Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable. Hello, welcome to our special program, China's deepening reform in the eyes of the youth.
For those of you who pay attention to the country's development, it is clear that the reformed journey China has had is deeply impactful and also multifaceted.
That's why for many, it is significant to pay attention to the third preliminary session of the Central Committee of CPC.
Since during this meeting, a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization was adopted.
Today, I am privileged to have a diverse panel of young guests bring their unique perspectives on this document as well as the ongoing reforms in China.
Thank you so much for coming to the show.
These guests are Mr. Ian Wang, Wang Dajun, an American student from Inqing Academy Picking University.
Hello. Hi, thanks for having me.
Great to have you here. And also, we have Mr.
Danielle Bachbosa from Brazil, currently also studying at Inqing Academy Picking University.
Hey, how's everyone? Great to have you.
And also, we have Dr. Nasmus Sakiib-Jolkaibi from Bangladesh, now a pediatrician with Picking University for the hospital.
Thank you very much for inviting me at your show.
Great to have you. We get to see that these three guests are from different countries, having different experiences in different fields and also coming to China in different times.
So I am super excited to hear your stories and find out.
Do you find the document significant or do you find any of the previous policies regarding deepening reform, interesting or impact-wise, especially in your field?
Now, a little bit about yourself.
So let's start with Ian.
What is your China story?
Well, I first moved to Hong Kong, a special Ministry of Region around secondary school.
So I was born in Boston and I moved over to Asia.
And I really appreciated my time growing up in this very fascinating city.
And then I went back to college in the United States, but in the back of my mind, I had always wanted to go explore more of China.
So post-graduation, I got this offer to go to Japan.
I said, Dr. Myself, hey, I have the opportunity to go back to East Asia.
I can explore this country, but going back to mainland China was always in the back of my mind.
And then I had this opportunity, same as Daniel, to go to Yan Qing Academy in 2023.
It's a fully funded scholarship to be able to learn all about China in China from Chinese professors.
So being here has been such a great opportunity.
And I'm very glad to see that you had the experience of living in the United States, living in Japan, living in China.
And that gives you a special perspective on international cooperation, as well as a locality governance.
Because for the greater Bay Area, you live in that area.
Right, absolutely. And I am very excited to hear what you have to say about these topics.
Looking forward to it. And Dr.
I love doctors because I have doctors at home.
My mom is a doctor. Well, I understand a lot of doctors' perspective.
For Dr. Joe, I'm going to call you your Chinese name, Dr.
Joe. What is your China story?
I understand that you've been living in China, living and studying and working in China for 14 years.
Yes, correct. What is your China story?
Well, 14 years of journey is very beautiful journey.
And in these 14 years, I have achieved a lot from China.
Especially during my student days, I joined as volunteers, Beijing Red Cross.
I worked there as a volunteer and also many places where I've been in China.
Actually, these experiences helped me to become better in my life.
I would like to mention, I was lucky to join Belt and Road projects.
And I've been to many countries, attended many medical conferences, where I could learn from the world and also share my Chinese experience, where I learned from China.
Actually, we are looking at a recipient of many national and international words, including the SAARC Brilliant Award in 2022.
So, yes, I get to see that you have achieved quite a lot during China.
Yes. During China and in general.
And talking about here in China, we know both of you actually have experienced your Chinese story for quite a long time.
You've been here a bit longer.
Whereas Danielle, I know that you've only been here in China for less than a year.
Yes. So you've arrived only last year.
I arrived beginning of September 2023.
Yes. So, what is your first impression about China?
My first impression about China is that China is really big.
But I feel that coming from another country, but then staying here, even just for your area, I realize that China is much more diverse than I expected.
Yes. And I know that you study cross-border e-commerce.
Actually, you've published an impact of a BRICS integrated payment system on cross-border e-commerce on the journal BRICS Journal of Economics.
So this is the center of your study.
Is this subject? Have something to do with the fact that you choose China as your next destination of further study?
Yes, it does. This paper was the first time that I tried to write something, but it was still very much in the beginning.
I was interested in digital cameras, and at the same time I was interested in international cooperation between global soft countries.
