Reference News Network, January 12 report: The UK's "Daily Business Magazine" website published an article titled "China Explains the True Meaning of Growth" on January 4. The author is Ian Ritchie, Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Engineering Society. The following is a compilation of the article:

China today is no longer the poor developing country it was 40 years ago. The level of infrastructure in China is something that the UK can only imagine.

I am currently in China. My last visit was 20 years ago, when the streets were full of bicycles. Now, the traffic congestion here is comparable to that of other major cities around the world, with nearly half being electric vehicles, a field now dominated by Chinese brands.

Over the past 20 years, the UK has failed to build a high-speed railway from London to Birmingham, while China has built a high-speed rail network totaling 31,000 miles (1 mile is approximately 1.61 kilometers - note from this site).

I am now sitting on a smoothly running new high-speed train, which can reach speeds over 200 miles per hour, traveling a distance of about 770 miles from Beijing to Harbin, the capital of China's northernmost province. If this line were built in the UK, it would be sufficient to connect all major cities along the route from London to Inverness.

While the UK has not managed to add a single existing airport runway in 20 years, China has built 130 new airports.

While we have not built any new major highways, China has implemented the largest highway construction plan in history over the past 20 years, building 96,000 miles of high-quality expressways, whose network size is now more than twice that of the U.S. interstate highway system.

Due to the mountainous terrain in some parts of China, many road and railway constructions involve complex elevated and tunnel engineering. For example, the Ya Xi Expressway is known as the "Heavenly Road," with a total of 270 bridges and 25 tunnels along its entire route.

However, the most impressive development is in the housing sector. While the UK struggles to build only 250,000 homes annually, China has built an incredible 170 million homes over the past 20 years.

A Chinese colleague told me, "In the past 40 years, we have gone from having nothing to having everything," which must be their genuine feeling, as about 800 million people have successfully been lifted out of poverty.

Innovation is everywhere. The taxi we are taking is autonomous, and the hotel room service is provided by a small autonomous mobile robot.

One cannot help but ask, why has China achieved so much in recent years? One reason may be political leadership. The UK government is led by lawyers and policy experts, while the US government is led by real estate developers and television commentators, whereas China is led by professionals with solid expertise.

At the turn of the century, several members of the Communist Party of China's leadership had engineering degrees, laying the foundation for the remarkable infrastructure achievements in the following years. Later, the composition of the leadership gradually diversified, including economists and sociologists, aiming to lead the country into the next stage of a service-oriented economy.

This long-term planning has created a series of remarkable advantages. China has taken the leading position in technology fields such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and battery manufacturing.

Today, China is heavily investing in basic scientific research and is gradually taking the lead in multiple areas, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, and medical technology.

Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society of the UK, said that China is vigorously promoting research investment, and compared to this, the UK seems "increasingly like a third-world country."

Some measures in the United States have played a role in this process: its domestic research system has been hit, and research funding has been completely cut; in terms of immigration policies, many international high-skilled talents have been turned away.

In contrast, China has taken a series of incentive measures to attract overseas technical talents. Plus, the thriving domestic entrepreneurial environment is highly attractive to these talents.

Looking ahead, with a share of 30% of the global manufacturing value-added, and increasing leadership in more and more innovation technology areas, China has become an undeniable force.

The 20th century may have been the American century, but the 21st century is clearly moving towards China's direction. (Translated by Guo Jun)

On December 26, 2025, the high-speed railway from Xi'an to Yan'an was put into operation, marking the entry of the revolutionary old area Yan'an into the "high-speed rail era." At this point, the operating mileage of China's high-speed rail exceeded 50,000 kilometers, and the development of high-speed rail has reached a new level. (Xinhua News Agency)

Original text: toutiao.com/article/7594379389773562383/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.