Putting people first at heart of Party's enduring strength

At the Museum of the Communist Party of China, a site in Beijing devoted to permanent and comprehensive exhibitions of the CPC's history, there is a large wall motto that reads: "This country is its people; the people are the country."

Many visitors come to the wall and raise their phones to take a photo, capturing in a single frame a theme that Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, placed at the center of his speech at the ceremony in 2021 marking the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.

As the Party has fought to establish and consolidate its leadership over the country, it has, in fact, been fighting to earn and keep the people's support, Xi said. The Party has in the people "its roots, its lifeblood and its source of strength", he added.

Five years on, as the CPC celebrates its 105th anniversary on Wednesday, more and more foreign diplomats and international observers have said that the meaning of the people-centered approach, a fundamental principle of the CPC, has become clearer to them through the changes they have witnessed in China and in the lives of its people.

For Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan's ambassador to China, the CPC's people-centered approach is best understood through results he has seen with his own eyes — above all, the scale of China's poverty reduction.

"I think results and actions speak louder than words," Hashmi said, noting that China's success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty was unprecedented in human history.

China declared victory in its fight against absolute poverty in 2021, when all 98.99 million rural residents living below the current poverty line had been lifted out of poverty, 832 poor counties had been removed from the poverty list, and 128,000 impoverished villages had shaken off poverty.

To Hashmi, poverty reduction is the clearest measure of what governance can mean for ordinary people. It shows how a long-term national goal can be translated into changes in people's lives through sustained leadership, strategy and implementation, he said.

Hashmi served at the Pakistani embassy in Beijing from 2008 to 2010, before returning as ambassador in 2023. He said the contrast between the two postings gave him a direct view of how China's development has reshaped the country's environment, economy and society.

Beijing's air quality and urban environment has improved markedly, he said. The expansion of high-speed rail has made travel between cities faster and more convenient, becoming part of daily life for many people.

China's progress in green technologies offered another example. From electric vehicles and batteries to charging stations, solar panels and wind turbines, China has built an ecosystem of increasingly affordable technologies that serve Chinese consumers and are also accessible to many developing countries, Hashmi said.

For him, these changes were evidence of the Party's ability to set a direction, mobilize resources and sustain implementation over time.

"At its core, the vision, the leadership, the strategy and the policy come from the CPC," he said.

Sisouphanh Keobandavong, a senior official with the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China's progress is closely linked to the CPC's people-centered development philosophy.

By putting the common interests and well-being of the people first, China has achieved major advances in economic development, scientific and technological innovation and living standards, he said.

That experience, particularly in poverty reduction and rural vitalization, is of direct relevance to Laos, where poverty reduction remains an important task, Sisouphanh said.

For Laos and other developing countries, the lessons include set-ting clear development goals around national interests and people's well-being, directing support to less-developed areas, and shaping policies through research, monitoring and evaluation, he added.

Other observers said that putting people at the center also requires the ability to keep development goals consistent long enough for them to make a difference in people's lives.

Fazeel Najeeb, Maldivian ambassador to China, said one feature that has stood out to him is the continuity that marks China's policies.

In some developing countries, development priorities may change from one government to the next, making it difficult for long-term plans to produce lasting results, he said, noting that China sets priorities through five-year plans, carries them out steadily and builds on them in subsequent planning periods. "I think one of the most important aspects of the system is the continuity of policies," Najeeb said, calling it one of the most striking features of China's governance.

Such continuity matters, he said, because development requires time before its benefits can be fully seen in people's lives.

The importance of the consistency of strategy and the direction behind it also stood out to Ion Chicu, former prime minister of Moldova.

For example, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area showed the long-term impact of reform and opening-up, as well as China's sustained focus on high technology, he said.

For any country or people, hard work alone may not lead to success without the right strategy and direction, he noted, adding that in China's case, long-term vision has enabled people's efforts to produce tangible development achievements.

Davidson I. Ishmael, minister of state in Barbados' Ministry of Health and Wellness, said China's people-centered governance can also be seen in the opportunities created for individuals to build businesses and pursue careers.

During his visit to the Greater Bay Area, Ishmael said he heard stories of people who became entrepreneurs through opportunities generated by the region's development, and of others who had been able to pursue careers in globally competitive industries.

He said that such stories show how development can translate into personal opportunities.

China's opening-up is not only about strengthening the country's connections with the world, Ishmael said, but also about enabling its own people to share in the opportunities created by development.