Continued improvement, reform and opening-up: China Daily editorial

At the Boao Forum for Asia earlier this month, President Xi Jinping said that each age and generation have their own challenges and missions, and although China has come a long way, there are still challenges that have to be overcome on the way ahead.

He stressed that the country needs to continue to improve itself through reform, take bold steps in innovation, continue to increase its openness and expand cooperation, and work together with the rest of the world to make a greater contribution to humanity.

The message from Monday's top Party meeting was the country is on the right course.

According to the statement released after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presided over by Xi, who is general secretary of CPC Central Committee, the major economic indicators show that economic restructuring is progressing well and progress is being made in winning the three tough battles of preventing major risks, targeted poverty alleviation and controlling pollution.

These three tasks are essential for the country's successful transition to high-quality development, which is the fundamental orientation for determining economic policies and macroeconomic regulation.

However, despite higher-than-expected GDP growth of 6.8 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, the statement cautioned that some "structural" and "deep-level" challenges remain. It urged coordinated measures be taken to safeguard the healthy development of the credit, equity, bond, forex and property markets, and supervision be stepped up to forestall risks.

The meeting also discussed the adverse international situation. This is becoming increasingly complicated with countries such as the United States opting for protectionism in the face of their economic challenges.

The consequent trade frictions between the two countries have been compounded by the high-tech competition between them hotting up.

The US action against ZTE has highlighted the need for China to reduce its reliance on foreign technologies, particularly US technology, and on Monday the Party's top leadership again called for the country to step up its efforts to achieve breakthroughs in the development of key technologies.

As Xi has previously said, the fact that core internet technology is controlled by others is the country's "greatest hidden danger".

But while the external environment might be difficult in some respects, that does not mean China is looking to close its door. As an unequivocal sign it is paying equal attention to "bringing in" and "going global", the Political Bureau called for the major opening-up measures previously decided on to be implemented "as soon as possible", and it promised further measures to open up the economy.