Expectations run high globally in regard to China’s future under the CPC’s leadership
(LI MIN / CHINA DAILY)
Editor’s note: On the occasion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Daily interviewed foreign dignitaries who have offered their thoughts on China’s achievements over the past decade, expectations for the Congress and the outlook for China’s future in multiple fields including the economy, technology, foreign policy and social development. Excerpts, with reporting contributions from Song Ping and Zhang Zhao.
Essam Sharaf, former prime minister of Egypt
China for me is a living civilization. You can feel the Chinese civilization existing everywhere. Despite its modernization, you can feel the spirit of the Chinese civilization.
Through my numerous visits to China, I have witnessed a governance system that deserves respect — a system led by the Communist Party of China and a government accepted by the people.
The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) will be the main guide, and “dual circulation” will be the new development paradigm. It is based on a strong insight — making the Chinese people stronger and richer — so they can respond to any external challenges. In the other direction, Beijing will enhance the Belt and Road Initiative and other global initiatives.
Dual circulation means being strong inside while also promoting strong international cooperation, although the mainstay is China itself being stronger and wealthier with more domestic demand. That way China will have demand, and also offer the supply. This makes China independent from outside forces.
And in the meantime, China, as a big country, is offering a lot of initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and so on.
The Belt and Road Initiative has facilitated trade and activated hidden demand. And consequently, it has offered a golden opportunity to several developing countries to increase their per capita GDP, and created job opportunities. That has helped the nations reduce their levels of poverty.
China by nature is a peaceful country. So the main issue is economic development for the sake of Chinese people, as I said, by the people, for the people. On the other side, China is doing a good job in bringing people and countries together, and offering the international system good ideas.
I believe that in the next period, China will work hard with other friends to create a multilateral rule-based system. I believe China with its friends will help the world, especially the developing countries, by promoting a better world order.
Grzegorz W. Kolodko, former deputy prime minister of Poland
China is now one of the engines for global economic development, and also a powerhouse in political and military fronts, while advancing the cause of irreversibility of globalization.
China’s international policy is oriented not toward world expansion, but is run from a pragmatic viewpoint — how Chinese policies may contribute to sustaining an external environment conductive to the social and economic development of China.
That is also the driving force or founding cause of the Belt and Road Initiative, which is making such an impression all over the world. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of the trademarks of the past 10 years. There are some people who are concerned or even afraid of this initiative. I am not. I put trust and hope in this initiative.
I expect that China’s leaders will correctly address the domestic and international challenges and will find answers to address the domestic problems in a way that is compatible with the external position of China.
I think that it will be a positive achievement, if after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s diplomats, intellectuals, media and politicians are able to convince the people in the rest of the world about the true Chinese agenda, aims, targets, and to convince the people that China is indeed working not only on behalf of the Chinese people but with accountability and responsibility, or co-responsibility, for the people everywhere. That requires more deeds, less words.
China will be able to avoid the so-called hard landing. China’s economy will be soon bigger than the US economy even on the current exchange rate basis, not just on purchasing power parity. China’s society is aging, which will be a growing challenge for the nation, as is already the case in Japan or in each of the 27 countries of the European Union.
And I hope that China will not get involved in any external conflict, that China’s international significance and influence will be only felt in a peaceful and economic manner all over the world. China will remain a promoter of sustainable global development, not a threat. These are my hopes and expectations for the future.
Donald Ramotar, former president of Guyana
China has made a tremendous achievement in eliminating extreme poverty in the country, and it’s probably the only country in the world to have done this, and to have done it 10 years ahead of the deadline agreed some time ago. I believe that the Communist Party of China is now beginning to look at the question of relative poverty, which exists in income inequality.
That will be a more difficult task, but the CPC has the record of being able to find very creative answers to difficult problems.
I believe the government has a lot of tools at its disposal to form a tax system that can help improve the general welfare of the people, create equal opportunities so that people’s financial position will not become a barrier to them, and enable people to make bigger contributions to development because of their ability.
China has achieved very high economic growth rates and it’s still on the ascent. I have every faith in the CPC as it has shown tremendous creativity in every stage of the struggle in China.
The structure that the CPC has created takes into account the nation’s history and culture, and it has fashioned institutions that take all of those things into consideration and allow China’s whole-process democracy to flourish. China upholds the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind as the core of its diplomacy.
China generally adopts a win-win approach in its foreign policy and I think it’s a model that really should not remain only for China. I think our world would be a far better place if this model becomes more universal.
I don’t believe that international interests conflict with the national interests, and I believe that anything good that we can do to improve the international situation will benefit national interests as well. So I think the model of diplomacy adopted by China has given tremendous benefits particularly to us in the Third World, but also to the world as a whole. And I think it could be a model that other countries can follow.
Alessandro Teixeira, former minister of tourism of Brazil
The root of China’s objective is to achieve development for its people. It’s not a dream, it’s a reality. And I think China can do that because it has its unique system.
How can China get to that? There are some important elements. The first element that’s very critical is leadership. When China’s leadership makes a decision, it’s taken seriously by everybody, by the private sector, by the media, by the government. So everyone knows the direction in which to go.
The second important element is education. The Chinese people invest much in education and that’s different to people in the Western societies, which tend to take education for granted. Many people say this is because the competition in China is so fierce. But it doesn’t matter if it is in China or elsewhere, you want to prepare children for the future.
The third element is the faith that the population has in the government and in the system. The government plays an important role in terms of leadership, but plays a much more important role in terms of governance. It helps people understand where you want to go.
The fourth element is the culture of Chinese people. It is how they perceive the world, not in the short run, but in the long run.
I think those four elements make China different from any other place around the world.
Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development
China has shifted from a very, very high gear of growth that was unbalanced. In the past 10 years, the leadership has focused a lot more on solving some of the legacy problems and advancing and investing for the future.
China will have a lower GDP growth rate, but development of better quality, more social development, more inclusion, little by little, for example the expansion of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises.
China’s development needs to focus on both the high end for consumption to spur the economy, and, as it is doing, on the low end so the less-wealthy have access to basic services.
And the thing that I would do is to promote the development of healthcare and education. They really need to be almost free for all. This is the true goal of any society, providing free opportunity for education and for health, which are the two pillars of social development.
If you do this, people will always be happy because they will be free from the burden of fears. They will not save for precautionary reasons, just in case they get sick, just in case they need to study. Because they know that the government takes care of it. So it is good from the point of view of individual inclusion, but it is also very good for the economy, because you unlock a lot of the savings that the Chinese people have.