A march of progress: the road to prosperity
- Source: Global Times
- [01:00 October 01 2009]
- Comments
When a sea of people march in a mass pageant and grand military parade today to celebrate the 60th birthday of New China, they will take a route that goes from Jianguomen (Gate of Country Founding) to Fuxingmen (Gate of Nation Revival) in the heart of Beijing.
With the spectacular march showcasing the tremendous progress made since its founding six decades ago, New China is taking another big step on its road toward prosperity.
If "Life begins at 60," as the popular Western saying goes, a 60th birthday is the time to simplify the complicated and to get to the real meaning of life.
It is the same with New China: No matter how complicated the situation on the road is, human development is the key.
Regardless of how many freeways are built in China, or how many cars are owned by Chinese families, China's biggest progress in the past six decades undoubtedly lies in the fact that it has successfully fed a quarter of the world's population with less than 10 percent of the planet's arable land and 5 percent of its fresh water resources.
Without following the lead of either the former Soviet Union or the Western nations, China has given its people the ability to survive, the very first step toward human development, in its own way.
Its socialist road to prosperity has been given more human faces since China included the protection and respect of human rights in its Constitution in 2004.
The enactment of laws such as the Property Law and the Environmental Protection Law have shown a policy shift toward a more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and human-oriented modern society.
From the time when millions of Chinese people struggled to fill their stomachs to the current era when China ranks as the third-largest economy in the world, from the period when human nature was often suppressed to a time when individuals' rights to choose and to develop are much more respected, China has come a long way.
There have been many lessons learned, and many more rich experiences to take pride in. But all hinge on the emancipation of the mind and human liberation of the Chinese people.
China's road forward is not going to be an easy one, either.
Questions remain to be answered, including: How to keep the economy growing in a sustainable way? How to strengthen the soft power of the nation? How to deliver social justice to the greatest majority of the public? How to effectively improve democracy? Above all, how to enhance the human development of all Chinese people?
Despite these questions and uncertainties, it is without a doubt that China will take an innovative approach to arouse the initiative of its citizens by exploring their value as human beings, as it has done in the past 60 years.
Six decades ago, Mao Zedong, founding chairman of New China, proclaimed that "The Chinese people have stood up!" What he said carries even deeper meaning today.
On China's road toward prosperity, toward the "free and all-round development of human beings," as Marxism puts it, the Chinese people who have stood up and taken pride in their nation will continue to show their power and to create more miracles that will amaze the world.
