Understand China's Development, Keep Faith in Cooperation - Keynote Speech by H.E. Ambassador Sun Weidong at Online Dialogue with Confederation of Young Leaders and Students and Faculty from Indian Universities

Dear Mr. Himadrish Suwan, Chairman of Confederation of Young Leaders (CYL)

Representatives of youth leaders,

Students and faculty from Indian universities,

Dear Friends,

Namaste! Good afternoon!

In the trying time of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, I am very happy to meet with you online. Every year, the Chinese Embassy in India holds exchanges with the CYL. At the beginning of last year, we held the second China-India Youth Dialogue. For more than a year afterwards, the pandemic continued to spread, causing a major impact on the world and bringing profound changes to mankind. Defeating the virus requires all sectors of our two countries, especially the youth groups to strengthen cooperation. And deepening mutual understanding is the basis of collaboration.

For this end, I would like to take this opportunity to talk with my young Indian friends about the real China, the stories behind China's development, and how China would help build a better world. The theme of my speech today is "Understand China's Development, Keep Faith in Cooperation".

To understand China's development, it is essential to have a good understanding of China's history and the Communist Party of China (CPC). This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the CPC. In the past one century, China has witnessed tremendous changes and transformations from an old descending country ravaged by war to a vigorous, prosperous new China. In the past, China was extremely backward. We could only make tables, chairs, teapots and tea bowls, but not even a single car or tractor. Today, China becomes the world's second largest economy and the largest trader of goods. In the past, we couldn't meet people's basic living needs such as food and clothing. Today, we are a moderately prosperous society. We feed nearly 20 percent of the world's population with only 9 percent of the world's arable land. We have lifted more than 850 million people out of poverty. We now have a middle income population of over 400 million. China's modern science and technology started from scratch and have made great progress including taking samples from the Moon, building a space station, and landing on Mars. China's comprehensive national strength has reached a new level. Many opinion polls over the years have shown the approval and satisfaction ratings of the Chinese government reach more than 90% among the Chinese people. This is at the top of world rankings.

How has China made such changes and achievements within one century time since CPC was founded? We can interpret from two perspectives.

The first is that, the leadership of the CPC is the choice of history.

Looking back at its 100 years history, the CPC has been the leader of China's continuous victories in revolution, construction and reform. It is the backbone of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

China has a long history and created a splendid civilization. But it has been through trials and tribulations in modern times. After the Opium War of 1840, China was plunged into a dark period. Foreign invasion and internal exploitation led to the disintegration of our land and unspeakable misery of our people. The Chinese nation was almost at the brink of extinction. To save the nation, countless patriots struggled to explore the path forward and even sacrificed their lives. They tried political systems including constitutional monarchy, parliamentarism, multi-party system and presidential system. But all these endeavors ended in failure.

At this critical moment of life-or-death, the CPC adapted Marxism to the realities of the Chinese society. It rallied and led the Chinese people to achieve national independence and liberation through hard work and sacrifice. The Chinese people stood up from then on. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPC led the Chinese people in painstaking exploration and embarked on a right path of development toward prosperity. This is the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. After the reform and opening up in 1978, in just a few decades, China have completed the industrialization process that took those developed countries hundreds of years. We established a comprehensive modern industrial system in this period. The Chinese people achieved a transformation from meeting basic living needs to building a well-off society. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has made a series of new historic achievements. China has won a decisive victory in our battle against poverty. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. China's GDP has exceeded 100 trillion yuan. Our per capita GDP has exceeded 10,000 USD. China has become a major engine of global growth.

Nearly every Chinese knows a song--- No Communist Party, No New China. It is the CPC that history chooses to lead the Chinese people from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong. We stand with renewed confidence again in the family of nations.

I also would like to stress that China is still a developing country. We are sober and clear about this. There is a long road ahead of us and huge amount of work to do to bring a better life for the people. It will take tireless struggle and lots of efforts.

The second perspective is that, the leadership of the CPC is the choice of the people.

Why could the CPC secure victory of the revolution and further establish socialism with Chinese characteristics? One of the primary reasons is that, the CPC is the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, and has won the wholehearted endorsement and support of the people. Since its founding, the CPC always represents the fundamental interests of the greatest possible majority of the Chinese people. It always gives top priority to the interests of the people. There are countless examples and here I would like to share some true stories:

The first story is about a halved quilt. In November 1934, the CPC-led Red Army was on the extremely tough Long March. When the Red Army passed by a village in Hunan Province, the soldiers slept under the roof and in the courtyard, not to disturb the villagers. A woman named Xu Jiexiu in the village shared the bed of herself and her one-year old son with 3 female Red Army soldiers. These female soldiers noticed Xu was extremely poor, there were just one grass raincoat and a piece of clothing made of rotten cotton on the bed. Before their departure, they cut their only quilt and gave the halved quilt to Xu. They told her, the Red Army was people's army, who was fighting the enemy for the people to live a good life. They said that they would come back to see her after their victory with a brand new quilt. Xu held the halved quilt with tears and walked a long way to see the Red Army soldiers off. She missed the 3 female soldiers, and often sat on a small bench by the riverside waiting for them to come back. Until October 1984, the 50th Anniversary of the Long March, a journalist encountered the 80-year old Xu waiting for half her life at her village. That was how the halved quilt story was uncovered.

