Preamble

International Perspectives on China's High-Quality Development

The Communiqué of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphasizes that economic and social development during this period must be centered on the theme of promoting high-quality development. To further clarify the current development landscape and bolster confidence in our progress, we have synthesized representative perspectives from foreign scholars, think tanks, and media outlets regarding China's economic and social development since the beginning of this year. This compilation is intended for reference and analysis.

[Keywords] China; Economy; Science and Technology; International Public Opinion; International Communication; Think Tanks; Innovation

Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, Beijing 100017, China

[Abstract] To provide a clearer understanding of the current development landscape and to bolster confidence in our ongoing progress, we have compiled representative perspectives from foreign scholars, think tanks, and media outlets regarding China's economic and social development since the beginning of the year. The Communiqué of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China highlights the critical nature of high-quality development, emphasizing that economic and social progress in the current period must be driven by this theme. This report organizes international viewpoints to assist in evaluating the domestic economic situation and the global discourse surrounding China's modernization.

[Keywords] China; Economy; Science and Technology; International Public Opinion; International Communication; Think Tanks; Innovation

1 发展成果

The Decline of Western Influence in Africa and the Rise of China

In 2025, the Africa-China Centre for Policy Advisory (ACCPA), a Ghanaian think tank, published an article titled "The Decline of Western Influence in Africa and the Rise of China," authored by Senior Researcher Sylvia Sinkari.

The geopolitical landscape of the African continent is undergoing a profound transformation. For decades, Western powers—primarily the United States and European nations—held undisputed sway over Africa's political and economic spheres. However, recent years have witnessed a significant shift, characterized by a waning of traditional Western influence and the rapid, strategic ascent of China as a primary partner for African nations.

The Erosion of Western Hegemony

The decline of Western influence can be attributed to several structural and diplomatic factors. Historically, Western engagement with Africa has often been perceived as paternalistic, frequently tied to stringent political conditionalities and "lectures" on governance that many African leaders view as interference in sovereign affairs. Furthermore, the perceived failure of Western-led development models to deliver rapid industrialization or address infrastructure deficits has created a vacuum of trust. As Western nations increasingly turn inward to address domestic challenges, their relative investment and diplomatic focus on the continent have faced scrutiny for lack of consistency.

China’s Strategic Ascent

In contrast, China’s engagement strategy, often referred to as the "Beijing Consensus" or the principle of non-interference, has resonated strongly across the continent. China has positioned itself not merely as a donor, but as a developmental partner focused on tangible outcomes. Through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has funneled billions of dollars into critical infrastructure projects—including railways, ports, and telecommunications networks—that are essential for intra-African trade and economic integration.

China's rise in Africa is also bolstered by its speed of execution and its willingness to engage in sectors that Western private capital often deems too risky. By providing alternative financing mechanisms and technical expertise without the traditional political strings attached, China has offered African nations a degree of leverage and choice they previously lacked in the international arena.

A New Era of African Agency

The shift from Western dominance to a more multipolar engagement framework represents a pivotal moment for African agency. African nations are increasingly leveraging this competition to negotiate better terms for their development. Rather than being passive recipients of foreign policy, they are becoming active architects of their own international relations.

However, this transition is not without its challenges. The rise of Chinese

Recent assessments suggest that Western influence on the African continent has significantly declined in recent years, leading to the rise of alternative powers, most notably China. China's expanding presence is profoundly reshaping the political and economic landscapes of many African nations. Massive investments in infrastructure, such as roads, railways, and energy projects, serve as the primary drivers of this transformation. Furthermore, China's approach involves deepening trade relations and fostering diplomatic ties, often through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to create a modern Silk Road. These efforts have not only increased trade volumes but have also secured strategic footholds for China in key markets, providing access to vital resources.

In 2025, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), an Indian think tank, published an article by Associate Fellow Prerna Gandhi titled "Revisiting China's Economic Model." The piece refutes the "China Peak" narrative, arguing that such discourse is built on oversimplified assumptions and selective economic indicators. The author contends that despite facing certain challenges, China remains the world's largest industrial powerhouse. While uncertainties exist, China is not in a state of decline; rather, it is undergoing a complex economic transition to adapt to both domestic and global pressures.

