What China's history should teach us

By Andrey Kortunov

A couple of months ago, I came to Shanghai for a workshop hosted by Fudan University. As a part of the standard local hospitality, they took our group on a cruise on the Huangpu River. It was late in the evening, and we enjoyed a magnificent view of the city with the brilliantly lighted and impressive futuristic skyscrapers.

An American professor standing next to me, who had come to Shanghai for the first time, was amazed by the stunning panorama unfolding before his eyes. I said, "It is almost like downtown Manhattan at night, right?" He remarked with a sigh, "Wrong. New York is a great symbol of the 20th century, and this city is a gateway to the 21st century."

This admission of China's accomplishments by a U.S. professor looks more convincing to me than many volumes of economic and social statistics. When I was a college freshman in Moscow almost half a century ago, most of my classmates including me looked at the United States as the ultimate manifestation of modernity. We had heated debates about various national modernization paths and development trajectories, but the end goal was clear: to catch up with the United States. The sooner the better. America was always the standard point of reference, the ultimate yardstick and the eternal envy, even of those who never really liked it.

This is no longer the case. Arguably, the most precious gift that China offers is the comprehension that there may be – and should be – various models, not only of modernization, but also of modernity itself. This is what the Soviet Union tried to demonstrate throughout its whole history, but ultimately failed. This is what many social democrats in Europe wanted to prove, but not quite succeeded in making the case. These are the aspirations of many nations in the Global South, but their development projects are still mostly work in progress.

Of course, the 75 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China were not marked only by triumphant victories and spectacular accomplishments. These years were also filled with a lot of hardships and painstaking work. The price of China's success was denominated not only in sweat, but also in tears.

Make no mistake. The buildings we saw in Shanghai are not necessarily representative of all of China. There are still major regional discrepancies. To get a comprehensive picture of the country, you need to go also to places like Guizhou and Gansu provinces. However, neither in Guizhou nor in Gansu will you see slums like the ones you can observe in plenty in New York City's South Bronx or in Chicago's Near West Side.

A relocation site for poverty-stricken people in Huawu Village, Qianxi County of Bijie City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, February 20, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

These days there are heated discussions in the international expert community about when China is going to surpass the United States as the leading global economy. The answer to this question largely depends on the research methodology, available statistics and many other factors, often reflecting the political biases and convictions of the analysts. However, most projections indicate that the gap between China and the U.S. in key areas will continue to narrow over time.

However, China's future does not look like a smooth highway but rather like a bumpy road with many forks, sharp bends and even U-turns. The economic, social, technological, geopolitical and other challenges ahead are numerous and complex. One cannot rule out serious complications and even setbacks on the path to becoming, by the middle of the century, "a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful."

However, no matter what the future holds, no one can deny the historic success of China. And the most important thing about it is that the recipe for this success is not in localizing and approximating an imported development model, but in applying a unique indigenous path based on the careful consideration of specific national conditions.

Among leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC), none of them have Harvard diplomas or career tracks linked to the International Monetary Fund or the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Instead, they were committed to seeking truth from facts, and they were not shy to face genuine facts even when these looked unfavorable and sometimes were not easy to admit.

Among other things, China's success should teach us that no other nation should try to copy China's model but should instead create a national model for itself. Every nation, big or small, wealthy or poor, in the Global North or in the Global South, should become the master of its destiny and the builder of its future.

Andrey Kortunov is academic director of the Moscow-based Russian International Affairs Council.