The Lancang-Mekong Express starts its first trip from Kunming in Yunnan province to Laos, the capital of Vientiane, on Jan 10, 2022. [Photo by Yao Wei/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Peaceful development

Xi said in the report that China has entered a period of development in which strategic opportunities, risks and challenges are concurrent and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising. He stressed that in pursuing modernization, China will not tread the old path of war, colonization and plunder taken by some countries.

"Dedicated to peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, we will strive to safeguard world peace and development as we pursue our own development, and we will make greater contributions to world peace and development through our own development," he said.

Experts said that the Chinese path to modernization has brought new elements of value to the international order. It provides an alternative to the Western model of modernization, expands the channels for developing countries to achieve modernization, and offers a Chinese approach to human progress, they said.

Yang Guangbin, a professor of political science at Renmin University of China, said that no developed country in the West has developed without relying on war, colonization and plunder.

Instead of plundering through war, China has risen through peaceful development, which is fundamentally different from the way that Western countries have risen and influenced the world, he said.

China's experience offers "China's solution" and China's inspiration to developing countries that want to develop while maintaining their independence, he added.