Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of the China Studies Center in Kazakhstan Photo: Courtesy of Shaimergenova

Editor's Note:

July 1, 2025, marks the 104th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Looking back on more than a century of striving, it is under the Party's strong leadership that the Chinese people have continuously turned the "impossible" into the "possible." The historic transformation of the Chinese nation - from standing up, to growing prosperous and becoming strong - has been fundamentally driven by the leadership of the CPC.

The book series of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China contains multiple important speeches on upholding and strengthening the Party's leadership. In the article "Maximize the Institutional Strength of CPC Leadership" included in Volume III of the book series, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized that governing a large country with more than 1.3 billion people, the Party must improve its leadership systems and mechanisms, give full play to the great strength of leadership by the Party, and shoulder the major responsibilities of carrying out our great struggle, developing our great project, advancing our great cause, and realizing our great dream. Only in this way can we ensure national reunification, uniform laws and policies and consistent market management, achieve economic development, clean political administration, cultural prosperity, social justice and healthy ecosystems, and smoothly advance the causes of Chinese socialism in the new era.

In Volume IV, Xi further stressed in the article titled "Speech at the Ceremony Marking the Centenary of the Communist Party of China" that the leadership of the Party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system. It is the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend.

Looking ahead, only by upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership can we fully build a great modern socialist country in all respects as scheduled and achieve the grand goal of national rejuvenation.

In the seventh installment of the special series "Decoding the Book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," the Global Times, along with People's Daily Overseas Edition, focuses on the theme: "Upholding CPC's overall leadership is China's greatest political advantage." We continue to invite Chinese and foreign scholars, translators of Xi's works, practitioners with firsthand experience, and international readers to explore the CPC's institutional strengths and real-world results in theoretical innovation, political development, organizational structure and its people-centered approach - and to collectively answer the question of our times: "Why is the CPC successful?"

In the seventh article of the "Translators' Voices" column, Global Times (GT) reporter Ma Ruiqian interviewed Gulnar Shaimergenova (Shaimergenova), director of the China Studies Center in Kazakhstan. Shaimergenova was a member of the translation team of the Kazakh editions of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.

GT: Volume III of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China includes an article titled "Maximize the Institutional Strength of CPC Leadership." How do you understand the CPC's institutional strength? Based on the specific practices of the CPC that you encountered during the translation process, could you share your insights on"why is the CPC successful"?

Shaimergenova: From the perspectives of governance efficiency, policy continuity and national mobilization capacity, one of the advantages of the CPC's leadership is its ability to formulate and implement long-term strategies with remarkable consistency and coherence. Unlike many political systems subject to frequent changes in leadership, the CPC maintains a consistent strategic vision, which allows for stable planning horizons and effective mobilization of national resources. This is particularly visible in areas such as poverty alleviation, infrastructure development and technological innovation - where results are achieved not through isolated actions, but through sustained efforts over decades.

A vivid example that left a strong impression on me during the translation process of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China was the chapter on targeted poverty alleviation. The description of how entire Party structures - from the central level down to village officials - were aligned around a single national goal highlighted for me the unique governance model of the CPC. It was not just about policy design, but also about implementation capacity: how many Party members were dispatched to remote areas, and how each household's progress was closely tracked, with evaluation mechanisms in place to ensure accountability. 

Under the personal leadership and planning of President Xi, China's decisive battle against extreme poverty has completed with unprecedented intensity, scale and results. This demonstrates how the CPC leadership is able to: set long-term goals and consistently implement them; mobilize resources across the country to achieve national objectives; ensure coordination across different levels of government and economic sectors; and maintain policy direction regardless of various challenges.

GT: In Volume IV, the chapter "The People First" includes several articles with vivid titles, such as "The people's Support Is Our Top Political Priority," "Earn and Keep the People's Support in Consolidating Party Leadership," and "Our Party's Mission Is to Serve the People." What do these titles reveal about the CPC's people-centered philosophy?

Shaimergenova: The very wording of the headlines clearly indicates that for the CPC, the concept of "people-centeredness" is not an abstract slogan, but serves as a methodological support for the entire governance system. The Party traditionally proceeds from the principle of the "mass line," which holds that the Party should draw ideas from the people, process them into state policy, and return the results to society in the form of an improvement in life. 

"The people are the source of strength." First, mass support is the main credit of trust. Second, the Chinese experience shows that when citizens see direct benefits from government policy, they are ready to actively engage in its implementation, which greatly increases the state's mobilization potential. Finally, a constant "feedback channel" of communication with the population allows the authorities to promptly adjust measures, minimize social friction and maintain public consensus around long-term national goals.

It is this combination - the priority of people's real needs, reliance on their support and constant feedback - that explains the phenomenon of the Chinese model's efficiency. 

