In Celebration of the 72nd Anniversary of PRC’s Founding

Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The year 2021 is a land-mark year in the history of the Chinese nation: At the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese people, under the strong leadership of the CPC, has reached their first goal in the course of the national rejuvenation, i.e. to build up a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

During the past year, China has continued to achieve all-round development in politics, economy, society, culture, science and technology, and brought more positive energy to the world facing a pandemic hardly seen in a century.

This year, China celebrated the 100th anniversary of CPC’s founding. Over the past 100 years, the CPC has grown from a weak organization with merely 50-odd members to the world’s largest ruling party with more than 95 million members. Over the past 100 years, the CPC has remained true to its original aspiration and mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. It has united and led the Chinese people to make heroic efforts, create miracles one after another which will shine through-out history, and achieve the great leap from “standing up” to “growing rich”, and then to “becoming strong”.

The inter-national community has paid great attention to CPC’s centenary. On July 1, the day marking the centenary, over 150 heads of states or governments and more than 200 principal leaders of foreign political parties sent their congratulatory messages to the CPC and Chinese leadership, sharing the joy with the Chinese people. On July 6, the CPC and World Political Parties Summit was held via video link.

Over 500 leaders of political parties and political organizations coming from 160-odd countries attended the Summit, including Secretary General of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Comrade Daniel Chongolo, who led some 180 high- and middle-level party cadres to participate. The grandeur of the Summit reflects CPC’s international image, influence and appeal as a great century-old political party.

This year, China fulfilled the long-cherished wish of eradication of absolute poverty. At the gathering marking the centenary of the CPC, Pres-ident Xi Jinping declared to the world that China had realized its first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which means that the country has brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty.

Since 1979, when China adopted the reform and opening-up policy, 770 million rural residents in the country have got out of poverty, which account for over 70% of the world’s total population uplifted from poverty over the same period. China achieved the goal of poverty eradication in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule, thus writing a miraculous chapter in the history of mankind’s poverty reduction.

This year, China achieved “double success” in epidemic control and socioeconomic development once again. The Chinese government adheres to the principle of “putting people and life first”. To date, more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the Chinese Mainland, which makes China way ahead of all other countries in terms of vaccination. China has stayed com-mitted to regular and targeted epidemic control and prevention of case importation. As a result, the epidemic situation in China is well under control. In July and August this year, China successfully contained the COVID-19 resurgence caused by the Delta variant within 5 weeks, and achieved zero-infection target in a very short period of time.

China has become the only country in the world that has exerted effective control on the spread of the Delta variant. Facing the complex and severe impact of the pandemic on the world economy, China has maintained steady economic recovery with good momentum for growth, which provides new impetus to the world.

In the first half of 2021, China’s GDP reaches 53.22 trillion yuan (equivalent to US$8.23 trillion approximately), with a year-on-year growth of 12.7%. According to the latest estimate by the World Bank, China’s economy will expand by 8.5% this year, the highest rate among all major world economies, and China will contribute to over 25% of the world economic growth.

This year, China continued to practice and defend multilateralism, and contribute to global cooperation in the fight against COVID-19. Pres-ident Xi Jinping has engaged in intensive “heads of state diplomacy”, which pointed the way forward for China’s diplomacy. He attended over 10 important multilateral events, including the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the 13th BRICS Summit, the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the World Economic Forum Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda.

He also participated in nearly 100 “cloud diplomacy” activities via telephone calls, letters, video meetings, etc., putting forward such “China’s proposals” as upholding the common values of humanity, working together to build a global health community for all, and the Global Development Initiative. President Xi’s recent speech at the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly infused confidence into the fight against COVID-19 through solidarity, guided the direction of glob-al common development and drew up a blueprint for coping with the world changes.

The Chinese government has matched its words with deeds. It has taken the lead in providing vaccines to countries with urgent need despite its huge domestic demand for vaccination. Up to now, China has supplied 1.2 billion doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organizations, which makes China the largest provider of COVID-19 vaccines in the world. China has also offered assistance of anti-epidemic supplies to over 150 countries and 14 international organizations.

At the General Debate of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping announced that China would strive to provide a total of 2 billion doses of vaccines to the world and donate 100 mil-lion doses of vaccines to other developing countries by the end of this year, in addition to donating 100 million US dollars to COVAX. Moreover, China has supported and engaged in global science-based origins tracing, and stood firmly opposed to political maneuvering in whatever form.

This year, China and Tanzania continue to follow the principles of solidarity, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. The two countries have worked together to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and development challenges, further enhance mutual political trust and push for new developments in bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

China and Tanzania have maintained close high-level exchanges. In June this year, President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with President Samia Suluhu Hassan, which was the first phone call between President Samia and a head of state outside Africa since her taking office. The two heads of state reached broad consensus on China-Tanzania all-round cooperation during their conversation. In the same month, Samia Suluhu Hassan, in her capacity as the Chairperson of CCM and President of the United Republic of Tanzania, sent a congratulatory letter to General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping on CPC’s centenary.

In January this year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid an official visit to Tanzania, which further consolidated China-Tanzania traditional friendship. While the world economy is suffering from severe adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, China-Tanzania economic and trade cooperation has shown strong resilience.

In the first half of this year, the trade volume between our two countries is US$2.722 billion, registering a year-on-year growth of 55.9%. Over the same period, China’s exports to Tanzania is US$2.465 billion, which has increased 51.7% year-on-year, and China’s imports from Tanzania reached US$257 million, 110.5% higher than that of last year. In May this year, the first batch of Tanzanian soybeans successfully entered the Chinese market. The largest investment project of Chinese companies in Tanzania, a production plant of Maweni Limestone Limited, will start operation by the end of this year. The construction of the 5th lot of Standard Gauge Railway undertaken by a joint venture of Chinese enterprises has already commenced.

The construction of Terminal III of Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar and the expansion and renovation of Mtwara Port have been accomplished, and the build-ing of J.P. Magufuli Bridge and Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station, which Chinese companies undertake or participate in the construction, are progressing well.

China and Tanzania have demonstrated through real actions that they are true friends sharing weal and woe. To support Tanzania’s efforts to fight the pandemic, China has already provided and will soon provide over 2.6 million doses of vaccines to Tanzania. Facing the continuous rise of power politics and unilateralism in the international arena, the two countries continue to support each other on issues of core interests and major concerns, communicate and cooperate on global challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, and make concerted efforts to safeguard multilateralism, international justice and the common interests of developing countries.

China and Tanzania enjoy profound traditional friendship and deep political trust. Their economies are mutually complementary.

For those reasons, cooperation between the two countries has great potential and broad prospect. With our joint efforts, China-Tanzania comprehensive cooperative partnership will be deepened continuously and yield more tangible results, shining with unprecedented vigor and vitality.