China's historic achievements under Xi's leadership

People around the world are keenly observing the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is at present going on. China's peaceful rise and impressive development achievements have sent a positive and inspiring message to the people both at home and across the globe. CPC's achievements have been more solid and astounding in the last decade since Xi Jinping came to power as the CPC general secretary in 2012 and the President of the People's Republic of China since 2013.

China's GDP has more than doubled in a decade and reached 17.7 trillion US dollars in 2021. The share of China's economy in the global economy has increased by 7%, becoming 18% now from 11% a decade ago. According to a report, one-fourth of trees planted in the world in the last decade was in China, which means China has given utmost priority to preserving the ecology and mitigating climate change effects. The sky in China looks blue for more days now than in 2013, rivers and lakes are cleaner, and hills are greener now than a decade ago. The efforts for green development have already paid off. For example, air quality would be good only for 176 days in 2013 in Beijing but in 2021, the number of days when the air quality was good reached 288 days a year. The number of days of extreme pollution in Beijing was 58 in 2013 which has been reduced to just eight days in 2021.

Geopolitical tension has reached a peak owing to the Western countries standing together against the Russia's 'special military operation' in Ukraine and there is apprehension that a global recession is looming large. By raising baseless issues related to Xinjiang and taking provocative step in relation to Taiwan, the western countries are also trying to smear China's global image and contain its development. At this time, China needs an experienced and reliable leader at the top of the government. Given this background, there is no alternative to general secretary Xi steering the development of China for the next five years.

Under the leadership of CPC, China has been making development feats one after another. According to a report published in Harvard Business Review, in 1990 China’s rural population had one refrigerator per 100 households; in 2021 that number is 96 per 100. (Food preservation is a common benchmark for development.) In 1990 China had only 5.5 million cars on the road; in 2021 it had 270 million, of which 3.4 million are electric, representing 47% of the global electric fleet. In 1990 three-quarters of the country’s population was rural; in 2021 nearly two-thirds is urban, an increase of more than half a billion people. China's physical infrastructure construction has been so fast that in just three years, from 2011 to 2013, China poured more concrete than the United States had poured in the entire 20th century.

China has now become a nation of innovations, an innovative nation. China has been making great strides in the advancement of science and technology. According to a report, China's global innovation index rank rose from 34^th in 2012 to 12th in 2021. China's new energy vehicles have formed a more complete innovation landscape and its production and sales have ranked first in the world for seven years straight.

Historic milestones in a decade

The achievements China made in a decade with regard to poverty reduction, economic growth, green development, science and technology and innovations are historic. No country in history has made such tall achievements in so short a period.

Let's talk about poverty reduction. China uplifted over 100 million people out of abject poverty in the last decade. Taking almost a million people out of extreme poverty a month on average is no easy task for any government in the world. But China did it, and this achievement can be a study matter for many poverty-stricken countries as to how to achieve poverty reduction goals. This success would not have been possible had the CPC not given top priority to improving the living conditions of the people as a whole. There are instances how Xi Jinping as the CPC general secretary and the President of the PRC concentrated on eradicating poverty. This scribe was awestricken while visiting Shen Shan hamlet of Mao Ping village that lies some 30 kilometers away from, and to the north of, Ciping town of Jingangshan city in Jiangxi province in 2017. While talking with the local villagers there this scribe knew that President Xi had visited this particular village in February 2016 and talked with the people about their difficulties and how poverty alleviation programmes were helping them to get rid of poverty. Xi's visit must have been to take first-hand knowledge on the effectiveness of the programmes the government was running to eradicate poverty in China. It also revealed how Xi was focused on doing away with poverty and how he could take time to learn from the grassroots people and see things himself so that small details are also gathered.

In fact, development for people means a positive change in their living conditions. There is no doubt that the living standard of the people in China has improved at par with the increase in China’s GDP.

Some of the words and phrases used by President Xi to describe China's vision have become global catchphrases now. Building a community of shared future, and win-win cooperation are some of them.

Over the past decade, China has indeed made great achievements in accelerating the construction of a modern economic system, promoting technological innovation, improving state governance, eliminating extreme poverty, and pushing for green development. China's development path has definitely become more attractive to the international community. China's development is very important to global development, and China's successful experience offers reference and inspiration to many countries.

