China is a part of the world, and China's development is closely related to the rest of the world. In the early days after the founding of the PRC, China made great efforts to break an external blockade, actively conducting economic, trade and cultural exchanges with other countries. Since reform and opening up in 1978, following the trend of globalization and promoting opening up as a fundamental state policy, China has been seeking development with its door open. China has embraced the world, learned from the world, and contributed to the world, through positive interaction and shared development.

"Bringing in" on a large scale. Its door open, China is full of vigor. The international community takes an optimistic view of China. More and more countries are establishing cooperation with China; more and more foreign enterprises are injecting investments and starting businesses in China; more and more foreigners are coming to study, work and travel in China. From 1978 to 2018, China attracted a total of more than US$2 trillion in non-financial FDI, and nearly 1 million foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the country. In 2018, almost half a million foreign students came to study in China. Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China's participation in economic globalization has delivered more substantial and speedy outcomes (see Box 2). From 2001 to 2018, China's imports of goods increased from US$244 billion to US$2.1 trillion. The rise was 13.6 percent per annum on average, 6.8 percentage points higher than the global average. China's imports of services increased from US$39.3 billion to US$525 billion, up by a yearly average of 16.5 percent and accounting for 9.4 percent of the global total.

"Going out" in great strides. From economic and trade investment to cultural exchanges, from government cooperation to people-to-people exchanges, China has been conducting all-dimensional, wide-ranging and multi-level exchanges and cooperation with other countries, going global faster, further, and more extensively than ever before. China's foreign investment and cooperation has seen sound and sustained improvement in quality and scale. In 2018, China's overseas investment reached US$143 billion, up by a factor of 53 since 2002, a yearly average growth of 28.2 percent. China's foreign trade has been growing year by year. From 1978 to 2018, China's foreign trade amounted to US$52.2 trillion; in 2018, China's exports of goods were US$2.5 trillion and its exports of services US$267 billion. In recent years, China has maintained its position as the world's largest source of overseas tourists; in 2018, Chinese outbound tourists numbered nearly 150 million.

Developing the country while benefiting the world. Opening up has brought funds, advanced technologies and managerial experience to China, changed the mindset of the Chinese people and boosted their creativity, and helped China to modernize. At the same time, China's opening up has provided a broad market for other countries. The opening of China's investment and service trade has facilitated local economic growth and employment in the countries concerned. China has been an active participant in the international division of labor, resulting in more rational global resource allocation. China's high-quality exports have met international market demand, reduced living costs in recipient countries, and relieved their inflationary pressure. The Chinese people now travel all over the world, which has greatly enriched cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and other countries.

3. China has injected positive energy into world peace and development

China's development path has unique Chinese characteristics, and a broad and farsighted global vision. It is dedicated to the interests of all of humanity. Over the past 70 years, while working hard to realize their own development, the Chinese people have contributed to world peace and added momentum to the common development of all countries.

China contributes solutions to world peace and development. In the early days of the PRC, China established its independent foreign policy of peace, which contributed to global peace after World War II. In the 1950s, China, India and Myanmar jointly proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence). These have become basic norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law. China has safeguarded the interests of developing countries, playing an important role in building a fair and equitable international political and economic order. In recent years, China has proposed a raft of significant international concepts and initiatives, including a global community of shared future, a new model of international relations, the Belt and Road Initiative, the principle of upholding the greater good and pursuing shared interests, a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in global governance, and the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness between civilizations. These proposals have contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to protecting world peace and promoting common development.

China safeguards world peace through real actions. Over the past 70 years, China has not provoked a single war or conflict, nor invaded a single square of foreign land. Since reform and opening up in 1978, China has cut its armed forces by over 4 million. China has been an active participant of international arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, opposing any arms race and safeguarding global strategic balance and stability. China has signed or joined more than 20 treaties on multilateral arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. China has become the second largest contributor to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the UN, and the largest troop contributor among the permanent members of the UN Security Council (see Box 3). In 2015, China announced that it would set up a ten-year, US$1 billion China-UN Peace and Development Fund, which was officially put it into operation in 2016. China has always been dedicated to resolving territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation and consultation. China has achieved full resolution of land border delimitation problems with 12 of its 14 neighboring countries, and delineated the China-Vietnam maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf. This has broken new ground for settling inter-country issues carried over from history as well as other international disputes. China has played a constructive role in settling major international and regional issues.

