Thai student impressed by China's rapid holistic development

Wasina Nititawan, a Thai doctoral student at Peking University, was impressed by how China's grassroots people engaged in the management of the local communities

Wasina is among a delegation of the Youth Leaders' Community for Global Development that visited Guyuanxiang community in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The delegation is in Xinjiang for a four-day visit starting Wednesday with a tour from Urumqi all the way to Kashgar.

During the visit, the delegation danced with a group of senior residents while children performed cheerleading dances.

Small events like these, Wasina said, increase real happiness and satisfaction at the grassroots level. "This is how good ideas can be turned into real action."

She observed that local authorities and residents maintained close communication, with community centers actively listening to people's needs and organizing diverse activities accordingly.

The Guyuanxiang community was established in 2001, and has a total of 5,046 residents from 14 ethnic groups, according to Zhang Yaowen, director of the neighborhood committee.

The community provides various services for residents including employment training, dispute mediation, elder daycare, convenience shops, and activities for retired residents and juveniles.

It also encourages local residents to participate in the management of the community, he said.

Wasina highlighted that effective governance requires community-level services to bridge top-level policies with the real needs of ordinary people in their daily lives, with the community offering a vivid example of this connection.

First visiting China 20 years ago and returning to pursue her PhD in national development studies, Wasina said she was impressed by the country's rapid change.

"In my eyes, China did a miraculous work in modernizing the country with 1.4 billion people, raising their living standards, creating jobs and providing good education so that people can live better lives," she said.

Her endeavor to better understand how this "miracle" happened is the reason she decided to return, she said.

In recent years, she has visited cities including Suzhou and Nanjing in Jiangsu province, where she has witnessed progresses not only in economic development but also in areas such as environmental protection, healthcare, education, technology and green development.

China's approach aligns with her belief that real development must be holistic. "Eventually, development is about human life, and human life has many dimensions. I think the Chinese government is working to improve all of them," she said.