Parties say they can learn from China

Leaders of political parties from around the world have praised China’s development through reform and openingup, saying they could learn from the country’s experience.

Leaders of 65 political parties from 44 countries and regions gathered in Xiaogang village, Anhui province, for a forum on Saturday to exchange opinions on reform, development and the modernization of state governance.

“Very poor as it was, China has been relying not on help from the outside world, but the wisdom and hard work of its own people,” said Ahmed Bahaa El-Din Shaaban, general secretary of the Egyptian Socialist Party.

“A very important lesson I have learned from China is the country keeps trying new methods for development and is ready to remedy mistakes if there are any.”

The meeting was the 19th Wanshou Forum, gatherings initiated by the Communist Party of China Central Committee’s International Department in 2016 as a platform for international exchange and dialogue to promote mutual understanding.

“We have organized a series of activities this year to celebrate both the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth and the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up,” said Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the department.

Xin Changxing, deputy secretary of the CPC’s Anhui Committee, said: “As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized when he visited Xiaogang in April 2016, China’s reform began in rural areas and then spread to cities, and Xiaogang is the birthplace of rural reform.”

In 1978, after the collective farming policy had been in force nationwide for about 20 years, 18 farmers in Xiaogang village secretly signed an agreement to subdivide their farmland into family plots, in the hope of increasing crop yields by being motivated to work harder.

The farmers risked their lives by signing the secret agreement, but to their surprise, the authorities did not punish them when it was discovered, and instead popularized their practice nationwide soon afterward.

Kathiravan Peyandi Virumandi, deputy chairman of the central committee of the All India Forward Bloc, said: “The Indian government also wants to promote development of rural areas, but fails. I think our government should learn from China in rural reform.”

Participants at the Wanshou Forum were mostly members of socialist parties, said Luan Jianzhang, director of the research office of the CPC Central Committee’s International Department, adding that it is important to help such parties understand more about China’s development.

“The CPC is willing to share its developmental experience with other socialist parties, but it has not offered universal solutions that can work for all the other countries,” Guo said, adding that parties could only strive to help people in accordance with their own countries’ realities.