And then I wanted to see, because I knew more or less what happened in the commerce inside of Brazil.
And I wanted to understand what happened in other countries from the BRICS.
And then I was looking at each case, and when I arrived to the Chinese case, I was like, oh, this is very different.
So I wanted to understand the Chinese case to also understand how other countries could learn, and how we could better cooperate using this new technology and everything.
Even though none of you picked special or different as the keyword of China, that is actually the keyword in some, in many people's perspectives.
They feel like China has a very special or at least a little bit different path when it comes to development, because China has its own characteristics.
Like you said, it's a vast country.
It has a great number of people.
The population is also vast.
And with a vast land, we have different situations in different local areas, which makes people think that, ah, this is not the kind of development path that I am familiar with.
Yet, it suits China. Apparently, currently, we get to see that many of the paths we chose actually suits the country quite well.
And today's topic, what center around the document that has just been adopted, as well as a new exploration that is issued by the country's president, talking about the resolution, talking about the drafting of it, and how come these points are mentioned in the resolution?
Do you have any special point of the document that you feel like you want to talk about?
Yeah, absolutely. I'm personally quite interested in the idea of cultural tourism.
And when I was reading through, as I'm sure you know, it released the full decision-togment of the third plenum.
And there was a whole section on culture.
And if you look back at the 19th Central Committee third plenum, this was not a section that was emphasized very strongly.
So I read through it last night, and it seemed quite fascinating.
I think we're in China at a very interesting time where people are trying to articulate what Chinese culture means, this idea of guo tao and guo tao.
I think that's very fascinating.
So I think this third plenum focus on culture is really the government telling folks, stay the course, continue understanding, continue articulating, what it means to be Chinese and what Chinese culture is, and I thought that was fascinating.
Well, I was reading the medical sector.
So I think especially the new policies are emphasizing more on the infrastructure developments and also making medical available for the common people all around China.
I think this is very, very useful, especially from my experience.
Like I haven't been to some rural places in many countries of the world.
Health is not available for everyone, especially in the rural areas.
But in China, I have noticed like the way they are accessible by the common people, especially in the rural areas, it really surprised me.
And I think the world can learn a lot from here, especially the emerging economies, like many places in China, in the rural areas I have seen, telemedicine is available where they are having video conference with the doctors from cities.
So I think expanding it and making it more infrastructure wise, this is a very good policy.
And I'm really looking forward to see a better China.
It's already very good and I want to see it better in new heights.
Lovely and none of you actually are concentrating on economic front.
But we get to see that economic development is kind of like the basis for other issues.
We wanted to be developed enough, so people have a little bit extra cash in their pockets so they want to travel around.
We want the country to be developed enough so that with older infrastructure that Dr.
Joe mentioned can be there to facilitate people having more access, better access to medical care.
But Danielle, your story is different because you specifically focus on cross-border e-commerce, like economic development is your thing.
So what do you think is the highlight of the document?
What did you notice? I think there's always an emphasis on investments in science, science and technology.
I think since the 13th and 5-year plan, innovation has been chosen as a driver for Chinese economic growth, I don't know from where I research into now.
This is very much clear that since the opening up, 78th, technology is really important for the different ways that China grew economically.
But since the 13th and 5-year plan, I think innovation has chosen as a key word for that.
And we continue seeing this in this past document.
I think one interesting highlight that I do notice throughout almost the whole document, it is a process of balancing what China needs for its domestic necessities.
So you have the foreign trade, I think they say the foreign trade forms, the foreign trade, the petitions.
Together we're still thinking on expanding beyond of that and also still thinking about maintaining the development conditions inside.
So I think the whole document is this balancing between China and Chinese on developing conditions but also thinking on expanding beyond and how you equilibrate those two issues.
So I think yeah. Actually opening up and the deepening reform are closely linked together.
We want to communicate with other countries, we want to open our market to the outside world.
And if you take a look at some previous documents and previous policies, we have to see that China has always committed to reform and opening up.
21 pilot free trade zones have been established.
Since the first in Shanghai in 2013.
So that's over 10 years ago.
So yes, opening up has always been a keyword and another keyword definitely would be deepening reform.
