Russian Communist Party praises China's modernization of the world through its Belt and Road Initiative
Dmitry Novikov: The global significance of the experience of Chinese modernization will steadily grow
Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Russian Federation on International Affairs D.G. Novikov took part in the round table “Chinese modernization at the present stage.”
The event took place at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was attended by: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Russian Federation Zhang Hanhui, Russian parliamentarians, representatives of the scientific and expert community of Russia and China.
D.G. Novikov addressed the round table participants with a speech via videoconference:
— Dear participants of the round table!
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Zhang Hanhui!
Director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences Kirill Vladimirovich Babaev!
Director of the Eurasian Bureau of the China Media Corporation Wang Bin!
Humanity lives in conditions of large-scale changes. Before our eyes, the paths of world development for decades to come are being determined. The deep essence of these processes was the irreversible weakening of Western capital. This process is influenced by two main factors. First of all, there is an increase in contradictions within the leading bourgeois powers - the USA and the states of Western Europe. The reason is that the leading countries of the capitalist world have exhausted the potential for progressive development.
The endless desire of capital for an extremely high rate of profit has laid “time bombs” under the capitalist system. There is an uncontrollable swelling of the financial and speculative sector. Sooner or later these bubbles will burst. This is exactly what happened during the 2008 crisis. However, the bourgeois oligarchy persistently preserves a system heavily implicated in self-interest, deception and adventurism.
Under these conditions, there is an inevitable deepening of class contradictions within Western countries. The flow of social concessions that the Western bourgeoisie was forced to make under the influence of the successes of the USSR and the growing popularity of communist ideas is drying up. Previous gains from the working people are being taken away, and this causes their growing resistance. A striking example after the “yellow vest” movement in France was the powerful protests of farmers and transport workers in a number of EU countries.
Migration to the US and EU does not contribute to social peace. A significant part of the population of Western countries understands that there is a way to solve this problem. This requires:
— stop destroying the statehood of the countries of the Global South;
— solve Libyan, Palestinian and a number of other problems;
— to help residents of Asian, African and Latin American countries establish a decent life in their homeland.
However, transnational companies have their own calculations. Western capital needs an influx of cheap labor to put pressure on its own proletariat.
Everything that is happening provokes an acute socio-economic crisis in Western society. This is naturally reflected in politics and culture. The ideological and moral crisis is deepening. The values of the once great European civilization are being eroded. There are more and more signs of its degeneration. The depopulation of European countries is increasing. Its political elite is degrading. And there is no exaggeration in this. After all, if Josep Borrell calls the West a blooming garden and the rest of the world a wild jungle, this is a direct sign of degradation - both mental and moral.
The second most important factor in weakening the influence of the West is its self-exposure. In pursuit of world domination, he is increasingly throwing off the masks of democracy and human rights and strengthening the practice of neo-colonialism. Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan became victims of open intervention. Many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the former republics of the USSR, experienced sophisticated technologies of “color revolutions”. And of course, the West resorts to various methods of economic exploitation, primarily using the dollar system.
In response, the national liberation struggle is intensifying. The peoples of the world are increasingly demanding respect for their interests. They want true, full, rather than symbolic and formal sovereignty. And the People's Republic of China is ahead of these processes. China has accumulated extensive experience in fighting various kinds of colonialists. The Chinese people have achieved great success in solving this great task.
A century ago, the country was divided into spheres of influence by foreign powers and subjected to humiliation. It was China that was the first to feel the breath of the Second World War. Then, after the defeat of the Japanese militarists, the US imperialists tried to establish control over the country, relying on Chiang Kai-shek. But China has overcome all these challenges with dignity.
The declaration of the People's Republic of China in 1949 was an act of true independence. And this happened thanks to the Communist Party, which managed to direct the energy and will of the people to defend their native country.
Today there are again forces in the world that are trying to “ call China to order .” The West is afraid of China's transformation into a global superpower and is trying to restrain its constant modernization and steady development. His hatred is especially strengthened by the fact that Beijing acts as a spokesman for the anti-colonial interests of the modern world. This world itself is sometimes called the Global South. In fact, we are talking about the global majority, and therefore about all of humanity.
The greatest dissatisfaction among opponents of the PRC is the strong ideological foundation on which China's progressive role and growing influence in the world is based. The enormous merit of the CPC and personally of Comrade Xi Jinping is that Chinese society remains faithful to the ideals of Marxism-Leninism, building socialism taking into account national specifics.
The election of Comrade Xi Jinping as the leader of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China was, in my opinion, no less important a milestone in the history of the country than the establishment of the CPC, the proclamation of the People's Republic of China and the beginning of the policy of reform and opening up. Under the leadership of the current General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, China very accurately assessed the changes taking place in the world and determined the place of its country in them.
The most important initiative of the PRC leadership in the international arena was the concept of a community with a common destiny for humanity. Beijing has also developed specific mechanisms for implementing it. These are the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. They have received approval from dozens of countries around the world and are already becoming the conceptual basis for the implementation of a number of projects.
Among them is the “One Belt and One Road” project. Its mission is to connect countries and continents through trade, investment, infrastructure development and people-to-people exchanges. 150 countries have already become participants in the Belt and Road Initiative. Over 10 years, this initiative has allowed the implementation of more than 3 thousand specific joint projects. According to the World Bank forecast, by 2030, the development of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative will create 420 thousand jobs in China’s partner countries.
