中文
By Rabi Sankar Bosu
July 1 will mark the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and a historically significant commemoration for China and the world. The past 105 years of CPC leadership have been a source of pride for the Chinese people and for oppressed peoples worldwide. As the Chinese people celebrate this anniversary, they reflect with pride and appreciation on the progress made under CPC leadership.
This occasion allows the Chinese people to show the world how China, under the guidance of the CPC, has achieved great feats across every facet of human endeavor over the past century. These include balanced economic development, improved living standards, poverty eradication, employment generation and ecological conservation — all reflecting the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
My first-hand lessons
First-hand experience is the best way to understand the CPC's role in steering China toward a stronger future over the past century. My four-decade-long close association with Chinese media outlets has helped me grasp the CPC's extraordinary success and China's enormous development across all spheres. Earlier this year, I visited China again. During the trip, I toured the Museum of the CPC in Beijing and the CPC Party School in Shenzhen, and held conversations with high-level officials from the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. These experiences gave me deeper insight into the CPC's history.
How has the CPC been able to turn China from a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society to a prosperous, strong and vibrant socialist country? The answer lies in the Party's long-term vision and its unwavering commitment to "fully building a modern socialist China and achieving the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation" — placing the fundamental interests of the Chinese people at the center of everything it does. This is the foundation of what is known as "socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Over a century ago, amid deep social crisis and both internal and external threats, the CPC was founded in 1921 through the integration of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese workers' movement. This profoundly changed the future of the Chinese nation and the destiny of its people.
The People's Republic of China was founded on Oct. 1, 1949, after prolonged popular revolutionary movements against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism. As the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong declared at the time: "The Chinese people, comprising one quarter of humanity, have now stood up."
From then on, the CPC has guided the Chinese people along a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, pursuing its long-term vision with firm determination. Decades of unwavering commitment have enabled China to take its rightful place among the world's leading nations, with the CPC giving concrete expression to China's socialist ideals through sovereignty, reform and the pursuit of progress across all fields of human endeavor.
In particular, Chinese leaders across generations have made unremitting efforts to "serve the people wholeheartedly." The essence of the CPC’s governance is to establish the Party for the public and to govern for the people. Improving people's livelihoods has remained central to the CPC's governance philosophy.
As Mao Zedong once put it, the Party's relationship with the people is like that of seeds and soil, or fish and water. President Xi Jinping struck the same note at the 18th Party Congress in 2012: "To meet the people's desire for a better life is our mission." This people-first philosophy underpins all of China's achievements under the CPC leadership.
A century of governance
Today, the CPC's status is vastly different from 1921. CPC membership now stands at over 100 million, while primary-level Party organizations number 5.25 million. The past century has witnessed remarkable efforts made by China under the strong leadership of the CPC.
The CPC has continuously adapted Marxism to the Chinese context, the times, and the needs of the people. It has established, in succession, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The Party's guiding thought has thus always advanced in step with the times.
Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the Chinese people are united and working tirelessly to achieve the Two Centenary Goals and realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As President Xi said, "The Chinese people have achieved the great transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong, and China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability."
The CPC's greatest achievement is that it has led the country forward on the path of progress by upholding socialism with Chinese characteristics, bringing happiness and prosperity to the lives of the Chinese people and advancing national rejuvenation.
Over the decades, the CPC has earned the trust and support of the Chinese people. As such, the CPC's advance beyond its first century is no ordinary event, but a historic milestone.
The confidence of the Chinese people in the Party stems from its performance in social governance, economic development, poverty alleviation, protection of national sovereignty and the fight against COVID-19, among other areas. It has steered China's national rejuvenation onto a path of great promise by completing, in just decades, the process of industrialization that Western countries took several centuries to navigate. In pursuit of the national rejuvenation, countless Chinese communists have made selfless sacrifices and even given their lives.
The poverty eradication miracle
A landmark achievement in China was the realization of its first centenary goal: eradicating absolute poverty by the end of 2020.
On Feb. 25, 2021, President Xi announced that China's final 98.99 million rural impoverished residents had been lifted out of poverty. By ending absolute poverty, China created a miracle in the history of human development and poverty reduction. Each province or region in the country has its own success stories.
As coastal provinces in east China, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang were underdeveloped mountainous and rural regions before the reform and opening-up that started in 1978. With decades of relentless efforts, they have developed world-leading industrial clusters, well-known for their prosperity and their contribution to national development and the global economy. Today, they are especially known for China's "New Three" - new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and solar panels, which not only power China's high-quality economic growth, but also play a pivotal role in driving global inclusive development and low-carbon transition.
Born out of China's fight to end poverty, the world-famous Juncao technology must also be noted here. It uses grass instead of trees to grow edible fungi, lifting millions of Chinese rural households out of poverty while curbing deforestation. This low-cost, easy-to-adopt innovation has now spread to 107 countries, hailed as "the magic poverty-relief grass" in countries from Papua New Guinea to Rwanda. It stands as one of the most effective poverty solutions, delivering both income growth and restored ecosystems for vulnerable groups worldwide.
