By Zheng Yongnian
During this year’s “two sessions,” the annual meetings of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, and top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, Chinese lawmakers approved the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development. This plan provides a clear blueprint for China’s modernization path over the next five years, attracting significant global attention.
The world is closely watching how China, deeply integrated into the global economy, will continue contributing to international growth. The increasing global significance of China’s development stems fundamentally from the “open-source” character of its modernization approach.
Chinese modernization uniquely blends distinct national characteristics with the universal goals of modernization. This synthesis is made possible by China’s pursuit of progress through high levels of openness, justifying the application of the “open-source” concept. In technology, “open-source” denotes an open, collaborative model where designs are publicly accessible for modification, improvement, and sharing. More broadly, it represents a philosophy centered on free information exchange, rapid experimentation, and cooperative innovation.
Chinese modernization places China as the primary subject, emphasizing that modernization is pursued by China, not imposed upon it. Intellectually, China treats modernization as a practical endeavor, not a rigid ideology. Practically, it maintains an open attitude, drawing on the outstanding achievements of human civilization while firmly retaining its distinct subjectivity and autonomy. It adapts and integrates these insights in light of its own civilization, culture, and national conditions.
The “open-source” nature of Chinese modernization rests on three pillars. First, Chinese path to modernization possesses its own fundamental principles and origins. Second, China advances its modernization with an open mindset and practice, promoting mutual progress with the modernization processes of other countries and regions. Third, when others learn from China they primarily adopt an approach emphasizing autonomy, self-reliance, and pragmatic adaptation.
According to the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful development. This represents one of the most comprehensive and rigorous definition of modernization to date.
Modernization of a huge population carries at least three key implications: people are the central actors of modernization; China’s enormous population makes its modernization far more challenging than in Western countries; and Chinese modernization represents a highly organized form of collective modernization.
Modernization of common prosperity for all corrects the “prosperous but unequal” model found in some Western countries. Modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement addresses the imbalance often seen in Western modernization, prioritizing both material and spiritual progress. Modernization of harmony between humanity and nature avoids the old path followed by some Western countries of “polluting first and cleaning up later.” Modernization of peaceful development steers clear of the colonial and imperialist patterns that marked early Western modernization.
These five defining features encompass three dimensions of modernization: material, institutional, human. At its core, modernization is about human development. Institutional modernization is crucial, serving as a bridge linking material progress and human development. Institutions ensure that material and human modernization progress in a coordinated manner.
Chinese modernization is a rational choice grounded in China’s own development experience, seeking a dynamic balance among material progress, institutions development, and human advancement.
Adhering to opening up, cooperation and mutual benefit is an inherent requirement of Chinese modernization. Openness is the prerequisite for “open source.” It is precisely through opening up that China has effectively leveraged its comparative advantages, generating strong momentum for modernization.
Chinese modernization has advanced alongside the reform and opening up. Domestic reform and international opening reinforce each other, forming a model of “open-source modernization”: openness promotes reform, while innovation translates reform into practice.
China’s opening up has entered a new phase of greater depth, characterized by two distinct features: high-standard institutional opening up and unilateral opening up. Institutional opening up focuses on aligning domestic rules, regulations, management standards, and norms with international practices. Unilateral opening up represents an autonomous choice made by China that does not require reciprocal commitments from other parties.
Unlike some Western countries that have historically rescinded access to development resources after achieving success (“kicking away the ladder”), China, while achieving its own development, is willing to “offer a ladder” to help others progress. More importantly, China is helping improve global governance through its “open-source” modernization.
China has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. It firmly supports the international system with the United Nations at its core and actively participates in global economic, security and development governance.
China is also working to enable multilateral platforms such as the G20, APEC, and the BRICS, helping countries, especially those in the Global South, improve infrastructure, enhance industrial capacity, improve livelihoods and strengthen development resilience.
The “source” provided by Chinese modernization offers inspiration for more countries seeking independent development paths. The “open-source” nature of Chinese modernization not only supports China’s own sustainable development but also creates new opportunities for other countries and contributes to a better future for humanity.
(Zheng Yongnian is the dean of the School of Public Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and director of the Institute for International Affairs, Qianhai.)
