70 YEARS. Chinese President Xi Jingping delivers his speech during the grand rally to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Tuesday (Oct. 1, 2019). Xi attributed China’s remarkable achievements for the last 70 years to the Chinese people. (Photo courtesy of Xinhua/Li Xueren)
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday said no force can stop the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from marching forward after an unprecedented rise from a poor country seven decades ago to one of the largest economies in the world.
Xi made this remark during the PRC’s 70th founding anniversary highlighted by an 80-minute military parade that showcased China’s vastly-improved and modern military arsenal at the historic Tiananmen Square here.
“No force can ever shake the status of China, or stop the Chinese people and nation from marching forward,” Xi said in his speech before a 50,000- crowd including foreign diplomats and foreign media.
“Right at this moment, Chinese people of all ethnic groups and all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation at home and abroad take pride in and give our best wishes to our great motherland with great joy,” he added.
Xi, also secretary-general of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, remembered the revolutionary forefathers and martyrs for their feats in pursuing national independence and liberation.
“Seventy years ago on this day, Comrade Mao Zedong solemnly declared here to the world that the PRC was founded and the Chinese people had stood up,” he said.
Xi also stressed the need for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (LPA) and the People’s Armed Police Force to “always” preserve their nature, purpose, and character and resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, and firmly uphold world peace.
The formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade during the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China at Tian’anmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (PNA photo by Jelly Musico)
Aside from 15,000 military personnel, China displayed 580 pieces of armament including anti-terrorist assault vehicles and armored anti-riot vehicles, advanced drones, unmanned underwater vehicles, new-generation main battlefield tanks, and nuclear missiles, including Dongfeng-41 intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles.
An air echelon flew over Tiananmen Square escorting flags of the CPC, the nation, and the PLA flag was carried by a Z-8B transport helicopter and guarded by two Z-10 armed helicopters on both sides.
Eight Z-10 armed helicopters and 12 Z-19 armed helicopters followed in a formation that spelled "70" in the air and then by different military aircraft.
The PLA has increased its active force from only 20,000 soldiers in 1927 to around two million.
The military parade was followed by another mass parade of 100,000 people and 70 giant flowers-decorated floats featuring PRC’s remarkable achievements over the past seven decades which Xi attributed to concerted efforts and arduous struggle of the Chinese people.
He emphasized the importance of staying on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and continue to aspire for a better life and new achievements.
The Chinese leader vowed to continue to work with other countries to achieve peaceful development and push “for jointly building a community with a shared future for humanity”.
He underscored the need to uphold the principle of peaceful reunification and one country, two systems to maintain the last prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao.
A total of 70,000 doves and 70,000 colorful balloons were released to end the three-hour grand National Day parade.
China won't seek hegemony
According to a white paper released by PRC’s State Council Information Office, China will never seek hegemony but firmly committed to peaceful development.
“The Chinese nation does not have the gene to invade others and dominate the world,” the paper released to the media days before the National Day read.
As a country that suffered abuse and humiliation in the past, China aims to win dignity, security and a better life for its people its own development.
“China natural develops and becomes stronger, but does not want to threaten, challenge or replace any other country in the process, nor will it seek hegemony,” it said.
“China will never develop itself at the expense of others, nor will it give up its legitimate rights and interests. No country should expect China to trade its core interest or to accept anything that is damaging to China’s own sovereignty, security and development interests,” it added.
China, on the other hand, will continue to oppose unilateralism, protectionism, hegemonism, and power politics.
“Peace and cooperation benefit all while conflict and confrontation benefit no one. Harmony among all countries brings universal peace while confrontation causes chaos,” it said.
70 years that changed China's destiny
Hua Chunying, director-general of information department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty for the last 70 years.
“In the long history of mankind, 70 years is just a blink of an eye, but it has profoundly changed the destination of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people,” Hua said in his speech in media forum held Sunday (Sept. 29).
“In a few decades, China has accomplished what developed countries have done for hundreds of years,” she added.
China’s achievements, she said, did not fall from the skies but the results of hard work, wisdom, and courage of the Chinese people.
“The code for China’s development lies in our adherence to the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC, to the development path suited to China’s national conditions,” Hua said.
Real harmony based on respect
Hua called on China’s leadership critics to respect the country’s distinct leadership under CPC, which will have its centennial celebration in 2021.
