China follows a policy that ensures domestic economic progress creates opportunities for other nations as well

Chinese culture is known for its inclusiveness. The concept of inclusive global development is a new attempt by China to draw upon its traditional cultural resources to live up to its responsibility as an emerging power. The new concept is proof of China's commitment to increased cooperation with the rest of the world to overcome common challenges and strive for common prosperity.

Underlying the concept of inclusive development is China's much-practiced "Scientific Outlook on Development", proposed to transform and upgrade the existing Chinese model of development. The scientific outlook values the unification of speed, size and economy as well social benefits of development by emphasizing the improvement of efficiency in energy and resource utilization, reduction of material consumption and environmental pollution, and the optimization of industrial structures.

By following this scientific path of development, China demonstrates its commitment to co-development with other countries and shows that the rest of the world has everything to gain from its sustainable development.

The "building of a harmonious world", another Chinese vision for humanity, is in line with the concept of inclusive development. These concepts speak volumes of the sophisticated explorations that China has made in trying to answer the calls of this much-challenged world.

In facilitating inclusive development, China has made a systematic set of constructive recommendations. It believes that inclusive development, first of all, should be inclusive of the diversity of development paths taken by different countries. It also believes that the diversity of human civilizations, different roads of development chosen by different states, and the pluralistic explorations of countries in course of their economic and social development should be respected. Only on such a basis can a platform be built where diverse patterns and experiences can be transformed into the vigor and vitality necessary for deepening cooperation.

Inclusive development calls for transformation of different nations' development patterns, which in essence means technological progress, upgrade of industrial structures, and development of a green economy.

Inclusive development also means a balance among and interaction of economic, social and environmental sectors, a parallel development of physical as well as virtual economies, emphasis on both domestic and overseas markets, and tight integration of investment and livelihood, and production and consumption.

China argues that inclusive development should enable every country to capitalize on development opportunities and cope with development challenges. Globalization and regional economic integration is deepening interdependence among economies, and thus highlighting the role of policy coordination further. Instead of practicing a beggar-thy-neighbor policy, countries should help each other - especially the big and rich ones should help the small and poor. In this way, all members of the international community can access the fruits of globalization and integration, and ultimately be able to improve the livelihoods of the greatest number of people.

Inclusive development, according to China, requires countries to seek common ground and common security despite their differences. Because the Cold War has ended, countries' security should be based on a common security structure supported by mutual trust, reciprocity, equality and collaboration. To strengthen security, peace, cooperation and development, tensions between countries should be resolved through dialogue and consultation, not conflicts or confrontations.

For China, inclusive development means mutual inclusion of different regions into the development process, too. On the basis of deepening regional cooperation, a region like Asia should adopt open regionalism, which means that while facilitating regional cooperation, a region should also be ready to cooperate with other regions and international organizations. So, Asia should respect the interests of others in this region, and welcome the engagement of non-Asian BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) members in the development efforts in the region. Such open regionalism will become the building blocks of rather than barriers to open globalization.

The series of strategic adjustments that China has made over the past few years have demonstrated its idea and practice of inclusive development, the most prominent being the much-emphasized transformation of the country's economic growth pattern. After the global financial crisis broke out, China promptly worked out a policy to boost domestic consumption, which has not only stabilized the Chinese economy, but also helped reduce the crisis-generated shocks in other countries.

China's "going global" strategy, while responding to the dictates of market expansion and resource insurance, translates the Chinese economy's demands into the development opportunities for other countries as well.

Collaborating with others to find new institutional arrangements for a globalized world, China as a responsible country is actively engaged in global governance. Guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development, China is committed to turning itself into a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, not only for its own sustainable development, but also for the common development of all countries.

The strategy of following the road of peaceful development and opening up to create a win-win situation is also China's attempt to promote inclusive development internationally.

Above all, the transformation of China's development pattern, further elaborated in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), will directly contribute to the inclusive development that would benefit other countries. A healthy increase in the percentage of people's consumption in China's GDP will considerably expand the role of consumption vis--vis investment and exports in driving forward economic growth.

By changing its reliance on exports and investments for economic growth to higher domestic consumption, China will create opportunities for other economies, especially Asian economies, in terms of more inflow of capital for investment and more external market space for their products.

The author is a professor at and director of the Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.