In recent years, China’s growing prominence in the international arena has captured the attention of numerous scholars abroad. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University, also a renowned advocate for sustainable development, global poverty reduction, and economic growth, who has served as a Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General, recently shared with CSST his views about the country’s remarkable development journey within the context of world history and international relations.

Monumental achievement since 1978

In reference to the progress China has made since the reform and opening up, Sachs said: “The reform process has been rational, well-planned, and successful. I witnessed first-hand the beginnings of market economy reforms, the great boom in China’s coastal seaboard in the 1980s and 1990s, the birth of the private sector and stock market in those years, and the revival of China’s great universities. I also watched first-hand how China eliminated extreme poverty by 2020.”

“I believe that China’s accomplishments are historic and very positive for the Chinese people and for the whole world,” he commented. “We should celebrate the successes of countries in their economic progress and never try to hinder that process. China’s economic rise since 1978 is a monumental achievement and a great contribution to human development and world prosperity.”

Shifting world pattern

Regarding contemporary world pattern, Sachs noted, “We are at the end of the Western-led world in my view, and moving quickly to a more balanced multi-polar world, yet there is much more to be done in this regard. In the new world, the BRICS, working with the G20, help to inaugurate a new global financial architecture. Now, China and India are achieving rapid technological, economic, and cultural development after two centuries of Western dominance.”

He continued, “Throughout world history, the ancient China had been a leading nation and civilization contributing to the world prosperity and to cultural and technological wisdom and advancement.”

In Sachs’ opinion, as the center of global development is shifting inexorably from the West to Asia, particularly China, the historical hallmark will again move to China.

“Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China is embracing a new era of great power, reclaiming the glory of its ancient history,” he said.

Two competing visions

Sachs summarized that there are two competing visions of the world. The first vision entails one country or region leading the rest of the world, a belief held by elites in the Western-led world since 1800. The second vision is one in which all parts of the world share in true common prosperity—In UN jargon, “No one left behind.”

The realization of the second vision necessitates a shift in mindset, Sachs said. “China’s Global Development Initiative, combined with other specific initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank, and others, can play an important role in moving to common prosperity at the global level,” he explained.

A big believer in multilateral institutions, Sachs is against hegemonic power of any kind, so he expressed the hope that the IMF and World Bank can be governed by the entire world, not by the US or the North Atlantic (“Western”) countries.

“The US speaks of a rule-based system, but this should be based on rules jointly negotiated and agreed across the world, not on rules written unilaterally by the US and its allies. In this sense, I especially appreciate China’s call for a world operating peacefully under the UN Charter and without hegemony by any country,” Sachs said.

Urgency of cooperation

Given common global threats, such as human-induced climate change, extreme poverty, nuclear proliferation, and ecological collapse, Sachs pointed out that the need for cooperation is more important than ever.

“This is a wonderful new opportunity for the world, in which China, together with other developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, to contribute positively to worldwide peace and common prosperity. In this new world, there is mutual respect and an end to hegemony by any one country, region, or group,” he said.

Sixty years ago, former US President John F. Kennedy gave a famous Peace Speech in which he called on the world to come together in peace. “It is a wonderful speech, full of relevance for us today,” Sachs said.

“I very much like quoting the following wise words from Kennedy’s speech: So, let us not be blind to our differences—but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal,” Sachs concluded this way.