Actually over 40 years ago, the word deepening reform was mentioned already in one of the main documents here in the country pointing at the direction of the development.
And for the one that we are discussing right now, the word deepening reform has been mentioned 53 times.
So yes, we want to continue reform in different aspects in different sectors.
So I was wondering for you Ian, do you see any kind of reform or any kind of policies that you feel like are making huge differences in the country for the past couple of years or even a decade?
Absolutely. I remember the first time I really came to mainland China was probably back in 2013, 2014.
I came up from Hong Kong to Guangdong to teach English for a summer.
And I remember what really struck me in this rural town was how many people still want to learn English to be able to go out into the rest of the world to be able to communicate in English.
And then fast forward to now.
And I'm at Yenqing Academy and everybody else in this community also really wants to connect with the world.
And from these two experiences, sort of what I began thinking about was, wow, like there's a township rural area and there's an urban area.
They seem very distinct.
Yes, I've lived here in this country more for the past year.
I've learned how these two sort of distinct entities, two distinct geographical locations, are sort of blending together.
Because of all the economic reform, you have a lot of migrant workers, deciding to move into these cities.
One particular place that was quite fascinating to me was where we live in Bada in a place called Zhongguan Twin.
And for me, I thought, you know, why is this place called a Twin, you know, a place of really, exactly when it's basically like the Silicon Valley of China.
And I remember looking at the history apparently, you know, when the Republican government came into power, they were trying to figure out how to make things under administrative units.
So they called Zhongguan Twin a village.
But now, you know, with the economic reform and the deepening of development, a lot of these places are joining in the urbanization route.
And I think, you know, that speaks to the ways that people's livelihood has been improved over the past, you know, a couple of decades.
I think that is a really good example because when it comes to sometimes the achievements, the success happened in the country we talk about lifting 800 million people out of poverty, we talk about the high speed train all over the country, we talk about urbanization rate getting really high now.
In the area that you live in, as well as the area that you focus on Dr.
Nazmus, what do you think are some changes that happened in the past decade?
Well, if you ask me to talk about the changes, I think it's very hard for me if you ask me to pick one.
Or if I start saying I can talk for hours because there are so many changes.
And to be very honest, many people they ask me like, since I'm living in Beijing for 14 years, they ask me to get bored living for such a long time in this city.
I said, no, because I can see China changing every time.
And every time I think this is good, comes with a better China.
And every time the better never stops.
So I have a lot to share, but I would like to pick some few points, for example, I have seen especially the health sector, how it gets better, for example.
Now the health sector is more diverse with like robotic surgeries, we have new innovations, technology-wise.
And most of the hospitals are using computerized, like softwares or artificial intelligence, also included in the health sector.
Also, education side, because I studied here, so education sector, the curriculum, research, I can see these all have a huge improvement.
And I would like to tell, like if you see the research papers, one in every three papers are from China, because China has excellent many first world countries right now in terms of research.
Not only that if you talk about infrastructure, convenience of life in Beijing, I would say I couldn't pick one because it's so convenient for me to live in Beijing.
Like for example, I don't have a wallet now.
That is something I used to have 14 years back, I need to carry my wallet, but now I don't need to carry my wallet.
I just bring my phone, so you can from this statement you can see how convenient my life became after 14 years living in China.
And also, if you check the infrastructure, if it's talk about the, and also as you know, as I told you, I love traveling, so China is very convenient.
Anywhere I want to go, I can easily reach to those places, I can travel, and it's very convenient, especially after the high speed trains, it has connected with most of China, I would say.
So I think these are some of the few things I would like to mention in brief, if I want to talk about these I can talk for hours.
So briefly I would like to pick these points.
These were good points, and in the meantime I feel like you have been here long enough, some of your observations are my observations I feel like.
And since we're on the topic of cashless payment systems, I think that falls right into the pocket of Danielle, because that's your realm.
So you've only been here for less than a year, so it's hard for you to see some differences, I would say, but according to your research, what are some things that stands out for you?
So you've changed the China had on the past decade or so, as Dr.
Joe mentioned before, the payment issue, I think it's not the issue, the payment solution.
