POVERTY ALLEVIATION
Unlike other political powers, the CPC has never sought external expansion during its development and rise, preferring to focus on improving the country's domestic situation.
To that end, one of the CPC's greatest successes has been its alleviation of poverty. The CPC has eliminated hunger for many people in China, ensuring the Party's long-term support from the Chinese people.
Yan Hongchang, a 63-year-old farmer from the village of Xiaogang in east China's Anhui Province, said he was told by villagers of his parents' generation that life in the region was miserable in the 1920s because of the scourge of warlords and bandits.
Without proper water control facilities, floods on the nearby Huaihe River plagued the village for many years. Many people were forced to leave their homes, turning to a life of begging.
During the War of Liberation, the villagers, who were then under the regime of the Kuomintang, were eagerly expecting a victory for the CPC, which had promised to give the peasants land and provide them with food.
The villagers of Xiaogang were right to expect a win from the CPC. They, like most poor peasants across the country, were given land in 1949.
Their lives continued to improve until the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a time of turbulence during which many Chinese suffered extraordinary hardships. "Without enough food to go around, everyone in my family had to go out to dig up edible wild herbs," Yan said.
In 1978, Yan and other villagers in Xiaogang signed a contract to secretly distribute the village's farmland among all of the village's households, which was illegal at the time.
The secret plan proved to be effective. In 1983, Yan's family harvested more than 10 tonnes of grain from 2 hectares of farmland, allaying their fears of starvation.
Yan did not expect that their adventurous move would later lead to the creation of a household contract responsibility system in rural China, which greatly emancipated productive forces in rural areas.
China had 26.88 million people living below the country's poverty line in 2010, compared with 250 million living in absolute poverty in 1978.
It is a great success, considering that 925 million people in the world still suffer from hunger.
However, the Party now faces the challenge of ensuring that the country's citizens live relatively comfortable lives and achieve common prosperity.