On January 15, 2025, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the largest business organization in the United States—published an independent study on its official website conducted by the Rhodium Group. The report highlights that China has achieved significant success in reducing its dependence on imports. Chinese enterprises have already attained global competitiveness in numerous high-tech sectors, including information and communication equipment, clean technology, electric and connected vehicles, agricultural machinery, shipbuilding, drones, and high-speed rail. The study suggests that China's trajectory in technological leadership is likely to accelerate in the coming years, exerting a profound impact on global industries.

On January 20, 2025, the European think tank Bruegel published a working paper titled "Disruptive Innovation and Spillover Effects in Critical Technology Sectors: How Do China, the US, and the EU Perform?" authored by Alicia García-Herrero, Michal Krystyanczuk, and Robin Schindowski. The paper analyzes the evolution of frontier innovation in quantum computing, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence (AI) across China, the United States, and the European Union. The researchers conclude that in the field of quantum computing, China is now on par with the EU. In the realm of AI, China shows prominent performance in several important sub-sectors. Furthermore, in the semiconductor industry, China has achieved a dominant position in an increasing number of sub-fields.

Additionally, in early 2025, the UK-based website Carbon Brief featured analysis from Lauri Myllyvirta, a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute and Lead Analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The analysis further explores China's pivotal role in the global energy transition and its implications for international climate policy.

分析

The article titled "Clean Energy Boosts China's First Carbon Emission Decline" points out that in the first quarter of 2024, China's carbon emissions decreased by 3% compared to the same period in the previous year, with a further 1% decline over the following 12 months. The growth rate of clean energy power generation has already exceeded the average growth of both current and long-term electricity demand, thereby suppressing the consumption of fossil fuels. As of May 2024, carbon emissions from the power sector decreased by 3.6% year-on-year. If this trend persists, it indicates that emissions from China's power sector may have already peaked and begun a sustained decline. On July 25, 2024, the Griffith Asia Institute (GAI), affiliated with Griffith University in Australia, released the "China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report for the First Half of 2024," authored by Professor Christoph Nedopil, Director of the Institute. The report highlights that the first half of 2024 marked the highest semi-annual record for BRI engagement, with construction contract values reaching approximately $15.4 billion and investment amounts totaling roughly $17.1 billion.

Investment in the Belt and Road Initiative is primarily driven by private enterprises.

2 发展原因

On January 2025, DigiChina (an online platform focused on Chinese technology and industrial policy) published an article titled "China’s Overlapping Tech-Industrial Ecosystems." The piece was authored by Kevin Chen, the website’s founder, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, and an adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation. Chen attributes China's success to a concept he terms "industrial co-evolution." He argues that China has developed multiple, overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems at both the corporate and technological levels. Progress in a series of interconnected sectors—including electric vehicles, batteries, LiDAR, drones, robotics, smartphones, and artificial intelligence—is creating a mutually reinforcing virtuous cycle. China's major tech firms are increasingly becoming "Swiss Army knives" of the technology world, typically starting in a single industry before rapidly expanding into multiple adjacent technological fields.

Cobus van Staden, managing editor of the China Global South Project, published an article titled "Trump, China, and This Big, Confusing World." He argues that as Donald Trump begins his second presidential term, the United States' information-gathering networks across the Global South are disintegrating, while China’s central role in the Global South is becoming increasingly prominent.

Furthermore, China is simultaneously shaping the technology, norms, and discourse of the Global South across hundreds of fields, ranging from plastics standards to space travel. On January 2025, the website of China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), under the Czech think tank Association for International Affairs, published an article by Georgian scholar Irakli Machaidze titled "The EU’s War on US Tech Giants is Handing the Future to China." Machaidze contends that the European Union has spent years cracking down on American tech giants. While Brussels views this as a victory for competition and consumer rights, the real winner is China. The EU's antitrust efforts—specifically the widely criticized Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), and AI Act—are inadvertently paving the way for Beijing. As the U.S. and EU clash over trade and regulatory issues, China is strategically expanding its high-tech influence. On January 2025, the Springer Nature website featured an article by Jacob Dreyer, the group's editor for Business, Economics, Politics, and Law, titled "Why China’s Model of Science and Innovation is Thriving." Dreyer notes that the hallmark of China's success is the way academic ambition and bold entrepreneurial spirit complement one another.

3 发展前景

On January 2025, the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), a U.S. think tank, published a series of policy documents evaluating China's capabilities in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The policy documents argue that China has designated AI as a critical domain for technological innovation and aims to lead the world in AI innovation by 2030. Furthermore, China is rapidly expanding its LEO satellite network, leading to a continuous enhancement of its information power. Consequently, China may achieve a dominant position in global connectivity, significantly expanding the reach and impact of its information, propaganda, and influence operations.

