Economics and a compass: China and the world
The 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China is more than a historical milestone. It marks the evolution of one of the most consequential political institutions of the modern era. During its existence, the Party has guided China through national liberation, state-building, economic modernization and, increasingly, the shaping of international governance. Whether one agrees with China’s political system or not, its historical impact is undeniable.
China’s story is not simply one of economic growth. It is the story of a civilization rebuilding itself after more than a century of foreign invasion, internal division and national humiliation.
When the Communist Party was founded in 1921, China was politically fragmented, economically impoverished and militarily weak. The collapse of the Qing Dynasty had left competing warlords struggling for power. Foreign states occupied Chinese territory under unequal treaties. The Japanese invasion had brought devastation on a scale almost unimaginable today. Poverty was widespread. Literacy was limited. Life expectancy was approximately 35 years.
The Party’s first achievement was restoring sovereignty. Without sovereignty there could be no independent development. Its second achievement was political unity. Fragmentation gave way to a functioning national government capable of administering one of the world’s largest populations. Its third achievement was constructing the institutions necessary for long-term development.
This foundation often receives less attention than the economic reforms that followed, yet it made those reforms possible.
China’s modernization began with nation-building. Literacy campaigns dramatically expanded education. Unfortunately, minority groups were allowed to maintain differences while the vast majority adopted Mandarin as the common national language, necessary to strengthen communications and mobility across regions. Public health campaigns improved life expectancy. Infrastructure connected isolated communities. Education ceased to be the privilege of a small elite and became the foundation of national progress.
Culture played an equally important role.
China did not seek modernization by abandoning its civilizational identity. Instead, it adapted Marxism to Chinese realities while drawing upon thousands of years of cultural traditions that emphasized education, social harmony, merit, family responsibility, long-term thinking and effective governance. Modernization became a process of combining historical continuity with institutional innovation, not about abandoning the old for the new.
Economic reforms and the “opening up” accelerated this transformation.
Since 1978 China’s economy has expanded from approximately US$150 billion to nearly US$19 trillion. More than 800 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, accounting for nearly three-quarters of global poverty reduction according to the World Bank. Life expectancy has risen to almost 79 years. Literacy now exceeds 97 percent. China produces more than one-quarter of global manufacturing output. It operates the world’s largest high-speed rail network, now exceeding 48,000 kilometers. Seven of the world’s ten busiest container ports are Chinese. China has become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and renewable energy equipment while rapidly advancing in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, new materials, biotechnology and aerospace.
These outcomes were not inevitable.
The Party itself evolved through successive stages. It began as an ideological group committed to change, then a revolutionary movement committed to national liberation. In power it became an administrator responsible for rebuilding a shattered country. It has since evolved into the leadership of a modern socialist state managing one of the world’s most advanced and complex economies. During a time of geopolitical headwinds, climate change, and an economic paradigm shift due to the digital revolution.
China’s success is due to one characteristic: adaptation.
The Communist Party has repeatedly shown its pragmatic ability to adjust its policies without abandoning its objectives. Local experimentation precedes national implementation. Successful policies are expanded. Unsuccessful policies are revised or abandoned. Governance is treated as a continuous process of solving practical problems rather than defending ideological orthodoxy or empty promises. Planning, implementation, yearly report cards are the means by which China archives.
Equally important has been the Party’s emphasis on cultivating leadership. Governing a country of more than 1.4 billion people requires administrative capacity on an extraordinary scale. The Party has consistently emphasized identifying, training, promoting and retaining individuals capable of managing increasingly complex responsibilities. Merit, discipline, experience and long-term planning have become defining characteristics of China’s governance model.
None of this implies perfection.
China has experienced profound policy failures. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution imposed enormous costs upon Chinese society. Yet the reform era demonstrated something equally important: the capacity for institutional self-correction. Rather than remaining trapped by past mistakes, China reassesses its development strategy as necessary while preserving long-term national objectives. That willingness to evolve is the Party’s greatest institutional strength.
Public support reflects this record.
For Chinese families, development is measured through experience rather than political theory. Better schools. More opportunities. Better healthcare. More disposable income. Better environment. Longer lives. Modern transportation. Improved housing. Rising incomes. Safer communities. These changes have occurred across successive generations.
