From his experience in Africa, Hawksley has witnessed countries where global institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have helped for a long time, and yet there are still no roads between two big towns because large institutions are often inefficient in dealing with practical matters.

"All the people want is for the roads to be built, so that (their) children can go to the hospital, and the magistrate can go to court. If you don't build your road, everything breaks down."

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Hawksley joined the BBC in 1981. Since the early 1990s he has traveled in China frequently on assignment. When he set up the BBC's Beijing bureau it consisted of just him and a cameraman, but together they reported many memorable stories.

China in those days was still mysterious to many people, partly a result, Hawksley believes, of the country having a long history and a rich culture, and partly a result of China experts in the West making out that the country is more mysterious than it really is to strengthen their credentials and worth.

"Western people who spend years studying Chinese want to keep the mystery up. You could draw mystery around everything you want, but essentially it is not there."

Hawksley says one example is guanxi, which means social connections and is a concept Westerners often talk about to explain why many things are done so differently in China. But essentially social connections help in getting things done in any country, he says.

In recent years the growth of Western media in China has also helped demystify China, giving Western audiences a more objective and multifaceted view of China, Hawksley says.

"China now has more foreign press going there, and it has its own press doing quite good investigations. (The media are) a lot freer than 20 years ago."

Monica Wyithe contributed to this story.