Chinese modernization's growing impact on world development
Some media, politicians, and scholars in Western countries have been trying to spread the ideas of "Chinese neo-colonialism" and "Chinese threat", among others. They refuse to acknowledge that China has chosen a different path from that of the former Western powers and has achieved its development goals of modernization. However, China has proved through practical actions that Chinese modernization is not a way to seek profits, gain wealth and power by coercion or to the detriment of others, but instead, to cooperate with other countries based on equality, inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefits and respect for sovereignty. The path to Chinese modernization is thus not the path of imperialism, colonialism, or hegemony, but the path of peaceful development.
The world needs China, and China needs the world to develop. China is continuing to prove with its actions and achievements that Chinese modernization is increasingly contributing to world development, and has a growing impact on the world.
First, China's economic development is deeply involved in and contributes to world economic growth. In the past few years, China has been playing an important role in driving global economic growth. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China has been the world's second-largest economy for more than a decade. China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent from 2013 to 2021, contributing an average of more than 30 percent to global economic growth, and ranking first in the world. Since the new era, China is seeking better connectivity between domestic and international markets to promote common development in China and the rest of the world. In 2021, China's total foreign trade in goods reached 39.1 trillion yuan. China has become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, and its total trade in goods ranks first in the world.
Second, in the world's most populous country, Chinese modernization has contributed more to the overall reduction of world poverty than any other country in history by addressing absolute poverty, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the global reduction in the number of people living in extreme poverty. At the same time, China has continued to contribute to world poverty reduction through the Belt and Road Initiative notably. More and more developing countries are learning from China's experience and methods of poverty alleviation, especially the targeted poverty alleviation promoted by China in the past few years, to address poverty in their respective countries.
Third, China is actively participating in and concretely contributing to global green development. In recent years, taking the lead in green development in the world, the Chinese government has not only made environmental commitments such as achieving CO2 emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, but has also taken actions to fulfill them. For example, China invested $137.2 billion in renewable energy in 2021 and became the world leader in installed capacity for all renewable energy. In the last 20 years, China has accounted for 25 percent of the world's increase in foliage, the biggest contributor in the world. In addition, China actively organizes, co-organizes, and participates in lots of major international environmental conferences, and cooperates with many countries on green development.
Fourth, China firmly opposes hegemonism, power politics, and Cold War mentality, promotes the building of a community of shared future for humankind, encourages international security cooperation at the United Nations and other international institutions and organizational platforms, actively participates in UN peacekeeping operations, and makes great efforts to continue playing a major role in maintaining world peace.
The developed Western countries are no longer the locomotive of development and modernization. The times have changed, and other modernization paths are possible, such as Chinese modernization. As problems emerged in the process of Western modernization, more countries in the world, especially developing countries that have deeply suffered from it, are looking for another path. At the same time, China's path to modernization is a path that helps other countries and allows making progress together in a win-win type of cooperation, rather than using coercion and the suffering of others to gain profits and power.
Through Chinese modernization, China is making a greater contribution to the promotion of human progress, world peace and development, and building an ecological civilization and a community of shared future for humankind. That is why Chinese modernization is increasingly winning the hearts and minds of people all over the world and becoming a source of inspiration for other countries that are trying to find a path to modernization that doesn't damage their interests and allows them to keep their independence and autonomy. Chinese modernization is therefore offering new options and opportunities to the world.
The author is an associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.
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