National pride has also become linked to economic development. The Party ended the “Century of Humiliation” and restored China’s future to its people. Economic modernization and national rejuvenation are now viewed as complementary rather than separate.
China is now entering the next stage of its development.
The emphasis has shifted from rapid growth to high-quality growth. The 15th Five-Year Plan focuses on advanced manufacturing, scientific innovation, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, green development, domestic consumption and technological self-reliance. Demographic change, environmental sustainability and geopolitical competition have replaced poverty reduction as the principal policy challenges.
The Party’s ambitions, however, now extend beyond China’s borders.
On 17 June 2026, only weeks before the Party celebrates its 105th anniversary, the State Council Information Office released More Just and Equitable Global Governance: China’s Principles, Proposals and Actions. The timing was significant. The document serves as both a policy statement and a historical marker, reflecting China’s transition from concentrating primarily on national development to proposing reforms for international governance.
The white paper introduces the Global Governance Initiative as the fourth pillar of China’s international vision, complementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
Together these four initiatives form a coherent framework.
Development creates prosperity.
Security provides stability.
Civilization promotes mutual understanding among diverse cultures.
Governance establishes the international institutions capable of sustaining peace, development and cooperation.
Rather than four independent proposals, they represent an integrated vision for managing an increasingly interconnected and multipolar world.
China’s argument is not that the post-war international order should be abandoned.
Quite the opposite.
The white paper explicitly reaffirms the central role of the United Nations and the principles of the UN Charter. The problem, from China’s perspective, is not the Charter itself but institutions that no longer adequately reflect contemporary realities.
The international system established after 1945 emerged from a world profoundly different from today’s. At that time much of Africa remained under colonial rule. China itself was impoverished. Most developing countries had little influence over global decision-making.
The world has fundamentally changed.
Developing countries now represent the overwhelming majority of humanity and an increasing share of global economic output. China alone contributes approximately 30 percent of global economic growth. Emerging economies account for most future global demand, investment and infrastructure development.
Yet representation within many international institutions has changed far more slowly.
China therefore advocates reform rather than replacement.
The white paper calls for strengthening the United Nations while expanding representation for developing countries, particularly Africa and the broader Global South, within the Security Council and other international institutions. It supports reforms to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank so voting rights more accurately reflect today’s distribution of economic activity. It argues that international rules governing artificial intelligence, cyberspace, outer space, the deep sea and the polar regions should be developed cooperatively rather than dominated by a small number of powerful states.
Underlying these proposals are five principles: sovereign equality among all nations; respect for international law and the UN Charter; genuine multilateralism; people-centered development; and practical cooperation instead of ideological confrontation.
This vision resonates strongly across much of the Global South.
Many developing countries increasingly argue that the institutions governing trade, finance, development and security should better reflect contemporary demographics, economic realities and developmental priorities. Their objective is not to dismantle the international system but to make it more representative, more democratic and more equitable.
China’s own development experience informs this perspective.
Its modernization demonstrates that countries can achieve prosperity without abandoning their own history, culture or institutions. Development does not require ideological uniformity. Different civilizations may legitimately pursue different pathways toward modernization while cooperating within a common international framework.
Life itself is dynamic. Every solution creates new challenges. Every generation confronts problems unimaginable to its predecessors. Successful governance therefore requires adaptation without sacrificing strategic direction.
That may ultimately define the Communist Party’s greatest achievement over the past 105 years.
It has evolved from a revolutionary organization into the governing institution of a modern socialist state. It has guided one of history’s largest poverty reduction campaigns, overseen one of the fastest periods of industrialization ever recorded and now seeks to contribute to the evolution of global governance itself.
China’s journey is therefore not complete.
National rejuvenation continues. Technological competition, demographic transition, environmental sustainability and geopolitical uncertainty will define the next stage of development.
The Party’s response suggests that China’s future is no longer viewed solely through a domestic lens. National rejuvenation is increasingly linked to building a more representative international order in which developing countries enjoy greater opportunity, greater participation and greater influence.
The release of the Global Governance Initiative on the eve of the Party’s 105th anniversary symbolizes that transition. Having rebuilt China, the Party now argues that the next historical task is helping to build a more just, more equitable and more inclusive international system—one that preserves the United Nations, reforms global institutions to reflect twenty-first century realities and ensures that the Global South becomes not merely a participant in global governance but one of its principal architects.
- Originally posted on Asia Narratives.