Culture is fundamental to the nation's essence and destiny; a thriving culture leads to a prosperous nation, and a strong culture leads to a strong nation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has stood at a global and strategic height, insisting on placing cultural construction at the forefront of governance, making a series of major deployments, and forming Xi Jinping's cultural thought. Xi Jinping's cultural thought is the theoretical summary of the Party's practical experience in leading cultural construction in the new era, enriching and developing Marxist cultural theory, and is a concentrated expression of the cultural subjectivity and cultural confidence of the Chinese nation. It points the way forward for the construction of a cultural power in the new era and provides fundamental guidance.

Thought is power, and banners lead the way. Under the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping's cultural thoughts, China's cultural construction has achieved historic accomplishments in rectifying the essence, adhering to the correct path, and innovating. The construction of a socialist cultural power has taken solid steps forward. Strengthening planning leadership, the implementation of the "Outline for the Construction of a Cultural Power (—)" and the "14th Five-Year Plan" for cultural development has been formulated and carried out. The industry is showing strong momentum; in the first three quarters of the year, the national scale of above-scale cultural and related industry enterprises achieved operating income of 1,000 billion yuan, an increase of 100 billion yuan over the same period last year, with a growth rate of 10%.

Cultural benefits have reached every household. In the year, there were a total of public libraries nationwide, with a total collection of public libraries reaching 1.28 billion volumes, an increase of 14.0% year-on-year. China added 211 new registered museums, bringing the total number of museums nationwide to 6,565. These museums hosted over 30,000 exhibitions and more than 220,000 educational activities, receiving a record-high 1.26 billion visitors. The protection and传承 of cultural heritage have been vigorously promoted. "The Central Axis of Beijing - A Masterpiece of China's Ideal Urban Order" was included in the World Heritage List, bringing the total number of World Heritage sites in China to 57. The number of projects listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists and Registers reached 43.

Casting one's gaze over the vast land of China, Chinese culture is radiating new era brilliance and showcasing new vigorous vitality. The people of China are propelled by stronger forward momentum, imbued with more spirited striving spirit, and more firmly convinced of certain victory, manifesting a stronger historical consciousness and initiative. A vivid picture of "culture thriving leads to national prosperity, culture strong leads to a strong nation" is unfolding. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered a critical period, with culture increasingly becoming a powerful support for building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation. The 20th Plenary Session of the 23rd Central Committee of the Party proposed "seven focuses," one of which is the important aspect of "focusing on building a socialist cultural power."

On the new journey, we must unswervingly follow the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics, adhere to the leadership of the Party, enhance governance capabilities in the cultural field under the conditions of informatization, and build a solid foundation for the Party's governance and the masses' support in terms of ideology, spirit, and culture. Efforts should be made to stimulate the innovative and creative vitality of the entire nation's culture, adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, prioritize social benefits while ensuring the unity of social and economic benefits, and take the stimulation of innovative and creative vitality as the central link in deepening cultural system and mechanism reforms, accelerating the improvement of cultural management systems and production and operation mechanisms.

We must always focus on people in cultural development, aiming to meet the diverse, multi-level, and multifaceted spiritual and cultural needs of the people, enhancing the supply capacity of cultural services and products, and increasing the cultural sense of gain and happiness among the people. We should continue the Chinese cultural heritage through creative transformation and innovative development, uphold the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation, and protect, promote, and develop the treasures of Chinese civilization that have withstood the test of time. We must continuously improve the soft power of national culture and the influence of Chinese culture, advance the reconstruction of the international communication landscape, innovate in online external publicity, and build a multi-channel, three-dimensional external communication framework.

Building a strong cultural nation is a common task for the entire Party and society. We must strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee over the work of propaganda and ideological culture, and improve the leadership and management system and mechanisms for cultural development. Party committees and governments at all levels should effectively strengthen organizational leadership, do a good job in the allocation of cadres, talent cultivation, resource investment, and mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of all parties, gathering a powerful synergy for the construction of a strong cultural nation, and continuously advancing towards the goal of building a strong cultural nation.