ISLAMABAD: The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is all set to commence on Wednesday in Beijing.
The congress is expected to set a blueprint to help meet the two centenary goals advocated by CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping after his election in the last National Congress held in 2012. These goals refer to the 100-year anniversary of the CPC in 2021 and the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2049. Both the centenary goals are called “the Chinese Dream”.
The weeklong congress summit will draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times. Another important decision likely to be taken is the adoption of “four comprehensives” envisioned by Xi. These refer to a four-pronged strategy floated by Xi that aims to comprehensively accomplish a moderately prosperous society, deepen reform, advance rule of law, and strengthen strict party governance. The four comprehensives are Xi’s vision for “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC held in 2012, China has developed by leaps and bounds. China’s GDP has expanded by an average annual rate of 7.2 per cent during 2013-2016, compared with 2.6 per cent average global growth and the 4 per cent growth in developing economies.
Calculated at 2015 prices, average annual GDP growth was valued at 4.44 trillion yuan ($670 billion) in 2013-2016. The GDP growth has been recorded at 6.9 per cent this year, within the 6.7-6.9 per cent range for eight quarters in a row. China’s 2016 GDP of $11.2 trillion accounted for 14.8 per cent of the world economy, up 3.4 per centage points from 2012.
China’s average contribution to world growth in 2013-2016 was about 30 per cent, the largest among all countries and higher than the total contribution from the United States, the Eurozone and Japan.
In employment generation, China created more than 13 million new urban jobs annually for four consecutive years in 2013-2016. New jobs created in the first eight months of this year stood at 9.74 million.
The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 large cities was about 5 per cent. In September, the figure was 4.83 per cent, the lowest since 2012. The number of rural residents working in cities rose at an annual rate of 1.8 per cent in 2013-2016.
Research and development (R&D) expenditures rose 52.2 per cent from 2012 to 1.57 trillion yuan till the year 2016 and the share of R&D spending in GDP rose from 1.91 per cent to 2.11 per cent in the same period. Due to reforms to simplify business registration and streamline approvals, the number of new companies registered in 2014-2016 totalled 13.62 million, an annual increase of 30 per cent. In the first eight months, 3.99 million companies were registered.
The number of patent applications China received in 2016 rose 69 per cent from 2012, while the number of patents granted rose 39.7 per cent from 2012. The share of service output in GDP rose from 45.3 per cent in 2012, to 51.6 per cent in 2016. In H1 2017, service output accounted for 54.1 per cent of GDP.
Foreign direct investment rose by an annual rate of 3.1 per cent to $489.4 billion in 2013-2016. Non-financial outbound direct investment rose by an average rate of 21.6 per cent to $491.5 billion in 2013-2016.
The per-capita disposable income of all residents rose from 7,311 yuan in 2012 to 23,821 yuan in 2016, an annual increase of 7.4 per cent. The figure for H1 2017 rose 7.3 per cent year-on-year.
The number of rural people living in poverty dropped to 43.35 million last year, from 98.99 million in 2012. The disposable income per capita of rural residents in poor areas rose 10.7 per cent on average in 2013-2016, faster than the 8 per cent for all rural residents. The average life expectancy rose from 74.83 years in 2010 to 76.34 years in 2015.
In terms of diplomatic offensive, Xi spent 193 days in past five years on foreign visits made to 56 countries across five continents. He made great efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. President Xi negotiated with foreign leaders 96 times, and gained great achievements to provide Chinese citizens more convenience to visit other countries. By July 2017, Chinese citizens could visit 64 countries and regions around the globe without a visa.
President Xi proved to be a leader with cultural confidence and a sense of duty over publicity and inheritance of Chinese culture. Currently, multi-polarisation and globalisation are reshaping the international order. China is standing on a historic stage to realise its rejuvenation, so the opportunities and the challenges are unprecedented.
China has started to use its national power to protect its interests and people overseas; to gain leadership of international governance, and to reform the current international political system.
Xi’s anti-corruption battle is going deeper, ensuring strict governance of the CPC systematically, creatively and effectively. The guidelines established at the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee are being implemented in a comprehensive manner, and new practice is being guided with renewed understanding.
Xi wants the values of communism to be upheld, and ideals and belief be firmed with cultural confidence. He has been stressing the need to maintain the seriousness of political life in the party and strengthen intra-party supervision.