Children carry stuffed panda toys as they pose for a picture at the Panda Park in Al Khor on October 19, 2022. Qatar became the first Middle Eastern country Wednesday to receive Chinese giant pandas. Suhail and Soraya - who, in true Gulf fashion, took up residence in luxury air-conditioned quarters. The Chinese government sent the animals as gift to mark the World Cup that starts November 20.Photo: IC

 The ongoing 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has grabbed the headlines of the global media outlets in recent days and while the international community is paying close attention to China's blueprint for the next five years, more people from developing countries and emerging economies have showed great interests in decoding how China successfully eradicated poverty and now ranks among strong countries.

While delivering the report to the 20th CPC National Congress on Sunday, Xi Jinping underscored the "central task" of the Party, calling for efforts to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts "through a Chinese path to modernization."

Chinese modernization, a key term defining China's journey to rejuvenation, has for the first time been written into a report to the National Congress of the CPC -- the world's largest Marxist governing party and analysts said Chinese modernization, based on exploration by generations of Chinese people and unique to the country's context, presents a correct path to realizing the Chinese dream and offers humanity a new choice for achieving modernization.

China's exploration to achieve modernization and its glorious achievements in the past decade have also intrigued other countries especially developing ones, with leaders, scholars and media of these countries widely discussing China's top event. 

For example, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the people of Pakistan deeply appreciate CPC's people-centric governance model, its success for China's socio-economic development and meaningful contribution to the evolution of the world's political and governance philosophy, adding that he is confident that the Chinese leadership, with foresight and wisdom, would chart a new road-map for the progress and prosperity of the Chinese nation during the Congress, according to Pakistan's Daily Time.

As strong CPC leadership, rapid economic developments, effective poverty alleviation efforts, top-level design and full implementations are the topics overseas observers and scholars are discussing, they're also speaking highly of the country's insistence to develop its own way that fits its own conditions for development as such practice has not only defied the "West-centered theory" to offer a brand new way for independent development, but also brings hope for emerging countries to realize modernization amid increasing geopolitical risks, analysts said.

Unique path to modernization

The 20th CPC National Congress and its agenda are looked at with great expectations by the world, especially developing countries, Syrian Ambassador to China Mhd. Hasanein Khaddam told the Global Times. He noted that Syrian people wish all the success to the Congress.

"We are looking for changes in the current world order that will give space to third world countries to be heard and participate in global governance. All developing countries look to China for inspiration and an expectation for a fairer world," he said.

Khaddam said that many other policies promoted by Chinese President Xi have attracted the attention of the whole world, which include building confidence in China's cultural and social heritage, focusing on scientific approaches in learning and building the country, and preserving the environment and green ecology.

The main focus for most developing countries is China's fast economic development in the past decades - how it transformed from an agricultural country into the No.2 economy in the world with the largest manufacturing sector, Yang Xiyu, senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.

China's gross domestic product has risen to account for 18.5 percent of the world economy, up 7.2 percentage points over the past 10 years. The world's second largest economy has become a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions, leading the world in total volume of trade in goods. 

Insisting on independent policy, China has explored a very unique way for modernization thereby increasing its national wealth, eradicating poverty, and completing industrialization and realizing all-round developments in society, Yang said, noting that such changes within a short period in a country with the largest population in the world have attracted attention from countries with similar backgrounds.

The 20th CPC National Congress report has summarized China's experience in the past decades in developing its own path with its own context - it has made market to fully play in the distribution of resources and let the government make better service. The socialist economy has overcome the economic development cycle without recession and realized rapid and high-quality development and at the same time brought great benefits to the people's livelihoods, said Yang. 

Moreover, the report gives an answer on how to balance efficiency and equality in order to realize common prosperity. China's achievement in poverty alleviation is a good example on how to create wealth and increase social equality.

Danilo Türk, former president of Slovenia, told the Global Times that Chinese concepts and practices of "dual circulation" and "common prosperity" demonstrate the capacity to adjust. 

"The resilience and determination of the people of China to strive toward new levels of development is the most impressive feature for a foreign observer like me. Clearly, this requires strong leadership that the CPC has provided," Türk said.

While delivering the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi also pointed out that there has never been an instruction manual or ready-made solution for the Chinese people and the Chinese nation to turn to as they fought to end the great sufferings endured since the advent of modern times. 

The Party has led the people in independently blazing the path to success over the past century, and the success of Marxism in China has been realized by Chinese Communists through our own endeavors. One point underpinning these successes is that China's issues must be dealt with by Chinese people in light of the Chinese context, said the report. 

