In October this Autumn, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was successfully held in Beijing and achieved complete success. This is a major event in the political life of the Chinese people, attracting the attention of the whole country and the world. I’d like to take this opportunity to brief about relevant information to Dutch Caribbean friends.
The most important achievement of this National Congress is the election of a new central leadership group with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core. The Congress reviewed and summarized great changes in the past decade since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, and comprehensively planned the development for China in the coming future.
Since the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress was successfully held in the year 2012, the Party has rallied and led all Chinese people in solving a great number of problems that had long gone unsolved, securing many accomplishments that hold major future significance, and creating a great miracle with rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Which has produced great changes and achieved impressive advances in the cause of the Party and the country.
In the past decade, China has implemented a people-centered philosophy of development, won the largest battle against poverty in human history with nearly 100 million poor rural residents been lifted out of poverty, and built the world’s largest education system, social security system and healthcare system. Which has ensured a more complete and lasting sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security for Chinese people, making further progress in achieving common prosperity for all.
In the past decade, China has acted on the idea that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. Which has led to historic, transformative and comprehensive changes in ecological and environmental protection and returned China with bluer skies, greener mountains, and cleaner waters.
In the past decade, China has worked hard to promote high-quality development, bringing about a historic rise in China’s economic strength. China has made major achievements in building airports, ports, and water conservancy, energy, information, and other infrastructure. China has witnessed major successes on multiple fronts, including manned spaceflight, lunar and Martian exploration, deep sea and deep earth probes, supercomputers, satellite navigation, quantum information, nuclear power technology, new energy technology, airliner manufacturing, and biomedicine, entering the ranks of innovative countries.
Especially in the past five years, China has continued on promoting a human community with a shared future. With General Secretary Xi Jinping leads and promotes in person, a human community with a shared future has made substantial progress from country to region, from bilateral to multilateral, in various fields and directions. The total amount of China trades over the world has increased from US$4.4 trillion to US$6.9 trillion, making China the largest trading country in the world and the main trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions. More than 200 cooperation documents on the Belt and Road Initiative with 149 countries and 32 international organizations have been signed, more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations have been provided. All which has brought in new motive power for upholding world peace and promoting common development.
By this year the Communist Party of China is already 101 years old, while it has always been staying true to its original aspiration, dedicating to pursuing happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, to human progress and world harmony. And with such a much stronger faith, it takes the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects.
From this year forward, the central task of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people will be to realize in a concerted effort the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.
Chinese modernization contains elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, and characterized by features that are unique to the Chinese context. Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the Communist Party of China for a huge population of more than 1.4 billion people. It will continue to strive to meet the people’s aspirations for a better life, endeavor to maintain and promote social fairness and justice, firmly prevent polarization, achieve common prosperity for all. It will continue to harmonize material civilization and cultural-ethical civilization, continuously improve the material conditions for people’s well-being, energetically inherit and carry forward fine traditional Chinese culture and advanced socialist culture. It will continue to commit with harmony between humanity and nature, always act on the idea that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, ensure stronger ecological and environmental protection, advance the Beautiful China Initiative. It will continue on peaceful development, always be dedicated to peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, firmly uphold world peace and promote common development.
At this moment when the COVID-19 pandemic is repeatedly hovering, the vulnerability of the world economy is more prominent, multiple crises in such fields as food and energy superimpose themselves, and human development faces heavy risks and challenges. But China as the most dynamic economy in the world, its economic fundamentals that sustain long-term growth will remain unchanged, and its door of opening up will be wider and wider to the whole world.
The Dutch Caribbean is rich in diverse cultures, beautiful scenery and tourism resources. Recently I successively paid visits to Aruba, Sint Maarten, Bonaire and Sint Eustatius, learned that local governments and people put public well-being as a matter of priority, pay much attention to environmental protection, green development and world peace, which are in harmony with China’s new development philosophy of Chinese modernization. Thus I believe that Chinese modernization full of resilience and potential in the new era will surely bring important opportunities to all countries and regions, including Dutch Caribbean, exhibiting broad prospects for cooperation.
Li Yigang Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Willemstad
