President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech titled "Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future" while attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 3, 2018.[Photo/Xinhua]

Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country has developed into the world’s second largest economy, meanwhile, it has endeavored to provide international assistance for those in need all along, winning wide praise from the international community, especially from other developing countries.

However, some have doubted that since China itself is still a developing country with tens of millions of people within its rural population still striving for poverty alleviation, it is necessarily to explore a question: is it offering others foreign aid beyond its means so as to look generous?

The answer is absolutely “no”.

China has made active efforts to promote its social and economic development, committing itself to poverty alleviation. During the past seven decades, the country has managed to increase its per capita GDP from 119 yuan (about $16.93) in 1952 to 64,600 yuan in 2018, rising by 70 times in real terms.

In fact, China has been the biggest engine for global economic growth for 13 years in a row, and has made miraculous achievements in the regard of poverty relief during the recent 40 years. Official statistics have shown that from 1978 to 2018, China’s rural population living in absolute poverty were reduced from 770 million to 16.6 million.

Lifting more than 700 million people out of poverty, China’s poverty alleviation achievements represent more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction experiences over the past 40 years, making the country the first developing country to realize one of the UN Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction.

China has always provided assistance to foreign countries within its capacity. According to relevant regulations of the UN, providing assistance to foreign countries is the duty and obligation of developed countries.

China’s assistance programs aimed at foreign countries differ from those stipulated by UN regulations, as China’s foreign aid represents mutual help among developing countries and is still categorized as South-South cooperation.

As the world’s largest developing country, China deserves applause for its international assistance for other developing countries.

China has been providing foreign aid for other countries within its capacity under the framework of South-South cooperation. The country has offered assistance to a cumulative total of nearly 170 countries and international organizations, and dispatched more than 600,000 personnel to various areas in need, making significant contributions to global poverty reduction and common development of countries around the world.

China has been adhering to the principle of mutual benefit and common development in its foreign aid efforts. Pursuing common interests and putting friendship first. Such distinctive value criteria and spirit are highlighted within traditional Chinese cultural values.

In the early period after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, when the country was undergoing economic hardships, China still tried its best to offer help to Third World countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policies in China, the country has properly adjusted the scale, layout, structure, and area of its foreign aid, enhancing related activities with more flexible means as well as forms. This has lead to more significant impacts and furthermore a development path of international assistance that is more suitable for China’s actual conditions not to mention also the real needs of recipient countries.

China provides support for the development of such areas as infrastructure and production projects in foreign countries, which has also generated opportunities for overseas development of Chinese companies.

As former Chinese ambassador to South Africa Liu Guijin said in an interview with People’s Daily, foreign aid can actually bring about mutually beneficial results.

In the past, China provided much assistance to Africa and the efforts benefited China itself at the same time, said Liu, explaining that offering international assistance helps to blaze the trail and set up cooperation models and labor contracts mutually beneficial to China.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second China International Import Expo, “Of the problems confronting the world economy, none can be resolved by a single country alone. We must all put the common good of humanity first rather than place one’s own interest above the common interest of all. ”

“Putting the common good of humanity first” is Xi’s call for all the members of the international community and also China’s promise to the world as a reliable and courageous large-size country in the world.

Supporting each other and helping people of all countries live a better life is both China’s as well as the Chinese people’s aspiration and vision for the future. It is also the goal backing unremitting efforts pertaining to foreign aid with Chinese characteristics.

In the new era, China is striving to establish a foreign aid governance system. Furthermore, it is striving to implement targeted foreign aid and enhance the effect of international assistance. This is all being done with the intention of contributing to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind while simultaneously boosting global governance capacity.