Economic Development and Long-Term Social Stability: How Has China Achieved It?

Author: H.E. Zhou Limin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Kiribati

China and Kiribati are both developing countries. Our peoples share a common aspiration for a better life, and we have a natural resonance and similar expectations in pursuing national development and prosperity. Since assuming the role of Chinese Ambassador to Kiribati in 2023, I have engaged in extensive and in-depth exchanges of views with friends from all walks of life in Kiribati on how to achieve better development. They often ask: How has China, in just a few decades, achieved a leap from poverty to becoming the world's second-largest economy, achieving what is often referred to as the "two great miracles" of rapid economic development and long-term social stability? I tell them that the key lies in the distinctive governance of China.

——The foundation of the governance of China lies in upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). As the core of leadership that exercises overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all sides, the CPC unites the will and strength of the entire Chinese people, ensuring that national development always moves in the right direction. This is the key to achieving development and stability. "To run the country well, we must first run the Party well; only a Party that is thriving can make our country strong." The CPC has consistently maintained a spirit of self-reform and promoted comprehensive and rigorous Party self-governance. In 2012, the CPC launched its efforts with the eight-point decision on improving work conduct (improve research methods, reduce meetings and celebratory events, reduce issuance of documents and briefings, reasonably arrange outbound visits, streamline security arrangements, reduce media coverage of high-ranking officials, prohibit publication under an individual's name, and practice frugality), resolutely rectifying the Four Malfeasances (pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance) and advancing the fight against corruption in depth. After years of efforts, a crushing victory has been achieved and fully consolidated. This year, the whole Party has launched a study campaign for the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving work conduct, focusing on consistent and sustained efforts in improving Party conduct. It is precisely by adhering to self-reform that the CPC can always maintain its advanced nature and purity, continuously win the sincere support and firm backing of the people, and consolidate its governing foundation.

——The core of the governance of China lies in committing to a people-centered approach. "The country is its people, the people are the country." China's governance practice has always adhered to the people-centered philosophy of development, starting from the issues most concerned by the people, respecting the principal position of the people, relying closely on the people, ensuring and improving living standards through development, and seeing that the gains of development benefit all people. This concept is most vividly reflected in the practice of poverty alleviation. Since the new era, China has broken the cycle of poverty with the strategy of "targeted poverty alleviation", adopted a series of extraordinary measures to advance poverty alleviation, and strived to ensure that the poor have higher incomes, better education, better medical and health services, and better living conditions. More than 3 million Party members and cadres have devoted themselves to the fight against poverty with passion, and over 1,800 have sacrificed their lives for the cause. China has successfully lifted all 832 poor counties out of poverty, enabling nearly 100 million rural poor people to completely shake off absolute poverty, fulfilling the UN poverty reduction target 10 years ahead of schedule, and creating a miracle in the history of human poverty alleviation.

——The advantage of the governance of China lies in adhering to scientific planning as guidance. The scientific formulation and successive implementation of Five-Year plans is an important experience of the governance of China and a significant political advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Five-Year Plans not only address current development challenges but also map out long-term development blueprints, realizing the organic connection between short-term goals and long-term strategies and avoiding policy swings and short-sighted behaviors. Over the 70-plus years since the formulation and implementation of the first Five-Year Plan in 1953 to the completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan in 2025, fourteen Five-Year Plans have witnessed China's historic leap from a backward agricultural country to the world's largest manufacturing country and the second-largest economy. This journey demonstrates China's strategic steadfastness and unwavering resolve to "work from generation to generation on the same blueprint to make it a reality". Recently, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully convened. The session deliberated over and adopted the "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development", which made top-level design and strategic planning for China's economic and social development in the next five years. The upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan will focus on high-quality development, striving to substantially improve scientific and technological self-reliance and strength, make fresh breakthroughs in further deepening reform comprehensively, significantly enhance notable cultural and ethical progress across society, continuously improve people's quality of life, make major new strides in advancing the Beautiful China Initiative, further advance the strengthening of the national security shield, and lay a more solid foundation for raising the per capita GDP to the level of a mid-level developed country and basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035.

——The path from the governance of China to global governance lies in building a community with a shared future for humanity. The governance of China is not a closed model but embodies an open vision of "The World Belongs to All". In the era of globalization, the fates of all countries are closely intertwined. Only by promoting global governance can we achieve common development. Based on this concept, President Xi Jinping has proposed the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, promoting the building of a community with a shared future for humanity and contributing Chinese wisdom to solving global development challenges and improving the global governance system.

Since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Kiribati, our two countries have synergized the Belt and Road Initiative with Kiribati 20-year Version (KV20), and a number of cooperation projects focusing on people's livelihood and development have taken root in Kiribati: the ongoing South Tarawa Transportation Network Upgrade Project will effectively remove the transportation bottleneck between North and South Tarawa, bringing great convenience to the lives and development of people in the capital region; the Tarawa Youth Park, integrating Chinese and Kiribati cultures, has become a landmark for Kiribati people's leisure and relaxation; the sets of solar energy storage and power generation systems donated by China have provided stable electricity supply to thousands of households on various outer islands. These fully demonstrate the profound friendship between China and Kiribati across mountains and seas and the shared vision for a win-win future. Looking ahead, China is willing to work with Kiribati to share development achievements, exchange governance experience, and deliver more benefits to our peoples.