A village in Baiyangdian, Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province. [Xinhua]

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is scheduled to begin on October 18 in Beijing, will surely inject a new impetus into China's rejuvenation drive to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by 2020.

In the past five years under the guidance and leadership of President Xi Jinping, brilliant achievements have been made in just about every field and the CPC is firmly advancing China with a "socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics," covering every area of economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development.

During a high-level CPC workshop on July 26-27, 2017, President Xi said that China's development is at a new historical starting point, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage. In his “inspirational, thought-provoking” speech, he has greatly inspired China’s confidence in advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

It’s true that China’s success story is not copied from other countries’ models. Chinese leaders have made China a major player on the global stage, combining Marxism with China’s national conditions, which has not only secured the huge success of its own development, but also offers solutions to problems for the developed world.

The CPC has united the Chinese people and harnessed their strengths. In terms of governing the nation, the 96-year-old CPC, with 86 million Party members, leads the world's biggest developing country. Socialism with Chinese characteristics had been the theme of all the Party's theories and practices since the reform and opening up in 1978.

With a population of 1.3 billion, China has become the world's second largest economy, the biggest trader of goods and the third-largest direct foreign investor, lifting China's per capita GDP close to $8,000. Certainly China has made remarkable strides in economic, social and cultural fields in the past 20 years.

Since Xi Jinping took over as the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and became president of China in November 2012 and March 2013 respectively, he has advocated Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics as an ideological guidance to strengthen and modernize China. His insights into China’s political and economic development are revitalizing the national modernization drive.

China's 13th Five Year Plan from 2016 to 2020, the first under President Xi Jinping's leadership, is important for China to build a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. It is widely noticeable that the 13th Five Year Plan has maintained economic development as its central focus and guarantees social equity and justice through rule of law, and encourages innovation.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has lifted on average 10 million rural people out of poverty every year from 2013 to 2016. The total number of people lifted out of poverty in both rural and urban areas during the period was more than 55.64 million. As a percentage of China's total population, the number of poor people dropped from 10.2 percent in 2012 to 4.5 percent in 2016 as incomes in poverty-stricken areas rose more than the national average increased. This deserves praise.

Despite a global economic slowdown, China's economy is stable and has seen growth as reform gains momentum. In the first half of 2017, China's economy continued steady expansion with GDP up 6.9 percent year on year to about 38.2 trillion yuan (5.6 trillion U.S. dollars) which is a great achievement of Chinese socialism.

However, in spite of socio-economic achievements, China is facing the challenges of corruption in some sectors. Since 2012, the Chinese government under President Xi is on the road to achieving clean governance. Xi’s campaign against corruption has gained "crushing momentum," leading to the downfall of a number of high-level officials, known as "tigers," and lower-level bureaucrats or "flies" who serve at the grassroots level.

Nearly 1.2 million people have been punished for violating CPC and government rules since the 18th CPC National Congress. In total, 240 centrally administered officials have been investigated, with 223 receiving punishments. Undoubtedly, the anti-corruption drive has demonstrated that all people are equal before Party regulations, and the enforcement of rule of law allows no privilege or exception.

President Xi is leading more than 1.3 billion people on the march toward the Chinese dream under socialism. The dream is an end to the worst kinds of poverty, and the rejuvenation of a nation that has already made astonishing progress in creating prosperity. It is anticipated that Chinese people under the leadership of CPC should work to achieve the Chinese dream of rejuvenating the nation. That is the historical responsibility of the CPC leadership.

Rabi Sankar Bosu, secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.