The Dameisha Beach Park in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, July 11, 2024. 

Throughout China’s modernization, reform has played a key role in breaking down the obstacles to the country’s economic growth and steering it toward a future of socialist modernization. 

Since the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013, China has embarked on a new era of comprehensively deepening reforms and charting a new course for further reform and opening-up. 

Over the past decade, the economic structure has been readjusted and the social structure has undergone profound changes. The modernization of China’s governance system and capacity has steadily advanced. These achievements have laid a solid foundation for the all-round advancement of the Chinese modernization in political, economic, social and livelihood terms. Now, the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has made new strategic arrangements for deeper reform to drive Chinese modernization further. 

In this issue’s Special Report, China Today, in collaboration with China Development and Reform News, presents five representative cases of local governments’ reform efforts. These are the cases of Shenzhen, Pudong, the Hainan Free Trade Port, Hefei, and Zhejiang. Their development mirrors how reform has advanced the Chinese modernization. 

Planned and edited by Yan Ying