Global plaudits for Constitution revision

China’s just-approved constitutional amendment is of practical and historic significance to safeguarding domestic development and world peace, international observers say.

The landmark amendment will not only reinforce China’s foundation for future advancement but also guide the global heavyweight to make greater contribution to world peace and development, they said.

In the constitutional amendment, adopted on Sunday at the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is inscribed into the preamble.

It is a necessary step to adapt state guidelines to changed conditions, commented Rafiq Abbasov, a senior researcher on Asia-Pacific Studies at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. It will further consolidate the leading role of the Communist Party of China, under whose leadership the Chinese people will work out a political development path that suits China’s national realities and is of Chinese characteristics, he added.

To Marwan Sudah, a Jordanian expert on China, the amendment serves as a guarantee for China to sustain growth under the CPC’s leadership with Xi at the core.

Noting that over recent years China’s growth has set an example for the world, he said he is confident that China’s economy and society will grow more prosperous and its state governance more successful in the new era.

The incorporation of Xi’s thought into the Constitution, said Mahmoud Raya, director of Lebanese news website China in Arab Eyes, reflects “a great confidence in the potentials of China and the future.”

“Since Chinese society is a moving one and always watching the changes occurring around the world, it has been a must for it to revise its basic law and make necessary adjustments that will suit the needs of Chinese society and major changes it is witnessing,” Raya said.

Another change that has garnered worldwide attention is the addition of the clause that “The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

That will help to strengthen the CPC’s leading role at various levels and cement team unity, said Alexey Maslov, a professor and China expert with Russia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics.

It will also help to build consensus and pool efforts for realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, he added.

In the opinion of Tilahun Teshome, an Ethiopian law professor with Addis Ababa University, the constitutional move to further clarify the CPC’s leading role in China is conducive to promoting political stability.

Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of Kazakh business newspaper Delovoy Kazakhstan, noted that the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics was established by the CPC in its long-time governance.

The addition regarding the CPC’s leading role, he pointed out, conforms not only to the call of the times but also to the long-term interests of the Chinese people.

Also codified into the Constitution are China’s commitments to building a community with a shared future for mankind and to adhering to the peaceful development path and the mutually beneficial strategy of opening-up.

Martin Chungong, secretary-general of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union, said writing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind into the Constitution turns it into a national obligation that will influence China’s socioeconomic development and foreign policy.

“This concept is commensurate with the global thinking today. The world is no longer a conglomerate of individual countries or nation states. We all belong to one community today,” he said.

To Makoto Nishida, a senior member of Japan’s New Komeito Party, the newly added expressions accord with the needs of world peace and development and manifest China’s strong sense of mission to contribute to the shared future of humanity.

The amendment is especially significant against the backdrop of an international landscape where multilateralism is under grave threat, noted David Gosset, a French expert on international relations and founder of the Europe-China Forum.

China’s path of peaceful development and commitment to mutually beneficial opening-up have become a source of global prosperity and security, he added.