China in Foreigners' Eyes
China experts watch China's transformation in 60 years
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-30 22:07
BEIJING: Sixty years after the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the country has transformed from a poor and backward country to a developing power and an important player on the world stage.
Impressed by the amazing achievements China has scored over the past 60 years, China experts around the world have delved into how these great changes were realized and also pointed to challenges lying ahead.
Luiz Antonio Paulino, an professor on international relations at Brazil's Saint Paulo State University and president of the San Paulo Confucius College, praised the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the country's development.
Osman Hassan Osman, a professor of Chinese at Khartom University of Sudan, said the CPC has set a good example for other ruling parties in developing countries.
Khalaf Ali Al-Muftah, a member of the central committee of the ruling Baath party of Syria, said one of the main reasons for China's rapid development is that the CPC has rallied the Chinese people around the goal of economic development.
Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of National University of Singapore, said China has been good at drawing on experience and lessons in the course of its development.
In the first 30 years after the founding of the PRC, many Chinese believed that the country did not need capital and market, Zheng said.
But later on they realized that the planned economy alone could not solve all the problems and the country needs the market economy, he added.
"The reform and opening up policy was adopted after China learnt those lessons, which freed the Chinese people from old ideas. Just as Deng Xiaoping said, socialism as well as capitalism could make use of market forces," Zheng said.
Kokubun Ryosei, an expert on Chinese issues and professor at Keio University, said China started to focus on its modernization drive and abolished the system of lifelong tenures for cadres only after reflecting on lessons from the Cultural Revolution.
China experts agree that one important reason China has made eye-catching achievements over the 60 years is that China did not mechanically copy the model of development from the West, but has adhered to the socialist road with Chinese characteristics in light of its specific national conditions.
By combining the advantage of market economy with that of the planned economy, China has created a model of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics, Muftah said.
"China discarded passive elements of the planned economy while having kept the positive ones, and drew on positive aspects of market economy, thus creating a new economic model," Muftah said.
"China's experience in building a socialist market economy is unique," he said.
The development model China has chosen is a brand new one and is different from the Western model that some developing countries have followed, said Professor Julio A. Dias Vazquez at the University of Havana.
Paulino said that while China has become an important force in the world, some of its regions are still relatively poor and the imbalance in the country's development poses a big challenge to it.
Singapore's Zheng saw the change of the economic growth mode as one of the serious challenges China is facing.
"Whether China can achieve sustained growth will hinge on the success of this transformation," he said.
The development mode that ignores the environment and social costs would not be sustainable," he said.
His view was echoed by Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at the Columbia University in the United States.
Sachs said the sustainability of its development is crucial for China, as its population accounts for one-fifth of the world's total but its land and water resources make up a much smaller proportion.
