By Amin Kef Sesay
The Chinese Ambassador Hu Zhangliang said he is delighted to see certain Sierra Leonean Government officials online and even attending a symposium on celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China co-hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone People’s Party.
The Ambassador pointed out that 100 years ago, the CPC was founded with only 50 plus members but today it has grown into the largest political party in the world with more than 91 million members.
He continued that over the past 100 years, the CPC has developed from an emerging political force dedicated to saving the Chinese nation and people to a political party that has been in power for 72 years with rich governance experience and great accomplishments.
According to him, over the past 100 years, the CPC had rallied and led the Chinese people in toppling the “Three Mountains” of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism that were oppressing them, defeating the ferocious Japanese imperialist aggressors, overthrowing the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang regime, and founding the People’s Republic of China whereby the people become the masters of their own destinies.
He further underscored how over the past 100 years, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in carrying out socialist revolution and socialist construction with notable achievements, launching the great new revolution of reform and opening up and blazing out a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, transforming the poor and weak old China into an increasingly prosperous and powerful new China, and thus opening completely new horizons for the great national rejuvenation.
“The Chinese nation, after enduring so much for so long, has achieved a great leap from standing up and getting rich to becoming powerful,” he stated adding that in the past 100 years, the CPC has been staying true to its original aspiration and mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.
The Ambassador continued that it has been uniting and leading the Chinese people to work hard continuously and forge ahead unremittingly saying it has been constantly carrying out self-revolution, advancing with the times and pioneering innovation.
“It has also been consistently adhering to strict self-governance, upholding the truth and correcting its own mistakes or shortcomings,” he told the audience
Ambassador Hu Zhangliang also intimated that over the 100 years, the CPC had rallied and led the Chinese people in waging a 28-year struggle, completed the new democratic revolution and established the People’s Republic.
In the following 72 years, he said, the CPC has rallied and led the Chinese people in striving for a better life disclosing that he People’s Republic of China inherited an impoverished and tattered society from the defeated old regime.
He narrated that in the early 1950s, China’s GDP ranked around the tenth in the world but by 2010, China has become the world’s second largest economy.
“In 2020, China’s total GDP exceeded 100 trillion RMB (approximately US$14.7 trillion),” he divulged saying it only took a few decades for China to score the development progress that Western countries did in one or two hundred years.
The Chinese Ambassador informed his audience that over the past 40 years, more than 800 million people in China have been lifted out of abject poverty.
“In February 2021, His Excellency General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly announced that China had secured a comprehensive victory in the fight against poverty,” he maintained stating that China achieved the poverty reduction goal of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
“In the past few decades, China’s democracy, technology, innovation, cultural and social undertakings, ecology, and national defense building have all yielded world-recognized accomplishments,” he asserted.
He said last year, in the face of COVID-19, under the strong leadership of H.E. General Secretary Xi Jinping, the CPC and the Chinese Government put people’s lives and health in the first place and launched a resolute nationwide campaign against the pandemic.
“There were countless moving stories and strategic victory was achieved in a short period of time,” he said adding that China’s success contributed greatly to the global fight against the pandemic.
He revealed that at present, China is standing at a historical intersection where the timeline of “Two Centenary” goals converge.
The Ambassador said the first centenary goal has been achieved and the realization of the second centenary goal has already commenced.
“Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, China has embarked on a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country and is poised to basically achieve modernization by 2035,” he informed disclosing that by the middle of the 21st century, China will be built into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.
He continued that China’s development achievements have proven indisputably that the CPC is the backbone of the Chinese people, the vanguard of the Chinese nation, and the core of leadership for all endeavors in China.
The Ambassador Continues: “It is totally correct for history and the people to have bestowed the cause of the Chinese nation’s rejuvenation to the CPC. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which the CPC has led the Chinese people in opening, is totally correct. It is totally correct for the CPC and the Chinese people to have employed the strategy of taking root in China, absorbing the finest achievements of human civilization and independently achieving national development. These must be upheld and can never be waived.
As per some international surveys, the CPC and the Chinese Government enjoy over 90% of approval among the Chinese people, ranking the first in the world for many years.
“The success of the CPC and China has expanded the path for developing countries in their quest for modernization and provides a brand new choice for countries and nations in the world that wish to accelerate their development and at the same time maintain their independence. It is a solemn pledge made by the CPC and the Chinese people long ago to make new and greater contributions to mankind. Having come all the way through hardships, the CPC and the Chinese people fully understand the preciousness of peace and the value of development. China has been taking the promotion of world peace and development as its sacred duty.
“The purpose of China’s foreign policy is to safeguard world peace, promote common development and build a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
“The CPC has been pursuing exchanges and cooperation with political parties and organizations from all countries and regions on the basis of independence, complete equality, mutual respect, and mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, so as to promote the development of state-to-state relations.
“The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) upholds the philosophy of equality, inclusiveness and development results shared by all as embodied in its motto “One People, One Country”. It bears resemblance to the CPC’s goal of remaining committed to serving the people, relying on the people and ensuring that all the fruits of development are shared by the people.
“Over the past several decades, the CPC and the SLPP have conducted fruitful friendly exchanges and cooperation, which effectively contributed to the development of China-Sierra Leone bilateral relations.
“This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the SLPP, as well as the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Sierra Leone.
“Last month, H.E. President Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation with H.E. President Julius Maada Bio. The two leaders reached new and important consensus on developing our bilateral relations. Recently, H.E. President Julius Maada Bio, in his capacity of SLPP leader, sent a warm congratulatory message to H.E. General Secretary President Xi Jinping.
“The Chinese side cherishes its cordial relations with the Sierra Leonean side.
“China stands ready to further strengthen cooperation with Sierra Leone in all fields and steadily push the relations between the two parties and the two countries to new heights”.
