Blog

Progressing towards the second centennial goal

As a nation with an extensive territory and massive population and faced with on and on foreign intervention, how our Country has succeeded in overcoming all the difficulties and become the second largest global economy, as well as a leader in the international arena? And how our Country is able to safely protect the public health under the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve economic recovery ahead of many other places around the world?

In the report of the sixth plenary session of 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), it has comprehensively summarized the important achievements and experiences learned from history since the establishment of CPC a hundred years ago. It has provided answers on CPC’s success in the past, and also how it can continue to succeed in the future. Looking back into the different development phases in the past, we can see some common success traits, including a strong core leadership, vigorous sense of mission, adhering to the principle of putting the people first, being persistent in its visions and beliefs to walk on its own path, with the readiness to adjust and self-improve.

The key to the stability, development and success of our Country is having a strong core leadership and the guidance of scientific theories. The Xi Jinping new era socialist thought with Chinese characteristics has incorporated the basic theory of Marxism with the actual situation of China and Chinese culture, and continues to promote the innovation and implementation of the theory, so as to provide a strong guidance for the development of the Country.

For any country and any political party, a core leadership is of utmost importance. Mr Deng Xiaoping once said, “Any leading group needs to have a core. Any leadership without a core is unreliable.” By having a core, the leadership can keep its steadiness and overcome any kind of hardship. The plenary session has confirmed President Xi as the major establisher of the new era socialist thought with Chinese characteristics. Under the core leadership of President Xi, the Central Committee of the CPC has achieved historic success in promoting the development of the Party and the Country, which has showcased its deep care to the people, remarkable political wisdom and vigorous sense of mission, leading the Chinese nation rising to prominence. The leadership with President Xi as the core is the key driving force for the whole development, leading the Country to march into the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The resolution passed by the sixth plenary session is not only of utmost importance to the future development of the Country, but also to the future of Hong Kong. As such, we need to have a deeper understanding on it. For instance, the plenary session has highlighted the principle of “putting the people first” as one of its ten valuable experiences gained over the past a hundred years since the establishment of the CPC. By putting the interests of the people as the centre of development, we could rightly adjust our focus for our economic and social development. The purpose of economic development is to enhance the wellbeing of the people. This also brings out the importance and meaning of the goal “common prosperity” - not only shall we make the cake bigger, but also divide the cake well.

However, there is no shortcut to common prosperity, which could neither be achieved solely by secondary distribution. We need to create the wealth for the society together, and to share the fruit of it together. We need to enhance the balance, coordination and inclusiveness of our development, so that it could maintain efficiency and promote fairness at the same time. Leading with innovation and technology, we could promote a more vigorous and diversified economic development and maintain the momentum of growth, so as to provide the material basis for realising common prosperity.

As reaffirmed in the plenary session, the Central Government has adopted a series of effective measures, including the firm implementation of the “patriots administering Hong Kong” principle, which helped Hong Kong to achieve a major transition from chaos to governance and provide a solid basis for the steadfast and successful implementation of “One Country, Two Systems”. For that we all have a deep understanding. The nomination period for the Legislative Council election, which is to be held next month, has just ended last week. A number of people with more diversified background and broader breath of representation have submitted their nomination forms, ensuring a vigorous competition for the election. We can foresee that the future Legislative Council could provide more diversified views and suggestions to the executive branch, facilitating Hong Kong to move towards the new phase of good governance.

The arrangement of “One Country, Two Systems” allows Hong Kong to maintain our unique institutional strength and take up a special and irreplaceable role in the development of our Country. We must also remember that the principle of “One Country” is the root and basis of the arrangement. As such, we have to make the best effort in safeguarding national security and supporting the stable development of our Country, including firmly supporting the strong leadership of the Central Government on Hong Kong, comprehensively and rightly implementing the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement, and realising the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”. Also, we need to promote Hong Kong’s integration into the national development by rightly positioning our role, so as to perform our strength and contribute to the development of our Country.

The development of our Country needs the power of unity, so does Hong Kong’s future. We need to be determined on our goals and undeterred by any risk and interruption. Hong Kong share the same dream with our Country. Let us to be united with all our people to fight for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

November 14, 2021