Full Text: China and the World in the New Era

I. China Has Found a Development Path Suited to Its Actual Conditions

China is a large country with a 5,000-year-old civilization. Over a long period of history, it ranked among the most advanced countries in the world. In modern times, China was reduced to poverty and weakness, threatened by domestic strife and foreign aggression, and even confronted with complete demise. Through unrelenting struggle, the Chinese dream of prosperity and rejuvenation for their country, and happiness for the people. In 1949, under the CPC's leadership, they founded the PRC, turning a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society into a completely new one, and achieving national independence and the liberation of the people. China then entered a new epoch of development. Over the past 70 years it has been moving forward against all odds, and exploring its path to development. Based on the 5,000-year-old Chinese culture, the experience and lessons from the birth of socialism, the fall-to-rise turnaround of the Chinese nation in 170 years, and the history of revolution, construction and reform, the Chinese people have opened up the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and achieved remarkable outcomes. 

1. China's development lies in self-reliance and hard work

In the early days of the PRC, following a century of war and chaos, the country and the people were in dire poverty, the industrial and agricultural foundations were weak, and the economy was on the verge of collapse. The people faced unimaginable difficulties in seeking survival and development. Over the seven decades that followed, through self-reliance and hard work they rebuilt the country from nothing, and have opened up new horizons. 

China's economic strength has greatly increased. From 1952 to 2018, China's industrial added value increased from RMB12 billion to RMB30.5 trillion, up 970 times at constant prices, with an average annual growth rate of 11 percent. GDP increased from RMB67.9 billion to RMB90 trillion, up 174 times at constant prices, with an average annual growth rate of 8.1 percent, and per capita GDP increased from RMB119 to RMB64,644, up 70 times at constant prices. According to World Bank statistics, at market exchange rates China's economy in 2018 was worth US$13.6 trillion, second only to the US economy which was worth US$20.5 trillion. Currently, China is the only country that possesses all the sections in the United Nations' International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), with the output of many industrial products ranking first in the world. 

China has made remarkable progress in technology. Significant achievements such as nuclear bombs, ballistic missiles, manmade satellites, manned spaceflight, super hybrid rice, supercomputers, synthetic bovine insulin, artemisinin, and high-speed rail, have provided strong support for social and economic development. 

China's foreign trade has been increasing constantly. In 2009, China became the world's largest exporter of goods and second largest importer of goods; in 2013, China became the world's largest trader in goods. Since reform and opening up in 1978, foreign investment in China has seen a substantial increase, and China has become very attractive to global investment. China has become the world's second largest economy, largest manufacturer, largest trader in goods, second largest consumer of commodities, second largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI), and largest holder of foreign exchange reserves (see Table 1). 

The Chinese people's lives have been greatly improved. A persevering effort has provided the Chinese people with adequate food and clothing, and made it possible for them to live decent lives and move towards a moderately prosperous society in all respects (see Table 2). China's rural population living under the current poverty line decreased from 770 million in 1978 to 16.6 million in 2018, and China's rural poverty incidence dropped from 97.5 percent to 1.7 percent, down by 95.8 percentage points (see Figure 1). This is an outstanding achievement in the history of poverty reduction (see Box 1). 

China has established a preliminary social security system covering elderly care, medical care, minimum subsistence, housing, and education – 

the largest in scale and covering the largest population in the world. By the end of 2018:

Participants in urban workers' basic elderly care insurance numbered 419 million; 

Participants in unemployment insurance numbered 196 million; 

Participants in work injury compensation insurance numbered 239 million; 

Basic elderly care insurance covered more than 900 million people; 

Basic medical insurance covered more than 1.3 billion people, almost everyone in the country. 

Over the past 70 years, China's life expectancy has increased from 35 in 1949 to 77 in 2018, higher than the world's average of 72. Over the past 70 years, the Chinese people have witnessed profound changes in their mindset. They have carried forward fine traditional Chinese culture, spread modern Chinese values, and enriched and invigorated their cultural life. According to a global wellbeing report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2018, in the past decade, China's ranking rose by 25 places, the fastest rate among the 152 countries covered. ¹

China's international position and influence have greatly improved. In 1971, China recovered its legitimate seat in the United Nations and began to play a more active role in international affairs. In April and May 1980, China recovered its legitimate seats in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and began to participate more extensively and deeply in international economic and trade exchanges and cooperation. China has been making friends in the international community, having established diplomatic relations with 179 countries, and 110 partnerships of various types. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has proposed a global community of shared future and the Belt and Road Initiative, which have been written into many UN resolutions and have won extensive recognition and a warm response from the international community. 

China's successes have been achieved through hard work. A large country with a nearly 1.4 billion population, China cannot achieve prosperity by asking for assistance and waiting. The only option is hard work. China relied on the solid and unremitting efforts of generations of Chinese people, which is represented in the typical case of "800 million shirts in exchange for a Boeing airplane". China relied on fulfilling its own responsibility in good times and in adversity, without exporting or shifting problems elsewhere, and without seeking development by trading under coercion or exploiting other countries. China relied on a pioneering spirit, like crossing the river by feeling for stones, neither retracing the steps of imperialism and colonialism, nor copying the development model of Western countries, but blazing its own path with bold experiments, based on its own conditions, experience and lessons as well as the achievements of other civilizations. 