Chinese-style modernization is a vision of a world without poverty, hunger, war, conflict, discrimination, and hegemony, among others. The Chinese path to modernization pursues inclusive development, common prosperity, as well as a harmonious relationship between human and nature, and will have a direct positive impact on global development. While concentrating on major tasks at home, Chinese development has produced positive spillover effects to the world, reflecting China's wisdom and strength.

In his report to the 20^th National Congress of the CPC, general secretary Xi rightly said that China has always been committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development and is dedicated to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and is willing to implement them together with the international community. The Chinese people are ready to work hand in hand with people across the world to create an even brighter future for humanity.

The GDI and GSI proposed by China are in line with the common aspirations of the international community for justice, peace, and development, and will surely further build global consensus, gather strength for cooperation, and inject strong positive energy into improving global governance. The global community expects China's initiatives such as the GDI and GSI will play more positive roles around the world in the future.

Xi's report finely emphasizes that China adheres to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in pursuing friendship and cooperation with other countries, and will firmly support and help developing countries achieve faster growth, which will further encourage emerging economies to recover at a faster pace.

What Xi said in his report are worth noting. He said, "We embraced the centenary of the Communist Party of China; we ushered in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and we eradicated absolute poverty and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus completing the First Centenary Goal."

"Through painstaking efforts, the Party has found a second answer to the question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall. The answer is self-reform. We have ensured that the Party will never change its nature, its conviction, or its character. The great achievements of the new era have come from the collective dedication and hard work of our Party and our people. The great transformation over the past 10 years of the new era marks a milestone in the history of the Party, of the People's Republic of China, of reform and opening up, of the development of socialism, and of the development of the Chinese nation. We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary".

At the backdrop of provocative steps by the US side as exemplified by US speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Xi in his report made it clear that sooner or later, by force or by peaceful means, the breakaway region of China, Taiwan, will be united in the mainland. "The wheels of history are rolling on toward China's reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realized, and it can, without doubt, be realized!" he said.

With regard to corruption, Xi's words are strong and clear. "Corruption is a cancer to the vitality and ability of the Party, and fighting corruption is the most thorough kind of self-reform there is. As long as the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption still exist, we must keep sounding the bugle and never rest, not even for a minute, in our fight against corruption".

As he came to power, Xi announced BRI as China's vision for moving forward development works in different countries. BRI is not a donation project, but a vision to jointly work for development. 149 countries have singed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement with China by August 2022 for jointly carrying out development works in their respective countries. BRI has five core issues such as policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds. It has already benefited many countries although the western world has been decrying it. It is common sense in international relations to understand that a rising power is blocked by an established power. As China is a rising power and the western countries, particularly the USA is a world power, it is no surprising to see that US objects to China's initiatives fearing its supremacy will be questioned.  The western media's rumour about Xinjiang and other places and issues of China should understood in the same light, that is a way to smear China's global image and thus obstruct its peaceful development, cooperation with the other countries.

By giving due importance to BRICS and SCO, President Xi has also raised hopes of the developing countries that their voices would be raised and addressed in global platform including the UN. As China itself is a developing country albeit the second largest economy in the world, almost all developing countries are looking at China for changing the global governance rule so that they also benefit from globalisation.

CPC has always given due importance to China's relation with Nepal and Nepali people are happy to see China's development. The most important things that took place with regard to Nepal China relations since 2013 are the signing of BRI agreement, agreement on trade and transit that also include constructing cross-border railway linking Nepal and China, President Xi's visit to Nepal in 2019 and elevating Nepal-China Comprehensive Partnership of Cooperation Featuring Ever-lasting Friendship to Strategic Partnership of Cooperation Featuring Ever-lasting Friendship for Development and Prosperity. China's support for Nepal during the Indian blockade in 2015 and the prompt assistance for rescue, relief and reconstruction during and in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2015 have made a lasting positive impression in the people of Nepal. In this light as well, Xi's presidency has been a golden period in the relations between the two neighbours, Nepal and China. Equally important is the way International Department of the CPC has been engaged with different political parties in bolstering relations between the two countries, and this has been possible also because general secretary Xi has been focusing on further strengthening relations with Nepal.

CPC with Xi at its core has said that its first centenary goal of developing a moderately prosperous society has been achieved with the eradication of extreme poverty in China. Chinese President and CPC general secretary Xi has set forth new plans for the upcoming years. It is hoped that China's neighbours including Nepal will benefit immensely from China's development in the days ahead and that China will pay more attention to the ways to share its development with the neighbours.