Xu Xiujun: The Openness Effect of Chinese-path Modernization
By Xu Xiujun
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "Reform and opening up is a key move [1] that determines the fate of contemporary China, and it is also a key move that determines the success or failure of Chinese-path modernization." The long process of exploration since the founding of New China, and particularly since the start of reform and opening up, demonstrates that Chinese-path modernization faces the world with an open and inclusive posture, achieving innovative development through the exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Chinese-path modernization possesses a distinct hallmark of openness, and it will bring more positive effects to global peace, development, prosperity, and progress through higher-level opening up.
Openness is the Distinct Hallmark of Chinese-path Modernization
Chinese-path modernization conforms to the historical trend of globalization. It has been continuously promoted through reform and opening up and will open up even broader prospects through further high-level opening up. As a distinct hallmark of Chinese-path modernization, openness continuously creates new conditions and shapes new momentum for the advancement of this modernization; it is an inevitable choice of both history and reality.
Openness is a necessary condition for advancing Chinese-path modernization. As an important means of promoting resource allocation on a global scale, openness has become an indispensable condition. On one hand, openness created the necessary prerequisites for the rapid advancement of Chinese-path modernization. Since the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the development gap between China and the world continuously widened. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the nation was impoverished and weak, the land was devastated and in need of total reconstruction [2], and the vast majority of the population lived below the poverty line. From the founding of New China until the period before reform and opening up, the face of the country underwent major changes, and the foundation for agricultural and industrial modernization was established. To more quickly advance the realization of the "Four Modernizations," [3] China made the great decision to implement reform and opening up, introducing large amounts of foreign capital, technology, and management experience, providing strong support for the economic takeoff. Reform and opening up became an important "magic weapon" [4] for the cause of the Party and the people to catch up with the times in giant strides.
On the other hand, openness continuously creates new conditions for advancing Chinese-path modernization in the New Era. In recent years, trends of anti-globalization have risen, and unilateralism and protectionism have increased significantly, leaving the global trading system facing unprecedented challenges. Meanwhile, as its comprehensive national strength continues to rise, China faces increasingly fierce external competition. Some countries view China’s development as a threat and pursue policies of containment and suppression, attempting to construct a "parallel system" that excludes China. Faced with a complex international situation, China persists in the basic state policy of opening up to the outside world, actively promoting higher-level opening up to continuously create a sound environment and favorable conditions for cultivating new advantages in international competition and constructing a "dual circulation" development pattern.
Openness is an important driving force for advancing Chinese-path modernization. On one hand, openness is a major driver of economic and technological development. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out: "Without a solid material and technological foundation, it is impossible to build a great modern socialist country in all respects." Economically, openness facilitates the optimization of resource allocation and the expansion of market scales, pushing China to continuously integrate into global industrial, supply, and value chains, achieving its own development through high interdependence with all countries. Technologically, openness facilitates the accumulation of human capital and technology diffusion, encouraging China to participate deeply in international technical exchange, cooperation, and governance to achieve self-reliance in innovation. On the other hand, openness is a bridge for achieving exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Chinese-path modernization is the product of absorbing and borrowing the advanced civilizational achievements of the world. Civilizational exchange and mutual learning are the source of momentum for Chinese-path modernization, and openness is the key pathway to facilitate this. Through information dissemination, knowledge sharing, and dialogue, openness can bring the advanced civilizations of the world to China, providing necessary nutrients for Chinese-path modernization, while also spreading China’s advanced civilization to the world, garnering more support and recognition.
Openness is an inevitable choice for Chinese-path modernization to conform to the trend of the times in economic globalization. Economic globalization is the inevitable result of human history reaching a certain stage. President Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: "Economic globalization is an objective requirement of the development of social productive forces and the inevitable result of scientific and technological progress; it is not something created by any individuals or countries." Although economic globalization has intensified international competition and imbalances and inequalities in the world economy—bringing many new problems and challenges—one cannot simply blame economic globalization for the problems troubling the world. For the world, economic globalization is an irreversible trend of the times; for China, it is the trend we must face as we plan our development. Therefore, economic globalization is the grand historical background for promoting Chinese-path modernization. This means that in the new historical period, advancing Chinese-path modernization must not involve isolationism; instead, it must promote higher-level opening up, continuously generating more positive effects in the process of integrating into economic globalization.
Chinese-path Modernization Continuously Promotes Common Global Development
China’s development cannot be separated from the world, and the world’s prosperity needs China. China and the countries of the world have long formed an inseparable community with a shared future for development. Relying on high-level opening up, Chinese-path modernization produces continuous positive spillover effects, forcefully promoting global development.
Chinese-path modernization promotes the formation of a new pattern of global development. Economic globalization has promoted global economic growth, but it has also been accompanied by issues of unbalanced and inadequate global development, which remain prominent in certain countries and regions. These issues manifest in two ways: first, the North-South gap between emerging markets/developing countries and developed countries remains obvious; second, development gaps exist to varying degrees within countries. In the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization, China has not only achieved rapid economic growth but has also greatly changed the long-standing pattern of North-South development imbalance. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that from 1979 to 2023, China’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 8.9%, much higher than the world average of 3.0% for the same period. Its average annual contribution to world economic growth was 24.8%, ranking first in the world. Thanks to the continuous expansion of China’s total economic volume, the status of emerging markets and developing countries in the world economic landscape has continuously risen, rewriting the global development pattern. Meanwhile, through targeted poverty alleviation and industrial development, China has helped nearly 800 million people escape poverty over the past 40-plus years, not only directly changing the global distribution of the impoverished population but also providing replicable experience for global poverty reduction.
Chinese-path modernization continuously creates new opportunities for world development. China firmly pursues an opening-up strategy of mutual benefit and win-win results, providing new opportunities for the world through China’s new development, promoting an open world economy, and better benefiting the people of all nations. It is particularly noteworthy that Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of a huge population. China has over 1.4 billion people—a scale larger than the total population of all currently developed economies combined. This huge population implies a massive market, providing vast market space for global enterprises. As consumption upgrades and industrial transformations continue, China provides more opportunities for the development of all countries. Currently, China is the world’s largest trader of goods, the second-largest recipient of foreign investment, and the third-largest source of outward investment; it is a major trading partner for more than 150 countries and regions. By actively participating in international trade and investment cooperation, China provides huge market opportunities and sources of investment for the world, promoting long-term global growth and expanding the space for economic development. Over the past decade, China’s contribution to world economic growth has remained at around 30%, providing a powerful engine for the global economy. Furthermore, in fields such as 5G communications, high-speed rail, and new energy, China’s technological innovation is at a world-leading level. Through technical cooperation and diffusion, China will provide strong support for global technological progress and industrial upgrading.
Chinese-path modernization continuously contributes new solutions for global development. Chinese-path modernization shatters the myth that "modernization = Westernization," expands the path to modernization for late-developing countries, provides a "Chinese solution" for developing countries to explore modernization paths suited to their own national conditions, and offers a new path choice for humanity to achieve modernization. China has successively proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), offering Chinese solutions for global governance from economic, political (security), and cultural perspectives, and consolidating a synergy in the international community to promote common development. To date, China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations. The BRI has become a popular international public good and cooperation platform. As the positive effects of the BRI are released, the role and influence of the Chinese solution have become increasingly prominent. World Bank report data estimates that BRI infrastructure connectivity has significant potential to promote trade and investment and improve living conditions in participating countries. Thanks to BRI international cooperation, completed and planned transportation projects will reduce freight times for BRI countries and regions by an average of 1.7% to 3.2%, and global average shipping times by 1.2% to 2.5%; the real income of BRI countries and regions will increase by 1.2% to 3.4%, and global real income by 0.7% to 2.9%. The "Three Global Initiatives" focus on prominent problems in economic development and social progress, contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to the global modernization process. China is working with relevant parties to implement these initiatives, making new contributions to common development.
