Chinese Dream, a Dream of Inclusiveness and Common Development

October 1, 2013, marks the 64th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. In the past 64 years, especially since the introduction of reform and opening-up over 30 years ago, China, a developing country with 1.3 billion-plus population and 5,000 years of civilisation has emerged as the world's largest commodity exporter, second-largest economy and importing country and the third-largest foreign investor.

China has also made great achievements in the fields of agriculture, industry, education and cutting-edge science and technology. The world has been greatly impressed by China's development especially, in the past decade and is marveling at the "China Miracle".

Currently, the impact of the global financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis in Europe has not been dispersed completely. Despite the eye-catching performance of the emerging economies, the world economic outlook is still not very clear.

Many of my friends and counterparts are concerned about whether China can continue to act as the engine for the world economy. I can assure that the Chinese people have a strong confidence in triumphing the challenge, sustaining the economic development and finally realizing the “Chinese Dream” of achieving national prosperity and rejuvenation, people's happiness and social harmony.

For the first step, we will double our country’s GDP and per capita net income by 2020 on the basis of that in 2010 and have these figures redoubled by 2050. Hopefully, China will be culturally advanced, socially harmonious, politically democratic, environmentally beautiful and comprehensively strong by the middle of this century. That is what we called a “well-off society”.

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in November 2012 laid a solid foundation for realizing the “Chinese Dream”. The Congress thoroughly reviewed the current international and domestic situation and took into account of the new requirements for the country's development and new expectations from the people and decided to adopt the overall approach featuring economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which is conforming to the national conditions and the international trend.

China’s economic success in the past decades guarantees the success of the “Chinese Dream”. China’s economic development during the past 34 years has lifted the country from the state of “poverty and blankness”.

Now, China can easily muster resources to support the development of the key areas and launch large-scale social programs, as many new areas of social-economy in China are yet to be improved.

For example, the domestic demand of 1.3 billion Chinese people has not been unleashed completely. It is projected that by 2020, the purchasing power from the Chinese market will amount to 64 trillion yuan (about $10.3 trillion), with a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent.

The Chinese Dream initiated by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, winning unanimous support by the Chinese people, has inspired the passion and strength of the Chinese people. Looking into the Chinese tradition and history, the Chinese people always connected themselves closely with the destiny of the country and were willing to put the overall interest of the Chinese Nation above their own.

The Chinese miracle stunning the world was created by the Chinese People and the key to realizing the “Chinese Dream” is still holding by them. With the support of our people, the dream will ultimately come true.

While pursuing the “Chinese Dream”, we’re sober-minded that the global and national conditions continue to undergo profound changes; we are facing unprecedented opportunities as well as risks and challenges unknown before; we are now living in a global community with shared destiny; we need to collaborate with all countries of the world, including the African countries such as Ghana.

What makes the collaboration possible and necessary is that the “Chinese Dream” has shared so many common values and goals with the African dream mainly characterized by unity, development and revitalization and the Ghanaian Dream featured by Better Ghana Agenda.

The Chinese Dream is a dream of peace. As a peace-loving country, China has sought peaceful relations with other countries throughout the history. Coming into modern times, China suffered humiliation and bullying at the hands of foreign invaders, which made the Chinese people deeply aware of the preciousness of peace.

China’s remarkable progress since reform and opening-up has also made people fully aware that little can be achieved without peace. While Africa, sharing the similar experience with China, is also committed to peace and social stability.

The Chinese Dream is a dream of development. Though great achievements have been achieved, China’s basic national conditions remain unchanged; it has a huge population, a weak economic foundation and unbalanced development with 128 million people in China are still living under the poverty line.

Therefore, development remains China’s top priority. Nowadays, the “Galloping Africa Lion” is experiencing the best development opportunity in history. Seizing the opportunities and transforming it into national development and improvement of people’s well-being are also the urgent tasks and challenges for African countries.