It's quite interesting, because you would expect research about payments and the natural way that countries should develop, you expect countries to go to cash, and then go to credit cards, and then maybe mobile wallets or something more advanced.
And China, as we know, lips, rugs, 100% cards, and just goes from cash to mobile wallets.
And I think that's really interesting, and really significant to my research.
Because thinking about how is this essential to understand how consumption has been growing in China, and how China has been growing itself, and creating also this new way of approaching how we buy something, being online and being present-show, you just pick your phone and then you buy with that.
And then I'll think about how those companies go with each other, countries, and how they interact with the local systems, because each country has its own system of payment and its own habits of consumption.
So I think it's essential understanding what happened here to then understand how these companies can go with other regions.
In the document that we discussed earlier, it has stated that we will improve the institutions and mechanisms for fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions.
And I feel like when you talk about payment method or payment solution, it makes me think about this specific expression about in line with local conditions.
Yeah, we talk about deepening reform as if it's a major word.
It's something that you sit down, you have a meeting, and you have a direction, and you go with that direction.
But that is not the only step you take.
After that, you do adaptations.
You think about local situations, and you just do it.
Which is the reason that for some people, the document can be a little bit hard to understand.
They find not all of the articles quite straightforward to follow, which is...
I feel like it's a good thing, because you're leaving the space for people to adjust to their own situations, to their local situations, to the situations of their own company, of their own little team in the company, and as long as we can follow the right direction and make adjustments that we want.
I was wondering, is that the same situation in the health sector for you, Dr.
Nesmoose, because we know here in China, we can see that during the past years, for example, now almost everyone is covered by the social health insurance.
The social health insurance system and basic public health services, we see that average life expectancy increased from 35 years in 1949 to 78.2 years in 2021.
And also in 2017, more than 90% of urban public hospitals stopped marking up drugs, which helped control the growth of medical expenses for people here in the country.
So, we know the theme of deepening reform has always been there.
It has been there for over 40 years.
Yet, when it comes to the real situation in different places, in different, for example, counties, or in just one hospital, people would have different ways to interpret the policies and making adaptations to their own situations or in line with their own situations.
Because we know that you've traveled to multiple countries, you travel in China quite a lot, and also internationally, we know you've traveled to the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, the list goes on.
And we know when it comes to pointing at a direction and go for it, actually we all have the same goal, especially in the health sector.
We want to give people better living standards.
We want to help them deal with the disease.
Sometimes doctors can heal, but most occasions, actually all of the occasions, doctors would always also tell you what to do to deal with the disease that you're struggling with.
These are some common goals, not only here in China, but internationally.
But when it comes to the Chinese situation, do you think China is having something stand out for you, especially you've compared situations in all these different countries?
Well, I'm very lucky to visit many places for medical conferences or for visiting also.
When I compare the health sector, even the best technologies, or I think the biggest difference between the Chinese health system and the developed countries health system is number one appointment.
So if you want to get appointment from those doctors in the advanced countries, you have to wait for really long time, which is not the case in China.
In China, they have alternate options.
They have community clinics, they have telemedicine, they have like, even I went to Xinjiang, and I have been to a very, I think, Karamei in Chinese.
I went to Karamei and I have been to a suburb area.
And I can see in their home, in the county, they have written their doctorous numbers.
And I asked, how do you get the health service?
They said, if I call the number, the doctor will come to my place.
I'm like, wow, that is something I don't expect in many countries.
Also, if you check most of the Chinese people are covered with insurance, which makes it affordable.
And Chinese health system is more suitable for the world with developing countries and emerging economies, because China has a lot of innovations, which makes it cheaper for many countries to follow.
So for example, if you go for the first world countries or the technology they use is not affordable.
And many countries cannot follow those procedures.
For example, in my country, in China, we can do joint collaborations and we can learn from each other.
And a lot of technologies that we use in China are affordable and it can be used in my country so that more people can get health service.
But if we do, we, we establish the first world countries, expensive procedures, which makes it very expensive for emerging economies and they cannot even follow those.
So I think this is something China has advantage and China could be role model for this, especially in the emerging economies and many countries can learn from China how to minimize the cost and give the same high standard health service.
