President Xi Jinping's address to world leaders at the G20 summit should be treated as an explanation on how to fix the problems faced by the world economy. In a speech of more than 4,500 words, he analyzed the problems faced by the international economy and offered ideas on how to stimulate recovery and growth.

The address can be broadly divided into two parts. The first part is China-specific and the second deals with the rest of the world.

Xi started with Hangzhou, which has become one of the symbols of Chinese development. He used the Hangzhou story to turn the focus on the miraculous development of China in the past 38 years. He rightly said that modernizing a country of over 1.3 billion was without parallel in human history.

He defended the Chinese developmental model and used a Chinese saying: "crossing the river by feeling the stones" to inform the world that China has to be careful about hurdles while going forward in its path of development.

China's grand story was further brought into focus when Xi said that they have succeeded in making the country the world's second largest economy, the largest trader of goods and the third largest direct overseas investor. He said the success was visible, as China has increased its per capita GDP to about US$8,000.

A striking feature of the speech was to place "development" at the center of the Chinese model. It was important because the county faces criticism over the issue of democracy, while people in China talk about "preferring development to democracy." Xi used the popular definition of democracy as "government of the people, by the people and for the people," to define development when he said, "Development is for the people; it should be pursued by the people and its outcomes should be shared by the people."

He said development-driven policies have lifted over 700 million people out of poverty, which is about 70 percent of the world's poor. Thus, China is the only country in the world to have changed the lives of so many people. In a message to the poor of the country, Xi said that China will take measures "so that the over 57 million poor rural population, below the current poverty line, will all be lifted out of poverty and poverty will be alleviated in all poor counties by 2020."

The second part of the address was about world economy. Xi highlighted fundamental economic issues and offered that China was ready to play its necessary role, as he urged other leaders to match words with actions.

He said that China was ready to undergo a self-correcting course to further deepen its economic reform program. He committed to carry out painful reforms for the sake of adjustments, as the country has reached a new historical path. "It is a new starting point for China to adapt its economy to a new normal and transform its growth model. It is a new starting point for China to further integrate itself into the world and open itself wider to the world," he said.

Another important part of the speech was when Xi talked about innovations. He used words like "innovation-driven development strategy" to stress his point. He said that "scientific and technological innovation holds the key to development."

He criticized policies of protectionism and talked about the importance of a new industrial revolution. "The dynamism provided by the last round of scientific and industrial revolution is waning while new impetus for growth is still in the making," he said.

He also highlighted the importance of "green and sustainable development" and promised that China was committed to making its cities cleaner. "We will meet the people's aspirations for a better life, raise their living standards and the quality of their lives, improve the public services system and enlarge the middle-income group."

Xi offered cooperation and said that China benefited from the world and that it was now China's turn to help the international community. He talked about the "Belt and Road" initiative to share China's development opportunities with countries along the Belt and Road and achieve common prosperity. He tried to allay the fears of the world by saying that China's initiative was not for rivalry and competition, but to "complement and improve the current international mechanisms to achieve win-win cooperation and common development."

To emphasize his worldwide vision, Xi called for building a peaceful and stable international environment to ensure peace, which is a basic requirement for development. He called for a "global partnership" and for a mechanism to improve "global economic governance."

Xi said that G20 was an important international forum, but that it should be reformed to focus on long-term polices instead of acting as a "crisis response body" that prescribes short-term measures to address global issues.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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