“Some people in some countries seem to have a tendency: as long as it is led by the communist party of China, as long as it is from China or from a socialist country, it must be wrong and must be opposed,” she said.
“What these people may not understand is that real harmony is based on a deep understanding and respect for being different. The world is diverse and colorful,” she added.
She said the system of government will remain the right choice as long as it supported by the people and can bring progress and in line with the interest of the country.
“Similarly, a country that cannot accept and tolerate the achievements and progress of other countries, but always suspects others of stealing the ax, or even doing everything possible to suppress it, will not be popular or welcomed,” Hua said.
She appealed to the media to serve as a bridge of mutual understanding between China and the world and “build more platforms for win-win cooperation”.
Ecological, environment preservation
Xi has made great achievements in ecological conservation and environmental protection, making it an essential part of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy for building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Over 150,000 eco-environmental problems have been addressed after nine environmental laws and over 20 administrative regulations have been either formulated or revised since the 18th Party Congress in 2012.
The war on pollution has also reduced the average concentration of inhalable particulate matter (PM10) in 338 Chinese cities by 26.8 percent while the average fine PM2.5 in 74 cities dropped by 41.7 percent and the proportion of good quality surface water has increased to 71 percent.
China has also established 474 natural reserves, various kinds of protected areas covering over 1.7 million square kilometers, recovered the population of the giant panda and other endangered species and increased forest coverage to 22.96 percent from only 8 percent in 1949.
According to NASA satellite data, China has contributed around 25 percent to the global leaf area that increased in the last 20 years.
Over the past 70 years, China has also ratified and implemented more than 30 multilateral conventions and protocols related to ecology and the environment.
“Carrying forward the Party’s fine revolutionary traditions, we will champion the greed development of our country, secure victory in the battles to defend our blue skies, clear water and clean soil,” Li Ganjie, Chinese Ecology, and Environment Minister said in a press conference.
Started from scratch
Zhong Shan, head of Minister of Commerce, said the commerce endeavor started from scratch in an isolated environment but made major breakthroughs one after another, and wrote an exciting chapter in the epic history of China.
After introducing a number of strategies, Zhong said China has liberalized the right to foreign trade as part of the country’s opening up and economic reforms.
“Since then, the country has been moving on the dual fast-tracks of bringing in and going global,” he said.
He said China is increasingly a hot destination for foreign investment while more and more Chinese businesses have set sail to explore the international market.
The country’s capacity to participate in global economic governance has continued to increase as more than 160 countries and international organizations have joined the new economic platform Belt and Road initiated by Xi in 2013.
According to a World Bank research report, the Belt and Road Initiative, which is one of many global and regional multilateral platforms established by China, will help 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty.
Zhong said China’s total retails increased from 30 billion yuan in 1949 to 3.8 trillion yuan in 2018, making China the second-largest consumer market in the world.
He added the country’s foreign trade in goods skyrocketed from USD1.1 billion to USD4.6 trillion, No. 1 in the world, while inbound and outbound investment, which was almost nonexistent 70 years ago, to USD138.3 billion and USD143 billion, respectively.
GDP increased by 174 times
Data distributed to foreign media showed that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) had increased 174 times from only 67.9 billion yuan to 90 trillion yuan with an annual growth rate of 8.1 percent. The per capita GDP also ballooned from 119 yuan in 1952 to 64,644 yuan as of 2018.
According to the World Bank, China’s economy in 2018 was worth USD13.6 trillion, second only to the United States’ USD20.5 trillion.
Currently, China is the only country that possesses all the sections in the US’ International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), with the output of many industrial products ranking first in the world.
China has also made remarkable achievements in technology such as nuclear bombs, ballistic missiles, manmade satellites, manned space flight, super hybrid rice, supercomputers, synthetic bovine insulin, and high-speed railway.
In 2009, China became the world’s largest exporter of goods and the second-largest importer of goods, owing to opening up and economic reforms launched in 1978.
From 1978 to 2018, China’s foreign trade amounted to USD52.2 trillion as it attracted more than USD2 trillion in non-financial foreign direct investment and nearly one million foreign-invested enterprises.
As the most populous country in the world, China has maintained its position as the world’s top source of overseas tourists, posting nearly 150 million outbound Chinese tourists in 2018.
Since the 1950s, China has provided foreign assistance worth 400 billion yuan to 166 countries and international organizations and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers with 700 of them sacrificed their lives for the development of other countries. It has also provided medical aid to 69 countries. (PNA)
