Since the founding of New China, the total postal business in China has increased by more than 7700 times.

　　Today, the State Council Press Office held a press conference on the reform and development of postal industry in China. Ma Junsheng, director of the State Post Bureau, introduced that postal industry is an ancient industry with a long history. China is one of the earliest countries in the world to establish organized communication. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions’s records, the ancient postal post in China originated in the Shang Dynasty, flourished in the Zhou Dynasty, and became more common in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. From Shang Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty, before the modern postal service was opened in China, the postal communication in China experienced more than 3,000 years of development, which made important contributions to promoting China’s political unity, cultural exchanges and exchanges between China and foreign countries.

　　On October 1st, 1949, New China was founded, which opened a new era for the development and progress of the Chinese nation, and also opened a new chapter in the development of postal industry in China. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have always attached great importance to the development of postal industry, and constantly strengthened the top-level design of postal industry reform and development. In the aspect of postal system reform, the central government insists on keeping pace with the times, and has successively deployed and completed major institutional reform tasks such as the adjustment of post and telecommunications management system, the separation of posts and telecommunications, the separation of postal administration from enterprises, and the improvement of postal supervision system reform below the provincial level, and has always led the postal industry to move forward firmly on the right road. In the construction and guarantee of the rule of law, the Postal Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) was formulated and implemented, and revised several times according to the needs of industry reform and development, and the Provisional Regulations on Express Delivery was promulgated and implemented, forming a relatively complete system of postal laws and regulations. In optimizing the development environment of the industry, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council successively issued a series of policy documents to support the development of the postal industry, which greatly released the policy dividend and stimulated the development momentum.

　　Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the postal industry has entered the best period of development in history. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has repeatedly given important instructions on the reform and development of the postal industry, emphasizing the need to strengthen the construction of express delivery teams, be creators and guardians of a better life, speed up the construction of rural "e-commerce distribution" channels, strengthen the prevention and control of express packaging waste, and strengthen the safety management of delivery channels. These important instructions highlight the purpose and feelings of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core in governing for the people, reflect the great attention and ardent expectations of the CPC Central Committee for the postal industry, and inspire and encourage all postal workers to forge ahead, work hard, and fully accelerate the high-quality leap-forward development of the postal industry.

　　After 70 years since the founding of New China, especially the sustained, healthy and rapid development since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the postal industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. Today, the postal system has become a national strategic infrastructure and social organization system. As an important part of modern service industry, postal industry, as a modern leading industry to promote the transformation of circulation mode and promote consumption upgrading, plays an increasingly important basic role in serving economic and social development and improving people’s livelihood.

　　First, the scale of the industry continues to expand. At the beginning of the founding of New China, everything was in ruins, and the postal industry was advancing in exploration. In 1949, the total postal service in China was only 160 million yuan. By 2018, the total postal service in China has reached 1,234.5 billion yuan, an increase of more than 7,700 times. In 1984, China Post took the lead in setting up express mail service in China, and the express service rose from scratch, and the business scale reached a new high. In the past 30 years, the total express delivery business has surged from 1.53 million in 1988 to 50.7 billion in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 41.5%. In 2018, the national express delivery business revenue reached 603.8 billion yuan, accounting for 76.4% of the postal business revenue. China has grown into the fastest-growing and most dynamic emerging delivery market in the world. The parcel delivery volume exceeds the sum of developed economies such as the United States, Japan and Europe, and contributes more than 50% to the world growth. It has become the power source and stabilizer of the world postal industry.

　　Second, the infrastructure continued to improve. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the postal network was incomplete, and the production equipment was outdated and backward. The length of the national postal route was only 706,000 kilometers, and there were 26,000 postal service offices, most of which were concentrated in large and medium-sized cities. After 70 years of large-scale construction, a modern postal and express service network has been basically formed, which comprehensively utilizes various modes of transportation such as aviation, railway and highway, connects urban and rural areas, covers the whole country and connects the world. By 2018, more than 230 postal and express professional logistics parks have been built in China, with a one-way length of 39.448 million kilometers and 275,000 business outlets, 56 times and 10.4 times that of 1949 respectively. Hubei Ezhou International Air Express Hub Project is progressing smoothly. The whole industry has three cargo airlines, operating 115 all-cargo planes, and 322,000 postal and express service vehicles. Significant progress has been made in operating modes such as e-commerce trains and high-speed rail express delivery.

