What does CPC stand for in eyes of world?

Since its founding 100 years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led China to make both enormous achievements at home and significant contributions to global peace and development.

As leaders of political parties across the globe try to decipher the CPC’s success secrets upon its 100th anniversary, five things have been most frequently associated with the now 95-million-strong Chinese party.

ECONOMIC MIRACLE

At a grand ceremony on July 1 celebrating the CPC’s centenary, General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee, who is also Chinese president, declared that China has realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

China is now the world’s second-largest economy, the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and one of the world’s largest consumer markets. Its GDP has exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan (about 15.47 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold.

Among the numerous foreign political leaders who have witnessed China’s rapid economic progress is Abbas Zaki, a member of the Palestinian Fatah party’s central committee in charge of relations with China and Arab countries.

Having visited China for more than 10 times since the first trip in 1974, he noted that in just one generation, China has transformed into a strong and modern country, and has successfully addressed prominent challenges, including meeting the basic needs of a huge population.

“What used to be poor villages have been transformed into productive, rich ones almost overnight. Some backward and desolate places in the past have become vibrant industrial parks,” he said. “China’s great changes are unimaginable.”

Equally impressed by China’s remarkable development is Shoichi Kondo, secretary general of the Sino-Japan Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union.

“I went to China in 1981 to study, and now in 2021, China has developed at an incredible speed and created a miracle, which is what the Chinese people have achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” he told Xinhua.

“China is still in development today, and at a staggering rate. This is a miracle,” he added.

GLOBAL CONTRIBUTIONS

While achieving miraculous domestic progress, foreign observers have noted, the CPC has also led China to become an active contributor to world development, peace and stability.

China has actively taken part in regional and international cooperation mechanisms, and made significant contributions to promoting international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations, said Le Hoai Trung, head of the Commission for External Relations of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee.

To promote exchanges and cooperation across the globe, Xi has put forward visions like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

The BRI is popular in the world because it connects people, and that is the beauty of it, said Richard Todwong, secretary general of Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement party.

“In most of the economies of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, we have seen the Chinese doing infrastructural projects,” he said. “The Chinese came and built for us quite a number of dams, which has enabled us to power our economy.”

To Andrzej Szejna, vice president of Poland’s New Left political party, the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind can serve as a solution to the problems the world is facing, as “it is based on peace and cooperation.”

“Under the CPC’s leadership, China has greatly contributed to socio-economic progress for all mankind,” said Khuon Sodary, second vice-president of the Cambodian National Assembly. “China will continue to play an important role in building global peace, promoting global development and maintaining international order.”

GOVERNANCE SUCCESS

Behind China’s great domestic development and global contributions is the CPC’s strong leadership and successful governance of the large and populous country, foreign political leaders agree.

The leadership of the CPC is the determining factor behind China’s great changes and remarkable achievements, said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan and vice chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

The CPC has a strong political mobilization capacity of uniting all the social forces of China to commit to serving the people, which has consequently attracted firm support from the masses, he said.

In the eyes of Vojtech Filip, chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the “Chinese miracle” created by the CPC in the past decades has proved that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the right path leading to the country’s success in development.

“Also, the policies China adopted gave full play to the initiative of the CPC members and the Chinese people,” said Filip.

Besides, the CPC is also good at drawing on the experiences of both developed and developing countries to formulate a successful development model for China, said D.E.W. Gunasekera, former general secretary of the

Communist Party of Sri Lanka.

The CPC, he noted, has successfully combined markets and state intervention in China’s economic development, while remaining true to the country’s history and culture.

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

“Looking back over the one hundred years of history, always staying with the people is the secret of the CPC’s great achievements in the annals of history,” said former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Hatoyama’s comment reflects a general consensus among political leaders across the world. Slimane El Omrani, deputy secretary general of Morocco’s Justice and Development Party, concluded that the most noticeable aspect of the Chinese model is the “peoplecentered” ruling philosophy.

“This country is its people; the people are the country,” Xi pointed out at the centenary ceremony. “The Party has in the people its roots, its lifeblood, and its source of strength.”

“The Party has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people; it stands with them through thick and thin and shares a common fate with them,” he added. “The Party has no special interests of its own -- it has never represented any individual interest group, power group, or privileged stratum.”

Speaking highly of China’s effective response to the COVID-19 outbreak, former Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy noted that the CPC’s “people first” approach was a key factor in successfully controlling the pandemic.

Chinese Communists have accomplished great achievements in the country’s development by living up to their all-for-thepeople commitment, said Jacques Cheminade, chairman of France’s Solidarity and Progress party. For the CPC, loving people is not only a political commitment, but

also the source of strength, said Cheminade.

EXAMPLE FOR OTHER COUNTRIES

Bassam Salhi, general secretary of the Palestinian People’s Party, spoke for many when he said China’s development model serves as an inspiring example for other countries in exploring an effective path of development.

Running a country as large as China, the CPC is providing a significant amount of experience that can be drawn on in the field of governance, said Mauro Alboresi, national secretary of the Italian Communist Party.

“The facts say a lot,” said Alboresi, taking China’s campaign of poverty alleviation as an example.

In the view of Gennady Zyuganov, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, China has set an example on how to combine economic and social progress.

“The entire population benefits from the outcome of this development rather than a small group of people,” he said.

When talking with Xinhua about China’s governance experience, many experts referred to the book of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” which Salhi said is a window on observing and understanding China.

The book is very important and useful inside and outside China, because it explains the philosophy of the CPC’s governance, both from the perspectives of history and in terms of looking into the future, said the Palestinian party leader.

With its 100-year-old history, the CPC has brought great inspirations to political parties in other countries, said Nalinee Taveesin, chairperson of foreign affairs of the Pheu Thai Party.

The CPC, she added, has demonstrated that “political parties must keep in touch with communities, serve the people, strengthen good governance and distribute wealth more fairly.”