Decade of Miracles: How Xi's thought steers new chapter of China's economic growth

BEIJING - A new chapter of China's economic miracle has been written since the end of 2012, as Xi Jinping's thought has propelled unprecedented changes toward innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development.

Back in 2012, when Xi took office as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Chinese economy, after decades of rapid expansion, faced challenges from the lingering impact of the global financial crisis, pollution and a stack of institutional and structural problems.

Since then, Xi's economic thought, with a new development philosophy featuring innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development as the core, has steered the world's second-largest economy on a path of high-quality growth.

Below are some data highlights of China's economic achievements under the guidance of Xi's economic thought.

-- China's GDP surpassed 110 trillion yuan in 2021, compared with around 53.86 trillion yuan in 2012.

-- China's per capita GDP reached 80,976 yuan in 2021, or $12,551 calculated by the annual average exchange rate, exceeding the global average. The figure for 2012 was 39,771 yuan.

-- China's per capita disposable income hit 35,128 yuan in 2021, more than double the level in 2012.

-- In February 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty, having lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years.

-- China's spending on R&D hit a new high of 2.44 percent of its GDP in 2021, up from 1.98 percent in 2012.

-- China rose to 12th on the Global Innovation Index 2021 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, remaining the only middle-income economy to rank in the top 30.

-- The urbanization rate of permanent residents rose to 64.72 percent in 2021 from 52.57 percent in 2012.

-- From 2011 to 2020, China's energy consumption per unit of GDP fell 28.7 percent, one of the fastest reductions in the world.

-- Clean energy consumption accounted for 25.3 percent of total energy consumption in 2021, up from 14.5 percent in 2012.

-- China's foreign trade in goods reached a record high of 39.1 trillion yuan in 2021, compared with 24.4 trillion yuan in 2012.

-- Foreign direct investment into the country hit a record high of 173.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, compared with 111.7 billion dollars in 2012.