The Chinese path to modernization and its wisdom have inspired the world by providing a new model for achieving peaceful development, said world leaders on multiple occasions when discussing China's leapfrog development.
"If I were to use this word. It is extraordinary," said Prime Minister of Commonwealth of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit in Beijing in March 2024.
"You have to come to China, you have to witness for yourself and have an open mind," said Nauruan President David Adeang in the southern Chinese province of Hainan in March 2024.
Over the past more than ten years, China has been on a new journey toward socialist modernization, garnering global attention. Through a series of strategic measures and transformative practices, China has achieved significant breakthroughs and landmark outcomes while withstanding various risks and challenges.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing in October 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of Central Military Commission, said that thanks to the concerted efforts of the entire Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, China has fully established a moderately prosperous society according to plan, thus completing the first centenary goal.
"China has fully established a moderately prosperous society according to plan, thus completing the first centenary goal. Now we're taking confident strides on a new journey to turn China into a modern socialist country in all respects, to advance toward the second centenary goal and to embrace the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese path to modernization," he said while leading the Party's new central leadership to meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
"I've been coming to China now for at least once a year, every time I come back I'm astonished," said David Jonathan Gross, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics, in Beijing in July 2023, who attended the inaugural International Congress of Basic Science there.
"Every day, China is making progress and bringing surprises to the world," said Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Jinan City of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong in March 2024.
Through comprehensive reforms, China has elevated its economic strength, technological capabilities, and overall national power to new heights. Innovation and development are driving forward, with rapid changes unfolding across the country. Meanwhile, China is further expanding its opening to the world.
"I see in China a very important moment for the Chinese people. And I see in China today, a shift from high growth rates to high quality of Chinese growth," said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of International Monetary Fund in Beijing, this year.
"China is a very good model. Open up, stay strong, develop your own model," said former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel in Guangzhou City of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in December 2023.
An increasing number of political figures from around the world are visiting China to uncover the secrets behind its development.
In August 2023, Dinesh Gunawardena, former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka visited southwest China's Yunnan Province and showed a particular interest in the state of Chinese technologies supplied in the flower auction trade center and agricultural sector. he even asked experts about how to bring those technologies back to his country.
"In the agriculture sector, there is a lot of research in China. Their productivity is very high. That is one area where our farmers, [and] our entrepreneurs can take the advantage of," said Gunawardena in an interview with the China Central Television (CCTV) in Shanghai in March 2024.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store made his official visit to China in September 2024. He expressed hopes that Norway and China can further step up economic and trade cooperation.
"China, as a growing economy, our largest partner in Asia, I wish to see safe and secure collaboration," said Store during an interview on a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai.
President of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Dennis Francis highly commended the achievements China has made in its modernization drive during his five-day stay in China in January 2024.
"It s been really a voyage of discovery for me, to get a sense that the people are very comfortable. And ultimately, that is really what life is about, isn't it?" said Francis in Beijing.
In the book China Goes Global, eminent China scholar David Shambaugh said in the past, observers have watched how the world has impacted China; now the tables are turning and it is necessary to understand how China is impacting the world.
"The successful practice of the Chinese people is a proof that there is more than one path leading to modernization. With the right direction and with unremitting efforts, all roads will take us to Rome," said Xi at the opening ceremony of the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan Province in April 2018.
Many politicians praised China's achievements and sought to learn from its experience.
"Sustaining it for a few years is hard enough for any country, but sustaining it for decades and taking hundreds of millions of people out of poverty," said Adeang in Hainan in March 2024.
"We try to walk very close behind them to understand how they were able to make such a fast progress," said Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio in Beijing in March 2024.
"There are thousands of things that we can and we should learn from our Chinese friends," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia in April 2024.
In January 2024, less than two months after taking office, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu chose China as the first country for a state visit. He designated the eastern province of Fujian as his first stop in China, reflecting his ambitions and expectations for the future development path of his country.
"Xiamen and Fuzhou are in the Fujian Province. One of the main reasons why I went there was that President Xi Jinping worked more than 17 years in that province. I wanted to see the development by myself.... are very much similar to what we want to do and what we have in the Maldives and the way we want to develop our economic sector," he said in an interview with CCTV in Beijing.
During the interview, Muizzu expressed his admiration for Xi's reform spirit, strategic thinking, and pragmatic approach.
"He's a very charismatic leader, who loves the people of his country. The way the economy of the country has risen up [is remarkable]," he said.
Other organizational leaders and heads of state shared similar views on Xi.
[Once] you, our Chinese friends and partners have, you know, set the goal, you are following this goal with great determination and with great dynamism," IOC President Thomas Bach said in an interview with CCTV on Jan 27, 2022 after arriving in Beijing for the Winter Olympics.
"President Xi Jinping is an experienced leader who has deeply engaged with Chinese society and traveled to many regions across the country, possessing a thorough understanding of his nation," said Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former Prime Minister of France, in Hainan Province this year.
"These achievements just do not fall from the air, it comes up because someone or somebody is providing, you know, the kind of leadership," said Manasseh Sogavare, former Prime Minister of Solomon Islands in Beijing in July 2023.
"He's a man of the people who always stands shoulder-to-shoulder with them and whose roots are among the working people. He is steady and strong, like China," said Galina Kulikova, first deputy chairperson of the Russia-China Friendship Association.
In a keynote speech at the grand ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC in Beijing on July 1, 2021, Xi said "in sticking to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, we have promoted coordinated development of material, political, cultural-ethical, social and ecological civilizations, creating a new path for Chinese-style modernization, and creating a new form of human civilization."
From poverty alleviation to the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, China's wisdom and solutions have consistently offered fresh insights to the world seeking direction.
"The Belt and Road Initiative is not just because good projects are there, but because it's a strong cooperation and contribution to the ongoing discussion of the world, how we human beings should organize the globe in the forthcoming decades," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary in May 2024.
"... are important initiatives which will advance global peace, advance global prosperity and ensure that every country has the opportunity to prosper," said Roosevelt Skerrit in Beijing in March 2024.
"Let's say its contribution for that matter, to global peace and prosperity, is unmatched. President Xi is operating from a higher level of human endeavor and certainly very empathetic and committed to human development globally. And I think that makes him easily the most powerful and most respected leader on the planet," said Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne in Beijing earlier this year.
China's development path is inspiration for world: global leaders
