International

20th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress opens

The Communist Party of China (CPC) on Sunday October 16th, unveiled its blueprint for building a modern socialist China in all respects for the next five years and beyond as the 20th CPC National Congress opened.

The five-yearly meeting is the first national congress of the CPC after its centenary in 2021, when the Party led the Chinese people to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

“From this day forward, the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization,” Xi Jinping said in a report at the opening session of the congress.

He urged all CPC members to never forget the original aspiration and founding mission and to have the courage and ability to carry on the fight.

MILESTONE DECADE

Xi hailed the great transformation in the first decade of the new era as “a milestone in the history of the Party, of the People’s Republic of China, of reform and opening up, of the development of socialism, and of the development of the Chinese nation.”

The CPC embraced its centenary, ushered in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and eradicated absolute poverty and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus completing the First Centenary Goal, he said, calling the three major events “historic feats.”

China’s GDP has come to account for 18.5 percent of the world economy, up 7.2 percentage points over the past 10 years. The world’s second largest economy has become a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions, leading the world in total volume of trade in goods.

China has also joined the ranks of the world’s innovators with breakthroughs in some core technologies in key fields. With its people-centered philosophy of development, the country has built the largest education, social security, and health care systems around the globe.

As a collaborative endeavor, the Belt and Road Initiative has been welcomed by the international community both as a public good and a cooperation platform.

Other great achievements highlighted by Xi range from comprehensively deepening reform to advancing the critical battle against pollution.

While fully affirming the Party’s remarkable achievements, Xi also urged all CPC members not to lose sight of the shortcomings, difficulties and problems, such as bottlenecks hindering high-quality development and wide gaps in development and income distribution between urban and rural areas and between regions.

CHINESE PATH TO MODERNIZATION

The world’s most populous country is walking on a model of modernization that has not been seen before.

In his report, Xi reaffirmed that Chinese modernization is the socialist modernization pursued under the leadership of the CPC.

Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful development, he stressed, adding that it offers humanity “a new choice” for achieving modernization.

In its two-step strategic plan, the CPC aims to basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035 and build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century.

Xi expounded on China’s overall development objectives for the year 2035, which include substantially growing the per capita GDP to be on par with that of a mid-level developed country, significantly enhancing national soft power, steadily lowering carbon emissions after reaching a peak as well as comprehensively strengthening the national security system and capabilities.

He also stressed tasks and targets in China’s ambitious modernization drive, such as building a high-standard socialist market economy, advancing whole-process people’s democracy, implementing the employment-first strategy as well as exercising law-based governance on all fronts.

“The next five years will be crucial for getting our efforts to build a modern socialist country in all respects off to a good start,” Xi said.

Sean Slattery, one of the foreign experts invited to translate the heavy-weight report, said that to achieve modernization for the 1.4 billion people is a huge step forward for humanity.

“China is underscoring the importance of every country pursuing modernization through a path that suits to their own conditions and that their people would accept and support,” he said.

BACKBONE OF NATION, ANCHOR OF STABILITY

China has entered a period of development in which strategic opportunities, risks, and challenges are concurrent and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising, Xi told the 2,340 delegates and special delegates at attendance representing over 96 million CPC members.

Warning of various “black swan” and “gray rhino” events that may occur at any time, Xi, in the report, urged the CPC to be ready to “withstand high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms.”

He called on the Party, which he said has always remained the “backbone” of the nation, to always stay alert and bear in mind that self-reform is “a journey to which there is no end.”

Describing corruption as “a cancer to the vitality and ability of the Party,” Xi called for winning the tough and protracted battle against it.

Xi underscored that Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which the CPC and China are founded and thrive.

“Our experience has taught us that, at the fundamental level, we owe the success of our Party and socialism with Chinese characteristics to the fact that Marxism works, particularly when it is adapted to the Chinese context and the needs of our times,” he said.

In a world that “has once again reached a crossroads in history,” Xi reiterated China’s commitment to promoting common development and a human community with a shared future.

“Only when all countries pursue the cause of common good, live in harmony, and engage in cooperation for mutual benefit will there be sustained prosperity and guaranteed security,” according to the report. China adheres to the right course of economic globalization and opposes all forms of unilateralism, it added.

China stands firmly against all forms of hegemonism and power politics, the Cold War mentality, interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and double standards, Xi said.

“No matter what stage of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansionism,” he said.

International

TAIWAN’S LINK TO CHINA REITERATED BY ZHU FENGLIAN

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Tuesday slammed the Taiwan region’s leader, Lai Ching-te, for his recent “motherland fallacy,” reiterating that Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of China.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided.

The fact that the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China has never changed and will never be allowed to change, she added.

What has caused the Taiwan question? And why is Taiwan an inalienable part of China’s territory? Here are some facts you should know.

Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times

Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. The earliest written account of Taiwan was in the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer, compiled more than 1,700 years ago by Shen Ying of the State of Wu during the period of the Three Kingdoms.

Starting as early as the mid-12th century, Chinese governments of different periods set up administrative bodies to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan.

The Song Dynasty set up a garrison in Penghu, putting the territory under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture. The Yuan Dynasty installed an agency of patrol and inspection in Penghu to administer the territory. During the mid- and late-16th century, the Ming Dynasty reinstated the once abolished agency and sent reinforcements to Penghu to ward off foreign invaders.

In 1662 (under Qing Emperor Kangxi), General Zheng Chenggong established Chengtian Prefecture on Taiwan. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty government expanded the administrative structure in Taiwan. In 1727 (under Qing Emperor Yongzheng), the administration on the island was reconstituted as the Prefecture Administration of Taiwan and incorporated the new Penghu Canton. The territory then officially became known as Taiwan. In 1885 (under Qing Emperor Guangxu), the government formally made Taiwan a full province.

Taiwan was ceded due to Japan’s aggression

However, through a war of aggression against China in April 1895, Japan forced the defeated the Qing government to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China. In December 1941, the Chinese government issued a declaration of war against Japan, announcing to the world that all treaties, conventions, agreements and contracts regarding relations between China and Japan had been abrogated and that China would recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese, U.S. and British governments, stipulating that Japan should return to China all the territories it had stolen from the Chinese, including northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

The Potsdam Proclamation, signed by China, the U.S. and Britain in 1945 (later adhered to by the Soviet Union), stipulated that “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.” In August 1945, Japan surrendered and promised that it would faithfully fulfill the obligations laid out in the Potsdam Proclamation.

On October 25, 1945, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. From that point forward, China had recovered Taiwan de jure and de facto through a host of documents with international legal effect.

Two sides of the Straits belong to one China

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The new government replaced the previous Kuomintang (KMT) regime, becoming the successor to the Republic of China (1912-1949) and the only legitimate government of the whole of China.

As a natural result, the government of the PRC should enjoy and exercise China’s full sovereignty, which includes its sovereignty over Taiwan, according to a white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” published by the Chinese government in 2022.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that both the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation stated in explicit terms that all the territories Japan had stolen from the Chinese, such as Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, shall be restored to China, and this constitutes an important part of the post-war international order.

Speaking at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in late September, Wang told world leaders in the audience that Taiwan being “an inalienable part of China’s territory” is both “the history and the reality.”

Noting the 26th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 in 1971 with an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN, to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, and to expel forthwith the representatives of the Taiwan region from the UN and all the organizations related to it, Wang said “once and for all, the resolution resolved the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN.”

The resolution, Wang continued, made clear that there is no such thing as “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

“On this matter of principle, there is no gray zone or room for ambiguity,” Wang said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed on many occasions that the one-China principle is the political foundation for cross-Straits relations.

Xi said that compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same Chinese nation during a meeting with Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese KMT party, in April.

“The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation recorded successive generations of ancestors moving and settling down in Taiwan, and people from across the Straits fighting side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders,” Xi said.

“The distance of the Straits cannot sever the bond of kinship between compatriots from across the Straits, and the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Straits belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification,” he said.

International

One-China principle is consensus of international community

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that no matter what they say or do, the Lai Ching-te authorities cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to the speech by the leader of the Taiwan region, Lai Ching-te, today at a daily press briefing.

Mao said Lai Ching-te’s words attempt to sever the historical connections between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. He is again peddling various versions of the “Taiwan independence” narrative, such as “China and Taiwan are not subordinate to each other” and “Taiwan has sovereignty.”

It once again exposes that he is hellbent on advancing “Taiwan independence” and has the ill intention of heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits for his selfish political interest, Mao said.

There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, Mao said, adding that the attempt to seek independence and make provocations will lead nowhere.

Noting that the one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and prevailing international consensus, Mao said Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country and thus has no so-called sovereignty.

Upholding the one-China principle, opposing “Taiwan independence” and opposing “two Chinas” and “one China, one Taiwan” is our consistent position on the Taiwan region’s external exchanges and participation in international activities, she said.

“Let me stress once again that China opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China and interference in China’s internal affairs in any way and under any excuse,” Mao said.

We urge the few foreign politicians who visit Taiwan to correct their wrong words and deeds, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs, and stop conniving at and supporting “Taiwan independence” and heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits, she said. (PR/GIS)

International

SENIORS CELEBRATED AT THE SOUBLE NINTH FESTIVAL

China honours its elders

Across China, seniors are joyfully celebrating the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional holiday that falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This day, officially recognized as Senior’s Day, embodies new meanings of respect, care and support for the elderly. Communities are hosting vibrant events such as long-table banquets, singing competitions and dance performances, all filled with joy and harmony. Let’s honor our elders and cherish their wisdom as we come together in celebration.