Aerial view of Nanpu Bridge and Huangpu River in Shanghai Photo: VCG

Editor's Note:

The correct view on political achievements represents the moral foundation of governance, the proper way to serve in office, and the essential principle for effective administration. Establishing and practicing a correct view on political achievements holds profound and far-reaching significance for advancing Chinese modernization and the great cause of national rejuvenation. The Global Times invites three foreign scholars to share their perspectives on understanding and interpreting the view on political achievements of the Communist Party of China (CPC).


'People-centered' always the core principle  

Ahmed Moustafa, director and founder of Asia Center for Studies and Translation, Egypt 

In contemporary global debates on governance models, the experience of the CPC occupies a central place. One of its core principles of the view on political achievements remains the "people-centered" approach. 

The CPC frames governance legitimacy through tangible improvements in citizens' livelihoods. The model seeks to ensure universal access to childcare, education, employment, medical services, elderly care, housing, and social welfare assistance, resulting in broad improvements in living standards. Legislatively, this orientation is reflected in the expansion of welfare-focused laws and participatory consultation mechanisms. 

China's macroeconomic trajectory remains the most visible indicator cited in evaluating the CPC governance performance. From 2012 to 2025, China's GDP grew from 53.9 trillion yuan ($7.58 trillion) to 140.18 trillion yuan ($20.01 trillion), while the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents has now reached 43,377 yuan (approximately $6,279).

Academic research links economic digitalization policies to social balancing effects. For example, econometric analysis suggests that the development of data-driven economic sectors helps narrow the urban-rural consumption gap by reducing income disparities and promoting coordinated regional growth. 

Perhaps the most frequently cited achievement is poverty alleviation. Since China's reform and opening-up, about 770 million people have been lifted from poverty, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction. 

Complementing this effort is the creation of the world's largest social security network. Coverage includes: around 1.07 billion people enrolled in basic old-age insurance; 244 million in unemployment insurance; 302 million covered by workers' compensation; medical insurance reaching about 95 percent of the population.

The CPC's people-centered governance paradigm has produced measurable socioeconomic transformation - poverty reduction on a historic scale, expansion of social security, rapid economic growth and improvements in human development indicators. Statistical evidence demonstrates substantial gains in income, life expectancy, housing and welfare coverage.

In this sense, the CPC model represents not only a national policy experiment but a continuing global case study in state-led development, where the meaning of "people-centered" governance is constantly negotiated between measurable achievements and emerging societal demands.


'Adjust policies to suit local conditions' to promote high-quality development through scientific decision-making 

Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of the China Studies Center, Kazakhstan

Effective development cannot be achieved without taking into account the real conditions of each region. Uniform solutions and identical performance requirements fail to deliver results, as levels of development, available resources and local challenges vary significantly.

To promote high-quality growth, policies and governance measures must be flexible and tailored to local circumstances. This is the only approach that enables the accurate implementation of strategic decisions, prevents superficial compliance and encourages the exploration of genuinely effective methods.

For this reason, at the current stage of development, establishing a performance assessment system that reflects local conditions and emphasizes real developmental outcomes has become especially important in China.

"One size fits all" governance templates are increasingly giving way to differentiated development strategies. For coastal regions with an established innovation ecosystem, the focus is on scientific and technological breakthroughs, the digital economy and the formation of "new quality productive forces." For central and western provinces, policy priorities include stronger transport and logistics connectivity, development of local industrial bases, modernization of rural areas and improving the quality of basic public services. This approach helps to prevent distortions in incentives, when local governments attempt to mechanically copy growth models that do not correspond to their actual potential or economic structure.

The pragmatic character of this approach is also visible in the way central and local responsibilities are calibrated. National goals and strategic priorities are set through CPC decisions and medium- and long-term plans, while concrete implementation tools - industrial policy, support for small and medium sized enterprises, green transition or rural development - are adjusted to local specificities.    

Under conditions of external uncertainty and structural shifts in the global economy, the principle of adapting to local conditions gained particular importance in 2025. Chinese official documents highlight the need to shape regional development trajectories with due regard to changes in global value chains, capital flows and technological competition, combining national priorities with local advantages and constraints. The ability of regions and sectors to design their own, yet nationally aligned, development models has itself become an important indicator of the maturity of China's governance system and of the practical implementation of a "correct view of political achievements."


'Working hard,' a deeply rooted governance culture  

Sujit Kumar Datta, professor of International Relations at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

One indisputable virtue on which the CPC has long pegged its legitimacy in the theater of world politics, where rhetoric often prevails over results, is the philosophy of working hard. 

China's status as the world's second-largest economy is no accident. Rather, it is an end result of a generational, rational devotion to a work ethic that bridges the gap between socialist ideology and effective rule.

In order to unite the immense forces, the CPC has mobilized to achieve the two centenary goals. The first was to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021 when the CPC celebrated its centennial. The second is even bolder, aiming to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century. It is a kind of long-term strategic thinking which the Western world generally lacks in the short-term election politics. 

Its claims don't define the CPC, but the outcomes of its actions do: the building of high-speed railways, the eradication of extreme poverty and the establishment of a fairly prosperous society. 

To understand what the CPC considers itself to be today, one should consider "the spirit of the ox" which President Xi Jinping promoted in 2020. Xi highlighted the spirit of serving the people as willing steers, blazing new trails in development as pioneering bulls and engaging in an arduous struggle as hardworking oxen.

Willing steers mirror the CPC's heart-and-soul promise to serve the people without any strings attached. The blazing new trails symbolize the impetus for innovation and pioneering, which has been a strategic turn for China toward technological progress and development to achieve self-reliance. And pioneering bulls represent the concept of hard labor, the willingness to do the most difficult work. 

All these icons are united to form a picture of the CPC as a powerful, disciplined, action-oriented force, oriented toward the rejuvenation of the nation.