China Has Achieved Goal of Building Moderately Prosperous Society, President Xi Says

What’s new: China has achieved the goal of building a moderately well-off society and is on its way to becoming a “great modern socialist country,” President Xi Jinping announced at an event celebrating the Communist Party’s 100-year anniversary.

“China has realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects,” President Xi Jinping told a crowd of thousands gathered at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Thursday morning.

He also said the country has realized “a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty.”

“We are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects,” he said, referring to the goal set for 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The background: The concept of setting two centenary goals was first introduced in 1997 by then Communist Party head Jiang Zemin. The two centenary goals have also been included in the party’s constitution, amended in 2017 at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party.

The first centenary goal is to “build a moderately prosperous society in all respects” by 2021, which includes poverty alleviation as a central target. In February, Xi declared that the country had achieved “total victory” in eradicating absolute poverty.

The second centenary goal is to “build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious” by 2049.

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Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)