1、Renewal of the Chinese nation has been the greatest Chinese dream in modern time since the First Opium War (1839-42). （鸦片战争） In the latter half of the 19th century, China, then under the rule of backward and corrupt feudal Qing regime （王朝）(1644-1911), was invaded by Western imperialist（帝国主义） powers.
2、 Its people lived in misery and the nation was ridiculed as “the sick man of East Asia.“ Successive generations of Chinese people with lofty ideals rose up against invading Western powers and feudal rulers in pursuit of their dreams. Although the 1911 Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen ended more tha
3、n two millennia（千年） of feudalism, nonetheless, the country plunged into another dark period when it was fragmented by bellicose（好战的） warlords（军阀）, weakened by rampant （猖獗的）corruption and invaded by foreign powers. Achievements History took a turn in July 1921, when the CPC was founded. It shouldered
4、 the responsibility to change the destiny of the nation and the people, and after 28 years of hard struggle, founded the Peoples Republic of China on October 1, 1949. China entered a new period along the road to renewal. Many important decisions on establishing the Peoples Republic of China were mad
5、e at the First Session of the CPPCC, which convened in Beijing in September 1949. At the session, participants adopted the Common Program of the CPPCC, which served as a provisional constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, and created the Central Peoples Government. It selected Beijing as the
6、capital, made the five-star red flag the national flag, chose March of the Volunteers as the national anthem and adopted the Gregorian calendar. In 1954, the National Peoples Congress (NPC) was established as the countrys formal legislature. That December, the CPPCC passed a charter stating it would
7、 no longer serve as a legislature, but instead would be a key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC. The NPC and CPPCC are the two basic platforms through which the Chinese people participate in discussion and management of state affairs In
8、his inaugural address as president, Xi Jinping laid out his vision of the “Chinese Dream“, which would see the Middle Kingdom reclaim its role as the most important nation on earth. Again and again he invoked the “Chinese Dream“, a call to arms that would bring the countrys increasingly fragmented s
9、ociety together. “Today our country is standing proudly at the Eastern end of the world,“ said Mr Xi, as he invoked Chinas rich history and culture with a flourish. “After thousands of years, what brings our people together now is a fate we all share a | to make the country rich and the people happy
10、“. It is a constant source of preoccupation in China that while it was the most advanced country in the world during the middle ages, it failed to make the breakthroughs of the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment and subsequently fell into decay as a world power before being subjected to a “centu
11、ry of humiliation“ at the hands of colonising powers. Recognising the spiritual vacuum at the heart of Chinas economic miracle, Mr Xi seems keen to fill it with a sense that the country could recreate its glorious history. Unlike the American Dream, however, which highlights the opportunity for any
12、individual to achieve success through hard work, the Chinese Dream owes much to collectivism. “The Chinese spirit brings us together and builds our country together,“ said Mr Xi. “To create the Chinese Dream we must unite all Chinese power. As long as we stay united, we will share the opportunity to
13、 make our dreams come true“. And while Mr Xi said the Communist Partys leadership was essential to achieving future prosperity, he added that the Party “will have to listen to the peoples voice all the time and answer their frustrations. We need to share the fruits of development with all the people
14、 more equally.“ As Chinas middle class expands, and the publics aspirations grow, the Party has begun crafting a narrative that will continue to gel its 1.3 billion citizens together. “The Chinese Dream is well on its way to becoming a popular political term for the coming decade,“ wrote Wang Yiwei,
15、 a professor at Renmin university, in an opinion piece for the Global Times newspaper. “The Chinese Dream goes beyond economic development, to focus on what path China will choose after it becomes developed,“ he added, saying that it involved greater human rights, a focus on happiness, values and ri
16、ghts, and the proud sense that China could once again provide scientific knowledge and an economic and development model that would influence other countries. “Western universal values have suffocated diversity in the world in modern times. Insightful Europeans have realised that the Western civilis
17、ation lacks momentum in dealing with an uncertain world, and is even unable to get rid of the debt crisis. They consider the Chinese civilisation to be a good alternative to the Western civilisation,“ opined the Peoples Daily, the Party mouthpiece, recently. After Mr Xi, Li Keqiang, the new Chinese
18、prime minister, took staged questions from the media for over an hour-and-a-half, spelling out some concrete proposals for combatting bureaucracy and government waste. “Put simply, we need to leave to the market and society what they can do well, and on the part of the government we need to manage w
19、ell those areas which fall into our purview,“ he said. A lawyer by training, Mr Li advanced a vision of a much cleaner China. “Law should have a sacred place in our society. No matter who you are, and what you intend to do, you should not step beyond the boundary of the law,“ he said. Mr Li said: “C
20、lean government should start with oneself. Only when one is upright himself can he or her ask others to be upright. Since we have chosen public office we should give up all thought of making money. We will accept the supervision of the whole public and the media.“ He promised that, during his ten ye
21、ars of office, no new government buildings would be commissioned, the number of bureaucrats on the payroll will decrease, and that spending on hospitality and overseas travel will fall. Like Mr Xi, Mr Li also struck a rather more philosophical tone than is common at the highest level of the Party. “Through my reading, my handling of various matters and my cultural upbringing, I have learned the following: Follow the great path, put the people first, and work for the benefit of everyone under heaven,“ he said.
