Xi Jinping presides over the closing session of the 19th CPC National Congress on Tuesday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China approved an amendment to the Party Constitution to include Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era during its closing session on Tuesday. The move affirms the importance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's new theory, ideology and strategy for governing China, and will be the guideline for all future work of the Party.

The inclusion of Xi's thought in the Party Constitution also shows the Party continues to advance with the times and is prepared to tackle any eventuality that arises in the new era.

The Party Constitution had been revised 16 times till the 18th Party Congress in 2012, so revising it this time was a historical necessity, especially because China has entered a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the main contradiction has evolved to be unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's growing needs for a better life. Only when the Party Constitution is amended to include the CPC's guideline and ideology can the Party achieve its goals.

Since socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era had already become the premise of the theory and ideology of the times, the Party has wisely made Xi's thought a part of its Constitution and thus shown it accepts the reality that China has stepped into a new historic stage in terms of economic, political and social development, and that the opportunities and challenges that come with them too have changed.

The amendment shows the essence of the Party's governance philosophy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has made great progress in all kinds of areas, including fighting corruption, strengthening Party self-discipline and enforcing Party leadership. These are concrete achievements under the guidance of the new thought.

This is the era of building on past successes to further advance the Party's cause, and to continue in a new historical context to strive for the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is the era of successfully building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and making all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country. This is also the era for Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work together and work hard to create a better life for themselves and ultimately achieve common prosperity for everyone.

And it is time for all Chinese citizens to make greater efforts to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation as China moves closer to the global center stage and makes greater contributions to humankind.

The amendment also shows the Party remains committed to its ultimate goal of serving the people. Since its founding in 1921, the Party has always adopted a people-oriented approach, marked by the principles of "from the people, to the people" and "all for the people". In fact, the amendment upgrades the Party's resolve to better serve the people in the new stage of development, as it emphasizes people-centered development thinking, and insists on innovative, coordinated, green and open development for everybody.

Given that China is still a developing country, the Party has the responsibility to guide the Chinese people to overcome the middle-income trap and move toward a brighter future. And since China still has income inequality and production inefficiency, the Party should further apply Marxism in the domestic context and continue to enrich its basic line to establish socialism with Chinese characteristics while guiding the Chinese people to build a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era will be the guiding thought for the Party's practice in the long run, as it is "a major political assessment" and "strategic reflection that affects the whole landscape", and generalizes all the valuable thoughts, strategies and theories of the Party with Xi as the core.

The author is a research fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China.