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Interview: Strength of China's system must be better appreciated, says scholar

(Xinhua) 10:27, April 13, 2021

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Westerners require a better appreciation of China's governance system, one that has evolved from its own history and helped increase the country's stature in the world, a well-known U.S. scholar has said.

"I just hope that that kind of reporting gets more traction in America, so that there is a more realistic appreciation of what President Xi Jinping means to China, his way of increasing China's stature," Sarwar Kashmeri, adjunct professor of political science at Norwich University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to a Harvard Kennedy School survey released in July last year on the Chinese public's satisfaction with their government, the Chinese central government received a level of satisfaction of 93.1 percent in 2016, up from 86.1 percent in 2003.

"Because even I, who try to pay close attention to what's happening in China, was a bit surprised at how forthright this report was. We really should appreciate and listen to what they're saying," said Kashmeri, also a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association.

Kashmeri, who hosted Polaris-Live, a series of talks with experts worldwide on U.S.-China ties, said that several of his interviewees referenced the survey published in July 2020.

China's governance system "has strengths because there's continuity," Kashmeri said, adding, "having made a strategic plan, the leader is able to execute it, and think ahead."

In fact, each country's governance system is derived from various historical facts, and people should "look at it, understand it and understand where it comes from," said Kashmeri.

"China's system has evolved from its own history," and all of us should "accept the fact that it is going to be different from countries that have had a different history," he said.

Calling the Communist Party of China a "successful ruling party for China," Kashmeri noted the party has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty and led the country to become the world's second largest economy. 

(Web editor: Shi Xi, Liang Jun)

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