Editor’s Note: Jasna Plevnik, President of the Geoeconomic Forum Croatia, sits down with CGTN anchor Xu Qinduo. She says that China has been sticking to its values of common prosperity in the interests of the people and that the China International Import Expo reflects China's generosity and commitment to shared development. Views expressed in the video are hers and do not necessarily represent those of CGTN.

“China, as a country, has beautiful nature, and many natural resources. And it gives to its people everything. And on the other side, Chinese people give back a lot to China and that is because of good governance. And I think that the Chinese model of governance is based on meritocracy. And that is what helps China to make such a historic move forward in many areas. And that is the reason why now China is among the most advanced, technological and economic countries.”

“Now it seems that the West has a problem with this Chinese societal model, political model. But it's so... I would say so strange because this is not a breaking news. China always has socialism with Chinese characteristics; it had it in 1975, and it has now. For me, it is kind of funny to put this system as some obstacles to further cooperation. I would say that this kind of model has proved itself successful. That is the most important. And the Chinese Party… the Chinese Party led this transformation of China very, very successfully.”

“But on the other side, this reform does not contradict China's basic values. And I think it is also important that China has been able to stick to its basic values – that is common prosperity, and the interests of its people. That is what we are seeing now that the Chinese Communist Party is doing. What impressed me very much about the Chinese Communist Party is its approach to resolving the COVID-19 crisis. We can see that this Zero-COVID strategy is putting interests of people before the interests of profit. And this approach has successfully saved many lives in China, though the cost was very high. Anyway, China continues with this approach.”

“Also, what I'm impressed with, about the Chinese Party, is its foreign policy approach. Not just domestic reform, but all these domestic reforms in China also influence favorably to the world. If you look at the Chinese Party's foreign policy, that approach to develop is very, I would say, very caring about the interests of other countries. For example, remember this Shanghai Import Expo? I've never heard any (other) country in the world organize that kind of import Expo. And here, the Communist Party of China has expressed its sensitiveness for the problem of less capable economies and tries to help them. I think that this Import Expo is also some metaphor of China's generosity and China's interest to follow its willing policy and its shared goals about shared development to follow it in practice.”