I think it's evident that you have a lot of insights and understandings in the health care sector, which makes you want to ask you what's your advice for future development, but we can go back to that a bit later.
Because we also have another international citizen here, you've also had a lot of experience in different countries, especially we mentioned in China, Japan and the United States.
And also since you concentrate on international cooperation as well as local governance, I have always been taking an interest in the Greater Bay Area.
I think it's a very dynamic area and I have lived in Hong Kong for a year, I love to see these different cities in different areas communicating with each other and collaborating with each other.
For those of you who don't know, actually the Greater Bay Area is a mega region that is progressively integrating and actually re-venting nine major cities within the Pearl River Delta plus two special administrative regions, that is the Hong Kong and Macau.
All of these are integrated into a single globally competitor to, on par with existing leading city clusters like the San Francisco, Tokyo, New York area, which I'm pretty sure you're familiar with.
So for this area, what do you think are some interesting features of the current status of the Greater Bay Area and also is it different from the other city clusters that we've already mentioned?
I think that's a very interesting question and you guys have talked about how we can cooperate between countries.
I think this is another great example of you know, you have the San Francisco Bay Area, the New York, you have Tokyo.
And now in China you have the Greater Bay Area as well.
So this is an example of sort of that cross country collaboration.
In terms of the Greater Bay Area itself, I think it's quite fascinating given the fact that to your point, there are two special administrative regions, then you have Guangdong and then within that you have all these different cities.
So how can these different regional jurisdictions work with each other to create a cohesive harmonized system?
I think that's quite interesting.
Growing up we would always talk about these different sort of infrastructures that we would want to build within the Greater Bay Area, what we would talk about bridges, we would talk about the high speed rail.
And I recently went back to Hong Kong this past break and I have a friend now who's living in Zhu Ha and she said to me, hey, would you like to come visit me?
And in my head I thought, you know, as a kid we would have to take a ferry, it'd be super far away.
And I don't really want to go there and say, no, don't worry, you can take just a bus across the bridge now and you can get to Zhu Ha within an hour.
And that's what I did. You know, you can take the bus from downtown Hong Kong and you can go right to Zhu Ha.
I spent a day there with her and then I came back by bus on the way back.
So I think that really speaks to sort of this hard infrastructure that's being built to make sure that there's connectivity within the region.
And the next sort of steps that we need to start thinking about is how do we harmonize some of the soft infrastructure, the tax system, the education, you know, if I have kids and I move to a different city, I want to make sure that my children are still well to access healthcare and education.
So I think as, you know, the Greater Bay Area continues to be built out, we have a lot of the hard infrastructure to make sure people can travel.
Let's try and build out some of the ways to make sure people's quality of life can maintain the same regardless of where in the region they are.
I don't have a solution to your desire, but I think the country has already pointed out one because there has been the talking of having this project to achieve a one hour living circle, such as the Hong Kong Zhu Haimakau Bridge and a high speed rail connecting Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Guangzhou.
And if we have that one hour living circle, apparently you can take your kids anywhere living in Greater Bay Area and going to school in other places and other cities if you want.
That is one example I can also think of when it comes to the Greater Bay Area.
And we know in 2023, the Guangdong Hong Kong Macau Greater Bay Area experience the significant growth with its gross domestic product reaching over 14 trillion yuan.
That is nearly two trillion US dollars.
This is one nice of China's total GDP and represents 11% of the country's GDP despite making up less than 0.6% of its land and 6% of its population.
So yeah, that's the power of having the right policies and having the right structure and having all these different cities working together, forming the city clusters.
And hopefully we get to see more of these kind of framework, these kind of policies happening other parts of the country as well.
Thank you. It's been a lovely conversation.
Thank you so much for providing your insights from your own perspectives.
And I feel like your stories have painted a vivid picture of the country's evolving and transforming landscape.
And for those of you who wanted to catch the replay of this show, you can find us on all major CGT and platforms including our official website, including Facebook, eggs or wechat, video channel or you know, waybored.
And until next time, stay curious and stay informed.
This is New Holien. I'll see you next time.
