China in My Life and Memory
By ANATOLY AFANASIEVICH TOZIK
I am personally grateful to fate – and to our president – for giving me the opportunity to live and work for almost five years in this wonderful country. It was very likely the most interesting, intense and most professionally productive period of my life. My very own Chinese "Five-year Plan period" was especially fascinating for the fact that every year, barring 2006, marked a significant social or political event in the country that won the attention of the global community.
The year 2007 saw the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). At the time, the CPC boasted 75 million members. The congress made an in-depth, comprehensive analysis on the state of Chinese society. I can make that claim with authority – I studied the main documents presented at the congress, for which Russian translations were available.
The congress also identified the focal areas, pace and stages of development for China in its 12th Five-Year Plan through to the year 2020. In his speech at the congress, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that by 2020 China was to raise its per capita GDP to four times that of the year 2000. He stressed that the congress had set the country the tasks of moving toward universal prosperity and stimulating the full potential of its populace. The country should continue to build on its development and ensure all its citizens enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
The CPC Central Committee elected by the 17th National Congress made significant changes to the makeup of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. It installed four new members (out of a total of nine), including two relatively young leaders -- 54-year-old Xi Jinping and 52-year-old Li Keqiang. The two were subsequently elected to the posts of Vice President of the PRC and Vice Premier of the State Council respectively in March 2008. It was suggested that in five years' time the two leaders could be candidates for the top two posts in the country's leadership.
The Year 2008 remains in my memory as the year of the 29th Summer Olympiad. I still remember my awe at the tremendous work done by the Chinese leadership and, without exaggeration, by all Chinese people to prepare for and ensure the success of the Games. No country has ever invested so much in holding the Olympics as China did, and no previous games were organized as well as Beijing's. And it is unlikely in my opinion that any hosting country in the next 20 years will emulate the high standards set by the 2008 Games.
In 2009, China held grand celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the modern Chinese state – the People's Republic of China. It was also time to celebrate another milestone – 30 years since the beginning of its reform and opening up. The country took stock of the results of the policies and measures introduced during the last three decades and its leadership and think tanks analyzed their accumulated experience thus far. There was intense discussion of the path the country has taken and will continue to take in adapting its national economy and political system to new domestic and international realities.
Undoubtedly the crowning glory of all 60th anniversary celebrations was the military parade and workers' march on October 1, 2009. To say that the day was impressive is a wild understatement. I am sure that most people who witnessed these events with their own eyes will remember them for a lifetime. The organizers of the parade and the march, in which more than 200,000 people participated, managed to show the world what modern China stands for. China's military, economic and scientific and cultural potential were on brilliant, proud display that day. And a side note: all the technology of display at the parade, including the ground and air military equipment, was domestically developed.
Finally, 2010 saw the World Expo held in Shanghai. The location of the exhibition was not chosen accidentally – for centuries, Beijing and Shanghai have competed with each other and jealously taken note of each other's successes (just like Washington and New York, and Moscow and Petersburg). The Olympics were awarded to Beijing, and so the Expo had to be in Shanghai. As with the Olympics, the whole country worked toward the success of the Expo. But the main burden of the event still fell on the authorities – and the budget – of the city of Shanghai. In the process, the Southern Dynamo proved that it could hold world-class events just as well as the northern Capital. Furthermore, according to some parameters, holding the Expo was a bigger task than running the Olympics. The exhibitions in Shanghai were open for six months, while the Games lasted two weeks. 73 million people attended the Expo – the Olympics saw "only" 6.5 million visitors.
It's worth giving separate praise to the excellent organization of services that catered to those 73 million visitors – to the hotels and transport systems, information and public services, security apparatuses, restaurants and others.
We all know there have been tremendous changes in China over the past years. For such a vast country to experience such rapid development is a phenomenon without precedent in the history of mankind. Today China is the world's second largest economy. The average growth rate of GDP over the 30 years of reforms stands at 9.8 percent. For many years this growth rate topped 10-11 percent. In 2011, the per capita GDP of the country reached US $5,400. Foreign exchange reserves have exceeded the equivalent of US $3 trillion. Issues of food security have been resolved. And, perhaps most importantly, in many areas of industry and science and technology the country is number one in the world.
