“That’s a great recognition of the diverse factors, you know, cultural, historical, that are present in all countries. So for China, for Thailand, and for any country, you know, we have to find our own path, our own solutions,” said Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand from 2008 to 2011.

His comments on CGTN’s Dialogue come after CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping said that China would neither import foreign models of development nor export the Chinese model to other countries in a speech at the opening ceremony of the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting in Beijing on December 1.

“But there will be common elements. And some of the things we discussed during the meeting, are directly relevant to what political parties do. So whatever systems you are in, parties need to be responsive to people’s needs, parties need to be in touch with people, parties need to show they share the concerns of ordinary people, parties need to show they have concrete solutions for people’s problems.”

As a long-time observer of the Chinese model, Abhisit said it’s hard to argue with the economic success China has enjoyed, adding that the 19th National Congress of the CPC shows that the Party is not content to wallow in its past success but is making continued efforts to respond to the people’s needs.

Meanwhile, Abhisit points out there are big challenges for political parties around the world.

“One of the things I pointed out during the meeting is that actually there is a great decline in the trust of people in political parties all over the world. In fact there is a declining trust of the political class. And that’s because mainly the economic system is failing a lot of people. And so they feel that politics is not working for them,” he said.

Abhisit believes it is necessary for all political parties to rise up to this challenge and reduce the gap between the political class and regular people.

Thailand is one of the founding members of ASEAN. In recent years, there have been competing claims over territories in the South China Sea among several ASEAN members and China. Abhisit says ASEAN is not party to the disputes and the South China Sea issue should be resolved peacefully.

“I think the disputes between the claimants are disputes between claimants. ASEAN is not party to the disputes. Those disputes (should) be resolved according to the principles of international law and they should be resolved peacefully. What ASEAN should do, like what the international community should do, including all the super powers and outside countries, is to ensure that the disputes are resolved in this way - peacefully and according to international law.”