On July 27, to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Embassy in India held an online seminar themed "Sharing Experience on Party-Building, Promoting Exchanges and Cooperation". Ambassador Sun Weidong delivered a keynote speech entitled "Putting People First, Promoting Common Development". General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Shri Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India Shri D. Raja, Member of the Lok Sabha Dr. S. Senthilkumar, Secretary of Central Committee of the All India Forward Bloc Shri G. Devarajan, and Counselor of Bureau I of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Mr. Du Xiaolin attended the seminar and made remarks respectively.
Ambassador Sun said in his speech that on July 1, the whole country of China celebrated the centenary of the Communist Party of China. General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed a ceremony marking the CPC centenary. The CPC has successfully led China from poverty to prosperity. There are many "secrets" behind the CPC's success. First, the CPC always puts people first. President Xi Jinping pointed out that we are like examinees sitting the tests set by the era, and it is the people who will review our results. The century-old history of the CPC testifies that all the Party's struggles are aimed at realizing the ideals of the people. The CPC comes from the people, is rooted in the people, was borned for the people, thrived by the people, and has always been with the people and strived for their interests. The CPC enjoys the most solid foundation for governance and massive public support. Any attempt to divide the CPC from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. Increasing people's sense of gains, happiness and security is the fundamental pursuit of human rights as well as the ultimate goal of state governance. The rights to subsistence and development are the primary and basic human rights. Protecting people's lives and health and enabling people to live a peaceful and prosperous life are the best protection of human rights. In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the CPC has fully demonstrated its values of putting people and life first.
Second, the CPC sticks to its own path. By constantly adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China's specific realities, the CPC has finally found the right path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We created the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability rarely seen in the world. This is the right path proved by history and practice. We have embarked on the right path. We will keep moving unswervingly and confidently forward along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We will definitely follow the path through. Every country's efforts to independently explore a development path that suits its national conditions should be respected. China will neither import "foreign models" of development nor export the "Chinese model". The CPC is willing to share with political parties of all countries their respective experience to enrich each other's toolbox to modernisation.
Third, the CPC constantly strengthens party-building. It takes a good blacksmith to make good steel. The CPC now has more than 95 million members. The Party has strong organizational capacity and a well-established organizational system. This is where our advantage and strength lies. The CPC has more than 4.8 million primary-level Party organizations all over the country. These organizations always work at the forefront of tackling challenges, under the guidance of the CPC Central Committee functioning as the center. The CPC has a large number of selfless, fearless and dedicated outstanding party members like Madam Zhang Guimei. The CPC exercises effective self-supervision and practices strict self-governance in every respect. According to several foreign polling agencies, the support rate of the Chinese Communist Party among the Chinese people is as high as 95%.
Ambassador Sun said, the CPC is a political party that seeks happiness for the Chinese people and strives for the cause of human progress. China is committed to an independent foreign policy of peace, and has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and preserve international order. The CPC has always shouldered its responsibilities as a major political party, contributing Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to the global poverty reduction process. China has provided more than 100 countries and international organizations with 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, fully supporting international cooperation in fighting the pandemic. The CPC has always adhered to equity and justice, and stood against imposing one's own will on others, interfering in other countries' internal affairs, and the practice of the strong bullying the weak. We firmly uphold true multilateralism, the UN-centered international system, and the international order underpinned by international law. We have always believed that global affairs should be run by all countries in the world through joint consultation. The CPC has remained committed to and called for win-win cooperation rather than confrontation and zero-sum games. We have provided the world with new opportunities through China's new development progress.
Ambassador Sun said, to truly understand China, we need to have a comprehensive, real and multi-dimensional perception of China from an objective perspective. How can you see a colorful China if you wear sunglasses? A very few countries like the United States often label China as "authoritarian", "human rights violator", "aggressive" and "bullying" out of ideological prejudice and self-interest. We do not accept any of them. The US has also wantonly interfered in China's internal affairs and wielded the big sticks of sanctions against Chinese officials and companies. We are firmly opposed to this and have vigorously fought back. These "label factories" and "stick campanies" will never work with us and should be shut down for the good of the world. In fact, the US has been plagued by serious human rights problems for a long time. The US does not have the qualification to play the role of "a human rights lecturer" from a higher position. While facing the challenge of the pandemic, the US has engaged in "vaccine nationalism" by stockpiling vaccines far beyond its own population's needs, thus creating an "immunization gap" and causing severe shortage of vaccines in developing countries. This is typically egocentric and self-serving. In order to maintain its hegemony, the US provokes bloc confrontation and attempts to form small circles targeting other countries for geopolitical rivalry. It is the revival of the zero-sum game and the Cold War mentality. It seriously violates the basic norms governing international relations and goes against the historical trend of openness and inclusiveness.
Ambassador Sun said that, peace, concord, and harmony are ideas the Chinese nation has pursued and carried forward for more than 5,000 years. China wishes to move forward in tandem with all progressive forces around the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind. China always believes that facing the raging pandemic, all mankind are in the same boat. No one is safe until everyone is safe. China supported India in its fight against the second wave of COVID-19 and has provided a large amount of supplies and assistance to India. We are candid and aboveboard, and did our utmost with conscience in the fight against the virus.
Ambassador Sun stated that, for major developing countries like China and India, it needs enormous efforts and a favorable external environment to run their own affairs well. To run our own affairs well, first, China and India need to focus on development, see each other as development opportunities and support each other in achieving their respective development goals. Second, we need to strengthen cooperation and continue to promote bilateral economic, trade and other pragmatic cooperation and expand exchanges and cooperation between our political parties, local governments and people-to-people exchanges. We should strengthen coordination in multilateral institutions to jointly safeguard the common interests of developing countries. Third, we need to properly manage our differences. It is an objective fact that we have differences on issues like boundary question. But differences are not and should not be the whole story of China-India relations. We should place the border issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution through dialogue and consultations. We should consolidate the achieved results in disengagement, find a solution acceptable to both sides on the issue that needs emergency response through negotiation and consultation, gradually move towards regular management and control, in order to further ease the situation and avoid any recurrence of tensions due to misunderstanding and miscalculation.
Ambassador Sun reiterated that, China-India relations are significant to peace and prosperity of the region and the world at large. We should view and treat our bilateral relations from a more comprehensive and long-term perspective. China and India should unswervingly adhere to the consensus reached by our leaders, and we pose no threat but offer development opportunities to each other. The two countries are partners rather than rivals or enemies. We need to help each other succeed instead of undercutting or even confronting each other. We should correctly view each other's strategic intentions, be committed to the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and mutual respect for each other's core interests. We should be committed to regard cooperation as the main theme, seek mutual benefits and complementarity, so as to bring more benefits to our two countries and peoples.
Leaders and representatives of the political parties warmly congratulated the CPC on its centenary, spoke highly of the great achievements the CPC has led the Chinese people to achieve national independence, liberation and economic development, and commended the CPC for its people-centered governance philosophy. They expressed willingness to share more experience with the CPC in party-building and governance. They said that political parties should put forward their own visions and principles in light of their national conditions, and be committed to improving the political, economic and social conditions of the people and promoting social equity and justice. China and India should adhere to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, strengthen economic and trade, local, people-to-people, and party-to-party exchanges and cooperation, enhance mutual understanding and trust, handle differences through dialogue and consultation, and strengthen coordination in multilateral affairs, so as to realize peaceful coexistence between China and India as big neighbors, promote the development of China-India relations and continuously make important contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity.