AT the invitation of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, a 12 member CPI(M) delegation was sent by our Party. This delegation was led by Janardan Pati, Central Committee member of the Party. The delegation visited China from September 15-24, 2014. The delegation went to China at a time when the President of China was in our country on a goodwill visit. So the timing was very important. Our delegation visited the most industrially advanced province of China i.e., Guangdong, the granary of China i.e., Hunan province and the national capital, Beijing. Our delegation was briefed by the international department of the CPC about the economic developments since 1978 and about the Communist Party – how it is managing the problems within it, and how it is trying to solve the people’s problems and keeping close links with the people. In the present world, China has developed herself as a great economic power in the world. In the 20th century, it was extremely difficult for China to become a great global economy. As a result of the policies and people’s support to its efforts, China has risen as a key player in the global economy. Since 1978, China has utilised its man-power, natural resources, land, capital, science, technology towards this end and emphasis was given to the value of work force. Though the development of the Chinese economy started after the liberation in 1949, the reform process started in 1978. In fact, 1978 was the turning point in the Chinese economy and history. In the last three decades, since China started to implement reforms, it has consistently maintained an economic growth rate. From 2001 to 2011, China’s GDP grew at 10.5% per year i.e., from $ 1,300 billion in 2001 to $ 7,500 billion in 2011 – an increase by five times. In 2002, China’s GDP overtook Italy and became the sixth largest economy in the world. Between 2005 to 2007, China’s GDP overtook France, UK and Germany. In 2010, China’s economy took a giant step by overtaking Japan’s economy and became the second largest economy in the world. Japan was the world’s second largest economy for over last 40 years. China’s export to the outside world was $509.7 billion in 2001. This grew to 1,100 billion$ in 2004 .That year China’s export growth rate increased by 35.4%. China’s export is highest in the world and import is second highest in the world. During the international financial crisis period, when USA and Japan’s economy was in deep crisis, Chinese economy maintained a steady and rapid growth. There was a time when China’s capital city was flooded with hundreds of bicycles. This writer visited China in 1989 and 2002. I have seen the Beijing city which was a city of cycles. But today 5.37 million car owners are in Beijing and you will find rare cycles in Beijing. There were a large number of cycle rickshaws too in Beijing, but today there are no more cycle rickshaws. Chinese roads are flooded with Chinese and foreign cars and Chinese cars are running in foreign countries. The number of Chinese cars produced in 2008 was only 1,80,000. Two years later the number of cars produced increased to 3.63 millions. In 2009, China produced 13.79 million cars. China’s car production is 23.5 % of world’s car production. In 2010, China’s production of mobile phones, colour T V, personal computers, digital cameras has been the highest in the world. China is the largest steel manufacturing country in the world. In 2011, it imported 600 million tonnes of iron ore. As more and more Chinese are travelling abroad, China has approved 140 countries and regions as tourism destinations. Chinese would be the highest number of global travellers. China is the largest producer of shoes. For every 100 pairs of shoes the US imports, 97 are from china. China does not have the high technology to form a global industry. China’s national resources compared to its vast population are not very rich. China’s financial development is also not very advanced. Despite these shortcomings, China has made these achievements. One of the biggest challenge before China’s growing economy is the utilisation of labour force. As the industry becomes more advanced and capital intensive, the need for labour becomes lower. The skilled workers are now replacing the low-end work force. Employment creation is lower than before. There are other problems which a growing economy like China has to deal effectively i.e., the gap between the rich and non-rich sections and the gap between rural and urban development. These are some of the issues before the state and the party. The second aspect our delegation learnt was the functioning of the party system. The Communist Party of China has been growing steadily since its formation in 1921. Within the next 28 years, the CPC led the revolution successfully and has been trying to build socialism with Chinese characteristics in a comparatively backward country of the world. The capitalist countries took hundreds of years to develop their countries, that too through naked exploitation and aggression. The CPCs operating mechanism and style of governance is unique also. Let us have a look at their method of functioning of the party system. China has a population of 130 billion and the CPC’s membership is 86 million. The CPC has members from not just working class, it has members from the richer sections as well. Its total membership is 86 millions i.e., 6% of the population are party members. 