Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday stressed the importance of pilot reform while calling for more reform practices that could be replicated and promoted.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the 35th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, which he heads.

Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy heads of the leading group, also attended the meeting.

A guideline on deepening reform of the educational system was adopted at the meeting, aimed to cultivate students’ abilities in lifetime learning and creative thinking, as well as the ability to adapt to the times.

Educational reform should update the methods of school running as well as management mechanisms to promote comprehensive development, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

In a separate topic, the leading group called for enhanced efforts to allow foreign investors easier access to China’s key sectors via a “negative list” approach.

The statement outlined several sectors that should further open to foreign investment, including services, manufacturing and mining.

The leading group also urged standardization of Chinese firms’ overseas operations, urging the formation of a supervision system featuring clear demarcation of rights and obligations and effective risk control.

According to the meeting, a long-term supervision and early warning system should be established to keep an eye on resources and environmental constraints on economic development. Environmental monitoring should be conducted in a scientific way with collection of reliable data.

The leading group also vowed to push for establishment of the personal information and asset system, and introduce information rating and a traceable security mechanism to ensure that personal information is safe and used properly.

To improve air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with coordinated efforts, the leading group called for efforts to conduct a pilot program on setting up a cross-region environmental protection agency.

Environmental regulation in the region should apply unified standards, assessment, monitoring and law enforcement.

With the principle of prioritizing environmental protection and proper use of resources, the leading group called for use of market-based and paid-use mechanisms to develop maritime areas and uninhabited islands. Certain such regions that need special protection are prohibited from development.

The statement also said time has been ripe to officially establish the system of public interest litigation by prosecutors after nearly two years of pilot reform.

In July 2015, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate began the pilot program that allowed prosecutors in 13 provincial divisions to institute public interest litigation in civil and administrative cases.

So far, prosecutors have filed public interest lawsuits related to environmental protection, food and drug safety, state assets and state land use.

Abundant case samples and rich experience have been gained and the procedural mechanism well tested, according to the statement, which called for legal guarantees for procuratorates to file such litigation.

The Jiaolong, China’s manned submersible, dived in the Mariana Trench on Tuesday, making the first of a series dives for the third stage of the country’s 38th oceanic expedition.

The craft reached a depth of 4.8 kilometers at 9:49 a.m. and remained submerged for about nine hours in all, said Tang Jialing, the pilot of the Jiaolong.

The Mariana Trench－in the western Pacific Ocean about 200 km southwest of Guam－is the site of Challenger Deep, the deepest valley in the ocean. Tuesday’s dive was made along the northern slope of the 11-km-deep valley.

In the next few days, the Jiaolong will make another dive to 6.3 kilometers and three more to 6.7 kilometers in the Marina Trench.

During these dives, it will collect samples of seawater, sediment, rocks and deep sea creatures to study the trench’s geochemical and biological activity, Tang said. In later missions, the Jiaolong will retrieve a deep-sea sampler planted there at a depth of 6 km last year.

Next, the expedition will sail to the Yap Trench, on the southern tip of the Marina Trench, and make five more dives.

The 38th oceanic expedition, which began on Feb. 6, is the longest and includes the most missions yet for the Jiaolong. The first of its three stages took place in the Indian Ocean for 59 days, and the second in the South China Sea for 34 days, according to China’s National Deep Sea Center.

The third stage began on May 16, when the scientific expedition ship Xiangyanghong 09 set sail for the Mariana and Yap trenches carrying the submersible and 96 scientists. The entire expedition is planned to end on June 9, when the Xiangyanghong 09 returns to port.

The deep sea is often regarded as Earth’s last frontier. Its exploration can yield better understanding of how organisms adapt and live in the world’s most extreme environment, said Wu Changbin, commander of the expedition’s third stage.

The ocean’s floor in the Mariana Trench is dark place with water temperatures from 1 to 4 C and atmospheric pressure 1,000 times greater than at the sea’s surface.

Yet life blossoms, due to hot water vents that emit chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide, which bacteria and other microbes can feed on and in turn support a variety of exotic creatures ranging from giant amoebas to bioluminescent fish.

Chinese scientists discovered 27 such vents in the Indian Ocean during the first stage of the expedition. In the South China Sea, they found rare bio examples such as sea lily and a branch of red coral attached to polymetallic nodules－clusters of minerals containing more than 10 elements, ranging from cobalt to manganese.

The Jiaolong, named after a mythical dragon, reached its maximum depth yet of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012. China is building a new mother ship to operate and support the Jiaolong, and it is expected to enter service in 2019.