Well-earned trust

China's economic success is the result of the CPC's competent leadership and carefully thought-out development model

The Communist Party of China is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
The CPC has come a long way to establish itself as a leading force promoting the cause of national revival.

In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, it was a less developed country with hundreds of millions of people living in poverty and illiteracy.

After passing through a series of critical tests and crises, the CPC has become even stronger and more confident in leading the Chinese people on the path to the country's great rejuvenation.

In 1978, the Party led and supported the discussion that "practice is the only test of truth", which has been of great importance in lifting the country out of chaos and turning the country into the world's second-largest economy.

Especially since the CPC initiated the policy of reform and opening-up in 1978, which enabled China to lift more than 800 million people out of abject poverty, according to the World Bank's international poverty standard. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised this feat, saying: "China is the country that has made the greatest contribution to reducing poverty in the world", as it accounted for more than 70 percent of the global population lifted out of poverty over the same time period.

While previously most people in China did not have access to health insurance, today more than 96 percent of the population is covered by it. As the world's largest developing country, China's successful experience in poverty eradication and providing health insurance coverage has attracted worldwide attention.

Achieving the goals and objectives in the state-building of any country is impossible without a solid economic foundation. From 1952 to 2019, the volume of Chinese industrial production increased almost 1,000 times with an average annual growth rate of 11 percent. Per capita income has increased 70 times. In addition, in 1978 China's exports amounted to $10 billion, which is less than 1 percent of world trade, by the end of 2020 exports had increased to a record $2.49 trillion, which made China the world's largest country trading in goods. No other country in the world has ever experienced such dynamic development. As a result of the ongoing reforms, China's GDP per capita has grown from less than $200 four decades ago to more than $11,000 today.

Over the past decades, China's achievements have been notable, not only because of their scale, but also because of the global economic shocks that have recurred during this period. The Chinese leadership has coped with these very successfully, and after each crisis, the economy has become stronger and narrowed the gap with the biggest economy in the world, the United States.

The 1997-98 Asian crisis, an event that set back a number of other Asian economies for many years; the bursting of the dot-com bubble in financial markets in 2001; the devastating financial crisis of 2007-08, from which many economies and their societies may not have really recovered; and, of course, the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the largest economic downturn worldwide since the 1930s.

During the pandemic, against the backdrop of a sharp decline in global transnational direct investment, foreign direct investment in China in 2020 increased by 6.2 percent and reached about 1 trillion yuan ($144.38 billion). At the end of 2020, analysts at the British Center for Economic and Business Research said in a report that China's economy will become the largest economy in the world in 2028, five years earlier than previously predicted.

It must be recognized that China's outstanding economic success is the result of the CPC's competent leadership and a carefully thought-out development model implemented through "trial and error".China's leaders are well-educated and capable civil servants, many of whom have postgraduate degrees from leading universities at home and abroad.

The Chinese way of careful planning and review of the results of each five-year plan is a good example of how to achieve high global development results in all areas of the country's socioeconomic life. The competence of China's leaders is evidenced by their approach to economic development: a pragmatic, experimental, gradual and strong leadership style.

The CPC has achieved overwhelming domestic recognition and approval. Polls from the Harvard Kennedy School show that more than 90 percent of Chinese people trust the CPC-led government. A recent study published by York University in Canada in May 2021 shows that the new coronavirus outbreak has further increased Chinese citizens' confidence in their governments: 93 percent at the county level, 94 percent at the city level, and 95 percent at the provincial level.

In November last year, President Xi Jinping said that by 2035, the size of the national economy and GDP per capita will double, and the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) will lead China toward becoming a high-income country.

By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China aims to be one of the most innovative countries in the world, and its longer-term goal is to make significant breakthroughs in innovation by 2035. As part of the dual-circulation development paradigm, technological innovation will boost China's manufacturing industry and propel it up the global value chain, while ensuring strategic supply in the domestic market.

The author is secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.