BEIJING: China’s broader push for its pathway to modernization has fueled expectations that the nation will bring more opportunities and create a dynamic of growth that will deliver wide-ranging benefits for the world, according to business leaders and analysts.
The Chinese path to modernization, a key vision outlined by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in his report to the 20th CPC National Congress, is the modernization of a huge population, and it ensures common prosperity for all and pursues peaceful development.
This path will also entail the promotion of high-standard opening-up, including the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative and broader steps to share its development experience, analysts said.
Raymund Chao, chairman of PwC Asia-Pacific and China, said the vision of the Chinese path to modernization was proposed at a pivotal moment with the international environment becoming increasingly complex and uncertain and global leaders contemplating solutions to the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, regional conflicts, and supply chain and trade disruptions.
“The path to ‘Chinese modernization’ and developing China as a ‘great modern socialist country’ by the mid-21st century will have profound implications for economic and social development, both for the world and China, in the coming years,” he said.
To follow this path and attain this goal, he said the nation will expand institutional opening-up with regard to rules, regulations, management and standards, promote high-quality development of the BRI and endeavor to preserve the diversity and stability of the international economic landscape and trade relations. China’s top leadership reaffirmed its push for the Chinese path to modernization at the annual tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December, during which policymakers pledged to make greater efforts to attract more foreign capital, widen market access and further open up the modern services sector.
They also highlighted the nation’s unwavering commitment to join high-standard economic and trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement.
Xi said in a written speech delivered at the APEC CEO Summit in Bangkok in November that no more than 30 countries, with a total population of less than 1 billion, have achieved industrialization so far. He said that China’s middle-income population will increase to over 800 million in the next 15 years, and promote the sustained growth of China’s supersized market. Chao said the modernization of China’s 1.4 billion population to promote common prosperity will unleash consumer demand for high-quality goods and services as the nation pushes for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. “A modernized China will bring more opportunities and create a dynamic of growth for both the region and the world,” he said. “It is also a strong signal of China further opening up to the world, underscoring the country’s commitment to pursue an open strategy of achieving peaceful and coordinated development for win-win outcomes.”
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
