Chinese Modernization Provides a Reference for the World: Scholars from Many Countries Highly Praise China's Path to Modernization
Currently, the changes in the world, our times, and history are unfolding in unprecedented ways. Multiple risks coexist, including geopolitical conflicts, political maneuvering, and energy crises, while trends of anti-globalization are surging alongside a marked rise in unilateralism and protectionism. Human society is facing unprecedented challenges, and the world once again stands at a crossroads of history. Against this backdrop, China’s use of innovative development to effectively respond to an external world fraught with uncertainty has drawn intense international attention. The year 2023 marks the 45th anniversary of Reform and Opening-up and the inaugural year for the comprehensive implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the CPC. "Chinese-path modernization" has become the "key term" for China’s new development and a "trending topic" for extensive discussion within the international community and global academia.
During the convening of China’s Two Sessions [1], international scholars focused on the positive signals released by the meetings to explore the developmental trajectory of Chinese-path modernization. To investigate the outstanding contributions and global significance of Chinese-path modernization toward a new form of human civilization [2] from a comparative Sino-Western perspective, our reporter interviewed three scholars: Norbert Molina Medina, Professor and Researcher at the Center for African and Asian Studies at the University of the Andes, Venezuela; Bunn Nagara, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia; and Enrique Dussel Peters, Professor and Director of the Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The Two Sessions Showcase Modernization and State Governance Strategies
Nagara commented that the Two Sessions are widely regarded as China’s most important annual political events, serving as an excellent opportunity and a vital window for China to showcase its unique political system and state governance strategies to the world. The 2023 Two Sessions are even more significant because, following the optimization of epidemic prevention and control policies, many countries are keenly interested in the key policy directions discussed during this year’s sessions.
Medina told the reporter that the convening of the Two Sessions and their related agendas play a guiding role in China’s developmental direction for 2023. High-quality motions and proposals during the sessions covered numerous fields such as environmental protection, innovation, agriculture, investment, and the service industry. These will undoubtedly form the key decisions and suggestions for China’s national governance in the new year, helping China achieve the Second Centenary Goal [3].
Medina stated that there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe over the past three years exposed the vulnerability of health systems in many countries, triggering crises that continue to affect both developed nations and the Global South. Although China’s development was also affected by the international environment, its strength and experience in responding to public health crises enabled it to recover quickly and achieve stable domestic economic growth. Facing the surging pandemic, China demonstrated a powerful capacity for rapid response to public emergency events and advanced public health logistical support capabilities. Meanwhile, China extended a friendly hand of assistance to countries deeply affected by the pandemic; this has become the best example of China conducting effective cooperation and playing an exemplary role in today’s international community. China also promoted the construction of international aid, loan, and investment mechanisms—actions that have been recognized by the international community and have strengthened China’s international influence. Today, China plays an increasingly prominent role in 21st-century international relations, possessing both the will and the ability to solve major problems facing global development.
Today’s China no longer focuses solely on the speed of development but instead sets longer-term and more robust goals, driving vibrant growth in all fields through profound transformation. Regarding China’s recent developmental achievements, Medina evaluated: "China helped more than 800 million rural residents escape absolute poverty. The fact that absolute poverty was overcome in such a short period is commendable. However, reaching the goal of eliminating absolute poverty does not mean all social problems have been solved. There are still unsatisfactory areas such as congestion in large cities, unbalanced regional development, social security systems awaiting improvement, and an education system that needs expansion. But so far, China has achieved truly astonishing results in science and technology, modern communications, infrastructure, and the overall quality of life for its people. China has leaped to become the world's second-largest economy and is setting sail on a new journey toward building a strong, modern country."
Medina continued by noting that strategy and tactics determine the success of an implemented model. Had China not implemented Reform and Opening-up at the end of 1978, the reality of China today would be a different scene altogether. Reform and Opening-up was not just a decision to change the course of Chinese society under specific circumstances, but a measure of permanent historical significance. As a social practice never attempted in other socialist countries—and a first for China as well—the immense success of Reform and Opening-up shattered the skepticism of Western countries. It proved to the world that a market economy is not the exclusive property of Western societies; it can also be implemented in a unique way within a socialist country.
