A blueprint for China’s reform, a catalyst for common development

Last month, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully held in Beijing. The Plenum draws up a blueprint for further deepening reform com­prehensively to advance Chinese modernisation, brings stability to the turbulent world and increas­es momentum to promoting a human community with a shared future.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once said when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, “The future of humanity largely depends on China.”

That means China today closely interconnects and integrates with the wider world. I would like to share my understanding of the Plenum with three “Cs”: Consen­sus, Commitment and Contribu­tion.

Consensus on deepening reform comprehensively

As a Chinese poem goes: “How can the pond be so clear and cool? It’s because water comes fresh from the source. “Reform and opening up is the open secret for China to catch up with the times with big strides.

It is also the widest consensus for promoting high-quality and sustainable development. Upon summarising the historical lessons since the reform and opening up, the plenum reviewed and adopt­ed the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on further deep­ening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernisa­tion, which proposes more than 300 important reform measures across the board, including building a high-standard social­ist market economy, advancing whole-process people’s democra­cy, improving the people’s quality of life, building a beautiful China, advancing the Peaceful China Initiative to a higher level and improving the Party’s capacity for leadership and long-term gover­nance.

The Plenum formulates a road­map and time table for reform, which states that all tasks shall be completed within five years when the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 80thanniversary.

This indicates the unprece­dented determination, depth and breadth for a new chapter in comprehensively deepening reform.

Reform and opening up is a two-way street for China and the world. When China does well, the world will get even better. For years, China has contribut­ed around 30 per cent to global economic growth.

From artificial intelligence, 5G and quantum communication, to low-carbon agriculture, clean en­ergy and electric vehicles, China has further deepened reform to spur vitality, fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions for high-quality economic development.

As one of the most promising growth hubs, China continues to bring opportunities to interna­tional enterprises and investors, driving global growth and sustain­able development.

Commitment on high-stan­dard opening up

President Xi Jinping repeatedly stressed, “China’s door will never be closed, but will only open still wider.” Reform and opening up are two sides of the same coin.

China’s key to success is pro­moting reform and development through opening up. The Plenum spells out in detail the next steps in the area of opening up.

First, we’ll steadily expand institutional opening up, promote alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules and unilaterally open our doors wider to the world’s least developed countries. We’ll also actively participate in the reform of global economic governance.

Second, we’ll relax market access by shortening negative lists among others and further reform the management systems for trade and investment.

Third, we’ll optimise the layout for regional opening up, pro­mote further opening up in the central, western, and northeastern regions. We’ll also harness the in­stitutional strengths of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy to encourage Hong Kong and Macao play a greater role.

The plan sends a clear signal to expand high-quality opening up. Amid a volatile world with headwinds against globalisation, China’s dedication to building an open world economy brings max­imum certainty to the internation­al community.

In the first half of 2024, China has attracted nearly 500 billion Yuan of foreign investment, which remains at the highest level in the past decade. Nearly 27,000 foreign enterprises were newly registered nationwide, up 14.2 per cent year on year. This is a valuable vote of confi­dence by international investors in China’s business environment and development prospects.

Contribution on common progress and prosperity

The Plenum reiterates China’s commitment in pursuing an inde­pendent foreign policy of peace, improving the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, pur­suing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilisa­tion Initiative, calling for an equal and orderly multi polar world and universally beneficial and inclu­sive economic globalisa­tion, and getting involved in leading the reform and devel­opment of the global gover­nance system, so as to promote a human community with a shared future.

The Plenum also stresses to advance Chinese modernisation continuously through reform and opening up. Based on inde­pendence and our own efforts, Chinese modernisation blazes a unique trail different form “West­ernization”, providing useful experience for other developing countries to explore a path for modernisation suited to their national conditions.

Just as President Xi Jinping says, the modernisation we are pursuing is not for China alone. We are ready to work with all countries to advance global modernisation featuring peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and common pros­perity, and to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

From September 4 to 6, the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FO­CAC) will be held in Beijing, an event to celebrate China-Africa friendship, explore cooperation and chart the course for the future. China is Ghana’s largest trading partner and major source of investment. In 2023, the bilat­eral trade reached $11.04 billion, up 10.4 per cent year on year.

Over 9,000 Ghanaian friends visited China for tourism, busi­ness, study and official purposes. China and Ghana enjoy promis­ing prospects for bilateral cooper­ation in various fields.

China stands ready to work with Ghana to deepen prac­tical cooperation through strengthening exchang­es and coordination in key areas, so as to chart a win-win path to address emerging challenges and seize new opportu­nities.

The writer is the Chinese Ambassa­dor to Ghana

BY H.E. TONG DEFA