On her first trip to China, Nkamoheng Margaret Phadu-More went to an exhibition in Beijing that showcased China's achievements in the past five years, including technological innovations like interactive robots, cutting-edge medical machines, and models of China's bullet trains.
"What impresses me most is the CAT scan [machine]," said the woman from South Africa. "It can detect illness with great accuracy. Many people's lives can be saved with that."
The exhibition started Tuesday, jointly held by four departments, including the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the National Development and Reform Commission.[Special coverage]
Featuring ten themed zones and an experiential zone, the exhibition covers various areas including economic progress, political reform, cultural development, environmental protection, Party discipline, diplomacy and military reform. The displays, models and VR technology detail China's achievements since the 18th CPC National Congress five years ago.
INNOVATION-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
Economically, China has made great progress. The country's GDP increased dramatically from 54.04 trillion yuan (8.14 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2012, to 74.41 trillion yuan in 2016.
Innovation has been powering the growth. China ranked 22nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2017, becoming the only middle income country to make the top 25.
Two innovations in the exhibition are the Fuxing bullet train and the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.
With a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour, Fuxing represents the best of China's high-speed railway technology.
BeiDou, independently developed in China, is used in national defense, agriculture, transportation, urban management and many other areas.
CULTURAL CONFIDENCE
China's central leadership has stressed confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Cultural confidence is an important part of the theory.
In 2016, China produced a total of 944 films, raking in 49.28 billion yuan in box office revenue, up from 17 billion yuan in 2012, according to one exhibit.
Having a dynamic cyberspace, China set up a cyber security law in November 2016, which went into effect on June 1 this year.
The cyber security industry is developing steadily, and China has now nearly 2,000 cyber security enterprises, according to statistics at the exhibition.
BUILDING A STRONGER PARTY
Retired soldier Sun Jiancheng stood at a board in a zone featuring the Party's development and its discipline.
He told Xinhua that "the Party's anti-corruption efforts have been beneficial to the people, and help create a good environment for the people to strive for a better society."
"The exhibition is inspiring. My friends and I are all very eager to see what China and the CPC will achieve in the future," Sun said.
The CPC had a total of 89.45 million members nationwide in 2016, up from 74.15 million in 2007, according to an exhibit.
The Party has now 188 intra-Party regulations, and 88 of them were stipulated or revised after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.
According to statistics, disciplinary watchdogs nationwide have punished more than 1.4 million Party members or officials since 2012.
More than 280 centrally-administered officials have been investigated by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection since 2012, at least 120 of whom have been transferred to judicial authorities.
