Scholar impressed by China's progress

Xi's documentary reaches 200m viewers in 37 countries and regions

KUALA LUMPUR - A three-episode documentary by the Discovery Channel on the changes China has undergone under President Xi Jinping and aired ahead of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has impressed viewers abroad with the technological progress it depicts.

The documentary, titled China: Time of Xi, was broadcast on Oct 14-16 on Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, reaching more than 200 million viewers in 37 countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

Oh Ei Sun, special adviser for Malaysia's Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute's international affairs, said he was especially impressed by China's high-speed railways.

The scholar said in just five years, China has developed the world's largest network of high-speed rail, which has not only raised the quality of Chinese people's lives but also serves as an important example of China switching its focus from quantitative development to qualitative development.

Oh, who is also an adjunct senior fellow of S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said he was equally impressed by China's technological innovation as well as environmental initiatives, as presented in the documentary.

He said China was making very good use of electronic platforms. "People ... (can) shop easily online and many parts of China are essentially a cashless society with currency transactions carried out online instead of using real ... cash," he said.

He found China's environmental management impressive. "Who would have imagined five years ago that China would be taking the lead in implementing the Paris Climate Change Accord," he said, noting China's development of a sophisticated sharing economy and green technology to generate new and renewable energy.

The documentary also covers China's foreign policy under Xi. "(In) this part of the world, we are mostly concerned with the Belt and Road Initiative, especially the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road," Oh said.

Proposed by Xi in 2013, the initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes.

Oh hoped China would continue to engage with Southeast Asia in deepening and broadening trade interaction, financial connectivity and news infrastructure buildup.

"We are in favor of eventually reaching a community of common destiny with China," he said. "Of course, to reach that stage we do need a lot of integration and China is in a very good position to assist us."

Xinhua