2. China is developing through interaction with the world

China is a part of the world, and China's development is closely related to the rest of the world. In the early days after the founding of the PRC, China made great efforts to break an external blockade, actively conducting economic, trade and cultural exchanges with other countries. Since reform and opening up in 1978, following the trend of globalization and promoting opening up as a fundamental state policy, China has been seeking development with its door open. China has embraced the world, learned from the world, and contributed to the world, through positive interaction and shared development. 

"Bringing in" on a large scale. Its door open, China is full of vigor. The international community takes an optimistic view of China. More and more countries are establishing cooperation with China; more and more foreign enterprises are injecting investments and starting businesses in China; more and more foreigners are coming to study, work and travel in China. From 1978 to 2018, China attracted a total of more than US$2 trillion in non-financial FDI, and nearly 1 million foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the country. In 2018, almost half a million foreign students came to study in China. Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China's participation in economic globalization has delivered more substantial and speedy outcomes (see Box 2). From 2001 to 2018, China's imports of goods increased from US$244 billion to US$2.1 trillion. The rise was 13.6 percent per annum on average, 6.8 percentage points higher than the global average. China's imports of services increased from US$39.3 billion to US$525 billion, up by a yearly average of 16.5 percent and accounting for 9.4 percent of the global total. 

"Going out" in great strides. From economic and trade investment to cultural exchanges, from government cooperation to people-to-people exchanges, China has been conducting all-dimensional, wide-ranging and multi-level exchanges and cooperation with other countries, going global faster, further, and more extensively than ever before. China's foreign investment and cooperation has seen sound and sustained improvement in quality and scale. In 2018, China's overseas investment reached US$143 billion, up by a factor of 53 since 2002, a yearly average growth of 28.2 percent. China's foreign trade has been growing year by year. From 1978 to 2018, China's foreign trade amounted to US$52.2 trillion; in 2018, China's exports of goods were US$2.5 trillion and its exports of services US$267 billion. In recent years, China has maintained its position as the world's largest source of overseas tourists; in 2018, Chinese outbound tourists numbered nearly 150 million.

Developing the country while benefiting the world. Opening up has brought funds, advanced technologies and managerial experience to China, changed the mindset of the Chinese people and boosted their creativity, and helped China to modernize. At the same time, China's opening up has provided a broad market for other countries. The opening of China's investment and service trade has facilitated local economic growth and employment in the countries concerned. China has been an active participant in the international division of labor, resulting in more rational global resource allocation. China's high-quality exports have met international market demand, reduced living costs in recipient countries, and relieved their inflationary pressure. The Chinese people now travel all over the world, which has greatly enriched cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and other countries.

3. China has injected positive energy into world peace and development

China's development path has unique Chinese characteristics, and a broad and farsighted global vision. It is dedicated to the interests of all of humanity. Over the past 70 years, while working hard to realize their own development, the Chinese people have contributed to world peace and added momentum to the common development of all countries. 

China contributes solutions to world peace and development. In the early days of the PRC, China established its independent foreign policy of peace, which contributed to global peace after World War II. In the 1950s, China, India and Myanmar jointly proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence). These have become basic norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law. China has safeguarded the interests of developing countries, playing an important role in building a fair and equitable international political and economic order. In recent years, China has proposed a raft of significant international concepts and initiatives, including a global community of shared future, a new model of international relations, the Belt and Road Initiative, the principle of upholding the greater good and pursuing shared interests, a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in global governance, and the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness between civilizations. These proposals have contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to protecting world peace and promoting common development. 

China safeguards world peace through real actions. Over the past 70 years, China has not provoked a single war or conflict, nor invaded a single square of foreign land. Since reform and opening up in 1978, China has cut its armed forces by over 4 million. China has been an active participant of international arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, opposing any arms race and safeguarding global strategic balance and stability. China has signed or joined more than 20 treaties on multilateral arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. China has become the second largest contributor to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the UN, and the largest troop contributor among the permanent members of the UN Security Council (see Box 3). In 2015 China announced that it would set up a ten-year, US$1 billion China-UN Peace and Development Fund, which was officially put it into operation in 2016. China has always been dedicated to resolving territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation and consultation. China has achieved full resolution of land border delimitation problems with 12 of its 14 neighboring countries, and delineated the China-Vietnam maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf. This has broken new ground for settling inter-country issues carried over from history as well as other international disputes. China has played a constructive role in settling major international and regional issues. 

China promotes common development worldwide. As the world's largest developing country, China has always been an advocate, practitioner and promoter of global poverty reduction and development. In pursuit of these goals, China conducts South-South cooperation, providing to other developing countries assistance with no political conditions attached, and supporting and helping them, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs), in eliminating poverty. 

