Remarks by Chinese Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Mdm. Sun Baohong at the Policy Dialogue Held by the New Patriotic Party of Ghana

(November 27th, 2017)

Hon. John Boadu, Acting General Secretary of the National Patriotic Party,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! It gives me great pleasure to hold this dialogue with the New Patriotic Party (NPP). First of all, I would like to express my appreciation, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, to the NPP for its long-term efforts to promote China-Ghana relations.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was convened successfully from the 18th to 24th October, 2017. The Congress is a meeting of great importance in following aspects. It summarized the historic achievements and change of the course of the Party and the country since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, and laid out the major assessment that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved to the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. It wrote the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the Party Constitution so as to make it become the long-term guiding thought of the CPC, put forward the basic policy that underpins our endeavors to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and set the goals of securing a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and embarking on a journey to fully build a modern socialist China. The Congress, according to the five-sphere integrated plan of socialism with Chinese characteristics, made overall plans to the economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement, which is of great significance to mobilize the whole party and people of all ethnic groups to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With a history of more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation created a splendid civilization. But since the Opium War of 1840, China had been plunged into the darkness of domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. Its people, ravaged by war, saw their homeland torn apart and lived in poverty and despair. The history raised two major tasks to China as it was moving into the 20th century: one is to achieve the national independence and the liberation of the people; the other is to achieve national prosperity and strength and improve people’s well-being. In short, it is the national rejuvenation. Any party who can lead the Chinese people to achieve the goal could win the support of the people and take the helm of the state for a long-term. This is the simplest political logic in modern China.

In the 1920s when the CPC was founded, China stood at the crossroad of national destiny. Political forces like warlords, the nationalist party KMT, anarchist groups, and bourgeois reformists made repeated attempts to achieve the national rejuvenation, but they all failed. The young CPC, inspired by the scientific truth of Marxism-Leninism, found the solutions to China’s problems, shouldered the historic mission of achieving national rejuvenation without hesitation and made epic accomplishments by uniting and leading the people to carry out revolution, construction and reform.

The Chinese people have stood up. Independence is the precondition for the national prosperity and strength. It can only be realized under the leadership of the political party which can represent the national interests. During the 28 years between 1921 and 1949, the CPC led the Chinese people to make arduous struggle, embarked on the right revolutionary path by using rural areas to encircle the cities and seizing state power with military force, defeated the warlords separatist forces, the Japanese Fascism and the KMT reactionaries, toppled the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism that were oppressing the Chinese people, completed the New Democratic Revolution, established the People’s Republic of China (PRC), marking China’s great transition from a millennial-old feudal autocracy to a people’s democracy. Hence the Chinese nation has stood up.

The Chinese people have grown rich. After the founding of the PRC, the CPC united the people and led them in completing socialist revolution, establishing socialism as China’s basic system, and advancing socialist construction with the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry and capitalist industry and commerce. This completed the broadest and most profound social transformation in the history of the Chinese nation and created the fundamental political conditions and institutional foundation for achieving all development and progress in China today. Thus was made a great transition: The Chinese nation reversed its fate from the continuous decline of modern times to steady progress toward prosperity and strength. Since then, the Chinese nation has controlled the fate of the country in its own hands.

Since the late 1970s, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in launching the great new revolution of reform and opening up, in removing all ideological and institutional barriers to our country and nation’s development, in introducing foreign capital and advanced technology and ideas, in encouraging the enterprises and students to go global, in promoting market economy reform vigorously, and in embarking on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The comprehensive national strength moves to the top of the world. The international status is elevated to an unprecedented level. The livelihood of ordinary people gets more and more affluent.

The Chinese people are becoming strong. Since the 18th National Congress of CPC in 2012, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the CPC has demonstrated tremendous political courage and a powerful sense of mission to have solved many tough problems that were long on the agenda but never resolved, and accomplished many things that were wanted but never got done. With this, we have prompted historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country. The Chinese nation is gradually becoming strong. I would like to briefly cite a few figures for your reference. Since 2012, our economy has maintained a medium-high growth rate, making China a leader among the major economies. With GDP rising from 54 trillion yuan to 80 trillion yuan, China has maintained its position as the world’s second largest economy and contributed more than 30% of global economic growth. Agricultural modernization has steadily advanced, with annual grain production reaching 600 million metric tons. We have launched over 1,500 reform measures, and breakthroughs have been made in key areas. More than 60 million people have been lifted out of poverty, and the poverty headcount ratio has dropped from 10.2 percent to less than 4 percent. The level of urbanization has risen by an annual average of 1.2 percentage points, and more than 80 million people who have moved from rural to urban areas gained permanent urban residency, with an average of over 13 million urban jobs created each year.

From standing up, growing rich to becoming strong, Chinese nation has realized great leaps one after another under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Many people wonder why the CPC can? In recent years, more and more countries, political parties and scholars have begun to explore the secrets. Developing countries, especially African countries, hope to learn from China's successful development experience and achieve economic restructuring and sustainable development. Today, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you.

