China's ongoing task to modernize a country of 1.4 billion people, or nearly one-fifth of the global population, is an unprecedented endeavor that is expected to rewrite the landscape of modernization worldwide.

The world, for a long time, was shrouded in the myth that modernization equals Westernization. However, the emergence of a Chinese path to modernization has ensured its realization has many routes.

Raised and expounded during the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2022, the Chinese path to modernization and its connotations and significance for the world have been underscored by Chinese President Xi Jinping on many occasions, bilateral and multilateral.

While addressing the opening of a study session at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in February 2023, President Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said Chinese modernization is a new model for human advancement that dispels the myth that "modernization is equal to Westernization."

The Chinese path expands the channels for developing countries to achieve modernization, and provides a Chinese solution to aid the exploration of a better social system for humanity, said Xi.

A path to common prosperity for all

Chinese modernization is the pursuit of common prosperity for all. In recent years, Zhejiang Province, which is a demonstration zone for common prosperity through high-quality development, has narrowed the income gap between rural and urban areas.

In 2022, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in the eastern province hit 37,565 yuan (about $5,438), bringing the urban-rural income ratio from 2.37 in 2012 to 1.9 in 2022. The country had seen the figure drop to 2.45 from 2.88 in the past decade.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, commended the CPC's responsibility in representing all the people and to build the country.

"The concept of a people-centered philosophy is indeed a foundation of how the CPC, the ruling party of China, sees its mission," said Kuhn.

A path for green development

Although the modernization of the West has created unprecedented material wealth, it has also led to the waste of resources and environmental damage. Having taken such notes, China is striving for a modernization path on which humanity and nature coexist in harmony.

Over the past decade, Xi's observation that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" has become a consensus and commitment among Chinese society. Pressing ahead on a green development path, the country has made every effort to live up to its promises.

China has announced that it will peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. In July 2021, it launched a national carbon-trading market, the largest market of its kind worldwide and incorporated over 2,100 major power-generation companies.

Amadou Diop, an expert on Chinese issues and a former journalist at the Senegal national daily Le Soleil, said, "China is today a fundamental player in the preservation of the environment and in the promotion of green development."

A path of peaceful development

While the West has a track record of repeatedly failing to use diplomacy to address conflicts or geopolitical issues, China has one of the best peace records among major countries. For more than 70 years, it has never started a war, never occupied a single square mile of foreign territory, never engaged in proxy wars, and never been a member of or organized any military bloc.

China is the only country that has incorporated peaceful development in its Constitution, and the only country among the five nuclear-weapon states, who are also the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, to pledge no-first-use of nuclear weapons.

"China's idea of being a builder of world peace, contributor to global development, defender of the international order and provider of public goods are consistent with the ideals of the UN Charter," former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Keith Bennett, a long-term China specialist and vice chair of Britain's 48 Group Club, noted that the modernization of a small number of Western countries was based on the exploitation, oppression and colonization of almost the entire world.

"China is not developing by exploiting any other country," he said. By contrast, "China is developing itself and modernizing itself, and at the same time helping other countries to develop and modernize."

(Cover: A view of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. /CFP)