Celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China will celebrate the 62nd anniversary of her founding on October 1, 2011. Over the past six decades and more since the founding of New China, particularly since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policies in 1978, the Chinese government has been working hard to explore a path of socialist modernization that conforms to China's own national conditions and the trend of the times.
Overcoming difficulties and setbacks, the Chinese people have advanced with the times and succeeded through arduous struggle in finding a path of development conforming to China's reality ¯ the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Viewed in the broader, global and historical context, the path of peaceful development may be defined as follows: China should develop itself through upholding world peace and contribute to world peace through its own development.
It should achieve development with its own efforts and by carrying out reforms and innovations; at the same time, it should open itself to the outside and learn from other countries. It should seek mutual benefit and common development with other countries in keeping with the trend of economic globalization, and it should work together with other countries to build a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity.
Over the past decades, China has undergone profound transformation and made tremendous achievements on its path of peaceful development. The Chinese Government and people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, constantly improved the good governance and successfully dealt with diverse risks and challenges, which changed China from a poor, backward and battered country to a powerful, respected and prosperous nation, creating the brilliant chapter in China's civilization.
China' remarkable achievements in her glorious path:
Development of political democracy: China explored and established different forms of socialist democracy, such as the National People's Congress system and the system of multi-party cooperation and the political consultation under the leadership of CPC, which ensured that people are the real masters of their own country.
The practice of regional ethnic autonomy not only ensures the rights of the ethnic minorities to exercise autonomy as masters of their homelands, but also upholds the unification of the state. Uphold women's legal rights and add "women enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of political, social and family life" to the Chinese constitution.
Progress in economic and social developmentÿIn 1949, China's GDP was merely about US$ 18 billion; however, the GDP reached US$5.88 trillion in 2010, accounting for 9.3% of the world's total, which made China rank the second in the world in terms of the overall economic volume.
In 1949, China had the population of 450 million, 370 million of which lived below the poverty line. In 2010, the population has exceeded 1.3 billion, while the number of people in poverty was reduced to 150 million. In 1949, the illiteracy rate in China was as high as 80%, but nowadays the number has been reduce to 4% based on the latest official statistics.
Great achievements in science and technology: The Chinese Government attaches great importance to the development of science and technology and put forward the strategy of "rejuvenating China through science and technology".
The modern science and technology in old China was almost blank, while the new China made breakthroughs one after another by the unremitting efforts of several generations of scientists, such as atomic and hydrogen bombs, man-made satellites, manned spaceflight, super computer, hybrid rice, first domestic bullet train and BeiDou navigation satellite as well as manned submersible, which laid the cornerstones for rejuvenating China.
China has made important contribution to the stable development and prosperity of the world economy and closely linked with other countries. China has been actively taking part in the economic globalization and regional cooperation.
The total volume of imports and exports increased from US$ 20.6 billion in 1978 to US$2.974 trillion in 2010. Since its entry into the WTO in 2001, China has imported goods worth nearly US$750 billion every year, which is equivalent to creating over 14 million jobs for the concerned countries and regions.
Since the international financial crisis erupted in 2008, China has taken an active part in the G20's efforts to build a global economic governance mechanism and promoted the reform of the international financial system.
China plays an important role in safeguarding world peace and meeting global challenges and takes an active part in international cooperation in anti-terrorism and nonproliferation. China is a member of over 100 intergovernmental international organizations, a party to over 300 international conventions, and an active participant in building the international system.
China will continue the policy of developing good-neighborly relations and treating China's neighbors as partners and enhancing friendship and cooperation with both the neighboring countries and other Asian countries.
China has participated extensively in regional cooperation and established various types of partnerships with almost all Asian countries and become the largest trading partner or export market of many Asian nations. In 2010, China's trade volume with Asian countries reached 931.6 billion US dollars.
Benefiting 1.9 billion people, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) has become a model for FTA arrangements among developing countries. China's ties with Asia and the world have reached an unprecedented level in both breadth and depth. China has played an important and constructive role in international and regional affairs.
China and Afghanistan are good neighbors, good friends and good partners. The Sino-Afghan friendship has a shared history of thousand years of economic cooperation, rich cultural exchanges and peaceful coexistence of the two proud nations.
Since the diplomatic ties were established in 1955, the two countries have always been helping each other with mutual respects. China is actively participating in the peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan, providing, within the realm of its capabilities, assistances to Afghanistan and helping Afghanistan develop its economy while China is developing itself.
Since 2002, China has offered US$ 150 million of grant assistance to Afghanistan and trained about 800 officials and technical personnel. China cancelled all the debts of £9.6 million owned to China in 2004. Moreover, about 60%, 4762 categories of all products originated in Afghanistan to China have been exempted from customs duties since July 1, 2010.
In addition, China also vigorously developed the trading relations with Afghanistan. The volume of trade between China and Afghanistan accounted for the 12.81% of Afghan total trade. China is now the third largest importer and sixth exporter to Afghanistan.
There are 31 Chinese companies that have registered in Afghanistan with total investment of US$ 55.821 million, ranking the seventh in terms of the investment amount in Afghanistan. In the future, China is ready to further participate in the Afghan reconstruction process and continue, through a range of development-related programs and training as well as material support, to provide sincere and selfless assistance to the Afghan government and people.
China will not spare any effort to help Afghanistan achieve the target of stability and economic prosperity. China's overall goal of pursuing peaceful development is to promote development and harmony domestically and pursue cooperation and peace internationally.
China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and the win-win strategy of opening-up in the future. We will make unremitting efforts together with the international community to promote world peace and development.