Former French PM speaks on China's progress since reform, opening-up

Dominique de Villepin, former prime minister of France, used the word "fabulous" to describe the changes from China's reform and opening-up 40 years ago.

"I think it's fabulous change and unexpected," he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily during his attendance at the Sanya International Business Forum.

He recalled his first trip to China was in 1975. Since then, the changes in transportation impressed him deeply, but what impressed him most is China's mentality change.

"The first time, I remembered that most of the people were using bicycles, and now people in Europe are using bicycles and people are using cars here. There are big changes in people's daily lives," de Villepin said.

"The mentality also has changed. I think China now understands how big the responsibilities of the country are among the nations," he said.

He added that it's a big change that China was looking inwards at that time and now China is looking at the world feeling it has a special responsibility and commitment to the world.

Accoridng to de Villepin, the APEC Summit in November and the G20 meeting just held in Argentina have shown a turning point, that global cooperation and international prosperity have been put under historic pressures.

"We have seen today how much the US withdrew from world affairs. And it's creating instability. And we need to compensate such a situation with the stronger involvement of China and the stronger involvement of Europe," he said.

"We need China as a global stakeholder in the world. We cannot think that the world will find any stability without the stronger role of China," he added.

De Villepin suggested that it's good to consider the past to prepare for the future and outline collective solutions for future generations.

He stated that where we are at the moment is that the old system is not functioning well, so it needs new initiatives in terms of architectural security and building coordination for trade.

"We need China to have an even stronger role in the United Nations for peaceful settlements in the different crisis of the world, the Middle East and Africa," he said.

He also called for more cooperation in the military field and that it is really a changing world where initiatives, imagination and the capacity to work together should be shown to the world.

"Just like the North Korea crisis, there is no way that we can find a solution without stronger involvement from China," he explained.

"And I really believe that in this critical moment where we are seeing the confrontation on trade between the US and China, we need to find new ways to deal with one another, and new ways to invent new structures and new principles for the world relationship. I really think it's important at this moment," de Villepin said.

De Villepin said he thinks a stronger relationship among Europe, Russia and China is very important.

" I think it's very important because I believe that many issues are depending on our capacity to make proposals and find solutions," he said.