GT: Xi Jinping: The Governance of China series reflects the development and key contents of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. In your view, what new features or directions has the CPC demonstrated in the new era?

Shaimergenova: The 19th National Congress of the CPC established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as one of the guides to action of the Party in the Party Constitution, marking another advancement in keeping the Party's guiding ideology up to date with the times. The "Chinese Dream" is no longer a metaphor but a planning framework. The "holistic approach to national security" broadens national security from purely military concerns to digital and ideological realms, while the vision of a "community with a shared future for mankind" internationalizes China's domestic mission and ties it to reforming global governance.

GT: The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and humanity faces many common challenges. In Volume III of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, the phrase "a community with a shared future for mankind" appears frequently. How does the CPC integrate national development strategies with the pursuit of global public goods?

Shaimergenova: The frequent appearance of the phrase "a community with a shared future for mankind" reflects not only a diplomatic vision, but also the global responsibility and historical sense of the mission of the CPC as a long-ruling party of China leading the world's most populous country. This vision signals a shift in how the CPC sees China's role: not as a passive participant in global affairs, but as an active contributor to shaping a more balanced and equitable international order.

The CPC's long-term governance experience - marked by strategic planning, resilience through crises and sustained development - has given rise to a sense of global duty. "A community with a shared future for mankind" encapsulates this ethos. It reflects the belief that in an era of interconnected risks - climate change, pandemics, technological divides, geopolitical instability - no country can thrive in isolation. Therefore, national development must align with the well-being of humanity as a whole.

GT: With increasing political polarization and intensifying partisan struggles, party politics in the West appear to be facing an unprecedented crisis. In your view, what are the fundamental differences and main advantages of the CPC's leadership compared to the role of political parties under Western-style party politics?

Shaimergenova: The CPC, as the "core of leadership," expresses the interests of the whole society, while Western parties, entering into competition, inevitably articulate the interests of individual classes, regions, or lobbies. The Chinese system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation allows non-communist parties and personages without party affiliation to participate in policy development, in contrast to the Western model of institutionalized "government-opposition" confrontation, where the very logic of elections pushes toward confrontation and the risk of legislative impasse.

Thus, the CPC presents its model as more holistic and development-oriented, while the Western system, based on competitive multi-party politics, is now faced with deepening polarization and institutional blockages. The true measure of political legitimacy lies in what they can deliver.

GT: "The CPC stands ready to share governance experience with political parties and organizations of other countries so that together we can make big strides on the path to modernization toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind," President Xi said during the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting in 2023. In your opinion, should inter-party exchanges transcend differences in culture, systems and ideologies? What significance does this hold for the world?

Shaimergenova: Yes - otherwise such exchanges would go against their original purpose. Political parties operate in contexts that are, by definition, different; if dialogue is limited to like-minded ideologies, we merely reinforce existing blocs instead of finding new points of convergence. Exchanges must be built on respect for sovereignty and for each nation's right to choose its own development model, rather than on exporting values as a "universal standard."

This approach holds several layers of practical value for the world. First, it provides a policy toolkit that can offer valuable inspiration to political parties in other countries, including China's experience in infrastructure campaigns. Second, it facilitates trust-building. When official interstate channels are strained, direct links between parties and movements keep dialogue alive and reduce the risk of escalation. Third, it contributes to global governance. And for the Global South, it's a chance to voice shared interests.

GT: This year marks the 104th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. Standing at this historical juncture, how do you view the role of the Party's leadership in China's past development achievements? Under the leadership of the CPC, what are your expectations for China's future development? 

Shaimergenova: This year's 104th anniversary of the CPC offers a useful vantage point for assessing how one political organization has shaped - in some respects, defined - the trajectory of the world's most populous nation.

In each case the Party supplied three ingredients that were relatively in short supply elsewhere: a unifying national narrative, an institutional mechanism for long-horizon planning and a capacity to mobilize resources - material, human and ideological - on a massive scale. Without that commanding nucleus, it is hard to imagine China sustaining four decades of near-double-digit growth or orchestrating nationwide campaigns ranging from infrastructure roll-out to pandemic containment.

Looking ahead, I expect China to shift from high-speed to high-quality growth: greater technological self-reliance, a greener industrial mix, and a more balanced income structure under the banner of "common prosperity." Globally, China will keep promoting the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, sharing its experience and capabilities in governance.

In a world rife with geopolitical turbulence and cyclical politics, the CPC operates as China's anchor institution. The institutional strength of the CPC gives domestic and international stakeholders a rare commodity today: predictability. The continuity afforded by CPC leadership is more than a Chinese domestic affair; it is a pillar of Central Asian economic integration and a buffer against global volatility.