The Chinese Path To Modernisation

As a significant symbol of the development and progress of human civilisation, modernisation is a goal that people of various countries have been striving for since modern times. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China has realised, in a short span of several decades, industrialisation that had taken developed countries several centuries. It has created a turning point of the Chinese nation from sinking to rising, from suffering to glory, and has embarked on a new journey of Chinese path to modernisation. 

This miracle is not only of China, but also of the world. It will bring multiple positive and profound impacts to the world. “A just cause should be pursued for the common good.” As the biggest developing country, China always keeps in mind the greater good of the whole world. The Chinese path to modernisation is not a one-flower show, still less for self-interest. It is a path toward development of China, through which more positive energy will be added to global peace and new opportunities created for global development. 

Impetus to peaceful development

The path of peaceful development is one of the characteristics of Chinese path to modernisation. Dominance and hegemony is not the aim of China’s development. The notion that strength will lead to hegemony is incompatible with Chinese culture, and defiance of hegemony is a noble character of Chinese diplomacy. In 2018, China incorporated the path of peaceful development into its constitution, reflecting its firm determination to pursue the path of peaceful development. Over the past 70 years since its founding, China has not actively provoked any war or conflict, nor has it occupied any inch of other countries’ land. 

China actively participates in international arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation processes, opposes the arms race, maintains global strategic balance and stability, and is the permanent member of the UN Security Council with the highest number of peacekeeping personnel and the second largest contribution to the UN peacekeeping. China adheres to the principles of objectivity and impartiality, as well as the approach of dialogue and consultation, and actively participates in resolving hotspot issues such as Saudi Arabia’s resumption of diplomatic relations with Iran and Afghanistan issue. 

China has always followed an independent foreign policy of peace, unswervingly developed friendly cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and firmly upheld the basic norms of international relations and world peace. China has always adhered to mutual respect and win-win cooperation, shared its own opportunities with the world, and made progress with other countries in the context of positive interactions and mutual benefit. The Chinese economy has maintained stable growth for many consecutive years, with an average contribution rate of over 30 per cent to world economic growth in the past decade. 

As an advocate, promoter, and practitioner of global poverty reduction and development, China actively supports and assists developing countries, especially the least developed ones, in eradicating poverty. Ten years on since the start of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), over 3,000 cooperation projects have been launched, involving close to US$ 1 trillion of investment and creating 420,000 jobs for participating countries. Many nations have thus realised their dreams of railways, big bridges, and poverty alleviation. China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) is also widely welcomed by the international community.

With the support of over 100 countries and many international organisations, and with some 70 countries in the Group of Friends of the GDI, the Initiative is giving a strong boost to the early attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. China will firmly adhere to a mutually beneficial and win-win opening-up strategy, promote the construction of an open world economy, and work together with other countries to cultivate new drivers of global development, so that the achievements of development can better benefit the people of all countries. The new opportunities, assistance and contributions that Chinese path to modernisation has brought to the world reflect the world significance and international responsibility of Chinese path to modernisation.

As President Xi Jinping underscored, in pursuing modernisation, a country needs to follow certain general patterns. More importantly, it should proceed from its own realities and develop its own features. Developing countries have the right and ability to independently explore the modernisation path with their distinctive features based on their national realities. For a long time, a few countries have monopolised the discourse power of modernisation, constantly amplifying the illusion that “modernisation is Westernisation” and “Western civilisation is modern civilisation”. 

Chinese path to modernisation has abandoned the old modernisation path of the West, which is capital-centred, polarised, of rampant materialism and foreign expansion, and has provided a new modernisation model for the world. Chinese path to modernisation has ignited the confidence of all countries to achieve modernisation, and provided a Chinese solution for mankind to explore a better social system. The Chinese path inspires all developing countries, and each country can achieve development from scratch. Benin’s President Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon stated that the Chinese model, self-reliance, and good governance should inspire all underdeveloped countries, as development is something that every country can achieve.

A shared future for mankind

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is the essential requirement of Chinese path to modernisation. Today’s world has entered a new period of turbulence and change. Multiple crises and global challenges overlap and resonate, which has repeatedly confirmed the necessity, urgency and progressiveness of building a community with a shared future for mankind. China has always stood on the right side of history and human progress, seeking its own development while firmly maintaining world peace and development, and using its own development to better maintain world peace and development, promoting to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.

To promote Chinese path to modernisation requires us to dedicate to peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, practice genuine multilateralism, hold humanity’s shared values, promote the implementation of GDI, GSI, and GCI, and work with other countries to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Peter Thomson, president of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, said building a community with a shared future for mankind “to me is the only future for humanity on this planet”.

While Chinese modernisation is conceived in China, the opportunities it brings belong to the world. Its success will further benefit the world and humanity. China is willing to join hands with all parties, including Nepal, on the path of modernisation to pursue the just cause together, and make big strides toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind. We will promote the modernisation cause with different characteristics and jointly create a better tomorrow for the world.

(The author is the Ambassador of China to Nepal.)