China's Peaceful Rise: Speeches of Zheng Bijian 1997-2005

China's New Road of Peaceful Rise and Chinese-U.S. Relations

China’s New Road of Peaceful Rise and Chinese-U.S. Relations Brookings Institution, June 16, 2005 It is a great pleasure for me to visit Washington again and come to the Brookings Institution, an important U.S. think tank, to exchange views with you. I hope that our dialogue will lead to better mutual understanding, more common ground, greater mutual trust, and less misgiving in the interest of more positive and stable relations between China and the United States. I know there has been heated discussion in recent years in U.S. political circles, major think tanks, and the media on whether or not China’s peaceful rise will threaten America’s global interests. Some important, constructive, enlightening, and interesting viewpoints have been presented. I hope my speech will contribute to the discussion. However, let me assure you that I am not here to debate with you. I just want to talk about solid facts, rather than abstract concepts, in the following ten points. First, what has happened in the past two decades and more shows that China’s peaceful rise is not a threat but an opportunity for the United States. Since China began to pursue a policy of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, it has opted to seek a peaceful international environment for development and, by its own development, contribute to the maintenance of world peace. China’s peaceful rise can be understood as both a road and a goal of national development. As a road to development, it means China will independently build socialism with Chinese charac1 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 1 teristics, by integrating with and not divorcing itself from economic globalization, and pursuing mutually beneficial relations with other countries. As a goal of development, it means China will realize basic modernization by the mid-twenty-first century, overcome its underdevelopment and catch up with medium-level developed countries. By integrating China’s modernization drive with economic globalization, we mean that China will take an active part in economic globalization and will not change the international order and configuration through violence. Independently building socialism with Chinese characteristics means we will mainly rely on our own effort to solve our problems, without causing trouble to others. The experience of the past two decades has demonstrated that this road of peaceful rise works. In this process, while China has been becoming stronger, the United States has maintained robust growth. Common development and mutually beneficial results have been achieved for both countries. Sino-U.S. cooperation has expanded from the political field to all dimensions, including economic, cultural, military, and security. Second, along with the deepening of our bilateral relations, American understanding of China’s peaceful rise is gradually deepening. Of late, I have found quite a few impartial and positive comments or reports about China’s peaceful rise by some influential media sources such as the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. In addition, the well-known journal Foreign Affairs has in recent years published weighty analytical articles about China’s peaceful rise. I am also delighted to hear a growing voice on Capitol Hill calling for closer Chinese-U.S. relations, in particular , the bill cosponsored by two senators on increasing cul2 China’s Peaceful Rise 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 2 tural exchanges. A special mention must be made of President Bush’s answers to questions about China, which I find quite positive . He has said that China’s rise is “an amazing story”; China is a “massive market,” an “economic opportunity,” and a security “partner”; “the relationship with China is a very complex one” and a simplistic approach should be avoided. Furthermore, President Bush has rejected calls from Capitol Hill for sanctions against China under Section 301 of U.S. trade law provisions on the pretext of the RMB exchange rate. All this shows that more and more thoughtful people from both political parties and various circles in the United States are beginning to face up to the reality of a peacefully rising China and to think about how to deal with it. It is a new and encouraging sign. Third, the Chinese leadership is soberly aware of existing and future problems. The peaceful rise of a country with a population of 1.3 billion to 1.5...