Good governance

Under the leadership and guidance of the CPC, China will continue to provide an example for other developing economies

The Communist Party of China is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, a historic event not only for China, but also for the rest of the world. For more than 70 out of its 100 years, the CPC has been China's ruling party, which is a record in itself.

To better understand the true importance of the CPC's experience, one should turn to history. At the turn of the 20th to 21st centuries, the future of socialism depended on its ability and capacity to reform itself. We can compare the Russian and Chinese experiences, because by the end of the 1980s both countries found themselves at the same crossroad－but each chose a different path. Truly, history has no subjunctive mood. Decades later we see where China is now, and where Russia is, and what happened to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

China's development has entered a new stage. A new generation of leaders, led by President Xi Jinping, is setting certain tasks for the Party. The 19th National Congress of the CPC in October 2017 was devoted to how the CPC, as the core of the political system, is moving toward completing the assigned tasks. Despite the negative impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, China has successfully completed the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), with absolute poverty being eradicated in the country. By 2020, the country's GDP had doubled compared to that in 2010. Thus, a large-scale milestone task was solved.

The experience of China's political development in the era of reform and opening-up has an important foreign policy dimension. It demonstrates the limitations of the Western model and the danger of a "universal Westernization" policy for countries belonging to non-Western cultures. The Chinese economy's stability and steady growth consolidates the CPC's leading role in China's political system.

The CPC as the main and ruling party determines the key directions, the development model and the value priorities. Its performance in these areas can be measured by the achievements the country has already made and the identifying of the next tasks and how they are to be successfully completed. These tasks are to make the country a major world power, with a modern developed economy, an influential social sphere and with a role as one of the main participants in the formulation of the world and regional agendas.

Attention has been drawn in particular to a number of key provisions expressed by President Xi, including the need to develop a new type of international relations; countries working together to build a community with a shared future for mankind; the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era; and the transformation of China by the middle of this century into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.

The strength of China's example as a successful and strong socialist power is also important, not only for the left-wing forces and the forces of socialism throughout the world, but also for other countries, especially emerging economies, that are looking to form their own models of socioeconomic development.

China, under the guidance of the CPC, will continue to look ahead and develop confidently. China is carrying out a large experiment of a global scale, and all other countries, especially those with a developing economy, are looking at China. What should be the optimal combination of the free market mechanisms and state regulation? China has its own model. In fact, we see an absolutely pragmatic approach, when what is working is supported.

The author is chief academic researcher with the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. 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.