Will China’s 18th Party Congress be a turning point?

Dinesh Kirthinanda, Vice President of Sri Lanka _ China Friendship Association

The future world will remember the month of November 2012 as a turning point in the global economy.

In America Barack Obama won a second term of his Presidency; In China a new leader has emerged. Both events which took place in November would be seen as significant milestones in shaping the world economy. Obama pledges to rescue a seriously ailing economy. China with the new leadership of Xi Jinping is set to lead the country’s robust economy towards making China a moderately prosperous country.

Amidst fears of Americas economy being driven towards a 'fiscal cliff', Eurozone in deep economic crisis and even Japan the third largest economy indicating the signs of a big shake, China is running an economic relay, gaining more strength and speed with every lap.

In view of this scenario in which China is on course to become the mightiest and the largest economy in the world, it is imperative to ascertain the underlying factors which have contributed to the success story of China.

The major factors attributed to China’s success can be categorized into two main components. Firstly, the political system and the form of governance. Secondly, the process of development and its scientific basis.

Consultative democracy

China considers its people as the masters of the nation. Therefore, unlike in the representative form of democracy, the people at grass root level through extensive dialogue and interaction decide on the policies to be pursued by the country.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) through its various people’s organizations, mainly workers, peasants, women, youth, students, with the participation of academics, experts and intellectuals decide upon the development programmes.

The following extract from the Report of the Central Committee of the CPC in 2006, amply describes the democratic structure prevailing in China. "The two important forms of China's socialist democracy are the exercising of rights by the people through elections and voting, and the sufficient consultation among various internal parts of the people before making major decisions to reach agreement on common issues to greatest possible extent."

Scientific development

The Report of the seventeenth Central Committee approved at the recently concluded 18th national congress pledges to “promote reform of the political structure and make people's democracy more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice.”

It is achieved by strengthening the party, the Communist party which rules the country. The General Secretary of the party is the supreme leader who eventually takes over as the head of the State.

In sum the people control the party and the party governs the country. China terms this process as Consultative Democracy.

The Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China describes the development structure to be implemented during the ensuing years.

China’s development plans are driven by a strong theoretical background based on the Marxist ideology. Yet it is not controlled by dogmatic preaching. At the same time China has emphatically stated that it would not follow the economic system followed in the West.

Thus China is committed to following a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics.

The country’s development plan takes the present day realities into consideration and it is based on four main pillars; viz: “harmonized development of industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

A striking feature of the development plan is the commitment to preserving the ecological balance and environment.

In this context the Report states “The congress called for making great efforts to promote ecological progress. We should raise our ecological awareness of the need to respect, accommodate to and protect nature, incorporate ecological progress into all aspects and the whole process of advancing economic, political, cultural, and social progress,intensify protection of the ecosystem and the environment, work hard to build a beautiful country, and achieve lasting and sustainable development of the Chinese nation”.

Moderate prosperous economy

The Report envisages the building of a “moderately prosperous society” which ensures that people of all strata enjoy the entitlement of their basic needs and live without want.

According to a report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,(OECD) China would surpass the United States and emerge as the world’s largest economy as early as 2016.

Innovation is expected to become a strong factor in China’s economic reforms and development.

In this regard China aims to re-position itself with a new tagline 'Created in China' instead of now popular “Made in China”.

The People’s Daily explaining this initiative states “China's 12th Five-year Plan (2011-15) made it clear that the cultural and creative sector should be developed into a pillar industry in the next five years, a strategy that elevated the cultural and creative sector to an unprecedented, historical superior status in national economy.”

Far reaching measures are to be taken to achieve a target of recording a per capita income of US $ 10,000 by the year 2020. As the President of the Sri Lanka-China Friendship Association has stated in a message of felicitation to Xi Jinping, the newly appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Sri Lanka as a true friend of China is confident that the CPC will further intensify the modernization drive, will boost domestic demand, improve socialist market economy, enhance social ethics, will institute multi-tiered social security system, will strengthen governance capacity, will uphold the rule of law, uphold strict discipline at all levels and will succeed in building of a moderately prosperous society by 2020!