CPC takes people's interests as top priority: CPUSA co-chair Rossana Cambron

Photo taken on May 4, 2021 shows young people taking a selfie in front of the memorial of the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai on China's Youth Day. [Xinhua/Liu Ying]

The journey of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proves that a political party can achieve anything when it takes people's interests as its top priority, said Rossana Cambron, co-chair of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), in a recent interview with People's Daily.

In February 2019, Cambron visited China as a member of a delegation of Communist Party cadres from Americas, Oceania, and the Nordic region.

In her trips to Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province, Cambron learned about the early history of the CPC, and investigated how the province was implementing the concept of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, and building the Party at primary level.

She was deeply impressed by China's achievements in poverty alleviation, especially the work done by the CPC committees and Chinese governments at all levels, as well as the Chinese people to eliminate absolute poverty.

"I saw with my own eyes how the poverty alleviation results have been achieved under the leadership of the CPC," she said, when speaking of a visit to a once impoverished village in Zhejiang's Anji county, where residents today are living a well-off life and enjoying improved environment.

Local villagers shared their poverty reduction stories and the changes to their life, and invited the delegation for a dinner, Cambron recalled.

Some Americans believe that poverty is a chronic illness that will never be wiped out, Cambron told People's Daily. However, the historic achievements in eliminating absolute poverty by the CPC have proved that poverty reduction is not an impossible mission for a political party and a government that genuinely place their people at the center and pool resources to improve people's wellbeing, she explained.

Cambron said the CPC's experience in poverty alleviation serves as an inspiration and a role model for the rest of the world.

During her visit to China, Cambron had an acute attack of kidney stones and went to a hospital, where she acquired first-hand experiences of China's medical care system.

The treatment took only four hours and cost her around 500 yuan (about $77.7), she said, adding that similar medical services would usually cost over $1,000 in the U.S.

Such efficiency and price are unimaginable for Americans, she told People's Daily.

The medical care system, which is accessible to all, efficient and affordable, established in China, a country with 1.4 billion population, proves that the CPC and the Chinese government are striving for a better life for the Chinese people, Cambron said.

After returning to the U.S., Cambron published an article entitled "What does socialized medicine look like?" on People's World, a news publication supported by the CPUSA, in which she wrote China's medical care system puts people before profits, something that America should learn from.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, the CPC has led the Chinese people in a heroic battle against the epidemic, which impressed Cambron a lot.

China rapidly put the virus under control because the CPC and Chinese government has always placed people's interests in the first place, tried their best to safeguard people's health and safety, and pooled all resources possible in the fight against the pandemic, she said.

China built makeshift hospitals within a very short period of time and received massive COVID-19 patients, Cambron noted.

In sincere support of the policies of the CPC and the Chinese government, the Chinese people have stayed united and finally defeated the virus, demonstrating their trust and confidence in the CPC, she said.

In March this year, Cambron attended an online conference jointly held by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and the CPUSA International Department.

During the conference, representatives from the CPC and CPUSA agreed that peace, multilateralism and win-win cooperation should be made goals for developing international relations.

In the era of economic globalization, countries share more intertwined interests and peoples' future become closely linked together, Cambron pointed out, adding that the international society needs solidarity and cooperation more than ever.

The CPUSA hopes to further cooperation with the CPC and jointly work for a more beautiful world, she said.