CGTN: What has China's reform and opening-up contributed to the world?

Brahm: China is now becoming an increasingly responsible stakeholder in the rest of the world. China's investments alone in Africa in infrastructure are transforming that continent and providing opportunities.

The "China Solution" is not about a model being imposed on others. It's about a set of economic experiences that are concentrated around the need for infrastructure investment in roads, ports, communication that bring people together, which can facilitate the movement of goods and services and also expand the breadth of communication, education, and knowledge.

To this, there's also the environmental diplomacy. China today is the leader on renewable energy systems and artificial intelligence, which is the key in the management of such renewable energy systems.

As a result, when you look at the climate change talks within the United Nations, China is now being viewed as the leading voice advocating ecological civilization and the United Nations sustainable development goals. So from this perspective, China is trying to evolve its own soft power to be better understood as a force for global stability rather than altercation.

CGTN: What are Western media's motives to demonize China?

Brahm: There's a general movement in the Western media to try and demonize China in different aspects. I think this is driven by politics, it's driven by business, (and) it's driven by a number of factors together. And I think what you see here is looking at whether the teacup is half-full or half-empty. Sometimes people can look at the teacup and say: 'Oh, it's empty,' but they are seen as half empty. They can also look at the teacup and say 'it's full,' but it's half full.

In China you have different situations occurring at the same time in a country that's transitioning from its past very rapidly into a very fast-moving future. And in that complexity, it's very hard to take a snapshot and say: 'That's China.' You can focus on any one of those situations and say: 'That is China,' or you can look at the multitude of those situations and say: 'Let's try to understand what this thing is, what's happening and most importantly, where it's going.'

CGTN: How should China react to demonization?

Brahm: I think China should react to demonization in the Western media by being cool. There's no reason to snap back, criticize back, answer back, (and) get angry at the media. Leave them alone. The less you say, the less effect it has.

Just get on with what you're doing, you're doing it right, you're really making a lot of progress. Just do it. Don't worry about what others say, because ultimately there's a Chinese saying 水落石出: When the water goes down, you can see the rocks.