January 3

The State Council issued the Opinions on Integrating the Basic Medical Insurance System for Urban and Rural Residents, proposing to integrate the basic medical insurance system for urban residents and the new type rural cooperative medical system and establish a unified basic medical insurance system for urban and rural residents.

January 5

Xi Jinping delivered a speech at a symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), calling the YERB's development a key regional development strategy for the country. Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to follow a green development path which put ecology first and to protect the Yangtze River, saying there should be no large-scale development of the river. On May 30, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Plan. On April 26, 2018, Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on promoting the YREB development in Wuhan, requiring that continuous efforts be made to promote the development of the YREB under the new circumstances.

February 16

The Central Military Commission issued the Notice on the Full Termination of Paid Services by Armed Forces and Armed Police Forces.

February 19

Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on the Party's press and public opinion work, pointing out that in the new era, the Party's press and public opinion work should prioritize the correct political direction.

February 24

The General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the Plan for an Education Campaign to Study the Party Constitution and Rules and the Speeches of Xi Jinping and Meet Party Standards. On March 20, 2017, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the Opinions on Normalization and Institutionalization of the “Two Studies and One Act” Education Campaign.

March 23

The First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders' Meeting was held in Sanya, Hainan Province, officially launching the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism.

March 24

The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee heard the status report on Beijing's sub-center and the recipient site for relocating and clustering Beijing's functions non-essential to its role as capital, determined a new site for such purposes, and named it the Xiong'an New Area. On May 27, Xi Jinping pointed out at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that Beijing's sub-center and the Xiong'an New Area were to be built into new cities like two wings for Beijing, which was part of a millennium strategy of national significance. On March 28, 2017, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued a notice to establish the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei Province. On January 11, 2019, the Beijing Municipal Administration Center was officially relocated to Beijing's sub-center in the Lucheng Town of the Tongzhou District.

April 19

Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on the work of cybersecurity and informatization, stressing the need to make pioneering efforts to put into practice the new development philosophy and make the Internet better benefit the country and the people.

April 22

Xi Jinping addressed a national conference on religious work and pointed out that an important task of guiding religions to adapt to the socialist society was to support religions in China in their effort to keep to the direction of catering to China's situation, and that to do well in the Party's religious work, the key was to establish a deep, thorough and accurate understanding of how to provide guidance so that it would be correct, sound and effective and would ensure the initiative was maintained in religious work. 

On the same day, China signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

April 25

Xi Jinping, when presiding over a symposium on rural reform in the Xiaogang Village of Fengyang County, Anhui Province, pointed out that under the new circumstances, the main task of deepening rural reform still consisted in properly handling the relations between farmers and land and that a core policy was to serve the purpose of upholding and improving the basic rural operation system and adhering to collective ownership of rural land, the fundamental status of household management, and the stable land contract relationships.

May 17

Xi Jinping addressed a symposium on philosophy and social sciences, proposing to focus on develop philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics. He stressed that the efforts to maintain confidence in the path, theories and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics all boiled down to maintaining confidence in culture, which provided a nation with strength of a more essential, empowering and enduring nature. On March 5, 2017, the CPC Central Committee issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Philosophy and Social Sciences with Chinese Characteristics.

June 20

Sunway Taihu-Light, China's home-grown supercomputer built with domestic processor chips, won the world's championship in processing speed.

June 22–August 12

China's research ship Exploration-1 carried out its first comprehensive scientific research in the over-10,000-meter-deep Mariana waters. During its voyage, China's unmanned submersible onboard the ship Haidou, dived to a maximum depth of 10,767 meters, making China the third country in the world to develop an unmanned submersible with a diving depth of 10,000 meters.

July 1

Xi Jinping addressed the grand gathering celebrating the 95th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and called for efforts to uphold the fighting spirit of the Party's founding members and their commitment to the people. He reminded of that one who wanted to stride ahead should not forget the path that had been trodden, and no matter how far he travelled and to whatever bright future, he should not forget what he had done and why he set out to do it. Looking into the future and facing challenges, all Party members must stay true to their original aspirations and continue marching forward.

July 5

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Investment and Financing System and kicked off a new round of comprehensive reform in the investment and financing system.

July 8

The CPC Central Committee issued the Regulations on Accountability of the Communist Party of China. On September 1, 2019, the newly revised Regulations came into force.

July 12

China issued the Statement of the Government of the People's Republic of China on China's Territorial Sovereignty and Maritime Rights and Interests in the South China Sea.

July 22

The first “1+6” Roundtable was held in Beijing. Since then, the event has become an annual meeting held by China with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the International Labor Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Financial Stability Board.

August 16

China launched Mozi, the world's first quantum science experimental satellite. In June and August, 2017, it successfully achieved quantum entanglement distribution, quantum key distribution and quantum teleportation between a satellite and the ground with a distance of over 1,000 kilometers, a ground-breaking event in the world.

August 19–20

The National Health Conference was held. On October 17, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline of the “Healthy China 2030” Plan.

September 3

Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the B20 Summit held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, calling for actions to build an innovative, open, interconnected and inclusive world economy and emphasized that global economic governance should be based on equality and better reflect the new realities of the world economic landscape. On September 4 to 5, Xi Jinping presided over the 11th G20 Summit themed “Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy” in Hangzhou.

September 25

The State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of the Work on “Internet Plus Government Services.” On July 25, 2018, the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a National Integrated Online Government Service Platform was issued.

On the same day, China's Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope developed with China's proprietary intellectual property rights, was put into operation in Pingtang, Guizhou Province.

October 1

The RMB was formally added to the special drawing rights basket of the International Monetary Fund.

October 10

At a national meeting on Party building within state-owned enterprises, Xi Jinping pointed out that the CPC's unswerving leadership over state-owned enterprises should be upheld, and he also called for determined efforts to make state-owned enterprises stronger, bigger and better.

October 21

Xi Jinping delivered a speech at a gathering commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, pointing out that each generation had its own Long March and should proceed in its own way and that the Long March for the current generation was to realize the Two Centenary Goals and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. He also called for actions to carry forth the Long March spirit and advance in a new Long March.

October 24–27

At the 6th Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the Code of Conduct for Intraparty Political Life under New Circumstances and the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Internal Oversight were adopted. The Session established the core status of General Secretary Xi Jinping in the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party, and called on all comrades in the Party to closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, to firmly establish consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, uphold the leadership core, and keep in alignment, and to unswervingly uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee.

November 1

China's self-developed new-generation stealth fighter jet the J-20 made its debut at the Zhuhai International Air Show in China. Later on, the J-20 was included in the PLA Air Force's arsenal.

December 2

Xi Jinping emphasized at the conference of the Central Military Commission on the reforms of the military scale, structure and force composition that the PLA should transform from a quantity-and-scale model to that of quality and efficiency, as well as from being personnel-intensive to technology-intensive, making its force composition complete, integrated, multi-functional and flexible and building a modern system of military forces with Chinese characteristics able to win information wars and effectively perform their missions.

December 7

At the National Conference on Ideological and Political Work in Colleges and Universities, Xi Jinping called for efforts to put moral education at the core of, and integrate ideological and political education into every aspect of, the education and learning process and achieve all-round education across the entire education process.

December 26

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Steadily Promoting the Reform of the Rural Collective Property-Rights System.

From: Chronicle of the People's Republic of China (October 1949—September 2019), edited by The Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, PP.271-282.