CPC puts the people at center: South African senior official

Editor's note:

With the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluding in October 22, 2022, China has formally embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country with a new blueprint. As the congress attracted worldwide attention, People’s Daily Online interviewed a series of foreign experts, scholars, as well as those foreign friends residing in China, to learn their thoughts about the congress as well as China’s future development.

Cedric Frolic is a member of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa. Having served as the house chairperson for ANC committee's oversight and ICT for 12 years since 2010, Frolic has been impressed by the changes in Chinese society in all phases over the past decade.

“Not just the rapid development is taking place, but also I am impressed by the Chinese people,” said Frolic. “You can see the humility on people’s faces. They are modest about the achievements and progress they’ve made, and still they never ceased their steps on improving people’s lives, especially for those who live in poverties.”

Frolic pointed out that of the various reasons why China has achieved such a huge leap especially in the past decade, the key factor is none other than the leadership of the Communist Party of China. “All the works that the CPC had done has been centered around the well-being of people and to make people happy,” said Frolic. “You can recall that when the world economy has turned into a recession, China still managed to achieve growth, and they also managed to eradicate absolute poverty. None of the works could have been done if they didn’t put the people first”.

While highly paying attention to the 20th CPC National Congress as well as the report made by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Frolic also shared his opinions toward the congress on some of the crucial aspects such as China’s open-up policy.

“For me the most crucial aspect of the report is that China will continue opening up to the rest of the world,” said Frolic. “China’s open-up policy should deviate from the policies from the Western countries because China hasn’t colonized any countries in the world before. Instead, China’s open-up policies is based on the friendship as well as the mutual interest between China and the rest of the world, especially African countries.”

Frolic pointed out that China’s achievement in economic and social development can provide inspirations to the development of African countries. It will also help the ongoing China-Africa relationship to “take off even more than before”.

“Since China got involved into the development of African continent, we can see improvements in all phases such as infrastructure,” said Frolic. “The way that China and African countries develop their relationship is about people to people, and the same goes on the economic cooperation, which is also a deviation from Western countries when it comes to their relations with Africa that is built on exploitation and colonizing.”

The diplomatic relationship between China and South Africa will step to its 25th year anniversary in 2023. Being one of the international parties that has various interconnections with China, Frolic praised the relationship between the ANC and the CPC as well as the future of inter-party exchanges between the two parties.

“We are proud to build inter-party connections with the CPC since both parties are the leading parties in the governments respectively,” said Frolic. “It has proven to be successful because it advances the mutual interest for both of our people, and it also establishes trust, friendship, and mutual understanding of the unique cultures of the two countries.”

Frolic also believes that through economic cooperation within BRICS as well as the other programs that are in place between China and African countries, African countries including South Africa will see development and benefit.

As China has stepped into the new journey toward the second centenary goal of building a modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization, Frolic also shared his thoughts and wishes toward this upcoming new journey.

“The core part of Chinese modernization is to not leave people behind,” said Frolic. “This is something that the CPC has been doing all the time since people is the center for them to do their jobs. They know that the Party cannot be aloof and distanced from the people, so all their works they’ve been done are around the well-being of the people. The key aspect of putting people at the center will ultimately prove the success of the implementation of the modernization programs of the People's Republic of China.”