Addis Ababa, November 8, 2022 (Walta) –The Communist Party of China has conducted its 20th National Congress from October 16-22, 2022. In this Congress Xi Jinping has been re-elected as the General Secretary of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. This position makes him in a position to be the president of People’s Republic of China.
This Congress underlined about the Chinese path to modernization that includes five aspects “modernization with a huge population, modernization with common prosperity for all people, modernization with coordinated material and spiritual civilization, modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and modernization with peaceful development”.
China has more than 1.4 billion population. This makes China the first from the world. It means that more than one-fifth of the population of the world are Chinese. Leading this huge population through modernization needs farsighted leadership and strategy. China is blessed to select the best leader from the billion people. These consecutive leaders could make China the second biggest economy in the world.
There are different modernization theories in the world. China is following its own modernization approaches. There is no one-size-fits all modernization approaches to all countries. One modernization theory can fit for one country, and the other can fit for another. Adaptation of one theory or concept with ones own reality is important to make use of ideas useful. That is why China is always to customize them according to their conditions in the name of “Chinese Characteristics”.
The other path of the Chinese modernization is related with common prosperity for all people. This means that prosperity of the country should make the whole people beneficiary. Unlike capitalism that promote share of wealth and prosperity for very few rich people, China has envisaged to make the people beneficiary of prosperity. This requests narrowing the gap between the poor and the rich, urban and rural, cities to cities and the like. The success of China in eradicating poverty will become a launching pad to the wider and better prosperity of the nation. Prosperity necessitates education, innovation, extensive production, expanded international trade, healthy people, networking and partnership, peace and the like. Achieving these means meeting the target of the “China Dream” i.e pursuing strength of the country, rejuvenation of the nation.
Modernization with coordinated material and spiritual civilization is another critical path of China in the coming decades. This shows that there are two civilizations-material civilization and spiritual civilization “while material civilization stood for progress in economic wellbeing, spiritual civilization represented the modernization of the Chinese citizenry itself, focusing on moral, cultural and ideological advancement”.
There is a need to make the two civilizations complement to one another. China has more than five-thousand years history and civilization. At this time many countries in the world were not established. This accumulated ancient civilization is the bed rock of the future Chinas modernization. This civilization should be coordinated with economic wellbeing of China. This will make prosperity a continuity of the past, the present and the future. Spiritual civilization focuses on making the people at the center for any prosperity. The people are engine of prosperity. They should also get their share from its fruits in equity.
Modernization with harmonious coexistence between man and nature is another path of China in the coming decades. Nature is the precondition and foundation for the existence and development of human and society. Damaging nature will lead to the extinction of lives on earth. That is why any development should not compromise the damage on environment. If development is not sustainable development it will pollute environment so that there will not be harmony between human and nature. Resources of one country is limited in time and space. Wise use of such resources will help economic development in modern and sustainable ways.
Peaceful development is the other important concept in modernization of China. Peace and development should be hand and glove to change society in positive ways. Wars will destroy modernization and civilizations. Many ancient civilizations vanished from the face of the earth because of wars and natural disasters. Peaceful development requires solving problems peacefully. It also emphasizes that the development of China is not a threat to other countries.
China’s foreign policy underscore that she is not working to hegemonic power position. To aspire for hegemonic power means to be winner even at the cost of war and human lives. It also needs to expand military bases in many parts of the world. Unilateral actions are the main behavior of hegemonic power. Hegemonic power usually interferes in the internal affairs of other countries.
As permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations, the role of China in maintaining peace in the world is tremendous. Peace is not absence of war. It is also a matter of justice, law and order. Peaceful development of China is a guarantee for its neighboring countries and other countries of the world.
To sum up, President Xi Jinping put forward the strategic directions of Chinese path to modernization. It encompass five major aspects. These aspects are not independent to one another. Achieving modernization means making the “China Dream” a reality.
(By: Melaku Mulualem)