by Alex James Wright, Severine Perronnet, Pan Geping

 

Direction, or leadership, is the word that best describes the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Belgian agricultural engineer Francois Serneels in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

 

"Direction in French means two things. One is the line or the target you want to reach. Another is the management of the power you have on the group who is going to reach that target," said Serneels, who works for the Centre for Agronomy and Agro-Industry of the Province of Hainaut in Belgium (CARAH).

 

Serneels has spent the past 20 years working with Chinese agronomists and farmers to prevent potato blight from killing potato crops. In 2018, he was rewarded by the Chinese government for his extensive collaboration with Chinese agronomists and named one of the 40 "Most Influential Foreign Experts During 40 Years of China's Reform and Opening-Up."

 

Initiated in 1999 after Serneels' visit to China, CARAH's cooperation has transformed a local mildew disease prevention system into a large digital system accessible to millions of farmers.

 

Serneels said that collaboration with China on potato crops over the last 20 years has helped cover millions of hectares, compared to CARAH's activity in Belgium which only covers a few thousand hectares.

 

"Something I find very interesting in the Chinese strategy to make development is the pilot size of some projects. They develop pilot project at small size. They try it, a few years, and if it works, then they enlarge it. And this gives very good results," he said.

 

Having closely followed the evolution of the CPC, he believes that the party has been "good and efficient."

 

Serneels said the CPC gives "a quite clear direction," a clear target accepted by most people, which is absent in the Western countries.

 

In his view, China has successfully reached "a noble target" and has lifted hundreds of millions people out of poverty, in stark contrast with the West's inability even to reach a precise target.

 

"Where do we want to go, really? We do not agree. Some people want to go left, some people want to go right. We lose a lot of time for many decisions, and sometimes it makes us take wrong decision too," he said, referring to the internal divisions in Western societies.

 

For 20 years, Serneels has been a close observer of the great tidal wave of change in cities and rural areas in China, and has been overwhelmed by the speed of development during the past over 40 years of reform and opening up.

 

"In 2000, it took two days to go from Chongqing to Wuxi (in southwest China). We took a day's boat trip on the Yangtze. And then you had to take a jeep for several hours on mountain roads. Now it only takes six hours by highway," he said.

 

Serneels and his colleagues at CARAH are planning to start a trilateral project involving Belgium, China, and South Africa.

 

"We do not focus only on the yield of potatoes. We try to improve the yield, not to create problems for human health. Also, not to have an impact on biodiversity, and reduce the impact of climate change," he said.