BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Scholars from many countries have spoken highly of China's contribution to economic globalization and pledges by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday to work with other countries in making the economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.
Xi sent a congratulatory letter to the Understanding China Conference that opened Saturday in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, stressing that economic globalization is an irreversible trend, and the interests and future of different countries are becoming increasingly interconnected.
"During my visit this time to Guangzhou to attend the conference, I feel that Chinese leaders have both attached great importance to and well understood overseas research and analysis on China," said Cheng Li, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank.
"They have an open, pragmatic and inclusive attitude towards international exchanges on 'understanding China.' The Chinese government is pragmatic and is engaged in very fast and dynamic economic reform. Like the name of this conference, the world should understand China," said Li.
Martin Albrow, a British sociologist and emeritus professor at the University of Wales, said that China is a beneficiary of and a contributor to economic globalization, and China welcomes other countries to deeply understand its rapid development.
The Understanding China Conference "engages leading thinkers from multiple sectors in East and West in that enquiry. The result will extend far beyond China's borders," said Albrow, the pioneer British scholar in the study of globalization.
Andrei Ostrovsky, deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that the process of globalization is beneficial to the world, and China is making an important contribution to globalization.
Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, China has significantly expanded its foreign trade with countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, while the economies of those countries have also been boosted, Ostrovsky said, adding therefore, China is benefiting, and so is the world as a whole.
Prof. Hans Hendrischke from the University of Sydney Business School, said that, through its integration in the multilateral trade system, China's economy has achieved substantial growth, and China, as a beneficiary of globalization, is striving to safeguard this system to prevent its further erosion.
China's other major contribution to globalization is to further open its domestic market to private and foreign enterprises, said Hendrischke.
