"In his office, he had a big map of Shanghai, which he put on the floor. We were all leaning on the floor, and he said, 'We're going to do this and that, and by 2020 we're going to have a better infrastructure like New York'."

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Zhu's determination and attention to detail persuaded Hawksley that he was capable of transforming China's economy. Zhu later became the country's vice-premier and later premier, from 1998 to 2003.

Although Hawksley expected huge growth in Shanghai, he was astounded by the transformation when he saw it.

"I remember some years back flying into Pudong Airport, there is a six or eight lane highway, and all those very wacky buildings, and you think 'My God, this is going to be a fantastic city in 20 years, 50 years, or a hundred years.'"

For a country emerging from poverty, its infrastructure boom symbolizes hope for a better life, and a sense of purpose and future, he says.

"So if you're the poorest of the poor, and you wake up to see a skyscraper, and new airport, you can think you're a part of a system that will deliver it for you."

The turning point of the West's perception of China was the 2008 financial crisis, he says, when China fought against the crisis side by side with Western countries and won respect from them.

"During the 2008 financial crisis, it was Western institutions that were going down. China could have taken advantage of that and used it to weaken the West because it had the US treasury bonds, but it didn't do that. It could have gone the other way, but it didn't.