ON October 16th this year, the quinquennial meeting of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People will be tasked with planning and shaping the direction of the party and government.
The National Congress will gather at a time when China’s economy is reeling from the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global economy facing uncertainties due to increasing food and energy prices. What will be discussed and decided at the congress will be of great importance for China, but for the rest of the world including Tanzania as well.
For China, what is at stake is the economic success, prosperity, and security that the Chinese have enjoyed over the past ten years. Will the National Congress be able to cement those gains and build on them or not? For those outside China, there is interest in whether the National Congress will steer China towards addressing the challenges of the world and be a prominent player in the world’s efforts on economic recovery– or will the congress steer the dragon in a different direction.
China’s role in the world economy has undoubtedly attracted enormous attention and this attention has only added weight to the responsibilities and pressures for those members who will be making decisions.
Those who have closely followed the politics of China and its economic development will undoubtedly know what China has achieved in the past decade, and how Chinese President Xi Jinping’s input has contributed. Those unfamiliar with Xi’s contributions only need to compare and contrast the decade of statistics on the air quality of Chinese cities, the state of corruption, the state of poverty (especially in the rural areas), and security challenges in some western regions of China.
Similarly, we need to understand that China’s success during that period, not only made the Chinese people live in relative prosperity but also made the people of other countries benefit from China’s development. For African countries, China has been a good alternative source of foreign direct investment. It has been a large and expanding market for our agricultural products, and it has been a major business partner and a major stakeholder in developing dilapidated infrastructure.
Therefore, in one way or the other, China’s direction in the next five or ten years is directly related to our development. Some political analysts from western democracies have had a different take on that, going a step further and suggesting that there are sinister motives behind that economic growth and development without presenting any facts.
Let’s agree that Chinese and Western politics are very different. It may be hard for many to grasp what has been going on for over a year now before today.
But we can be sure that a lot has happened, and those who will be going to congress are very clear about what they will be doing.
In May 2017, when the world was in a fierce debate about protectionism, President Xi Jinping came out and said “No country can tackle all the challenges or solve the world’s problems on its own” regardless of how big and how strong the country is. He said it is only through “building an open economy, ensuring free and inclusive trade, (and) opposing all forms of protectionism” that the world can effectively deal with all challenges.
This is exactly what President Xi has been doing in the past ten years, and what he is expected to do in the next five years if congress gives him another nod to continue leading the party.
In addition to the economic challenges that have continued to exist since the 2008 financial crisis, the emergence of protectionist measures in some western economies, and those that followed after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic have only made the world more difficult.
The war in Ukraine has brought security and economic uncertainties to the world. The effects of climate change have made the northern hemisphere experience a brutal summer. All of these challenges only confirm what president Xi suggested in 2017.
As China prepares for the National Congress of the CPC, there is no doubt that there is no lack of wisdom and experience in making the right choices. China knows what it wants, and the members of the CPC congress know what is at stake. Hopefully one month from now what comes out of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, will be a signal of a better future for all.
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