Significant session for country's future

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which opened on Monday, is significant as it is about what the next five years mean to the future of China.

It is significant not just because those at the session will discuss the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for China's economic development and social progress, but also because there are hard nuts to crack in the next five years if the country is to realize the goal of building a moderately well-off society by 2020.

As Party General Secretary Xi Jinping said in early 2013 when describing the task of reform, the country now has to wade into deep water to continue its reforms; progress will not be made without winning the hard battles involved in tackling the thorniest issues.