BEIJING – China’s path of modernization that focuses on universal issues such as poverty eradication and climate change would bring “common prosperity” not only to its people but to its neighboring countries and the world, the foreign experts said.
In a forum “Modernization Toward Common Prosperity for All People” organized by CGTN following the successful 2023 national “two sessions” on March 13, former Brazilian Minister of Development Industry and Foreign Trade Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira said China's development achievements over the past few decades have proven the feasibility of realizing common prosperity for all people.
“China's modernization has universal significance and value, which is expected to be a paradigm for realizing humanity’s common prosperity,” he said during the forum broadcasted along the 20 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, the Philippines.
Geoffrey Hawker, the head of politics and international relations at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said the world is facing various difficult challenges, and the Chinese-style modernization path has coped well with various risks and challenges, enabling all people to achieve prosperity.
For his part, Michael Powers from the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University spelled out the difference between "common prosperity" and a pure welfare society.
He said China's "common prosperity" provides opportunities for all people to join the economic development.
“It not only relies on the traditional model of subsidizing low-income groups and taxing high-income groups to narrow the gap between rich and poor. It is a more proactive strategy that tries to give a fair share of the interests of economic development to people in all regions and areas, which is worth learning for many, including Europe and the United States,” he said
Peter Chang Thiam Chai, the deputy director of the Institute of China Studies of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia pointed out that the idea of common prosperity is an inspiration to the development of the Global South.
Citing the imbalanced development between coastal and inland areas, between urban and rural areas in his own country Malaysia, he said common prosperity as proposed by China can effectively manage the huge gap between the rich and the poor.
“It is a very far-sighted development strategy. Developing countries can learn from China’s experiences,” he added.
Li Yong, the chief researcher at D&G Thinktank, believes China has a clear plan for the realization of common prosperity and he believes efforts should be made to include all people in development.
He said individuals, governments and enterprises should play an active role in promoting economic development, citing the BRI as a good example. (PNA)
