Illustration: Liu Xiangya/ GT

How to further deepen reform comprehensively is mkone of the main themes during the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on Thursday. The communique issued on the same day pointed out the great significance of further deepening reform comprehensively. The overall objectives of further deepening reform comprehensively are to continue improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize China's system and capacity for governance, according to the communique. Meanwhile, systematic plans have been made to facilitate the realization of this goal.

If we look back at history, every major reform in China has been an important force in promoting social progress. Now, China is working with greater determination and intensity to further deepen reform comprehensively, advance Chinese modernization and promote high-quality development to achieve greater results.

However, views such as the "stagnation" or even "regression" of China's reform have emerged in Western societies. This reflects the biased "Western-centric" stance and Western countries' lack of understanding of the phases and complexity of China's reform and opening-up.

The path China has taken in its reform and opening-up is a path toward Chinese modernization, which is fundamentally different from the traditional Western path to rise. Western countries believe that their own development path is the only way to modernization, viewing Western civilization as the only model for all countries worldwide. Any deviation from this path is often criticized as "going astray." This biased perspective fails to consider the unique national conditions of other countries, including China.

In the early days of reform and opening-up, China often experienced "groundbreaking" major reform measures. However, currently, reform and opening-up has entered a critical period, and reforms in many key areas have entered a phase of deepening and refining. It is normal that this phase differs from the early days when China could make major turns and big moves.

To truly understand China's reform and opening-up, we must deeply understand the complexity of China's national conditions. We must realize that China, as a unified multi-ethnic country, has many ethnic groups and vast ethnic areas. It covers a vast territory with a large population and huge differences in cultural customs. We must realize that reform is actually facing every ordinary Chinese people. Reform and opening-up could not have lasted for 46 years, nor could it have achieved such huge results, if it were going as the West negatively portrays.

History teaches us that without a stable environment, reforms can never be sustained, nor can their achievements accumulate. Stability serves as the cornerstone of reform and opening-up. And the strong leadership of the CPC provides a political guarantee for China to navigate significant risks and challenges during the journey of reform and opening-up, ensuring a stable domestic and international environment for its continuous and steady progress.

Driven by ideological motives, certain Western media and scholars deliberately exaggerate inevitable issues and contradictions in China's reform and opening-up process, trying to overgeneralize isolated flaws in order to negate both its achievements and progress as a whole.

Beyond ideological agendas, such viewpoints not only fail to recognize the principal contradiction and the principal aspect of contradiction of China's reform and opening-up, but also lack of scientific, professional and in-depth research foundations.

China's reform and opening-up has continued to develop since 1978. Despite occasional twists and turns, it has never been stagnant, but rather a spiral of progress. Over the past four decades, China's reform has unfolded sequentially, progressing from the easy to the difficult, from the partial to the holistic, and from creating the new to upgrading the old.

Based on the profound Chinese civilization, China has been comprehensively advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization. The strength of China's reform and opening-up lies in its unwavering commitment to the people-centered philosophy as well as a belief that reform is meaningful only when it is for the people's interests, and can be sustained only when it is motivated by the people.

The author is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Marxism of the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences. [email protected]