Participants in the 2024 Understanding China Conference, which was held from Monday to Wednesday, shared their insights on Chinese modernization and the new development opportunities it provides to the world.

China's policy initiatives and development directions have a profound impact on the world and particularly the emphasis that China opens its doors wider to the Global South, including the least-developed countries, can be seen as inclusive globalization with the notion that no one is left behind. This declaration is a visible step to promote an open world economy and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The progress of China's modernization will further benefit the developing countries of the Global South. The Belt and Road Initiative has become the most popular public goods in the Global South and the largest platform for international economic cooperation.

Mulatu Teshome, former president of Ethiopia

There is the incoming new US administration, and also this major political fact over the next couple of years will induce the need for a reset of the EU-China relations. We are facing increasingly China's cutting-edge technologies in different domains. The first reaction is to put in place tariff protection. This is not a sustainable solution, so we have to fix this. I think that agreements on technology transfer, and agreements on having real activity on the European continent that lead to job creation in this field, driven by Chinese investment, can be part of a solution. Also in the future, the creation of wealth, the economic growth of China will still be dependent on its capacity to produce and to export to find consumers abroad.

Yves Leterme, former prime minister of Belgium

I think we should trust the next generation, the younger generation. They are better educated than we were. They have better training and better skills today. They have better languages … Fascinating results will be there on the table within the next two decades. We will see them and we should be part of it. To reach the next level of human development, this is at stake, this is our vision. The global community needs cooperation instead of nationalistic egoism in sharing the results of science, which will fundamentally push for the next round of human development.

Wolfgang Schussel, former chancellor of Austria

The Australia-China trading relationship is hugely important. (It is) globalization, international trade (that are) benefiting people in Australia in a concrete way. I think we should make the case, we should go back to making the case for imports, making the case for trade, making the case against protection.

Bob Carr, former foreign minister of Australia

We live in a world which is extremely interdependent. At the same time, we see a sort of shortage of instruments for regulation of this interdependence. How can we manage it? From my point of view, China suggests to us very interesting ideas about global initiatives, which are about the creation of a new world model that is based on principles of a fair world, ideas of equality of all countries and a common future.

Andrey Bystritskiy, chair of the board at the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club

Results in the past 40-plus years speak volumes. The opening-up of China works to the benefit of both China and other countries of the world. And this comment applies not only to the past, but also the future. For millennia, in the country's long history, China has welcomed interactions with other countries and civilizations, and contributed to free trade, higher living standards and the engagement of art and cultural exchange.

Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairman of the 14th CPPCC National Committee and former chief executive of Hong Kong SAR

Only by understanding China's reform can we understand China's present and future. To understand China's new round of reform and development, the best approach is to understand "Chinese modernization".Whether facing sanctions or disengagement, China will be steadfastly committed to the path of peaceful development and rejects both the pursuit of military alliances and arms races to compete for world hegemony, as well as the approach of bullying smaller nations and establishing so-called spheres of influence.

Zheng Bijian, founding chairman and director of the academic committee at the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy

If we can raise the urbanization rate of the household registration population to approximately the same as that of the permanent resident population, it will mean that China's urban-rural dual structure will undergo a qualitative change. This will be the time when urban civilization and civil society will formally start to develop, form and gradually mature in China … Chinese society and culture with an agricultural civilization as the background, will gradually be reshaped, reformed, radically changed and even replaced by urban civilization and civil society.

Huang Qifan, executive vice-chairman of the academic committee of CIIDS and former Chongqing mayor

I attended this year's Shanghai International Import Expo and saw many US investors, particularly from agriculture. China still has room for further opening-up. Although the economy is growing a little bit slowly, it is still growing. Our middle class is still growing in size. We still have a lot of potential, particularly in this Greater Bay Area. I live in Shenzhen, an innovative city. There are a lot of difficulties from the United States, a lot of innovations are going on. I think those ideological minds, those hawks really underestimate the capability of China.

Zheng Yongnian, a renowned Chinese scholar