The 20th congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which kicked off in Beijing on 16th October, outlined the country’s development over the past ten years, declaring that the party has achieved its centenary goals.
Statistics were given as evidence of the conclusion reached.
China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), grew to whopping $17.7 trillion, equivalent to 18.5 per cent of the world’s total GDP, in 2021. GDP per capita, rose to an impressive 80,976yuan ($11,684) 69.7 percent up on 2012.
During the decade of the CPC centenary, 2013 to 2021, China’s GDP registered annual growth of 6.6 percent, compared to global rate of 2.6 per cent.
This made China a major driving force for the world’s economy, with average contribution to global economic growth exceeding 30 percent.
From 2013 to 2020, China had lifted 12.37 million of its rural poor, out of extreme poverty. This came hand in hand with the development of the world’s most extensive high-speed railway network, totalling 40,000 kilometres, by the end of 2021. An increase of 330 percent from 2012.
Absolute poverty was virtually eliminated nationwide, as millions, especially among the poorer rural populations, were lifted out of extreme poverty.
The Per capita growth improvement in health and education standards brought the average Life expectancy to almost 78 in 2020, over five years, above the global average.
Gender equality was boosted, with more than seven million women, receiving business and entrepreneurial support. Protection of women’s rights was underpinned by services in counselling, complaints handling procedures, and legal assistants, target at women.
Achievements in the protection of the environment, include moving 27 million households in rural areas from burning coal, to using clean energy. That meant leaving 60 million tons of coal in the ground. In addition, 30 million high emission vehicles, were banned, and China became the biggest market for the so called Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEV).
The 13th Five-Year Plan under Xi’s leadership
Despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, towards the end of the period, during the 13th five-year plan that covered a period spanning from 2016-2020, China defied the odds.
The economy grew close to 100 trillion yuan (about 15 trillion U.S. dollars), with per capita GDP exceeding 10,000 U.S. dollars. The share of China’s economy in the world hit 16.3 percent in 2019.
During the Five-Year Plan, more than 60 million new urban jobs were created, over 50 million urban residents moved to new homes from unsuitable housing, close to 30 million elderly people received subsidies for their care, and the number of primary school poverty driven dropout, fell to zero.
With all these and many other milestones reached, the 14th five-year period plan, will be a new phase in the country’s development. These will be the first five years of the country’s new journey, toward fully building a modern socialist nation.
