Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi praised China's economic transformation, saying its innovation-driven growth has exceeded global forecasts, in an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) aired Friday.
During his tenure as prime minister, Prodi chose China as his first overseas destination outside of Europe, leading a large delegation of political and business figures on the trip in 1984. He subsequently visited China multiple times during his term, driving bilateral ties forward with concrete actions.
Speaking on China's economic transition, Prodi noted that the country's transition to an innovation-led industrial model has advanced quickly and produced broad benefits.
"If you take the technology and technology progress, I am an economist, nobody could have never dreamt such a change. Everybody knew that China was efficient in production and industry productivity also. But to increase the value chain, as China did and very high tech, which was not in our forecast. When I observe the Chinese society, I think that the technology is spread among people more than in Europe. The absorption of the new ideas, of new technology in this moment in China is very, very quick. In some of these fields the primacy has been achieved in much time before I could imagine," he said.
As a former professor of economics, Prodi believes what sets China apart from other countries is a unique, integrated value chain with its industry covers everything from textiles to high-tech manufacturing and seamlessly connects all production stages.
"And the popular feeling, the most important achievements are the new mass production, new high-tech mass production - electrical cars, batteries, solar energy, wind energy, you know - totally new and mass production. And in these fields China is unique and no other country, there is no other achievement in the world of this type. But in the meanwhile, China preserves the production of intermediate goods, and so on and so on," Prodi said.
China’s innovation-driven growth surpasses global expectations: former Italian PM
Football fever is set to return in eastern China's Jiangsu Province this weekend as the Jiangsu Football City League, or "Suchao", kicks off its new season.
Changzhou will face Nantong in Saturday's opener, launching a 78‑match regular season that will run from April 11 to September 19, with all games set for Saturday evenings across 13 cities.
Suzhou head coach Chan Yuen Ting said the squad is combining intensive daily training with technology to sharpen performance.
"The players are having intensive trainings every day. To ensure the improvement of their athletic performance, we are also using high-tech tools and data analysis to assist the training," said Chan.
Chan explained that each Suzhou player now trains in a vest fitted with a monitoring system that tracks running distance and sprint speed in real time, giving coaches a sharper picture of fitness levels. The squad list for this season includes 50 names, more than 30 of them under 22, a youth wave balanced by a handful of seasoned veterans
For 34‑year‑old defender Chen Wei, one of Suzhou's most experienced players since the inaugural 2025 season, building on‑field chemistry with younger teammates has become the focus of his training.
"My training partners are defenders, mainly from the U22 group. During regular matches and trainings, I would share some detailed experience with them. We are now becoming more and more coordinated," Chen said.
Officials said this year's Suchao season has drawn more younger players than 2025, with rising numbers of U22 players filling provincial rosters.
"The registration across the province was basically at full capacity. The final valid number of registered participants reached 647, with an average player age of 22.32 years, a decrease of 1.77 years compared to 2025," said Liu Tong, deputy director of Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau.
Suchao became a national sensation in 2025 with its mix of local pride and derby drama. Stadium crowds topped 2.43 million for the season, averaging more than 28,000 per game, while online viewership soared past 2.2 billion streams.
Football fever returns as China’s Jiangsu Super League kicks off new season
