The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) met on 4 March to discuss the priorities in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuring stable economic and social progress. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee chaired the meeting and made important remarks.

Xi noted that as a result of nationwide efforts, a positive momentum is building up as the epidemic situation is turning for the better and the normal order of production and life is resuming at a faster pace. He underscored the imperative to earnestly implement the decisions made at the meeting on coordinating epidemic control and economic and social development. He urged more efforts to establish an economic and social order compatible with epidemic response and to refine measures to consolidate and sustain the hard-won momentum, which is necessary for bringing economic and social development back on track as soon as possible and for creating conditions for a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty.

Xi emphasized the need to stay sober-minded about the complexities facing epidemic control and economic and social development and to coordinate different tasks with a greater sense of duty and urgency. Epidemic control in Hubei Province, especially the city of Wuhan, remains a daunting task, while risks of contagion are growing in other provinces due to greater movement and concentration of population. As such, we must continue our epidemic response with great caution. There must be no lowering of guard or slackening in control requirements, and all response measures must be fully implemented down to every detail.

Xi also stressed the need for China to deepen international cooperation on epidemic control and play its role as a responsible major country. More needs to be done to advance economic and social endeavors across the board. To be specific, targeted and well-planned measures must be taken to steadily resume work and production and ensure orderly flow of people, funds and goods, coordination between production, distribution and sales, and synergy between domestic and foreign trade, all in a bid to minimize the damage caused by the epidemic. Party committees and governments at all levels must follow the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and pursue epidemic control and socio-economic development in parallel. We must proceed in the spirit of seeking truth from facts, base our efforts on the actual situation on the ground, and resolutely guard against formalities and bureaucratism.

The meeting noted the importance of resuming work and production in the context of further opening-up. Efforts must be made to ensure the stable performance of foreign trade and foreign investment and to explore diverse international markets. Leading companies must resume work and production in a way that helps maintain stability in the global supply chain. It is also important to implement the Foreign Investment Law well, help foreign companies to overcome difficulties in resuming work and production, deliver flagship foreign investment projects, and further open up the financial and other services sectors.