By Li Wei, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC)

Economic restructuring is an urgent, pressing, hard and painstaking long-term historical task. In response to this task, we shall never wait and see, but have a clear understanding of the situation, grasp opportunities and take the initiative and actively adapt to the new circumstances. Economic structural imbalance is the main issue under current downward pressure. The economic imbalance is manifested in the following aspects: first, imbalance of the demand mix; second, imbalance of the industrial structure; third, imbalance of the market competition structure; fourth, imbalance of the growth driver structure. China's internal development environment and conditions can no longer support the original economic structure. Therefore, the traditional development mode must be changed. Presently, major economies worldwide are adopting measures to accelerate their own structural adjustment, making restructuring a global trend. Only by optimizing China's economic structure and steering through the transition under the new normal toward a more advanced stage with more complex division of labor and a more appropriate structure, can we fulfill the two centenary goals. (i.e. the goals of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the time the CPC celebrates its centenary in 2021 and turning China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, cultural advanced and harmonious by the time the People's Republic of China marks its centennial in 2049 – translator's notes) First, we need to accelerate innovation to establish the technological basis for restructuring; second, we should speed up reform to form the institutional basis for restructuring; third, we should boost a new round of opening to the outside world to build a global participation mechanism for restructuring.