Source: China.org    Published: 2021-07-26

A webinar titled "The Past 100 Years: China, the West, and the World" was held on July 21, garnering nearly 300,000 views from around the world.

Co-hosted by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (RDCY) and the organization No Cold War and organized by RDCY's Global Governance Research Center, the webinar brought together nine well-known scholars and experts from China, the United Kingdom, United States, India, Canada, Russia and South Africa. The participants shed light on China's development over the past century under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the changes in China's relations with other countries, in particular the West.

British scholar Martin Jacques applauded China's rapid development over the years and argued against the propositions that China's economic rise will never challenge America's ascendency.

"China's economy was more or less already on a par with America's," said Jacques, who is also a non-resident senior fellow at RDCY. "China's political system, far from showing signs of westernizing, remains highly distinctive and was able to deliver extraordinary results."

"Dialogue is fundamental to the new phase. Hearts and minds are crucial," he added, noting that China needs to find new and better ways to be heard and understood by the western world.

Jacques' words were echoed by Liu Xin, a senior host and journalist at China's state broadcaster CGTN.

"China has to do a better job of listening, reaching out and conducting dialogue with the west," Liu said. "One more thing to be done is to tell China's own story."

Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and non-resident senior fellow at RDCY; Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report; Radhika Desai, professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba and other speakers also delivered speeches via video link.

On the occasion of the seminar, Wang Wen, executive dean of RDCY, released a research report titled "Chinese and Foreign Scholars on the 100 Years of the CPC," which revealed international scholars' understanding of the CPC's history during the past century from a global perspective.

Co-authored by five experts from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and Switzerland, the report believes that the CPC centenary is not only a major event in China, but also exerts global significance.

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