Ministerial-level officials concluded their four-day (January 11-14) workshop on Xi Jinping’s new development philosophy at the Central Party School. Wang Huning, PBSC member, first-ranked Secretary of the CCP CC Secretariat and the CCP's top theoretician, spoke at the final session where, according to Xinhua (January 14), he gave three instructions to the senior officials. He advised them to: Understand the big picture; Address “unbalanced” development; and Improve the country’s ability to survive, compete, and sustain itself. People's Daily (January 15) reported him as saying that "to study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, we must be more determined to achieve the "two safeguards", improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, and ensure the unity of thinking and action of the whole party. We must integrate the study of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with the study of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era". On January 15, Chen Yixin, Secretary General of Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, presided over the opening ceremony of the seminar for major leaders at the provincial and ministerial level when he conveyed the importance of studying the 'spirit' of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the opening ceremony of the seminar. Chen Yixin said: The pandemic will have a profound impact on the international order; The US will persist in trying to contain China; and that The East is rising while the West is declining. Politburo members Ding Xuexiang, Yang Xiaodu, Guo Shengkun, Huang Kunming and Secretary of the CCP CC Secretariat You Quan attended the closing ceremony.