Interview: 40 Yrs On, China Still to Dazzle World With More Wonders

China's development achievements over the past four decades have been hailed as "miracles" of human history, and economists like Li Daokui are expecting more wonders in the future.

"I am convinced that China is able to create more 'miracles'," Li, who is currently head of the Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking at Tsinghua University, told Xinhua during an interview.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, which ushered in market-oriented reforms and China's ever-growing interaction with the rest of the world.

According to Li's estimates, the Chinese economy is likely to maintain stable and relatively fast growth through to 2050, the year that China aims to become a great modern socialist country.

"[Including the past 40 years,] that would mean a 72-year streak of stable growth, a marathon without tumbles, and a great wonder in the development history of humankind," he said.

China has registered an average annual growth rate of around 9.5 percent over the past 40 years, lifting over 700 million people out of poverty and transforming from an impoverished nation to an upper-middle-income nation.

Li believes China's economic "miracles" enabled by the reform and opening-up policy of 1978 are significant in three dimensions: the country's contribution to over 70 percent of global poverty reduction, unparalleled growth rate for any economy in the catch-up phase, and absence of negative growth during the period.

"The Chinese economy still has much untapped potential," he said. "Technological innovations, industrial upgrades, urbanization and consumption upgrades will empower new growth opportunities."

Besides feats of economic development, Li expects China to establish a modern governance system that is commensurate with its national conditions by 2050, with social issues like education, medical care and elderly care properly addressed.

"China will manage to deliver stable growth and achieve modern governance while continuing to follow a path of peaceful development over such a long period," he said, noting that the country's economic ascent has not featured any military expansion or hegemonism but pursued common development.

"The next 'Chinese miracle' is worth waiting for," Li said.

The country is moving closer to the center of the global stage as a widely recognized advocate of world peace, contributor to global development and upholder of international order.

Social and political stability, continuous improvement of economic and political systems, peaceful development and assimilation of other countries' best practices in managing economy and society, are among the key factors behind China's successes over the years, Li said.

"Now, China is able to offer the world practical advice drawn from its own best practices in development," he said.

(Source: Xinhua)