China promotes common development worldwide. As the world's largest developing country, China has always been an advocate, practitioner and promoter of global poverty reduction and development. In pursuit of these goals, China conducts South-South cooperation, providing to other developing countries assistance with no political conditions attached, and supporting and helping them, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs), in eliminating poverty.

Over the six decades since China began to provide foreign assistance in the early 1950s, it has provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly RMB400 billion in aid, and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers, of whom more than 700 sacrificed their lives for the development of other countries. On seven occasions, China has canceled debt from interest-free government loans to heavily indebted poor countries and the LDCs. China has provided medical aid to 69 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania, and provided aid to more than 120 developing countries for implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

China has been actively engaged in the consultations on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring its full implementation of the agenda. It was the first country to issue a national plan and a progress report on implementation, and has achieved early outcomes in many fields. Within the framework of South-South cooperation, China has provided assistance to other developing countries for their implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Over the three years since the China-UN Peace and Development Fund went into operation in 2016, China has put in place 27 programs under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund, which have benefited 49 Asian, African and Latin American countries and added a powerful engine for the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda. In 2015, China announced that it would set up the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF). By 2018, in more than 30 Asian, African and American countries, China had launched over 200 development cooperation programs under the SSCAF on disaster relief, healthcare, protection of women and children, refugee relief, and environmental protection.

4. China's development path conforms to reality and the requirements of the times

The choice of path is critical to the successful development of a country. As a vast country with a nearly 1.4 billion population, China has no experience of modernization to borrow from in history, but has to blaze its own path. Over the past 70 years, China has achieved great success. The ultimate reason is that China has found and will continue on the right path – socialism with Chinese characteristics.

It is a path based on China's actual conditions. Reflecting on its reality and history, and through experimentation, China has drawn wisdom from its own culture and learned from the strengths of other cultures, both Eastern and Western. China sticks to its choice of path, but is never rigidly opposed to change; China borrows experience, but never copies unthinkingly.

It is a path prioritizing the people's interests. In the PRC, the people run the country in the real sense. For 70 years, China has upheld a philosophy of people-centered development, directing all its undertakings towards fulfilling the people's aspiration for a better life and protecting their democratic rights. China seeks driving forces among the people, promoting development relying on the people, and benefiting the people through development.

It is a path of reform and innovation. There is no ready-made solution to the development issues facing China. Working diligently and exploring boldly, the Chinese people have resolved difficulties and challenges through reform and innovation, and removing institutional obstacles hindering development. The purpose is to unleash and develop productivity and social vitality, to improve and develop Chinese socialism, and to modernize China's system and capacity for governance.

It is a path of seeking common development through opening up. China upholds the fundamental state policy of opening up, and pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. China has promoted interconnected development. While developing itself, China has shared its fruit with other countries and peoples. It has realized a historic evolutionary process from being completely closed, through being semi-closed, to being comprehensively open. China is an active participant and promoter of economic globalization, facilitating peace and development for humanity.

It is a path of law-based governance. China practices the rule of law as a fundamental principle in governing the country. China pursues coordinated progress in law-based governance of the country, law-based exercise of state power and law-based administration in the government. Rule of law is a fundamental, overall and long-lasting institutional guarantee for China's development. Rule of law ensures a vigorous and orderly society in times of profound change, and ensures lasting peace and stability.

Over the past 70 years, China's success boils down to the CPC's leadership. Due to China's vast territory and complicated national conditions, the governance of China is uniquely difficult. Without centralized, unified and firm leadership, China would have tended towards division and disintegration and caused widespread chaos beyond its own borders. The CPC is China's core leadership, ruling the country for long and supported by the people. The reason lies in its founding mission of pursuing happiness for the people, realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and promoting peace and development for humanity, rather than seeking its own interests. The reason lies in its capacity for self-improvement, and in its firm leadership core, effective theories, strict discipline and improved mechanisms for selecting upright and competent officials, which have ensured that the Party remains stable, progressive and clean. The reason lies in its strategic planning for the long-term development of the country and its competence in implementing specific policies. The reason lies in its open-minded ability to adapt to changing times, carrying forward its own heritage while absorbing the strengths of others, and in its ability to unite, organize and inspire the people.

