Battling poverty, pandemic: China's governance system workable, effective

BEIJING -- The key to evaluating a country's system usually lies in whether it is in line with the national conditions, supported by the people and can improve people's livelihoods.

From poverty alleviation to pandemic response, a country with a population of 1.4 billion has made remarkable achievements by relying on the advantages of its workable and effective system for governance.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, China built two temporary hospitals in Wuhan, a hard-hit city in Central China's Hubei province, in only about two weeks. Some 3,000 new hospital beds were added every day in the megacity. More than 40,000 medical workers from 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities rushed to Hubei to fight the virus on the frontlines.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attributed China's speed, scale and efficiency to the advantages of China's system.

China has mobilized the whole nation to concentrate resources and get big tasks done. The country managed to contain the rapid spread of the virus in just over a month, achieved work resumption under regular epidemic prevention and control and gradually recovered economic and social development. It also withstood the test of large-scale population mobility during summer vacation, National Day and the New Year holidays. China was the only major economy in the world to achieve positive growth in 2020.

Battling COVID-19 is a heroic epic created by the whole Chinese nation. It could not have been achieved without the timely and correct leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the unprecedented cohesion and dedication of the nation led by the CPC.

Whether a country's system for governance is effective depends on its practices, with the people having the strongest voice in making the judgment.

According to a survey conducted by the Singapore-based research agency Blackbox Research and consumer intelligence platform Toluna last May, China got top scores among approximately 12,500 respondents from 23 economies who ranked their governments' coronavirus responses across four key indicators: national political leadership, corporate leadership, community and media.

In his article comparing China's system with the others published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in mid-January, Jurgen Gerhards, a professor of sociology at the Free University of Berlin, said China's success is not only manifested in dealing with COVID-19 but also in its prosperity and development for decades.

Over the past 40-plus years, more than 700 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, contributing more than 70 percent to global poverty reduction and meeting the poverty eradication target set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations 10 years ahead of schedule. China has brought great stability and certainty to the world.

Under the strong leadership of the CPC, coordinated regional development has been promoted through East-West cooperation in the country's poverty alleviation. The vast poverty-stricken areas in China have also received assistance from pairing-up provinces and cities across the country, with all kinds of social forces mobilized to ensure that "no one is left behind" on the road to poverty alleviation.

"A fundamental experience of China's poverty reduction is to seek truth from facts, adapt to local conditions and make precise efforts to find effective and well-fitted solutions," said Lei Ming, dean of the Institute on Poverty Research at Peking University.

Experts from across the world found in their research that China's poverty reduction experience can be, to some extent, summarized as "5Ds," namely the determined leadership of the ruling party and its top leader, the detailed blueprint made for strategic planning and long-, medium- and short-term goals, the development-oriented strategy to translate economic growth into poverty alleviation, the data-based governance emphasizing the application of advanced digital management to the whole process of poverty alleviation and the decentralized delivery based on the country's governance structure.

The "5Ds," from a global perspective, are regarded as China's winning formula in its victory over poverty.

Though COVID-19 has inevitably impacted China's economic activities, the fundamentals of China's long-term economic improvement remain unchanged. This is not only because of the resilience and potential of China's mega-size economy but also its system that upholds a people-centered development philosophy.

It is the original aspiration and mission of the CPC to serve the people wholeheartedly. The Party, which will celebrate its centenary this year, has no special interests of its own.

No system is perfect and everyone is constantly developing. Though strengths have been highlighted in China's victory over poverty reduction and its major strategic achievements in fighting COVID-19, the country has recognized the shortcomings in its governance system and capacity at the same time and is committed to improving them despite challenges and difficulties.