Party keeps pace with a transforming world

Xiao Ping notes core ideology of seeking truth from facts drove opening-up decision which has unleashed an economic miracle

The world changes as time goes by. Past prejudices should be discarded if one wants to know the CPC better today.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Beijing in October drew a lot of attention from Hong Kong society and prompted many people to think hard and ask why the CPC succeeds, which has become a universal question in its own right.

One cannot know China well without knowing the CPC. As the sole ruling party of a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, the CPC has been directly linked to the country’s development and changes every step of the way, just as the title of a popular song on the mainland says it: Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China.

Today, the whole world watches the CPC because China has not only achieved an economic miracle through reform and opening-up in the past 40 years but also created the China model. How did the CPC accomplish that?

The CPC is not God. As China developed over the years, from standing up on its own feet to becoming a prosperous and strong nation, the CPC has gone through its own difficult growth by trial and error. It tripped, stumbled and went astray many times but managed to return to the right track every time. There is no doubt more than one reason why it has been able to do that but first and foremost is a scientific ideological line of emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts and advancing with the times, with seeking truth from facts as the core.

An excellent illustration of the importance of seeking truth from facts as the guiding principle in decision-making can be found in the decision to adopt the national strategy of reform and openingup 40 years ago. Some observers believe the country owes its success mainly to the reform and opening-up strategy, which was adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC in December 1978, but even more significant is that the CPC brought the winning ideological line back in the historic plenary session.

Reestablishing seeking truth from facts as the guiding ideology also let the CPC regain the trait of advancing with the times. Apparently the CPC today, staying true to the original mission as always, has completely changed since the days of planned economy, being closed to the outside world, ossification and ultraleftism. At the recent meeting in Beijing of more than 300 political parties from over 120 countries around the world, at the invitation of the CPC, political leaders with different ideologies sought to know the CPC better and exchange ideas with its leaders, demonstrating once again the openness and inclusiveness of the CPC today.

The world changes as time goes by. Past prejudices should be discarded if one wants to know the CPC better today.