West does not fully understand China, nor fully evaluate its potential

Editor's note: Jan Zahradil is a former member of the European Parliament. The video reflects the interviewee's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The story of the People's Republic of China, particularly during the last 30 to 40 years, is an unprecedented story of human development, progress, and success achieved in a very short period of time.

During that time, China grew up into a geopolitical power player, into a technological giant, into an economy deeply integrated into the global economic system.

One very tremendous result that China has achieved is to get millions or rather hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Another very important result that China has achieved is environmental protection where China started to understand that with growing consumption of energy, it has to be also a growing care about the environment.

Unfortunately, we in the West still do not fully understand China and still do not fully evaluate its potential. We do not understand why China developed a different political system, or why China has different geopolitical strategies.

Many of us are still caught up in a post-Cold-War mentality. We still see the world like a unipolar world of the 90s, although today's world is definitely multipolar, and it will be even more in the future with China as one of its most important poles.

Therefore, I believe we need a new approach to China, and I call this approach "Three-C approach." This means communication, cohabitation, and cooperation, instead of Cold War mentality, rivalry, and confrontation.

And I very much hope that this approach will be more and more embraced by Western leaders, by decision makers, and by opinion makers. In the meantime, I wish the People's Republic of China all the best for the future and every success.

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