Modernized cities for the people constitute an important manifestation of Chinese modernization in the urban sphere. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to urban development. Based on the new historical conditions of China’s urban development and a scientific understanding of the laws and stage-specific characteristics of urban development, it has explicitly called for building modernized cities for the people that are innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, culturally advanced, and smart, thereby establishing the value orientation and practical direction for urban development in the new era. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on modernized cities for the people have taken shape through the integration and mutual enrichment of Marxist urban theory and traditional Chinese people-centered thought, through the interaction between the CPC’s urban development endeavors and the practice of Chinese modernization, and as a theoretical response to the practical experience and new requirements of urban work in the new era. From the four perspectives of cognition, value, time, and space, and objectives, these important expositions systematically address the essential attributes, fundamental value orientation, historical position, and development vision of cities. They have not only opened a new chapter in the development of Marxist urban theory at the theoretical level but also ushered in a new stage in the construction of people-centered cities in the new era at the practical level, while contributing a distinctively Chinese path toward urban modernization. Profound in conception, rich in content, and rigorous in logic, Xi Jinping’s important expositions on modernized cities reveal the fundamental laws and practical requirements of urban development in the new era. They provide scientific guidance for accelerating the transformation of urban development models and promoting high-quality urban development, as well as a guide to action for advancing the construction of modernized cities for the people in a solid and steady manner.