NICOSIA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's remarkable political and socioeconomic achievements have created a development model illuminating to the whole world, said a Cypriot senior politician.
"Despite the huge size of the country and its people, it has managed to improve the living conditions of its citizens to a very high degree," Antros Kyprianou, secretary general of the AKEL, the second largest party in Cyprus, said of China on Tuesday.
Over the past 70 years, China has developed into a major country in the world both economically and politically, bringing huge benefits to the Chinese people and those nations cooperating with China, he said in an interview with Xinhua on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The Chinese government has fulfilled a most difficult task of governing a vast country with the biggest population in the world, he said, adding that after going through ups and downs, China has created its own model of socio-political development.
"It has created a special model of governance which constitutes one of the most successful and modern models of government in the world," he said.
As regards economic development, he said the combination of government guidance and free market, along with technological progress in various sectors, constitutes a recipe for an effective system for Chinese conditions.
China, he said, now seems ready to manage a series of challenges, such as narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and between urban and rural areas, supporting those sections of society in need, protecting the ecosystem and fighting corruption.
China has achieved its own development through peaceful policies and mutually beneficial cooperation, Kyprianou stressed.
Referring to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), he said, "the contemporary 'Silk Road' is extending to every corner of the earth, creating economic development, investments, job opportunities, development of transport and infrastructure projects in different parts of the world."
The Cypriot party leader also strongly denounced the violence in Hong Kong as well as other countries' meddling in the internal affairs of China.
"We are clearly against the policy of undermining the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China, especially when it comes from the involvement of third countries," Kyprianou stressed.
He also deplored the double standard of those Western countries which oppose secessionist movements in other parts of the world, but when it comes to China they support in every way anything that can threaten its political stability.
In addition, the AKEL leader called for more exchanges between his party and the Communist Party of China, saying that these exchanges benefit both sides as they help strengthen the relations both between the two parties and between the peoples.
"I take this opportunity to thank the Communist Party of China for its immense contribution to the exchange of visits between the two parties, hoping that these will continue in the future," he said.
