The Guardian (Nigeria)

Leadership is key to creating China’s miracles

- By Wang Xinjun Xinjun is a Chinese journalist and internatio­nal affairs observer based in Nigeria.

AS a Chinese journalist working in Africa for nearly 10 years, I have been to almost half of the 54 African countries. Some of my African friends ask me the same question from time to time: Why can China create unbelievab­le economic and social developmen­t miracles within a few decades? I tell them from my heart that the “secret” is not complicate­d. In a nutshell, the leadership of the Communist Party of China ( CPC) is a key decisive factor to achieving China’s miracles.

As a long- term observer for internatio­nal affairs, I also want to say, the 20th CPC National Congress, opened on October 16, will clarify China’s future developmen­t path of socialism with Chinese characteri­stics and the Chinesesty­le modernizat­ion, and allow the world’s second largest economy to make more headway in different areas, including its unique socialist democratic system.

Why do I think like this?

Under the leadership of the CPC, China has transforme­d itself from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong.

The CPC was founded in 1921, when China was in utter disorder, impoverish­ed and weak, and the Chinese people were living in dire straits. The party was aimed at helping change China’s destiny, seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenati­ng the Chinese nation.

My late father was born in the 1930s. He often told me when I was a child that China was totally poor and backward at his prime time, and that the country with a long history and splendid civilizati­on even suffered from Japanese imperialis­t aggression for 14 years.

After several decades of hard struggle and sacrifice, the CPC led the Chinese people to establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949, enabling the Chinese nation to stand up as an independen­t nation and to take on a new look step by step ever since.

China’s per capita GDP was far lower than the world average when I was a teenager. I was deeply attracted by the modernity of developed nations after I saw some movies of the US, Japan and other countries. I dreamed that China would also realize modernizat­ion in the future.

Since 1978, the CPC has led the Chinese people onto the path of reform and opening up, a right road of realising rejuvenati­on of China. Just in a few decades, China has completed a process of industrial­ization that took developed countries hundreds of years, and created two miracles: rapid economic developmen­t and long- term social stability. China has been growing prosperous, being the world’s second largest economy today. My boyhood vision of modernizat­ion is now a dream come true.

The past 10 years has seen China’s progress by leaps and bounds.

For China, the past decade has been an epic journey since the 18th CPC National Congress convened in 2012, when Xi Jinping was elected as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Under the leadership of the CPC, landmark projects and historic breakthrou­ghs have taken place in China.

Here are more statistics to illustrate the type of developmen­t China has witnessed over the past decade. The following is seen within each minute in China: a ‘ Fuxing’ high- speed train can travel 5833 meters; 12.7 hectares of forest or grass are planted; 10 new energy vehicles are produced; 287,700 mobile payments are made totaling over RMB 1 billion; 32,000 bike sharing orders are placed; 206,000 parcels are sent or received; 31.25 million messages are sent via Wechat; takeout orders worth USD 266,000 are completed on food delivery platforms; 481 meters of highways and roads are built or reconstruc­ted in rural areas.

In terms of collaborat­ion between China and the world, these things are happening within each minute: the Beidou Navigation System is accessed over 70 million times by users in more than 200 countries and regions; the China- Europe Railway Express delivers 3TEUS of goods; 30 passengers & 7 TEUS of cargo reach destinatio­n by the Chinese company constructe­d Mombasa- Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya; China’s import and export with the Belt& Road Initiative ( BRI), partner countries reach USD 3 and half million; A Chinese- built water supply project in Cabinda, Angola supplies 35 cubic meters of water, benefiting 600,000 local people.

Over the past decade, the Chinese economy has sustained rapid growth and cemented its global status as a major growth contributo­r; China has put innovation high on its agenda to boost competitiv­eness and invigorate the economy. From 2012 to 2021, China’s GDP grew from 53.9 trillion yuan ( about 7.58 trillion U. S. dollars) to 114.4 trillion yuan ( about 17.77 trillion U. S. dollars), and its per capita GDP jumped to over 12,000 U. S. dollars from 6,300 dollars, China’s contributi­on to global economic growth exceeded 30 percent in the same period.

China has made great strides in different spheres from space exploratio­n, scientific and technologi­cal innovation to infrastruc­ture constructi­on; China’s eliminatio­n of extreme poverty has been one of the highlights of the country’s remarkable developmen­t. China had lifted all of its 98.99 million impoverish­ed rural residents out of poverty by the end of 2020.

Under the leadership of the CPC, China is going to an indigenous way to achieve modernizat­ion, to navigate the nation’s economy toward a fairer, more innovative growth, and commit to goals of protecting world peace and advancing common developmen­t.

I have been following the five- yearly Communist Party of China ( CPC) National Congress since 1992, because it plays a guiding role in the developmen­t of China’s politics, economy, society and other undertakin­gs.

The 20th CPC National Congress convened on October 16 to 22 in Beijing is a congress of great significan­ce after China has accomplish­ed its first centenary goal of building ‘ Xiaokang’, a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021 , and to start the second centenary goal of building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by 2049.

At the opening of the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping delivered a comprehens­ive report in the presence of over 2,000 delegates representi­ng over 96 million CPC members nationwide.

Xi’s report is very impressive to me. He said that Chinese modernizat­ion, pursued under the CPC leadership, is the modernizat­ion of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural- ethical advancemen­t, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful developmen­t. He stressed that the whole- process of people’s democracy is the defining feature of socialist democracy; it is democracy in its broadest, most genuine, and most effective form.

I also noticed that China’s commitment to its foreign policy goals of protecting world peace and advancing common developmen­t is also reaffirmed in Xi’s report, providing greater reassuranc­e to the internatio­nal community. China continues to steadfastl­y pursue an independen­t foreign policy of peace, mutual respect and win- win cooperatio­n, as without peace and harmony all other developmen­t initiative­s will be futile. There is no doubt that this is also the guiding ideology for China to develop relations with African countries.

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