Page 30 - REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT

and held to full account those who were incompetent and indolent. We respected
the pioneering spirit of the people and kept all motivated, thus creating a powerful

force for advancing development.

Fellow Deputies,
Over the past five years, we created new ways to improve work related to

ethnic groups, religious affairs, and overseas Chinese. We consolidated and
developed socialist ethnic relations featuring equality, unity, mutual assistance,
and harmony, with fresh headway achieved in ethnic solidarity and progress. We
implemented the Party’s basic policy on religious affairs and saw that religions in

China further adapted to the Chinese context. We continued to improve our work
on overseas Chinese affairs, thus giving full play to the unique strengths and
important role of overseas Chinese nationals in China’s modernization drive.
We remained committed to the Party’s absolute leadership over the people’s
armed forces. A series of major achievements were made in national defense and

military development. As a result, a number of significant changes took place in
this domain.
The people’s armed forces intensified efforts to enhance their political loyalty,
to strengthen themselves through reform, scientific and technological advances,

and personnel training, and to practice law-based governance. They stepped up
military training, increased combat preparedness, and became a much more
modernized and capable fighting force.
They carried out operations in a firm and flexible way; and they effectively

conducted major missions relating to border defense, maritime rights protection,
counterterrorism and stability maintenance, disaster rescue and relief, Covid-19
response, peacekeeping, and merchant ship escorting. Our national defense
mobilization capability was boosted. With these efforts, we fully safeguarded

China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests.
We made fresh progress in work related to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
We exercised effective overall jurisdiction over the two special administrative
regions of Hong Kong and Macao in accordance with China’s Constitution and the
basic laws of the two regions, formulated and put into effect the Law of the

People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region, and applied the principle that Hong Kong and
Macao should be administered by patriots. We have ensured that Hong Kong has

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