By Dr. Austin Maho
Going through Chinese President Xi Jinping’s New year message of December 31st 2020, two facts rings true, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has kept its promises to the people of China and promoted the concept of shared humanity and global solidarity.
Keeping its promise to the Chinese people means China under the leadership of the CPC has finally broken the chains of poverty in its 1.4 billion population and created a modestly prosperous Chinese society. It has also made remarkable strides in economic development, scientific innovations, human capital development among others.
Today every Chinese citizen has a reason to be proud of his country. The CPC has stayed true to its manifesto and shown the world that its unique path to growth and development is unassailable.
President Xi Jinping’s speech spoke about breaking the final yoke of poverty in China. “We launched the final assault on the fortress of entrenched rural poverty, and cracked this “hardest nut.”
“Through 8 years, under the current standard, China has eradicated extreme poverty for the nearly 100 million rural people affected, and all the 832 impoverished counties have shaken off poverty”
While the rest of the world grapple with rising and endemic poverty, China has made poverty history and the CPC has justified the confidence reposted in it by the Chinese people.
Statistics shows that people living below the extreme poverty line in China has dropped significantly from 98.99 million in 2012 to zero in 2020.
This is truly the “great miracle in human history,” that has baffled the Western world but provides a model for developing countries to learn from. The CPC has improved the lives of Chinese citizens through massive road construction, provision of pipe borne water, healthcare in rural areas, development of rural agriculture among others.
While 2020 has been challenging as a result of the uncertainties of Covid 19, it has in no way dampened the resilience of the Chinese people who through solidarity and resilience and a commitment to putting peoples lives first defeated the virus and brought hope to the rest of the world that the virus is not a death sentence.
According to President Xi, the virus was defeated because people “pooled their drops of strength into tremendous power and built an iron wall to safeguard lives”. Putting lives first was the magic wand that enabled China to defeat the virus according to Xi. “Greatness is forged in the ordinary. Heroes come from the people” .
The Chinese lesson is remarkable because underlying its success is togetherness and a common purpose in the interest of a shared humanity.
Containing the spread of the virus has helped the Chinese economy to record growth. According to Xi, “China is the first major economy worldwide to achieve positive growth, and its GDP in 2020 is expected to step up to a new level of 100 trillion yuan”. That’s about 15.4 trillion USD.
The Chinese economy saw growth of 4.9% between July and September 2020.The rebound of the Chinese economy after draconian lockdown in the first quarter of 2020 is now leading the charge for a global economic recovery.
Since China started its opening-up and reform in 1978, the country “has created miracles of development”, that has held the rest of the world in awe.
Remarkably, China under the leadership of the CPC has not allowed its successes get into its head, but continue to preach the message of global peace, multilateralism, shared humanity and Solidarity.
“We are not alone on the Great Way and the whole world is one family. After a year of hardship, we can understand more than ever the significance of a community with a shared future for mankind”. Said Xi in his address, reiterating the need for the world to stay united especially in the face of a global pandemic. According to him:
“People from all over the world should join hands and support each other to early dispel the gloom of the pandemic and strive for a better “Earth home.”
This is a key message that the world must not lose sight of, 2021 should usher in a new global order of solidarity and shared humanity, the earth is our home and as humans we should protect and preserve our common human heritage.
As the CPC marks its 100th anniversary this year it has certainly “bore the great trust of the people and the hope of the nation. The boat has sailed through turbulent rivers and treacherous shoals, and has voyaged across violent tidal waves, becoming a great ship that navigates China’s stable and long-term development” .
