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BEIJING, July 2-- The Communist Party of China (CPC), the world's largest political party, celebrated its 99th birthday as the country is consolidating its economic recovery amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Official data shows activities in many Chinese industries, from auto manufacturing to e-commerce, are returning to pre-epidemic levels. Given the country's solid pace of recovery, Fitch Ratings on Monday raised its 2020 GDP forecast for China to 1.2 percent from 0.7 percent. The recovery is hard won, though. For months, the COVID-19 epidemic, coupled with lingering trade tensions and weak external demand, has been testing the economic governance capacity of the CPC, which led the country to transform from a vastly impoverished agricultural land into the world's second-largest economy with better-off people. Based on the valuable experience it has accumulated over the past decades, the CPC will steer the country toward a healthier and long-term growth through deepening reform and widening opening-up, analysts say. QUALITY MATTERS MORE IN TOUGH DAYS After four decades of breakneck expansion, the CPC has been pushing China's economy to transition to high-quality development, putting emphasis on greener and more sustainable growth. China lowered its economic growth targets over the past few years, and even set no target for this year, showing the country is relying less on using GDP to measure success. | 
