The Communist Party of China held its 20th National Congress from October 16 to October 22. The congress included reviewing China’s development while charting out the party’s direction for the next five years. CGTN Global Thinkers organized a 10-episode special series, inviting policymakers, officials of international organizations and scholars from around the world to discuss China’s progress through their eyes and debate its future prospects.
Hosted by the four anchors of CGTN – Liu Xin, Tian Wei, Xu Qinduo and Wang Guan – the ten episodes cover ten different topics, including “One Country, Two Systems,” China’s economy, globalization, democracy, COVID-19 pandemic, China’s diplomacy, energy, environmental issues and climate crisis, global security, and the new generation. The panel included speakers like former prime minister of Finland Esko Aho, former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan Djoomart Otorbaev, former U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton, former undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development Michele Geraci, former chief of the Sri Lanka Navy Jayanath Colombage, China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, Deputy Director General for Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Environment Protection of Israel Galit Cohen and Chief Representative for Trade Negotiations for China’s accession to the WTO Long Yongtu.
Globalization, one of the main driving forces of China’s growth and global prosperity, has come under challenge by nationalist politics, protectionist policies and geopolitical divides. Many challenges, such as the climate crisis, global pandemic and international security remain hard to solve under these circumstances.
Former Finnish prime minister Esko Aho underlined however that “the interdependence between Europe and China, and (between) the U.S. and China is still there.”
“In the past nine years, developed countries have spared no effort to criticize the BRI, saying it creates debt traps for developing countries…But now, they’ve changed their tones,” said the former Chilean Ambassador to China Jorge Heine, adding that “this proves that China should continue to promote free trade and work with developing countries, to push initiatives like BRI, because this is where the future lies.”
International cooperation remains crucial to solving global problems. Kevin P. Gallagher, Professor of global development policy at Boston University, said that China’s decision to build no new coal plants overseas helps to “reduce about 594 million tons of annual carbon emissions, which is roughly equal to what Canada emits on an annual basis.” Former UN Undersecretary-General and current President of Green Belt and Road Institute Erik Solheim believes that other countries could learn from China’s actions like the building of green corridors in leading cooperation of green development.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world what a lack of cooperation is like. Founder and CEO of the Health Finance Institute Dr. Andrea Feigl said that the virus spread quickly because of the slow response by many countries and a lack of cross-border coordination. Professor Wang Linfa from the Emerging Infectious Disease Programme of the Duke-NUS Medical School of Singapore believes that the World Health Organization (WHO) can play a better role only if member countries cooperate and work towards the same goal.
The pandemic isn’t the only pressing problem that requires countries to work towards the same goal. As the international landscape shifts, global security is increasingly taking a more prominent role. At the opening ceremony of the 2022 Boao Forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Security Initiative (GSI). According to retired Major General Dipankar Banerjee, Former Director and Head of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, a strong and mutually accepted global security initiative is of great significance to international security. The GSI not only responds to questions in traditional security issues but also to those arising in today’s new era.
Is an army being built for peace or for war? That’s the question for all countries with military might, especially for those with major power capabilities. Zhou Bo, a retired Senior Colonel and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University shared his understanding of China’s military power and the GSI: All armies defend territorial integrity and national sovereignty, but the People’s Liberation Army also helps others. It is China’s obligation as a major power. That’s why China sends out the most peacekeeping force among the five Permanent Security Council members with a total of more than 35,000 personnel.
China’s international strength stems from its economic growth. Since China started pursuing Reform and Opening-up in 1978, China has grown into the world’s second-largest economy. Michele Geraci, the former undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, said that a major economic strength for China today is its green development. In his remarks for the panel, he encouraged everyone to visit China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to see the abundance of solar and wind farms.
Another strength is technological innovation. But, as Professor Ju Jiandong of the PBC School of Finance of Tsinghua University pointed out, technological innovation in China is been threatened by the U.S. as Washington seeks to restrict Beijing’s technological development. Former Kyrgyz prime minister Djoomart Otorbaev argued that the world should never “overuse” the concept of security to impede globalization. “If one nation is determined to protect its technologies, discoveries and inventions, and does not allow scientists to talk to each other because of national security threats, then the world will be divided among enemies, and there’s nothing good about that,” Otorbaev said.
At the core of China’s development is what Professor Ma Liang of the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, described as a people-centric approach that focuses more on how the government can deliver public services to citizens. China’s whole-process people’s democracy enables China to pay more attention to meritocracy and competency of the government instead of focusing on party politics.
Founder and President of the Schiller Institute Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that each country should be allowed to do what they think is best for themselves. Martin Jacques, a former senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, noted that people across the world have revived their interest in China. He appreciated China’s rich and fascinating but different history and culture from the West. “That’s what I love about it. It just has a different logic, a different way of seeing, a different way of being and far from being a threat to anyone. That’s a voyage of discovery for everyone because it enriches all our lives,” said Jacques.
Wilson Barros Díaz, coming from Cuba, is a PhD student in International Relations and Diplomacy at the Renmin University of China. “After eight years of living in China, I found that Communism and Chinese society are equal and good for everyone. It’s not so simple as those (Western) newspapers said,” he commented on many of the Western assumptions about the CPC and China.
As Díaz’s words show, personal interactions and engagement in cross-cultural activities help people understand each other better. The future of any country lies with the youth. As young people are also featured in Xi Jinping’s report to the 20th National Congress, today’s youths are born at the right time. They have a very broad platform to display their talents and a very bright prospect to realize their dreams. China’s development and the global landscape will be shaped by young people in the days ahead.
