BEIJING -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over the third meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform on the afternoon of Nov. 7. Xi is also director of the commission. Reviewed and passed at the meeting were Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Building of a Beautiful China, Opinions on Further Improving the Budget System for Operation of State Capital, Opinions on Improving the Implementation of Supervision System and Mechanism of Natural Monopoly Networks, Guidelines on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Experts' Participation in Public Decision Making and Guidelines on Strengthening the Zoning Control of Ecological Environment.

While chairing the meeting, Xi stressed that building a Beautiful China is an important goal for building a modern socialist country in all respects. To basically achieve this goal by 2035, it is necessary to continuously further the efforts in pollution prevention and control, accelerate the green transformation of the development modes and improve the diversity, stability and sustainability of ecosystems. It is also important to never cross the red line as far as environmental safety is concerned, improve the relevant security system, and promote the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment.

The budget for state capital operation is an important part of the state budget system. The system in this regard must be improved, the scope of its implementation must be expanded, its functions must be strengthened, and the management of its revenue and expenditure must be optimized so as to increase the efficiency of the use of funds in this regard. It is necessary to improve the supervision system and mechanism for natural monopoly networks, strengthen the system design, fine-tune the supervision system, boost the supervision capacity, and beef up the control of the state-owned economy over natural monopoly networks, so as to better meet the needs of building a modern infrastructure system and better protect national security. To better serve and support public decision making, it is imperative to strengthen the supervision and management of experts' participation in public decision making, fine-tune system and mechanism, normalize procedure and standards, strengthen the whole-process management, and create a sound environment for experts to participate in public decision making to the best use of their talents and vitality. Zoning control of ecological environment plays a fundamental role in the source prevention in eco-environmental protection. It is necessary to strengthen the top-level design, improve the institutions, aim at safeguarding ecological functions and improving environmental quality, and promote the realization of differentiated and accurate zoning control of ecological environment.

Li Qiang, Wang Huning and Cai Qi, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and deputy directors of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform attended the meeting.

It was emphasized at the meeting that since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China's situation for ecological conservation has witnessed historic, pivotal, and comprehensive changes, both in theory and practice. As a result, greater efforts must be concentrated on addressing prominent eco-environmental problems as dictated by the new demands of high-quality economic and social development and the new expectations of the people for better ecological environment. It is essential to improve institutions concerning ecological conservation, allow full play to the demonstrative role of pioneering and pilot endeavors in this regard, and the whole nation should be mobilized. Work should be done to coordinate local efforts with national endeavors, address both symptoms and root causes, and take into consideration both immediate gains and long-term achievements in the protection of eco-environment. It is crucial to strengthen organizational leadership, implement tailored policies according to local conditions and different localities should apply different approaches as required by their circumstances, and endeavors in this regard should be as meticulously planned as possible. Specific actions must be taken in a down-to-earth manner to gradually transform the goal of building a Beautiful China into reality.

It was emphasized at the meeting that budget work reflects the will of the Party and the state. It is important to uphold and strengthen the Party's leadership, leverage the institutional advantages of pooling resources to accomplish major tasks, and focus on improving the layout and adjusting the structure of the state-owned sector. Efforts should be made to concentrate state capital on major industries and key areas that bear on national security and the lifeline of the national economy, as well as public services, emergency response capabilities, public welfare and other areas crucial to national development and people's livelihoods. State capital should also go to forward-looking, strategic and emerging industries. Thus it will better serve the forging of a new development paradigm and promote high-quality development. It is necessary to have the awareness that strict budgetary discipline must be maintained, strengthen sound coordination and reasonable allocation of fiscal resources, determine the size of budgetary revenues and expenditures on sound basis, ensure social security and improve people's wellbeing, and refrain from extravagance and waste. It is important to make budget in accordance with the law, strengthen budgetary constraints, promote budget performance management, and strengthen the role of people's congresses in oversight.

It was noted at the meeting that the networks and links of sectors including power, oil and natural gas, and railways have the same characters of natural monopoly industries, and they are key areas of China's state-owned economy. It is imperative to refine the supervision system, strengthen the capacity of supervision, and place emphasis on strengthening the supervision on the efforts of natural monopoly industries to implement major national strategies, plans and tasks, fulfill their duties on safeguarding national security and perform their social responsibilities, as well as the scope and actions of their operation. Such supervision should propel enterprises of national monopoly industries to focus on performing their own responsibilities and doing their own work well, and increase the input of state capital into the network infrastructures, so as to improve the security and reliability of the backbone networks. Supervision should also be imposed over the monopolistic and competitive aspects of the operations of natural monopoly industries, so as to prevent them from extending into the upstream and downstream competitive links by taking advantage of their monopolistic status.

It was stressed at the meeting that experts are an important intellectual resource for advancing reform and development. It is imperative to strengthen the political guidance for them, improve supporting policies and incentive measures for experts to participate in public decision making, and fully motivate their enthusiasm and initiative. Efforts must be made to establish and improve the whole-process management involving the selection, examination and supervision of experts, improve the institutional norms for experts to take part in public decision making in accordance with their corresponding fields and categories. It is essential to clarify the roles, rights, obligations and corresponding responsibilities that experts have in public decision making, and motivate them to actively offer advices and suggestions for the sound decision making of the Party and the government.

It was pointed out at the meeting that to strengthen the zoning control of ecological environment, it is necessary to implement the principal functional zone strategy, link up territorial spatial planning and control of land use, focus on regional eco-environmental problems to improve the zoning control plan for ecological environment so that a zoning classification control strategy will be established from identifying problems to finding solutions. It is necessary to implement the responsibilities of local Party committees and governments at all levels, make use of the results of zoning control of ecological environment to serve the implementation of major national and local development strategies, and guide various development, protection and construction activities in a sound manner.

Members of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform attended the meeting, and leading officials of relevant central Party and government departments sat in on the meeting.