Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the first plenary meeting of the 37th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 26, 2022. [Xinhua/Yin Bogu]

BEIJING -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, started its 37th session in Beijing on Wednesday.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the session's first plenary meeting and delivered a speech.

The agenda of the session's first plenary meeting was to study and implement the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Li Shulei, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a report at the meeting.

Li Zhanshu urged efforts to maintain a high degree of unity with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core ideologically, politically and in action, and to gain an in-depth understanding of the major political outcomes achieved by the 20th CPC National Congress.

Efforts should be made to fully grasp the Party's central tasks on the new journey in the new era and ensure the sound implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, said Li Zhanshu. He also called for efforts to uphold the exercise of law-based governance on all fronts, develop whole-process people's democracy, and give better play to the important role of the system of people's congress in State governance.