Over the past 70 years, China has defused many risks and overcome many challenges, and marched forward step after step. In particular, since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has witnessed historic achievements and changes. The Chinese nation has risen and become prosperous, and is becoming strong, closer to the goal of national rejuvenation than ever before. China's development path will look on brighter and brighter prospects as time moves on (see Box 4).

Through 70 years of development, China has achieved remarkable progress. However, the basic dimension of the Chinese context – that China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism – has not changed. China's status as the world's largest developing country has not changed. If it is to relieve the strain between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life, and ensure that its nearly 1.4 billion people enjoy a decent level of prosperity, China still has a long road to travel.

II. China's Development Is an Opportunity for the World

With the rapid increase of China's comprehensive national strength and international influence, some people worry that China will fulfill the outdated expectation that a country will invariably seek hegemony when it grows strong, so they have created what they call the "China threat" theory. The causes of this theory include cognitive misunderstanding, deep-rooted prejudice, a psychological imbalance brought about by the prospect of falling power, and deliberate distortions by vested interests. To realize national prosperity, rejuvenation, and people's happiness is a dream shared by the Chinese with peoples of other countries. Rather than a threat or challenge, China's development is an opportunity for the world.

1. China is the main stabilizing force and power source of the world economy

From 1979 to 2018 China's economy grew rapidly at an average annual rate of 9.4 percent, and became an important engine of global economic growth. In 2008, the world suffered a serious financial crisis and the world economy was hit hard. Through a series of effective measures to deal with the crisis, China's economy recovered rapidly and continued to maintain a medium- and high-speed growth. As a result, China became the main stabilizing force and power source of the world economy.

China is the biggest contributor to world economic growth. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has implemented the concepts of innovative, coordinated, green, open and inclusive development. It has adapted to, steered, and led the new normal of economic development, strengthened supply-side structural reform, and maintained a sustainable and healthy economic development with increasing quality and efficiency. In the past three years, China's economic aggregate has exceeded RMB70, 80, and 90 trillion successively, accounting for nearly 16 percent of the world economy. From 2013 to 2018, China contributed more than 28 percent of world economic growth on average. Estimates show that without China, the average annual growth rate of the world economy from 2013 to 2016 would have slowed by 0.6 percentage point and the intensity of fluctuation would have increased by 5.2 percent. According to a report released by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the aggregate index of the world's exposure to China's economy gradually rose from 0.4 to 1.2 between 2000 and 2017, with China accounting for 35 percent of global manufacturing output.5

China's scientific and technological innovations have injected new momentum into world economic growth. In recent years, investment in the field of science and technology in China has been increasing, and major scientific and technological innovations have emerged. In 2018, China's R&D spending accounted for 2.19 percent of GDP. According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other organizations, China continued its rise in 2019, moving from 17th in 2018 to 14th (see Box 5); it is the only middle-income economy in the top 20.6 In the field of high technology, China is catching up and getting ahead. Quantum communications, supercomputing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, fifth-generation mobile network technology (5G), mobile payment, new energy vehicles, high-speed rail, and financial technology are sectors in which China leads the world. China's innovations in science and technology have been widely applied, bringing more convenience to the work and daily life of people of other countries, and injecting new momentum into world economic growth.

In the future, China will become more prominent in its role as a stabilizing force and power source. Currently, the world economy lacks momentum for growth, and the solidity of the Chinese economy is becoming more and more important to the world. China's economy is changing from high-speed growth to high-quality development, and new industrialization, information technology application, urbanization and agricultural modernization are gathering speed. The economic structure is undergoing a profound adjustment, industrial upgrading is continuing, and new economic growth areas are constantly emerging. The urbanization rate of permanent residents reached 59.6 percent in 2018 and will increase steadily. The number of permanent urban residents will continue to increase. This will bring a wide range of needs in various areas, such as infrastructure, real estate, new retail, medical treatment and public health, education, culture and entertainment, and provide an important engine for economic development. New industries and business forms are emerging. In 2018, the added value of high-tech manufacturing increased by 11.7 percent over the previous year. Corresponding figures for strategic emerging industries and equipment manufacturing were 8.9 percent and 8.1 percent. New energy vehicles, intelligent televisions, lithium-ion batteries and integrated circuits increased by 66.2, 17.7, 12.9 and 11.2 percent, respectively. The growth rate of the information service industry is as high as 30.7 percent, and the growth rate of mobile games, online shopping, ride-sharing platforms, travel platforms, big data cloud computing and other sub-industries is 30 to 50 percent. Each sub-industry has given birth to a number of "unicorn" enterprises. According to an MGI report, by 2040, the integration between China and the rest of the world is expected to drive economic value of US$22 trillion to US$37 trillion, equivalent to 15 to 26 percent of global GDP. Strengthened cooperation between China and other countries will create enormous economic value.9