21% are women, 6.6% are ethinic minorities and 23.7% are below 35 years, 35.7% have college degree or above and 25.4% are above 60 years. The CPC has adopted Marxism with Chinese characteristics. To study the CPC, one must first study the ideology of the party and to study the ideology of the party one must understand the Chinese Marxism raised by the party. Marxism is a guide to action. The CPC‘s organisational principle is democratic centralism, yet its high degree of unity is obtained more through learning where party schools, schools of administration, cadre education, training institutions from central to local levels have been established by the CPC, where cadre study the CPC’s basic theory, other countries’ advanced experiences, knowledge of modernisation, the experience of China’s reform and opening up policies and the CPC history. In this way the cadre’s capabilities and qualities are improved. Their understanding of party’s general policy also improves. Through study the party realizes the dissemination of important information and improves its vitality. Since 1940s the CPC united the party through study. So in every twist and turn, the party was able to meet and overcome the hurdles. Mao Zedong emphasised that the entire party must intensify the study of theories, historical legacies and social movements. He also pointed out that the task of study was to realize the combination of Marxism and the use of it to unify the party’s thinking. The CPC Central Committee issued many practical documents on study for different levels of party cadres. The CPC’s decision making process too is unique. First, it combines the pursuit of science with pursuit of democracy. Second, it upholds democratic centralism and collective leadership. Third, it makes decisions on the basis of investigation and study.Fourth, it combines the knowledge obtained from leaders’ observation with the experience of experts to have a wider and deeper knowledge. Fifth, it translates the party’s advice into the State will. Here inner party democracy must be combined with people‘s democracy, ballot democracy, and consultative democracy. And finally the party’s advice is translated into national developmental plans through legislation. These five characteristics indicate the CPC’s decision making process. Apart from the CPC, there are eight non-communist political parties participating in the state affairs of China. They are the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), the China Democratic league (CDL), the China Democratic National Construction Association (CDNCA), the China Association For the Promotion of Democracy (CAPD), the Chinese Peasant and Workers Democratic Party (CPWDP), the Chinese Zhi Gong party (CZGP), the Jiu San Society (JSS) and the Taiwan Democratic Self Government league (TDSGL). All these parties were formed before the revolution and they take part in states affairs. China practices a system of multi party co-operation and political consultation led by the CPC. It is the basic political system in China. The CPC is the ruling party, while the non-communist parties are parties participating in the state affairs which reflect the multi party co-operation under the leadership of the CPC. While the CPC is holding power, the non-communist parties participate fully in the state affairs. The five star red flag is the national flag of China. It was selected from 3,012 entries nationwide and approved by the Chinese people’s political consultative conference. Among the five stars, the larger one symbolises the CPC. The other four smaller stars symbolise the four social classes of the Chinese people i.e., the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie. The twelve member delegation visited the Great Wall of China. It is the only man made construction of the world that can be seen from the moon with the naked eye. The delegation also visited Chairman Mao’s birth place, the Canton Tower which is the highest observation deck of the world. Its height is 488 metres. Visitors can enjoy unobstructed views overlooking the entire 360 degree landscape of the city. There is no other place on the planet that hosts an outdoor of this height. Our delegation visited the hybrid rice research centre, Orange Island and Yuelu Academy. Chairman Mao was the director of this institution which was founded for peasant movements and under his leadership hundreds of cadres got training and went to different provinces to lead peasant movement. Our delegation was inspired by the all round development of China. The following members comprised the 12 member delegation. Sathee Devi Parayi (Kerala), deputy leader of the delegation, Kanagarag Karuppiah (Tamil Nadu), Suresh ch. Panigrahi (Odisha), Sumitra Swami (Rajasthan), Narasimha Reddy Nandyala (Telangana), Deblina Hembram (West Bengal), Samar Adhya (Tripura), Varalakshmi Subbarayappa (Karnataka), Rajeev Kumar Kunwar (Delhi), Sandhya Shaily (Madhya Pradesh), and Suma Manheri Veetil (CC office).