China is undergoing globally significant transformations and providing the world with more public goods, says a U.S. scholar on China. [Special Coverage]
With the Communist Party of China (CPC) as its backbone, a rising China "would have a tremendous impact on the world," Khairy Tourk, a professor with the Stuart School of Business of the Illinois Institute of Technology, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
VISION AND TOOLS
Speaking highly of China's achievements in the past five years, Tourk noted that China has maintained a spectacular pace of economic growth, kept the yuan stable amid many difficulties, reduced its debt, and adopted innovative strategies.
Meanwhile, thanks to its long-running civilization, China has developed a unique disposition of patience and pragmatism, enabling the country to achieve its economic miracle in three decades and build a moderately prosperous society in a gradual way, he said.
The professor noted that China's per capita income was less than 200 U.S. dollars in 1979, but it is now more than 8,500 dollars. "This is a huge success," he commented.
"What makes China different from other nations is that it always has a long vision and it has tools to implement and transit the vision to reality," Tourk said.
"EXTREMELY POSITIVE" INFLUENCE
With its economy going through important structural reforms, China is expected to become a strong industrial nation by 2025 and a knowledge-intensive country on a par with other advanced nations by 2049, Tourk predicted.
As China focuses on producing sophisticated technological products, many of the labor-intensive industries and heavy industry plants will move from China to other nations, he said, adding that this will help reshape the global supply chain.
He noted that even though its per capita income is not as high as those of advanced nations, China is already providing the world with public goods, such as sending peacekeepers, fighting piracy, and sending medical missions to really poor countries to take care of the people who cannot afford to have good medical treatment.
"China has already had tremendous influence in other nations," he said.
Another of China's contributions to the world is the increase of Chinese tourists overseas, he pointed out, noting that the number has skyrocketed to hundreds of millions today since the start of China's opening-up in 1978.
"Can you imagine the number of tourists China will send to the world when its per capita income doubles (from the 2010 level), which is going to happen very soon in 2020?" Tourk said.
"China's influence on the world is extremely positive and overreaching, and all of these are done in an environment of peace and harmony," he added.
