Photo: CFP

Germany's widely read newspaper, Bild, has criticized Germany for delivering 630 million euros ($694 million) worth of aid to China for vocational training. The report said that Beijing is not the capital of a developing country that needs help. The Chinese must be laughing at the Germans because Germany offers aid to China to allow the country to surpass Germany in various areas such as technology, the report said. 

This sort of commentary represents the popular misleading view that China's steady economic rise is a result of the West's help. 

For a long time, China was seen as a foreign aid recipient rather than a donor, but foreign aid made only a meager contribution to the country's economic development. With a population now standing at 1.3 billion, China faced a complex situation and overcame multiple development hurdles. It's unrealistic to expect a nation to become the world's second-largest economy just because of external assistance.

Economic slowdowns make some Western countries stingy in offering foreign aid, but they still view themselves as saviors for the global economy. Some Western donors have even sought to pressure China to accept their political values, beliefs and ideologies. It's impossible for China to agree to this. Foreign aid can't be an excuse for the West to interfere in China's internal affairs, such as the ongoing riots in Hong Kong.

Prejudice against China being adopted by the West ignores a fact: China's economic rise has provided Western companies with an unprecedented opportunity for development. Many well-known enterprises such as Apple Inc have seen China become one of their most important overseas markets. China's economic growth is a win-win result for both Chinese and Western companies with China's efforts to open up its markets to the outside world.

China's economic slowdown is a fact, but the contribution of China's GDP growth to the world economy remains at about 30 percent. China has emerged as the biggest driver of global economic growth.

The West has no right to interfere in China's internal affairs and ask the self-reliant economy to repay its "kindness" of stingy aid. People in the West should abandon their pride and prejudice if they want to fully enjoy the dividends of China's market.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn