Global benefits of socialism hailed at forum

Western ideas of governance are not only path to development, official says

China's social governance and its socialist system with Chinese characteristics - which have been increasingly valued by the rest of the world - are of global significance and offer a reference for nations pursuing independent rapid development, said a senior official.

"China's social system and governance are effective and successful," Jiang Jianguo, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said at an international forum featuring the significance of China's governance to the world, held in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, on Monday.

"Take the poverty alleviation work as an example. In the past 70 years, we've carried out a continuous mission of lifting our people out of poverty, which has helped over 800 million people shake off poverty."

He said that the remaining 6 million impoverished people will be lifted out poverty next year, building the nation into a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

"The extreme poverty that has beset the nation for thousands of years will be solved, showing that our social system is effective and of great success," he added.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC earlier this month adopted a decision on how to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advance the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance. It pointed out that the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and China's system of governance are systems of strong vitality and strength as proven by practice.

Li Junru, former vice-president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said that China's governance has shown developing countries that Western ideas for political systems are not the only way to achieve modernization, adding that the experiences that China can share with others include the socialist market economic system, the employment system, the inclusive social security system and poverty alleviation system.

"We created our way for modernization featuring Chinese characteristics, which led the nation to build a social system and governance different from the Western one," he said. "It can also be shared by other countries, especially the developing ones."

China's distinguishing governance that delivered shared welfare to people is also appreciated around the world.

"In Britain, we make the rather simplistic distinction between central and local government, but that serves unfortunately to push people's initiatives into a third sector or civil society seen as distinct from government," said Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences.

"Social governance in China is rooted in a centuries' old culture where government is integral to people's relationships with each other," he said.

Jiri Paroubek, former prime minister of the Czech Republic, said that China's sociopolitical model is attractive to developing countries.

"The West has understood the Washington consensus to mean that any successful development of a state is possible only under the conditions that it accepts Western ideas of political systems - this has worked in Japan and South Korea - but for many developing countries, the Chinese model of economic development and social politics is, and surely will be, one worth following," he said.