As the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated its centennial on July 1, President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping declared in a speech on top of the Tiananmen Gate that the goal of building a xiaokang or moderately prosperous society had been achieved.
Earlier this year, on February 25, President Xi had declared that China had eradicated absolute poverty, lifting 853 million people out of poverty since 1981. Three out of four people lifted out of poverty live in China according to the World Bank. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “the greatest anti-poverty achievement in history.”
According to the Global Times, there is no dispute over China's economic success on a global scale. Since 1978, China's GDP growth averaged over 9.2% annually for 42 years. That outstrips a 6.6% annual growth for 15 years in Germany during a period known as the Miracle on the Rhine starting in 1951, or an 8.8% annual growth for 36 years in South Korea's Miracle on the Han River. Japan maintained a higher 9.3% annual growth during the "Japanese economic miracle", but only for 23 years.
Since 1978, China's household consumption has increased by 1,800%, leading to a marked improvement in everyday life. By 2025, China will become a “high-income economy” by World Bank standards, which means that in a single lifetime of 75 years China has changed from one of the poorest countries of the world into a high-income one.
