The Soaring Red Dragon: Lessons from China’s governance and development

Over the course of the last two weeks (June 4th – 17th June 2025), I had the awesome privilege of visiting the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a contemporary Liberian Economic Development Diplomat. I was a part of a Liberian Government’s delegation comprising twenty-three mid-level professionals from the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP). Our mission involved official engagements, exchange symposium, as well as different field visits and guided study tours across three key provinces: Beijing, Tianjin, and Chongqing – China’s largest municipality in the Southwest and a renowned technology and innovation hub, often dubbed the “Mountain City,” “River City,” “Bridge City,” or “Science City.”

The highlight of the visit was our participation in a bilateral Seminar on Financial Planning and Management for Liberia. The seminar was organized by the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), China’s premier higher institution of learning in finance and economics, and proudly, the alma mater of my esteemed colleague and friend-turned-sister, Phetodd Keculah, one of Liberia’s few female development economists within the Department of Economic Management at the MFDP. The program was generously sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the framework of South-South Cooperation and the CHINA AID FOR SHARED FUTURE initiative. It facilitated deep knowledge transfer between the two developing nations.  

Spanning seven intensive, intermittent, and interactive days, the seminar featured expert lectures delivered by distinguished professors from CUFE and Chongqing Technology and Business University on China’s development strategy, financial governance, and planned economic reforms. Topics covered were:

1. Experience and Achievements of China’s Economic Reforms and Opening-Up Policy (Professor Ding Mingfa)
2. Financial Management and the Modernization of National Governance

(Professor Ren Qiang)

3. Industrial Digitization and Digital Industrialization: Chongqing’s Digital Economy (Professor Tao Qingmei)
4. Digital Economy and Fiscal and Tax Governance (Lecturer Xie Bofeng)
5. China’s Local Debt Management and Risk Prevention (Professor Lu Zhen)
6. China’s Reform and Practice of Fiscal and Tax Policy System

(Associate Professor He Fan)

7. An Overview of China’s National Conditions and Basic Chinese Expressions

(Professor Zhong Qi)

Each lecturer brought unique insights and in-depth knowledge, contributing to a rich and enlightening academic exchange and knowledge-sharing, while bridging theory and practical experience and offering actionable insights and policy prescriptions for the context of Liberia’s governance and development. 

Beyond the classroom, our delegation embarked on several field visits outside of Beijing that brought China’s development narrative to life. In Tianjin Province, we toured Yili Dairy Company, Ltd., a leading producer and major global exporter of dairy products (i.e., milk and yogurt) to the world including African markets, particularly Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Africa. In Chongqing, our itinerary involved Chongqing Molecular Water System Co., Ltd., Yunlintianxiang Rural Revitalization Demonstration Site, Zhoujunji Hot Pot Food Industry Park and Museum, Chongqing International Skills Talent Training Center Base, and Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park – a key China-Europe Railway Express via Central Asia to the north, Economic Corridor of China to Mongolia and Russia to the west, New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor that linked China with ASEAN Countries and Singapore to the south, and that connected China to the Pacific Ocean by the Yangtze River Golden Waterway through the Yangtze River Economic Belt to the east.

During our five-day stay in Chongqing at the Rong Jing Hotel, I marveled at the breathtaking city night-scape along Nanbin Road, enjoyed the tranquility and beauty of the rural side, savored the flavors of different varieties of traditional Chinese cuisine, and took a memorable boat ride along the Tianping Mountain river in Ersheng Town, Banan District accompanied by my fellow colleagues Charles Armstrong Montgomery, Farsue A.B. Donzo, and Richard Saye-Nagti  Tobii, Jr. Together, we were dubbed “The Brave Four” by fellow delegates and our warmhearted hosts Peggy, Alice and Cici – my new reliable Asian ally in the far east. This was due to our camaraderie and daring courage to sail on uncharted waters.

Interestingly, one of the most memorable aspects of this visit was experiencing China’s “soft and smart diplomacy.” The unparalleled warmth, genuine hospitality, unassuming friendliness, and cultural depth of the Chinese people left a lasting impression as opposed to the exaggerated Western media narratives. However, China as a One-Party State government is an embodiment of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that “remains supreme” as in the unapologetic words of my favorite lecturer Professor Ding Mingfa. And it practices a form of “democracy” with Chinese characteristics (broadly, the Chinese Democracy), thus it is without its own flaws in terms of governance, technological innovation, and the rule of law.

Our cultural immersion was further enriched by visits to some of China’s most iconic and national landmarks: The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, The Bird’s Nest (2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium), and The Water Cube. Never did I know that these visits would have revealed the grandeur of the country’s historical legacy, sheer scale and sophistication of its modern infrastructure – including overhead roads, bridges, railways, airports, tunnels, subways, and forests of towering skyscrapers – each adorned in its own unique style, magnificence, architecture, modernity and purpose in the bursting cities.  Each structure stands as a testament to China’s commitment to innovation, urban planning, planned economy, and national pride.

On the margin of the seminar, as a respected former student and diaspora community leader, I held an intriguing conversation with the esteemed lecturer, Ms. Tao Qingmei of the Chongqing Technology and Business University. During our engagement, I informed her that Liberia is a country with a young and dynamic population in terms of demographics, with over 41.5 percent of the country’s 5.3 million population under the age of 18, according to the Thematic Report on Children, Adolescents & Youth published by Liberia Institute for Geo-Information Services (LISGIS, 2022). As enthusiastic as she became as the conversation ensued, I advanced and advocated for expanded access to education opportunities through scholarships and exchange programs for deserving Liberian youth and students in the area of research and development, but with particular emphasis in science, technology, innovation, and engineering at her university, Chongquig Province in particular, and China in general. This genuine request, which was unanimously welcomed by the erudite, yet empathetic professor, was underscored by her emphasis that the bedrock of China’s transformation and development over the last four decades has been largely driven by the country’s strategic investment in the education of its people, most especially its young people. 

