China’s Achievements and Experience of the Past Seventy Years

The People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949. During the past 70 years, China has gone through an extraordinary journey by developing itself from an impoverished and weak country into a nation of prosperity and strength.  

China is now the world’s second largest economy, largest manufacturer, largest trader in goods and the biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves. Over the past 70 years, China’s economy has maintained rapid and steady growth. Particularly since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the average annual GDP growth rate of China is close to 9.5%. Mean-while, China’s per capita GDP has increased from less than US$ 240 to about US$ 10,000, and in 2018, China’s GDP reached US$ 13 trillion.

Over the past 70 years, China has made numerous breakthroughs in science and technology. Manned space flight, lunar exploration, quantum science, deep-sea exploration, supercomputing and satellite navigation have been launched one after another, and a large number of world-class achievements have been made in science and technology.

Over the past 70 years, the livelihood and welfare of the Chinese people have been improving continuously. The national annual per capita disposable income surged from less than US$ 25 in 1978 to over US$ 4,000 today, increasing by 160 times. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has lifted 740 million people out of poverty, and the life expectancy of the Chinese people has gone up to 77 years old.

China substantially advocates building a community with a shared future for the mankind. The core concept of this community is that, in the face of numerous global issues and challenges, we advocate peace instead of wars, development instead of poverty, cooperation instead of confrontation, and win-win outcomes instead of zero-sum game.

Seventy years of China’s experiences demonstrate that only when you never forget why you started will you be able to accomplish your mission. To seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation is our deter-mined and unswerving founding aspiration and mission.

Next year China is going to realize the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and the remaining 16 mil-lion poor people in China will be lifted out of poverty. Seventy years of China’s experiences demonstrate that direction determines the future while the path determines the fate.

We have successfully blazed a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese people has grown from standing up for itself, to enriching itself and getting stronger.

The world is colorful, there is no fixed mode for development. The path that a country follows must be the one that is in line with its national conditions, promotes development and continuously benefits its people.

Seventy years of China’s experiences demonstrate that openness brings progress while isolation leads to backwardness. The policy of reform and opening up is a vital key for China to make significant strides in economic and social development.

In the future, China will open wider and conduct closer interaction with the rest of the world, bringing more progress and prosperity to itself and the world as a whole. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to our Tanzanian and international friends who have supported China’s reforms and opening up, as well as our national reunification.

At the same time, I wish Tanzania achieve greater progress in its endeavor to industrialize the country under the leadership of President John Pombe Magufuli. Tanzania has a lot of potential in development, and this great country is full of hope.

Wang Ke is ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United Republic of Tanzania.