Leadership's calls for reform hailed

In the first top policy seminar after the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, scholars from a prestigious university hailed the top leadership's resolve for reform and called for quick implementation of the measures.

Reforms deemed by these professors as "breakthroughs" include the establishment of a leading reform group directly under the CPC Central Committee, a commitment to fulfill reform by 2020, a mandate for State-owned enterprises to hand in a higher portion of their dividends and support for the "decisive" role the market plays in the economy.

"A key feature of this reform blueprint is that it is a comprehensive package that spans from economic to public administration to society. This is a departure from other reforms at previous plenums that focused on economic issues," said Li Ling, a health economics professor at the National School of Development at Peking University.