Further, she disclosed that in 1979, the Government of China instituted a “very fair” national standardized university entrance examinations program “to choose outstanding and smart students” leaving high schools irrespective of their background or remote region “to work for the emperor [and government] or be employed by private companies no matter how poor you are as long as you [a student] passed the examinations, you can be [a] government official. Because you passed the examinations, that proved that you are smart. And with your intelligence, you serve the emperor as well as the nation”. As a governance and development professional also, I was moved by her profound statement having acquired this knowledge from my graduate program in the module or course “Education, Health and Development” that – there is a strong, positive correlation between education and socioeconomic development. Education promotes economic growth, reduces poverty, increases individual incomes, reduces inequality, improves health outcomes including life expectancy, and fosters social cohesion, tolerance, and understanding as keenly observed in China during my visit.

While in China, I also connected with two alumni of the President’s Young Professionals Program (PYPP) of Liberia: Leo Jumbo Klah Wilson of PYPP Class-IX, a class that I served, guided and led as its President (2020-2022) and Vashta Banaceta Martin of PYPP Class-X (and also the Coordinator of the Liberian Student Union in Beijing), who I gladly met for the very first time, but virtually kept in touch with her regularly over the last two years, while I studied for my Master’s Degree in Development Studies at the Kigali Independent University (ULK) in Rwanda as a self-funded foreign graduate student. Martin, as I always called her, showed herself friendly in real life, and hospitably prepared a tasty Liberian cuisine – dried rice with fried fish, egg, luncheon meat, pepper sauce, and fresh palm oil – at the kind request of Charles, who like a few of us including Jens Gayflor (an astute and dedicated Liberian corporate and national banker), Richard, and me wished for following our return from Chongquig Province. Both PYP alumni are poised to graduate with advanced degrees in different disciplines this June.

In addition, I met another great and enterprising friend, Dennis B. Zinnah Jr., who I recently in April befriended virtually on Facebook owing to our shared and paralleled career goals. “DZ”, as he is affectionately called, is a remarkable, studious, and humble young Liberian who enriched my stay, along with Charles (a former student leader like myself, but a career banker like Richard) and a resident of Brewerville as Dennis. We engaged in long conversations on geopolitics, international trade, investment, governance, and Liberia’s bid for a Non-Permanent Seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), while savoring over some delicious Ghanaian cuisine at the Tribe Garden and nightlife at the rooftop Casa Barcadi Bar in downtown Beijing. All of these were at the generosity of DZ. I was also inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit and determination to succeed in the diaspora of a distant childhood acquaintance from Old Matadi Estate, Yunus I. Hinawy, owner of “Yu’s Grooming and Beauty Parlor” in Beijing. Yunus’s start-up reminded me of my very own “VAYE Family Pastries, Ltd.” – a small business which I registered and operated in Rwanda, and produced and sold freshly baked pastries of different varieties including my signature cornbread, cake doughnut, banana bread, shortbread, and meat-pie with authentic Liberian taste and aroma. These reunion experiences that I had with other young Liberians beyond our distant borders and idyllic shores reinforced transnational professional bonds and future collaborations.

In conclusion, this visit provided an eye-opening perspective on China’s developmental trajectory, governance model, technological advancement, and cultural richness. As an Economic Development Diplomat, with strong academic and professional background in the field of development planning and policy, governance and democracy, policy analysis and research, political science and comparative politics, international relations and diplomacy, development co-operation and economic management, and couple with my years of graduate studies in President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda – an East African country whose development and governance models are seamlessly patterned after China, I return to Liberia with valuable insights and renewed commitment to contributing meaningfully to our own national development agenda – The ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID) and successive ones.

Hence, I recommend, while I hope and aspire to the vision that Liberia must transcend its post-conflict medium-term development framework that has only been aligned with ruling political party’s manifesto or agenda, since the return to peace and political stability over two decades ago, by adopting a bottom-up approach of development intervention, anchored on a long-term national vision: a 20 Year National Development Plan (Vision 2047) that aligns with Liberia’s Bicentennial Independence Day Celebrations. And such a plan I firmly propose based on China’s politico-legal system, would need to “be institutionalized and written into law so as to ensure that institutions and laws do not change whenever the leadership [of the country changes through presidential and general elections or whenever the president of the country or his or her ruling party and alliance] change their views or shift their focus of their attention [away from a long-term national development plan’s agenda]” (Jinping, 2014). China’s deliberate, planned and intentional success to lift its people out of poverty demonstrates that transformative, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth demands audacious ambition tied with bold vision beyond superficial five-year development framework that transcends electoral cycles and partisan politics. This, I strongly believe, is a profound lesson Liberia must grapple with and embrace to harness its full potential, as Rwanda did two decades ago (and still doing through reforms and institutional arrangements), and so is Ghana, too on the path of embracing through the establishment of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) as announced by His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama on, 20 May 2025.

“All people stand not to be slaves, let’s build our world with our flesh and blood.” – March of the Volunteers (China National Anthem).