In midsummer, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully held, which made strategic arrangements for further deepening reform and promoting Chinese modernization, and once again conveyed to the world the strong voice of China unswervingly promoting high-quality development and high-level opening up, which aroused great concern from the international community. International public opinion generally believes that the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is of far-reaching significance to China and the world. It is expected that Chinese modernization and high-level opening-up will bring more opportunities to the development of all countries in the world. It is no accident that the wind is surging, and there is a previous chapter in the moon. This expectation is not without reason. In recent years, Chinese-style modernization has made a series of important contributions to promoting the development of world modernization in its own process, and will bring more development opportunities.
Chinese modernization provides new ideas for countries all over the world to explore the road of modernization. Chinese-style modernization insists on independence and self-reliance, and has made great achievements, successfully breaking the myth of "modernization equals westernization", and solving the dilemma of choosing "independence or vassal", "destiny and common" or "decoupling and breaking the chain", which provides useful reference for all countries in the world, especially developing countries, to explore their own modernization roads. On recent international occasions, such as the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the publication of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the second high-level meeting of the Global Action Forum for Shared Development, and the 12th World Peace Forum, representatives of countries in the "Global South" expressed their urgent desire to cooperate with China and learn from China.
Chinese-style modernization provides new kinetic energy for global economic prosperity and development. According to the World Bank report, from 2013 to 2021, the average contribution rate of China to world economic growth was as high as 38.6%, exceeding the sum of the contribution rates of the Group of Seven, and it was the first driving force for world economic growth. The "Belt and Road Initiative" promoted the joint construction of national infrastructure interconnection, which reduced the global trade cost by 1.8%. Germany’s Statista data platform predicts that by 2030, the Belt and Road Initiative will increase global GDP by 0.7%, and by 2050, it will increase global GDP by 2.6%. China has provided development assistance to more than 160 countries, directly invested more than US$ 130 billion in more than 150 countries, and promoted a large number of infrastructure and livelihood projects. China establishes China — South-South multilateral cooperation platforms such as the ASEAN Cooperation Mechanism, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Latin America Forum and the China-Arab Forum have created a "global development and South-South cooperation fund" with a total amount of US$ 4 billion, and implemented more than 130 projects for nearly 60 countries, covering poverty reduction, food security, anti-epidemic and climate change, injecting new momentum into global common development.
Chinese modernization has made new contributions to safeguarding world peace and development. China adheres to the path of peaceful development and writes it into the Constitution. China is the permanent member of the United Nations Security Council with the largest number of peacekeepers, and the only country among the five nuclear powers that has promised not to be the first to use nuclear weapons. On the issue of peace and security, China is a big country with the best record in the world. China made great efforts to explore solutions to hot issues with China characteristics, successfully promoted the reconciliation between Shay and, promoted intra-Palestinian reconciliation, and persuaded peace and promoted talks on the Ukrainian crisis. Facts have proved that China’s modernization is the growth of peaceful forces and has played an important role in safeguarding world peace and development.
At present, the great changes in the world that have never happened in a century have accelerated their evolution, local conflicts and turmoil have occurred frequently, global problems have intensified, and various international "black swan" and "grey rhinoceros" incidents have occurred frequently. Countries all over the world, especially the "global south", are more eager for opportunities, looking forward to cooperation and seeking development. The broad prospect of Chinese modernization just fits this common demand and brings multiple opportunities:
Great market opportunities. More than 1.4 billion people in China have stepped into modernization as a whole, which means that a huge market will be formed, which exceeds the total size of the existing developed countries. According to estimates, every 1% increase in the urbanization rate in China can boost about $140 billion in new investment and $28 billion in new consumption. Every 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of middle-income groups will increase consumer spending by more than 150 billion US dollars every year. With the construction of a unified national market, the promotion of new urbanization and the improvement of regional coordinated development strategy in China, the super-large-scale market will be continuously upgraded and expanded, and the broader domestic demand potential will be released.
More growth opportunities. First, improve the scale and quality of import and export trade. In the first half of this year, the total value of China’s import and export trade was 21.17 trillion yuan, a record high in the same period, achieving a steady growth of 6.1%. China’s imports of integrated circuits increased by 14.1%, reflecting the rapid development of China’s advanced manufacturing industry. In the first half of the year, China’s import and export trade with countries that jointly built the Belt and Road increased by 7.2%. The Chairman of the Supreme Leader announced that from now until 2030, the cumulative import volume of China from developing countries is expected to exceed 8 trillion US dollars. The second is to meet the new development needs of southern countries. For example, in 2023, China’s exports of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products increased by nearly 30%, and all localities made full use of their comparative advantages according to local conditions and aimed at market segments, which better met the new demands of ASEAN, Central Asia and other regions. The third is to provide the world with a transformation plan. As an important symbol of new quality productivity, 5G technology has spawned new scenarios and new formats, and also promoted industrial transformation and upgrading in application countries and regions. The "China Program" of digital transformation is helping small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries to reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase income.
Broader cooperation opportunities. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasized that "opening up is a distinctive symbol of Chinese modernization", and China will continue to expand its independent opening up, expanding its commodity market, service market, capital market and labor market. Further relax market access and implement the requirement of "clearing" foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector. China has achieved full visa-free access with 24 countries, unilaterally granted visa-free access to 16 countries, and will further expand its unilateral opening to the least developed countries. China will continue to expand institutional opening, create a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment, and form a more market-oriented, rule-of-law and international business environment, which will bring broad opportunities for cooperation between more and more countries.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out, "China is not pursuing an independent modernization. It is willing to work with other countries to realize a world modernization of peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and common prosperity and promote the building of a community of human destiny." Today, China is the China of the world, and reform and opening up is a great historical process for China to join hands with the world for common development and progress. On the new journey of reform and opening-up, Chinese-style modernization will inject more stability and certainty into the turbulent world with higher-quality development and higher-level opening-up, and make continuous contributions to China’s wisdom, China’s plan and China’s strength in promoting the process of world modernization and building a community of human destiny.
(The writer is an observer on international issues.)