Xi leading China to a well-off society

Red flags on the Tian'anmen Square and atop the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua]

Like the Chinese people, the whole world is now waiting with great expectations for the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, set to take place in Beijing starting Oct 18. The congress, held once every five years, is of critical importance to China's all-round progress. It will review the Party's work since 2012 and will determine the makeup of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the top decision-making body — the Politburo Standing Committee.

The upcoming congress will also draw out guidelines and policies for the next five years. Surely, the 19th congress will be a significant milestone in China's march on an extraordinary journey towards a well-off society by 2020 by taking the socialist road with Chinese characteristics under the strong leadership of the CPC.

During the last congress, held Nov 15, 2012, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission. On March 14, 2013, he was elected president of the People's Republic of China. Since taking the helm of CPC leadership, he has led the Party and the Chinese people to achieve its "two centenary goals" and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation by 2020.

According to a survey, conducted by the People's Tribune magazine, most Chinese people believe that President Xi has leadership qualities, namely "strategic willpower with full confidence”, "bravery to tackle problems head-on” and ”intelligence to cure both the symptoms and root causes of problems”. He has tirelessly led China to carry out in-depth reforms while securing social stability at the same time — a great achievement.

During the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee from Oct 24 to 27 in 2016, the CPC gave Xi Jinping the title of "core leader". Identifying Xi as the core of the CPC shows a high degree of consensus within the Party. Undoubtedly, Xi's anointment as the core of China's leadership is encouraging for China, and for the world also. People's Daily hailed Xi's core status as one of great importance to China and the CPC, saying "China and the CPC ... need a core for the Party and its Central Committee, to bond the Party, to unite the people, to tide over the challenges and to continue to forge ahead."

After becoming the general secretary, Xi articulated a vision for China's future that he called the "Chinese Dream” of great rejuvenation for which the Chinese people have been striving for over a century. For the last five years, China has been forging ahead with an overwhelming drive. This great force comes from the Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at the core, showing foresight and a broad strategic vision. It is bravely standing at the fore of fulfilling a historical mission, of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

If we look at the past five years under the leadership of President Xi, we can see that since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has witnessed extraordinary developments in productivity, a comprehensive national strength and people's living standards waving the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is through Chinese socialism that China has stood up, become wealthier and grew to the world's second-largest economy, the biggest trader of goods and the third-largest direct foreign investor, lifting China's per capita GDP to close to $8,000.

At the end of 2014, Xi Jinping put forward the "Four Comprehensives" for comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society, deepening reform, advancing the rule of law, and strictly governing the CPC. This guiding philosophy has noticeably become the overall framework for the current leadership's work for building a moderately prosperous society.

During Xi's presidency, the target of poverty reduction has acquired severe importance on the road to achieving a moderately prosperous socialist society by 2020. In November of 2013, President Xi first put forward the concept of targeted poverty alleviation. He said at the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 8 that "It is the Party's solemn pledge to help all impoverished rural populations out of poverty under the current standard and delist all poor counties by 2020."

According to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), China aims to eliminate poverty by 2020. More than 55.6 million Chinese rural residents were lifted out of poverty from 2013 to 2016, and at least another 10 million will shake off poverty by the end of this year, meaning the number of rural Chinese lifted out of poverty in five years will exceed 65 million. Undoubtedly, this is a great achievement for China and also an enormous contributor to the world's poverty reduction.

President Xi is a leader of integrity and ability. Since taking the role of general secretary, he pledged to go after both "flies" and "tigers" with an iron hand, implying both corrupt low-level functionaries and big powers of Chinese society. One of his remarks on this issue deserves to be quoted: "We must uphold the fighting of tigers and flies at the same time, resolutely investigating law-breaking cases of leading officials and also earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems which happen all around people.”

The life sentences handed out to CPC Central Committee Political Bureau member Bo Xilai and the former security chief Zhou Yongkang, to name a few, are prime examples of Xi's anti-corruption battle.

Wu Yuliang, deputy head of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said at a news conference January 9 that some 200,000 "flies" have been caught over the past two years in the anti-corruption campaign. In total, 240 central administration officials have been investigated, with 223 receiving punishments. China has extradited 2,442 criminals from over 70 countries or regions, recovering illicit money worth 8.54 billion yuan ($1.24 billion) from 2014 to 2016. This has boosted the morale of the Chinese people, who are showing more faith in government than ever before.

Since assuming the presidency, Xi has become a world-class leader on the international stage. In the past five years, he has shown the world China has earned the right to play an important role in global affairs. "Xi-style diplomacy” has written new chapters with the outside world, through remarkable projects including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Under the leadership of President Xi, China has positioned itself as a new champion for globalization and a defender of free trade other countries can follow, at a time when the Trump administration has caused the US to step back from its traditional role of dominance on trade and development.

In these uncertain times, our world needs the effective leadership of President Xi Jinping. China is rising unabatedly under his stewardship and will continue to do so in the days to come. It is essential to "resurrecting” Chinese power and "rejuvenating the Chinese nation” that President Xi extends his leadership to other regions and countries to establish mutually beneficial relationships among world players without conflict or confrontation.

Rabi Sankar Bosu is Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, based in West Bengal, India.