Illustration: VCG

The world today is grappling with three pressing challenges: persistently high living costs, a planet running a fever, and spiking food prices. A sick patient needs treatment, and so do the countries of the world. Yet some refuse to acknowledge the illness, some treat only the symptoms and not the causes, and others - blaming everyone but themselves - prescribe medicine for someone else to take.

China, by contrast, has consistently tackled the problems arising from development with pragmatic and effective remedies. While strengthening its own foundations for development, it has also made quiet, practical contributions to the international community.

Easing the affordability crisis

Geopolitical conflict, trade barriers, and other disruptions have pushed prices higher. This, combined with falling incomes and shrinking welfare benefits, has fueled public discontent and even unrest in Europe. As global inflation rages, China's manufacturing sector - with its complete industrial chains and stable large-scale supply - has helped ease supply-demand bottlenecks and calm price volatility, lowering consumption costs for people around the world.

In developed countries, affordable, high-quality Chinese goods meet diverse consumer demands - from small items such as data cables and power banks to furniture, home appliances and smart vehicles. In 2025, as tariff wars loomed, The New York Times published a cartoon imagining what an ordinary American household would look like without China-made products. The European Central Bank also publicly admitted that prices fell as imports of daily consumer goods from China rose, easing cost-of-living pressures on households.

A trend dubbed "China Haul" has gone viral overseas. Foreign visitors arrive in China with empty suitcases and leave with them filled with high-tech gadgets, apparel, cosmetics and trendy collectibles. Even with round-trip airfares factored in, many say the trips pay for themselves.

In developing countries, Chinese equipment is helping them cross the threshold of industrialization. Solar panels, wind turbines, energy-storage systems, rail transit and telecom equipment have gradually evolved from luxury items into affordable, widely accessible products. The Financial Times reported that Pakistani firms buying Chinese solar modules can cut electricity costs by up to 70 percent. Oxford Economics noted that nearly half of China's exports are intermediate goods, supplying the "building blocks" of industrialization across the Global South.

Persistent global inflation is closely tied to protectionist policies. China, by contrast, keeps its door open and pursues high-standard opening-up. Through platforms such as the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China International Consumer Products Expo and the China International Supply Chain Expo, China has broadened access to its market and opened new channels for trade in goods and services, as well as supply-chain cooperation.

Responding to the climate crisis

So far this year, global warming, compounded by El Niño, has led to extreme weather conditions and natural calamities in many parts of the world. According to the World Meteorological Organization, climate imbalance is the worst on record.

In response, China has contributed practical tools and technologies to global disaster preparedness. China's Fengyun satellites share free data with over 130 countries and regions and have donated receiving stations and analysis systems to more than 20 African countries. Mazu, an intelligent meteorological early-warning solution named after China's sea goddess, has helped train over 1,000 meteorological technicians in more than 100 developing countries.

Cutting carbon emissions is a key prescription for addressing climate issues. China ranks first in new energy vehicle output and sales, cumulative wind and solar installations, and hydrogen energy output. More importantly, China supplies about 70 percent of global wind equipment and over 80 percent of solar modules. Over the past five years alone, such exports have helped other countries cut 4.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Chinese manufacturing is also playing a constructive role in addressing global warming. China-made portable split air conditioners, named among Time magazine's Best Inventions of 2025, have become highly sought-after items in Europe, as temperatures in many European countries broke historical records this summer. 

Resolving the food crisis

The granary must be kept secure, especially in turbulent times. Yet conflict and disasters have pushed global food production from steady growth to contraction. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026, an estimated 645 million people worldwide faced hunger in 2025.

China's 2025 grain output reached 715 million tons, with staple grain self-sufficiency rate over 100 percent and per capita grain availability exceeding 500 kilograms - well above the internationally recognized food security threshold. Feeding nearly one-fifth of humanity on 9 percent of the world's arable land is in itself the biggest contribution a country can make to the world.

China also uses its emergency grain reserves to help countries on the brink of food shortages. Over the six years prior to 2024, China implemented more than 800 emergency humanitarian aid projects in some 40 countries and delivered emergency food aid to over 30 countries, along with 1 billion yuan ($150 million) for Africa under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. 

Capacity-building is essential to enduring food security. Convinced that teaching someone to fish is better than giving them a fish, China has made food security a priority of the Global Development Initiative, sharing hybrid breeding, pest control and soil management techniques with dozens of countries. Hybrid rice now grows on 7-8 million hectares a year across 70 countries in the Global South - enough to feed 40-50 million people. No wonder Madagascar printed the image of hybrid rice on its banknotes, and African farmers traveled thousands of miles to China to mourn Yuan Longping, the Chinese agronomist who pioneered the world's first hybrid rice varieties.

China's prescription for the aforementioned challenges is not complicated. Its core ingredients are peaceful coexistence, mutual benefit, inclusiveness and practical action. It does not seek quick fixes or temporary relief, but rather incremental progress in strengthening the foundation for sustainable development. Time will ultimately prove its value.

The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News, Global Times, China Daily, CGTN. He can be reached at shaoxia2019@163.com.