General Secretary of the Supreme Leader put forward in his important speech on July 26th that "China’s development has reached a new historical starting point and Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new stage of development". We should strive to achieve socialist modernization, that is, the second century goal, after winning the decisive battle to build a well-off society in an all-round way. China has gone from poverty to poverty, from everything to prosperity, to entering and building a well-off society in an all-round way, and to modernization. The changes in China have attracted worldwide attention. Although we still have many problems to solve, every Chinese has a deep sense of gain.
Does China’s experience mean anything to the world? I think it is meaningful, especially for developing countries. As General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out in his important speech on "July 26th", "Socialism with Chinese characteristics has expanded the way for developing countries to modernize, contributed China wisdom and provided China’s plan for solving human problems". China is the largest developing country in the world, and the road of China is different from that of the west. In the past, the west always vilified and even slandered us, saying that we were autocratic and that we had no freedom, human rights and so on. Facts speak plainer than words. Isn’t the significance of China’s experience and China’s road obvious to developing countries?
I remember there was a sensational news on the Internet last year that a Shanghai girl responded to the color revolution. One of her teachers in the United States asked her, why don’t you have a color revolution with so many young people in China? She found two pictures of Pudong in Shanghai for her teacher, what Pudong was like in the past and what Pudong is like now. She said, why should we make any color revolution to change it when we are living so well? This China girl has Chinese’s self-confidence. What self-confidence is there? It is our road confidence, theoretical confidence, institutional confidence and cultural confidence. Others have to consider: in such a poor country, great changes have taken place in such a short time, and the people are so confident. Is this road useful to us? Therefore, the concept of China Road is a great inspiration to developing countries. Specifically, there are at least several aspects:
First, China has both long-term planning and concrete measures to implement the planning in its development. This is a great inspiration to some developing countries, because many developing countries and even western developed countries lack long-term planning. A politician in a western country said that we are all politicians, but politicians in China can make long-term plans, but we can’t. It’s useless for us to make them. Politicians in China can do things for the people, and we consider running for office every day, so we can’t do practical things. Planning and doing things are our advantages, doesn’t this inspire developing countries? Therefore, one of the most important connotations of China Road is that there are both long-term plans and concrete measures to implement these plans.
Second, develop the socialist market economy. Other developing countries have also developed market economy, which is not as successful as ours, and some even developed into polarization in the end. Why? Because China combined the invisible hand with the visible hand. The invisible hand is the market, and the visible hand is the macro-control of the government. If we just engage in a laissez-faire market economy without considering the adjustment of supply and demand in the market, it is likely that resources will be wasted a lot, and in the end, all products will be surplus, which will not be enjoyed by ordinary people and the economy will still be in a state of collapse. What we have is a market economy system under the macro-control of the state, which is called socialist market economy. Many developing countries are considering this experience, that is to say, we can’t simply engage in a laissez-faire market economy, but we must also have macro-control by the government.
Third, not only enliven the rich, but also help the poor out of poverty. At the beginning, our poverty alleviation was to help the poor in rural areas and the low-income people in cities. Later, we engaged in development-oriented poverty alleviation so that the poor could master skills and really get rid of poverty. Since the 18th National Congress, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has put forward a big project: precision poverty alleviation. Millions of team members went to villages and households to register their cards, find out the base number and solve the poverty problem. Recently, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader proposed to help the poor in depth and use some new measures to solve the problem of poverty alleviation for the deeply poor. We have announced that by 2020, when a well-off society is built in an all-round way, the rural poor will be lifted out of poverty according to the current standards, all poverty-stricken counties in the country will be stripped of their hats, and the problem of regional poverty will be solved well. Invigorating and getting rich and helping the poor out of poverty are the fundamental purposes of our party to serve the people. Although there is still a gap between ordinary people, it will not lead to polarization and confrontation. The United Nations has also affirmed China’s great contribution to achieving its Millennium poverty reduction goal, which is also very enlightening to developed countries.
Fourth, reform, development and stability are organically unified. Reform is the driving force and development is the goal. Develop in reform and be stable at the same time. We are soberly aware that there are many contradictions in a developing country. If the society is unstable or even the political situation is unstable, all reform measures will not be implemented and all development goals will be ruined. Many countries develop Western-style democracy and freedom, with unstable society and political situation. All development is empty talk, and all reforms cannot be promoted. The Communist Party of China (CPC) combines reform, development and stability, and organically unifies the strength of reform, the speed of development and the affordability of the people. This experience is unparalleled in the world. Some people make irresponsible remarks about our stability, and have no idea why we can succeed or the characteristics of China society. The organic unity of reform, development, stability is a great highlight of China road.
Fifth, combine electoral democracy with deliberative democracy. Our choice of democratic system is not to engage in the western election system, but to combine the two forms of electoral democracy and deliberative democracy. By exercising the right to vote, ordinary people can choose their favorite leading cadres who can lead the rich, have the spirit of reform and innovation, and are law-abiding, honest and clean. More importantly, we also have a consultation system. No matter who is a cadre, we must go through consultation before making major decisions. Our consultations include political parties, big consultations, government consultations, CPPCC consultations, people’s organizations consultations, grassroots social consultations, and social organizations consultations. The whole democratic system is different from the West. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader said that the democracy that people were awakened when they voted was formalism. Our democracy is that you vote when you vote and continue to participate in democracy after you vote. Our major decisions seek the opinions of the people, which is not available in western developed and developing countries.
Therefore, China Road, China Wisdom and China Plan are of great significance to developing countries. What Chinese did was written in two histories, the first was written in the history of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the second was written in the history of the progress of the people of the world. We must have this spirit, and we can also have this spirit; We have this pursuit, and we can achieve it.
(The author is the former vice president of the Central Party School)
