BY AZAMAT KASYBEKOV
Chairman of the Independent Union of Journalists of Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan
For a journalist, the first impression of a country is never only visual. It is also moral, historical and professional. We notice streets, buildings, faces, conversations and movement. We compare what we see with what we once saw, and sometimes time itself becomes the main character of the story.
My first trip to China took place many years ago, about fifteen or twenty years back. I visited the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or XUAR, a region especially close to Kyrgyzstan because geography, trade and human ties connect our peoples. In Urumqi, the capital of XUAR, I saw a city that still carried a patriarchal rhythm. In some districts, life reminded me of a large village: earthen courtyard walls, simple streets, modest houses, and the feeling of a place where tradition was stronger than speed.
When I returned to the same region after many years, I could hardly recognize it. Urumqi had become a modern city with wide roads, high-rise buildings, shopping centers, new infrastructure and the confidence of a metropolis. The change was not cosmetic. It was systemic. What impressed me most was not only that China had changed, but the speed with which it had changed. For China, twenty years were enough to turn entire urban landscapes into evidence of national will, organization and long‑term planning.
This speed is visible not only in architecture, but in industry. During my early visits, many cars on the streets and in showrooms were foreign brands, mostly European or Japanese. Some vehicles looked attractive from outside, but inside one could still feel the limitations of that era: the smell of cheap plastic, unstable fittings, noise, and the sense that the technology belonged somewhere else. Today China is no longer only a market for foreign automobiles; it is one of the main engines of the global automobile revolution.
The International Energy Agency reports that global electric car sales exceeded
20 million in 2025, about one quarter of all new cars sold. In China, electric vehicles accounted for nearly 55 percent of all car sales, while China produced about 16 million electric cars in 2025, nearly three quarters of global electric car output. Chinese electric car exports doubled to more than 2.5 million, and sales of Chinese-made electric cars in Europe reached about 940,000 in 2025, almost 50 percent more than in 2024. These figures show that China is not merely catching up with the West; in several key areas of the new automobile economy, it has already moved ahead.
This achievement did not appear by accident. Electric vehicles are the result of a vast production base, scientific research, supply chains, software, chemistry, design, logistics and state strategy. One important example is the development of sodium-ion batteries. Sodium is abundant and inexpensive; in simple language, it is connected to the chemistry of common salt. It cannot replace lithium everywhere tomorrow, but it can reduce dependence on scarce minerals and open a new direction for safer and cheaper energy storage. Chinese companies such as CATL are already moving sodium-ion batteries toward mass vehicle integration.
Behind such development stands a model of governance that deserves attention. The Communist Party of China does not only govern day to day; it plans, educates, evaluates and mobilizes. Five-year planning may sound old-fashioned to some people, but in China it has become an instrument of modernization. It allows the state, universities, factories, transport companies and research institutions to move in one direction. By the end of 2025, CPC members with a junior college education or above exceeded 59.76 million, accounting for 59 percent of total membership. This means that policy is increasingly supported by educated cadres who understand technology, management and science.
Another powerful symbol is robotics. I remember a time when robots on television looked like toys: they waved their arms, moved mechanically, and mainly created entertainment. Today Chinese humanoid robots perform synchronized dance, acrobatics and even martial arts routines during major national broadcasts such as the Spring Festival Gala. Of course, a stage performance is not the same as a factory or a hospital. But symbols matter. When millions of citizens see robots not as fantasy but as part of national culture, society begins to imagine a different future.
The industrial numbers are even more serious. According to the International Federation of Robotics, China represented 54 percent of global industrial robot deployments in 2024, with 295,000 industrial robots installed, the highest annual total on record. China’s operational robot stock exceeded 2 million units, the largest in the world. Robots will increase productivity, improve precision, reduce dangerous manual labor and transform manufacturing. Some jobs will disappear, but new professions will emerge. The main question is whether countries prepare their people through education, retraining and technological cooperation.
China’s logistics development is equally important for understanding its role in global governance. A modern economy cannot live only on factories. It needs roads, railways, ports, warehouses, customs systems and digital platforms. By the end of 2025, China’s operating railway mileage had reached 165,000 kilometers, including more than 50,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. At the end of 2024, the total railway network was 162,000 kilometers, including 48,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. Even at such a high level of development, China continued to add thousands of kilometers in a single year.
For China, railways are not only transport; they are economic arteries. High-speed rail connects cities, people and ideas. Freight corridors connect producers with markets. Logistics turns geography into opportunity. This is especially important for Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan. For landlocked countries, access to reliable routes can determine the price of goods, the speed of business and the level of participation in world trade.
This is why the Belt and Road Initiative has strategic meaning. It is not only about China exporting its capacity. It is also about sharing development logic with neighboring countries and partners. The World Bank has estimated that, if fully implemented, Belt and Road transport infrastructure could reduce travel times along corridor economies by up to 12 percent and reduce trade costs. For developing countries, such percentages are not abstract. They mean cheaper products, faster exports, more jobs and greater access to the world economy.
As a journalist from Kyrgyzstan, I see China’s rise not as a distant geopolitical topic, but as a practical regional reality. China is our neighbor. Its roads, railways, factories, universities and markets influence our own development choices. The question is not whether China will grow; it has already demonstrated that it can. The real question is how this growth can be connected with a fairer global order.
Here I come to the idea of global governance. In today’s world, many countries speak about leadership, but not every leadership model creates space for others. Some models are based on domination, sanctions, pressure or a zero-sum view of competition. China’s approach, at its best, offers another vision: development through connectivity, trade, infrastructure, education and shared modernization. This does not mean that every project is simple or that every question has an easy answer. Journalists must always remain thoughtful and honest. But the general direction is clear: China is interested not only in running ahead, but in building a road on which others can also move forward.
I often imagine the world as a long-distance race. More than two hundred countries are running a difficult marathon toward the future. At the front there is a group of developed states. China is now among the strongest runners. But what distinguishes China is that it does not simply run away alone. It looks around. It encourages others. It shares water with those who are tired. It offers advice to those who have fallen behind. It helps those who have injured their leg to continue the race. This is not weakness; it is a higher form of strength.
In this sense, China’s long game is also a fair game. It is based on patience, planning, collective discipline and the belief that development should not be the privilege of a few. My first impression of China was a city still searching for its modern form. My latest impression is of a country that has found not only speed, but direction. From Urumqi’s transformation to electric vehicles, robotics, railways and the Belt and Road, China shows that governance can be measured not only by speeches, but by roads built, industries created, people educated and neighbors connected.
For Kyrgyzstan and for many countries of the Global South, this experience is valuable. It reminds us that the future is not reserved for those who started first. The future belongs to those who organize themselves, learn quickly, respect science, invest in infrastructure and think beyond one electoral cycle. The world needs competition, but fair competition; leadership, but leadership with responsibility. My impression of China today is therefore not only admiration for skyscrapers, cars or robots. It is the impression of a civilization that understands time, plays the long game and invites others to reach the finish line together.
*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.