China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity

CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2021-09-29 09:40

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1. Always Putting the People First

Working to benefit the people is fundamental to moderate prosperity. Everything the CPC has done in revolution, reconstruction and reform is designed to ensure a good life for all. The CPC has stayed true to its original aspiration and founding mission, and pressed forward for moderate prosperity for the people, by the people, and with the people.

The CPC has remained committed to its fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly. It is dedicated to the people and always puts their interests first. It follows the underlying trends of social development and respects the people's principal role in making history. It pursues the lofty goal of working for the wellbeing of the Chinese people, and does everything in the interests of the people.

The CPC is rooted in the people. It is thoroughly aware of their needs, concerns and expectations. From its very beginning, the CPC has striven to serve the people and won their support and endorsement. It represents the fundamental interests of all the Chinese, and everything it does is to realize, safeguard, and advance their interests. Meeting the people's expectation for a better life is its goal. Holding fast to its fundamental purpose, the CPC aims for high standards in building a moderately prosperous society that satisfies the needs of the people.

The CPC regards the people's expectation for a better life as its goal. It makes decisions and adopts policies in the fundamental interests of the people. At different stages of building a moderately prosperous society, the CPC has always acted to advance the people's interests, kept in mind their needs, shared their concerns, and resolved their difficulties.

The CPC has taken sound development as its top priority in governance. It has unleashed and developed the productive forces, and pursued well-rounded human development and common prosperity. Into the new era, as the people's desire for a better life grows stronger, the CPC, with the people's wellbeing at the forefront of its mind, has launched a full range of initiatives, enabling the people to fully share the country's development gains and make continuous progress towards all-round moderate prosperity.

The CPC has relied on the people to build a moderately prosperous society. Moderate prosperity is for the people and by the people, and the participation and endeavor of all the people is indispensable to its success. The CPC ensures the principal status of the people, and mobilizes them to strive for their interests and moderate prosperity, surmounting one obstacle after another and making great strides forward.

The CPC respects the wishes the people express, the experience they accumulate, the rights they have, and the role they play. It motivates the people to be self-reliant and hardworking, inspires their creativity, and pools their wisdom and strength. It has consolidated and developed the broadest possible united front, united all the forces that can be united, and mobilized all positive factors to work as one in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The Chinese people have dedicated themselves to the great journey towards moderate prosperity and a better life. Their epic deeds will go down in history.

2. Developing Sound Policies and Strategies

Building China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects bears on the vital interests of the people and the overall strategy of national rejuvenation. To succeed in this goal, the right policies and strategies are essential. At different historical stages, the CPC has devised such policies based on an accurate analysis of the domestic and international landscape, and set forth practical goals, tasks and roadmaps according to China's conditions. This has provided a sound base for the task of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects to press ahead.

The CPC has strengthened strategic planning and policy design. Keeping in mind key factors involved, such as objectives, driving forces, pathways, opportunities, challenges, and internal and external conditions, the CPC has pressed ahead in a holistic manner by adopting forward thinking, planning the big picture, organizing its strategies and implementing them as a whole.

After the reform and opening-up initiative was introduced in the late 1970s, confronted by the challenges of a large population, complex national conditions, and imbalances in development, the CPC addressed the relationships between the coastal areas and interior provinces, between the eastern and western regions, and between partial and common prosperity, encouraging some regions and some people to create wealth as a first step to prosperity for all. This approach has resulted in remarkable improvements in people's living standards and in the level of shared development across society.

In the new era, based on a sound understanding of the current situation in China and an accurate assessment that China is in the final stages of achieving moderate prosperity in all respects, the CPC has rolled out the Five-sphere Integrated Plan and implemented the Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy. Achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects became the strategic goal; underpinned by deeper reform, the rule of law, and stricter Party self-governance as the supporting measures; and ending absolute poverty as the key task. It has furthered supply-side structural reform, promoted high-standard opening up, expedited the formation of a new economic dynamic, improved development quality, and finally achieved the great goal with the support and efforts of all the people.

The CPC has kept pace with global trends. Based on its belief that peace and development are the themes of our times, it has maintained an independent foreign policy of peace, and followed the path of peaceful development. It has actively contributed to building a global community of shared future, and has always been firm in its commitment to foster a peaceful international environment for China's development, which in turn promotes world peace and common development. These elements combined create a favorable external environment for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The CPC has formulated time-phased objectives. To meet the goal of moderate prosperity, the CPC has adopted progressive tactics, defining time-phased goals and tasks and achieving its successes in a series of steps.

・ In the 1960s, the CPC set the goal of achieving the Four Modernizations-industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology－by the end of the 20th century, and devised a two-stage development plan [The first stage was to build an independent and relatively comprehensive industrial and economic system by 1980. The second stage was to achieve modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology by the end of the 20th century, bringing China to the forefront of the global economy] to this end.

・ In the early stages of reform and opening up, the CPC set the goal of delivering a xiaokang life for the people by the end of the 20th century.

・ In the mid-1980s, the CPC formulated a three-step strategic plan for modernization.

・ In the mid-1990s, it proposed a new three-step strategic plan for economic development and social progress.

・ Entering the new century, the CPC proposed to build a moderately prosperous society of a higher standard to the benefit of the whole population in the first two decades.

・ In the new era, the CPC set the goal of achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021, when the Party would celebrate its centenary.

In order to achieve the phased goals, five-year plans for national economic and social development have been formulated and implemented, guaranteeing continuity and consistency in policymaking. With this approach, and after decades of pragmatic and sustained efforts, China has realized the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.