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China at center of regional growth with digital Silk Road
Wu Gang
2015-07-21 10:18
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China is the biggest developing country and its civilization has sustained for more than 5,000 years, which renders China the only modernized emerging country with such a long continuous history. It has taken China just over 30 years to free 600 million people from impoverishment. The Belt and Road Initiative bonds China to the rest of the world, leading to a future of shared prosperity and it is imperative to stick to the four comprehensives including constructing a prosperous society, abiding by the rule of law, deepening the reformation and strengthening Party discipline. Thus, there will be a stable political environment fostering more investment and innovation to amplify the voice of China in the international community.

However, we have to be well aware that China only spent 30 years in achieving what the West took 300 years to accomplish, which results in a lag in the cultural sense compared to the economic skyrocketing. Although China is the second largest economy, the per capita GDP still ranks around 90th. There is a big gap between China and developed countries in terms of cultural industry and soft power. Due to the country's underdevelopment of the Internet, digital cultural soft power will be the major area to improve.

The annual income per capita of China only takes one sixth of America's and one fifth of Canada and Germany. But the rise of the Chinese middle class and enormous scale of its economy create a very big space in which China can grow. In China, about 110 million people have received higher education, a population that ranks first in the world and far exceeds the US' 76 million. Chinese Internet users have reached 649 million, the biggest driver of the country's economic growth. To ride the wave, China comes up with "The Internet Plus Initiative" and "Made in China 2025 Strategy" and promotes the establishment of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS development Bank and The Silk Road Fund, laying a solid foundation for the information connectivity of "One Belt, One Road".

The revival of the Chinese nationality requires the country to embrace the world along with its great opportunities and impetus. As information technology and communication skills advance, the exchange between different civilizations has become more frequent over time.

As Christian Desglise, dean of BRICS Institute of Columbia University, wrote in Financial Times on July 15, it is China that enabled the BRICS Economic Summit to run smoothly and fuel the reformation of emerging markets. While mapping out the trade route connecting Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, China is placing itelf at the center of a regional growth that contributes 85 percent to the global economy.

Chinese Internet media lays the focus on building a "digital Silk Road" that boosts people-to-people communication, and rejuvenates the ancient Silk Road with the Internet to form an entity of interest, fate and responsibility that builds on mutual political trust, more merged economies and cultural inclusiveness. The "digital Silk Road" is charismatic because it could become a brand new axis of global order by offering a platform of equal cooperation, cultural exchange and business opportunities in the world arena.

The author is deputy editor-in-chief of Cnr.cn and a guest commentator of China Daily.

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