The general Secretary pointed out: "We must recognize that the biggest national condition of China is the leadership of the CPC. What are Chinese characteristics? That's Chinese." To govern the world's most populous country well, we must uphold the overall leadership of the Party. Party, government, military and civilian studies, east, west, north and South, the Party is leading everything. Our Party is the strong leadership core for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics; it is the pioneer, leader, and promoter of this great cause. It is under the strong leadership of the Party that we have overcome all kinds of risks and challenges on the road ahead, completed in just a few decades the industrialization process that took developed countries hundreds of years, and created two miracles: rapid economic development and long-term social stability.

The General Secretary pointed out: "The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China." The building of socialism with Chinese characteristics needs four beams and eight pillars to support it, with the Party as the overall skeleton and the CPC Central Committee as the backbone. China's national system and system of national governance have many remarkable advantages, the most important of which is adhering to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party, adhering to the Party's scientific theory, maintaining political stability, and ensuring that the country always moves forward in the direction of socialism. Only by leveraging the Party's leadership, can we effectively coordinate the major relationship between the Party and the state in all fields, ensure the stability and sustainability of our major policies, and better leverage the remarkable strengths of our state system and governance system in all aspects.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with comrades at its core has united and led the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in adopting a series of strategic measures, promoting a series of transformative practices, achieving a series of breakthroughs, and achieving a series of landmark achievements. We achieved a historic increase in our economic strength, marked improvement in the modernization of the country's governance system and capacity, new progress was made in the whole process of all-round development in promoting people's democracy and the rule of law in China, and historic, transformational and overall changes took place in ecological and environmental protection. The whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China significantly increased their cultural confidence and became more energetic. Practice has fully shown that the Party's leadership is the fundamental and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the interests and future of the people of all ethnic groups in China. Upholding the Party's overall leadership is the only way to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The report to the Party's 20th National Congress stated, "The key to comprehensively building a modern socialist country and comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation lies in the Party." Only by upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership can we provide the fundamental political guarantee for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in all respects. On the road ahead, we must uphold and strengthen the overall leadership of the Party, firmly uphold the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, and implement the Party's leadership in all areas, aspects and links of the cause of the Party and the state, so that the Party will always be the most reliable pillar of support for all the people in times of storms. We should have a deep understanding of the decisive significance of the "two decisions", strengthen the "four consciousness", "four confidence", and "two maintenance", constantly improve our political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, improve the Party's leadership system that exercises overall control and coordinates all parties concerned, and improve the mechanism for implementing the major decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee. To ensure that the whole Party maintains a high degree of consistency in its political stance, direction, principles, and path with the CPC Central Committee with comrades at its core, and that the whole Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China unite under the banner of the Party into a "solid piece of steel" and a mighty force of one heart for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Source: State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council