From the "Four Modernizations" to Chinese-path Modernization
Peters explained to the reporter that according to research by the Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, China exhibits characteristics in both the political and economic spheres that are distinctly different from the West. Compared with developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, since the implementation of its modernization policies, China has not only significantly improved the quality of life of its people but has also produced powerful and flexible domestic and international institutions. These institutions and their corresponding environments are adjusted in a timely manner according to changing domestic and international challenges. For example, regarding economic systems, China is able to rationally propose short-, medium-, and long-term developmental priorities, continuously upgrade innovative technologies, and gradually increase its level of self-sufficiency. The actual conditions and challenges China faces today are different from those at the beginning of Reform and Opening-up and after the 1980s. What is valuable is that China can continuously improve, correct, and execute its policies and measures according to new situations in social development. Over the past decade, China’s proposals to build an environment-friendly society, the goals for poverty elimination, high-quality development, constructing the new development dynamic [4], and the concept of "dual circulation" are all results of timely policy adjustments.
Medina stated that China’s modernization process over more than 40 years has become one of the primary research subjects in universities worldwide, as countries hope to understand how China achieved such remarkable results in such a short time. While the "China model" cannot be exported in its entirety, certain "Chinese elements" within it can provide rich inspiration for Global South countries still mired in suffering and backwardness. Especially in the effort to create the minimum necessary conditions to guarantee development—including a massive domestic market, an environment conducive to foreign investment, legal and physical security, infrastructure progress, encouragement of innovative technology, and the improvement of modern communication quality—China’s experience can provide a reference for Venezuela and other Latin American countries. In these areas where China has achieved brilliant results, Latin American countries have found it difficult to make progress, still plagued by long-term political instability and a massive loss of development opportunities. Amid the stagnation of Latin American countries, the success of Chinese-path modernization helps these nations to think actively and draw lessons.
At the beginning of its modernization, the modernization of agricultural activities became the primary task for China, constituting a major peculiarity of Chinese-path modernization. Subsequently, the "Four Modernizations" became the focus of the early stages of Chinese-path modernization: the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. As China pushed its modernization process deeper, more developmental fields were covered. Regarding this, Medina noted that the "Four Modernizations" were designed according to the needs of each field and conformed to the concrete reality of the early modernization construction of the New China—namely, setting out to change the face of the poor and backward "Old China"—and can be regarded as an important component of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Nagara also expressed his views on the driving role of the "Four Modernizations" for China’s overall modernization. In his view, these four fields complement one another, with national economic development at the core, covering a series of priority areas for modernization in key industries. "The process of national modernization is a gargantuan undertaking; it is a wise choice to involve a few key areas from the start. One cannot involve too few areas at once, as that approach would be ineffective; nor can one cover too many areas at once, which would lead to the dispersion of developmental energy and dilute the effort and resources required to achieve those goals. To make modernization policies feasible and ensure success, one must first initiate the process in several of the most important fields. Once priority areas are established, other fields can be driven to develop. This is a precious lesson that China’s more than 40-year path of modernization leaves for other countries," Nagara said.
Nagara further proposed that various fields of modernization must complement each other rather than hinder or restrict one another. Harmony, cooperation, and synergy are the keys to victory. Development in any one field should not come at the expense of others; all should serve the modernization and progress of the entire nation. In this way, modernization construction can advance smoothly. In addition to focusing on synergistic development between fields, China also emphasizes the coordination of development between different provinces and regions, practicing this concept of synergy at the international level as well. For example, China ensures that all countries along the "Belt and Road" benefit, making the Belt and Road Initiative a model for promoting development, modernization, and prosperity through cooperation.
However, when the opposite occurs, it leads to serious consequences. Nagara explained that the negative experience of the United States in this regard is particularly worth learning from to avoid repeating the same mistakes. For many years, the U.S. economy has been dominated by giants in a few sectors, such as the automotive and oil industries. The dominance of these industries came at the expense of other American sectors, resulting in the failure of modernization achievements to fully and deeply benefit all aspects of society. A powerful automotive industry influenced the direction of U.S. government decision-making, leading to the absence of a high-speed rail system. The U.S. is the world’s largest economy and the only developed industrial country in the world whose high-speed rail network does not cover the entire nation. The powerful U.S. oil lobby has, to some extent, swayed government policy-making, leading to the slow development of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) industry. Many years ago, the U.S. was one step ahead in early EV technology. But to protect the private interests of a few oil giants, EV technology was suppressed in the following decades, the industry's ideas were ignored, and pioneers were marginalized. It was not until recent years that U.S. EV technology began to re-develop.
