What the 100th Anniversary of the CPC Means for Humanity

ABSTRACT

The CPC’s 100th anniversary is not only of significance for China. The CPC, since the creation of the People’s Republic of China, has led the greatest improvement in the conditions of the largest number of people, and the greatest proportion of humanity, in any country in history. In just over 70 years China has gone from almost the world’s poorest country, as measured by per capita GDP, to the brink of a high-income economy by World Bank classification—this level will be achieved within three years. High-income economies today include 16% of the world’s population, but China is 18% of the world’s population. China becoming a high-income economy will therefore more than double the proportion of the world’s population living in high-income economies—producing a radical change in the global situation. China’s achievements include the fastest sustained economic growth in any major country in human history, the fastest rise in average living standards of any major country, and the lifting of 853 million people out of World Bank defined poverty—almost three out of every four people lifted from poverty in the world. These are the precise results of the CPC’s integration of Marxism with Chinese reality.

KEYWORDS:

• The CPC’s 100th anniversary
• high-income economy
• eliminating of poverty
• humanity

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021.

2 See http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-06/01/content_5614684.htm.

3 See http://www.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0607/c437595-32124020.html.

4 See note 2.

5 See note 2.

6 Calculated from Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy.

7 Ibid.

8 Calculated from World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 See “Taking China’s Pulse.” Harvard Gazette, July 9, 2020. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/.

12 See note 3.

13 See https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/cpc/history/01.htm.

14 Ibid.

15 See http://www.scio.gov.cn/m/32618/Document/1531269/1531269.htm.

16 See note 13.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Ross

John Ross is currently Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. From 2000–2008 he was Director of Economic and Business Policy for the Mayor of London. He was also an adviser to multinational companies. He is the author of numerous articles on the Chinese and international economies including “Why the Economic Reform Succeeded in China and Will Fail in Russia and Eastern Europe,” and “Deng Xiaoping and John Maynard Keynes.”