Beijing, April 17 -- With services now forming the bedrock of the Chinese economy, the country has elevated the sector's strategic importance to new heights as President Xi Jinping set the direction for high-quality development of the industry.

In an instruction conveyed at a national conference on the service sector held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for "breaking new ground" in the high-quality development of the service sector.

The conference, the first of its kind at the national level and held as the country entered the pivotal 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), heralds a stronger policy fo...