China's development offers opportunities to the world, forum hears

China's development has provided opportunities for the world, and the world needs China's experiences and contributions to achieve common prosperity and maintain multilateralism, experts and officials said at an international forum in Beijing.

The purpose of China's development is to give its people a better life, ensure its security and earn it respect, Xu Lin, head of the State Council Information Office, said in his speech on Monday at the China and the World in the New Era forum, which was organized by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. Experts and officials from China and abroad were invited to discuss the relationship between the nation and the world.

"In the past 70 years, China has never provoked any wars or conflicts, nor occupied an inch of land in another country," Xu said, adding that China has made great contributions to maintain world peace, including actively participating in United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Along with its rapid development, however, China has been accused of being a threat to others.

Xu refuted the accusation as being groundless while reiterating that it is always China's unwavering strategic choice to take the road of peaceful development. He said he hoped everyone in the world would benefit from China's contributions, which include the Belt and Road Initiative.

The construction of the initiative will help about 7.6 million people from the involved countries escape extreme poverty, and over 32 million shake off moderate poverty, he said, citing statistics from the World Bank.

Eddie Tapiero, an economist from Panama, said the initiative is one of China's contributions to promote multilateralism by connecting the world.

He said such cooperation has extended people's horizons and broken barriers between cultures.

"Criticism comes from ignorance," Tapiero said. "But if you don't want to work together, then you have to be alone and may have conflict with others (who want to work together)."

Tapiero said Panama is looking forward to more cooperation with China, especially when the two can complement each other in trade.

"For example, China has the best 5G and is good at infrastructure construction, while we have fruits and the canal," he said. "We are not competitors, but can help each other to create a win-win solution."

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, former deputy prime minister of Poland, spoke highly of China's effort on supporting multilateralism and called on the international community to work together.

He said China is making greater contributions than any other country to promote the overall development and process of inclusive globalization.

But it is difficult for one country to promote the reform of international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, and rebuild the international order, Kolodko said. The globalization process requires participation from all countries to explore how to improve the world's economy and help people achieve harmonious development, he said.