December 10th, an article signed by Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Barbados Mr. Xu Hong, was published in the Barbados Advocate, one of the major newspapers in Barbados. The full text of the article as follows.

The 18th National Congress of Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully held in Beijing from November 8 to14. The week-long meeting elected a new CPC central leadership led by Mr. Xi Jinping, outlined China's development roadmap for the next 5 years, and set forth the goals of doubling its 2010 GDP and per-capita income for both urban and rural residents by 2020. More than 2,300 elected and specially invited delegates attended the meeting. And a total of 2,732 journalists covered the grand event, including over 1,700 from overseas. It all showed that the Congress not only had great significance to CPC and China, but also would exert a far-reaching influence on the whole world.

The Path of Development with Chinese Characteristics

In the past 10 years, China maintained steady and robust economic growth and became the second largest economy in the world. Its GDP reached US$7.5 trillion in 2011 as 1.5 times than 2002, while the average yearly economic growth achieved 10.7%, far above the world's 3.9% in the same period. Its per-capita annual GDP reached US$5,432 with annual growth of 10.1%. China's import volume rose by 470% and export rose by 490%, which makes its import and export volume ranks second in the world. Its total economic output rose to 10% of the world's total in 2011 from 4.4% in 2002, with an annual average contribution rate of China's economy to world economic growth reaching 20%.

More than 1.3 billion Chinese are now basically covered by medical insurance. Free compulsory education is now available in all urban and rural areas. The basic old-age insurance system covering both the urban and rural population has been fully established. Subsistence allowances for both urban and rural residents and the rural poverty line have been raised by a big margin.

New strides have been made in developing democracy and the legal system. The socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics has been established, and notable achievements have been made in building a socialist country based on the rule of law. Further progress has been made in reforming the political structure. Massive improvement has been continued in protecting human rights.

The Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 were successfully hosted. Fighting against the Wenchuan Earthquake and rebuilding after all the natural disasters have got great triumphs. Manned space program, lunar exploration program, super computer and high speed railway project have made major breakthroughs. All these achievements demonstrated the capability in all respects of China and significantly improved the national image of China.

We are tremendously proud of the hard-won success the Chinese people achieved in the context of the global financial crisis. And we owe the historic achievements to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics that we have unswervingly followed. By the extremely hard and bitter exploration in long-term, Chinese people created, established and developed this path which has been proved to be fit China's basic condition best. Although this path is not perfect and need to be improved constantly, we are confident that only the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics can keep China develop continuously. And follow this path, Chinese people surely will create a brighter future.

The world is rich and colorful. Different countries choose different paths of development because of different traditions, cultures and histories. Therefore, every country in the world should respect each other, tolerate each other and learn from each other, rather than imposing its development pattern on any other countries because of the differences of the ideology. China would be pleased to share its successful experiences of economy growth, social progress and cultural development with the friends all over the world.

Bright Future of China

The Congress drew up a grand blueprint for the development of China in the new era. The Party determined to lead Chinese people to make great effort to double China's 2010 GDP and per-capita income for both urban and rural residents by 2020 and turn China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious when the People's Republic of China marks its centennial.

However, China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will long remain so. China is still the largest developing country in the world. And China has to face to new problems arising with its high-speed economic development. The development gap between urban and rural is still large, and so are income disparities. Social problems have increased markedly. Resource and environmental constraints have become more serious. The fight against corruption remains a serious challenge.

Even so, the Party and the government of China will always try the best to solve these problems, rather than avoid them. In this case, the Congress made a commitment to paying more attention to shift the economic growth model, to take "putting the people first" as the core requirement, and to promote the ecological progress. That means, China will make more efforts to keep the economic development balanced and sustainable in future. China will make more efforts to promote reform of the political structure and protect human rights. China will make more efforts to improve people's well-being and share the fruits of development with all the people of China in future. China will make more efforts to intensify protection of the ecosystem and the environment to build a beautiful country.

All of these are the core contents of the Scientific Outlook on Development, which is the new part of the theoretical guidance of CPC. And it requires us free up our minds, seek truth from the facts, keeping up with the times and being realistic and pragmatic.

Contribute to Promoting the Noble Cause of Peace and Development for Mankind

The comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development of China will not only help China itself reach the goals, but also benefit the other countries of the world.

For example, from 2011 to 2015, the accumulated import volume is expected to over US$8 trillion which will make China the largest importer of the world. Therefore, China's development will bring more business opportunities to other countries, create more jobs for the people of other countries and boost the recovery of global economy.

China has reduced and canceled RMB30 billion of gross debts incurred by 50 heavily indebted poor countries and least-developed countries and has pledged zero tariff treatment to over 95% of the exports to China by all the least-developed countries which have diplomatic relations with China.

But unfortunately, not all of the people in the world see China's development in an objective view. China Threat Theory is still a trick that used by some politician to deceive the common people.

As known to all, China suffered great losses from aggressions and wars for more than 100 years in 19-20th century. That makes China one of the nations that hates war most, and one of the nations that cherishes peace most.

Also that's why we stress time and time again that China will unwaveringly follow the path of peaceful development, and China will be firm in the resolve to uphold the sovereignty, security and development interests.

Peace, development and cooperation are the trends of 21st century. China will unwaveringly follow a win-win strategy of opening up and will be committed to growing friendship and cooperation in all fields with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. We will continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries, and ensure that China's development will bring more benefits to them. China will remain a reliable friend and sincere partner of other developing countries, and jointly work to make the international order and system more just and equitable.

We are aware that China cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world, nor can the world enjoy prosperity and stability without China. Now China is ready to set foot on its new journey. Are our friends ready to work with us to unremittingly promote the noble cause of peace and development for mankind?