How to Understand China's New Diplomacy

Transcription

1 How to Understand China's New Diplomacy Speech at the U.S.-China-India Forum Conference Yunnan University June 2, 2009 For the past two decades, China's rapid emergence has become an important event in international arena. In 2008, China's GDP surpassed Germany with the third largest economy and is expected to surpass Japan within the next two or three years with the second largest economy. According to statistical data of the World Bank, China has contributed to 13 percent of the world economic growth during the past three decades. But China s rapid development has generated huge social and economic challenges as well as wonders and concerns abroad. To resolve the pressing internal and external issues related to its rapid growth, no proved historical approaches could be borrowed from other countries. China has attempted to pursue a new mode of development characterized by sustainable development, peaceful development, and cooperative development. China calls for building a harmonious society by narrowing the gaps between the poor and the rich, between the prosperous coastal areas and backward northwestern areas, between the rural and the urban. China also calls for building a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity. China s development, like any other developing countries, is a great historic experiment of modernization in the post-industrialization era. Peace, harmony, development, and cooperation have become the defining values of Chinese domestic politics and the orientation of its foreign and security policy making. The prevailing phrases of Beijing Consensus, China s New Diplomacy, and China s New Security Concept have frequently appeared in the literature of foreign and security policy analyses, going hand-in-hand with the phrase of China s Rise. China s New Diplomacy China s new diplomacy is extended from domestic dynamics and characterized by the four basic principles of sovereign equality, mutual benefit, peaceful co-existence, and multilateral cooperation. China's new diplomacy and new security concept is embodied in the three fields: pursuing partnership not leadership, and cooperation not confrontation; commitment to equal and mutual security and common prosperity; and recognizing the diversity of the world, emphasizing co-existence in peace, and pursuing cooperation in a multilateral framework. 1

2 Pursuing cooperation not confrontation, and partnership not leadership China has upheld the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in each other's internal affairs. All countries in the world, big or small, strong or weak, and rich or poor, are equal members of the international community. All the countries in the world are independent and sovereign states. One country or one group of countries does not have the right to monopolize the international affairs or interfere in other countries' internal affairs. Affairs in the world should be handled by all countries in the world through consultations on an equal footing. Disputes between states should be resolved through peaceful negotiations. The international community should oppose hegemonism and power politics in the course of establishing the new international political and economic order. We should unnecessarily label each other as potential rivals, but focus on efforts to create partnership. Commitment to equal and mutual security and common prosperity Since the 9.11 attacks, the Asian security landscape has been undergoing major and profound changes. Unstable and uncertain factors have remarkably increased with terrorism and other non-traditional security issues getting more salient. Against this backdrop, Asian countries have adjusted their domestic and foreign policies to adapt themselves to the evolving situation and meet the new security threats and challenges. New security challenges have brought into question traditional security concepts and security strategies. Under such circumstances, fighting the common threats makes it possible for the countries to seek common ground while preserving differences. New security situations have strongly appealed for new security concept and approaches to emerging threats and challenges. The security concept is to be established on a win-win basis instead of basing itself on the zero-sum game. The traditional security theory, which is based on conflict and confrontation, advocates that security of one state can only be ensured at the expense of the security of other states. Containment, balance of power, deterrence of mutual destruction and other theories prevailing during the Cold War were all the result of this sort of Cold War thinking. However, in the 21st century, the world should not see the recurrence of wars and massacres of the 20th century. The 21st century must be made a century of peace and development for the welfare of mankind. China maintains that the new mechanism for security cooperation should conform to the principle of cooperative security, that confidence should be built and misgivings be done away with through dialogue, that equal and mutual security should be ensured through cooperation, that in seeking its own security a country should take into account the others' security concerns, and that cooperation should be enhanced through consultation and coordination, not by imposing one's own will on the others. In this new security mechanism, all countries seek common development on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. 2

3 Recognizing the Diversity of the world and Necessity of Multilateral Cooperation. China holds that the world is diversified and so diversity of civilizations should be maintained and various modes of development should be respected. Every civilization in the world has a long history of development; each of them has its own merits. Different civilizations as well as various modes of development should learn from and complement each other through comparison and competition. Every country should be encouraged and supported to take the road of development in light of its own conditions. Interactions between different civilizations should be constantly strengthened through dialogue and consultation. Mutual understanding and trust among different peoples should be promoted so that countries all over the world will coexist in peace and harmony. Remarkable Features of China s New Diplomacy With the vibrant surge of globalization and regional grouping, regional cooperation and integration have gathered up the irresistable momentum in Asia. Asian regionalism finds its rationale in not only regional economic benefits, but also political and security interests. Asia's rise is characterized by three defining features. Multilateralism Looking at various processes of cooperation in Asia, they are multi-layered, multi-facet, and overlapped with competing with and supplementing one another. The East Asian Summit would not replace other sub-regional mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation, such as SAARC, "10+3", ASEAN, ARF, and SCO. At the moment, we have several dialogue mechanisms targeting at promoting the cross-asian cooperation, BoAo Asian Forum initiated by China, Asian Security Conference by India, Asia Cooperation Dialogue by Thailand, East Asian Summit has gone beyond East Asia geographically. Open regionalism Open regionalism is embodied in openness of membership, comprehensiveness of issues, and policymaking by consensus. ASEAN, while accelerating internal cooperation and integration, has created a number of dialogue mechanisms with itself as the driving force, such as ARF, CSCAP, "10+1", and EAS. Major Asian countries are generally involved in almost all these mechanisms, such as China, Japan, and India. Recently, China and Japan have gained the observer status of the SAARC and India has gained the observer status of the SCO. China, India, and Japan have their membership of the East Asia Summit. The issues for discussion cover both traditional and non-traditional security issues, from economic to public health issues. In these dialogue meetings, policymaking process is based on consensus by consultation on an equal footing, and no country is allowed to dictate terms for policymaking. Key Principles of China s New Foreign Policy (1) Respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity; 3

