A key meeting underlined on Thursday that during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, it is essential to uphold, leverage and develop the Communist Party of China's overall leadership as the greatest strength to provide a fundamental guarantee for advancing Chinese modernization.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over and addressed the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

During the meeting, the top Party leadership heard a series of work reports from leading Party members groups of five State institutions — the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate — as well as a work report from the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, it has been an annual tradition for the Party leadership to hear these work reports.

This practice is an important institutional arrangement to uphold and strengthen the Party's overall leadership, and to ensure that the CPC Central Committee's centralized and unified leadership is implemented in all areas, aspects and stages of national governance, according to the meeting.

It also commended the work of the leading Party members groups of the five State institutions in the past year.

The groups have been urged to focus on the major strategic tasks for economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. They should foster solidarity, pool strength and jointly advance work across various fields, striving to achieve a strong start, the meeting said.

The Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee was also commended for ensuring the implementation of the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee.

It was stressed at the meeting that in the new year, the secretariat should fulfill its responsibilities with a key focus on tasks, such as conducting Party education campaigns and improving Party regulations, and accomplish tasks assigned by the CPC Central Committee with high quality.

jihaisheng@chinadaily.com.cn