MOSCOW — China has made great achievements over the past three decades under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and will keep on making new breakthroughs in the future, a Russian Communist Party stalwart has said.

Today, China is the world’s second largest economy and has outstripped the United States in a number of fields, Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of Russia since 1993 and four times a contender for presidency, said at a news conference on Oct 23, responding to a question on China’s socialist path.

“(China has) the highest rate of development. (China’s) average (growth) rate in the last 30 years was about 10 percent. It does (China) credit,” he said.

Lauding China’s efforts to follow socialism with Chinese characteristics, Zyuganov said China has done a marvelous job in reducing poverty, fighting corruption and crime, eliminating illiteracy and fostering modern industries.

“(They) are building it on the basis of (their) millennia-old history, (with their) hardworking people and (their) capacity to solve problems looking to the future,” he said.

Now China needs to make a leap for greater scientific and technological progress and rectify environmental problems, he added.

“I believe that (the Chinese) leadership has shown wisdom ... making it possible to give the younger generation a more prominent role in governance,” he said.

In an earlier interview with Xinhua, Zyuganov had said China’s achievements were made possible by the wise policy of its leadership, who adhered to socialism and set ambitious but well-thought-out goals for decades to come, particularly the “two centenary goals.”

The “two centenary goals” refer to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021, the centenary of the CPC, and building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the centenary of the People’s Republic of China, which was founded in 1949.

“My comrades and I have no doubts that China (will be) able to achieve its ‘two centenary goals,’” Zyuganov told Xinhua.