China's economic 'relay race'

The Resolution of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China outlines more than 300 reforms to be implemented in the next five years, reflecting Beijing's unwavering commitment to reform and opening up over the past 45 years.

Shanghai City. (Source: Getty Images)

Emphasizing the goal of "deepening and further comprehensively implementing reform", international observers commented that this is a continuation and inheritance of promoting the close interests of the Chinese economy on the path of development.

Become a socialist country

Long-term reform is inherently challenging. In Western countries, political candidates campaign on promises of change, but after one or two terms, even if reforms are implemented, there is no guarantee that their successor will not reverse them.

In another way, however, China's economy approaches reform as a “relay race,” with each generation of leaders “passing the baton” to the next.

SCMP recently commented that when Xi Jinping took office as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the world's second largest economy still faced many major challenges. Over the past 12 years, Beijing has made efforts to address six major challenges, including poverty, technological isolation and trade restrictions, pollution, corruption, economic hegemony and crisis prevention. Of course, despite many achievements, the economy still has some problems, and these are exactly the goals that Beijing wants to deepen and comprehensively reform in the next stage of development.

In the first challenge, by the end of 2020, Beijing announced that it had achieved its poverty reduction target a decade ahead of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Accordingly, from 2012 to 2020, tens of millions of Chinese people were lifted out of extreme poverty.

Faced with the second challenge, responding to the high-tech “blockades” and trade restrictions imposed by the United States, China is focused on achieving technological independence. From 2012 to 2023, China’s scientific research funding as a percentage of GDP reached 2.64%, making the country the world leader in research investment. According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by 2023, the country will have 465,000 high-tech enterprises, with a chip self-sufficiency rate of more than 40%.

On the third challenge, Beijing is leading the world’s largest emissions reduction initiative. Over the past decade alone, China’s energy consumption per unit of GDP has fallen by 26.8 percent, and its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have reportedly fallen by more than 34 percent. Sales of new energy vehicles in the country could exceed 10 million this year. Meanwhile, China’s solar industry is considered one of the world’s leading, with capacity accounting for about 80 percent of the global total.

Tackling corruption is the fourth challenge Beijing is determined to overcome. Between 2012 and 2022, China investigated nearly 5 million officials for corruption, a feat that is considered crucial to achieving sustainable development goals.

Fifth, the world's leading economy affirms that, despite being the country that has launched many global initiatives of an inclusive nature, typically the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), etc., Beijing is committed to equal cooperation, mutual development and benefit with countries around the world.

Finally, to prevent the crisis, China has enacted and revised more than 20 laws related to national security, resolved the real estate bubble, and cracked down on cybercrime and transnational fraud.

New orbit

The Chongyang Institute for Financial Research has just released a report predicting the trajectory of China’s economy over the next five years and beyond. Taking an optimistic view of the future, the researchers predict that by 2029, more than 40% of the world’s top 500 companies will be Chinese.

China is likely to surpass the US to become the world's largest economy by 2035. Life expectancy in China could reach nearly 80, while basic health insurance and pension coverage will exceed 95%.

By 2029, it is expected that more than 100 countries will have shared visa exemptions or unilateral visa exemptions or visa-on-arrival agreements with China. About a third of the population - more than 400 million people - will travel abroad.

On environmental issues, China is likely to achieve its carbon peak target ahead of schedule, leading global efforts in emissions reduction.

In its space and aviation development goals, China will become one of the countries with the most comprehensive space programs in the world, with plans to send astronauts to the Moon. More importantly, by 2029, China hopes to complete its goal of becoming a socialist country.

Analysts say that China cannot sustain long-term economic growth without upgrading its development model to adapt to the changing domestic and global situation. Therefore, Beijing’s opening of a new journey of comprehensive and profound reform in the new era with systematic plans will promote modernization and realize the renaissance, while achieving high-quality development and improving people’s livelihoods.

How will the world respond to China's transformation, in its efforts to further promote new forces in the fields of green technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors - factors that are so important to a country's growth and position in the global economy today?

In fact, more and more foreign direct investment is pouring into China's high-tech manufacturing sector, including from American and European investors, helping Beijing realize its reform goals.

Of course, in order to be able to “shake hands and cooperate”, Beijing's partners also have a new way of thinking and are more open to new forms of cooperation, in the way that China is leading the trend of “joint development in global initiatives”.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cuoc-dua-tiep-suc-cua-kinh-te-trung-quoc-282721.html