“The Beijing Swift” - By Prof. Samitha Hettige ©

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in grand scale in Guangdong.

President Xi Jinping attended the gathering and, in his speech, compared the story of PRC’s first SEZ to a miracle in world history. He praised the visionary move of the Communist Party of China (CPC) lead by the late Deng Xiaoping and paid floral tribute to the former leader at the event. President Xi paid special focus to the efficiently managed socialist modernization through the four decades which is a good case study for any developing country. It is in fact one of the latest trends in most modern postgraduate study programs on public administration.  After successful implementation of the Shenzhen SEZ (after studying all cases around the world including Sri Lanka), the PRC successfully implemented SEZs in Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian as well. By now the small fishing village located close to Hong Kong has grown to be a home to over 13 million people. Shenzhen has the 5^th highest among Asian cities. Its economy has expanded to 400 billion USD in 2019 as per Chinese sources.  The President made a historic call. He encouraged Shenzhen to become a zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics and be a 21^st century city of a socialist country.  In 1917 the Spanish flue crisis affected about 500 million humans all over the globe and at the same time the Russian revolution took place bringing relief to millions Russian peasants. As a result, it created the super power USSR. During the years which followed, few Asian civilizations started rising. One notable was the PRC. Those waves ushered a new era to millions of suffering masses living in colonies since 1500s.  One hundred years later, at this very moment all human civilizations are fighting the COIVD-19 pandemic. At the same time one civilization is rising ushering new life to millions around the world. The PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative has been a great relief tool for those suffering from COVID-19. History seems to be repeating. It is considered that Shenzhen was a digital currency test bed in the PRC. The average citizen in the SEZ is greatly benefiting from the digital currency and analysts believe that it was a great tool to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. PRC’s digital yuan is controlled by the state and therefore, it is more effective than the bitcoin that was in circulation in the west (Ref Chinese sources).

"When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." John F. Kennedy, Former President of the USA.

The writer is an Academic and a Broadcaster. Views expressed are personal and may not necessarily be the views of his affiliations.