The Communist Party of China (CPC) has transformed a poor and backward country into the second largest economy in the world, contributing greatly to the global economy and human progress, said Romulus Ioan Budura, Romania’s former ambassador to China, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

“The CPC has made extraordinary contributions to China’s development, world peace and human progress over the past 100 years,” the nearly-90-year-old sinologist told Xinhua at his home in Bucharest. Budura learnt the song “Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China” when studying in Beijing in the early 1950s, and found the lyrics to be highly apt. “The song illustrates the irreplaceable importance of the CPC to the development of the country and the happiness of the people,” said Budura, who was ambassador to China from 1990 to 1995.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 represents not only the success of the CPC, but also a major event in the history of the entire Chinese people that has greatly improved China’s international status and inspired other colonized and semi-colonized countries to begin striving towards national independence. Furthermore, the CPC formulated a development path based on China’s social realities and national conditions rather than blindly following the development model of other countries, thus laying a solid foundation for the country’s future development, commented the experienced sinologist, who served as an advisor to the Romanian president before becoming the ambassador to China.

“Today, China has not only won a decisive victory in the eradication of poverty, but has also striven to promote the development of science and technology, and achieved impressive results in high-tech fields such as communications and artificial intelligence,” he added. Through the Belt and Road Initiative and its advocacy of a global community with a shared future, China has contributed its wisdom to meet various challenges facing humankind and pointed out the direction of development for the future of the world, said Budura.

The interview is translated into English by China Focus.