By contrast, China has not made similar mistakes in its modernization process, because China places the broader national interest above the narrow interests of any specific industry. China fully recognizes that a sophisticated high-speed rail network is vital for economic growth; thus, in today’s China, high-speed rail networks and related transportation infrastructure covering remote areas like Xinjiang and Tibet have already achieved modernization. China also realizes that industrial production relying on fossil fuels like oil brings serious consequences for the climate crisis; therefore, the advocated low-carbon and environmentally friendly EV industry has developed rapidly. "If a country allows one or two sectors to protect their own private interests by blocking the development of other sectors, then it cannot achieve modernization comprehensively; if a country allows pragmatic government policies to serve the overall national interest rather than just the narrow interests of specific industries, then it can successfully achieve modernization," Nagara concluded.
Western Modernization Models Possess Innate Flaws
Using the modernization process in Latin America as an example, Peters noted that since the 1940s, the region has undergone a long process of urbanization and industrialization, achieving important progress in education and health. However, the socio-economic polarization of Latin American society means that only a small portion of individuals, families, companies, and regions have benefited from the modernization process. As a result, the public sector has a weak revenue base and depends on a fairly small percentage of tax-paying households. A vicious cycle of highly polarized socio-economic conditions was thus formed.
This polarization has likewise become a fundamental factor hindering the modernization of Western countries. Peters pointed out that after World War II, the globalization process dominated by the United States, Western Europe, and Japan strengthened the liberalization of goods, services, and capital, achieving an impressive process of accumulation in GDP growth and the energy sector. While this process created immense wealth, it lacks a balanced distribution mechanism for that wealth, leading to a socio-economic polarization of the "1% versus the 99%." The political pressure to overcome these structural constraints is immense.
Medina stated that Western civilization has indeed contributed to human progress. Following the two Industrial Revolutions, Western countries achieved progress in many fields; the quality of life for the populace improved significantly across multiple dimensions, and the level of social welfare rose substantially. For example, advancements in medicine and science and technology increased life expectancy, and mortality rates decreased significantly compared to previous centuries. However, the Western model of industrial development possesses "congenital" flaws that cannot be ignored: namely, a path of industrial development at the cost of plundering nature and causing severe pollution, which poses a massive threat to human survival. If this issue is not fundamentally improved, humanity will face endless disasters and suffering.
Medina added that in a mere 30 years, hundreds of millions of people in China migrated from rural areas to cities in search of better living conditions, thereby driving China's urbanization process. Massive rural-to-urban population migrations also occurred in Europe, but the entire process took much longer to basically achieve urbanization. In many Western countries and the majority of developing nations, structural social problems persist over the long term, making it impossible to move forward steadily on the path of development and progress. Constant political crises and the weakness of ruling elites often trap countries in stagnation and backwardness. "For the political leaders of Western countries, rather than delivering too many empty speeches, it would be better to truly face the severe challenges of reality," Medina said.
Chinese-path modernization is based on collectivism rather than individualism; it is built upon the foundation of numerous long-term national development projects, thereby generating social transformation characterized by continuity and durability. In the West, social transformation is often determined by the race or skin color of those in power. In China, cultural values spanning several millennia have long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and continue to exert a profound influence today; China should feel proud of its own socio-cultural traditions. In the West, however, cultural values of individualism, hedonism, and the supremacy of money [5] construct the status quo of the social order, which can be described as an irreversible tragedy for those who lack the capacity to compete for individual wealth. In Western society, the operation and development of capital function in a manner diametrically opposed to that of China. In China, the Communist Party of China has always been the core of Reform and Opening-up [6]; it designs, develops, implements, and supervises the operation of capital models. To be sure, private capital also plays a very important role in Chinese society, but it always remains under state supervision, Medina commented.
"Although China has its own problems to solve, it has the courage to face the present and examine the status quo, maintaining internal self-reflection while remaining consistently inclusive toward the outside world. The prosperity of Chinese-path modernization today is also closely linked with globalization. As an important participant in the international system, the prominent position China displays in the world today is the result of China’s own modernization process, the result of China’s vigorous economic development, and the result of the sharing of interests between China and countries across the world. We believe that under the current situation of continuous international conflicts and frequent international disputes, China's unremitting efforts will surely make a massive contribution to world peace and development," Medina said.
Network Editor: Lian Yu Source: Chinese Social Sciences Today (China Social Sciences Press)