Themed “Chinese path to modernization and its global significance”, the first “Bridges” Global Chats was aired on December 1, 2022.
Hosted by GDToday, it gathered experts from the US, UK, and Pakistan to shed light on Chinese modernization, which is key to the future development of the country, and explore the global significance of this path.
Chinese path to modernization is people-centered
“China’s vision of modernization focuses on enriching people. When a part of the world is engaged in conflicts, energy crisis, and food shortage, China’s people-centered governance is a breath of fresh air,” said Haroon Sharif, former Pakistan minister of state and chairman of Board of Investment at the panel.
In Sharif’s view, Chinese modernization features high-quality growth which is non-confrontational and underlines peaceful coexistence of people, regions, and countries. Moreover, the model delivers the message of harmony with nature, which is appreciated by countries such as Pakistan that have suffered from disastrous consequences of climate change.
The first panel of “Bridges” Global Chats was held on December 1, 2022. (Photo/GDToday)
“The Chinese path to modernization is a gear towards building a better life for the people,” echoed by David Ferguson, honorary chief English editor of Foreign Languages Press, China International Communications Group. He recalled his journey in rural Gansu, once one of the impoverished provinces of inland China, where he witnessed how China made a fundamental difference to the well-being of people through infrastructure improvement.
“Building roads and bridges in a remote country area that shortens a journey of hours or a day to get to a township or a market creates critical opportunities for the locals,” he said.
Ferguson shared insight into other measures China has taken to lift people out of poverty. For poor people living in uninhabitable areas suffering from harsh natural conditions and subject to frequent natural disasters, the government relocated them with prior consent and built support facilities, industrial parks, and workshops in the resettlement sites to create jobs and ensure that people have stable incomes and equitable access to basic public services. “Then, taking advantage of the economic development, China feeds it back into the countryside helping the rural areas to develop.”
John Milligan-Whyte, chairman of America-China Partnership Foundation, said China has developed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world on a per capita basis into the second largest economy in the world in less than one lifetime.
“Chinese path to modernization presents not only to the developing countries an alternate model that works, but also to the developed countries that socialism is not a theory which cannot be successfully implemented,” Milligan-Whyte said.
When comparing the different approaches China and some western countries have taken to modernize, Ferguson believes there are “salient differences” which have not been well understood by most people.
“Western modernization is based on the exploitation of working classes, natural resources, and other countries, while Chinese modernization is taking a contrary approach. China is a win-win country,” he elaborated.
China shares its fruit of modernization with global partners
Sharif highlighted that there is a prospect of two large railway projects to further Pakistan-China cooperation, namely “the Karachi Circular Railway in our biggest port city Karachi and the ML-1 connecting Karachi with the northern part of Pakistan, which will go all the way to Afghanistan benefiting the Afghan people as well.”
From Sharif’s perspective, China-Pakistan cooperation focuses on geoeconomics instead of geopolitics. That is to say, “The bilateral diplomacy revolves around economic cooperation,” and China offers a very clear economic transaction through building infrastructure such as power stations and ports. “Pakistan’s main issue has been low productivity and lots of unskilled labor. China can give a lot of emerging technology, which can raise the levels of productivity.”
When comparing the models of cooperation with China and with some western countries, Sharif said the latter has tried to have a transactional relationship with Pakistan based on geopolitics, rather than economic cooperation. “When the Western powers engage with countries like Pakistan, they use aid as an instrument of political influence and use multilateral system, basically to drive the public policy agenda with very little understanding of the ground realities.”
Sharif expects China will further its partnership with Pakistan through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). “We can promote exchanges of technology and invest more in the development of young people. China can take the lead and set up more economic governance institutions which I have seen in ASEAN and other regional blocks,” he said.
“The Belt and Road Initiative is part of China’s vision of building a global community of shared future,” Ferguson noted. “And this vision goes beyond economic development. It starts with tackling specific issues such as poverty, environmental problems, and natural disasters. But the global community of shared future also allows us to seize future opportunities in innovation, technology, medical advances, and others that increase and enhance the value of life.”
Ferguson believes one cannot impose a model of a society onto another but everybody can learn from China’s model. “They can look at the specifics and ask how it works, why it works, what will work for us, and how we apply it.”
Reporter | Lydia Liu, Jasmine, Hannah
Video | Jasmine, Nina
Editor | Wing, Steven, Jerry
Clarice also contributed to the report.
