Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
The report Xi Jinping delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) declared that socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. And the exact meaning of “socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era” has become a widely discussed topic around the world.
The “new era” is based on the Chinese nation’s tremendous transformation—it has stood up, grown rich and become strong.
Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese nation endured more than a century of endless revolutionary struggles. Prior to 1949, imperialism, feudalism, and feudal warlords oppressed the Chinese people and destroyed the Chinese social and economic bases. In 1951, the Chinese population accounted for one fourth of the world’s total, but the country’s gross national product (GNP) was only US$10 billion and total state revenue was 10 billion yuan (US$1.51 billion). In 1950, the latter figure was only 6.2 billion yuan (US$937 million).
Starting from scratch, the Chinese people began building their own country under the leadership of the CPC. After 28 years of independent hard work, by the end of 1979, China’s GNP and state revenue had reached US$100 billion and 114.6 billion yuan (US$17.3 billion), respectively. The same year, the GNP of the United States was US$2.6 trillion, 26 times higher than that of China. Per capita income in the U.S. was about 100 times that of China.
By 1999, two decades after the reform and opening-up policy was implemented, China’s GNP and state revenue exceeded US$1 trillion and one trillion yuan (US$150.7 billion), respectively. In 2010, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed Japan’s for the first time, making the country the second largest economy in the world.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the growth rate of China’s GDP in the third quarter of this year reached 6.8 percent and the GNP of the country is expected to surpass US$12 trillion in 2017. At present, China’s economy still maintains annual growth by more than six percent. More importantly, its economic structure continues to be optimized and new drivers of growth constantly emerge. All signs show that China’s strength will only further increase under the guidelines set at the 19th CPC National Congress.
“Socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era” ” means that with more international influence, China is catching up to and surpassing the productive power of capitalist countries.
Building on past development, the Chinese people have ve realized innovation-driven development and historic reforms over the past five years since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at its core.
Now China has been at the forefront of the world in terms erms of
economic and technological strength, defense capabilities, and comprehensive national strength. China’s international standing has risen unprecedentedly. The Party, the people, the armed forces, and the nation have changed in ways no one could have predicted. The Chinese nation, with an entirely new posture, now stands tall and firm in the East, radiating booming scientific socialism in the 21st Century.
In this era, China has been moving closer to the center stage of the world, with the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics flying high. China is blazing new paths for other developing countries to achieve modernization. It offers an alternative for other countries that wish to speed up development while preserving their independence. Furthermore, China offers Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind.
The concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by China is becoming a new model for socialism with Chinese characteristics to facilitate world development in the 21st Century.
China has set a two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of this century: Move on from a “moderately prosperous society” to basically achieve “socialist modernization” by 2035 and become a “great modern socialist country” by 2049, namely the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.