Questions about China's ability to become a model of social, economic and political development were raised by scholars at the first World Forum on China Studies being held in Shanghai on Friday.

Armand Clesse from the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies shared his thoughts with almost 400 scholars from all over China and the world.

"Will China be able to muster sufficient mental, moral, economic and strategic strength to allow it to play such a role for the sake of greater stability, harmony and fairness in the global system?" he asked.

Organized by the municipal government and hosted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), the inaugural forum's major theme was "China in multi-perspective," while its slogan reads: "Read China a journey through time and space."

China Studies derived from but different from Sinology, which focuses on studies of traditional China has extended its scope to contemporary China.

Scholars are now looking at China's economy, politics and education and the country's society, military affairs and foreign policy.

"Thanks to the principle of 'harmony but not uniformity,' Chinese culture has been able to progress with great continuity and constantly keep abreast of the times for thousands of years, thus becoming a unique branch in human cultural," said Wang Ronghua, president and professor of SASS.

Wang said the principle is applicable to the world in handling a range of issues.

Through extensive academic exchanges and multilateral dialogues, this culture-oriented event, which is expected to be held twice a year, served as a platform for sharing and promoting China Studies around the world and an occasion for comparing and combining Chinese culture with other cultures.

Scholars from countries including Argentina, India, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Germany, Egypt, South Africa, Canada, the United States and Cuba have also been drawn to the forum to present their Chinese perspectives.

Alberto Jesus Blanco Silva from the Buban Embassy praised China as a steady factor and a model for Latin America and the world.

"The most important thing is that China is different from other great powers. It has not depended on exploiting or harming other countries' benefits, but on its own domestic market, labour, resources and accumulated capital to develop," he said.

Ezra Vogel, from Harvard University, told the forum that peace and prosperity in East Asia now depends on relations between three major powers, China, Japan and the United States.

"The future peace and stability of the region requires that the three countries work together to deal with common issues," Vogel said.

As Russia and China have been building up their mutual confidence and expanding their political, academic and cultural contacts, the Russian society has become more interested in the Chinese language and culture, according to Mikhail L. Titarenko, an academic at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of Russia.

He said there are more than 50 research and university centres of Chinese studies in Russia, compared with just a dozen in the late 1980s.

(China Daily August 21, 2004)