Full text of Hu's report at 18th Party Congress

VI. Developing a Strong Socialist Culture in China

Culture is the lifeblood of a nation, and it gives the people a sense of belonging. To complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieve the great renewal of the Chinese nation, we must create a new surge in promoting socialist culture and bring about its great development and enrichment, increase China's cultural soft power, and enable culture to guide social trends, educate the people, serve society, and boost development.

To develop a strong socialist culture in China, we must take the socialist path of promoting cultural advance with Chinese characteristics. We should adhere to the goal of serving the people and socialism, the policy of having a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and the principle of maintaining close contact with reality, life and the people. We should fully promote socialist cultural and ethical progress and material progress, and develop a national, scientific, and people-oriented socialist culture that embraces modernization, the world, and the future.

To develop a strong socialist culture in China, it is critical to inspire the cultural creativity of the whole nation. We should deepen reform of the cultural sector, release and develop cultural productive forces, foster a democratic atmosphere in both academic research and artistic pursuit, create a vast cultural arena for the people and encourage the free flow of cultural inspiration from all sources. By doing so, we will open up a new horizon in promoting China's cultural advance: The Chinese nation's cultural creativity will continuously burst forth; China's cultural life will flourish as never before; people's basic cultural rights and interests will be better protected; the ethical and moral standards as well as the scientific and cultural standards of the people will be fully raised, and the international influence of Chinese culture will steadily increase.

1. Strengthen core socialist values

Core socialist values are the soul of the Chinese nation and serve as the guide for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should carry out thorough study of and education in these values and use them to guide social trends of thought and forge public consensus. We should continue to adapt Marxism to China's conditions in keeping up with the times and increase its appeal to the people, work hard to equip the whole Party with the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics and educate the people in these theories. We should further implement the national project to study and develop Marxist theory, build an innovation system in philosophy and the social sciences, incorporate the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the curriculum and make it a way of thinking. We should carry out extensive education about our ideal and conviction, and rally the people under the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should vigorously foster China's national character and promote the underlying trend of the times, intensify education in patriotism, collectivism and socialism, and enrich people's cultural life and enhance their moral strength. We should promote prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony, uphold freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law and advocate patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship, so as to cultivate and observe core socialist values. We should maintain leadership and initiative in theoretical work, provide correct guidance, enhance our ability to guide public opinion, and strengthen the influence of the underlying trend of thought in our country.

2. Improve civic morality in an all-around way

This is the basic task for strengthening socialist morals. We should integrate the rule of law with the rule of virtue, intensify education in public morality, professional ethics, family virtues, and individual integrity, and advocate traditional Chinese virtues and new trends of the times. We should press ahead with the program for improving civic morality, exalt the true, the good, and the beautiful and reject the false, the evil, and the ugly. We should encourage people to willingly meet their statutory duties and obligations to society and family. We should create a social atmosphere in which work is honored and creation is lauded, and cultivate social trends of recognizing honor and disgrace, practicing integrity, encouraging dedication, and promoting harmony. We should carry out thorough education to address serious ethical problems, and step up efforts to enhance government integrity, business and social ethics and judicial integrity. We should strengthen and improve education in values, provide compassionate care and psychological counseling, and cultivate self-respect, self-confidence, a sense of being rational, composure, and a desire to excel oneself among the people. We should conduct more public activities to promote cultural and ethical progress, encourage volunteer service, and carry out regular activities to learn from paragons of virtue such as Lei Feng and publicize their exemplary deeds.

3. Enrich people's intellectual and cultural lives

Enabling the people to lead healthy and rich intellectual and cultural lives is an important part of our efforts to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We should pursue people-centered cultural creation, and create better cultural products to provide the people with more and better nourishments for the mind. We should be community- and people-focused in our cultural work, carry out at a faster pace key cultural projects that benefit the people, increase support for promoting cultural progress in rural areas and underdeveloped areas and open more public cultural service facilities to the public free of charge. We should develop a system for carrying forward fine traditional culture and promote outstanding traditional Chinese culture. We should extend and standardize the use of the standard Chinese language. We should promote the development and flourishing of cultural activities of ethnic minorities. We should carry out public cultural activities and guide the people to express, educate, and serve themselves in the course of developing culture. We should launch reading programs for the general public. We should improve the contents of online services and advocate healthy themes on the Internet. We should strengthen social management of the Internet and promote orderly network operation in accordance with laws and regulations. We should crack down on pornography and illegal publications and resist vulgar trends. We should extend scientific knowledge, foster respect for science, and make the whole nation better educated in science. We should carry out fitness activities across the country and fully promote both recreational and competitive sports.

4. Enhance the overall strength and international competitiveness of Chinese culture

The strength and international competitiveness of Chinese culture are an important indicator of China's power and prosperity and the renewal of the Chinese nation. We should promote rapid development and all-around flourishing of the cultural industry and cultural services and ensure both social effect and economic benefits, with priority on the former. We should develop philosophy and the social sciences, the press and publishing, radio, television and films, and literature and art. We should launch more major public cultural projects and programs, improve the public cultural service system, and make such services more efficient. We should promote integration of culture with science and technology, develop new forms of cultural operations, and make cultural operations larger in size and more specialized. We should develop a modern communications network to improve our capacity for communications. We should invigorate state-owned non-profit cultural institutions, improve corporate governance of profit-oriented cultural entities, and create a thriving cultural market. We should open the cultural sector wider to the outside world and draw on cultural achievements of other countries. We should foster a fine environment that enables a large number of talented cultural figures, particularly eminent cultural figures and representatives of Chinese culture, to distinguish themselves in artistic pursuit. We should honor cultural personalities with outstanding contribution.

We must adhere to the goal of advancing socialist culture, deepen our awareness of and confidence in Chinese culture, and strive to meet the grand goal of developing a strong socialist culture in China.