Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC in Beijing, July 1, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

July 1, 2021 is a date that will go down in history.

As the Communist Party of China (CPC) marked its centenary, China was declared to have reached a milestone development goal.

Atop Tian'anmen Rostrum, President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, announced that China has achieved building a moderately prosperous society, or Xiaokang, in all respects.

In the traditional Confucian sense, Xiaokang describes a state whereby, although there is imperfection, everyone is adequately provided for. It was reintroduced into political discourse in the 1970s, and the CPC has since led efforts to turn this concept into reality.

Over the past eight years, the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core oversaw the final push that transformed China into a Xiaokang society in all respects.

Pick up the baton

Building a prosperous society has been the Chinese people's common aspiration for millennia.

In the early years of China's reform and opening up, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping first used Xiaokang to describe Chinese modernization, and proposed building a Xiaokang society.

After the Chinese people no longer had to worry about feeding and clothing themselves and saw their lives generally improve, the Party laid out plans to further build China into a Xiaokang society "in all respects."

At the 18th CPC National Congress in November 2012, the Party announced that China had entered a decisive stage of attaining this goal. Soon afterward, Xi was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

"By the time the CPC marks its centenary, a moderately prosperous society in all respects can definitely be achieved," Xi said when visiting an exhibition in the National Museum of China, after taking over the helm of the Party. The theme of the exhibition was "Road to Rejuvenation."

Xi said achieving the Xiaokang goal on time represents "a solemn promise that our Party has made to the Chinese people and to history."

He often told cadres that "time and history wait for no one" and urged them to go all out. He also set the standards and made specific requirements for achieving the goal.

For a Xiaokang society, all aspects of modernization, including the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological domains, should be developed in a coordinated fashion, Xi said.

It needs to cover all domains, the entire population and all regions, he added.

A long-term view must be adopted, he said, adding that it is not a "game of numbers" or a "game of speed."

Led by Xi, the Party has played a pivotal role in the pursuit of the Xiaokang goal. Party secretaries throughout the ranks assumed the responsibility of poverty relief. Work teams and cadres were sent to the countryside to fight poverty on the front lines. The Party also played a key part in all key spheres concerning Xiaokang, such as finance, cyberspace and national security.