Chronicle Editor
By a correspondent
One of the things that have made China the most admired countries of the world today is its economy.
The key thing is that the economy has been of service to all people in the vast country as it has lifted people out of poverty while creating billionaires, albeit without the inequalities or poverty gaps seen in other countries.
The Chinese economic dividend has also benefited other countries of the world, as riches at home have translated to booming investments and tourism abroad, including in Zimbabwe.
The careful planning through development cycles, long-term thinking and implementation of various strategies make the Communist Party of China one of the most economically literate organisations in the world.
It has also demonstrated that communism and socialism (with Chinese characteristics) can be economically successful and be a world beater, despite failures of socialist experiments elsewhere in the world and Africa in the past decades.
The difference lies in the CPC’s intelligent planning and execution, which have now become a global template.
Roots of economic focus
In very basic terms, economy is about the distribution and allocation of scarce resources.
Communism and socialism as ideologies are founded on principles of production and distributing resources across classes.
As a party, the CPC has committed itself to fulfilling the economic imperative, with the constitution of the party enjoining that the organisation pursues the goals of economic development, “as the central task, making all other work subordinated to and serve this central task”.
“We must lose no time in speeding up economic development, implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and that of sustainable development, give full play to the role of science and technology as the primary productive force,” CPC says in its constitution.
“We must take advantage of the advancement of science and technology to improve the quality of workers and work hard to push forward the economy with good results, high quality and high speed,” it emphasises.
Throughout its history, the party has been consistent in fighting poverty and uplifting its people.
The modern era of the 1970s, marked by the rise of Deng Xiaoping, demonstrates greater enlightment and methods in attaining economic reform and independence.
Turning point
Deng’s policy of reform and opening up was a turning point in the economic agenda.
The policy of reform and opening up led to China adopting capitalism, welcoming multinational companies and investments and establishing special economic zones, beginning with the southern provinces.
This set off rapid industrialisation and development in the cities and countryside, increasing incomes and bettering the livelihoods of the people, which we shall discuss later on in this article.
The policies of reform and opening up as key drivers of the economy, have been crystallized by the party.
“Reform and opening up are the only way to make our country strong,” the CPC says.
“We must carry out fundamental reform of the economic structure that hampers the development of the productive forces, and keep and improve a socialist market economy; we must also carry out corresponding political restructuring and reform in other fields.
“The opening up means all-dimensional opening up, both externally and internally. “We must expand economic and technological exchanges and cooperation with other countries, make more and better use of foreign capital, resources and technologies, and assimilate and exploit the achievements of all other cultures, including all the advanced modes of operation and methods of management of developed countries in the West that embody the laws governing modern socialized production.”
This is decisively savvy.
The CPC has demonstrated that it is pragmatic, adaptable and forward looking, than many people can imagine.
It is not something that you read in the textbooks or the media.
Here is a party that does not shy away from experimenting and blazing new trails.
The reform and opening up has been a massive economic masterclass. It has seen China adopting a hybrid approach towards the economy and ownership of productive forces, even allowing “some areas and some people to become rich first, gradually eliminate poverty and achieve common prosperity, and continuously meet the people’s ever-growing material and cultural needs on the basis of the growth of production and social wealth,” according to the party.
Recently, China has managed to lift its people from poverty and set to attain the building of a well-off society in the level of moderately developed countries.
China’s economic milestones
- In 2020 China’s GDP exceeded 100-trillion-yuan (about 15,42 trillion US dollars) for the first time
- In 2020, China eradicated poverty in its registered impoverished counties, meaning China has in 40-plus years lifted more than 700 million people in China out of poverty, contributing over 70 percent of global poverty reduction
- China accounts for 17 percent of the world’s total GDP with GDP per capita exceeding 10 000 US dollars for two consecutive years as of last year
- 400 million Chinese people are regarded as “middle-income”
- China has posted 17 consecutive years of bumper harvests, notching 670 billion kg of grain in 2020
- The value addition industry is estimated at 30 trillion Yuan (about US$5 trillion)
Online Reporter