Ejaz Akram, a Pakistani scholar, also professor of Religion & World Politics in Southwestern University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, carefully read Xi's report to the congress.

Speaking highly of China's achievements in the past decade, the Pakistani scholar believes that an indigenously developed political system that is increasingly relying on its millennia old wisdom was major cause of China's success story.

"China has espoused new paradigms of development, new philosophy of governance and envisions a common future for humanity. It has chosen to tread off the beaten track of path dependency," said Akram, noting that one thing that Pakistan can take away from the 20th CPC National Congress is that roads to development and modernization are many and Pakistan must chart out its own course of development using its own civilization wisdom. 

Night view of the site of BRICS Summit in Xiamen International Conference Center, China Photo: VCG

New choice for prosperity 

Stressing that human society faces unprecedented challenges, Xi on Sunday called upon all countries to hold dear humanity's shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom, and promote mutual understanding and forge closer bonds with other peoples.  

Analysts said that as the 20th CPC National Congress noted that Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all and of peaceful development, China also offered a brand-new development path for emerging economies that shows modernization by no means is equal to Westernization and there has never been a one-size-fits-all approach to modernization.

China's unique way to modernization sets an example to more emerging economies that any development pattern should fit the context of a country and merely copying other countries' experience will lead to failure, analysts said, lashing out at some Western countries touting their own values. 

The 20th CPC National Congress is held at a very important juncture in the history of our world when the news is dominated by the military situation in Ukraine, whose impact has been felt throughout the world. In addition, global inflation is sending more people into poverty and human degradation. All of these issues cry out for urgent attention and this is why the eyes of the world will be on China and the CPC's congress, Donald Ramotar, Guyana's former President, told the Global Times. 

Ramotar said that China's relations with the developing world are qualitatively different from those of the West. China's ties have no strings attached and no onerous conditionality. However, in recent years, some Western countries have been trying to besmirch the good intention of China, which shows their nature of imperialism. 

But China's relations with poor countries are helping to promote prosperity.

For developing countries, China represents the political will and commitment to promote relations of a new kind, based on mutual respect, sovereign equality of states, preservation of peace and mutually beneficial international cooperation. It is also a symbol of the transition to a new international order that is more just, democratic and humanistic, where consultation and understanding among states replaces coercion, confrontation and zero-sum geopolitical games, Cuban Ambassador to China Carlos Miguel Pereira, told the Global Times.

Ebrahim Hashem, former adviser to the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, an authority responsible for Abu Dhabi's long-term strategies, and Asia Global fellow at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong, told the Global Times that the Chinese development success story has been a source of inspiration to many Arab people and states, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an excellent opportunity for the Arabs to achieve strategic goals of their national development plans.

Also the innovative BRICS+ structure has started to attract attention from many observers viewing it as a potential nucleus for the new multipolar world that's emerging, and many Arab countries view BRICS+ positively, hoping to contribute to and benefit from it, Hashem said. 

Many international observers also expressed their anticipation of China's future role of continuing being a cornerstone of world stability and peaceful development after the congress. 

Ei Sun OH, a senior fellow at Singapore Institute of International Affairs and principal adviser of the Pacific Research Center of Malaysia, said for most Southeast Asian countries, "we would like to see China's future development goals bring about a higher and broader level of prosperity and stability to the region. This includes trading more with and investing more in the region, and strengthening the people-to-people bonds by means of more cultural and educational exchanges."

Rahamtalla M. Osman, the Permanent Representative of the African Union (AU) to China, told the Global Times that the 20th CPC National Congress will have profound implications for China's trajectory in the coming five to 10 years as the Party pursues its 2035 goals. In the African context, it is hoped that there will be continuity in China-Africa relations.

We hope we can build on the progress of the BRI and the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) 2021 to generate long-term, sustainable development to support the continent in attaining AU Agenda 2063, Osman said.

At a time when many developing countries are encountering development headwinds, China's approach for development is needed more than ever and analysts said that aside from continuing to be one anchor of global stability, China and more emerging markets will work together to defend peace and global development and prosperity. 

Ali el-Hefny, Egypt's former ambassador to China and former deputy foreign minister, expected China to help recover stability, peace and security in the Middle East where the situation is chaotic and volatile. 

El-Hefny said the region needs greater engagement to help find political settlements to regional crises, to encourage regional and external powers to halt their attempts to further destabilize the region and to halt their hegemony and their expansionist policies.