Not an end, but a starting point

Great asset

"I think there is a period during which the West has to learn that China's not for changing, and when they do they will realize that China can be a great asset."

Until this year, before COVID-19 appeared, China accounted for about 30 percent of world economic growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

"Most of the rest of that growth has gone this year due to the pandemic, and China will (produce) 70 percent, 80 percent of world growth this year, I would think," Perry said.

"The truth is the world needs China. That will be the single motivating factor for solving the problems of the next 10 or 15 years."

China's remarkable achievement could serve as a guide for eradicating poverty globally. Ana Revenga, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, who was deputy chief economist for the World Bank, said at a teleconference on the World Bank's inaugural report "Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016": "If anybody can show the world how to do that last mile (of ending extreme poverty), it probably is China."

President Xi has said: "Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit."

Apart from reducing poverty, effectively preventing and controlling financial risks, and protecting the environment are the other two challenges China needs to successfully handle to achieve a moderately prosperous society.

"The system you have, which is known as the scientific method, is such an effective method," Perry said, referring to socialism with Chinese characteristics, which enables the country to make decisions efficiently, organizes effectively and mobilize resources for important undertakings.

Perry said China headed the right way to be the first country to achieve its "own form of socialism".

"And on the external side, I think that the world will move to recognize that President Xi's philosophy of community of a shared future is actually very simple and very sensible," he added.

Since Xi first proposed the vision of "a community of a shared future for mankind" in 2013, China has worked to build a new type of international relations.

The Belt and Road Initiative has been a platform for building the community and a new way of improving global governance and increasing mutual understanding and mutual benefits among different societies.

"The world is a better place if we work together rather than compete with each other," Perry said.

STEPHEN PERRY

Stephen Perry, a witness to and a participant in China's poverty eradication process over recent decades, has been involved with China since his earliest days.

His fascination for China comes from his father. Jack Perry, founder of London Export Corporation, led 48 British business people to Beijing in the early 1950s and helped build one of the earliest trade relationships between China and the West.

The company traded commodities with China. In the early 1990s he decided to focus on strategic long-term deals with China and put together some of the groundbreaking deals of that period.

Stephen Perry is the chairman of The 48 Group Club, an independent business network committed to promoting trade and cultural links between the UK and China.

He has dedicated himself to ensuring that the British better understand China.