Political parties in Mexico, China can prepare youths for future challenges, says Mexican party official

MEXICO CITY, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The political parties of China and Mexico can help better train and prepare their young people to meet challenges posed by global issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, said Sofia Carvajal, secretary of international affairs at Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

"That is the way we have to pass the baton to the next generation, so that these young people arrive more prepared and with a broader, more globalized vision," Carvajal said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"That seems to me to be the most tangible thing we can do, in addition to the forums, the talks and the meetings. But this interchange of young people, of training people, I think is the most solid thing that we can exchange," she added.

The Communist Party of China (CPC), which is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding in July, has set a good example for the country's youths, especially by constantly evolving itself to meet the needs of the times, said Carvajal.

"This feature -- where it does not remain static, where it evolves, where it moves forward, where they prepare every day because they are updated on all issues, and as such can make progress in domestic politics and make progress in foreign policy -- it seems to me that this is the formula for how they have achieved it," Carvajal said.

The PRI also has to update, evolve and change itself "in order to be close to what people need and what people are asking for, and to have the credibility and legitimacy that we need to exist as a party," she added.

Over the years, the PRI has had a "very rich" relationship specifically with the CPC through exchanging experience and information at forums as well as sending high-level officials and young PRI activists to visit China, said Carvajal, whose party was founded in 1929 under the name of National Revolutionary Party.

Carvajal said there are many potential areas for cooperation between the two countries, "such as public health issues ... because I think the pandemic is not going to end soon," as well as the environment and renewable energies.

Another area of cooperation is "governance systems that have to be updated, that have to change, that cannot remain static (because) we have to succeed in encompassing all the people" and making governance more inclusive, she said.

The PRI still has much to learn from the CPC in such areas as organization, order and discipline, which are essential for governance, Carvajal noted.

The sustained success of the CPC over a period as long as 100 years is mainly due to its constant reform, Carvajal said.

"We maintain that vision of cooperation and coordination, of global solidarity, which is so needed now, is the only way in which we can cooperate internationally so all nations move forward and none is left behind," she said.