Judging the Chinese Path

We make it our ultimate criteria to allow all people to participate in and benefit from development.

The Chinese path is the choice and the creation of the people. It has been pioneered by the people through their actions under the leadership of the CPC. We can say for certain that each breakthrough and innovation in our understanding and practice; each new development in reform and opening up; and each important new experience in modernization has without exception come from the endeavors and wisdom of the people. From the 18 farmers in Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province, who entered into a daring agreement to divide farmland and production quota between themselves, to the countless rural laborers who left the fields to go and work in township enterprises, and again to the men and women who have traveled the land and endured all manner of hardships to run their own businesses, the explorations and innovations of millions of people have culminated in a huge motive force driving China’s reform and opening up forwards. It is precisely the respect that the Party has shown for the principal role of the people and for the people’s spirit of creativity that has allowed the vigor of labor, knowledge, technology, managerial expertise, and capital to fully unleash themselves; and all potential sources for the creation of wealth to fully surge forward, injecting the Chinese path with the most resourceful strength.

People’s yearning for a better life is our goal to strive forward. The Chinese people love life and have many dreams. They wish to have better education, more stable jobs, and better living conditions. They want their dignity to be assured, their careers successful, and their value fulfilled. During more than 30 years of reform and opening up, these ordinary dreams have gradually become a reality, and are now in the process of being realized on a higher level. The degree of our commitment to improving the people’s wellbeing and the amount of resources we have devoted have been almost unmatched anywhere in the world. In merely over a decade, we have managed to cover the entire population with a subsistence allowance system, a basic pension system for residents in both urban and rural areas, and a basic medical insurance system, thereby putting in place the kind of basic social safety net that some Western countries spent almost a century building. Following years of efforts, China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty, a figure that accounts for more than 70% of the global target in poverty reduction.

There is no end to the efforts to ensure public wellbeing, only one new starting point after the next. Since the convening of the Party’s Eighteenth National Congress in 2012, we have introduced a series of polices in close succession in a bid to improve public wellbeing, including the reform of the household registration system, the reform of examination and enrollment systems for school and university students, and the adjustment and improvement of the family planning policies. These initiatives have ensured that all people can benefit more fairly and thoroughly from the fruits of development. In the words of the American scholar Robert Lawrence Kuhn, “never before in human history has the standard of living of so many people improved so fast.”

No one is more qualified to comment on the merits of a path than those who are following it. The Chinese people are able to directly appreciate the correctness of the Chinese path – a feeling which comes from the constant improvements in their standard of living, the huge changes that have taken place to the face of the country, and their strong optimism for the future. Moreover, they genuinely support this path from the bottom of their hearts. According to one vivid observation, most Chinese people have in fact experienced a “wealth revolution” over the past three decades of reform and opening up: the major items of consumption that the average family once purchased were watches, bicycles, and sewing machines; later they were refrigerators, color television sets, and washing machines; and now they are houses, cars, and computers. These changes have been simply enormous.

At present, the Chinese people are largely happy with the overall state of their country and optimistic about its prospects for development in the future. In 2013, more than 350,000 Chinese students returned to China from abroad, almost 30 times the number that returned at the beginning of this century. According to these figures, the number of returning students has grown at an average rate of over 32% per year. This wave of students returning to China bears testament to China’s appeal, and to the confidence that people have in China’s future. As we have the confidence of millions of people, we feel even more justified and assured in our commitment to following the Chinese path.

The path we take is the most fundamental issue, having a bearing on the fortunes of the country and the wellbeing of the people. In the 1990s, when he stood on the Yangpu Bridge and looked out over the new Shanghai, which had been transformed amidst the surge of China’s reform and opening up drive, Deng Xiaoping exclaimed: “What I see today gives me more joy than reading books for a hundred years.” It is imperative that we cherish, uphold, and constantly expand the Chinese path – a path that the Chinese people have successfully pioneered under the leadership of the Party after enduring all manner of hardships and making all manner of sacrifices. We need to continue strengthening our ideological, theoretical, and emotional identification with Chinese socialism, our confidence in our path, theories, and system and our strong strategic resolve, neither allowing ourselves to be intimidated by risks nor led into confusion amidst interference. We have every confidence that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics will become broader as it goes, and that the Chinese Dream – the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation – will become a reality!

Author: Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee; and Head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Originally appeared in Qiushi Journal, Chinese edition, No. 20, 2014.