Socialism with Chinese characteristics suits China’s national conditions the best: former Hungarian PM Peter Medgyessy

The leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the social system of socialism with Chinese characteristics suit China the best and are bound to help China continue with development and achieve greater progress in the future, former Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said in an interview with People’s Daily recently.

Every country is looking for a social system that best fits its history, culture and fundamental realities, Medgyessy said.

There are two main reasons why the CPC can always maintain its vitality and constantly make new achievements, Medgyessy said, explaining that the first reason is that the CPC has its highest ideal and ultimate goal that it can strive for in the long run, and the second one is that the Party keeps pace with the times and constantly makes innovations in practice.

China’s achievements in development are attributed to the strong leadership of the CPC, and China’s success represents the success of the CPC, Medgyessy said, noting that it’s not easy for a century-old political party of a major country to still maintain vitality.

China’s development has not only benefited the Chinese people, but also created a huge market and many investment opportunities for the world, according to Medgyessy.

Since 1987, Medgyessy has visited China for multiple times at the invitation of departments and units including the International Department of the Central Committee of CPC, and has paid attention to China’s development and changes for decades.

Many of China’s achievements have impressed him a lot, Medgyessy said, referring to such accomplishments as economic take-off, lifting nearly 100 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, as well as rapid development in high technologies in such fields as 5G communications network, artificial intelligence (AI), and aerospace.

Of all the achievements made by China, the most important one is the rapidly improving quality of people’s lives, Medgyessy pointed out.

Medgyessy has paid special attention to poverty reduction. Last December, he attended the International Forum on Sharing Poverty Reduction Experience host by China.

In his speech at the forum, Medgyessy pointed out that poverty exists in many countries in the world, and it takes political vision, long-term planning, and political, economic and social stability to realize economic development, improve people’s well-being, and eradicate poverty and backwardness.

Real statesmen can set long-term goals and implement plans with great consistency to achieve them, Medgyessy said.

China has been committed to implementing the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development all along and has achieved the poverty reduction target set in the 2030 Agenda ten years ahead of schedule, noted Medgyessy, adding that China has adopted far-sighted policies and measures and taken practical actions for eradicating poverty, which has won high praise from various parties in Hungary.

Since the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese people have united as one to battle against the pandemic and made a major strategic achievement in fighting the virus.

Against such a background, Medgyessy sent a letter to the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs. In the letter, he expressed his respect and admiration for the results Chinese people achieved in courageously fighting the pandemic under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He believed that China is capable of gradually eliminating the impacts of the pandemic on the economy and that China’s achievements in fighting the COVID-19 would provide important experience for global efforts to combat infectious diseases in the coming decades, according to the letter.

The key to China’s success in bringing the pandemic under control is that the CPC and the Chinese government are able to organize efforts properly and that the Chinese people have a strong sense of discipline, Medgyessy pointed out.

Noting that the COVID-19 is still spreading across the globe and posing severe challenges on the world’s poverty reduction cause, Medgyessy said that China’s experience in alleviating poverty serves as reference for various countries around the world, and that the country is believed to share with the rest of the world its experience in development and fruits of development as always and continue to provide support for other developing countries.

During the interview, Medgyessy happily recalled the time when he met with Xi in 2009 during Xi’s visit to Hungary as the vice president of China. “We had a meaningful conversation, and I’m still proud of it now,” Medgyessy said.

Xi has brought to the world a new way of thinking, Medgyessy noted, saying that Xi has clear ideas about China’s development and the relationship between China and the world.

China has been actively taking part in international affairs, committed to safeguarding multilateralism, promoting world peace and development and the progress of human civilization, and pushing forward with the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, exerting a profound influence on the world, Medgyessy said.

The idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by Xi is “very right and important,” Medgyessy said, explaining that the world today is faced with various prominent global challenges that need to be tackled with joint efforts of all countries.

International cooperation and multilateralism is the effective approach to safeguarding peace and promoting development, Medgyessy added.

During his tenure as Hungarian Prime Minister between 2002 and 2004, Medgyessy actively advanced friendly exchanges between Hungary and China. The Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual School in Budapest established at his suggestion is the only 12-year public school in Hungary and even Central and Eastern Europe that uses both the language of the host country and Chinese in teaching. The school has become an important platform through which Hungarian teenagers learn Chinese and acquire knowledge about Chinese culture.

Hungary is willing to build bridge for exchanges and cooperation between China and the European Union, according to Medgyessy, who believes that with the support of China and Hungary, the Hungarian-Chinese Bilingual School in Budapest will cultivate more constructors and successors of the friendly ties between the two countries.