On November 4th, H.E. Yu Hong Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Brunei published a signed article entitled " China’s Moderate Prosperity and Its Benefits to the World" on  Chinese and English newspapers of Brunei. The full text is as follows:

A moderately prosperous society is a strategic concept proposed by Deng Xiaoping, the chief designer of China's reform and opening up, when he planned China's socio-economic development blueprint in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is a milestone in Chinese people’s pursuit for modernization. As the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics incrementally developed, the goals for building a moderately prosperous society were getting more comprehensive, their content richer and requirements higher and more specific. Chinese President Xi Jinping solemnly declared at the ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China on July 1, 2021 that thanks to the continued efforts of the whole Party and the entire nation, China had realized the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. 

China's moderate prosperity in all respects is multifaceted and all-encompassing prosperity through all-round development. It has not only achieved the goal of sustained and healthy economic development, but also made remarkable achievements in expanding people's democracy, nurturing flourishing cultural sector, improving people's well-being and bringing historic changes to the eco-environment. The people's rights to subsistence and development are well protected. Exponential advances have been made in science and technology, the industrial structure has been continuously upgraded and the modern infrastructure networks continuously improved. China's GDP soared from RMB67.9 billion in 1952 to RMB101.6 trillion in 2020. As the world's second largest economy, it accounts for over 17 percent of the global total. With per capita GDP rising from less than US$100 in 1952 to over US$10,000 in 2020, China has achieved a historic transformation from a low-income country to an upper-middle-income country. China has established the world's largest social security system and education system, with more than 1.3 billion people covered by basic medical insurance and education at all levels having reached or exceeded the average level of middle and high income countries. After four decades of wide motivation and continuous effort of voluntary tree-planting activity involving the whole society, China has the highest growth in forest resources and the largest area of man-made forests in the world. In 2020, 89.5 percent of Chinese people were satisfied with the eco-environment. China tops the world in terms of new energy use and progress in energy conservation. 

China’s moderate prosperity in all respects is prosperity for all members of the society. To let the people benefit from the development is the fundamental pursuit, and to enable 1.4 billion Chinese people from all 56 ethnic groups to fully share the fruits of development the goal. The fact that China has won the steadfast war against poverty and made the elimination of absolute poverty is the most defining indicator for achieving the moderate prosperity in all respects. Since the reform and opening up, 770 million rural Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, and by the end of 2020, all of the 98.99 million rural population classified as poor under China’s current poverty line had emerged from poverty. With the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and the acceleration of agricultural modernization, China’s annual grain output has remained above 650 million tonnes for the last six years. Its output of fruits, vegetables, tea, meat, eggs and fish all rank top of the world. With the increasing advancement of urbanization, China has gone through the broadest and fastest urbanization process in the history of the modern world. 

China’s moderate prosperity in all respects brings benefits to the world at large. As the world’s most populous and largest developing country, China’s achievement of moderate prosperity has made enormous contribution to world peace and development in its own right. Leading the world in both scale and extent, China has been the largest contributor since 2006, making an average annual contribution of more than 30 percent of world economic growth. China succeeds in feeding almost 20 percent of world population and satisfying their diverse demands for high-quality agricultural products with only 9 percent of the planet’s arable land. One fourth of the world’s new vegetation areas over the past two decades have been added by China, by far the largest share of any individual country. China has pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060. No other country will have achieved so much in such a short time. When these targets are met, China will have achieved the world’s largest ever decrease in carbon emission intensity. China’s economy reached a year-on-year increase of 9.8% in the first three quarters of this year, not only as the important driving force for the global economy and trade recovery once again, but also playing an active role in maintaining the stability of the global supply system. Since last year, China has already provided several hundreds of billions of masks and over one billion doses of vaccines to countries across the globe, in strong support of the global fight against the COVD-19 pandemic. 

In addition, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has progressed in parallel with China’s interaction with the rest of the world. China has received a new high of more than RMB 1 trillion of foreign direct investment in 2020. China is one of the top three partners of over 120 countries and regions, and is playing a more significant role in the dynamics of the international economy. China will remain committed to its mutually beneficial opening-up policy, continue to formulate high-standard policies to facilitate free trade and investment. China’s consistent and healthy economic growth has optimized its consumption structure and moved its consumer demand up market. With a supersized consumer market, its potential is increasingly apparent. It is estimated that in the next five years, China’s import of goods from other countries and regions will exceed US$10 trillion, and its direct investment in other countries and regions will exceed US$550 billion. There is no doubt that China will provide bigger markets and broader development prospect for countries around the world. 

At the 24th China-ASEAN Summit that was held virtually last week, H.E. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, stated that over the past 30 years since China and ASEAN established dialogue relations, the two sides have remained committed to amity and good faith, mutual benefit and win-win results. We have upheld multilateralism, and safeguarded overall stability and sustained economic growth in the region. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and ASEAN extended mutual help and support in solidarity. His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam spoke highly of China-ASEAN cooperation in economic development, people-to-people exchanges and anti-epidemic areas, which has played an important role in promoting the long-term development of the region. Leaders of ASEAN countries attending the meeting expressed their willingness to work with China to expand cooperation on trade and investment as well as connectivity and contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity. 

The global path to development is a rocky one. By building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, China has opened a new and distinctive path to modernization suited to China’s actual conditions, and offers a new option for those countries and peoples who are looking for rapid growth and maintaining independence at the same time. China still faces tough challenges in spite of achieving the moderate prosperity, unbalanced and inadequate development still poses a stern challenge. China will continue its endeavors, follow a unique Chinese path to modernization, in order to achieve more visible and substantial progress in the pursuit of well-rounded human development through high-quality overall development and common prosperity.