How does one evaluate China's development and what does China’s
"rise" mean to the region and the world? These questions and others
are the focus of a recent interview by
Beijing Review staff
reporter Zan Jifang with Vice President Li Junru of the Central
Party School of the Communist Party of China.?
Beijing Review: What is your view of China’s road to a
"peaceful rise?"
Li Junru: First of all, I would like to say that China’s
road to a peaceful rise is a specific concept. It refers to the
development course of China from the Third Plenary Session of the
11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978 to
the mid-21st century, when China is expected basically to realize
modernization. It is the path of development China is taking in
this period.
In brief, China is seeking to develop in a peaceful environment,
and at the same time to promote world peace.
The nature of the concept is that under the theme of peace and
development, China has found an independent path to build socialism
with Chinese characteristics through involvement in, not isolation
from, economic globalization.
Late leader Deng Xiaoping once said that the socialism China is
building aims at developing productive forces and promoting
peace.
All in all, I would like to say that the development path of
Shenzhen (one of China’s first regions carrying out economic reform
and opening) is an example of the peaceful rise of China. The
concept of peaceful rise is a summary of China’s development over
the past 25 years and a further development of the theory of
building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
BR: What are the features of this peaceful rise?
LJ: In my view, it will be manifested the following
ways:
First, we should continue putting economic construction at the
center of our work and making development the priority of the
peaceful rise. That is to say, China will not see political
confrontation as its target, nor develop its economy through
expansion or isolationism.
Second, China will participate in economic globalization and
compete with others in the world market to realize a win-win
result. Amid the acceleration of economic globalization in the
1970s, China decided to carry out the reform and opening policies
and integrate itself into the process. In the 1990s when
anti-globalization was on the rise, China still insisted on its
opening policies and continued participating in globalization.
Third, China will persist in independent development when
participating in economic globalization. That means China’s
development will be based on its own strength. In dealing with
problems arising from development, China should depend mainly on
its own institutional innovation, structural adjustment, expansion
of domestic demand and utilization of private capital at home. For
example, China should depend on its own technological innovation to
reduce energy consumption, or to develop new energy sources. In
short, China will take advantage of world resources, but will not
bring trouble to the world.
Fourth, China will deepen reform and seek coordinated
development in all areas. Under the planned economy it was
impossible for China to participate in globalization. So China must
reform further and build a socialist market economy. But it will
face new problems, such as the expanding gap between cities and
rural areas and between different regions, deterioration of the
environment, and contradictions between nature and humankind and
between development of the national economy and opening. All these
problems should be handled well during the course of
development.
Fifth, in the international arena, China should play its due
role as a big country, but it has no intention to seek domination
in dealing with international affairs. History has proved that
domination will inevitably lead to world disorder, so the Chinese
leaders have pledged to the world that China will never seek
hegemony, even after it basically realizes modernization.
BR: What does China’s rise mean to its neighbors and the
region at large?
LJ: China’s rise will not damage the interests of other
Asian countries. That is because as China rises, it provides a huge
market for its neighbors. At the same time, the achievements of
China’s development will allow it to support the progress of others
in the region.
Here I should point out that when you provide opportunities to
others, at the same time you win opportunities to yourself.
In the future, China and other countries in the region will form
various interest groups. These groups, based on common interests,
will differ from some international organizations like NATO, which
has a leader and sphere of influence. I believe we can develop
these groups using our own Eastern wisdom, so they are relevant to
this part of the world.
BR: What will be the significance to the world order of
China’s peaceful rise?
LJ: In recent history, the rise of big countries has
generally been realized in two ways. One is war or military
expansion. The other is extreme confrontation or Cold War.
But China is trying to find another way to rise: that is, to
participate in economic globalization and compete with others in
the world market in a mutually beneficial way. That is the meaning
of peace as we refer to it here.
China firmly defends the authority of the United Nations and
insists on the reform of the current international economic and
political orders. In this sense, China aims to be a constructor and
a reformer, not a destroyer.
(Beijing Review April
22, 2004)