Commentary: New year, new expectations from Xi Jinping

BEIJING -- While ordinary people make Chinses New Year resolutions about life, work and family, China's leaders are expressing their hopes and laying out work priorities for the new year.

President Xi Jinping did that early this week at a new year gathering of members of China's non-Communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and people without party affiliation.

Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said he hoped that in the new year multi-party cooperation would take on a new look, ideological consensus with the CPC would be strengthened, and more would be done in the participation of state affairs governance.

But perhaps more importantly, Xi drove their attention to what is being called the "three tough battles": financial risk prevention, poverty reduction and pollution control.

Xi told the gathering that efforts must be concentrated on these areas, with deeper field research and more insightful advice to help Party authorities draw up policies.

Fighting the "three tough battles" is a work priority for the Party and state officials in 2018. Xi expects "steady progress" within the year.

The idea became eye-catching at the Party's 19th National Congress in October, and was highlighted in December at the Central Economic Work Conference, the country's most important annual economic meeting.

Since then, Chinese leaders have stressed the battles as a pressing task on various occasions, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year.

Financial risks, poverty and pollution are standing between China's reality and the vision of a moderately prosperous society. ' The targeted society can not arise with volatile financial markets, people locked in poverty, and polluted skies, mountains and rivers.

With only three years to go, the problems must be fixed fast.

None of these battles are easy. They are some of the toughest challenges facing the developing world.

But China's leadership has shown the resolve and the strategies:

-- for containing risks, prudent monetary policy should be kept neutral, the floodgates of monetary supply should be controlled, and credit and social financing should see reasonable growth;

-- for eliminating poverty, focus should be kept on helping people in abject poverty and extremely poor regions and cadres are sent to the regions to help poor families get rich;

-- for controlling pollution, emission of major pollutants must be targeted and green growth must be improved.

At the upcoming annual sessions of China's national legislature and the top advisory body in March, people are expected to hear more follow-up measures from state leaders.

Once Chinese leaders make a plan, they will carry it out to the end.

The time is ripe to roll-up our sleeves and get things done.

The Chinese often associate the upcoming Year of the Dog with integrity and hard work. This is exactly the spirit in which the three tough battles must be fought.