The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened on October 16, which is seen as a significant political event at a critical moment. The meeting will lay out the goals, tasks and major policies for the Party and country's future development. It has drawn attention worldwide, with around 2,500 journalists from home and abroad covering the event in Beijing from 16 to 22 October. ChinAfrica asked four African journalists, who are based in China and have witnessed the changes in Chinese people’s life, to share their opinions on the CPC’s achievements in the past decade.

A Paramount Role 

Bereket Sisay 

Journalist and editor of Ethiopian News Agency 

Climate change, insecurity, food crises and social upheaval are all threatening the world in which we all live; but there are also plenty of opportunities to propel the world forward. For this to happen, strong leadership, consistent policies, and committed statesmen who can fundamentally change course and veer towards continuous social and economic transformation are required.

In line with this, the CPC is now among the forces that are trusted and expected to make a stride in this regard, based on its achievements over decades.

The Party’s success in a number of important fields domestically and its constructive role in maintaining multilateralism and global partnerships have earned it appreciation and an important space within world politics.

China has long been known as a trusted global partner that promotes collaboration worldwide, with a shared view of mutual prosperity and growth for all humankind. China has been pushing countries, despite their differences, to subscribe to common agendas such as development, peace, democracy and so forth.

Environmental Progress in China 

Ephrahim Bahemu 

Reporter of Mwananchi Communications Ltd. in Tanzania 

Environmental protection is a global campaign, and China has taken intensive measures in this direction in the past decade under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China.

Latest data show that China ranks first in the world in the area of planted forests and forest growth, contributing a quarter of the new forest area in the world in the past decade.

The secret to China’s success is its extensive environmental conservation campaign, including preserving existing ecosystems, adding new forests, grasslands, and wetlands, and combating desertification.

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the accumulated afforestation area reached 64 million hectares in the past 10 years, while 11 million hectares of grasslands were improved and more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands were added or restored.

Among the things that may surprise many visitors is the way the grass, flowers, and trees are cared for with passion and knowledge in different cities, and where necessary, trees are treated with injections.

Grass and flowers have been planted under elevated roads and bridges in cities. On a walk with my friend from Africa in the city of Weihai, Shandong Province, we were surprised to see red roses planted on the side of the road.

People who visited this country in the past say that it was normal to see heavy smoke in big cities and the air was not good, but now you can see clear skies and breathe clear air in cities across China.

China’s efforts to expand its forest area and improve forest quality have contributed to the country’s goal to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

A People-Centred Human Rights Approach 

Bryan Otieno 

Correspondent with The Star in Kenya 

The people-centred human rights philosophy adopted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) seeks to protect fundamental rights that mankind must be accorded to enjoy life.

These include the right to a clean environment, the right to good health, and eventually, the right to enjoy a fuller and fairer share of the country’s development.

The ultimate goal is to create an equal society where social fairness and justice are at the centre, and work towards meeting the people’s aspirations for a continuously better life.

Those who run the government on behalf of the people - because the goal is to have the people run the country in the development of the whole-process people’s democracy - want to ensure that the fundamental interests of the majority of Chinese people are safeguarded.

China has ratified or acceded to 26 international human rights treaties. These include six core UN human rights treaties.

China has also been elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council five consecutive times. As a testament to China’s human rights record, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has since 2017 thrice adopted the resolution The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights proposed by China.

This shows that China’s human rights philosophy and achievements have been widely recognised by the international community, according to Liu Yantao, the Chinese ambassador to Cyprus.

According to available data, China has completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and put an end to absolute poverty. In 2021, China’s per-capita income reached $12,551, more than the global average. There are smiles on more Chinese people’s faces today.

This can also be seen in how the people cheer for their leaders even in seemingly small actions.

According to human nature, a happy person will be more willing to help a stranger on the street than a sad one.

During my short stay in China so far, I have on more than five occasions stopped strangers on the streets to ask for help, whether it is for direction, for interpretation of a Chinese text or having someone send money to my Alipay app in exchange for cash, and on all occasions, the strangers helped me without any hesitation.

At the beginning, I did not understand this phenomenon given the fact that I come from a country where being approached by a stranger will instinctively make your adrenaline devise some defensive mechanism at first, until the stranger makes you more comfortable by speech or action.

I later realised that most of the people in China are happy, meaning the CPC has to a large extent achieved its objective of ensuring that the society at large is one happy family.

In October 2021, at the General Debate of the Third Committee of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, summed it up: “The best answer for China’s human rights situation lay in the happy lives and smiling faces of the Chinese people.”

Fascinating Transformation

Nelson Kiva

Reporter with The New Vision in Uganda

The all-round transformation that China has witnessed over a not-so-long period is indeed fascinating. It is an outcome of right policies adopted by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

As a Ugandan journalist, I have long been captivated by the stories about China and the people who visited the country before me.

Especially, the country’s rapid transformation in the last decade brought about by the CPC ideologies and programmes developed in the new era is indeed intriguing.

I used to wonder how the country’s leadership has ensured stability and achieved broad-based transformation. The last three months I have been in Beijing have been quite revealing.

I have observed that China is a highly secure society, in contrast to the stories of crime we hear elsewhere including in the Western capitals. This is a country where you can move around during the night and nobody will touch you, which is uncommon in many parts of the world.

The secure environment ensured by the CPC governance has broadly worked as an advantage for the economy, especially tourism and adventure.

Despite being in a COVID-19 era, local and foreign tourists are flocking to the attractions such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the National Museum, the Tiananmen Square, as well as sites in provinces.

The crisscrossing mega roads, railway networks, airports, and protected and beautified river banks across China, not just in big cities such as Beijing, all point to good leadership. The greening and the beatification of cities is an example of the praiseworthy work done by the CPC, under the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.