Caixin Summit: Competition, Cooperation and Communication Drive China’s Economic Miracle, Former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Says
By Hou Wuting
Fierce domestic competition, international cooperation and improved communication are the keys to understanding China’s economic miracle, former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Djoomart Otorbaev said Thursday.
If competitions drives progress and cooperation sustains it, then communication is the thread that binds the world together,” Otorbaev said at the 16th Caixin Summit in Beijing. He outlined his view of China’s experience and the “timeless, yet ever urgent” challenges facing the global community through these three concepts.
The story behind China’s great success is its intense domestic competition, he said. “It is the relentless, almost Darwinian struggle for excellence that has shaped modern China and propelled its industries to world-class standards.”
Otorbaev noted that China has more than 200 companies producing electric vehicles. While perhaps 80% to 90% of these firms may fail, he said, the survivors will become “champions on the world scene.” He also recounted a visit to the city of Yiwu, where thousands of factories focus on producing a single product: socks. The city now produces more than half of the world’s socks. “China’s rise has been built not only on scale and speed, but also on the daily discipline and determined spirit of competition,” Otorbaev said.
He cited a study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which found that China ranks first in 57 out of 64 high-tech sectors, an achievement he attributed to this competitive drive. Otorbaev also highlighted a visa program introduced by the Chinese government in August to attract international experts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “China is inviting international talent to compete with local talent,” he said, adding this was what he had dreamed of seeing in his own country.
“If competition is the driving force behind China’s rise, then cooperation has been its guiding wisdom,” Otorbaev continued. “The miracle of China’s modern development has never been the story of closing doors, but of opening them,” he said. He pointed to the Belt and Road Initiative as a key example, noting that “the very foundations of global growth today — trade, investment, infrastructure and technological exchange — have been profoundly influenced by China’s willingness to cooperate across borders and ideologies.”
Otorbaev then turned to his final point, communication, arguing that in the coming years, Chinese storytellers will need to better explain their country to the West. “The future will not be determined only by who competes more fiercely or cooperate most effectively, but also who communicates with great honesty, empathy and foresight. In communication lies the soul of humanity — the bridge between our differences and the path towards our shared destiny.”
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