No reason for arrogance, but China can be confident

While it is true that China has made remarkable achievements in many areas since the launch of reform and opening-up 40 years ago, from the surfeit of online and social media stories with sensational headlines bragging about how strong or powerful the country is in seemingly every respect, one would be forgiven for thinking that the country was the world’s only superpower.

Yet what is noteworthy is the fact that most of those who have written these stories have no understanding or just a smattering of knowledge about what they write about. They give their stories sensational click-bait headlines in order to catch readers’ attention and thus get more viewers, which can then be monetarized. It is this that propels some to go to extremes with their claims.

Since the majority of those who read such posts rarely bother to delve any deeper into what they’ve read, there is a tendency for them to get carried away by the supposed standing of this nation in the world, believing it can assert itself wherever and whenever it pleases. And this has the additional appeal of enabling belief in redress for the past humiliations the country suffered.

Yet what people should bear in mind, the nation’s elite in particular, is that it is the modesty and earnestness Chinese people have displayed in learning from other countries, the developed ones in particular, which has made it possible for China to become what it is today.

For an individual, the motto should be one is never too old to learn. And for a nation, it can never be too strong to learn. For China, which is not as strong as some would believe, there are still a lot of challenges ahead and there is still much it can learn from developed countries.

There is no reason for China and its people to be arrogant and haughty no matter how strong and prosperous the country becomes. And no reason for China to lord it over other countries.

China’s worldview is shaped by its understanding of the underlying historical trends and its focus on the big picture, and for this reason it wants the international community to come together in recognition of its shared future,

Thus, even as China’s economic strength continues to grow, earnestness in getting along well with the rest of the world will continue to be the principle on which China’s diplomacy is based.