中文
By Xu Bu
Chinese modernization is socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It contains elements that are common to the modernization processes of all countries, but it is more characterized by features that are unique to the Chinese context.
China is working to achieve modernization for more than 1.4 billion people, a number larger than the combined population of all developed countries in the world today. This is a task of unparalleled difficulty and complexity; it inevitably means that our pathways of development and methods of advancement will be unique. We must bear China's realities in mind as we address issues, make decisions and take action.
Achieving common prosperity is a defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and involves a long historical process. The immutable goal of our modernization drive is to meet the people's aspirations for a better life. China is committed to sustainable development, prioritizing resource conservation and environmental protection, and letting nature restore itself. Chinese modernization is creating a brand-new form of human advancement.
Chinese modernization requires the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders to maintain a global vision, and be dedicated to not only pursuing happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, but also human progress and world harmony. We should expand our global vision and develop keen insight into the trends of human development and progress, respond to the general concerns of people of all countries, and play our part in resolving the common issues facing humankind. With an open mind, we should draw inspiration from all of human civilization's outstanding achievements and work to build an even better world.
China has achieved moderate prosperity, the millennia-old dream of the Chinese nation, through persistent hard work. With this, we have elevated China to a higher historical starting point in development. By galvanizing the entire nation to carry out targeted poverty alleviation, we have won the largest battle against poverty in human history. A total of 832 impoverished counties and nearly 100 million poor rural residents have been lifted out of poverty. Among them, more than 9.6 million poverty-stricken people have been relocated from inhospitable areas. We have, once and for all, resolved the problem of absolute poverty in China, making significant contributions to the cause of global poverty reduction.
China will pursue a more proactive strategy of opening up. We have worked to build a globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas and accelerated the development of pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port. As a collaborative endeavor, the Belt and Road Initiative has been welcomed by the international community both as a public good and a cooperation platform. China has become a significant trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions. It leads the world in the total volume of trade in goods, and it is a major destination for global investment and a leading country in outbound investment. Through these efforts, we have advanced a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth.
Maintaining a global vision will enable China to achieve modernization through peaceful development. China will not tread the old path of war, colonization, and plunder taken by some countries. That brutal and blood-stained path of enrichment at the expense of others caused severe suffering for the people of developing countries. China will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress. Dedicated to peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, China will strive to safeguard world peace and development while pursuing its own development.
Building a human community with a shared future is the way forward for all the world's people. An ancient Chinese philosopher observed that "all living things may grow side by side without harming one another, and different roads may run in parallel without interfering with one another." Only when all countries pursue the cause of the common good, live in harmony, and cooperate for mutual benefit will there be sustained prosperity and guaranteed security. China stands firmly against all forms of hegemony and power politics, the Cold War mentality, interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and double standards.
China has put forward the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and it stands ready to work with the international community to put these two initiatives into action. We should allow cultural exchanges to transcend estrangement, mutual learning to transcend clashes, and coexistence to transcend feelings of superiority. This is an era fraught with challenges. As countries become more closely intertwined, we have no alternative but to work hand in hand with people across the world to create an even brighter future for humanity.
Xu Bu is the secretary-general of the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Center and president of the China Institute of International Studies.
