China leads the Global South in realizing its aspirations for inclusive, fair, ecologically sustainable and people-centered human development

As 2024 draws to a close, the prevailing landscape of global development presents two contrasting features. The Global North, the collective of rich Western nations, is steadily losing its economic dominance. This decline is more starkly evident in Europe, as highlighted by Mario Draghi's seminal report "The Future of European Competitiveness", released in September this year. Authored by the former Italian prime minister, it warns that the European Union faces an "existential challenge "because of its multiple weaknesses: economic, industrial, financial, technological and even political. The decline of Japan — an Asian nation that has made a common cause with the West — is also undeniable. The economy of the United States continues to show some vibrancy, but this is sustained more by the dollar's global dominance than by the intrinsic strengths of its own industry.

In contrast, the Global South, the collective of developing and underdeveloped nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, is steadily rising economically. For instance, the share of the BRICS members alone in global GDP has reached 35 percent in terms of purchasing power parity, exceeding that of the G7 countries. This unstoppable trend also signifies democratization of the global economy since the Global South, accounting for nearly 85 percent of the world's population, is now challenging the hegemony of Western powers and finding its rightful place in a fairer and more balanced world. China is, of course, at the forefront of this history-changing trend. China's economic rise, powered mainly by homegrown advancements in futuristic technologies and innovations, is now widely recognized, including, grudgingly, by the West.

In line with its rapid progress in economy, technology and even international diplomacy, China has now also become the leading voice of the Global South in the discourse on development. Until recently, this debate was almost entirely dominated by Western think tanks and academic institutions. Naturally, the West shaped it in ways that desperately sought to perpetuate today's unequal and unfair world order and present Western values and paradigms as universal ones.

The fact that China has begun to reshape this discourse with its own narrative, which is in alignment with the narrative of other developing and underdeveloped countries, is evident from a new report produced by the Centre for International Knowledge on Development, a reputed Beijing-based think tank. Titled "Global Development Report 2024 — A World of Turbulence and Change: Cooperation to Address Global Common Challenges", it not only comprehensively examines the problems plaguing mankind's development, but also offers practical ideas for overcoming them. All its solutions converge around one big idea: What the world needs is maximum global cooperation — not only South-South cooperation but also South-North cooperation — to achieve inclusive, fair, ecologically sustainable and people-centered development that does not exclude anyone among the billions of people on Earth.

This is indeed the idea that animates the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for a global partnership to realize 17 Sustainable Development Goals that prioritize ending poverty, improving health and education, reducing inequality, tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans, forests and other precious ecological resources. In this sense, the CIKD report faithfully captures the spirit of the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, which aims "to close the development deficit and accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda".

Whereas the UN calls for deepening and broadening global cooperation, the troubling reality is that the ruling elites of the US-led Western powers are moving toward anti-globalization, unilateral tariff hikes, protectionism, technology denial, illegal sanctions and confrontation.

There are two principal forces that promise to drive the global development in a positive direction: leading technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and new planet-protective energy sources that are green, clean, low-carbon and, most importantly, affordable.

Thoughtful development experts around the world have observed these trends. Whereas the US offers war-igniting weapons and militaristic ideas to developing countries, China offers practical examples to promote human welfare based on its own success stories. I was particularly struck by one specific use of digital technologies — in school education. The CIKD report says: "By the end of 2023, China's Smart Education platform, which had been online for just over a year, had attracted more than 100 million registered users, over 36.7 billion page-views, and 2.5 billion visitors, giving many children in rural and remote areas the access to the 'same class' as those in big cities and enabling online learning for nearly 200 million primary and secondary school students in China."

I believe India and other developing countries can learn from such examples to accelerate their own progress in education and other areas of human development. CIKD's analysis and recommendations on global poverty reduction are especially instructive. Its report expresses four serious concerns. First, "global poverty reduction progress has slowed down". It points out that "growth in countries with severe poverty lack inclusiveness". Second, it cautions that "the concentration of global trade and investment has led to the marginalization of countries not yet integrated into global value chains". Third, "the shift of FDI to high value-added sectors has narrowed the development window for developing countries". Fourth, "conflicts undermine the development foundation of countries with concentrated poverty".

As a remedy, the report suggests that the "effectiveness of international cooperation for poverty reduction needs to be enhanced". In this context, I must point out that China's epoch-changing success in complete eradication of extreme poverty by the end of 2020 has many valuable lessons for other developing countries (including India) that still have a large burden of poverty.

I have a suggestion for the consideration of the Chinese authors of this report. It can also provide focus on the development lessons offered by India, which has now emerged as the world's most populous nation. India is predicted to become the world's third-largest economy in the coming years. I believe that India and China, as the only two nations each with a population of over 1 billion, should expand all-round cooperation based on mutual learning. This will prove highly beneficial to inclusive global development.

The author is the founder of Forum for a New South Asia and was an aide to India's former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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