　　The third is to significantly optimize the quality and efficiency of development. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the production capacity and level of China’s postal industry were low. Trunk transportation mainly relied on animal-drawn backpacking, and sorting and distribution mainly relied on manual work. After 70 years of continuous development, the production and operation efficiency of postal industry has been continuously improved, the application level of science and technology has been significantly enhanced, new formats have emerged, the strength of enterprises has been greatly improved, and the connection with related industries has become closer. The high-quality development of the industry has a purer color, brighter background and stronger foundation. By 2018, hundreds of intelligent distribution centers will be built nationwide, and the utilization rate of electronic waybills will exceed 96%, greatly improving the processing efficiency of all links. 320,000 intelligent express boxes were put into operation, and the box delivery rate increased to 11.3%. A number of industries such as big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence have accelerated the application of key common technical equipment, and sorting technologies such as postal optical character recognition and technical equipment such as "unmanned warehouses, drones and unmanned vehicles" are at the leading level in the world. Industry services advanced manufacturing, modern agriculture and cross-border online shopping have achieved remarkable results, and new products, new services and new formats such as warehouse integration and cold chain express are constantly emerging. China Post Group’s ranking among the world’s top 500 companies continues to rise, and seven companies have been listed one after another, forming six large enterprise groups with annual income exceeding 30 billion yuan.

　　Fourth, the ability to serve people’s livelihood has steadily increased. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the postal service was very backward, and the mail delivery time was long and the frequency was unstable, so the vast rural areas and central and western regions could not enjoy the universal postal service. After 70 years of unremitting efforts, the accessibility and balance of universal postal services have been continuously improved, and express delivery services have spread all over urban and rural areas and begun to extend to the village level. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, we started the supplementary construction project of postal blank township bureau and the "express delivery to the countryside" project, and achieved the goal of "setting up township offices and providing postal services to every village" on the whole. By 2018, a total of 178,000 village post stations and 610,000 "post Tesco" stations have been built nationwide, the coverage rate of township express outlets has exceeded 95%, the direct postal service rate of established villages is close to 100%, and the people’s daily of party and government organs in county-level cities nationwide has reached 83.6% on the same day. The postal service industry has served more than 100 billion users annually, supported online retail transactions to exceed 7 trillion yuan, driven agricultural and sideline products into cities and industrial products to the countryside to exceed 700 billion yuan, and created more than 200,000 new jobs. The industry’s function of facilitating government affairs and facilitating business has been further exerted, and people’s sense of satisfaction with postal services has been continuously enhanced.

　　Fifth, international exchanges and cooperation have been further promoted. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the international exchange and business development of China’s postal industry were seriously affected. In 1949, only 26 countries and regions established direct postal relations with China. After active and continuous efforts, the Universal Postal Union resumed its legal seat in China in 1972; In 1980, China Post officially launched the international express mail service; In 1999, the 22nd Universal Postal Union Congress was successfully held in Beijing. In 2013, China fully opened the domestic parcel delivery market, leading international enterprises continued to expand their investment and business scope in China, the exchanges and cooperation between China’s postal industry and the world postal industry were further strengthened, and their international status and influence were increasingly enhanced. By 2018, China Post has established postal relations with more than 200 countries and regions in the world. China’s express delivery enterprises have accelerated their network layout in key countries and regions, and their cross-border delivery, international logistics and overseas warehousing services have developed rapidly. China has been elected as a member of the Administrative Council and Management Council of the Universal Postal Union for many times, and has been deeply involved in international affairs such as the reform of the postal system and the formulation of international railway postal rules, and its voice in global postal governance has been significantly enhanced. (CCTV reporter Tang Ying)