Over the six decades since China began to provide foreign assistance in the early 1950s, it has provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly RMB400 billion in aid, and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers, of whom more than 700 sacrificed their lives for the development of other countries. On seven occasions, China has canceled debt from interest-free government loans to heavily indebted poor countries and the LDCs. China has provided medical aid to 69 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania, and provided aid to more than 120 developing countries for implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. 

China has been actively engaged in the consultations on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring its full implementation of the agenda. It was the first country to issue a national plan and a progress report on implementation, and has achieved early outcomes in many fields. Within the framework of South-South cooperation, China has provided assistance to other developing countries for their implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Over the three years since the China-UN Peace and Development Fund went into operation in 2016, China has put in place 27 programs under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund, which have benefited 49 Asian, African and Latin American countries and added a powerful engine for the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda. In 2015, China announced that it would set up the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF). By 2018, in more than 30 Asian, African and American countries, China had launched over 200 development cooperation programs under the SSCAF on disaster relief, healthcare, protection of women and children, refugee relief, and environmental protection. 

4. China's development path conforms to reality and the requirements of the times

The choice of path is critical to the successful development of a country. As a vast country with a nearly 1.4 billion population, China has no experience of modernization to borrow from in history, but has to blaze its own path. Over the past 70 years, China has achieved great success. The ultimate reason is that China has found and will continue on the right path - socialism with Chinese characteristics. 

It is a path based on China's actual conditions. Reflecting on its reality and history, and through experimentation, China has drawn wisdom from its own culture and learned from the strengths of other cultures, both Eastern and Western. China sticks to its choice of path, but is never rigidly opposed to change; China borrows experience, but never copies unthinkingly.

It is a path prioritizing the people's interests. In the PRC, the people run the country in the real sense. For 70 years China has upheld a philosophy of people-centered development, directing all its undertakings towards fulfilling the people's aspiration for a better life and protecting their democratic rights. China seeks driving forces among the people, promoting development relying on the people, and benefiting the people through development. 

It is a path of reform and innovation. There is no ready-made solution to the development issues facing China. Working diligently and exploring boldly, the Chinese people have resolved difficulties and challenges through reform and innovation, and removing institutional obstacles hindering development. The purpose is to unleash and develop productivity and social vitality, to improve and develop Chinese socialism, and to modernize China's system and capacity for governance. 

It is a path of seeking common development through opening up. China upholds the fundamental state policy of opening up, and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. China has promoted interconnected development. While developing itself, China has shared its fruit with other countries and peoples. It has realized a historic evolutionary process from being completely closed, through being semi-closed, to being comprehensively open. China is an active participant and promoter of economic globalization, facilitating peace and development for humanity. 

It is a path of law-based governance. China practices the rule of law as a fundamental principle in governing the country. China pursues coordinated progress in law-based governance of the country, law-based exercise of state power and law-based administration in the government. Rule of law is a fundamental, overall and long-lasting institutional guarantee for China's development. Rule of law ensures a vigorous and orderly society in times of profound change, and ensures lasting peace and stability. 

Over the past 70 years, China's success boils down to the CPC's leadership. Due to China's vast territory and complicated national conditions, the governance of China is uniquely difficult. Without centralized, unified and firm leadership, China would have tended towards division and disintegration and caused widespread chaos beyond its own borders. The CPC is China's core leadership, ruling the country for long and supported by the people. The reason lies in its founding mission of pursuing happiness for the people, realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and promoting peace and development for humanity, rather than seeking its own interests. The reason lies in its capacity for self-improvement, and in its firm leadership core, effective theories, strict discipline and improved mechanisms for selecting upright and competent officials, which have ensured that the Party remains stable, progressive and clean. The reason lies in its strategic planning for the long-term development of the country and its competence in implementing specific policies. The reason lies in its open-minded ability to adapt to changing times, carrying forward its own heritage while absorbing the strengths of others, and in its ability to unite, organize and inspire the people. 

Over the past 70 years, China has defused many risks and overcome many challenges, and marched forward step after step. In particular, since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has witnessed historic achievements and changes. The Chinese nation has risen and become prosperous, and is becoming strong, closer to the goal of national rejuvenation than ever before. China's development path will look on brighter and brighter prospects as time moves on (see Box 4). 

Through 70 years of development, China has achieved remarkable progress. However, the basic dimension of the Chinese context - that China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism - has not changed. China's status as the world's largest developing country has not changed. If it is to relieve the strain between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life, and ensure that its nearly 1.4 billion people enjoy a decent level of prosperity, China still has a long road to travel.

¹ BCG, "Striking a Balance Between Well-Being and Growth: The 2018 Sustainable Economic Development Assessment", September 2018. 

² EIU, "Priorities of Progress: Understanding citizens' voices", November 2018.

³ A public opinion survey by Civey during November and December 2018, entrusted by Atlantik-Brücke.

⁴ ACCWS, "China National Image Global Survey 2018", August 2019.