Editor's note: Frank Yang is a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

People always marvel at what China has accomplished in a short span of a few decades but are perplexed at how the country achieved it. Recently, fascination is growing on China's technological innovations, including AI, robotics, supercomputing, green energy and EVs. In many areas, China has turned from a follower merely 10 or 20 years ago, into a world leader today. 

There are no simple answers to China's economic and technological advancement. For a better understanding, one has to dive deeper into the fundamental reasons. Most people see China as being innovative in science and technology. The fact is that it has been constantly pushing for theoretical and practical innovations with respect to its systems, governance, institutions, development concept and path. These are the guiding principles and prerequisites for all other advancements. 

Susan Shirk, a research professor at the University of California, San Diego, makes the point that the key to China's success is that it truly understands the essence of Marxism and has achieved localized innovation. Indeed, China initiated such theories and practices as socialism with Chinese characteristics, a socialist market economy, people-centered development, ecological civilization and Chinese modernization. First proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping five years ago, Chinese modernization has the common features of rejuvenation of all countries, but more importantly, it has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions. And it conforms with the country's overall social system, development path and governance philosophy.

To comprehend Chinese modernization, one has not only to go to the economic powerhouse of Shanghai to see modern skylines and glass towers, or to the tech hub of Shenzhen to see the latest technology and gadgets, but also to traditionally poor provinces such as Guizhou.

Located in southwest China, Guizhou is a remote and sparsely populated province with an area as big as Portugal and Austria combined. But 92.5% of its land is covered by mountains and hills. Due to a lack of arable land and rugged terrain, it has long been impoverished. But, today, it's a totally different picture. Take transportation for example: Guizhou's highways have exceeded 220 thousand kilometers with over 9 thousand kilometers of expressways. It now ranks first among all provinces in terms of expressway density. It has more than 4,300 kilometers of railways with over 2,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. Guizhou is known as a "bridge museum" with over 30 thousand bridges. Half of the world's top 100 tallest bridges are in Guizhou, including the world's highest Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge. It also boasts some 2,800 tunnels. Obviously, to build roads in Guizhou, you have to literally cut through numerous mountains and rivers. In addition, every city in the province has at least one airport.

Why does China spend so much money and make such painstaking efforts to build so many roads, railways and airports in such a remote province with a small population? It doesn't make sense in terms of profit. It basically contradicts the profit-driven nature of capital and capitalism. This exactly explains some important features of Chinese modernization. First, common prosperity. These infrastructures are built to reduce the gap between the more developed eastern regions and lesser developed western regions. Second, people-centered development. These constructions may not target profit in the first place, but to bring modernity to the people and provide them with development opportunities.

China stipulates that on the road to modernization, no one is left behind. Small towns and villages, no matter how remote, are all connected with paved roads, electricity, clean drinking water, internet, telephone lines and mobile signals. As British scholar Martin Jacques put it, Chinese modernization focuses on benefiting the people and is committed to achieving social equality.

Chinese modernization is also one of harmony between man and nature as well as peaceful development. China is now undergoing a green transformation, with clean energy and ecological conservation at the forefront. Green technology is seen as both a benchmark of China’s modernization drive and a development opportunity. And peaceful development is characterized by such notions as "a community with a shared future for humanity" and the four global initiatives on development, security, civilization and governance.  Italian scholar Fabio Parenti noted that China's peaceful development is rooted in civilizational continuity and Confucian tradition of coexistence, rejecting confrontational competition. It differs from Western capitalist expansion which was achieved by destroying the assets of the competitors through financial and military means.

As 1.4 billion people embark on the road to Chinese-style modernization, China is blazing new trails for an alternative modernization path and a new form of human civilization. Even Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and The Last Man, has changed his tone and said, "I think that the Chinese have created a pretty impressive system … if the Chinese keep their development machine going, it may turn out that they have a real alternative." 

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