From ‘miracle’ to method: rethinking China’s development

The first time I took the high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai, I barely noticed the speed — what captured my attention was everything outside the window.

Fields gave way to factories, villages to cities, and everywhere there were highways, bridges, power grids, and logistics centers stretching across the landscape. It felt as if an invisible network was stitching the country together. In that moment, I began to understand something that statistics alone could never explain.

Before coming to China, I often heard the phrase “China Miracle”. Like many of my fellow Africans, I knew that hundreds of millions of people in China had been lifted out of poverty in just a few decades. But the word “miracle” unsettled me. A miracle suggests something mysterious and unrepeatable. For those of us thinking about Africa’s future, mystery is not enough. We need a method.

That question — miracle or method? — led me to read Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. What I found was not a distant political manifesto, but a practical development guide grounded in real experience.

One idea particularly reshaped my thinking: “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” In many developing countries, including those in Africa, economic growth and environmental protection are often seen as contradictory. We are told we must choose — develop first and clean up later, or protect nature and remain poor. This dilemma has shaped countless policy debates.

Yet the green development philosophy presented in the book offers another path. Protecting the environment is not an obstacle to productivity; it is productivity. Ecological resources can generate long-term economic value through tourism, sustainable agriculture, and other green industries. Instead of exhausting nature for short-term gain, development can transform it into a lasting source of prosperity. This vision offers a more sustainable alternative to traditional industrialization.

Another concept that impressed me is “precision”. Whether in poverty alleviation or policymaking, the emphasis on precision reflects a distinct working method: going into communities, identifying specific problems, and tailoring solutions accordingly.

In many development models, policies are broad and generalized. Precision, however, demands careful diagnosis — understanding why a household is poor: is it illness, lack of skills, lack of capital, or insufficient education? Only by identifying the root cause can an effective remedy be designed.

This resonates deeply when I think about poverty alleviation efforts in Africa. Too often, assistance is delivered broadly but without focus, leading to limited results. The idea that development must be as delicate as embroidery — grounded in concrete realities — carries universal value.

The train journey also helped me understand the emphasis on infrastructure as the backbone of development. The roads, railways, and digital networks I saw were not symbols of display, but the arteries of a nation. They connect remote villages to markets, enable the flow of goods and information, and make modern economic activity possible. In many parts of Africa, weak infrastructure remains a major bottleneck. China’s experience suggests that forward-looking infrastructure investment is not wasteful — it is foundational.

What changed my perception most profoundly, however, was the people-centered philosophy underlying these policies. I once associated China’s rise mainly with skyscrapers and GDP growth. But the nationwide effort to eradicate extreme poverty revealed a deeper logic: development is ultimately about improving people’s lives. Success should not be measured only by the prosperity of major cities, but by whether the most vulnerable benefit.

For me, the greatest value of The Governance of China lies not in offering a model to copy, but in presenting a methodology: pursuing a path suited to national conditions, advancing reforms step by step, and keeping development people-centered and sustainable.

When I think back to that train ride, I no longer see a “miracle”. I see planning, persistence, and purpose. Development is not magic. It is the result of sound ideas, firm commitment, and practical action.

As a member of Africa’s younger generation, I hope we can draw inspiration from this experience — not to replicate it mechanically, but to craft our own path toward a more hopeful future.

Written by Joseph Olivier Mendo’o, a Cameroonian PhD in Law at Peking University, head of the African Youth Delegation to China, and one of the UN’s “100 Most Influential People of African Descent”. His research focuses on China-Africa cooperation, regional integration, security and development, and African youth empowerment.