First of all, the Chinese Communist Party attaches great importance to political building. The root of political party lies in politics. If the party loses its political nature, it is very likely to become a tool of speculation for individual groups and lose the support of people. The Chinese Communist Party is a ruling party with more than 89 million members and over 4.5 million primary-level party organizations, leading over 1.3 billion Chinese people to realize its modernization. To ensure that the entire party obeys the Central Committee and upholds the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, it is of primary importance to answer the question of whom CPC works for. The fundamental difference between the Chinese Communist Party and the Western political parties lies in that the Chinese Communist Party is a party with a mission. He represents the interests of the entire Chinese people instead of the interests of certain class or group. He places the interests of the country and the nation at the highest priority. The basis for the ruling party of the Chinese Communist Party is to see whether it has achieved its mission and fulfilled its responsibility to the Chinese nation. This is entirely different with the Western countries in which vote is the only basis to judge a party’s legitimacy or success. In the meantime, there must also be a firm ideological foundation for maintaining the solidarity and unification of the party. That is the common ideal of communism and lofty ideals of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is precisely by building the party organizationally and ideologically that the Chinese Communist Party can glow with strong leadership and shoulder the historic task of leading the Chinese people in rejuvenating the nation.

Secondly, the Chinese Communist Party attaches great importance to conduct building. Conduct is fundamental and the guarantee. "Things must first rot and then worms come out," and if a ruling party can not solve its conduct problems, it will be left behind by the people and history. Conduct building is always on the way. The CPC attaches great importance to its conduct building and comprehensively strengthens the party's leadership and capacity building. We have given top priority to ensuring compliance with the Party discipline and focusing on anti-corruption. We will continue to see that no place is out of bounds, no ground is left unturned, and no tolerance is shown in the fight against corruption. We emphasize the importance of checking, imposing tight pressure, maintaining long-term deterrence and punishing the briber and the bribee together, preventing any interest groups from arising within the Party. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have strengthened checks on and oversight over the exercise of power, intensified political inspection and established an oversight network that facilitates coordination in disciplinary inspections conducted at different levels, securing a sweeping victory in the fight against corruption. In the next step, the Chinese Communist Party will continue to deepen the reform of the national supervisory system and formulate the National Supervisory Law. Supervisory commissions will be given responsibilities, powers, and means of investigation in accordance with law. This will ensure that supervision covers everyone working in the public sector who exercises public power.

Thirdly, the Chinese Communist Party attaches great importance to governance capacity building. Where does the leadership of a party come from? It comes from its advanced nature, that it must represent the most advanced productive forces and modes of production. The only constant in the world is change. Political parties that can keep up with the changes in the world as well as in the national conditions can lead the people in their liberation and development. The Chinese Communist Party is a political party that is good at self-innovation, self-revision and self-improvement. Since its foundation, the Chinese Communist Party has adhered to the guidance of Marxism while insisted on integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with the reality of contemporary China. Our theory advanced with the times, improved in time and thus enriched the party's guiding ideology. All Party members, regardless of their seniority, must study for life. From time to time, party members receive training at Party schools at all levels, concentrating on various theories such as the idea of governing the country and the world situation, and enhancing their ability to understand the new era and environment. It is precisely due to the courage to pursue the truth and correct mistakes, the ability to sum up experiences and constantly improve oneself that enable the CPC to remain true to its original aspiration and maintain its true nature in the long-term process of national development.

Lastly, the Communist Party of China attaches great importance to the cadres contingent building. Mozi, an ancient Chinese philosopher once said: "It is the essence of governance to pursue for talents". Whether or not a political party enjoys the support of the people depends on whether it can gather the best talents. In the 1930s when the Chinese nation rose to resist Japanese invaders, college students went to Yan'an, the seat of the CPC Central Committee, for good policies of national salvation. At that time, some people made a conclusion that China would be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party in the future. For a long time, Party officials are a central pillar of strength for the cause of our Party and country. Our Party adheres to the principle of the Party supervising officials; select officials on the basis of both integrity and ability, with priority given to integrity, and on the basis of merit regardless of background; and ensure that those who are dedicated, impartial, and upright should be appointed to important position. We will focus on their practical training in local communities, in work on the frontline, and in areas where conditions are harsh. General Secretary Xi Jinping is an outstanding example of growing step by step from the community level.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Peace and development remain the themes of our time. At the same time, the world is undergoing major developments, transformation, and adjustment, and we face growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors. In the process of development, all countries face both opportunities and challenges, and the old and new issues are intertwined with each other. The challenges in various countries have been constantly increasing and the tasks of the ruling parties are more arduous.

The CPC strives for both the wellbeing of the Chinese people and human progress. The CPC is willing to strengthen the dialogue and cooperation with African parties on the basis of independent, completely equal, mutual respect and mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, actively deepen the exchange of experiences in managing state affairs and governance, enhance mutual understanding and recognition of each other's governing system and philosophy, so that we can learn from each other, work together to improve the governing ability and promote the economic and social development.

We hope that the ruling parties of our two countries will continue to strengthen mutual learning and mutual understanding so as to continuously improve our governing ability, and make greater contribution to building a community with a shared future for mankind of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, open and inclusive, clean and beautiful！

Thank you.