On 1 July 2021, Indian mainstream media The Hindu and Business Line published special page on the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China. The special page contained Ambassador Sun Weidong's Message, China's Development and Contribution in the New Era and CPC 100 Years for the People.
I. Ambassador's Message
The Communist Party of China (CPC) was born for the people, prospers due to the people, and be rooted in the people. The leadership of the CPC is the choice of history and the people.
The CPC was founded in July 100 years ago. It rallied and led the Chinese people to achieve national independence and liberation through 28 years of hard fight and sacrifice. From founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, launching reform and opening-up in 1978, to ushering in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics since the 18th National Congress in 2012, the CPC has led the Chinese people from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong, and created the brilliant prospects of rejuvenation.
The 100 years of the CPC witness a history of unremitting efforts and hard work, a history of theories exploration and a history of party building. Generations of CPC members forged ahead during the 100-year journey with hardships and triumph, blazed a path of rejuvenation towards a great modern country, and created remarkable miracles of development. Meanwhile, we are soberly aware that China remains the world's largest developing country. China's per capita GDP is still at the middle-income level. Unbalanced and inadequate development has become the main constraining factor in meeting the people's increasing needs for a better life.
The CPC is a political party that seeks happiness for the Chinese people and strives for the cause of human progress. The CPC and Chinese people go through trials and tribulations, and deeply appreciate the value of peace. China is committed to an independent foreign policy of peace. China grows not by expansion or colonial plunder, but through the hard work of its people. China's development offers a new option for other countries and nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence, and it offers Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind.
The world is undergoing once-in-a-century changes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing the raging pandemic, China puts people and life first. We were the first country to bring the pandemic under control, carry out cooperation on pandemic response, resume work and production, and realise economic recovery and growth. Sticking to the spirit of solidarity and mutual help, China offers support and assistance to peoples around the world including India to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, China has provided over 450 million doses of vaccines to nearly 100 countries. After the outbreak of the second wave of the pandemic in India, China was one of the first countries to offer support and take actions. A lot of Chinese companies and institutions donated medical materials to India. The Red Cross Society of China provided 100 oxygen concentrators and 40 ventilators to the Indian Red Cross Society. According to incomplete statistics, China exported more than 1.3 lakh oxygen concentrators, 10 thousand ventilators, 110 thousand thermometers and over 14.5 crore masks to India from April to first half of May. China's government agencies actively provided facilitation and convenience for customs clearance and transport of the needy medical supplies from China. When India fought the second wave of pandemic, China was not absent or sat back apathetically. Our purpose is to save every precious life, and contribute to overcoming the pandemic by mankind at an early date.
President Xi Jinping points out that the overall goal of China's diplomacy is to foster a new type of international relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind. China is committed to peaceful co-existence with all countries, true multilateralism and to non-hegemony, non-expansion, non-alignment and non-coercion. World affairs should be handled through extensive consultation, and the future of the world should be decided by all countries working together. China never copies foreign models, nor export ideologies or ask other countries to copy China's practices. Instead, we advocate that all countries follow development paths that suit their own national conditions. All countries should respect each other and learn from each other without interfering in others' internal affairs. Looking into the future, no matter how the international situation evolves, under the leadership of the CPC, China will continue to stand on the right side of history. China will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a guardian of the international order.
China and India are both ancient oriental civilizations shine brightly through exchanges and mutual learning. The essence of our bilateral relations is how the world's two largest developing countries get along with each other and pursue development and rejuvenation together. Both sides should take a long-term view and follow the right path towards mutual trust and cooperation between big neighbouring countries. We should respect each other, engage in equal-footed consultation, seek common ground while narrowing differences and enhance mutual trust, to promote healthy and stable development of China-India relations and benefit the two peoples. This is in fundamental interests of the two countries and also meets the common expectation of the region and the international community.
The centenary only ushers in its prime of life. The CPC is committed to composing a more splendid chapter in the new era. The CPC is leading the Chinese people to embark on a new journey of building a modernised socialist country. Based on the new development stage, China will follow the new development philosophy and foster the new development paradigm. We will work with all countries through consultation and cooperation for shared benefits, to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, and create a more prosperous and better world together.
II. China's Development and Contribution in the New Era
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has been in a new era. Holding high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, China has promoted its economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and composite national strength to a new level, and people's living standards and cultural caliber have improved significantly. The millennial expectation of a moderately prosperous society in all respects has become a reality. Socialist China has entered a new stage of development and embarked on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist China.
Economy: China is working to form a new development paradigm of "dual circulation" allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. China's GDP broke through the 100-trillion-yuan ($15.5 trillion) mark, achieving an increase of 2.3 percent in 2020 and became the only major economy that recorded a positive growth despite the impact of COVID-19. The annual GDP per capita surpassed $10,000 for two consecutive years.
Reform & Opening up: China has been continued to deepen reform and expand opening-up, and provide a better business environment for investment and the development of Chinese and foreign enterprises. In recent years, the number of restrictive measures has been reduced by nearly two thirds. Items on the 2020 negative list for market access shortened to 123 from 131 in 2019 and 151 in 2018. Up to now, China has set up 22 free trade zones. According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report, China moved up by 15 places from the 2019 ranking to the 31st position among the 190 economies. China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 economies. China has 133 Chinese companies, the largest number on the world's top 500 companies list published by Fortune Magazine.
