As the Communist Party of China (CPC) marked its 105th anniversary on July 1, former Slovenian President Danilo Türk said China's transformation over the past century can best be understood through one defining idea: comprehensiveness.
In an interview with South, Türk said Chinese modernization differs from earlier models pursued by major Western countries not only in speed and scale, but also in the breadth of changes it has brought to infrastructure, technology, governance, and society.
"Chinese modernization is the most comprehensive modernization that we know," Türk said.
Türk said the same comprehensive logic also shapes China's vision for global governance, with Beijing calling for the collective management of international affairs rather than seeking global dominance to supplant the United States.
For Türk, understanding China means looking beyond short-term competition and ideological labels. China, he said, should be seen in the context of a civilization stretching back thousands of years.
"China will be China, and the Chinese will be the Chinese," he said. "We have to figure out how to coexist."
China's modernization in "every possible way"
Looking back on the CPC's 105-year history, Türk described China's development as "a miracle" of historic proportions.
China, he said, has modernized "in every possible way," from high-speed railways and artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing.
He also pointed to China's success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, calling it an "incredible achievement" by global historical standards.
He contrasted this with the Western modernization of the 19th century, which he said was based on "a rather brutal application of the market economy," with market forces operating "without limits."
That model, Türk said, generated wealth, technological progress, and other advantages, but also carried severe social costs.
"It created terrible injustices, misery for many people," he said. "It created colonization, which pushed a large part of the world into a basis for raw materials and the brutal exploitation of labor and natural resources."
China, instead, "has developed a modern society in its every dimension," he said.
Türk said his own visits to China had made the depth and breadth of the country's modernization visible.
Taking a high-speed train from Tianjin to Beijing, he noted, allows passengers to travel from a major port city to the capital in less than an hour. In Sichuan, he visited a fully robotic factory producing components for a railway project now being built to the Xizang Autonomous Region. In Shenzhen, he said, "you'll see high tech everywhere."
"Whenever one visits China, one can immediately see a number of features that demonstrate how seriously and how deeply the modernization of China is pursued," he said.
A comprehensive vision for global governance
Türk said the same comprehensive thinking behind China's domestic modernization is also reflected in the country's approach to global affairs.
He cited China's four major global initiatives as examples of this broader vision: the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative.
"China looks at things comprehensively," he said. "It doesn't look at development in isolation from security, or security from global governance."
In Türk's view, these initiatives show that China is trying to connect different challenges rather than address them separately. Development, security, civilization, and governance, he said, should be understood as interlinked rather than isolated issues.
By contrast, Türk said, Western powers often take a more fragmented approach to global issues, responding to individual political, financial, or security crises without developing a broader framework.
"They deal with a political crisis, they deal with a financial crisis, they deal with a particular problem, rather than deal comprehensively with the issues of development," he said.
Türk acknowledged the historic role of the United States in creating the post-World War II international system, including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. At the time, he said, the United States was the dominant global power, and other countries were either devastated by war or not yet developed enough to play that role.
But the world has changed, he said, and global governance now requires a new balance.
According to Türk, China's Global Governance Initiative emphasizes the collective management of international affairs and gives renewed importance to existing institutions such as the United Nations and the Security Council.
"China is not seeking to replace the United States," he said. "China is seeking to develop a collective system that will give proper space to all the major actors in the world."
"One can't criticize China for being Chinese"
For Türk, many international debates about China are weakened by a failure to understand the country's long history.
He said some observers focus only on China's current technological expansion, artificial intelligence, or ideological debates, without seeing the much longer civilizational background behind China's development.
"They don't see the thousands of years of history that predate this dramatic development," he said.
Türk said the CPC's role should also be understood in this longer historical context. He argued that China has a deeply rooted cultural commitment to progress, innovation, and the search for new solutions, particularly in technology.
The CPC, he said, recognized this enduring capacity for change, organized the country's political system around it, and mobilized it successfully to drive China's modern transformation.
"Thousands of years of China are still there," Türk said. "The capacity of Chinese people for modernizing, for changing, is undiminished."
He rejected what he called "interest-based interpretations" of China, saying some countries criticize China's development because they view it as a competitor or threat instead of trying to understand it on its own terms.
"One has to understand the interest-based interpretations which criticize China for being Chinese," Türk said. "I don't think that makes any sense."
Reporter & author | Liu Xiaodi
Video editor | Pan Jiajun
Video script | Liu Xiaodi
Cover designer | Lai Meiya (feature), Pan Jiajun (video)
Fu Rong (intern) also contributed to the story.
