Jeremy Rifkin, author of the best-selling book The Third Industrial Revolution, recently expressed the hope that China can take the lead in pushing forward that revolution, based on the country's determination to seek sustainable development.

According to Rifkin, a renowned economic and social theorist as well as an author, the third industrial revolution is about merging Internet technology and renewable energies to create a new infrastructure that achieves high efficiency and productivity with near-zero marginal costs.

Establishing that infrastructure, Rifkin said, will create thousands of new businesses and millions of jobs, and lay the basis for a sustainable global economy in the 21st century.