"What I do see as a product of that debate is much higher levels of state investment and private investment in the hinterland provinces and in the western provinces," Rudd said.
The former prime minister called for Australians and the rest of the world to better understand China's hinterland and its west as individual regional economies.
"If you look at the Sichuan basin and the 100 million people who live in Sichuan, frankly this is a large sub-economy itself," Rudd said. "People should look beyond Shanghai and Guangzhou. They should even look beyond Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and the rest of Guangdong (all coastal provinces in China).
"There's a big place out there and it's called Sichuan and it's the gateway to China's west," Rudd said.
Rudd noted that the centers of global wealth have changed throughout history, "so there's nothing extraordinary about this. It's quite normal."
"The key question however is whether the transitions between economic powers, political powers and strategic powers from one power to another can be achieved peacefully and in a stable manner or not," Rudd said.
That, Rudd said, means changes in the international power of relativity that don't necessarily result in conflict.
"I think there's a lot of wisdom in that," Rudd said.
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