According to a joint report by the World Bank and China's State Council, the country lifted approximately 800 million people out of extreme poverty between 1981 and 2020. The World Bank confirms that China accounted for 75% of the global reduction in poverty over the past four decades, representing the largest and fastest poverty reduction effort by any single country in history.
The World Bank further noted: "If anybody can show the world how to do that last mile of ending extreme poverty, it probably is China." If any single 21st-century achievement has captured global attention from policymakers and economists, it is China's comprehensive campaign to eliminate poverty. The CPC's commitment to delivering a "better life" for the Chinese people should serve as both a model and a case study for politicians and academics worldwide.
China's achievements in poverty alleviation will serve to encourage all who are committed to supporting the poor and vulnerable, to upholding genuine human rights and dignity, and to advancing the shared future of humanity.
Relatedly, the two miracles that China has achieved, namely the rapid economic development and long-term social stability, are a feat rarely matched elsewhere.
China's progress and its modernization journey offer clear inspiration for countries in the Global South: development is not a Western monopoly. By charting a path suited to its own conditions, China has shown that industrialization is achievable through self-reliance rather than imitation — providing both a practical roadmap and the confidence to pursue it.
A Chinese solution for a more just, equitable and peaceful world
In 1956, Mao Zedong predicted that in the 21st century China would undergo dramatic transformation and make greater contributions to humanity. Six decades later, answering that vision, President Xi told the CPC's 95th anniversary gathering: "The Communist Party of China and the Chinese people are fully confident that we can contribute a Chinese solution to humankind's exploration of better social systems."
Xi has shown that China is ready to play that role. On March 23, 2013, he introduced the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity. It has since become a guiding principle of China's diplomacy, embodied in concrete proposals: the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative. The aim of all these people-centered initiatives is to build a community of common goals for humanity and create a beautiful future while upholding world peace and promoting common development.
Together, these initiatives form a coherent "Chinese Solution" for international cooperation across development, security, civilization and governance. They inject stability and certainty into a turbulent world while advancing a more just, equitable, and peaceful future. Notably, China has put development back at the center of global cooperation, driving sustained momentum through South-South cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative and multilateral development platforms. It has mobilized substantial funding and technical expertise to advance infrastructure, poverty reduction, and capacity-building projects across the developing world.
It also seeks to steer the international system toward greater justice and equity, delivering real benefits for people in all nations: mediating Saudi-Iran reconciliation, advocating a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, putting forward a four-point proposal to promote peace and stability in the Middle East, defending true multilateralism, and actively advancing reform of the global governance system.
All this represents a stark contrast to Western propaganda that tries to hinder the progress of human civilizations.
At its 105th anniversary, the CPC demonstrates that a party rooted in serving its people can also take responsibility for the world. The objective of these initiatives is clear: narrow the development gap, advance shared security, deepen civilizational dialogue, and ensure that technological progress benefits all. That is the leadership this era requires.
Today, China stands tall as a strong and peaceful nation willing to share its experience and achievements with the world. China's governance model and its remarkable achievements have broken the Western monopoly on methods to achieve modernization. The world is already sharing in the fruits of China's development and its global contributions.
Serving the people
China's modern political system is anchored by the National People's Congress, with the CPC guiding the development of democratic and legal institutions. China's political party system draws from a broad cross-section of society, with the people as the ultimate authority under the rule of law. While political parties in many countries have grown distant from ordinary citizens, the CPC has maintained public trust for more than a century by holding to one core purpose: "serving the people wholeheartedly."
Guided by that founding commitment, the CPC has profoundly transformed China and demonstrated the enduring legitimacy of its leadership across generations.
The tenet of "serving the people" has also been extended to China's foreign policy. It vividly demonstrates the CPC's grand vision to seek progress for all of humanity and the greater good for the whole world while working for happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. Guided by this vision, China has proposed the initiative to build a community with a shared future for humanity, advocating for the creation of an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity. This expands the concept of "seeking happiness for the people" to all of humanity.
China's role on the global stage will only grow from here.
Committed to peaceful coexistence, China has never pursued aggression or expansion, forging its own path to modernization through decades of determined effort. It upholds the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, and works with all peace-loving nations. It rejects confrontation, spheres of influence and exclusive cliques. It firmly defends the U.N.-centered international system and an international order based on international law, and opposes unilateralism, hegemony and power politics.
As the CPC commemorates its 105th anniversary, its leadership is expected to guide China toward its goal of building a modern socialist country by 2049 — the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China — and to continue inspiring the world for generations to come.
Rabi Sankar Bosu is founder and president of the New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, a Sino-Indian friendship club based in West Bengal, India. He is an analyst and commentator on global affairs, particularly on China's development, China-India relations and the Belt and Road Initiative.
