The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, attended by 400 full and alternate members of the committee, approved a decision on “major issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms” at the close of a four-day meeting on Tuesday.

Among a slew of measures, economic reform is key, and the core solution is a proper relationship between the government and the market, leaving the market to play the decisive role. The general objective is to improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, achieve modernization of the country’s governing system and capabilities.

It is undoubtedly another milestone along China’s reform path, or as a Western media outlet put it — the most prominent Third Plenary Session since 1978. The communique released on Tuesday sounds like the bugle for comprehensive reform that facilitates China’s all-round and vibrant development.

Based on our observation over the past few decades, the Third Plenary Session seems to have an important role to play in China’s political life, as it often charts the country’s future, setting the development course for the coming decade and beyond. The reform campaign kicked off by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee shifted the country’s focus from bitter ideological wrangling to market economy. Such a bold move pulled back the Chinese economy from the brink of collapse and put it on a fast track of dynamic growth, propelling China to become the second-largest economy in the world.

There is little wonder why the whole world is watching, because the results of the meeting will not only define the shape of China in the 21st century, but possibly that of the world, as the global economic growth is more reliant on China. Nowadays, China’s fast growth serves as a key engine of the world economy. In 2012 alone, China’s economy outpaced the global average, making significant contribution to world economic growth. David Shambaugh, a prominent China watcher at George Washington University, wrote in his latest book China Goes Global that “for the past three decades, observers have watched how the world has impacted China; now the table is turning and it is necessary to understand China is impacting the world.”

Examining the seven communiques released since 1978, one can easily see that reform, development and market economy top the chart of the most frequently-used words. China’s reform, activated 35 years ago, was in response to a global trend. If reform in the late 1970s was all about feeding nearly a billion people, today’s reform has a much bigger stomach and appetite for change — the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Reading between the lines in the communique, one can sense that the reform is a call of the time. Without reform, China would not have its prosperity and vigor. But “systematic, integrated and coordinated reform” always comes at a cost. To provide new impetus for economic growth, often vested interests have to be breached, skyrocketing property prices have to be controlled, environmental degradation and corruption have to be curbed, and the widening wealth gap has to be bridged, among other things. All these moves will throw up many unforeseeable challenges.

In a rapidly transforming society that is accumulating contradictions, every step forward of reforms, big or small, can be unprecedented and precarious. To borrow a Chinese proverb, we should “feel the stones to cross the river”, it is especially true when the country has reached reform’s deep-water zone.

On his visit to Central China’s Hubei province in July, President Xi Jinping emphasized that reform is a balancing act between creativity and reality, between urgent breakthroughs and comprehensiveness, between the leadership and grassroots people, between courage and care, between reform, development and stability. Xi’s razor-sharp analysis and insightfulness further demonstrated that the CPC is a responsible and farsighted ruling party, and that it is able to lead the nation forward.

As part of the country, Hong Kong is poised to be a leading beneficiary of the motherland’s burgeoning power. The city’s economy is integrating with the mainland at an unprecedented pace. This robust trend is already reflected in three policy arrangements, including CEPA signed in 2003, the outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) that dedicates a whole chapter to Hong Kong and Macao, and a set of 36 measures rolled out by then Vice-Premier Li Keqiang in 2011. In the long run, Hong Kong will continue to reap a cornucopia of benefits unleashed by the country’s deepening reform and growing overseas investment.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

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