July 1 marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Over the past century, China has undergone transformative changes that have fundamentally altered the fate of its people and significantly impacted the course of world history. The key to China's remarkable achievements lies in the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Understanding modern China requires an understanding of the CCP.
During the modern era, China, like other East Asian nations, was forced to open its doors to Western powers. The hardships faced by China were particularly long and severe. To avoid collapse, the Chinese people sought various solutions to save their nation, with many patriots sacrificing their lives, but unfortunately, all efforts ended in failure.
In 1921, in response to the demands of the times, the CCP was established. It faced a challenging path, enduring brutal repression and several life-and-death crises. However, with an indomitable spirit, the CCP overcame difficulties, uniting and leading the Chinese people to dismantle the three great obstacles of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, ultimately establishing the People's Republic of China. The new China has continuously improved its institutional foundations, firmly safeguarded its sovereignty and security, and successfully charted a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics through reform and opening up. This has resulted in two miracles: rapid economic growth and long-term social stability.
Today, the CCP is the world's largest political party, boasting over 100 million members and more than 5 million grassroots party organizations. Through a century of refinement and continuous self-innovation, the CCP has developed several distinguishing characteristics. First, it maintains a focus on the people, making the happiness of the Chinese people the starting point and goal of all its work, earning heartfelt support from all ethnic groups in China. Second, it upholds advancement, accurately understanding China's national conditions and viewing global changes from a macro perspective. It learns from experiences and lessons in line with the development of the times, maintaining a resilient attitude. Third, it emphasizes strategy, integrating long-term strategies with phased goals while rejecting short-term performance-oriented governance. This ensures stable national development and sustained momentum. Fourth, it upholds purity, continuously strengthening the party's political, ideological, organizational, and disciplinary foundations to maintain a healthy organization, fully shouldering the responsibility of promoting national development and achieving national rejuvenation.
The CCP recognizes the challenges of long-term governance, reform and opening up, market economy, and external pressures. It actively works to prevent risks associated with complacency, lack of capability, disconnection from the masses, and corruption. The CCP reviews itself in response to the demands of the times, awakens through a sense of crisis, and improves through self-revolution. It also maintains strict party management and robust anti-corruption policies, ensuring a strong political consciousness and a commitment to ongoing self-revolution.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, China-South Korea relations have developed rapidly, with both countries building a strategic cooperative partnership. In recent years, many South Korean friends have praised China for its vibrant innovation, rapid technological advancement, and significant increase in international influence. They hope for enhanced understanding and deeper cooperation between the two countries. However, some still view the CCP through an ideological lens, influenced by misinformation and entrenched biases.
China and South Korea are important neighbors and cooperative partners, and friendly cooperation is the only correct choice for both nations. To engage and cooperate with China, it is essential to engage with and understand the CCP, which will enhance mutual trust and cooperation. The ideals, beliefs, struggles, goals, policies, and actions of the CCP are all publicly available through party documents, reflecting the ideological consensus and guiding principles of the Chinese government and people.
China and South Korea have different national conditions. Just as China respects South Korea's social systems and development paths, South Korea should equally respect the leadership of the CCP and the socialist system chosen by the Chinese people. It is hoped that all sectors in South Korea will recognize the CCP and modern China from an objective, rational, and open perspective, fostering trust through understanding and promoting cooperation through trust. This will help ensure that China-South Korea relations develop in a healthy, stable, and positive direction, gathering more consensus and capabilities.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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