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Beijing Review Exclusive 17th CPC National Congress> Beijing Review Exclusive
UPDATED: June-25-2007 NO.26 JUN.28, 2007
Governing for the People
By ZHANG ZHIPING

Eighty-six years ago, the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened a new chapter in China's history. When its 86th anniversary is marked on this July 1, the CPC will have developed into a party that boasts more than 70 million members.

China is an ancient civilization dating back 5,000 years. However, since the First Opium War in 1840 launched by invading Western powers, China's sovereignty and territorial integrity were continuously destroyed and gravely threatened. The wars of aggression decimated China by plunging it into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. This forced the Chinese people to stand up to resist invasions, defend national independence and survive at all costs.

Over the past 86 years, the CPC has been dedicated to achieving national independence and liberating the people. Under its leadership, Chinese people from all ethnic groups have been united in the great cause of building China into a modern, prosperous, socialist country.

The CPC Constitution states that its members "must serve the people wholeheartedly." As the ruling party, the CPC has prioritized the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way in the new era. It has also enriched its governing ethos by putting forward the guiding principle of "building the Party for the public and exercising power for the people."

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the CPC has persistently searched for innovative ways to govern, which are more adaptable to modern times and the common wishes of the people, both theoretically and practically. As the international situation and national conditions change, the CPC steers China's social development toward common prosperity and modernization. The current Party leadership has taken a proactive approach to handling new social problems emerging in the process of China's rapid development. They have placed great emphasis on solutions that incorporate scientific development and the establishment of a harmonious society as future goals.

Since the reform and opening-up policy adopted 28 years ago, China's national and economic strength has been significantly enhanced. The Chinese economy is now the sixth largest in the world in terms of the volume of gross domestic product. Meanwhile, the country has witnessed a dramatic improvement of people's living conditions, which has in turn strengthened their self-confidence and self-respect.

As we know, China has made remarkable achievements through the tough years. In the past nearly six decades, the CPC has lifted the nation from countless tests: severe natural disasters in the early 1960s, the Great Tangshan Earthquake in 1976, heavy flooding in 1998, the SARS epidemic in 2003, and the most recent bird flu outbreaks in 2005-06. In the meantime, the Party has always been truthful and self-disciplined in correcting its own mistakes, while constantly creating new methods of governance. This was particularly evident after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1977, during which it decided to bring the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to an end and shift the Party's focus to economic construction for the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics. From that moment on the nation has entered into a completely new era of development.



 
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