Demystifying China — 100 years of CPC
MY latest book “100 Years of Communist Party of China” was launched at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad on 22 September 2021.
My first exposure to China was when as a student of Class V my school took me along with a group of students to welcome Chinese Premier Zhou-en-Lai during his visit to Pakistan.
Later in 1974 as a young pilot officer, I first visited China as an aircrew on board the C-130 aircraft of PAF and continued visiting for many more years.
In 1976, I was in Urumqi when the news of the demise of Chairman Mao Zedong was received, which devastated the whole nation.
After retirement, I took up journalism as a career and craved to visit China. My chance finally came in 2010 December, when on the eve of the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan, CPC invited a group of journalists to visit China in which I was included.
The visit was meticulously planned and organized but on reaching Beijing, we realized that a visit to the mausoleum of Chairman Mao Zedong was not included in our itinerary. We requested our hosts, who obliged.
When we reached Tiananmen Square early in the morning, it was cold, wet and dreary but the whole of Tiananmen Square was jam packed with tourists, lined up to pay homage to Mao.
We were touched that people still revere Mao so much that they brave the inclement weather to pay respects to Mao.
On 8 November 2012, on the occasion of the 18th National Congress of the CPC over 1000 journalists, analysts and opinion builders were invited from all over the world. I was the only Pakistani to have been invited, which was a singular honour.
We were also taken to Shanghai to visit 105 Wantz Road, where the first meeting of CPC was held on 21 July 1921 but the meeting was interrupted by a police raid.
The next day the session was continued on a boat on the South Lake. A painting of the meeting on the boat has been depicted on the cover of my book.
It whetted my appetite for researching about the working, the origin and structure of CPC. I was appalled at the amount of criticism by the West about CPC and China, till I came across a Chinese folk-tale about a man who lost his axe but became suspicious that his neighbour had stolen it.
As he observed the actions and movement of his neighbour, he became convinced that his neighbour was the culprit and thief.
Fortunately, he found the axe in his own home and felt sheepish for suspecting his neighbour. Now when he observed his neighbour, he appeared to be innocent.
The moral of the story is that when you perceive people with bias, you will find faults with them but if your perception is with an open mind, you will see the truth.
The same is true for CPC, which is a progressive party, which is not mired in archaic traditions and rules which are outdated.
CPC has the capacity to look inwards, and apply course correction and it has strived continuously to make China a better place with remarkable achievements in science and technology and new endeavours to reach outer space.
CPC represents the Chinese nation and not a specific stratum of society. It boldly indulges in self-criticism to eradicate corruption.
CPC faced numerous trials, famine, cultural revolution and other calamities. There was a plus side of the Cultural Revolution too.
Xi Jinping’s father, who was the Vice Premier, was purged while Xi Jinping, as a youth, was sent to a farmhouse in remote Shaanxi, where he spent seven years under very trying conditions.
His dwelling was a cave where his bed was of bricks with straw lining covered with a coarse blanket. There he toiled hard, learnt the dignity of labour and the problems of the common man.
That increased his resolve to serve the nation by joining the CPC, work hard to lead it and become the paramount leader.
For a quarter of a century, the world had turned its back on the People’s Republic of China and instead granted recognition to Taiwan as the Republic of China.
Pakistan played a role in getting China and the USA closer and paved the way forward by clandestinely organizing US National Security Advisor (Later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger to visit Beijing via PIA, which was the only foreign airline operating to China. CPC has managed to eradicate absolute poverty from China, which is a miracle of the century.
No other country can boast of this achievement while the CPC managed to achieve it well ahead of the deadline. Now the party is poised to accomplish the second centenary goal.
In 2049, when China celebrates 100 years of its independence, the CPC resolved to turn China into a modern socialist country.
In my opinion, the greatest achievement of the CPC has been the bold handling of COVID-19.
While many advanced nations struggled with death toll in hundreds of thousands and shattered economies, China has managed to keep the death toll to around 6,000 only by protecting its own citizens and insulating them.
China has magnanimously reached out to other countries, sharing its experience and expertise as well as providing protective equipment and anti-COVID vaccines, free of cost to the less developed nations. Pakistan needs to learn from the experience of China and emulate them. Long live Pak-China friendship.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.
