China is rapidly emerging as an "economic super-connector" that is redrawing the map of global trade and is viewed in the West as challenging its long-standing dominance over the international economic order, said Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Nair said that for the first time, economies from Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East not only have access to superior products from China, but also have an alternative to the Western-dominated institutions that have governed international commerce.

He described China as "an economic super-connector" that has built deep ties with countries historically marginalized by Western-led institutions.

"Nations across the developing world see China building infrastructure, offering trade and staying out of their internal politics," he said, adding that China's rise could give developing nations a stronger voice in global affairs.

Nair's recently published Understanding China is a book that argues that China tries to offer an approach of engagement over confrontation, and explains that the nation's rise is in the interest of the world and yields positive global impact.

In terms of US-China trade frictions, Nair said it is fundamentally driven not by trade imbalances, but by anxiety that China will be a threat to its global supremacy and the fear of an alternative development model that challenges Western dominance.

"It is about systemic competition, and it always has been. The prevailing fear gripping the West is simply this — how can a country manage to develop so quickly and successfully outside the framework of Western political and economic models?" he said.

"The biggest feature of this conflict is that it is driven by ideological prejudice. Rather than acknowledging the truth that China has a right to grow — even if that may challenge Western dominance and economic hegemony and is, in addition, good for the world — the Western narrative has veered toward wholesale criticism of every aspect of the nation."

He said criticism of China now stretches far beyond trade and economics into attacks on "China's history, economic management, political structure, human rights record, societal values and technological advancements."

"This is shameful," Nair said. "It depicts a desperate grasping-at-straws approach and undermines the West in the eyes of the majority."

According to Nair, Western powers are increasingly attempting to preserve global influence by containing what he called the "legitimate rights" of other countries to rise.

"The world does not buy it anymore," he said, referring to Western narratives around defending the "rules-based (world) order".

Nair argued that China's rapid poverty reduction poses a direct challenge to long-held Western assumptions linking democracy and economic success to equity.

"China's model of economic development has reduced poverty at a rate unmatched by any other country. A democracy that cannot work to improve the lives of its citizens is not better than any other form of governance that can actually improve the quality of life of its people. That is the argument the West cannot tolerate because it strikes at the foundation of its claim — that it has devised the best system of governance."

Looking toward 2035, Nair sees China as uniquely positioned to pioneer an alternative model of development.

"The greatest opportunity is that China is better positioned than any other large country to demonstrate how it can be done so other developing nations can build their own models," he said.