People don't know the names of the 3 soldiers, where they went, and whether they survived or not. But the story made the Chinese people remember what the CPC was. Even the CPC has only one quilt,it will give half of it to the people.

The second story is about an ordinary grassroots official during the construction period of China. Jiao Yulu, a county Party chief, sacrificed his life on duty of poverty alleviation. In early 1960s, Jiao Yulu became the Party Chief of Lankao County in Henan Province. At that time, Lankao faced "three disasters" of sandstorms, saline-alkali land and floods. The people there suffered from hunger and poverty. In more than a year after Jiao took office, he led the investigation team to travel more than 2500 km, visited more than 120 rural villages. After he came to know how to distinguish saline-alkali land by tongue tasting, he himself tasted nearly 67 square kilometers of saline-alkali land across the county. He finally drew a detailed map of the saline-alkali land to fight the "three disasters". Due to long-term overwork, Jiao's liver pain became increasingly severe and he couldn't even stand straight. In order to continue his work, he poked at his belly with a rod. And even a big hole appeared on the right side of his old cane chair in the office. In May 1964, liver cancer took Jiao's life at an early age of 42. The only request he made before passing away was to be buried in Lankao's sand. He said he never got the chance to see the victory over the management of saline-alkali land, he wanted to see it after death. When his bone ash was delivered back to Lankao, tens of thousands of people attended his funeral with tears. Lankao was lifted out of poverty in March 2017. At present, the old saline-alkali land has become oasis, the paulownia trees widely planted by people under the leadership of Jiao have become the "green bank" of the local people. Soundboard of Chinese national musical instruments made of paulownia trees has become one of the pillar industries in Lankao.

Jiao Yulu's story made the Chinese people keep in mind that the CPC always puts people in the hearts without self-interests. The CPC members are pioneers who maintain a heroic spirit despite any difficulties. They work hard, live a simple life and never seek personal privileges.

The third story is about a medical worker who has been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Laternal Sclerosis). Zhang Dingyu is the president of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. He is a doctor, and also an ALS patient. ALS patients will gradually lose their mobility due to muscle atrophy, and there is no cure. He could not stop his illness, but tried his best to save lives. Sometimes he went to bed at 2:00 am and was woken up by phone calls at 4:00 am. Facing the raging COVID-19 pandemic, he stuck to the front line, led hospital staff and saved more than 2800 COVID-19 patients. He raced against the virus and demonstrated the amazing "China speed". As his legs shriveled, he made some touching remarks, "my time may be running out, I have to run faster and outrun time in order to save more patients". In August 2020, Zhang was rewarded a national honorary title called "People's Hero". He loves his life, loves singing. Let's watch a short video clip of him, which was in a flash mob at the Wuhan Railway station where people sang a song named "My homeland".

The leading singer is Zhang Dingyu. He is a hero around us, an ordinary person, a person who suffers from uncurable disease but still uses his optimism and courage to inspire others. He is a person full of love for his motherland and the people.

The story of Zhang Dingyu has reminded the Chinese that the CPC members are self-sacrificing people who demonstrate the philosophy of "people first and life first" with concrete actions in the epicenter of a storm.

Everything is for the people, serve the people wholeheartedly, have heart-to-heart bonds with people. Such a spirit will never become outdated.

President Xi Jinping stresses that the state is the people, and the people are the state. Putting people first is the secret behind all achievements made by China under the leadership of the CPC. It is also the consistent values and spiritual concept in the Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Over 2000 years ago, an ancient Chinese sage Mencius said that to a state, people come first, state comes second, the ruler is the least important. China's Tang dynasty followed the wise governing philosophy and created a flourishing age. They understood that people are like water and the ruler a boat, water can support the boat or overturn it. However, since ancient times, only the CPC has been remaining true to its original aspiration and keeping its mission firmly in mind. The past 100 years witness the history that the CPC practiced its original aspiration and mission, and shared weal and woe with the people, winning the heartfelt support of the people. The CPC and the people are as inseparable as fish and water. The CPC has gone through countless difficulties and tests all the way from small to large and from weak to strong. It relies on the firm will of ideals rising above the persistence on its original aspiration and mission. And it relies on the lofty vision of keeping the well-being of the people, the country and the world in their mind. If China's peaceful development can be described as building an edifice in the world, then the 92 million CPC members are its iron and steel supporting framework.