Sound policies credited for China progress

Economic transformation serves as inspiration for nations, analysts say

China's economic transformation has proved an inspiration to policymakers and analysts in many countries around the world, Indian experts said.

Academic B. R. Deepak has watched China's progress over the decades and he recalls his own impressions from visits in the early stages of the country's opening-up.

"In 1991 when I first visited Beijing it was a sort of construction site and there was a lot of dust all around," said Deepak, of the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, or JNU, in New Delhi.

"In 1996 when I visited Beijing for the second time, I found that a lot of changes were taking place."

He recalls that by 2003 the Chinese capital "seemed a totally different place", with many new roads, flyovers, underpasses, high-tech buildings and shopping malls.

The huge social and economic changes witnessed by Deepak, along with other Indian professionals and businesspeople, have led many in India to ponder about the different approaches each country has taken, and whether the neighbors can now benefit from cooperation.

Noting China's achievements in infrastructure, science and technology, and poverty alleviation, among other areas, these observers have watched the steps taken in Beijing that resulted in the country's rise to the world's second-largest economy.

Since the People's Republic of China's establishment in 1949, and especially since 1978, when reform and opening-up policies were introduced, the country's development pace has been astounding, they said.

The Communist Party of China's farsighted leadership has helped the country lift more than 800 million people out of poverty and turn some once-backward places into vibrant economic hubs.

In India, many observers focus on China's development of world-class infrastructure.

From an initial high-speed rail line in 2007, the Chinese network reached 40,000 kilometers by the end of 2021, according to the China State Railway Group.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who served as an aide to former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is particularly impressed with the Maglev system, with trains reaching speeds of up to 600 kilometers per hour.

Kulkarni, who founded the Forum for a New South Asia, a group that promotes cooperation between India, Pakistan and China, said China now has some of the best universities, museums, and sports stadiums in the world.

Dazzling megacity

Deepak highlights the growth story of Shenzhen, from a fishing village to a dazzling megacity over just four decades.

Alka Acharya, a professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies at the JNU's School of International Studies, said she first visited China as a research scholar in the late 1980s.

She said that she endured a long train journey from Hong Kong into Guangdong province by train, before taking another train to Beijing. That train was fueled by coal.

Acharya said that when she stepped on to a platform at Wuhan station, she noticed that it was a basic structure with very few amenities. As for Beijing railway station, it was huge, chaotic and badly in need of renovation.

In 2016, when Acharya traveled by express train from Beijing to Shanghai, it was a whole new experience, with state-of-the-art coaches, spotless stations, and streamlined services, the professor said, adding that she could sense a busy and prosperous atmosphere.

The CPC can implement its decisions and it faces few institutional roadblocks thanks to its close communication and cooperation with all sectors of the society, said Swaran Singh, chairman of the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at JNU.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.