By Fu Ying
China's diplomacy is now functioning in an environment very
different from before.
Since the founding of New China, we have never been in such an
important position as we enjoy today. Mao Zedong once said that the
Chinese nation should strive for a footing among the world's forest
of ethnic groups, a goal that energized Chinese diplomats for
decades. Today we are not just any tree in the forest; we are
growing into a great oak.
Yet this does not mean that we should go wherever our desire
dictates. Although our economy and negotiating power are fast
expanding, when calculated in per-capita terms, they are still very
small. While our influence on the outside world is rising, so is
our dependence.
China's economy is built on large imports and large exports,
with foreign trade accounting for 10 percent of GDP in 1978, 30
percent in 1990 and 70 percent in 2004. The country houses half a
million foreign-equity enterprises, including 400 multinational
corporations, forming a network of manufacturing, sales and
development that links China with the outside world. With
large-scale movements in materials, funds, technologies and human
resources, we are more sensitive than ever to international
politics and market changes.
At the same time, our reliance on the outside world for
strategic resources is also increasing. This includes 36 percent of
our need for oil, 47 percent for iron ore and significant amount of
our aluminium, copper, precious metals and wood. With the current
stage of economic growth, these figures will continue to rise, and
herein lies our potential vulnerability.
Of course dependence is mutual. The world economy has shown
growing dependency on China and the Chinese market. Now, when
people study global economic trends, they not only look at the
United States, but also watch growth in China. In 2004, when
Premier Wen
Jiabao announced plans for macroeconomic adjustment, it sent
shockwaves around the world. Even the international stock markets
responded to the announcement. This is a sign of the increasing
acknowledgement of China as an important economic entity, which
some have termed a "wake up call" for the world economy.
On the other hand, we have become more sensitive to the
stability of international political and security situations. The
stability of the international market and the shipping lanes are
also highly important to us. Each year we trade heavily with the
world to a value exceeding US$1 trillion, most of which passes
through the West Pacific shipping lanes. As time goes by, this
issue will require more attention, and a greater need for
co-operation with other countries. In 2004, China had a total of 29
million outbound travelers and 100 million inbound tourists. Such a
huge flow of cross-border traffic demands a sound international
environment.
Against such a background, China's diplomacy is faced with
constantly evolving tasks, details and objectives. They call for
the protection of regional and world peace, and the preservation of
opportunity through maximum collaboration, following the direction
of the Chinese leaders' statement that China pursues a foreign
policy of peace, development and co-operation. This is a
development and extension of the policy of independence,
self-reliance and peace.
The report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party
of China proclaimed that the first 20 years of the new century
constitute an era of strategic opportunity for China, which we must
grasp. The ninth section of the report, which dwells on foreign
policy, alludes to "common development," "common promotion,"
"common interests," "common efforts," "common prosperity," "common
consultation" and "common preservation." The seven mentions of
"common" is a manifestation of China's emphasis on international
co-operation.
The top priority for our national interests is to guarantee the
strategic goals for the third step of our development plan: growing
into xiaokang shehui (a moderately developed country) in the years
of 2020-50, and fulfilling the mission of revitalizing the Chinese
nation. Whilst we may have missed several important historic
opportunities, we are now faced with a new opportunity that came
only after generations of Chinese had fought hard with sweat and
blood. To grasp this opportunity, we need not only diligence and
hard work, but also cool-heads and intelligence.
China needs to maintain this opportunity. There are many
external challenges, but the biggest challenges may lie with
ourselves: to adapt to a new environment in the shortest possible
time, and to accurately gauge and evaluate our own interests and
make good use of our resources.
China's development is not only a major event for China, but is
also unprecedented for the world. Western countries took about 200
years to industrialize, consumed a large amount of the world's
resources and inflicted hardship upon many other countries. Yet
their development resulted in the achievement of a modern lifestyle
for only 500 million people. China will have a population of 1.5
billion people by mid-century. The impact on the world for such a
mammoth process of industrialization, within such a short
timeframe, is inconceivable. Therefore it is quite understandable
that the world is watching China closely, and some even express
concern over what China's development will mean to them.
The most important thing for China is to promote a more stable
environment for co-operation so that we can grow. In other words,
in addition to ensuring our own security, we need to take a step
forward to create an external atmosphere and environment that is
favorable for co-operation between us and other countries, rather
than restriction or containment against us. We need to keep the
world updated about our intentions, to advertise what is really
going on in our country and let the world know us better and accept
us. That is why we need to move to a more proactive diplomacy that
involves taking more initiatives.
In the eyes of the world, China is no longer a remote,
mysterious and backward country, but one that stands among the
major powers and plays its own role. Will China be a constructive
or destructive new member of the new order? That is a question
raised by many countries. But we may also see that no country has
so far formed a preconception, either positive or negative, about
us. It will be very much our own attitude, our performance and what
we make of this historic opportunity that will determine our
future.
We now have more diplomatic resources at our disposal and we can
do many things. For example, in the neighboring region, we have
worked for and participated in multilateral co-operation, including
East Asia co-operation, Shanghai Co-operation Organization and
Korean Peninsula nuclear talks. We have worked to stabilize
relations with the United States and other Western nations and
provided more support to developing nations.
The author is China's ambassador to Australia. The article is an
excerpt from her speech at Peking
University.
(China Daily February 20, 2006)
