Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: October 27,2022
The Communist Party of China (CPC), the ruling party of the world’s second-largest economy, has unveiled its new top leadership. How the new leadership will steer China on its future voyage catches the eyes of a great many across the world.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a speech in front of the press in the presence of the other six members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He pledged that China will be steadfast in deepening reform and opening up across the board, and pursuing high-quality development. “A prosperous China will create many more opportunities for the world,” Xi said. Observers worldwide are confident that the CPC will deliver on the aspirations of the Chinese people for a better life. They also have faith in China’s commitment to fostering common prosperity worldwide, and building a human community with a shared future.
For those observers, they draw their optimism from the CPC’s past report cards. The party has successfully led the Chinese people in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, completing the First Centenary Goal. Being a primarily agricultural country about 70 years ago, China today boasts the world’s second-largest economy, the most extensive social welfare system, the largest high-speed railway network and cutting-edge technologies. “Now, we are taking confident strides on a new journey to turn China into a modern socialist country in all respects, to advance toward the Second Centenary Goal, and to embrace the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization,” Xi said on Sunday.
In the eyes of Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, China has undergone profound changes. “I am privileged to see those advances everywhere, in the standards of living of the people, in the housing, in the schools and institutes, in the spectacularly modern transport systems, in the new parks and gardens, in the towns, the cities and the countryside and in the pride people have in their community.” Now China has embarked on a new and unprecedented journey no one has ever taken before.
In a two-step strategic plan, the CPC aims to basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035, and build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century.
After listening to Xi’s speech highlighting China’s modernization drive, observers said they believe the Chinese people would continue to make achievements under the CPC’s leadership. Khampheuy Philapha, director general of the Lao News Agency, said he is confident that China will achieve even greater success and inspire more countries. Ali el-Hefny, Egypt’s former ambassador to China, said he feels hopeful about China’s future growth. China will succeed because it always has a will, strong determination, persistence and a dream, he said.
While China is pursuing its high-quality growth, it has never forgotten to share its development opportunities with the world. “China’s modernization has been an inspiration to the world, which, in particular, galvanized the developing world,” said Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, a professor of public policy at Addis Ababa University.
After his reelection for the third term as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi pledged to keep opening China’s door wider to a world facing ever pressing challenges. For decades, China has kept its door open and become a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions. It has taken a host of concrete steps to improve its business environment and level the playing field for domestic and foreign firms, like rolling out the Foreign Investment Law and expanding foreign investors’ access. China’s commitment to promoting high-standard opening up is positive for the rest of the world, as countries are trying to recover from the COVID-19 recession, said Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser of Malaysia’s Pacific Research Center.
Just as China cannot develop in isolation from the world, the world needs China for its development, Xi said on Sunday.
In the past decade, China has become a major driving force for global growth. From 2013 to 2021, its contribution to global economic growth averaged 38.6 percent. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, China, which has managed to coordinate pandemic control and economic development, remains a stabilizer for global supply and industrial chains, and an engine for world economic recovery. “China has great potential, that’s why its development model can inspire a lot of countries,” said Antonio Artur Sanha, former prime minister of Guinea-Bissau. Sanha has visited China many times. He witnessed China’s development and prosperity, and has been promoting the practical cooperation between the two countries.
Chinese agricultural experts have trained tens of thousands of people in Guinea-Bissau, cultivated and promoted improved rice varieties, increased grain production, and greatly promoted the development of local agriculture. Last year, the two countries signed a document on Belt and Road cooperation. Jean Christophe Iseux von Pfetten, president of the Institute for East-West Strategic Studies in Britain, said he fully identifies with Xi’s assertion of the bonds between China and the world. “The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has benefited many countries. The Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative proposed by China, which invite the participation of all countries in the world, will support the international community’s pursuit of peace and development,” said Pfetten. “As the world maintains peace and keeps developing, it will also add strong impetus to China’s own development,” he added.
Stressing that the world is grappling with unprecedented challenges, Xi said Sunday that “we will work with peoples of all other countries to champion humanity’s shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom to safeguard global peace and promote global development, and keep promoting the building of a human community with a shared future.” His vision strikes a chord with analysts who are upbeat about the blueprint outlined at the 20th CPC National Congress, which will guide China’s efforts to further promote cooperation with the rest of the world.
Xi’s remarks reflect the aspirations of many countries for peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with other countries while addressing common challenges, said Hussain Alshammari, director of the International Reporters Department at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Media.
China’s vision of building a human community with a shared future is gaining support from more countries and will play a vital role in promoting world peace and development, he said. From initiating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank to taking the lead in implementing the UN sustainable development agenda, China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order and a provider of public goods. In the eyes of Selcuk Colakoglu, director of the Turkish Center of Asia Pacific Studies, the 20th CPC National Congress will impact the world for years to come.
China has played an important role in global governance, with increasing attention paid to the world’s urgent developmental issues, Colakoglu said. China has firmly supported economic globalization and has promoted trade and investment liberalization, said Eduardo Tzili-Apango, a researcher at Mexico’s Autonomous Metropolitan University.He said China’s efforts are commendable and demonstrate its role as a responsible major country in the world.
Xinhua
