The turmoil in the American elections is an unquestionable and concrete reflection of the collapse of the United States of America. The internal turmoil will continue regardless of who becomes the President of the United States. These shocking internal upheavals will conclude when the US ceases to impose its hegemony on the world.
LET BYGONES BE BYGONES
We need to focus our attention on what is developing, not on what is receding.
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, and its 15-year goals for 2035 indicate significant changes as the country prepares for a new push toward socialism.
The process that has become apparent today, started in China in 2006 with the 11th Five-Year Plan. When Xi Jinping was elected as the General Secretary of the CPC in 2012, the door that was left open to neo-liberalism between 1992 and 2002 was abandoned. The success that was proven during the Mao period continued to prevail, and it is what Chinese people call “the new era of socialism in China”.
HAS THE PRINCIPAL CONTRADICTION IN CHINA CHANGED?
This is not to say that there are no internal contradictions in China: there certainly are! The 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress convened in Beijing on October 18th 2017, where Chinese President Xi Jinping presented a report on behalf of the 18th CPC Central Committee to the 19th National Congress. Xi used the following expressions:
“As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved. What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.” (1)
The evolving of the principal contradiction is the key to a “new era” in socialism with Chinese characteristics. Evolving the principal contradiction essentially means that the development philosophy and strategy must be evolved. Starting with changes in China, the Party and the state, the country will move toward a more advanced social structure.
TARGETS OF THE 14th FIVE-YEAR PLAN
Last week we discussed how the CPC Central Committee’s proposals to formulate the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2021-2025) and the Long-Term Goals by 2035 were adopted at the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing.
The CPC announced the Party leadership’s proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan and its long-term goals in full text. The CPC also published an informative speech by Xi Jinping.
(2)
According to the statement made by the CPC, the drafting process was officially kicked off on April 13th when a drafting group headed by Xi Jinping held its first plenary meeting.
Xi stated that the drafting group studied all the comments and suggestions sent to them individually, holding discussions and revising all proposals many times. A total of 546 comments and suggestions were reflected in the proposals, Xi said, calling the drafting process “a vivid example of the CPC’s intra-party democracy, and China’s socialist democracy.”
Xi underlined the importance of properly handling “five relations” — the relations between building on past achievements and seeking innovations, between the government and the market, between opening-up and self-reliance, between development and security and between strategy and tactics — as the principles in drafting the proposals.
HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT
Xi stated that China should focus on promoting high-quality development within its 14th Five-Year Plan period. This is based on the scientific assessments of the stage, environment, and conditions for the country’s development.
To forestall and defuse various kinds of risks and proactively address challenges brought by external changes, China needs to focus on taking care of its own matters and improving the quality of development, said Xi.
Xi also stressed efforts to remain committed to the new development philosophy, focus on deepening the supply-side structural reform, and transforming the development model to deliver real benefits to all the people.
Establishing a new development pattern where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other with the domestic market as the mainstay is a strategic choice to raise the level of China’s economic development, as well as to forge new advantages in global economic cooperation and competition, according to Xi. In recent years, along with the changes in the global political and economic environment, the upsurge in deglobalization and the unilateralism and protectionism acts by certain country, the traditional global circulation has been notably weakened, Xi said, urging efforts to root China’s development inside the country and rely more on the domestic market to achieve economic growth.
“Promoting a large-scale and smooth domestic economic circulation will help better attract global resources, meet domestic needs, elevate industrial and technological development and foster new advantages in global economic cooperation and competition,” Xi said.
THE INDISPENSABLE GOAL OF SOCIALISM: COMMON PROSPERITY
Reiterating the importance of “common prosperity,” Xi said it is an essential requirement of socialism, and the shared aspiration of all Chinese people.
It is necessary to further emphasize promoting common prosperity for everyone as China embarks on a journey to fully build a modern socialist country, Xi said.
The proposals called for “more notable and substantial progress in promoting common prosperity for everyone,” and “solid efforts to push forward common prosperity,” Xi noted.
Such expressions were included, for the first time, in the documents of the CPC Central Committee plenary sessions, Xi said, adding that the expectations strike a balance between necessity and feasibility, and will be conducive to advancing common prosperity for everyone.
In the explanatory speech, Xi also underlined ensuring both development and security as well as the need to uphold a systematic concept in development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
CHANGE IN THE “OPENING-UP AND REFORM” POLICY
Xi Jinping also chaired the 16th meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform on November 2nd 2020. (3)
Xi said the country is set to enter a new phase of development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), and its reform has arrived at a new juncture.
Xi, who is head of the committee, called for a profound understanding of the new characteristics and requirements that arise with the changes in the main contradictions within the Chinese society, new challenges from the complex international environment, and new tasks in the latest phase of deepening overall reform. ‘It is important to carry out the new development philosophy, pursue high-quality development, work toward a new development pattern and focus on solving prominent problems,’ he said.
STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES ARE ESSENTIAL
According to a statement made after the meeting, the goal was to make state-owned sectors stronger, better and bigger, and to fight decisively against the loss of state assets. It was stated that, “In optimizing the distribution and adjusting the structure of the State-owned sector, meeting participants stressed the importance of focusing on ensuring strategic security, driving the growth of industries, benefiting national welfare and people’s livelihoods and offering public services.”
China will introduce a system of “Forest Chiefs” as part of broader measures to prioritize the protection of the environment and make clear the responsibility of government officials at various levels to protect forests and grasslands, the statement said.
A policy document was adopted at the meeting to refine the delisting mechanism for listed companies. A guideline that targets wrongdoing in securities was also approved.
After this meeting, the public offering of Jack Ma’s Ant Group company, the owner of Alibaba, was stopped by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
It pledged continuous efforts to deepen overall reform in education in the next five years, with steps to refine the structure of education, disciplines and talent and to narrow the divide between urban and rural areas.
Meeting participants urged concrete steps to implement the set of reform tasks and measures proposed during the Fifth Plenary Session, saying that more progress must be made in improving fair competition, integrating the development of innovation and industry chains, spurring the vitality of market players, and improving income allocation.
CONCLUSION: A CIVILIZATION BASED ON THE STATE IS RISING
What is reflected in the collapse of the USA is that the individual profit system has now reached a level that threatens humanity, and our world. Humanity has found a way to develop by protecting nature, and humanity itself. The civilization emerging from Asia is a civilization based on the importance of the state. It is more humane and has set the basic principle of promoting common welfare. In order for Turkey to overcome the dictates of the Atlantic system, it will need to undergo such a production revolution, and if it does so, it will surely come to the forefront of the emerging Asian civilizations.