President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed striking a balance between reform, development and stability by maintaining the worldview and methodology of dialectical and historical materialism.

He made the remarks at a gathering celebrating the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up.

Xi said China must be bold and enterprising, and take a proactive yet prudent approach with prompt yet steady steps to pursue reform, development and stability simultaneously.

"We must keep to the right direction, stay on the right path and forge ahead with undiminished intensity in pursuit of greater progress in the reform and opening-up in the new era," he said.

As the reform and opening-up in the past four decades has shown, a major country like China cannot afford any disruptive mistake on fundamental issues, Xi said.

"We must adopt a strategic perspective, develop a dialectical approach to thinking and creative thinking, think in terms of the rule of law, and think about worst-case scenarios," he said.

China must also keep the reform-related decision-making in line with legislative moves to make the decision-making on reform sounder, and show full tenacity and persistence to see all major reform measures through, he added.