The year 2025 marks the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. China has achieved remarkable economic and social development over the past 76 years, especially after the reform and opening-up policy in 1978. China has maintained an average annual economic growth rate of 8.9% for 45 consecutive years, increasing its economic scale by 47 times. It has become the world’s largest industrial manufacturer, trading nation, foreign exchange reserve holder, and second-largest economy. China has built the world’s most complete modern industrial system, even though the country realized industrialization in just a few decades, which took several centuries for developed Western countries.
If you have been to China, especially big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, you would be deeply impressed by China’s urban development, high-speed railways, highways, bridges, modern infrastructure, as well as advancements in aerospace, information technology, and new energy development. At the same time, China’s system and capacity for governance have been further modernized. China has now put in place the world’s biggest systems of education, social security, medical care, and community-based institutions of democracy, has become one of the safest and most orderly countries in the world, and the happiness index of the Chinese people is constantly improving.
However, everything must be viewed from both sides, and China is still far from being a well-developed country. Currently, China’s per capita income remains relatively low, only 17% of the level of the United States, 25% of Germany, and 34% of Japan. China’s development is also unbalanced and inadequate. In terms of regional development, the eastern coastal areas of China are relatively well-developed, but the vast central, western, and north-eastern regions are less developed. From the perspective of rural development, China’s urbanization rate is currently about 66%, lower than the approximately 80% in developed countries. In 2022, rural disposable income was only 40.9% of that of urban residents and less than 10% of rural residents in the United States, Japan, and other developed countries.
While China’s economy is vast, even a large total divided by a population of 1.4 billion is small. Whether considering labour productivity, per capita industrial value added, car ownership per thousand people, per capita education spending, medical expenditure, or social security expenditure, China still lags far behind developed countries.
As a large developing country and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China has made positive and significant contributions to world peace and development over the past several decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, despite its limited wealth and resources, China helped build major infrastructure projects like the Karakoram Highway and Tanzania-Zambia Railway, vividly illustrating the “true friendship in times of need” between China and Pakistan and other countries.
From 1979 to 2023, China contributed 24.8% annually to global economic growth, ranking first globally. China has taken the lead in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and has contributed over 70% to global poverty reduction. As the largest contributor to the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative, China accounts for over 40% of international debt relief. China is now the second-largest contributor to the UN budget and the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. China is actively advancing a low-carbon transformation and is a key force in global green development and addressing climate change.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed the BRI cooperation agreements with China. Over the past 10 years, under the principles of “extensive consultation,” “joint contribution,” and “shared benefit,” the BRI has mobilized nearly $1 trillion in investments worldwide, initiated over 3,000 cooperative projects, and created 420,000 jobs for BRI partner countries.
Content of this article is based on the speech given by the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Karachi (Nov 2024).
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