At the heart of China’s transformation into a major global power is the Communist Party of China – a party with a 105-year long history. Born in July of 1921 a decade after the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the CPC was inspired by and desired to restore political order. It is no surprise then, that it has been the single most influential constant in the country’s [economic] success story. Often described as an economic miracle, China’s success is more than just a miracle. Indeed, revolutionary struggles and a crop of strong and patriotic leaders groomed by the CPC, through dedicated organization, and a brilliant cadre system, the party has provided both fuel and oil in the machine that built this success. The CPC weathered immense difficulty leading to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, endured grueling validated learning loops —experimenting with different models, some less successful than others, all this while building strong institutions that would become the bedrock of today’s success. The rich experience notwithstanding, discussions of China in Africa are often biased towards investments, trade and geopolitics but for Africa, building the institutional capacity that transformed a poor mostly agrarian country into a global economic power is, but the single most important take away from the CPC’s 105-year experience.
Africa’s Development Challenge is neither primarily one of ideology nor resource scarcity but rather one of building capable institutions, able to translate national ambitions into sustained economic and social outcomes.
Restoring political order and national cohesion as inroad to development. While discourse on China-Africa is dominated by trade, investments, and geopolitical benefits, the most important aspect [the CPC]’s role in China’s success and the lessons it presents only get limited attention. The timing of its birth placed it in the middle political strife maturing through a tumultuous half-century characterized by; foreign interventions, a civil war, invasion by Japan, a redemptive great leap forward and the cultural revolution. These events, suggest not a nation starting from prosperity but a revolutionary one committed to the cause of transforming a nation and the livelihoods of its citizens. Indeed, continuity, and performance have been built into the CPS’s structure. With patriotism, ideological conviction and meritocratic deployments and promotions, national ambitions have been sustained throughout decades of long term planning, institution building, policy implementation and rethinking as well as cadre development.
One key area where China did and is still doing well is sound institutional capacity. This also doubles as a prominent missing link in many African countries’ ability to reach their development goals. All across Africa, many of the development challenges jaundicing growth are either directly or indirectly linked to the ability to plan, raise resources, make policy, (sometimes) and enforce rules throughout their territories. Internal conflicts, food shortages, pervasive corruption, inefficient service delivery etcetera are merely symptoms of deficiencies in state capacity.
In contrast, the CPC has been able to circumvent many of these institutional bottlenecks through a system that produces strong and patriotic leaders for the party. Through its cadre system, members go through rigorous selection processes, undergo incessant training cycles that produce patriotic leaders with ideological conviction. Through grassroots postings, party leaders experience afflictions of the ordinary citizens, operate at the frontlines of policy implementation and program execution. Eventually, this becomes the framework upon which the meritocratic deployment and promotions system relies. This system not only makes the CPC an effective machine of political organization but also the biggest party both by membership and the largest ideologically shaped political force in the world. It is this strong institutional capacity; built over decades that has driven China’s economic success.
Therefore, this success – a product of decades of institutional development and adaptations, must not be merely used as a refutation of the hypothesis that democracy leads to economic prosperity by citing China as the exception to the rule. Instead, a nuanced refutation should be based on the fact that the attainment of inclusive institutions, doesn’t simply materialize with the adoption of liberal democracy. The CPC’s example demonstrates that such institutional capacity must be engineered, evaluated and modified, over decades of dedicated work. It is through this approach that China under the CPC has been able to, since the reform and opening up period undertake massive infrastructure expansions, industrialize by leaps and bounds and lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty _building a people centered political system.
Whereas it remains an imperative to stay cognizant of some unique factors that played into China’s development for instance, size and demographics, geopolitical context, historical circumstances and political system, the CPC’s playbook still contains invaluable lessons for Africa. Even with growing investment in infrastructure and long-term planning, gaps in institutional competence affect execution hence impacting on development outcomes. More so, challenges with leadership continuity have suppressed policy consistency. Hence beyond investing in human capital development, infrastructure, and long-term planning, the continent needs to build a system that fosters policy consistency and leadership continuity but these also require a framework of strong institutions.
In the past, the world, Africa included has been sold on models as the absolute right way of things. While they might have worked in some spaces, they did not produce the promised results in Africa. China having succeeded by electing a different path, critics are often quick to highlight the Chinese experience as being unique a fact China does not deny. This is the primary reason it acknowledges that different countries have different national situations and warns against supplanting its model as a turnkey solution to development or industrialization. The most valuable take away thus isn’t whether Africa can or cannot, like China industrialize rapidly. Instead, it is how the achievements of China under the CPC is critical in broadening Africa’s development imagination.
As the Communist Party of China commemorates 105 years of transforming the nation it inherited from the Qing dynasty, Africa must remain mindful of decades of efforts to reduce poverty, industrialization, infrastructure development and technological upgrading among others. While China’s success might seem like a blueprint for transformation on the continent, it isn’t immune to the challenges that plagues legacy imported models. However, what it teaches us above all else is that sustained development takes institutions with the capacity to convert national ambitions into tangible results and carry them across generations.
The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.
