Chongqing – Modernization is not a one-size-fits-all concept. While centered on improving people’s lives, different countries can pursue different paths based on their own development needs and national conditions.
About 200 guests from 11 countries, including China, Argentina and Australia, gathered in Chongqing on June 18 for the International Symposium on the Global Significance of Chinese Modernization, where participants launched key research projects and discussed its growing relevance to global development.
In historical terms, “modern” originally meant being up to date, moving forward, and remaining energetic. However, with the rise of capitalism, the concept of modernization gradually became associated with Westernization, leading to the assumption that there was only one model, said Roland Boer, Australian Sinologist and High-end Foreign Expert of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.
However, this view now faces a challenge. “There isn’t one model of modernization,” he said, adding that Western modernization was linked with imperial expansion, while Chinese modernization, as a form of socialist modernization, follows a peaceful development path and does not involve colonization.
China has followed a different path based on its own national conditions. Wang Wen, Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the School of Global Leadership, Renmin University of China, highlighted that Chinese modernization aims, from the outset, to promote the common development and prosperity of all people, rather than the enrichment of a few.
China has relied on long-term efforts in poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, regional coordination and income distribution reform to promote more balanced growth between urban and rural areas and among different social groups.
As part of the Symposium, global experts also visited Chongqing to observe the city’s practices in manufacturing, logistics and public services.
As a major industrial base in Western China, Chongqing is accelerating the development of its new energy vehicle industry. In 2025, the city produced 1.296 million new energy vehicles, accounting for about 46.5% of its total automobile output.
Although located inland, Chongqing has strengthened its global connectivity through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, which links it to ASEAN, China’s largest trading partner. In 2025, cargo throughput at its national logistics hubs reached 120 million tonnes, up 13% year on year.
The city is advancing people-centered development through its “15-minute community life circles,” bringing essential public services closer to neighborhoods and benefiting more than 3.1 million residents.
Chongqing has made progress since becoming a municipality directly under the central government 29 years ago, said Qin Xuan, President of the Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at Renmin University of China.
He noted that the city has moved from an old industrial base to a manufacturing highland in Western China, while also promoting coordinated urban-rural development, improving ecological protection along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and advancing openness from an inland hinterland to a more connected frontier.
Chongqing’s experience serves as a practical sample of Chinese modernization that people can replicate and promote. He said it provides a reference for megacity governance and regional modernization, particularly for countries in the Global South.
Facing inequality, financial constraints, environmental pressures, and technological gaps, the Global South needs more than a Western-correct recipe for modernization. They need to build on their own realities and explore more inclusive and sustainable development paths.
Daniela Perrotta, an expert from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences, said Chongqing’s experience is valuable to the Global South in several areas, including long-term planning, infrastructure connectivity, and ecological restoration.
She stressed that modernization is not only about economic growth, but also about territorial transformation and improving living conditions. She added that Chinese modernization provides a new perspective for developing countries, opening up space for cooperation, mutual learning and joint action.