•China will contribute to a stable world economy by continuing to advance reform and opening-up, widen market access, improve the business environment and expand imports and outbound investment.
•President Xi Jinping has proposed to ensure that by 2020, all rural residents are lifted out of poverty.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) has just turned one year short of a century.
The largest political party in the world has transformed a weak, war-torn nation into an economy with one of the fastest growth rates in modern history.
Yet for the rest of the world, the CPC has offered more than economic miracles and growth locomotives. Under the CPC's leadership, and moving ever closer to the world's center stage, China has evolved from a follower and learner into a champion and contributor of multilateralism and globalization, one that is always willing to share ideas and solutions to address common concerns, especially in times of crisis.
This year also marks China's final push in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society and winning the battle against poverty, despite the social and economic impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Seventy years ago, Chinese people were poverty-stricken. In 1978, the rural poverty population was 770 million. With the reform and opening-up, the poverty-alleviation cause accelerated significantly.
In 2018, the rural poverty population was reduced to 16 million. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, 82 million people were lifted out of poverty, meaning an average of 26 people each minute.
Today, the Chinese are living a life better than ever before. President Xi Jinping has proposed to ensure that by 2020, all rural residents are lifted out of poverty. Each and every one of the over 1.3 billion Chinese people should lead decent lives. No one will be left behind!
In 2018, China’s GDP reached $13.6 trillion, a 174-fold increase since 1949. Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have moved from poverty and weakness to prosperity and strength.
In 2019, China's GDP per capita exceeded 10,000 US dollars for the first time in history. It was a new milestone in the country's decades of economic struggle, which proves that a developing country is capable of climbing the ladder of development through structural reform, opening up and technological advancement.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has expanded the modernisation path for backward countries, and an increasing number of political parties have expressed hopes of enhancing exchange and cooperation with the CPC on state governance.
One principle enshrined in the Constitution of the CPC is that a continued commitment to reform and opening up is the path to a stronger China. China's development experience and remarkable achievements over the past decades offer key lessons to Africa, especially in lifting its people out of poverty.
China will contribute to a stable world economy by continuing to advance reform and opening-up, widen market access, improve the business environment and expand imports and outbound investment.
From 1978 to 2018, China attracted more than 2 trillion US dollars in non-financial foreign investment, and its foreign trade amounted to 52.2 trillion dollars. In 2018, China's overseas investment reached 143 billion dollars, 53 times as much as in 2002.
With the aim of eliminating absolute poverty this year, China saw the number of impoverished people fall to 5.51 million at the end of 2019 from 98.99 million at the end of 2012.
BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE
A total of 138 countries and 30 international organizations have signed cooperation agreements with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to achieve policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
While protectionism is on the rise and globalization is under vicious assault in some countries, the CPC still keeps its strategic momentum and acts as an anchor for China to bolster wider opening-up, as always. Facing a world with growing anti-globalization sentiment, populism, unilateralism and protectionism, the CPC has come up with its own vision of global governance.
Even now when the Covid-19 pandemic is still ravaging the globe and brings shocks to the global economy, China does not waver in its determination to further open up.
The notion of "a community with a shared future for humanity," which pursues an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity, has gained worldwide recognition. China, together with many countries, is working to transform this concept into reality.
A total of 138 countries and 30 international organizations have signed cooperation agreements with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to achieve policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
A World Bank report estimated in 2019 that, if fully implemented, BRI transport projects could increase global real income by up to 2.9 percent and help lift 32 million people out of moderate poverty.
China’s achievements are attributed to the leadership of the CPC, and to the choice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. People are the creators of history; people are real heroes.
China needs the world for development, and the world needs China as well. Through reform and opening up, China has achieved self-development, and through self-development, China has contributed to the world progress.
Additional reporting by Xinhua