Chinese-path Modernization Leads the Reform of the Global Governance System and Order
Chinese-path modernization is a modernization that follows the path of peaceful development. This means China will not follow the old path of certain countries that achieved modernization through war, colonization, and plunder. Instead, it stands firmly on the right side of history and the side of human civilizational progress, promoting peace, development, cooperation, and win-win results. Simultaneously, China effectively responds to the major issues and challenges facing the world today, actively advocating for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. Conforming to the deep advancement of economic globalization, Chinese-path modernization will push global governance toward a more just and reasonable direction, playing a leading role in the reform of the international system and order.
Chinese-path modernization advocates for an equal and orderly multipolar world. Sovereign equality has been an important principle regulating state-to-state relations for centuries and has become a principle followed by the United Nations and its agencies. The key to sovereign equality is that all countries—regardless of size, strength, or wealth—must have their sovereignty and dignity respected. This is of great significance for ensuring the normal development of international relations, promoting international peace and cooperation, and particularly protecting the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries. Stability and order are the basic prerequisites for global development and prosperity, as well as an important basis for international cooperation. An "equal" multipolar world means adhering to sovereign equality in the field of global governance, fully reflecting equality of rights, opportunities, and rules for all nations. This means all countries can participate equally in international affairs during the process of multipolarization, enjoy legal rights, and make their respective contributions, while also balancing rights and responsibilities. An "orderly" multipolar world means jointly observing the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, adhering to universally recognized basic norms governing international relations, and acting within the international system with the UN at its core, moving beyond traditional international patterns characterized by bloc-based confrontation, fragmentation, and disorder.
Chinese-path modernization advocates for universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. This is the aspiration of the people and the right path for humanity; it is also the driving force and guarantee for economic globalization to move forward. Openness and inclusiveness are inevitable requirements of globalization. Only by adhering to openness and inclusiveness can all countries learn from each other’s strengths, exchange what they have for what they need, and achieve "shared beauty" [5] and peaceful coexistence. "Universally beneficial" economic globalization means responding to the development needs of all countries—especially developing ones—to bake a larger "cake" of globalization and divide it better, so the fruits of globalization fairly benefit the people of all nations and achieve common prosperity. To this end, all countries should fully implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, push development back to the center of the international agenda, deepen the alignment of development strategies, jointly solve the global development deficit, and promote the building of a global development community. "Inclusive" economic globalization means practicing the spirit of "harmony in diversity" [6] within the process of globalization, respecting each other's development paths and models, and jointly maintaining the security and stability of global industrial, supply, and value chains, making the world more diverse and flourishing.
Chinese-path modernization advocates for just and reasonable global governance. The world today has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. The shadows of Cold War mentality and power politics persist, local conflicts and instability occur frequently, and security threats in new fields such as AI, climate change, cybersecurity, and biosecurity are emerging one after another. However, the current global governance system was primarily established and dominated by Western powers after World War II. It has not only failed to effectively respond to the major challenges of today but has also failed to address the legitimate demands of emerging markets and developing countries; it has even become a tool for a few countries to seek hegemonic interests and a weapon to hinder the development of others. Chinese-path modernization upholds the common values of humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom—and seeks to build a community with a shared future for humanity, working with the people of the world to build a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, and cleanliness. This is the mission and responsibility of the Chinese nation in the new historical era to seek peace and development for humanity; it is the fundamental strategy for effectively addressing the global governance deficit. In the face of an increasing governance deficit, Chinese-path modernization guides the realization of higher-level world peace and security, higher-quality global common development, and a higher starting point for human civilizational progress, leading humanity toward more just and reasonable global governance.
(The author's affiliation: The Institute of Chinese-path Modernization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) Source: Qianxian (Frontline), Issue 4, 2025 Web Editor: Bao Luo (Paul)