On October 6th, 2021, the Kaselehlie Press, the renowned newspaper in the FSM, published, in its Vol. 21 and Iss. 20, an article by H.E. Huang Zheng, Chinese Ambassador to the FSM, titled China Persistently Promotes Building a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity. Below is its full text:
October 1st, 2021, marked the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It's another milestone in the history of the 5000-year-old Chinese civilization or even in that of the entire human civilization for the reason that China has realized the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in China by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), meaning all 770 million rural population who used to live below the poverty threshold have been lifted out of poverty.
Over the past century, China has undergone tremendous changes turning itself from a poor and war-torn country into a dynamic and prosperous one. It is now the world's second largest economy, growing in composite strength and international standing. It has thriving cosmopolitan cities, beautiful and harmonious countryside, advanced infrastructure, a safe and convenient transport network, a dynamic market, and a stable and orderly society, and people's rights to existence and development, as the primary basic human rights, are well protected. Despite the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, year 2020 saw China's GDP reach 101.6 trillion RMB (15.7 trillion USD), surpassing the threshold of 100 trillion RMB (15.5 trillion USD) for the first time. With a per capita gross national income of more than 10,000 USD and a per capita disposable income of 32,189 RMB (4,974.7 USD), rising from 98 RMB (15.2 USD) in the early years of the PRC (1950s), China has a middle-income group of 400 million people, the biggest in the world, and its population's life expectancy raised from 35 years in the 1950s to 77.3 years in 2019.
From war-torn scratch 72 years ago, the new China (PRC) established an independent and substantial industrial and economic system in just a few years. Groundbreaking successes were achieved in nuclear technology, satellites, carrier rockets and other cutting-edge technologies. Today, China leads the world in quantum communication, artificial intelligence and 5G technology. Its Shenzhou manned spacecraft and Tiangong space lab are orbiting the earth. The rover Zhurong has landed on Mars and is engaged in scientific exploration. Its manned submersible, Jiaolong, dived to the deep sea. All of these serve to demonstrate how China has significantly improved its independent scientific and technological capabilities.
Practiced in the whole process of the PRC's founding, reconstruction and reform, in all aspects of governance, and in every field of economic and social life, democracy has taken root in China as a shared value, as well as a political institution and mechanism of governance. Democracy is a shared value of the entire human race; it is not a "patent" to be claimed by any one country. There is no fixed model of democracy's fulfillment. In judging whether a particular form of democracy works, one needs to see whether it is adapted to a country's history and culture, whether it conforms to its conditions, whether it can deliver political stability and social progress, whether it can improve people's lives, whether it can win public support, and whether it can contribute to advancing the progressive cause of humanity. The days of isolation are gone in China, and democracy is the order of the day. The Chinese people now live in contentment, and Chinese society is full of vigor. Polls show the Chinese people's overall satisfaction toward the Chinese government exceeding 93%. These all well illustrate the immense success and strong vitality of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
While China has achieved remarkable successes as a result of a dedicated effort made over many years, it is still in the primary stage of socialism and will long remain so. China's international status as the largest developing country in the world is still unchanged.
China is a huge country with a large population and complex national conditions. The key to achieving its independence, development, and prosperity is the robust leadership of the CPC. Bearing in mind its abiding mission of serving the people wholeheartedly, the CPC upholds Marxism as the scientific guiding ideology, which enables its strong leadership and governance. Its long-term ruling-party status in China is by choice of the history and the people. The CPC has led the people in realizing coordinated material, political, cultural, social and eco-environmental progress, pioneering a new and distinctively Chinese path to modernization, creating a new model for human progress, and refuting the myth that modernization can be achieved only by following the capitalist model.
The CPC is a political party that seeks happiness for the people and progress for humanity. No matter how the global situation might have changed, the CPC has always pursued the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. It has championed internationalism, stood on the right side of history and the progressive side of humanity, and contributed to world peace and development. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has moved closer to the center of the world stage. Playing a more active role in international affairs, the CPC, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, has consistently pushed forward major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, followed the path of peaceful development, safeguarded world peace, pursued common development and promoted the building of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity.
The concept of building of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity advocates that countries with different social systems, ideologies, historical civilizations and development levels target the same goals, align their interests, and share their rights and responsibilities, so as to promote the overall development of human society. The Belt and Road Initiative provides an important platform for building a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity. China has signed more than 200 documents on BRI cooperation with 140 countries and 32 international organizations, including the Federated States of Micronesia. A World Bank report shows that the BRI could contribute to lifting 7.6 million people from extreme poverty and 32 million from moderate poverty, boost trade by 2.8 to 9.7 percent for participating countries and by 1.7 to 6.2 percent for the world, and increase global incomes by 0.7 to 2.9 percent.
The FSM is an important partner of China in the joint pursuit of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity and the Belt and Road Initiative. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 32 years ago, China and the FSM have enjoyed deepening political mutual trust and remarkable achievements in friendly exchanges and practical cooperation across the spectrum, yielding tangible benefits for our two peoples. For the past 20 months, although the pandemic severed the in-person exchanges between China and the FSM, the hearts and minds of our two peoples got much closer. Our two countries have not only rendered mutual support to contain the COVID-19 virus, but also worked shoulder-to-shoulder to resolutely fend off the political virus of politicizing, stigmatizing and labeling the pandemic and stand against the wrongdoing of a few Western countries to politicize COVID-19 origin-tracing efforts. In doing so, we've made our contribution to the international cooperation on combating the pandemic in solidarity. China has provided various kinds of assistance to the FSM in response to COVID-19, especially the donation of 30 isolation units worth around 1.2 million USD, and has also shared first-hand knowledge, provided technical support to and coordinated policies with the FSM for combating the virus. Some Chinese sub-national governments, enterprises and friendship organizations have also generously lent their helping hands to their FSM counterparts. The Chinese government and contractors of China-Aid projects in the FSM, overcoming substantial difficulties and economic loss and managing to minimize the pandemic's impact on our bilateral practical cooperation, completed and handed over such projects as the Kahmar Bridge and Secondary Road in Pohnpei.
Moving forward, China will stay a builder of world peace, contributor to global development, defender of the international order and provider of public goods, but will never seek to overtake, threaten, challenge or replace any other country, far less seek hegemony. There is only one international system - the one with the United Nations at the core. There is only one international order, which is based on international law, and there is only one set of fundamental international norms, which is based on the missions and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The attempt to maintain hegemony in the logic of "might is right" by one or a few Western countries in the cloak of protecting a "rule-based international order" will be resolutely opposed by China and rejected by the overwhelming majority of countries.
China stands ready to continue helping the FSM achieve sustainable development on an early date through our Belt and Road cooperation on the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, to work shoulder to shoulder to constantly elevate China-FSM "Great Friendship" and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to new heights, benefiting the well-being of our two peoples, and to make new contributions to the building of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity. We need to make concerted efforts to safeguard the international system with the United Nations at the core, pursue mutual respect and mutual benefits, oppose hegemony and power politics, and strive for building an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity!