A significant year of China’s historic feats via peaceful means and joint development

As China continues its successful journey in social and economic development, the world should remember 2021 as of China significance. 

In the past year we witnessed the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, the 50th anniversary of its return to the United Nations, sustained control of the COVID-19 pandemic, and stepped on the dark side of the moon.

Another great achievement will go down in human history. On Feb 25, 2021 Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has accomplished another historic human feat in eradicating absolute poverty across the country at current criteria, which is the first time in the 5,000-year-old civilization.

In the last eight years, China has lifted the last 98.99 million poor rural people living below the current poverty line and removed all 832 poor counties and 128,000 villages from the poverty line. Guizhou province was the last place to achieve the ultimate victory in poverty alleviation. 

The design, dedication and persistence of the Communist Party of China, no doubt, has been credited with this miracle of humanity. The CPC’s 100-year path has turned a poor nation of backwardness into a prosperous land of 1.4 billion people which provides the world with opportunities. 

Still, as Xi noted in his New Year address right before the arrival of 2022, China is not to rest content on its laurels and will continue building a prosperous and beautiful countryside. According to the president, rural development and prosperity are of paramount importance, and the development gap between urban and rural areas should be reduced so that the low-income population and the people of backward areas can also be developed, which are all in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Whatever the world may say, China has proved that it has emerged as a rising world power economically and culturally. And the 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines it provided to more than 120 countries and international organizations in 2021 not only pronounce its sincerity in helping other peoples in need but also expose hypocrisy of some advanced countries which horde vaccines and seek exorbitant profits from other’s woes

While China’s domestic economic development is impressive, its Belt and Road Initiative has been recognized around the world which provides people in developing nations with necessities for growth and better livelihood. 

The world knows that in the last 40 years, after China's growing economic and scientific boom, it is looking for a coordinated response to China’s resilient growth and engine-drive of other economies, only to unnerve the Group of Seven countries. 

US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders hope that their plan known as the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, will reach developing countries by 2035. While the developing world faces huge funding shortages for development, the world’s richest nations seem to be more interested in countering China’s influence by offering an alternative rather than improving livelihood of the poor nations in earnest.

It was not immediately clear how the B3W project will work or how much money would be allocated to it. In contrast, China's BRI scheme, launched in 2013, includes development and investment initiatives that extend from Asia to Europe and beyond. Many countries have seen the completion and launch of specific BRI projects such as railways, ports, highways, and other infrastructure. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is among them, serving as a framework and platform for comprehensive and effective cooperation between China and Pakistan.

The CPEC is an important milestone of the two countries with special emphasis on advancing the journey of construction and development. 

A real road enters Pakistan from the Khanjarab area which passes through Gilgit and enters Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The road then passes through Abbottabad and Haripur and joins the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway. Here the road enters two major routes, the Eastern Route and the Western Route. The Western Route is the longer one of 2674 km. 

The routes are linking major cities of the country, including Attock city of Punjab, Dera Ismail Khan City of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Quetta city of Balochistan,  Lahore, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Gwadar and Karachi.

Critics say that China's plan to modernize the ancient Silk Road trade route to connect China with other parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond is a vehicle for the expansion of the CPC. In fact, such suspicions betray the "imperial hangover" of many Western powers that have humiliated China and other developing nations for centuries.

Whatever the world may say, China has proved that it has emerged as a rising world power economically and culturally. And the 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines it provided to more than 120 countries and international organizations in 2021 not only pronounce its sincerity in helping other peoples in need but also expose hypocrisy of some advanced countries which horde vaccines and seek exorbitant profits from other’s woes.

Contrary to the colonial powers that sought gains from massacres and enslavement of other human beings, China has achieved this by doing business with the world in peace and harmony and by raising flags in the world of science, knowledge, and common prosperity.

The author is Secretary-General Pakistan China Friendship Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.