Scholars from home and abroad share their opinion at the seminar on Chinese Dream in Shanghai on Dec.7, 2013. [China.org.cn]

The Chinese Dream

What Does it Imply for India and the Rest of Asia?

Dr. Jagannath P. Panda

Research Fellow & Centre Coordinator, East Asia

Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA)

Going by these words, many see this concept as President Xi Jinping's personal trademark to promote his own charisma as a political leader. Some others see it as the core of China's national and international discourse. The main consideration for China will be how to maintain a balance and establish a linkage between China's interests and relations with countries both at the bilateral and the multilateral levels. China's foreign relations approach and positions on conflicting issues will greatly determine not only the future of the Chinese dream but also the acceptance and course of China's rise.

 

China`s forthcoming soft power as a natural result of international events

Patricia Rodríguez H?lkemeyer

University of Costa Rica

The Chinese Dream takes into consideration ancient philosophers' insistence on the importance to primarily attain the domestic political capability needed to fulfill China`s aspirations towards a harmonious and stable society and to exert a positive influence toward the conformation of a harmonious World over other objectives like attaining economic or military might. The Chinese Dream concept draws from the aims of the 6th Plenum, and is ingrained in the idea that China must pursue individual happiness, as well as collective happiness.

The world needs a new international relations paradigm, other than the Western style democracy promotion policy through political activism orchestrated by organized minorities (NGOs) who want to impose the so called ‘American values' in countries with different historical paths, culture and aspirations. The new paradigm will have to be founded in ethics, wisdom, cooperation, confidence-building, and on the recognition that knowledge is fallible and hypothetical, and that with globalization world circumstances and interactions are prone to change. This new paradigm has already been successfully tested in the 35 years of China's own economic and institutional reform process and diplomatic practice. This adaptive and learning-prone attitude of the Chinese leaders, even to the point of adapting (not adopting) western suggestions and institutions when necessary, is the underlying cause of the success of the admirable and unique Chinese development path. China possesses a substantive experiential wisdom to start a very productive dialogue with the World.