China praised for giving helping hand to other developing countries, regions
China's success in accomplishing all-around development is the greatest achievement of the Communist Party of China, and the country has made use of its growth experience to help other developing nations and regions to promote a community with a shared future for mankind, said foreign commentators.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, announced on Thursday at a ceremony marking the centenary of the Party's founding that the country has realized its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Charles Foster, chairman of US-China Partnerships, said the anniversary was a momentous milestone in the modern history of China in and of itself, given the fact that China, under the CPC's leadership, has undergone an extraordinary transformation during the past century.
"Clearly the greatest achievement of the CPC is bringing millions out of abject poverty so that today they have much greater material comforts than any time in the history of China, which would have been unthinkable 100 years ago or even 30 years ago," Foster said.
"With the emergence of China and its strong and growing economy, the country can bring a stable and prosperous life to all Chinese citizens, regardless of ethnicity," he added.
Lewis Ndichu, director of the Centre for Strategy and Political Management at the Kenya-based Africa Policy Institute, said unity is key to the success of the CPC and the achievements China made over the past decades.
The CPC has united China's 56 ethnic groups and guaranteed governance security and stability, which has enabled the country to smoothly map out and implement policies, he said. Africa can also learn from the experience of the CPC, he added.
"As an enduring lesson from the experience of the CPC, unity will help Africa push for regionalism within her respectful regional economic communities" to transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future, he said.
Karori Singh, emeritus fellow and former director of the South Asia Studies Centre at the University of Rajasthan in India, said China's success has been built on its ability to mobilize social forces and resources to achieve national goals. "It is clear from Xi's speech that China will never allow any sectional or spatial divide to flourish.
"China has a clear perspective of revitalizing different sectors of the economy and harmonizing diverse perspectives to realize the second centenary goal of (building a) modern, advanced and prosperous society before the given time line."
China's Two Centenary Goals are to become a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021, which it has achieved, and to further grow into a strong modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by the time the People's Republic of China celebrates its centenary in 2049.
Erik Solheim, a Norwegian politician and former executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said: "China has moved from abject poverty to affluence and high living standards. Looking forward, the next big thing is to establish an ecological civilization and a beautiful China."
He called on the West to value China's development experience. "At the time of the anniversary of the CPC, we in the West should do more to understand China and dispel some widely held myths."
Andrei Karneyev, head of the School of Asian Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia, said that "under the leadership of the CPC, China has become the world's second-largest economy and the world's first in terms of purchasing power parity.".
He said China has built a strong economic foundation that allows it to move forward with confidence.
'Concrete assistance'
Andy Brooks, general secretary of the New Communist Party of Britain, said while China has achieved fast development, it has been ready to give a helping hand to other developing countries and regions.
"The development of new electronics and computer industries as well as the modernization of the broader manufacturing base have enabled China to provide concrete assistance to the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America," he said.
Peter Kagwanja, chief executive of the Africa Policy Institute, said Kenya "can use the CPC's experience to improve its governance and in turn promote development". One of the most enduring lessons from the experience of the CPC over the past century is that long-term stability of political parties is necessary for a country's development, he added.
Aleksei Sokol, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, attributed the CPC's long-time popularity among the people to its ability to adapt Marxist theory to the Chinese context.
Sokol, who has visited China many times, said he was deeply impressed by China's rapid development and by Xi's remarks on jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind.
"This is an excellent, wonderful and strong idea," he said. "China has proposed to the international community an initiative that countries should unite to develop in a peaceful way, and the world should respond to the initiative."
Chen Weihua in Brussels, May Zhou in Houston, Ren Qi in Moscow,Wang Xiaodong in Beijing, Otiato Opali in Nairobi and Xu Weiwei and Yang Han in Hong Kong contributed to this story.
