Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

July 1st, 2021 marks the centennial of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Party has led the Chinese people to found the New China, reversed the poor and weak situation of the Chinese nation, and built the world's second largest economy full of vitality. This has exceeded the predictions and expectations of many forces in various periods on the future of the CPC.

The cause of the CPC embodies the exploration of several generations of Chinese people. China's collective goals are very clear: the country wants to get rid of poverty and foreign powers' bullying, as well as to achieve fairness and justice. But the internal and external difficulties and contradictions to achieve these goals are very complex and profound.

The CPC is the leader in exploring the realization of this difficult mission and all the Chinese are involved in the completion of this mission. So the CPC cannot be simply categorized nor compared to any other political party in history. In addition to its wide membership, the party is also unique in its attributes. It is not only a super political force; it also defines China's institutional form and state form. It truly shares a common fate and the same weal and woe with the country and its people.

In the West, a political party is only one factor in maintaining the balance of political power in a country, and its responsibility for the development of the country is very limited. But China is a different story. China was a poor country in the early days when the country was founded, and it could not even build a tractor at that time. It needs strong development full of continuity. And the CPC undertook the mission of leading the people to realize the dream of Chinese people generation by generation. 

In 1949, China's population accounted for 22 percent of humanity. When Britain rose on the world stage, it had only 1.4 percent of the world's population, the US 4.7 percent, and the Soviet Union 8.4 percent. Who could lead a country as big as China? China's development is a process of creating a new form of civilization that has never been seen before. It is people-centered with clear goals, and is not confined to any existing development cases. It seeks truth from facts and draws inspiration both from the experience of modernization and from the resources of China's own civilization.

The CPC has clearly succeeded. The achievements it has made under its leadership, which is that it has greatly improved the livelihood of one-fifth of the world's population, shocked the world. The practice of the Party clearly exceeds the cognitive framework provided by Western political knowledge and experience, resulting in a current China that many Western elites do not understand. Feeling competition from China, they in turn take advantage of the inexplicable Western experience of China's path to brutally give Chinese governance labels, such as "autocratic," "anti-democratic" and "human rights violations." This is an expression of anxiety about China's success in many cases.

When Western elites cannot understand, they should be more humble and view the century-old CPC with a more open mind. They should have the courage to acknowledge the obvious remarkable achievements the CPC has made in leading the country. And they should tell without prejudice that China's modernization has been carried out through the country's own efforts and friendly cooperation with other countries. China hasn't shifted its own problems to other countries. China's path has to the most extent realized the win-win cooperation with other countries. Whether or not Western elites have the courage to point this out is a touchstone for their objectivity.

The US is leading the Western model. It has abundant resources and rich geopolitical advantages, while it also had bad records in history, such as the slave trade, colonial war, and severe racial oppression. What the CPC has been doing is creating a new world for the Chinese based on China's shattered legacy of modern history. Western elites should speak with facts: Has China overturned any government during its rise? Has it sent any fleet on a crusade? Has China snatched some "sphere of influence?" Has it ever made any rule unilaterally? It must be acknowledged that China has expanded the space for its development via cooperating with others in a small resource space.

The intellectual resources used by Western elites to understand the CPC are too limited. From ancient times to the Middle Ages, and from new traditions to parliamentary politics of civil society since the Industrial Revolution, what the West has experienced may fit their small society and some specific issues. But they cannot measure the responsibilities held by the CPC for the Chinese people, or one-fifth of the entire world population. Nor can they really reflect the CPC's goodwill to the outside world.

Western elites should respect the true and great inclusiveness of Chinese society. They should also respect its civilization foundation of thousands of years, including the special meaning of a unified political system, preventing destructive competition and regional divisions, and maintaining national security to the Chinese society. Marxism is China's most prominent political resource, but its entry into China has adapted to China's national conditions. Some Westerners want to use their political experience to forcibly transform China. This is a delusion, and those Westerners should retreat in the face of difficulties.

Chinese people have generally carefully studied the reason why the West realized modernization earlier than China, and have learned many Western elements as the achievements of human civilization. But facing China's great success, some Western elites have so far refused to recognize the validity of China's exploration of its own development path, denying one after another specific factor that has brought China's success. They are narrow-minded. They lack the vision and mind to stand at the forefront of ideas. They have disrupted political and civilization exchanges which should have been continuously strengthened, instead, they try to promote confrontation. They have morally lost from the beginning.

Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the CPC is at the height of its youth, full of stamina, and is increasingly supported by the people. The CPC's explorations are carried out simultaneously on Chinese soil, in the time and space of unprecedented changes unseen in a century, and the horizon of the thoughts of Chinese and the world's civilization. This exploration will eventually reshape Chinese people's destiny completely, bring pioneering achievements to the development of mankind and bring more justice and balance to the world. History will continue to prove the greatness of the CPC and the greatness of the CPC's exploration.