By now, just about everyone knows of China’s incredible rise over the past few decades. Many people have tried to explain why it happened. And while some still insist that China has peaked or will imminently “collapse”, others suggest that the rising power and the incumbent power are “destined for war”.

Most people try to explain China’s rise by attributing it to its size, State-led industrial development, large number of STEM students, and a conducive policy environment that helps to generate a large number of patents. There are also other explanations, for example, Chinese senior political leaders are engineers, not lawyers.

While these oft-cited reasons are not necessarily incorrect, they tend to be the results of China’s change, not the fundamental reasons.

However, given China’s continuous rise — despite a very challenging global geopolitical environment — some Western observers have begun to see something different.

Some have theorized that “China is a civilization disguised as a country.” That’s true, but this narrative fails to articulate how that is connected to China’s incredible growth and resilience. Why, and why now?

In his recent article, “The Great Reckoning: What the West Should Learn from China”, Chinese-American writer Kaiser Kuo wrote: “The economic historian Adam Tooze, reflecting on his recent and intense engagement with China, put it to me with characteristic directness: ‘China isn’t just an analytical problem,’ he said. It is ‘the master key to understanding modernity’. Tooze called China ‘the biggest laboratory of organized modernization there has ever been or ever will be at this level (of) organization’. It is a place where the industrial histories of the West now read like prefaces to something larger.”

For nearly 200 years, generations of Chinese elites have been searching for ways to rejuvenate the nation. Many attempts were made. While some progress was made at times, there have also been reverses. Starting in the 1930s, the Japanese invasion caused considerable havoc for China and its people for more than a decade.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 marked a new beginning with a new political paradigm that was unlike all the previous political systems in China.

The years 1949, 1978, 1992 and 2012 were major milestones in modern China’s history. At each of these milestones, fresh attempts were made to define new paths forward. While challenges presented themselves, China made tremendous progress along the way.

China operates a “three-layered” governance system in which the central government sets plans and policies, businesses follow the direction of these plans to define their areas of focus, and capable local governments act as the glue connecting the central government’s directions with businesses by providing support in funding, incubation and business connections up and down along the value chains.

China’s dual economic structure of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs) is also a source of resilience. Of course, SOEs and POEs often experience glitches, especially when they compete in the same sector. However, while private businesses go for economic returns, SOEs provide public goods often considering the overall utility of the public, rather than the narrow definition of economic returns. This approach has allowed China to produce world-class infrastructure and reasonably-priced utility services. China’s low electricity price and high-quality transmission is a prime example.

Modern China also developed an immense ability to organize and coordinate large-scale activities. This ability is often called the “whole-of-nation approach”. Prior to the establishment of the PRC, the Chinese were known for being highly disorganized and uncoordinated. Within decades of the PRC’s founding, however, a drastic turnaround took place. China’s ability to eradicate its absolute poverty is a demonstration of this capability.

On top of these, the Chinese have built an institutional approach of experimentation, learning and adaptation. For major policies, the Chinese government often first starts with small-scale experiments. Policymakers learn from the experiments, adjust as necessary and adapt.

These three major factors — a “three-layered duality” governance approach; large-scale coordination and organizational capability; and an institutional approach to experimentation, learning and adaptation — form a virtuous cycle, reinforcing each other and generating the necessary momentum.

All these didn’t simply emerge from nowhere. They are the result of a long process of China’s search for its own path to modernity.

This search reflects not only the major progress that the Chinese have witnessed in the West since the Industrial Revolution but also China’s long history, culture and civilization that have lasted for several millennia.

While Confucianism was certainly the mainstream school of thought in Chinese civilization, many others were also prevalent. Legalism, Daoism, and Mohism were also key. Ancient China also codified multidimensional military vertical ideas and thoughts through Sun Zi (Sun Tzu: The Art of War), and the school of vertical and horizontal alliance strategy. The Chinese were some of the first to codify dialectical thinking through Yin and Yang thought plus Confucian’s notion of The Doctrine of the Mean. There were also other indigenous schools of thought.

Since the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the Chinese also took on Buddhism from India and, over time, fully Sinicized it. More recently, the Chinese also adopted Marxism and market economy principles and integrated them into their practices.

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly advocated, “Learning from history to build together a brighter future.” China’s search for its own path to modernity is being carried out against this historical backdrop while being engaged in the modern world’s realities.

The uniqueness of China’s history, culture and civilization lies in its diversity, inclusiveness and adaptability.

At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022, the concept of Chinese-style modernization was clearly articulated, with key elements including the notions of common prosperity, advancement of both material and cultural-ethical aspects of humanity, harmony between humanity and nature, and the importance of peaceful development, all of these practiced within the context of China’s huge population.

It’s within this context that we are also witnessing China’s growing global role.

China’s mission to build a community with a shared future for humanity is an extension of the ancient Chinese world view of tianxia (all under heaven). While the Chinese people’s thoughts historically included the notion of “badao” (rule of the coercive hegemon), they also had a strong emphasis on “wangdao” (the rule of the benevolent). By learning from China’s history, the experiences of the West and those of the other countries, today’s Chinese leaders have more reference points to refer to as they formulate their governance approach and policies.

China’s search for its own path to modernity continues apace. For sure, this process won’t be straightforward, simply because of the nature of experimentation as China encroaches into new territories shaped by developments in global politics, social economy, demographics, environment and importantly, technology. But China’s search isn’t random, it is based on a framework that has lasted several millennia, and is now being operated under a new political paradigm. However, so far over the past decades, China’s achievement rate has been quite high and I believe that China will continue to maintain its resilience going forward.

What does this all mean?

I believe any attempt to contain China and to decouple from it will be difficult to enforce. Sanctions, tariffs and “small yard, high fence” approaches have not worked. Any assumption that “China will be just like us” should be seriously challenged.

China’s search for its own path to modernity against the backdrop of its long history, culture and civilization will have a significant impact not only on China itself but probably also on the rest of the world. It will be remembered in human history as a major phenomenon.

In describing China as the biggest ever laboratory of organized modernization, Tooze was profoundly right.

The author is founder and CEO of Gao Feng Advisory Co, a strategy and management consulting firm with roots in China.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.