World

Plenum draws clear road map to modernisation

The third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee that concluded on July 18 vowed to further deepen reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernisation.

The resolution suggests a tapestry of solutions to today's challenges, some of which have been created by foreign powers amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Prior to the third plenary session, China critics in the West had been speculating on Beijing's upcoming economic policy to overcome the gloomy global outlook and boost the country's slowing economic growth.

An abysmal scenario of the Chinese economy was relentlessly portrayed by the Western media with a plethora of conundrums raised under the West's lenses. The Western pundits were quick to respond with dismay when their pre-framed "concerns" were not heeded by the plenum.

Indeed, the trajectory of China's reform and opening-up has never been influenced by external forces, which at times pretend to represent market forces.

A case in point is the timing and latitude of China's opening-up. When the West's rumour mills kicked into high gear with their dystopian portrayal of China, little did they anticipate that Beijing's 144-hour visa-free entry granted to citizens of a dozen or so countries would tear their lies into tatters.

The plenum promises to intensify reform to modernise the national governance system and governance capacity, in a bid to facilitate further opening up of the Chinese economy.

This, in turn, will spur on reform. In short, reform and opening-up are codependencies that reinforce one another.

Domestically, the resolution adopted at the plenum details a raft of key initiatives focused on elevating governance to a new level in response to the people's rising need for a better life and the changing global dynamics.

Taking cognisance of the "increasing uncertainties and unpredictable factors" impacting national development, China's efforts to strengthen its economic resilience and promote innovation are understandably set to take the centre stage in the next phase of development.

The reform tasks laid out in the plenum's resolution have been given a challenging time frame — to be completed by 2029 to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Overall, the resolution constitutes a road map for China to build a strong socialist market economy underpinned by high-quality development.

In recent years, China's quantum leap in the realm of cutting-edge technologies has taken the world by storm. New growth drivers have turbocharged China up the global value chain, thus resulting in the West's anguish, hostility and restrictions on the exports of chips and chip-making equipment to China.

In the face of the West's increasingly aggressive attempts to contain China, Beijing's steadfast commitment to further open up its economy is a manifestation of its growing confidence in its economy and development policy.

Beijing keeps its huge market wide open to exporters across the world.

In this context, China International Import Expo is a shining example. While the West is obsessed with "near-shoring" and "friend-shoring" in its bid to realign the global supply chains to exclude China, the world's second-largest economy remains committed to embracing the world and sharing with it the economic potential and development dividends accrued from its opening-up.

For China, pursuing innovation-driven high-quality growth and developing new quality productive forces are now the imperatives necessary to realise Chinese modernisation.

Time and again, China has demystified the myth that Westernisation is the only template for achieving modernisation.

Alongside this, not only has China proven to the world that its mode of socialism is compatible with the market economy, but more importantly, modernisation can be achieved by adhering to a socialist market economy.

The author is president of the Malaysia-based Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific. This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Most Popular
Related Article
Says Stories