The plenum goes public
Foreign diplomats learn about Chinese path via CPC meeting
The International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (IDCPC) held a thematic briefing on the fourth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee on Friday, and invited more than 210 senior diplomats from more than 130 countries to the event.
Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the IDCPC, presided over the briefing, saying at the opening ceremony on Friday that the purpose of the thematic briefing is to let members of the international community have a better understanding of the CPC.
The department invited Shen Chunyao, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and Xin Xiangyang, a deputy head of the research center of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to introduce the achievements of the plenary session and the goals of the CPC for the future.
The briefing focused on introducing and explaining the theme of the fourth plenary session: to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advance the modernization of China’s system and capacity for governance. Some foreign diplomats asked questions to Shen and Xin about what other countries could learn from China and the CPC.
Shen said that China has no intention of exporting China’s model. He quoted the report of the 19th CPC National Congress to answer the question, adding that the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics offer a
“new option for other countries and nations that want to speed up their development while preserving their independence.”
Xin gave an example of the advantage of China’s political system, which is the consistency of the policymaking. The task of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which was set by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping about 40 years ago, will be realized next year, thanks to the hard work made by Chinese leaders in their eras, Xin said.
IDCPC Minister Song Tao met Shen and Xin before the briefing. Song said the event received many senior-ranking attendees, which showed that members of the international community want to learn about the spirit of the plenary session. He said the IDCPC would like to have more cooperation with relevant departments and institutes to publicize China’s system, to increase the influence of the system and improve international understanding and acceptance on the system.
A model for the world
Charge d’ Affaires of the South African Embassy Debora Balatseng told the Global Times that the signal that she received from the plenary session is that “China is marching forward… and the confidence of Chinese people that China has taken the right path to take them where China would want to be… [China] should be a model for many countries around the globe, including my country.”
Compared with some major Western powers, such as the US, which is adding uncertainties to the world by implementing protectionism and unilateralism, China stands for multilateralism, and so do many other countries, she noted.
“The US is just one country, so if you [China] are committed to follow a multilateral trade system, continue with it. Nothing should shake
you, you know you are on the right path, you know you have support, you know you have people behind you… so continue with that path… in that way we will all benefit from what China is doing,” she said.
Vietnam and China share similarities as both are socialist countries under the leadership of a communist party. The modernization of system building and governance capacity proposed at this session is what Vietnam should learn from, Pham Thanh Binh, a deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of Vietnam to China, said. The system and capacity of a country’s governance is of great importance, which is related to the political, economic, cultural and social fields, he said.
BRI and global governance
The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was also frequently mentioned by diplomats during the interview session with reporters, as the fourth plenary session stressed that China will “take an active part in global governance, and continue to make contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity,” according
to the Xinhua News Agency.
Charge d’ Affaires of the Pakistani Embassy Ahmed Farooq highly valued the China-Pakistan relationship and said that the most important thing is “we move to a shared vision for the future, which is based on win-win cooperation for all. In this regard, I would like to mention the BRI project and CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) that we have for Pakistan, which is cooperation based on the welfare and betterment for everybody.”
Abbie David, Grenadian ambassador to China, told the Global Times that “Just recently, there was a session in Grenada on BRI to promote it in the Caribbean for us to understand and become part of the Belt and Road. Grenada strongly supports BRI, and the cooperation of the two countries focuses on tourism, infrastructure and finance.”