Answering four key questions about China's rise
- By Fu Ying
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E-mail Huffingtonpost.com, October 22, 2014
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Fu Ying, Chairperson of Foreign Affairs Committee of National People's Congress of China [file photo] |
"Is China going to compete for world power?"
Most people in China, if asked such a question, would show little interest in seeing the country fighting for world power with the U.S., and still less in becoming another U.S.
However, in the U.S. and some European countries, many may ask: How can we trust that China won't be like that? They are concerned that China may try to set up a new regional order under its rule.
In a recent conversation with Henry Kissinger, he told me that he thought more people should know what the Chinese are thinking. I have therefore chosen a few hotly discussed topics below to share some of the views in China.
First, is China a world power?
For most in the U.S., and the world for that matter, China is undoubtedly already a newly rising world power.
According to the latest IMF purchasing power parity calculation, China's GDP overtook the U.S.' to be the number one economy of the world. However, such a story did not raise much excitement in China. Most see it simply as too flattering.
Foreigners see China's progress mainly from the images of China based on skylines in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou. But if you drive out of these megacities 100 km, you will easily find people living at very basic levels. By the U.N. poverty standard of U.S.$ 1.25 a day, there are still about 200 million Chinese, or roughly 14 percent of the Chinese population, living under that line.
In China, urbanization has reached 51 percent. But when measured at the human level, people who are living in city conditions are no more than 37 percent. That is to say, more people in China are yet to enjoy urban quality of life like clean water and proper medical care.
China is a country that has just come out of overall poverty. Those born in the 1980s were the first generation of Chinese who have grown up with a full stomach and who started to enjoy the freedom of choices.
But at the national level, more challenges are waiting to be addressed, such as more hospitals, schools and better environment. The country is on a steep upward slope, confronting difficulties sometimes beyond imagination for the outside world.
That is why we state that China is a developing country, and for a long time to come, the country will focus on its reform and opening to the outside world in order to promote development.
We have two centenary objectives. The first is to double the GDP as well as both urban and rural average income based on 2010 figures in time for the 100 year anniversary of the Communist Party in 2020.
The second is to turn the country into a modernized socialist society, with per capita income levels reaching that of a moderate developed country for the 100 year anniversary of the People's Republic of China at the middle of this century.
Second, does China have to compete for world power and might this even lead to war?
According to Hans Morgenthau, the theorist of realism in international politics, countries will inevitably fight for international power as they become stronger. John Mearsheimer, who developed the "offensive neorealism" theory for the post-Cold War international situation, also sees unavoidable, tragic competition among powers.
But it is important for the world to realize that China is consciously shaping a new paradigm that follows a path of peaceful development.
China's foreign trade grew 300 times in RMB terms in the 30 years from 1983 to 2013. But this was not achieved with "flag before trade." Rather, it was the fruit of mutually beneficial cooperation on an equal footing and within the existing rule-based international free trade environment.
Especially after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, international trade grew at an average rate of 18.2 percent annually. China is now the largest trading partner for over 120 countries, importing more than U.S. $2 trillion worth of goods, and creating jobs and investment opportunities around the world. This factor also anchors China's relations with its partners.
During the past three decades, China's GDP expanded 95 times, while the increase in its military spending was only 42 percent of that rate. China follows a constitutionally stipulated national defense policy that is defensive in nature. Grabbing capital, resources and markets by military force as the world witnessed in the past is unnecessary in today's world, and it is unacceptable as a policy option for China.
There are both domestic and international reasons as to why peaceful development works for China.
In terms of internal factors, the Chinese nation has a strong belief in peace. Many of the ancient sayings go deep in people's mind ( i.e, "a nation, however powerful, is doomed if it is always hungry for war", "peace is most valuable under the sun" and "achieving harmony while allowing differences"). China suffered a great deal at the hands of foreign powers. We "do not do onto others what we don't want others to do to us."
As a socialist country, the interest and benefit of the whole population is at the center of China's domestic policy, which has determined that its international strategy is firmly rooted in peace and cooperation with all countries.
Externally, globalization has created conditions that made it possible for China to achieve peaceful development.
When the Cold War ended, it also broke the division caused by confrontation between opposing camps.
Thus a global trend of diffusion occurred, whereby resources and factors of production, such as capital, technology, talents and expertise, previously held mostly in the developed Western world, started to diffuse to the vast periphery. Wars and military expansion are no longer the workable and necessary way to attain economic expansion.
China made good use of this opportunity. Through its persistent reform and opening-up program, China has become the leading developing country in attracting international investment and technology. It has achieved its economic boost by being able to tap into global markets.
This is not a one way street. China's massive growth has benefited all those countries and businesses who partnered with China.
Many other developing countries also took on the wave of globalization, and their role is also essential in adding vigor to new period of world economic expansion.
China's peaceful development has been successful, and there is no reason not to continue it. Only by following peaceful development can China attain its development goals.
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