Why the CPC can steer China's modernization

Photo shows an exterior view of the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, capital of China, June 22, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

By Wang Yiwei

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee,once said, "To understand China today, one must firstunderstand the CPC." This July 1 marks the 104th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. According to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Party had surpassed 100.27 million members by the end of 2024. As the longest-ruling political party with the largest membershipin the world, why has the CPC managed to steer China towards modernization?

Firstly, through arduous struggle and forging a revolutionary path with Chinese characteristics, the CPCled the Chinese people in founding the New China in 1949, uniting a fragmented country into a unified whole. Building on Emperor Qin Shi Huang's unification of script, weights and measures, and social norms, the CPC furtherpromotedthe standardization of the spoken and written Chinese language.Through the land revolution, it ensured that the people truly held power, integrating the country, nation, and state into one unified identity, which is the people: The country is its people, the people are the country.In China, land belongs to the state, and so does the wealth beneath it. This laid the groundwork for building nationwide transportation and fiscal transfer systems. Following the reform and opening-up period, the concept of "land financialization" provided China with its first "pot of gold," fueling massive infrastructure development.

Secondly, by harnessing a system that mobilizes the entire nation's strength to tackle significant undertakings, the CPC accelerated China's agricultural revolution, then leapfrogged through industrial revolutions – each stage building upon the previous one like parallel circuits feeding the same current of modernization. The mechanism, in a nutshell: The Party rebuilds the state, the state reshapes the market, the market refashions society, and society reinvents civilization.

Take the way the state reshapes the market: It shattered the old Western liberal economic idea that government should act like a night watchman – honest, silent, and preferably out of the way. Instead, through massive infrastructure investments, national wide nine-year compulsory education, and state-funded university programs, the government fostered talent, created demand, and built markets from scratch. The result is that China is the world's largest manufacturing hub and a country with a complete industrial system.No wonder China can build Belt and Road Initiative projects more cheaply and efficiently than anyone else.

Robotic arms operate at a workshop of an auto parts manufacturing company in Feixi County of Hefei, eastern China's Anhui Province, March 31, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

The CPC is, at its core, a master of grand strategy: bold in vision, steadfast in purpose, and relentless in pursuit of its long-term blueprint. Even now, it's drafting its 15th Five-Year Plan, carrying forward the ongoing project of Chinese modernization. At the heart of it all lies the question: What exactly makes the Party so capable? One fundamental reason is this: Generation after generation of CPC members have treated the core mission of "serving the people wholeheartedly" not as a slogan, but as a relay race that never ends, each runner passing the baton without pause. Unlike Western parties, which often compete and squabble over vested interests – splitting into factions, protecting their slice of the pie – the CPC claims no private interests of its own. It is, in essence, a new type of political entity, one woven into China's unique civilizational fabric.

What's the secret behind the CPC's growth and dynamism after a century of trials and storms? Perhaps the greatest lesson its governance philosophy, strategy, and practice offer the world is this: Apolitical party isn't merely a tool for struggle; it is, first and foremost, an organization that exists to serve the people. That's why the CPC leadership is directly tied to the fundamental direction, the future, and the ultimate success of Chinese modernization.

Wang Yiwei, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is Vice President of Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at Renmin University of China and Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute.