China News Service, Beijing, March 25th: If you maintain your bias, you will miss out on understanding China’s development style

　　——Exclusive interview with Spanish senior journalist Javier Garcia

　　China News Service reporter Li Hanxue

　　Javier García is a veteran Spanish journalist who previously led various news bureaus in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia for Spain's official news agency Agencia EFE. In 2018, he came to China as a representative of the EFE office in China. Four years later, he felt that "the annoying anti-China information war had almost exhausted his journalism career ideals", so he quit his journalism job and began to write stories that reflect the real China and expose Articles and books that follow the anti-China reporting routine of certain Western media.

　　Recently, Garcia, who is now a professor at the School of Journalism at Renmin University of China, was invited to participate in the first Wuyi Forum and spoke about the way he saw China's development. China News Service's "East-West Question" conducted an exclusive interview with Garcia and asked him to share his observations on China.

The interview transcript is summarized as follows:

China News Service reporter: Can you share your experience after coming to China?

Javier Garcia:

My experience in China was a surprise. I first came to this country six years ago and was amazed by the development, diversity and social peace. This is a land as vast as a continent; a country full of contrasts, beauty and diverse ethnic groups.

　　Even though China and my country are far apart, I have found similarities between the two countries. The importance of family, good food, long gatherings around a table filled with delicious food, these are all the same in Spain. Even the old woman selling chestnuts on the streets of Beijing looks like something you would see in the Galicia region of northwest Spain. Perhaps for these reasons, my family and I feel very comfortable in China.

Javier Garcia teaches at Renmin University of China. Photo provided by interviewee

China News Service reporter: Why did you talk about ecological civilization in your speech at this forum?

Javier Garcia:

In China, the construction of ecological civilization is not a slogan. Over the past decade or so, green policies have played a central role in China's development. In the past, economic growth was the most important, and the pollution it caused was not taken seriously. But around the beginning of the 21st century, the situation changed fundamentally. The Chinese leadership is very aware of this problem and has begun to follow the path of ecological development.

Javier Garcia (second from right in the back row) participated in cultural dialogue activities at the first Wuyi Forum held recently. Photo provided by interviewee

　　Now, China is building a green civilization and becoming an important promoter of global energy transformation. China is a world leader in renewable energy, electric vehicles, afforestation and innovative ecological projects. China has two-thirds of the world's high-speed rail mileage and has achieved promising innovations in nuclear fusion energy that can create cleaner, safer energy. China's huge investment in research and development has enabled it to drive green technology progress and sharply reduce the price of green energy, and promote green energy development globally. China has successfully reduced urban pollution significantly, with fewer polluted days in cities.

A Wuling mini new energy vehicle with an avant-garde design is parked outside a store in Liuzhou, Guangxi. Photo by Wei Guozheng

　　In 2018, "ecological civilization" was written into the Chinese Constitution. In fact, this concept is not new to the Chinese. It is based on the ancient Chinese philosophy of harmony between man and nature, and now occupies a central position in Chinese politics.

China News Service reporter: How to understand China’s peaceful development? How is this different from other development paths around the world?

Javier García:

China has been following the path of peaceful development for decades. It is not interested in military expansion or "exporting" its economic and social models to other countries, nor does it engage in ideological confrontation with the West or other parts of the world. China has an inward-looking perspective rooted in historical tradition, which contrasts with the Soviet Union and the United States in the 20th century, which were obsessed with introducing their own institutions to other countries.

　　Historically, the rise of countries such as Athens and Rome in ancient times to Britain, the United States, and Germany in modern times has been accompanied by wars, bloodshed, and colonization. China has developed from an agricultural society into one of the world's most powerful countries. It has developed rapidly without using violence, aggression or expansion. China's international relations are still based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence proposed by then Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai in the 1950s.

On December 8, 2022, the exterior view of the 974 Stadium in Doha, Qatar. Stadium 974 is the first temporary stadium in the history of the World Cup. More than 70% of its construction materials come from Chinese containers. Photo by Cui Nan

　　China's peace thinking has a long tradition. Confucius, Laozi, Mozi, Mencius and all the great philosophers of ancient China hated war. Unlike Western civilization, which relies more on external driving forces, Chinese civilization has been driven by endogenous driving forces throughout its history, centered on its vast territory ("Tianxia"). The Chinese built their great world-class national symbol, the Great Wall, for defense, not offense.

China News Service reporter: In your speech, you also talked about China’s “pragmatic approach” to promoting human progress. Why emphasize the word "pragmatic"?

Javier Garcia:

In Chinese culture, it is not unfamiliar to constantly try to find the best way to solve real problems. For thousands of years, the Chinese have followed nature while also modifying nature to improve the quality of crops or guide rivers. Ancient Chinese science and technology has the characteristic of focusing on experience, integration and practical application rather than analysis and theory.

　　With the advancement of the reform and opening up process after 1978, China's pragmatic ideas about science and technology and culture have also begun to be applied to the fields of politics and public administration. Deng Xiaoping, the great promoter of reform, once quoted the Sichuan folk proverb "A black cat or a white cat, if it can catch mice, it is a good cat" and encouraged "crossing the river by feeling the stones." China's economic reform is a gradual process consisting of tentative changes, in which changes that prove successful are subsequently institutionalized.

　　From the household responsibility system in rural areas to administrative reforms, a pragmatic approach has been applied at all levels and policy areas. Policies are evaluated based on their results and performance, and China adopts solutions that are suitable for each local condition and make full use of specific resources in each place, "adapting measures to local conditions" as the idiom goes.

Electricity workers inspect photovoltaic facilities at the construction site of a fishery photovoltaic complementary project in Duntou Town, Haian City, Jiangsu Province. Photo by Zhai Huiyong

　　It is precisely because of this pragmatic attitude that continues to this day that China is able to combine its own traditions with those that can be learned from Western models in its continuous learning.

　　For pragmatism, authenticity and goodness must be measured by the success of practice, and I think this approach is worth promoting outside China.

Reporter from China News Service: When China proposes the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, or shares its experience in poverty reduction, infrastructure construction, etc., some Western media and politicians will regard it as a "conspiracy" and be hostile. What do you think of this reaction?

Javier Garcia:

Certain political, economic and media forces in the West are promoting a campaign aimed at discrediting China's image. For some Western countries, China is not only a challenge to their power but also an example of an alternative model that seeks to correct the negative effects of capitalism.

Cover of "China: Threat or Hope" by Javier Garcia. Photo provided by interviewee

　　Furthermore, China is the first country since colonial times and the Industrial Revolution to have a non-Western government and cultural system that has achieved significant social and economic progress. Some in the West believe that China cannot be a model for any country in the "global South" or elsewhere and must be demonized. In this context, the propaganda war is part of a hybrid war against China. It shapes public opinion that is unfriendly to China by exaggerating its negative aspects and suppressing its positive aspects. I describe this in detail in my book China: Threat or Promise. In this book, I analyze the vocabulary and strategies used by some Western media to smear China.

China News Service reporter: You called on Western media to report objectively on China a few years ago. Is the situation getting better or worse now?

Javier Garcia:

You can see that since China was considered a threat by NATO in 2022, the situation has deteriorated to a certain extent. Censorship has intensified as the crisis in Ukraine and the situation in Gaza worsened, and as the United States and some European countries further stoked fear and promoted militarization. Nonetheless, a growing number of voices, especially in Europe, are pushing back against this trend. It is hoped that these voices will help promote greater equality between cultures, deeper understanding and respect for the world's diversity.

On March 23, 2024, "A Love Affair Between China and France - Exhibition of Chinese and French People's Stories" was unveiled at the European Times Cultural Center in Paris. Guests viewed the exhibits at the opening ceremony of the exhibition. Photo by Li Yang

China News Service reporter: What hinders seeing the real China? What might be lost if this bias persists?

Javier García:

The obstacles are mainly caused by the aforementioned propaganda campaigns that create negative public opinion. Of course, differences between cultures and civilizations are also one of the reasons. Therefore, it is necessary to better explain China to the West and the rest of the world, explain China’s ideas for peace and the importance of its development, and show the world China’s ongoing ecological civilization construction and pursuit of common prosperity.

On November 30, 2023, the opening ceremony of the China Corner of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the "Ecological Civilization and Beautiful China Practice" side event were held in Dubai. Guests attending the meeting visited the China Corner. Photo by Han Haidan

　　If prejudice is allowed to persist, many people will miss the opportunity to understand and learn the "Chinese way." But more and more people in the world are willing to accept different information. Dialogue and mutual learning are crucial to understanding between different cultures and a key way to ensure peace. (over)

Interviewee profile:

　　Javier Garcia is a veteran Spanish journalist with extensive international experience. He has more than 30 years of journalism experience around the world. He served as the head of the Spanish news agency EFE's news bureau in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also served as a correspondent on many global wars and conflicts. The most intense area. He has also served as a multimedia communications specialist for the United Nations in Africa and as election observation coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

　　For more than five years, he has lived in Beijing with his family and currently teaches at the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China. In 2022, he founded Globalter, an international information and analysis media, together with other journalists from around the world.