Poverty Alleviation: On 25 February 2021, President Xi Jinping announced that a complete success had been achieved in China's fight against poverty. All of the 98.99 million impoverished residents in rural areas have emerged from poverty, and 832 counties and 128,000 villages have been removed from the poverty list under current standards. This means that China has made historic achievements in solving the problem of absolute poverty that has troubled the Chinese nation for thousands of years.
Society: China has made steady progress in promoting new urbanization, with its population living in urban areas on the mainland totaling 901.99 million, which accounts for 63.89 percent of the total population. The proportion of the population living in urban areas was 14.21 percentage points higher than the figure for 2010. Between 2012 and 2020, the number of college graduates grew from more than 6.2 million to more than 8.7 million. Average life expectancy reached 77.3 years in China in 2019, which was up 0.96 years from 2015. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China put people's safety and health first, led the people in building a solid defense line for containing the pandemic and achieved significant strategic results. China's railway operating mileage has reached 146,300 kilometers, ranking second in the world. Among them, the high-speed railway mileage is 38,000 kilometers, ranking first in the world.
Science & Technology: China's spending on basic research nearly doubled during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). China took the first spot in 2020 among international patent applications for the second consecutive year, ranked 14th in the "Global Innovation Index" in 2020 as only middle-income economy in the top 30. China has made significant breakthroughs: Chang'e-5 marks a successful conclusion of three-step lunar exploration program of orbiting and landing, and bringing back samples; Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship successfully sent 3 astronauts to China's own space station core module Tianhe; The successful landing of Tianwen-1 on the Mars makes China the second country to land and operate a rover on Mars; The complete deployment of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System makes China the third country to have its own satellite navigation system.
Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy provides fundamental guidance for China's foreign policy in the new era, and clarifies to the world the general direction in which we hope to work with other countries. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, China is committed to peaceful co-existence with all countries, true multilateralism and to non-hegemony, non-expansion, non-alignment and non-coercion. We will be committed to the mankind's common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom. We will work together unswervingly with the people of all countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind, and we will endeavor to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.
On Peace--China takes concrete actions to fulfill its responsibility in maintaining world peace, and is always committed to political settlement of hot-spot issues. Having participated in more than 30 UN peacekeeping operations, China has become the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the Security Council.
On Development--China has been the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries and regions, its total value of trade and exports both continues to rank No.1 in the global trade in goods. For over 10 years, China has contributed to more than 30 percent of global growth, playing as a major engine of global growth.
On Poverty Relief---China has met the poverty eradication target set out in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. Over the past 40-plus years of reform and opening up, more than 700 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty, contributing more than 70 percent of the global poverty reduction. China has made a historic contribution to the cause of human poverty reduction by winning the battle against poverty, and has provided Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach for global poverty reduction governance.
On Fighting COVID-19--China has actively carried out international cooperation to combat the pandemic and advocated building a human health community. As of May 21 this year, China has sent medical supplies to more than 150 countries and 13 international organizations, and provided more than 280 billion masks, 3.4 billion protective suits and 4 billion testing kits to the world. China has honored its commitment by providing free vaccines to more than 80 developing countries in urgent need and exporting vaccines to 43 countries. China has provided 2 billion U.S. dollars in assistance for the COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in developing countries hit by the pandemic.
On Climate Change--China has contributed to the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and announced its targets for peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. The time span between these two targets of ours is much shorter than that in developed countries. China will increase its forest stock volume by 6 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.
III. CPC 100 Years for the People
The 100 years of the CPC are a period during which it has stayed true to its original aspiration and founding mission, worked hard to advance its cause, and been groundbreaking for the future based on its achievements. Under CPC leadership, the Chinese people have achieved great victories in revolution, construction and reform, the Chinese nation has achieved remarkable transformation from standing up, growing rich to becoming strong, and realized the First Centenary Goal of completing a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
The founding of the CPC in July 1921. The First CPC National Congress held in Shanghai and then transferred to a red boat on Lake Nanhu in Zhejiang Province.
Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the creation of the Jinggang Mountains Revolutionary Base.
CPC representative Dong Biwu signing the UN Charter in 1945.
The Chinese people had now stood up. On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed "The Central People's Government of the PRC has been established today."
Zhou Enlai attended the Geneva Conference in 1954.
Demonstrators carrying the model of the Constitution of the PRC through the Tian'anmen reviewing platform on the National Day in 1954.
The 26th UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to restore all legal rights of the PRC on 25 October 1971.
Mao Zedong met Richard Nixon in Beijing in 1972, marking the normalization of China-US relations.
A procession of university students in Tian'anmen Square in Beijing with a banner saying "Hello, Xiaoping."in 1984.
Deng Xiaoping visited Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai in 1992,pushing reform, opening up and modernization forward.
On 1 July 1997 and 19 December 1999, the Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao.
Jiang Zemin with Wu Wenjun (left), a top mathematician, and Yuan Longping (right), the father of hybrid rice, who are honored with the State Supreme Science and Technology Award in 2000.
On 11 December 2001, China officially became a member of the WTO and embraced the world market.
Hu Jintao announcing the opening of the 29th Summer Olympic Games in Beijing from August 8 to 24, 2008.
On 29 November 2012, Xi Jinping first proposed and elaborated on the Chinese Dream of National Rejuvenation.
On 28 September 2015, Xi Jinping elaborated the concept of a human community with a shared future.