By Xuefei Chen Axelsson
After reading the Xinhua article, Xiconomics: How China’s development drives “growbalization”, man can better understand about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s economics. This is to build more bridges and railways and roads to connect our global villages. Connectivity is the key for common wealth. China has a saying roads lead to wealth.
The newly built China-Laos Railway is built between two high mountains and in between is the deep river. To be able to build such a bridge and railway itself already is a miracle. let alone:
“Since it was opened to traffic on Dec. 3, the China-Laos Railway has been getting busier. Lao travelers wait in long queues to buy highly sought-after passenger tickets on weekends and holidays, and more than 100 million U.S. dollars’ worth of goods were transported across the border via the southeastern Chinese city of Kunming within one month.” the Xinhua article says.
Through this railway and connected with China Europe Express, Laos products can reach European market easily.
Former UN under Secretary , UNEP former Executive Director Erik Solheim spoke highly about this achievement and claimed this was one of the great contributions China has made to the world.
According to the article, the World Bank has estimated that the China-Laos Railway could significantly reduce land transport prices by 40 to 50 percent between Vientiane and Kunming, and by 32 percent between Kunming and the Port of Laem Chabang in Thailand. As the railway connects Laos to the vast BRI network, including the China-Europe Railway Express, aggregate income in the country could be increased by up to 21 percent over the long term.
And across Eurasia, the China-Europe Railway Express has so far transported goods worth more than 200 billion dollars, greatly contributing to the stability of the international supply chains.
The article says that in the past decades, China has both benefited from globalization, and contributed to its development. China’s gross domestic product has increased 8.1 percent year on year in 2021, leading the world to recover from the once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic.
In sharp contrast, it is shameful to hear the report that the US wants to continue to accuse China of human rights in the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.
The article goes on to write: Different from what Western countries have done in the past century, China’s growbalization drive is based on its openness and sustained readiness to share development opportunities with the rest of the world. So far, the BRI has become the world’s broadest and largest platform for international cooperation.
China respects the integrity of nations, upholds the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, and “respects the equality of all nations, small or large, developing or developed,” Kuhn said.
The call to advance development for all is in line with China’s domestic endeavor for common prosperity, which has successfully lifted more than 770 million people out of poverty, a miraculous achievement in human history.
Behind this cause is the country’s people-centered principle. Putting people first, the Chinese government has accurately identified the causes of poverty and mobilized vast resources to address them.
Now with global inequality on the rise and COVID-19 exposing social ruptures, the same principle is being increasingly prioritized in China’s growbalization drive.
“No matter what difficulties may come our way, we must adhere to a people-centered philosophy of development, place development and livelihoods front and center in global macro-policies,” Xi said in his speech on Monday.
“I think there is a common understanding that China is a real force for good. It means what it says. And it says to itself what it should do, and applies it too,” said Jean-Jacques de Dardel, a former ambassador of Switzerland to China. “I think China is doing a great job.”
Just as the Chinese president has said, “only when countries develop together can there be true development, and only when countries prosper together can there be true prosperity.”■