The historical mission, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development have bound China and African countries closely. We are complementary to each other and our common interests are constantly expanding. Furthermore, after a long-term exploration and practice, especially after the introduction of FOCAC and China-Africa new strategic partnership, we are now standing in a new historical starting point and enjoy unprecedented gratifying opportunities. We are capable of integrating our dreams through joint efforts.

Chinese Dream is neither a closed nor an exclusive dream. Inclusiveness, mutual-benefit and common development are innate characters of the Chinese Dream. In 2012, China and Africa bilateral trade volume between China and Africa grew to nearly $200 billion. People-to-people exchanges reached over 1.5 million.

China’s direct investment to Africa has reached $15 billion. In the past 50 years, China sent 18 thousand medical personnel to Africa. 250 million African people have been medically treated. The economic cooperation between China and Africa has contributed more than 20 percent to African countries' growth over the past 13 years.

And, statistics from IMF show that China has contributed nearly a quarter of the global economic growth since the outbreak of the global financial crisis. The Chinese Dream serves as an opportunity for the development of the world while the latter will shape a broader space for China’s development. With our joint efforts, both the Chinese dream and African Dream will come true ultimately.

Ghana is a shining star in Africa, featuring a sound democratic dispensation, fast economic development and favourable investment environment. The ruling of electoral disputes through the Supreme Court has re-echoed Ghana as one of the most democratic, stable and peaceful countries in Africa. Friendship between China and Ghana dates back to many decades, despite the fact that the two countries are 10,000 miles away from each other.

Ghana is one of the first sub-Saharan countries to establish formal diplomatic relations with China. Over the past 53 years, since 1960, our people have forged a deep friendship by supporting and helping each other in our respective pursuits of national independence and development.

In recent years, thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, we have witnessed rapid growth in our co-operation in economy, trade, culture and many other areas.
According to the latest Chinese statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and Ghana registered $5.434 billion last year, with an increase of 56.5 per cent
over the previous year.

Therein, Ghana’s export volume to China in 2012 is up 77.2 per cent. The number of newly registered Chinese investment projects topped Ghana's FDI list in 2012. Stepping into 2013, the economic co-operation between our two countries continues to gain momentum. The trade volume between China and Ghana in the first seven months reached $2.918 billion.

Ghana’s export volume to China during this period has seen a year-on-year increase of 2.33 per cent. The value of newly-signed contracts soars up to about $1.488 billion while the non-financial FDI reached $101.14 million. More and more Chinese entrepreneurs have shown keen interest in the manufacturing sector of Ghana, which will create more jobs for the Ghanaians.

Apart from the economic co-operation, the Chinese government also attaches great importance to the programmes on human resource development, medical treatment and health, as well as education. In the 2013-2014 academic year, the Chinese side has provided Ghanaian students with 111 Chinese Government scholarships, showing an increase of 100 per cent over 2012-2013 academic year.

Along the way ahead, some disharmony will come across us inevitably. But just as  Xi Jinping said in his Tanzania tour, opportunities always overweigh challenges and methods always overweigh difficulties. People of China and Africa have enough wisdom to resolve certain issues, continue to deepen our fraternal friendship and pursue our respective dreams.

While the efforts of the Chinese government and enterprises have collected widespread applause and commendation during the maiden visit of H. E. Xi Jinping, the President of China, to Africa, shortly after assuming the presidency, noted that we should not let the cliché such as “China Threat” or “China Resource-Plundering” disturb our mutually beneficial cooperation.

The world has evolved into a global community day by day.  There are so many common elements in the dreams of all nations that China and other nations, including Ghana, could shelve their differences and seek the common ground to work together to build a world where we can co-exist harmoniously and develop together.

China and Ghana, as two important members of the developing world,­­­ are shouldering the responsibility of co-operating  with the rest of developing countries and contributing to the wider world’s dream of lasting peace and common prosperity.

By Gong Jianzhong/Daily Graphic/Ghana

(The author is the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana)