100 Years of CPC and a lesson to learn as China marks National Day

Today October 1, 2021, China is marking the National Day. A day where the nation and the people of China are celebrating 72 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the rule of the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by His Excellence, the late Mao Zedong, popularly known as Chairman Mao.

As we join China in celebrating this important day for nation and Chinese people, it is equally important to briefly highlight and share some insights on achievements and how this country has man-aged to emerge from a country which was once plunged into poverty that is believed to be at the scale and level of severity that has rarely been seen in the world to now as the second largest economy in the world.

From the country with poor economy, the Chinese people and the CPC have fought hard with courage to realise their dream of achieving economic prosperity, the wellbeing of people and rejuvenation the nation. This fight for prosperity that Chinese had passed through, has a long history and lessons to learn from this great nation.

According to various literature including the Special Issue on China’s Complete Victory of Poverty Alleviation issued by the Information Office of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese people underwent various struggles as people with vision of liberation tried tirelessly to find their way to revive their nation without success.

That in 1921, the CPC was established at a time where China was in a bitter situation and 13 men who founded the Party worked tirelessly to bring about a modern and prosperous nation to the Chinese people with a belief that China had to change and that the party was instrumental to achieve that change.

As it is said “No Sweet with-out Sweat”, the CPC had to struggled for 28 bitter years until 1949 when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was born and since then, the Par-ty and the country has been implementing various policies to enhance living standards of the Chinese people.

Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, the country carried out a socialist development on all fronts creating an independent and rather complete industrial system and economic system, making efforts to develop the collective economy, improve farmland irrigation and water conservation, and develop rural education and cooperative medical services. A preliminary social security system took shape, with collective at the base.

Various programs were put in place such as The Nation-al Agriculture Development Program (1956-1967) specified that agriculture cooperatives should give proper care to community members who could not work and had no family to support them, by providing them with basic need such as food, clothing, and education.

This is one of the best examples that developing countries can borrow a leaf from China but in their own characteristics as a way of relieving poor society from extreme poverty.

So far Tanzania is providing free education to primary and secondary school pupils and also providing loans to higher learning students. Other pro-grams that Tanzania is implementing to alleviate poverty include TASAF, MKURABITA and also putting emphasis on Cooperative Unions and SAC-COS, are the kind of strategies that China had implemented and enabled people to create wealth and alleviate extreme poverty.

Reform and Opening-Up Policy was yet another great revolution to the Chinese people and the rapid socio-economic development had resulted in a sharp decline of the impoverished population. From Chairman Mao to Comrade Deng Xiaoping, China had continued implementing various policies, strategies and programs that saw the Chinese people and the nation making steps in poverty alleviation.

Between 1986 and 2013, aiming to alleviate regional poverty, China established the State Council Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development in 1986 and introduced the list of 331 national-level poverty-stricken counties and implemented the Poverty Alleviation Policies that provided loan interest subsidies and launching technological and social poverty alleviation.

In 1995 and 1996 China implemented a Compulsory Education Policy where it aided compulsory education in poor regions and also launched pilots of micro-finance. In 2001-2010, China launched the program of boosting village toward poverty alleviation and development, issuing the outline for poverty reduction and development of China’s rural areas. The country also launched various programs such as the subsistence allowance system, regional development, and implementing three special projects for students from poor and rural areas to enter key colleges and universities.

The current President Xi Jinping proposed the strategy of “targeted poverty alleviation” when he visited Shiba-dong Village in Hunan Province in Central China in 2013.All these deliberate efforts have seen China under the CPC and current President Xi who is also the General Secretary of CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, having rapidly won the battle against poverty.

By the end of 2010, China’s economy was about 6 trillion USD, overtaking Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, while there remained nearly 150 million people whose income was less than one dollar a day.

Currently, China’s per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has rose to over 10,000 USD from that of 4,551 USD in 2010 and the country has maintained its position as the world’s second largest economy since 2010.

The hard-fought battle of poverty alleviation has paid off for the Chinese people and the nation. On February 25, 2021, President Xi Jinping declared that the absolute poverty has been eradicated in China, the most populous country and home of over 1.4 billion people. Over the past eight years, China has succeeded in lifting out of poverty the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents.

All 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have been uplifted from below the poverty line, and China achieved the Poverty Eradication Target set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 10 years ahead of time.

If visiting China today, one can easily notice the progress this country has made in development and it’s a clear testimony to other developing countries that even though the strategies used by China to alleviate poverty may not directly be replicable, there are important lessons and potential experiences that can be learned.

The CPC has always put the interests of its people first and taking them as the masters of their country.