Commentary: China willing to share, but not to export Chinese model

BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- A recent high-level political party conference in Beijing drew representatives of nearly 300 political parties and organizations from more than 120 countries, opening a window for the world to learn about the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Behind the four-day CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting, which concluded Sunday, was the message that the CPC is willing to share its vision, path and experience, which have been key to the Chinese miracle.

China has lifted 700 million people out of poverty and become the world's second largest economy. The success of the Chinese model has not only made it impossible for the West to overlook it, but has made China more confident in the path it has taken.

However, it is a modest and sober confidence.

Addressing the opening of the meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said the CPC would neither import foreign models of development nor export the Chinese model.

"We will not ask other countries to copy Chinese practice," he said.

Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore, said Xi has acknowledged there is a Chinese model -- the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The Chinese model offers an alternative, rather than a replacement, to the Western model, Zheng said.

Xi has also put forward a way for developing countries to learn from China by finding their own paths based on their own conditions.

The CPC itself has learned from the experience of many countries, while adapting these lessons to China's conditions and culture.

Many of the meeting's participants also attributed China's success to its ability to translate vision into action.

Apart from progress in domestic goals such as poverty reduction, strict Party governance and deepened reform over the past years, China has transformed the Belt and Road Initiative from concept into action, and has set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund to finance it.

At the meeting, Xi listed some facts and figures that offered a glimpse at the CPC's sincere willingness to share. To date, China has dispatched more than 36,000 peacekeeping personnel, and the country has acted as a major peacekeeping force and contributor of funds for UN peacekeeping missions.

Thousands of Chinese scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, technicians, medical workers, teachers and volunteers are working alongside locals in other developing countries to help change their destiny.

In the next five years, the CPC hopes to invite 15,000 members of foreign political parties to China for exchanges.

A country should not develop by simply following the models of other countries. China has blazed a new trail for other developing countries that want to modernize while preserving their independence. Enditem