China's Peaceful Rise: Speeches of Zheng Bijian 1997-2005

The Sixteenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and China's Peaceful Rise: A New Path

The Sixteenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s Peaceful Rise: A New Path Center for Strategic and International Studies, December 9, 2002 I am delighted to meet with friends today. Let me start my presentation with some words about the leadership reshuffle at the Sixteenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Sixteenth Party Congress was held at a key juncture, when the central leadership of the party as a whole needed to be reshuffled. The most significant outcome of the congress was that all the members—with the exception of Hu Jintao of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP—were replaced with new faces. The most striking feature of the reshuffle was the smooth transition of power in an institutionalized manner. The Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee , led by General Secretary Hu Jintao, was already up and running and the first meeting it called, which was covered in detail by the media on the same day, was about China’s economic development and its people’s living standard. Everyone in China is happy with the results of the Sixteenth Party Congress because it represents a new start and shows that the new leadership will do an even better job of upholding Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the “three represents” and is giving top priority to development in its administration. At the same time, the smooth transition of power at the top levels of leadership is evidence that a new type of political culture has been born and is growing in China. 74 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 74 General Secretary Hu Jintao has rich experience working at the grass roots, and in particular in places with harsh conditions, such as Tibet, Guizhou Province, and Gansu Province. For ten years, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. When he was concurrently president of the Central Party School, I was the executive vice president, so I had personal experience of his strong leadership and his support of teaching and academic reform at the school. I would like to say a few words about teaching reform at the Central Party School. An important part of the reform is to fully understand contemporary world trends in economics, science, technology, law, and military affairs and thinking, in addition to in-depth study of the guiding principles of the CCP. We call this element “five contemporaries,” and it means that cadres of the party at all levels should have a world-oriented outlook. I would welcome you all to the Central Party School, if you are interested and have the time; I would give you a more detailed introduction to our reforms. I would like you to know that our reform has got full backing from Hu Jintao. As he once said, “Cadres of the party at all levels should have a world-oriented outlook and shall by no means be out of touch with reality, stubborn or rigid.” At the first press conference after he was appointed general secretary he said firmly and emphatically, “The main task for the new central leadership is to concentrate on development and growth.” Where is China heading in the twenty-first century? China has stuck to a path of development over the two decades since the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Party Congress. Thanks to this, gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.4-fold from 1980 to 2001, 75 China’s Peaceful Rise 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 75 at an average annual growth rate of 9.5 percent, which has improved living standards for the Chinese people as a whole. The Sixteenth Party Congress decided to quadruple China’s GDP by 2020; that is, to raise it from U.S. $1 trillion in 2000 to U.S. $4 trillion through two decades of hard work. Per capita GDP will grow from U.S. $800 in 2000 to U.S. $3,000 in 2020. This decision will be submitted as a new development target to the National People’s Congress. The CCP Central Committee also explicitly said that even when this target is met, it will only bring China into the fold of low-end, medium-level developed nations and there will still be a lot of difficulties...