The rise of contemporary China
- By Shen Dingli
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 12, 2015
One of the greatest legacies of World War II is the creation of the United Nations and its Charter, which assured the construction of a new world order with peace as its core value. The UN Security Council was also created to make decisions that ensure world peace with means that include peacekeeping by military forces. Over the past seven decades, the UN system has played a pivotal role in safeguarding international security, as long as the great powers have been able to reach consensus.
The principle of collective security has been the centerpiece of the United Nations. This consequently calls for the great powers to reach consensus through consultation and coordination. Since the PRC replaced Taiwan to represent China in the United Nations in 1971, it has played an increasingly important role in putting the UN principles of peace and security into worldwide practice.
In the 1970s China repeatedly called for the UN, the United States and the Soviet Union to commit to genuine nuclear disarmament. In the 1980s China urged Soviet armed forces to withdraw from Afghanistan through the platform of the UN. In the 1990s, China started sending peacekeepers to other nations on the UN's behalf to ensure regional stability. In the 2000s, China worked with other members of the UN to apply sanctions to those who violated their commitments to nuclear nonproliferation. Over the past five years, China has been more assertive in exercising its rights in the UN to thwart the abuse of humanitarian intervention in the Middle East.
As a rapidly developing economy, China appreciates and still needs international development aid. Meanwhile, China has become more able to offer its own aid to other developing countries, either through the UN system or through its own channels. China has raised its contributions as a UN member commensurate with its economic growth, and it has likewise increased its share in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund so as to assist underdeveloped nations.
As the second-largest economy in the world now, China is launching an ambitious Eurasian infrastructure connectedness program. The "Belt and Road" initiatives, coupled with the newly rolled-out Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, will hopefully bring more prosperity and development to people in China's neighborhood and beyond.
China is therefore turning a new page in the story of its rise. This time its efforts are focused not only on its own independence, but also on peace and development for others, aims that are well-suited to the various tenets of the UN. A benign and principled China is increasingly indispensable in various international governance issues that the UN is bent on addressing.
Some historical revisionists in the world are aspiring to reassess World War II and reverse the understanding of its conclusion. China is apprehensive of such adverse developments, and the country is committed to defeating this way of thought, just as it did seventy years ago in partnership with other peace-upholding countries.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/shendingli.htm
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