Islamabad:Prof Gao Jian, Secretary-General, Shanghai International Studies University, has said that China’s path to modernisation, achieved through a governance model rooted in China’s own realities, proved Fukuyama's claim wrong that modernisation would ultimately take the form of Westernisation.
Prof Gao was speaking at a seminar to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the founding of Communist Party of China (CPC) on "China's remarkable socioeconomic transformation under theleadership of CPC and its growing contributions to global public good" organised here by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS).
Prof Gao stressed that Chinese modernisation is not a template to be copied but an example that every nation must adapt to its own social realities. He drew a philosophical distinction between Western and Chinese governance under CPC saying that instead of falling into the trap of a confrontational relationship, a civilian versus state, Chinese governance adheres to a "people-oriented" principle, which centers on "the people" as a collective rather than on the individual civilian, and which measures policy by whether the people as a whole support and approve of it.
Masood Khalid, Pakistan's former ambassador to China, traced the CPC's journey from its founding in Shanghai in 1921 to the current 15th Five-Year Plan. He highlighted China's system of five-year planning, begun in 1953, as systematic, scientific and pragmatic, with built-in course correction and a strong emphasis on data accuracy. He emphasised the party leaders’ critical role in setting the stage for China’s socioeconomic ascent, delineating the policies from Mao to Xi era. He also opined that China is steering the rise of Asia as well. China's rise, he said, had been peaceful; it sought not to dismantle the international order but to seek adjustments reflecting new realities and aimed to become a fully modern country by 2049.
Moin ul Haque, Pakistan's another ex-ambassador to China, focused on the CPC's engagement with the Global South. He traced the evolution of Chinese foreign policy from the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the 1955 Bandung Conference to President Xi Jinping's global initiatives, under which China had moved from a recipient of development assistance to a development provider.
Delivering the guest of honour address, Shi Yuangqiang, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of China drew on Secretary- General Xi Jinping's July 1 address in Beijing to outline three keys to the CPC's success: a people-centered approach, a global vision oriented toward the common good and rigorous party self-governance guided by “seeking truth from facts.” He said China moved from winning the battle against poverty to building a transport network exceeding six million kilometers and making rapid advances in artificial intelligence, biomedicine and quantum technology.
