The Chinese economy has grown 189 times in real terms since the People's Republic of China was founded, demonstrating how the country's economic strength has made great strides under the Communist Party of China's leadership, a senior official said on Monday.
"When the PRC was just founded, the country was unable to make even a tractor. Now the country is the worlds' only economy that has all the industrial categories classified by the United Nations," said Han Wenxiu, deputy head of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs.
"China's output of more than 220 types of industrial products, including automobiles and computers, has ranked first across the globe," Han said, adding that the country's GDP has surpassed 100 trillion yuan ($15.48 trillion) and accounts for more than 17 percent of the world economy.
Under the Party's leadership, people's living standards also saw huge improvements since the PRC was founded more than 70 years ago, as per capita national income has increased from tens of dollars to more than $10,000 while the average life expectancy has risen from 35 years to 77.3 years, Han said.
Up to 770 million rural residents have been lifted out of poverty in China since reform and opening-up started, accounting for more than 70 percent of the world's total during the same period, according to him.
China has embarked on a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country, which will feature common prosperity for everyone, coordination of economic development with environmental protection, and peaceful development that strives for mutual benefits with other economies, he said.
The country's modernization will be "unprecedented" in human history, given China's population as large as more than 1.4 billion, and will contribute more to the advancement of mankind, he added.
Han made the remarks on Monday at a news conference for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.
