Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, July 6, 2024. /CFP
Experts from many countries in the Global South paid close attention to the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, describing it as a milestone in China's reform and opening-up process.
The plenum demonstrated to the international community the CPC's strong determination to further deepen reforms and open up broad prospects for Chinese modernization, they said.
They also noted that Chinese modernization provides a new choice for developing countries to independently move towards modernization, and will also create more new opportunities for countries around the world and inject new impetus into global common development.
New chapter of Chinese modernization
The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is a very important meeting held at a critical time when China is comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
The plenum focuses on how to turn the blueprint of Chinese modernization into reality. Experts and scholars from many Global South countries said that this key CPC session will write a new chapter for Chinese modernization.
Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan, executive director of the Islamabad-based Centre of South Asia and International Studies, said the most striking feeling he had after reading the communique of the plenum was that promoting Chinese modernization will become an important anchor for China's current and future development.
The plenum reflects the CPC's firm determination to promote Chinese modernization, releases a strong signal of deepening reform and opening up and promoting high-quality development, and brings abundant confidence in development to the international community, he said.
The Bund in east China's Shanghai, June 2, 2024. /CFP
Christine S. Tjhin, director of strategic communication and research at the Indonesian Gentara Institute, said she believes that "balance" and "wisdom" are the two most impressive keywords of this session.
She said that the plenary session proposed protecting and improving people's livelihood in the process of development as a major task of Chinese modernization, which reflects that China pays attention to promoting the market economy based on fair competition on the one hand, and attaches importance to the rational allocation of resources and the improvement of social welfare on the other hand, providing protection for all groups.
China is good at summing up experience to continuously adapt to changes in the domestic, regional and global situation, reflecting the reform wisdom of Chinese modernization, she commented.
Bassam Abu Abdallah, a Syrian expert on international relations, visited China again this year after a lapse of ten years. He was deeply impressed by the tremendous changes that have taken place in China.
The Chinese economy achieved sustained growth with the steady advancement of Chinese modernization, creating a large number of employment opportunities, and greatly improving the lives of the Chinese people, he said.
He added that the key session, which focused on further deepening reform in an all-round way, will continue to provide institutional guarantees and strong momentum for the steady and sound development of Chinese modernization.
Selcuk Colakoglu, director of the Ankara-based Turkish Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, said China's reform and opening-up measures are innovative and continue to inject a strong impetus into Chinese modernization.
Eduardo Regalado, a researcher at the International Policy Research Center of Cuba, said that the strategic deployment made by the third plenary session for further comprehensively deepening reform will stimulate new growth momentum and push Chinese modernization to new heights.
The Central Business District in Beijing, China, May 31, 2024. /CFP
More opportunities for common development
Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, director of the Thailand-China Research Center of the Belt and Road Initiative, said he always remembers President Xi Jinping's words that reform and opening up is a crucial move to shape China's future and determine the prospects for Chinese modernization.
For him, the CPC, under the leadership of Xi, has led China to comprehensively deepen reforms and move towards Chinese modernization through high-quality development.
China's comprehensive deepening of reforms and high-level opening up will not only benefit the Chinese people, but also provide opportunities for the development of countries around the world, he said.
Sithixay Xayavong, director of the Chinese Studies Center at National University of Laos, believes that Chinese modernization is a good opportunity for the vast majority of developing countries.
He said that China's expansion of high-level opening up and strengthening of exchanges with developing countries such as Laos in the economy and culture will bring sustained impetus to the economic and social development of developing countries.
Melaku Mulualem, a senior researcher in international relations and diplomacy at Ethiopia's Institute of Foreign Affairs, believes that with the advancement of Chinese modernization, China's huge market potential will be stimulated and bring huge business opportunities to foreign companies.
Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan of Pakistan said that the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative put forward by Xi will play an important supportive role in global poverty reduction, unemployment, gender discrimination, and low productivity through openness, modernization, high-quality industrialization, trans-regional connectivity and financial assistance.
A port in Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province, July 23, 2024. /CFP
Inspirational for world's modernization paths
People from many countries in the Global South believe that Chinese modernization has not only shattered the myth that modernization equals Westernization, but also presented another picture of modernization, enriching the choices of developing countries in bids to realize modernization, and providing a Chinese solution for mankind to explore a better social system.
If China can modernize in its own way, so can other countries, said Charles Onunaiju, director of the Center for China Studies in Nigeria, adding that China's modernization experience is very important to promoting Nigeria's development.
Indonesia can learn a lot from China's modernization, said Indonesian economic expert Fithra Faisal Hastiadi. He noted that on the journey towards modernization, China has continuously expanded opening up, formulated clear development plans, created a good business environment, and attached importance to the role of education, all of which are worth learning by Indonesia.
Adhere Cavince, a Kenya-based international relations scholar, said that China's modernization has solved many difficult problems in the development of human society, injecting confidence into the modernization of countries in the Global South, and making "important contributions" to mankind's exploration of different paths to modernization.
Iraq, which is engaged in post-war reconstruction, is actively exploring the path of economic transformation and has an urgent need for stable development. Iraqi political analyst Mustafa Khalil said that China's successful experience has made more countries in the Global South realize that actively exploring a development path that suits their national conditions is the only way to achieve independence, prosperity and stability.