China's international strategy is based on the ideas of equality and justice. At the last Belt and Road summit, Xi Jinping noted: “ There will be no place for bloc confrontation and geopolitical games, unilateral sanctions, economic blackmail and attempts at disengagement .” As the Chairman of the People's Republic of China emphasized, the history of the ancient Silk Road has proven that development and prosperity are achieved not by war horses and long spears, but by camel caravans and goods, not by warships, but by merchant ships and friendship. This is precisely what is lacking in today's system of international relations.
It is quite natural that domestic modernization in China goes hand in hand with Beijing's important international initiatives. Since Xi Jinping came to power, a holistic concept in the field of public administration within the country and a set of Chinese initiatives on the world stage have been formed.
In a capitalist system, the exploitation of one's own workers goes hand in hand with external expansion and the capture of markets. At the same time, the bourgeoisie often tries to reduce the dissatisfaction of domestic workers with handouts and inciting chauvinistic sentiments. The PRC has a fundamentally different course.
The people's China is following the path of building socialism. Carrying out the modernization of the country, the leadership of the PRC is confidently strengthening the socialist foundations of its state. In this regard, the meeting recently held by the heads of China and Vietnam is typical. At talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Trinh, Xi Jinping said that China and Vietnam should sail together on the same ship of socialism.
The 19th Congress of the CPC outlined a strategic plan for the complete construction of a modernized socialist power. From 2020 to 2035, it is planned to mainly carry out socialist modernization, and from 2035 to the middle of the century, to transform China into a rich and powerful, democratic and civilized, harmonious and beautiful modernized socialist power.
This policy means increasing the leadership role of the CPC and the increasingly active involvement of the people in governing the country. To achieve this, the Chinese leadership is actively fighting corruption, careerism, wastefulness, and hedonism. From the history of the late Soviet Union, we know well how these ulcers can create conditions for bourgeois counter-revolution.
When carrying out modernization, the leadership of the People's Republic of China pays primary attention to improving the living standards of people. Extreme poverty has been eliminated in the country. Over the past 40 years, more than 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty. No capitalist country is able to demonstrate such results. Only a socialist state is capable of confidently implementing the principle of “ people first .”
China's foreign policy is also fundamentally different from that of Western powers. Beijing rejects the “big stick” and “iron fist” principles. People in China remember well: colonial conquests were accompanied by monstrous crimes - acts of genocide, the slave trade, and the pitting of peoples against each other. And all this is for the purpose of making profit. This is the essence of capitalism, and as long as it is alive, the bloody methods of promoting the interests of big capital will not disappear. This is exactly what we are seeing now in the Gaza Strip and Yemen, and a little earlier we saw it in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
Chinese diplomacy is a diplomacy of internationalism, equality, joint development for common prosperity. The Chairman of the People's Republic of China expressed this well in his speech at the BRICS Business Forum 2023. According to him, China breathes the same air as other developing countries and strives for a common destiny with them. As Xi Jinping noted, Beijing resolutely defends the common interests of the countries of the Global South and works to increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries in global affairs.
Beijing's goals are reflected in more detail in the concept of the Global Security Initiative. It is proposed by Xi Jinping in 2022. In particular, the concept assumes that the security of one state should not be ensured at the expense of others. Every country is called upon to take into account the reasonable security concerns of other countries. This point fits perfectly with the current situation around Ukraine. Its involvement in the military-political adventures of the United States and NATO created acute threats to the sovereign development of Russia. This forced Moscow to launch a special military operation.
It is important that Beijing's global security initiative provides for the peaceful resolution of differences and the renunciation of sanctions as a way to resolve controversial issues. Xi Jinping emphasizes that China does not participate in geopolitical games and bloc confrontations and opposes unilateral sanctions and economic pressure. In this regard, the goals of China and Russia undoubtedly coincide.
Dear round table participants!
Of course, each state and society has its own specifics. It is determined by history, culture, and national characteristics. Mao Zedong spoke about national specificity in the implementation of Marxist ideas back in the 1930s in a series of lectures “Problems of the strategy of the revolutionary war in China.” According to him, " the general principles of Marxism always exist in specific national forms ."
Any country has its own unique historical path, its own national culture, its own values. Chinese communists take this into account when developing their concepts and initiatives. During the recent High-Level Dialogue between the CPC and the world's political parties in Beijing, Xi Jinping called for respect for the diversity of civilizations. The experience of China teaches that the creative development of Marxism, its combination with the cultural characteristics of the people, gives excellent results.
China is doing a lot to tell the world the truth about itself and its goals. Friends from different countries help him with this. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is making a lot of efforts to popularize the Chinese experience. At meetings with voters, Communist Party deputies talk about the initiatives of the PRC leadership. We do this through our print and online publications, through the Red Line TV channel. One of the highlights of the channel’s on-air broadcasting was the “China Today” project, implemented jointly with the International Publishing Company of China “Chance”.
We proceed from the fact that taking into account the specifics of a particular country is necessary in order to achieve a common goal - successful development. At this stage, it is China that has achieved the greatest success in its development. That is why in 2022, at the forum of the CPC and Marxist parties of the world, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation G.A. Zyuganov expressed the idea that China's experience is increasingly acquiring universal significance for the modern world. And I am convinced that in the near future the importance of the experience of Chinese modernization will only grow!
Thank you!