Parties urged to pursue modernization suited to national conditions

Political parties should draw on their countries' history and culture, pursue modernization suited to national conditions and work to improve people's well-being, a senior Communist Party of China official said on Thursday.

Liu Haixing, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a thematic briefing in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, held under the "Stories of the CPC" program.

More than 200 political party leaders, think tank scholars, business representatives and media professionals from over 50 countries attended the event, which presented Shaanxi as a window into China's modernization experience.

The discussion centered on what the CPC calls the "two integrations" — integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities and with China's fine traditional culture.

Liu said the CPC would continue to draw strength from China's history and fine traditional culture, remain deeply rooted among the people and stay open to the world.

Every country and nation has its own history, which offers valuable guidance as it explores a development path suited to its circumstances, he said.

The CPC is ready to share useful practices and strengthen mutual learning with political parties in other countries as they pursue their own distinctive paths to modernization, Liu said.

Whether in government or opposition, and regardless of ideology, political parties have people who support them and bear a responsibility to work for the public good, he said.

On that basis, Liu called for closer exchanges among political parties to promote social equity and improve people's well-being through development.

He also encouraged dialogue on how traditional cultures could be preserved, adapted and renewed for contemporary life, thereby giving modernization stronger cultural foundations.

Nguyen Xuan Thang, chairman of the Central Theory Council of the Communist Party of Vietnam, said the CPC's experience showed that the vitality of a theory lies not in repeating ready-made models or formulas, but in its ability to answer the major questions confronting a country, its people and the times.

Experiences from different countries could offer inspiration, he said, but must be applied creatively in accordance with each country's specific conditions.

During his visit to Yan'an, Nguyen said he saw the city preserving its revolutionary heritage while developing specialty agriculture, advancing ecological conservation and poverty reduction, and promoting sustainable tourism.

"The best way to honor earlier generations is to turn the revolutionary spirit into the capacity to pursue innovation-driven development," he said, adding that such development should create jobs, raise incomes, expand opportunities and improve people's lives.

Nguyen said Vietnam and China had learned from each other while following distinct development paths, with both grounding their policies in reality, putting people first and seeking to unlock society's creative potential.

He called for closer cooperation in theoretical research, cadre training, digital governance, science and technology, green agriculture and heritage preservation. Such practical cooperation, he said, would build on the two countries' shared history, deepen strategic trust and deliver more tangible benefits to their peoples.

Iryna Staravoitava, second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, said the "two integrations" had helped China forge a national development path distinct from Western models and had yielded concrete results in industry, agriculture and technology.

She cited the China-Belarus Industrial Park, known as Great Stone, which is developing into an international hi-tech industrial cluster, as a prominent example of practical cooperation between the two countries.

Francis Michael, head of the Party School of Tanzania's Chama Cha Mapinduzi, said the significance of China's experience for Africa lies not only in the scale of its economic achievements but also in the development path that produced them.

China's development demonstrated the importance of a clear national vision, long-term commitment, hard work, strategic independence and policies that were tested and adjusted in practice, he said.

Developing countries could participate in the international system while retaining the right to choose their own development paths, Michael said, adding that international cooperation should strengthen rather than weaken national ownership of development.

For Africa, he said, this meant moving beyond dependence on raw material exports and building industrial capacity, infrastructure, skills, technology and domestic markets.

The task was to turn friendship into more productive partnerships, infrastructure into production capacity and natural resources into a driving force for industrialization, Michael said.