On New Year’s Eve, President Xi Jinping delivered his 2022 New Year Address through China Media Group and the internet.

“Throughout the year, we have put in our efforts, contributed our part, and received much in return,” Xi said.

In the passage of time, we have seen and experienced a resilient and dynamic China, a country with its amicable and respectable people, a country developing rapidly with each passing day, and a country making continual progress in all its undertakings, Xi said, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Achieving first Centenary Goal

2021 is a landmark year in both the history of the CPC and the Chinese nation.

The year 2021 marked the CPC’s centennial. The country eradicated absolute poverty, and completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, achieving the first Centenary Goal as scheduled. The country began to march toward the second Centenary Goal of building itself into a great modern socialist country in all respects.

By completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and bringing about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years, we have achieved a giant leap the Chinese nation has never seen before, said Fan Yugang, a professor from the School of Literature at Shandong University.

After the eradication of absolute poverty, rural vitalization and the new-type urbanization strategy have become the two driving forces for coordinating urban and rural areas and achieving common prosperity, said Du Haifeng, a professor from the School of Public Policy and Administration at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Only by realizing rural vitalization can rural areas be completely lifted out of poverty.

With the elimination of absolute poverty, consolidating and expanding the results of the fight against poverty and effectively aligning with rural vitalization have become the new development goals to be achieved in the five-year transitional period for areas that have just eliminated absolute poverty, said Zheng Yougui, a research fellow from the Institute of Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Academic and economic accomplishments

The year 2021 witnessed enormous, exciting archaeological discoveries. For example, the newly-discovered six sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, were excavated. The Jiangcun Mausoleum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, was confirmed to be where Emperor Wen of Han was buried. In addition, a tomb complex, dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BCE), discovered in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, is likely a royal structure from the ancient kingdom known as “Gumie.”

CASS Member Wang Wei is very excited about these archaeological discoveries. He said that 2021 marked the centenary of modern Chinese archaeology. Adhering to the scientific spirit of rigor and seeking truth, generations of Chinese archaeologists have explored the historical context of the origin and development of Chinese civilization and demonstrated the splendid achievements of Chinese civilization. For archaeologists, 2021 was a bumper year.

In the year 2021, China’s economy saw stable growth. New steps were taken in building a new development paradigm, and new results were achieved in high-quality development, representing a good start of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25) period.

Sheng Bin, dean of the School of Economics at Nankai University, said that the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics is one of the most important achievements of the CPC’s century-old theory and practice of economic development. The socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics has broken away from traditional dogma and brought vitality to China. The realization of incentives and fairness is the core issue of this economic system, which is currently reflected in the balanced development of high-quality growth and common prosperity.

“In the future, China’s reform practice should focus on establishing a high-standard market economy, especially the comprehensive improvement of the property rights system and the improvement of the social credit system,” Sheng said.

Sheng also suggested improving the modernization of governance capabilities. It is vital to maintain a high-level opening up and actively participate in the construction of global governance rules with a global vision.