Offering opportunities to the world

Through advancing high-quality development, China is benefiting its people and bringing impetus to forge a peaceful, prosperous and beautiful world

Despite the intertwining of change and turmoil, the forces seeking peace and development remain strong. Although economic globalization faces headwinds, breakthroughs in technological revolutions are accelerating global connectivity, driving us toward a community with a shared future.

As the world's largest developing country, China is steadily advancing along a modernization path with its own characteristics, striving to contribute Chinese strength to building a better world and bringing new opportunities to the global stage under a new international backdrop.

China's modernization is the modernization of a vast population. Since the implementation of reform and opening-up, China has leveraged its demographic dividend and various resource inputs to achieve rapid economic growth, becoming the world's second-largest economy.

However, as development stages transition, rising labor and resource costs necessitate a shift from input-driven growth to innovation-driven growth. Only by fully relying on technological innovation and continuously improving total-factor productivity can such a large economy ensure long-term, stable growth.

Under these constraints, China is unwavering in its implementation of an innovation-driven development strategy, vigorously promoting technological research and development, and focusing on optimizing traditional industries while nurturing emerging and future industries.

China's massive market, abundant human capital, comprehensive industrial chains and rich data scenarios provide fertile ground for technological innovation and the integration of technology with industry.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China's industrial restructuring and shift of growth drivers continued to advance, achieving effective qualitative economic enhancement and reasonable quantitative growth, contributing about 30 percent to global economic growth.

The shift of China's economic structure and growth drivers is also clearly reflected in changes in its foreign trade structure. In the first half of 2026, mechanical and electrical products accounted for 63.5 percent of China's goods exports, with high-tech product exports increasing by 39 percent year-on-year.

These products provide important support for global industrial development, especially for emerging economies and developing countries striving for industrialization and industrial chain upgrades. In the field of artificial intelligence, China's open and accessible large models are gaining favor among global users, offering more cost-effective and efficient AI applications to boost development in various countries.

China's modernization emphasizes harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. Since modern times, human productivity has developed at an unprecedented pace, creating material wealth unmatched by any previous era, but also disrupting nature's inherent balance. The fragility of ecosystems continues to intensify, with the number of people affected by disasters more than doubling over the past decade.

Facing the global challenge of climate change, China has proactively assumed its responsibility as a major power, announcing its goals to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, with plans to reduce net emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent from peak levels by 2035.

China focuses on the development and application of green and low-carbon technologies, as the practical means to combat climate change and protect our planet. China has established the world's largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system, achieving remarkable success in green technology and industrial development.

China supplies 60 percent of the world's wind power equipment and 70 percent of photovoltaic components, driving global wind and solar power costs down by over 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively.

By sharing high-quality green products and mature low-carbon technologies with the world, China enables Global South countries, constrained by technology and energy supply shortages, to improve livelihoods and enhance economic and social development opportunities and momentum.

China's modernization follows a path of peaceful development. In today's world, rapid technological advancement and increasing interdependence among countries are accompanied by growing deficits in peace, development, security and governance, which hinder global progress. What kind of international order can provide security for global development and the well-being of all nations is a pressing question of our time.

China opposes the dominance of international affairs by one or a few countries, advocating dialogue over confrontation, partnerships over alliances and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games, aiming to build a new type of international relations centered on win-win cooperation. China actively practices true multilateralism, promoting the development of a more democratic, just and reasonable international political and economic order.

In the frontier field of AI governance, China initiated the establishment of the World AI Cooperation Organization, the world's first intergovernmental AI organization, in Shanghai.

This multilateral platform will strongly promote equitable benefits for developing countries in the wave of AI revolution, fostering a widely accepted international AI governance framework, and uniting the international community to seize and address the opportunities and challenges of AI development, making AI a powerful force for world peace and development and enhancing the welfare of all humanity.

China consistently approaches its relationship with the world from the perspective of a community with a shared future for humanity, maintaining an open and cooperative attitude. This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). During this period, China will continue to promote technological innovation, actively develop new forms of productivity and accelerate the cultivation of new growth drivers.

By pursuing high-quality development, China is opening new prospects for its modernization, benefiting the Chinese people and promoting modernization in other countries, contributing more opportunities and strength to building a peaceful, prosperous and beautiful world.

The author is the Party secretary of the Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.