4 (2) Non-interference with internal affairs of sovereign states; (3) Equality and mutual benefit and Peaceful co-existence; (4) Settlement of disputes by diplomatic means, not by force; (5) Equality and mutual benefits, consensus by consultation; (6) Incrementalism and volunteerism; All these principles, rooted in the oriental civilization, nurtured in the processes of Asian regional cooperation, have been accepted in the region. They would be developed and enriched in the course of creating Asian cooperation community. The Asian countries share these values in guiding their bilateral and multilateral interactions. They constitute the common basis for their cooperation in the region. China s Current Political Dynamics Looking back at the rich published literature, the definition of strategic culture is still in debate and people have framed it in their own way and from their own perspective. To my understanding, China's current strategic culture is deeply rooted in China's traditional political philosophy and it reflects the needs of China s rise under the current internal and external environments. Moreover, it is embodied in the great evolution of Asian civilization in the struggle for national independence and in the efforts for national reconstruction. It has also been enriched and developed in the past five decades of Asian international relations. Foreign policy is usually an extension of domestic political dynamics. International relations theories have their profound cultural origins. Prevailing theories of international relations have come into shape with the development of the international situation and on the basis of national cultural traditions. Implications of Confucianism Resurrection In recent years, the resurrection of Confucianism in China has led to unprecedented domestic and international interest in the creed. Confucianism, China s traditional political philosophy, has undergone a kind of political resurrection in China. Since the launching of the economic reform in 1978, pragmatism has been increasingly prevailing in Chinese political and economic life. With the decline of traditional Marxism and the abundance of material temptations, Confucianism can help provide the society with a much-needed ethical anchor. Confucianism is most pragmatic in terms of the reconstruction of a harmonious society. It emphatically addresses relationships between different groups of the people and between the people and the state. It also focuses on social justice and good governance with Ren or benevolence at the core and with harmony as the pillar. Confucianism can serve as a moral foundation to help build a more "harmonious society" in keeping with the China s efforts to address social problems such as the polarization of society and a widely spread corruption and to address the international concerns resulting from China s rapid rise. 4

5 Some elements of Confucianism and ideology of the Chinese leadership, in terms of building up a harmonious society, might be compatible with each other, such as strong government, social order and stability, and harmonious social relationships. Humorously, there is no contradiction between Confucianism and democracy in the modern society of East Asia. In the East Asian democracies, the Confucian-Capitalist hybrid system is dynamically developing and smoothly working. It is a system that is market-driven and government-regulated. Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are fascinating examples in the Confucian world, whose implications have drawn to close attention of Chinese policy makers and political scientists who have also attempted to borrow some tenets of social democracy developed in most Western European countries. However, all these countries call themselves democracies. Dialogue Diplomacy and Cooperative Security China's international relations theory have developed on the basis of China's traditional political culture. China's new diplomacy and new security concept have indeed rooted in its cultural traditions, such as "peace as the most precious" and "harmony with discordance", "the doctrine of the moderation", and "Great Harmony" or "universal harmony in the world". China has advocated the vision of building a harmonious world. China has advocated that countries in Asia jointly cultivate a new concept of security, which focuses on enhancing trust through dialogue and promoting security through cooperation. The dialogue diplomacy has become an important component of China's foreign policy, and mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, and coordination constitute the basic principles of such new security concept. Four Themes with the Five Principles at the Core President Hu s vision of the harmonious world is composed of the four basic themes: harmonious coexistence in the political field, common development in the economic field, mutual enriching in the cultural field, and mutual trust and coordination in the security field. 1 He is conveying the message to the world that China will pursue common development, cooperative security, peaceful coexistence, and mutual respect for civilizations. As Dr. Raja Mohan recently remarked, Hu s theory on harmonious world revolves around four broad themes effective multilateralism among states, development of a collective security mechanism, prosperity for all through common development, and tolerance and dialogue among diverse civilizations. 2 The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the guidelines for the state-to-state relations, have also been introduced to international security cooperation and have begun to replace the zero-sum game mindset with a win-win concept. Countries are increasingly committed to cooperative security, and common development through dialogue on an equal footing, and mutually beneficial cooperation. China maintains that mutual confidence and trust should be built up and suspicions should be reduced and removed through dialogue, that mutual security should be ensured through 1 Chinese President Hu Jintao s speech at the CEO summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, People s Daily, November 17, Raja Mohan, Hu s harmonious World, The Indian Express, November 22,

6 cooperation, that in seeking its own security a country should consider the others' security concerns, and that cooperation should be enhanced through consultation and coordination, not by imposing one's own will on the others. In this new dialogue and cooperative mechanism, all countries seek common development on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. The new concept of security and its principles inherit from and constitute a development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. If the Five Principles have become the basic norm guiding international relations, the new security concept will be gradually recognized by many countries in the world. China has embarked on the path of peaceful development. China thus needs a enduring and peaceful international environment that enables it to concentrate on economic development. In doing so, China also needs extensive international cooperation. China will strive to achieve a harmonious world of enduring peace and shared prosperity by seeking peace through dialogue and development through cooperation. 6