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The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened on Sunday. The CPC has brought about an all-round improvement in Chinese people's lives over the past decade, according to a report submitted to the 20th CPC National Congress. The CPC has taken China on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects.
While the world has entered a period of turbulence amid the increasingly complicated geopolitical environment and the global economy is facing a grim outlook, the successful opening of the 20th CPC National Congress offers a great sense of certainty for China's social and economic development. More importantly, the inspiring long-term development goals, and the clear paths and sweeping measures to reach them, as outlined in the report to the congress will undoubtedly ensure the high-quality, steadfast development of the world's second-largest economy.
It's important to note that many major economies like the US lack such strategic, visionary plans for their own long-term development, as they focus more on political expediency and geopolitical gambits. Against this backdrop, the sense of stability and certainty from China is crucial and there is every reason to believe that China's steady growth will remain a stabilizing force for the vulnerable global economy in the coming years.
According to a two-step strategic plan, China aims to basically realize socialist modernization from 2020 through 2035 and become a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century.
The past decade saw China's growth story attract great attention from the world. Statistics show that China's GDP expanded at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent from 2013 to 2021, higher than the average of 2.6 percent for the global economy and 3.7 percent for developing economies. Moreover, the country's average contribution to global economic growth exceeded 30 percent during the 2013-2021 period, Sun Yeli, spokesperson for the 20th CPC National Congress, told a press conference on Saturday.
China has not simply pursued an economic growth figure, but sought to address the fundamental problems for long-term, sustainable development. Therefore, the past decade has seen China's economic development becoming more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, and with new heights scaled in terms of economic, scientific and comprehensive national strength. To a certain extent, all these developments represent China's contribution to the world.
This year, the global economy is facing great uncertainties and challenges due to repeated COVID-19 outbreaks, rising inflation, regional geopolitical conflicts, the spillover effects of US monetary policy tightening and supply chain problems. The US has continued its unreasonable policy of suppression and decoupling from China in terms of the economy and trade. All these external headwinds have exerted downward pressure on China's development.
Yet, Chinese economists believe the nation's economic growth rate will remain at a reasonable level among the world's major economies this year, thanks in large part to its strong resilience, great potential and robust vitality, and considering that the fundamentals for its long-term positive growth remain unchanged.
Faced with risks and uncertainties, China has taken decisive and effective measures aimed at stabilizing the economy so as to keep economic operations within a reasonable range in all aspects while adhering to reform and opening-up in pursuit of high-quality development.
It is conceivable that as the world's largest developing country, China's sticking to the basic tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability will continue to provide certainty and positive energy to the world.