On January 2025, the website of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a U.S. think tank, published a report titled "A Policymaker’s Guide to China’s Technology Security Strategy," authored by Emily, a China analyst at the Dutch private intelligence firm Datenna. The report suggests that while China remains temporarily behind in certain technological fields, it is catching up rapidly in others and has already achieved a leading position in many sectors. Another article from 2025, "China is Attempting to Reshape Global Supply Chains," posits that China is constructing a new, China-centric, and China-friendly global production network through initiatives such as "industrial diplomacy." Although tariffs and trade relations may fluctuate over time, this expanding global production network provides Chinese companies with more robust market access channels, particularly when local employment becomes closely tied to Chinese factories. This can be viewed as the third phase in the broader evolution of China's global supply chain development: the first phase focused on securing resource acquisition; the second phase, characterized by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), focused on building global production and transportation infrastructure; and the current third phase aims to secure market access channels. Currently, both developed nations and countries in the Global South are eager for Chinese enterprises to establish factories in their markets, as this brings new jobs and technologies. On January 2025, the Economics Observatory, affiliated with the University of Bristol, published an analysis by Linda Calabrese, a Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), regarding China's impact on the global economy.

The trajectory of China's foreign economic engagement has evolved into an era of active participation in global affairs, with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) serving as its most ambitious manifestation. This initiative continues to support the internationalization of Chinese enterprises while responding to domestic economic demands. The BRI has already provided significant opportunities for infrastructure development and economic growth in many recipient countries. As the initiative enters its second decade, it is undergoing significant adjustments to refocus on quality, sustainability, and responding to the concerns of participating countries within a complex global landscape. On January 2025, the World Economic Forum (WEF) website published an article by Mark Greeven, Professor of Innovation and Strategy and Dean of the Asia region at IMD Business School in Switzerland. Greeven argues that Chinese cities such as Hefei, Changsha, and Wuxi are rewriting the rules of globalization. These cities place a greater emphasis on decentralized local operating models co-created with local partners. This model can be replicated outside of China to establish regional hubs for global operations. The next wave of globalization is not merely approaching; it has already arrived, emerging steadily from cities like Hefei.

References:
- Communiqué of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China [EB/OL].
- Sylvia Sinkari. Waning Western Influence in Africa: China [EB/OL].
- Prerna Gandhi. China: [EB/OL].

Reanalysing China Economic Model[ /OL]. )[202 odel.

Camille Boullenois Malcolm Black Daniel Rosen China Successful? /OL]. )[202

Alicia a-Herrero Michal Krystyanczuk Robin Schindowski Radical novelties critical technologies spillovers:

China, fare?[ /OL]. )[202 s-how-do-china-us-and-eu-fare.

Analysis: Clean energy contributes to the first decline in China's carbon emissions [OL]. [2024-05-20]. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-emissions-set-to-fall-in-2024-after-record-growth-in-clean-energy/

Christoph NEDOPIL China Initiative (BRI) Investment Report /OL]. )[202 port-2025/.

China's overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems /OL]. )[202 Cobus Staden Trump, China, Baffling World /OL]. )[202 Irakli Machaidze Handing China Future /OL]. )[202 Jacob Dreyer China science innovation model thriving[ /OL]. )[202 Walker Robinson China Ambitions Competition /OL]. )[202 Peter Garretson, Sydney Nystrom, David Thousand Sails:

Earth Orbit Frontier Great Power Competition between China /OL]. )[202 ext-frontier-for-great-power-competition-between-the-u.s-and-chinathum.

Emily Policymaker Guide China Technology Security Strategy /OL]. )[202 -strategy/.

China trying reshape global supply chains /OL]. )[202 Linda Calabrese Initiative: impact China global economy? /OL]. )[202 the-global-economy.

Greeven notes that Chinese cities such as Hefei, Changsha, and Wuxi are actively rewriting the rules of globalization. These urban centers are no longer merely manufacturing hubs but are evolving into sophisticated nodes of innovation and industrial integration. By leveraging localized industrial clusters and advanced technological ecosystems, these cities are redefining how regional economies interface with global markets, shifting the focus from low-cost production to high-value-added research and development. This transformation reflects a broader trend in China's economic strategy, where second- and third-tier cities play an increasingly pivotal role in the global supply chain and the international division of labor.