In the national despair and frustration that followed the 1911 revolution that swept away the over 2000 years of imperial dynasty in China, the Communist Party of China was born, on July 23, 1921, with only a handful of 12 delegates from inside China and oversea, attending its founding national congress in the city of Shanghai.
The fruits of the earlier 1911 revolution have fallen on the palms of Northern Warlords and neither democracy nor prosperity which the revolution has pledged to the Chinese people were forth coming. Even the icon of the 1911 revolution, the highly revered Dr. Sun Yat-sen could not hide his disappointment and disenchantment at the dissipation of the revolutionary gains to narrow circle of war-lords, bureaucratic bourgeoisie and their foreign masters, who continued to extract privileges and concession. In bitterness, Dr. Sun Yat-sen said “The political and social darkness and the corruption of every description are even worse than in the Qing dynasty and the people are becoming increasing impoverished.”
Against the background of a nearly forlorn national condition, the Chinese Communist Party took a center stage and vanguard role in restoring hope to the Chinese people and nearly a century after it went through arduous struggles, has also brought to the Chinese people unprecedented prosperity for which the world is meaningfully engaging. Even in the flashes of unprecedented prosperity and other notable achievements, the Communist party has never lost its vigilance, its inner strength to engage challenges and obstacles or ever allowed its victories which are numerous to sedate it, to complacency and vain glory.
In its characteristic and nature of strictly engaging challenges, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus or covid-19 as the disease was formally designated by the world Health organization, (WHO), the leadership of the Communist party and the government took on, frontally the fight against the spread of the disease. In the two months, after its outbreak, the virus and its spread has been nearly brought to a halt, with normal life almost re-established in all parts of China.
At a leadership meeting to study the major tasks in preventing and controlling the novel disease and stabilizing economic and social development held on the 4th march, President xi Jinping who also the general secretary of the Communist party of China (CPC) made an important speech to the standing committee of the political bureau of the central committee of the party, urging an all out efforts to consolidate and expand the hard won positive trend as the epidemic prevention and control has seen steady improvement and the resumption of the order of work and normal life has been accelerating throughout the country.
Along with entrenching a trend of complete restoration of normalcy president Xi Jinping called for accelerating the condition for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty, and additionally pointed to a clear understanding of the complexity of the current situation for epidemic prevention and control as well as the economic and social development.
He further reminded his colleagues that while the task of containing the epidemic remains arduous and onerous in the outbreak epicenter Hubei province and its capital city, Wuhan, the risk of potential outbreak in other regions as more people move around and crowds gather, the situation demands no relaxation in the epidemic response preparedness. The General Secretary of the CPC further called for targeted and solid measures to push for work resumption to minimize the loss caused by the outbreak and exhorted party committees and governments at all levels to implement the policies and decisions made by CPC central committee, and uphold the party’s fine tradition of seeking truth from facts,” and resolutely guarding against the practice of formalities, for formalities sake and bureaucratism.
The leadership of the Communist party of China (CPC) shines with uncommon impact at all the critical junctures in China’s national life, be it at the core project of economic modernization through reform and opening up in the late 1970s, when the party had to abandon the “Two what-evers,” and re-establish the mainstream theoretical outlook of “seeking truth through facts” and that the “criteria for truth is practice,” to the mortal challenge of avoiding the fate of the Communist parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that imploded under the yoke of theoretical inertia and political paralysis. In the face of the mortal challenge posed by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the leadership of the Communist party of China, demonstrated vitality in the theoretical resourcefulness of the Jinping thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristic in the New Era demonstrated a quick grasp in the dimension of the disease by arousing the scientific community to getting grip with its nature and structure and galvanizing a worldwide solidarity in the fight against the virus, while containing its devastating impact by the openness, transparency and elaborate information-sharing.
With China almost restoring to normalcy, the world wide disruptions of supply chains and markets whose ripples would have had more terrible effects than economic recessions are almost averted, largely due to the constructive role of the leadership of the Communist party and government of China.
Even as the Chinese leadership of the Communist party and government take measures to contain the novel virus and minimizing its impact, it sets its eye on the lofty goal of eliminating poverty, one of its cardinal policies to achieving a construction of moderately prosperous society before or during the centenary of the founding of the CPC.
At a symposium last week, president xi Jinping reiterated that lifting all rural residents living below the current level of poverty line by 2020 is a solemn promise made by the party central committee and that it must be fulfilled on time.
For Africa, where poverty is a menacing scourge ravaging rural communities and urban centers in equal measure the decisiveness of the Communist party and government of China in carrying out the world best known strategic assault on poverty and its twin pang of hunger must be mainstreamed in the ongoing dialogue and cooperation between China and Africa, especially as the phenomenal mechanism for partnership and engagement by the two sides, the Forum for china-Africa cooperation, FOCAC, clock, 20 in a few months, this year.
Onunaiju onis director, Centre for China Studies, (CCS) Utako, Abuja.
