CPC to Hold High-Level Dialogues With World Political Parties

China's determination to pursue its opening-up policy, together with its "political firmness" on socialism will be highlighted in a special session of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s forthcoming high-level dialogues with world political parties, analysts said Monday.

The session, scheduled from May 26 to 28 in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, is hosted by the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC.

The CPC's exchanges with political parties from other countries have increased significantly since the 19th CPC National Congress, Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, told the Global Times on Monday.

The world is interested in where China will go under the leadership of the CPC after 40 years of the opening-up policy, especially as trade frictions increase and globalization is challenged by rising protectionism in countries like the US, Su said.

The choice of Shenzhen, known as the frontier of China's opening up efforts, as the host city shows that China will firmly pursue the policy and contribute more to global prosperity, Su noted.

The event will include a conference discussing Guangdong's practice of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and a seminar to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx.

"The agenda shows that China's ideology and governing philosophy will not be weakened with the opening-up policy," said Song Luzheng, a France-based scholar and research fellow at Fudan University's China Institute.

The second China-CELAC Political Parties Forum, the forth Africa-China Young Leaders Forum and the first political parties forum of countries from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are also expected to be held.

"The forums show that China is expanding its cooperation and that the country is attaching great importance to non-Western countries, whose voices are often ignored," Song said. Inter-party exchanges have become a unique diplomatic practice in China, as Western countries continue to adopt the inter-government or people-to-people paradigm for diplomatic exchanges, Song said.

"Compared to inter-government exchanges, inter-party exchanges focus more on values and governing philosophies, which are crucial to prevent misunderstandings," Su added.

The second plenary session of the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting was held in Beijing in December, and was attended by more than 600 leaders from 300 political parties from 120 countries.

Such exchanges are not limited to ruling parties, but also opposition parties, to allow for more diverse voices to be heard, Su stressed.

Countries that have not established diplomatic relations with China could also attend such events, which could expand China's cooperation, Song pointed out.

This article was originally written by Li Ruohan and published in Global Times.