China's economy and the world economy have undergone structural changes and are deeply integrated. China, which has a more stable economy, higher quality of growth, and promising growth prospects, contributes to the development of the world economy in the long run (see Box 6). It is both unrealistic and harmful to regard China's economic development as a "threat" or "challenge" and try to squeeze China out of the global industrial chain, supply chain and value chain so as to "detach" China from the world economy.

2. All-round opening up creates more opportunities for all countries to share the benefits of China's development

China pursues a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up and strives to open up wider. A safe and stable political environment, large consumer groups with escalating needs, hard-working and well-qualified workers, sound and complete infrastructure, and an international and convenient business environment of fair competition under the rule of law, all provide countries with a broader market, more capital, richer products, and more opportunities for cooperation. China has always been an important promoter of global openness and a dynamic market for all countries to expand business opportunities.

China has the most promising consumer market in the world. It is not only "the world's factory", but also a global market. With a population of nearly 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of 400 million, China has the largest market in the world. The sustained and healthy development of China's economy has created extensive demand in many fields and provided an important engine for economic development. China has huge space and potential for consumption, which is clearly moving up market and making a growing contribution to the economy. The consumption growth rate has surpassed that of fixed asset investment, and its gradient effect is prominent (see Box 7). According to an MGI report, China is the world's largest market in many categories, including automobiles, alcohol and mobile phones, accounting for about 30 percent of global consumption.11 Its huge consumer demand provides an enormous market for countries all over the world. In the coming 15 years, China's imports of goods and services are expected to exceed US$30 trillion and US$10 trillion.

China is the most attractive investment destination. It has a workforce of almost 900 million, and more than 700 million are employed. It has a talent bank of 170 million people who have received higher education or vocational education, and generates more than 8 million college graduates each year.

China continues to optimize its business environment, giving foreign manufacturers and investors a broader space and a better business environment (see Box 8). China has implemented a wide range of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policies, formulated the Foreign Investment Law, and implemented the system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list across the board. It continues to relax market access, and has made great efforts to establish pilots for opening wider to the world.

China has stepped up the protection of intellectual property rights. It has improved the relevant systems, mechanisms, laws and regulations, and enhanced the innovation protection system in line with international economic and trade rules, so as to provide more powerful and effective protection for the investors and IPR holders. According to the "World Investment Report 2019" of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), global FDI continued its slide in 2018, down by 13 percent from the previous year, but China achieved counter-trend growth and continued as the world's second largest recipient of FDI.12 In the first half of 2019, foreign investment in actual use in China was RMB478.33 billion, an increase of 7.2 percent over the same period last year; foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing and services grew especially fast.

China's further "going global" benefits more countries. Chinese enterprises actively participate in international competition and cooperation, carry out deeper and wider global trade and investment activities, and contribute to the economic growth of host countries and the expansion of local employment. A survey of Chinese investment in Africa by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London shows that more than 90 percent of employees at construction sites and factories run by Chinese enterprises in Ethiopia are local residents. Chinese companies have created a large number of jobs in Africa.14 It is estimated that China's foreign trade in goods will reach US$25 trillion in the next five years. With the country opening ever wider to the world, more and more Chinese enterprises will invest abroad, and more Chinese will study, work and travel abroad. China has actively promoted the "going global" of scientific and technological innovation to the advantage of both China and the rest of the world, and more people can enjoy the convenience and benefits brought about by science and technology (see Box 9).

Opening up should be mutually beneficial rather than a zero-sum game. Only mutual benefit can endure. China is committed to further expanding imports, relaxing market access, improving the business environment, and strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights. Other countries should also open wider to the world and take corresponding measures to improve their business environment. Only by moving towards each other can we create a development environment that is open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, make the "cake" of development bigger, and form a mutually beneficial community of shared interests.