On the afternoon of 28 May 2020, the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) was closed.

Yang Xiaotian, a deputy to the 13th NPC and member of the NPC Standing Committee, vice chair of the Jilin Committee of the Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, and president of Jilin Radio and TV University (RTVU), and Ma Yuxia, a deputy to the 13th NPC, vice chair of the Henan Provincial Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, and vice president of Henan RTVU, visited the Open University of China (OUC) and held a work meeting with Jing Degang, secretary of the OUC Party Committee and president of the OUC.

Deputy Yang Xiaotian from Jilin RTVU

The two deputies introduced the Two Sessions and talked about their thoughts on this year’s Two Sessions, exchanging ideas on OUC reform and construction. Yang Xiaotian elaborated on the RTVU reform and development and Ma Yuxia focused on facilitating the construction of the OUC system and supporting the OUC in offering postgraduate education. The two deputies unanimously agreed that the Two Sessions is an important conference held at the moment while significant strategic achievements have been made in the battle from epidemic prevention and control. This historic moment has created a mutual understanding of the need to achieve an ultimate victory over poverty alleviation and comprehensively establish a moderately well-off society in all respects. Furthermore, the Two Sessions have also added new momentum to and indicated a direction for the transformation of open universities in the new era.

Deputy Ma Yuxia from Henan RTVU

Jing Degang noted that Yang Xiaotian and Ma Yuxia are outstanding talents from Jilin and Henan provinces and also outstanding representatives of the open university and RTVU systems. During the Two Sessions, Yang Xiaotian and Ma Yuxia, as deputies to the NPC, actively spoke out for lifelong education in the field of open education and helped raise the voice of open universities, receiving wide concern from the open education system and arousing great attention from education administration departments. All OUC faculty and students should be grateful for their help. As a next step, the OUC will seriously study general secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and instructions on education and, in particular, his important speeches at the Two Sessions, in order to carefully implement the spirt of the conferences. In addition, the OUC will follow the instructions given by vice premier Sun Chunlan during her visit to the OUC and spare no efforts to create a new chapter for the reform and development of open universities with a focus on constructing an education system that serves national lifelong learning and is based on unified thoughts, cohesive consensus, the pursuit of innovation, and an undaunted spirit in the face of adversity.

By OUC