Experts' panel

Doreen Wang, deputy managing director of Millward Brown China

"I still think, however, there is a gap between the national dream and individual dreams in China. The national dream is about building a powerful country and maintaining economic growth. Individual dreams are mainly concerned with their own financial position, maintaining their health and reducing pollution."

Wang Yiwei, director of China-Europe Academic Network and professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China

"I don't think the Chinese Dream is unique to China. It is a people's dream. It is similar to any other country's dream, American Dream, European dream. People are always pursuing happiness and better living conditions or whatever wherever they happen to be."

Dambisa Moyo, economist and author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working And How There is Another Way for Africa

"I (for one) am a big Sinophile because I recognize we need China's investment and we need jobs and trade and we need something to happen. Americans are not prepared to write big checks to drive trade and job creation in Africa anymore."

Harry Verhoeven, convener of the Oxford University China-Africa Network

"African leaders are very interested because there are a whole range of issues that could fall under the Chinese Dream rubric from a deepening economic relationship, greater Chinese involvement in Africa's security and the establishment of new financial centers, particularly in countries like Kenya."

Sven Grimm, director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University.

"There are some points that are repeated about the Chinese Dream, implicitly or explicitly, and there seems to be an ambition to project this dream abroad (as with American soft power)."

Ross Anthony, research fellow at the center for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University.

"One of the reasons Xi's concepts of "World Dream" and "Africa Dream" have more appeal in Africa as opposed to countries like Britain or the United States is because they are bound up with the growing economic influence China now exercises over Africa."

John Delury, co-author of Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century, and assistant professor of East Asian Studies at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul, South Korea

"It is a unitary dream. It is a dream for the country and all the people are united around that purpose. So you do see - in a crude sense at least - a difference between it and the American Dream, which is inseparable from an individualistic spirit, dating back to the 19th century of the self-made man."

Jonathan Fenby, China commentator and author of Will China Dominate the 21st Century?, on the concept of a Europe dream.

"I don't think the British are very dreamy people. They tend to be very suspicious of people who say, 'I have a vision or I have a dream for you'."

Rana Mitter, director-designate of the new China Centre at Oxford University on whether the European Union can be regarded as a dream

"It is not really a dream but a political model. It has a slightly technocratic feel about it and that has been one of the things that has been problematic for Europe in seeking to find its identity in the past couple of decades."

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/18/2014 page7)