BY YASSER JESUS YANEZ GARCIA
Journalist of La Prensa, Panama
My first time in China was a four-month stay. A period that may seem long to many, but that ultimately felt far too short to me. Those months gave me the opportunity to discover a country that, beyond the statistics and everything I had read before arriving, allowed me to understand firsthand how a society can transform itself in just a few decades.
When we talk about China’s development, it is easy to think first of its major cities, high‑speed trains, technology, or an economy that now holds a central place in the world. Yet behind that transformation lies a social dimension that, to me, is even more fascinating.
One of the most striking examples is poverty reduction. According to the World Bank, over the past four decades, nearly 800 million people in China have been lifted out of extreme poverty. The scale of that figure is difficult to grasp: it represents approximately three‑quarters of the entire global reduction in extreme poverty during that period.
But the progress of a society cannot be measured by income alone. It is also reflected in how long people live and the quality of those lives. In 1990, life expectancy in China was around 68 years; today, it is over 79. Eleven additional years of life in just over three decades also speak to improvements in health, nutrition, and the overall well-being of millions of people.
Education has been another key part of this transformation. China has virtually achieved universal primary education, with enrollment approaching 100%, while adult literacy exceeds 97%. These figures help explain how a country of more than 1.4 billion people has been able to build the human capabilities needed to support its economic growth.
The results can also be seen in human development . The United Nations Development Programme placed China’s Human Development Index at 0.797 in 2023, very close to the threshold for countries classified as having very high human development. Behind that indicator are precisely the advances made in education, income, and life expectancy.
During my stay, perhaps one of the most visible aspects of this transformation was infrastructure. Roads, airports, public transportation systems, vast railway networks, and services connecting entire cities and regions make it clear that development does not take place only within major urban centers. Sustained investment in infrastructure, together with industrialization and urbanization, has been one of the tools China has used to improve living conditions and connect its population with new opportunities.
Of course, four months are not enough to fully understand a country as large, diverse, and complex as China. Nor does recognizing its progress mean overlooking the challenges it still faces. But those four months were enough for me to understand that many of these achievements did not happen overnight: they are the result of decades of policies, investment, planning, and social transformation.
Perhaps one of the things that struck me most was discovering how China seeks to extend part of that experience beyond its own borders. Initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative reflect an effort to expand connectivity, infrastructure, trade, and cooperation with other countries.
For me, that is one of the most meaningful reflections I took away from that first stay: development becomes even more valuable when it can also create opportunities to share experiences and build bridges with other societies.
Four months later, I returned home with many more questions than answers, but also with one certainty: to understand China’s transformation, it is not enough to look at its skyscrapers, its technology, or its economic figures. We must also look at what has happened in the lives of its people. And perhaps that is where one of the most compelling stories of China’s development can be found.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.