by Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) is a "party of achievements," which has liberated China from colonialism and poverty and led the country to prosperity and economic growth, said Mohamed Noman Galal, Egypt's former ambassador to China.
"The CPC has made many achievements during its struggle since its establishment in 1921, the most important of which is the reform and opening-up that helped the Chinese economy grow into the second largest one in the world," Galal told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The CPC celebrates its centenary on July 1 this year.
Galal, who is also a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, praised the success of the CPC in managing and overcoming the COVID-19 crisis in a record short period of time.
He stressed that "the Chinese economy has not been halted despite the COVID-19 pandemic," describing the Chinese people as earnest, persistent, hardworking and patient, which helped with their nation's fight against the epidemic.
The former Egyptian diplomat said that China has made successive five-year plans for economic reform.
He continued that Chinese President Xi Jinping added to the Chinese experience the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which Galal considered as one of the most important initiatives in the world.
China launched the BRI in 2013, with the aim of pursuing mutual benefit among participating countries.
Galal said that through the initiative, China has established win-win partnerships with other countries and contributed a lot to the development processes in Africa including Egypt.
"China is not and will not be an exploitative country, because the Chinese civilization is based on cooperation and joint construction with other countries," the former diplomat added, stressing that among the basic governing principles of China are the pursuit of peace and opposition to aggression.
"The idea of colonialism is rejected in the Chinese society and civilization," Galal emphasized.
Galal said he had many Chinese friends when he worked as Egypt's ambassador to China, and he has recently written a number of books on China and the Egyptian-Chinese relations, highlighting the strong ties between the two peoples and civilizations.
"What I liked most about China is the principle of punishment, which means that whoever makes a mistake is punished without reluctance, even if he is an official," the former Egyptian ambassador said.
Galal expects the CPC to continue leading China toward more accomplishments.
"I expect that the economic progress with Chinese characteristics will go on, the Chinese people's standard of living will further increase and China will continue being the world's factory," he said. ■
