BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Mingde Strategic Dialogue 2026, which concluded in Beijing on Sunday, brought together scholars and strategic thinkers from around the globe to explore the new opportunities China's development offers the world.
Over the six-day event, themed "Resilience and Vitality: New Opportunities China's Development Brings to the World," international participants took part in field visits and public discussions.
Hosted by Renmin University of China (RUC), the dialogue took participants to Xinyu in east China's Jiangxi Province and Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province before they gathered in Beijing to discuss China's resilient growth and explore new approaches to global economic recovery and sustainable development.
Speaking at the forum in Beijing on Sunday, Jennifer Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, said in her keynote speech that when reflecting on who has contributed to global growth in the last two decades, global growth statistics would be "somewhat miserable without China's momentum."
"At a time of volatility, we all look for stable anchors upon which we can rely and pathways that will lead to mutual prosperity," she said, adding that China has made an outsized contribution to both over a sustained period of time.
When attending the 2026 Wenzhou Business Development Forum -- Zhejiang Belt and Road Think Tank Dialogue in Wenzhou, Shipley told Xinhua that China's large consumer market and growing middle-income group offer opportunities for industrial development and international trade.
Rejecting the view that China's development has peaked, she said that through development planning, strategic investment and decisive leadership, China has built new industries in relatively short periods and made significant progress in areas such as electric vehicles, while continuing to advance in robotics.
Mulatu Teshome, former President of Ethiopia, said in his keynote speech on Sunday that China has made renewable energy more accessible and affordable, a shared opportunity to build a sustainable planet.
John Ross, former director of economic and business policy for the mayor of London, the United Kingdom, and a senior researcher with Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of RUC, noted that China's open-source AI models could help make AI more accessible across the Global South, highlighting another area in which China's development could benefit other countries.
Reflecting on their entire trip in China, including visits to lower-tier cities, a steel manufacturer and a lithium mining company, many participants described the visits as "eye-opening."
"China has made significant advances in areas including artificial intelligence, automation, infrastructure, batteries and renewable energy," said Glenn Diesen, professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
George Galloway, a former member of the United Kingdom Parliament, was deeply impressed by a visit to a steel factory in Xinyu, Jiangxi, where he saw steel so thin it could be torn by hand.
On what lessons the world could draw from China's remarkable development, Richard Caplan, professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, said in an interview with Xinhua that China offered an alternative to development models historically promoted by international institutions.
"China's experience has attracted considerable interest from developing countries, particularly in Africa, where some countries see it as a model worth studying and potentially adapting to their own circumstances," the professor said.
Radhika Desai, a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, said on the sidelines of Sunday's forum that one lesson the rest of the world could draw from China's development path is the importance of overall planning, even in economies with a large private sector.
Looking ahead, cooperation will remain key to addressing shared economic challenges. Diesen said European concerns about industrial competitiveness, the automotive sector and technological sovereignty could be addressed through cooperation with Chinese companies.
For Ethiopia, Mulatu said, deeper cooperation with Chinese enterprises in mining, agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure is needed. He also pointed to China's zero-tariff treatment for eligible African countries as an opportunity to expand exports. ■
