How to view Chinese modernization | Uniqueness: Chinese expert

Why is Chinese modernization a critical theory? Read Expert Interviews for in-depth insights.

Chen Dingding is a professor of international relations at Jinan University and founding director of the Intellisia Institute, an independent think tank based in Guangzhou focused on international affairs in China.

China has the largest population in the world and started out with poor conditions. "We have seen that China has achieved a high level of GDP growth, good environmental protection and high technological development for the past 40 years," he says.

"Based on that, we could see China's path to modernization as a successful theory."

Chen suggests two examples of China's uniqueness of modernization.

First, the creative use of China's history is combined with Western civilization. China is not self-isolated and has also created a unique development pattern based on its own conditions.

Second, "China's problems are also unique, different from the Western problems and separate from the past problems of Chinese history," he says. China needed to develop unique paths to modernization to solve these problems.

"If other countries want to learn from the Chinese experience, they should also find their unique paths to modernization based on their national conditions."