Fairer world order the goal of diplomacy
Delivering a report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Wednesday, General Secretary Xi Jinping said the majorcountry diplomacy with Chinese characteristics aims to foster a new type of international relations and build a community of shared future for humankind, while stressing that China will never seek its own development at the cost of other countries nor will it forfeit its legitimate interests.
This means a rising China on the road to national rejuvenation will only be of help to the international community.
Along with its economic prowess, China’s increasingly ambitious, but mutually beneficial, foreign policy is at times misunderstood. Questions have been asked about where the country stands in the global arena and how it balances its role as an emerging power and the world’s largest developing country.
The answer lies in the majorcountry diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, which is reshaping the way China deals with international affairs and participates in global governance.
But the new type of Chinese diplomacy is not a new concept. It is based on traditional Chinese culture and China’s role as a developing economy and socialist society. In fact, since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s development has been based on peace-loving, inclusive diplomacy, which has evolved in keeping with the changing times.
China’s foreign policy, primarily bolstered by development at home, will help create a favorable external environment needed to build a moderately well-off society in an all-round way and defend its legitimate interests overseas. Only by consolidating national strength can China contribute more to the community of shared destiny.
Beijing will also strive to broaden its participation in global and regional affairs while shouldering more responsibility as a guardian of the world order, as China is now the largest trade partner of about 128 countries and among the most popular investment destinations. And as a fast-growing market for exports and a major energy importer, China has contributed more than 30 percent to global growth since the 2008 financial crisis.
Another feature of the majorcountry diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is the new type of major-country relationship, especially the one between China and the United States with the principles of non-confrontation and win-win cooperation at its core. This is very important, as a stable, healthy China-US relationship could well be the bedrock of world peace.
From a beneficiary of to a leading contributor to globalization, China is determined to rise above its huge success in reducing poverty by providing constructive proposals and tangible public goods to revive the world economy.
The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Silk Road Fund offer not just wider financing channels for emerging economies but also institutional dynamism to global economic governance. Featuring lean, green and clean management, China-backed multilateral financial institutions like the AIIB are more than a supplement to international financing system and will help reform the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
By helping build a community with a shared destiny for humankind and proposing the Belt and Road Initiative, China has made clear its major-country diplomacy is about offering targeted assistance to countries in need as much as about optimizing postwar global governance. It is hoped that the new type of international relations will develop beyond ideologies and short-term interests, and evolve toward a more inclusive direction.
Yuan is developing another hybrid strain that can grow in saline soil. Considering that China has 100 million hectares of saline cultivable land, the new strain, if developed and farmed, could provide enough staple for another 200 million people.
In terms of technological innovation, a new brand of TV sets which recently went on sale in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong province, is a shining example — it’s thickness is only 3.65 millimeters, or half that of iPhone8, and it looks more like a painting when hung on the wall.
On Sept 30, 2015, a Long March 3B carrier rocket took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China’s Gansu province, carrying a new-generation Beidou navigation satellite into orbit. Thanks to the service provided by the Beidou navigation system, car drivers in China’s major cities can now use apps other than the Global Positioning System for navigation. More important, due to the precise global positioning service of Beidou, shared bicycle companies are trying to develop parking lots for their bikes in order to minimize the chaos caused by their random and haphazard parking, which will ease traffic jams and make public life more orderly.
Moreover, on May 5 this year, C919, China’s first passenger jet with full intelligence property rights, made its successful debut flight at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Its R&D team has made major breakthroughs in more than 100 core technologies in fields such as metallurgy, material science, electronics and integrated circuits, which could be applied to other products and areas to meet people’s daily needs. Also, the C919 program could boost upstream and downstream industries, which in turn would create a large number of jobs.
In August 2016, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite, into orbit. The quantum satellite experiments with high-speed quantum key distribution and enables quantum teleportation. And on Sept 4 this year, the world’s first secure quantum communication line began operations in China after passing technical inspection, which means Chinese people can enjoy ultra-fast, convenient and secure communication in the future once the grand experiment is successful.
All the above-mentioned scientific achievements have benefited, or will benefit, the people in accordance with the Party’s basic principle of serving the people. And it is under the leadership of the Party with Xi Jinping as the core that these achievements have been made.
Xi’s speech on Wednesday was praised by not only the delegates to the Party Congress, but also people nationwide. And with more peopleoriented policies likely to be introduced after the ongoing 19th National Party Congress, more scientific and technological breakthroughs will be made in order to better serve the people.