Editor's Note: China Talk is a global platform where policy makers, business leaders, specialists and scholars, as well as celebrities share their China story and their perspectives on China's development. Chinese modernization offers humanity a new choice for achieving modernization. How to understand the commonalities and differences of Chinese modernization? What does it mean to other developing countries? Wang Yiwei, Associate Dean of the Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for A New Era, Renmin University of China, shares his observation and stories on Chinese modernization. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.
Hello and welcome to China Talk. I'm Wang Yiwei.
One of the key phrases in the report of the 20th CPC National Congress is Chinese modernization. It is pointed out that Chinese modernization contains elements that are common to the modernization process of other countries, but it is more characterized by features that are unique to the Chinese context. How to understand the commonalities and differences of Chinese modernization? At the very beginning, please allow me to share with you my own stories.
More than 20 years ago, when I was a student at Fudan University, I took my first girlfriend – and my last – today my wife to my hometown, an underdeveloped countryside in Jiangxi Province for the Lunar New Year. When we arrived at the Shanghai Railway Station, wow, people mountain people sea! We could not get on the train. But the train was about to leave, I hurried up to put my girlfriend through the window, with the help of migrant workers in the train dragging her in, and then drew me in at the last minute. The carriage was so crowded that there was no room for us to stand up, so we just flied like Jack and Rose on Titanic. Born in a rich family, my girlfriend never suffered such terrible situations and was reluctant to marry me only until the high-speed railway was built up ten years later. So my son is very young. I am very grateful for the high-speed railway era, otherwise, I would not get married yet. But it came so late, otherwise we can have our second child. How much we love to have a girl!
When I traveled to South Asia, I met similar situation, like what happened in China over twenty years ago. Never mentioned Africa. There is a huge demand for China to build the highway, high speed railway, port and airport in these developing countries. Then young men there can get married earlier and then their parents can enjoy the fun of playing with grandchildren earlier.
Before opening up and reform, China's per capital GDP was less than 1/3 of South Sahara African countries. How did China develop over the past decades? We Chinese often say that if you want to get rich, build the roads. This is a microcosm of the Chinese path to modernization: better infrastructure lay the foundation for industrial development which then makes people richer and happier. Without these better roads, many local products of remote areas would not have been sold all over the world. Without improved infrastructure, China would not have been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty since the start of opening up and reform and to achieve common prosperity.
But on building roads and getting rich, here comes three questions: how to get investment, how can we build roads bringing wealth, and how to make sure that more people can benefit from it?
First, where is the investment from? Let's get back to my college days again. When I came to Shanghai from a poor Jiangxi family. I felt inferior and even dared not talk to my female classmates. I only spoke to them when there was short of the food coupons, in exchange, I helped them fetch hot water. This is a miniature of the way that Chinese modernization takes. Through the "price scissors" in the exchange of industrial products for agricultural products, China accumulated sufficient capital for industrialization, while Chinese farmers, like my family, sacrificed a lot. Unlike expansion and colonization that the West took to realize industrialization, the way China takes for achieving development is by relying on its own agricultural surplus.
Second, how to get rich by building the roads? Let's take the example of the high-speed railway again. In China, state-owned enterprises build the high-speed railway, which can bring investment along the way, forming industrial clusters. Infrastructure construction lays the foundation for further development. To modernize a backward country, the government must shape the market, rather than leaving the market to shape the country, which will eventually lead to the income gap trap.
Thirdly, how to get common rich along the railway and beyond? According to China's experiences, besides the roads and railways, other infrastructure, especially the internet, are also vital in creating economies of scale and establishing a unified market, which will bring about common prosperity. Without high-speed railway, local products from the Miao villages in Western Hunan province would not be sold to the world, and tourists from all over the world would not visit the Phoenix ancient town.
All the above mentioned factors require a capable government to make the blueprint, state-owned enterprises to deliver, long-term planning to back up. Therefore, the Chinese modernization can be realized under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which serves the people wholeheartedly.
Wind turbines are standing in the hills where I went to chop wood as a teenager. 5G networks allow mobile phone signals in countryside to be as good as in big cities. This can also be important inspirations for other developed countries as well.
President Xi Jinping also said that China will prosper only when the world prospers, and vice versa. Chinese modernization is not only to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but will also help others to make the common modernization and promote a human community with a shared future.
Thank you!
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