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

China's Peaceful Rise and Opportunities for the Asia-Pacific Region

China’s Peaceful Rise and Opportunities for the Asia-Pacific Region Bo’ao Forum for Asia and China Reform Forum Roundtable Meeting, April 18, 2004 The China Reform Forum and the Bo’ao Forum for Asia have come together to discuss the important relationship between China’s peaceful rise and economic globalization. Due to China’s development, over the past two years “China threat” and “China collapse” have become hot topics in some countries. I have noticed lately that people are also quite interested in the topic of China’s peaceful rise and have raised some very thought-provoking questions that deserve answers. I would like to elaborate on three aspects of this issue: the nature and feasibility of China’s path to peaceful rise; what China’s peaceful rise will bring to the Asia-Pacific region; and where the future of China and the AsiaPacific region lies. Before I discuss the path of China’s peaceful rise, some clarification is in order. This term refers to the development strategy dating back to the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), at the end of 1978, and lasting until the middle of the twenty-first century. In this long-term process, with peace and development remaining the themes of the times, China by and large has been realizing modernization through sustained, rapid, coordinated, and sound development 29 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 29 on the basis of reform and opening up. It has been a quarter of a century since China embarked on the road to peaceful rise. Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening up, set us on this road, and it is under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, the core of China’s third-generation leadership, and Hu Jintao, the leader of the new generation, that we stride forward into the twenty-first century. The past twenty-five years have been quite extraordinary. Our biggest achievement is to have realized that peace and rise, which look quite contradictory, can actually be integrated. In the past, the rise of a big power often involved toppling the international order and threatening peace. China breaks this rule. While seeking a peaceful international environment to ensure our development , we are safeguarding world peace through our own development. How do we manage to integrate peace and rise? If there is any secret formula, it is that we have blazed a trail by building our own socialism with Chinese characteristics, while engaging in, rather than isolating ourselves from, economic globalization. By engaging in economic globalization, I mean we have not only opened our domestic markets, but also tapped world markets under the rubric of peaceful coexistence with the rest of the world. We seek a win-win, mutually beneficial situation by competing on a level playing field with other countries, under the same rules and on the principle of making the most of given advantages while avoiding disadvantages. Building socialism independently with Chinese characteristics reflects the fact that, while we attach importance to utilizing world markets and the resources they provide, we mainly depend on our own strengths to resolve the problems that arise in the process of development, 30 China’s Peaceful Rise 9725-7 zheng txt 8/18/05 10:59 AM Page 30 rather than allowing these troubles to spread to other countries. As a big country, covering a large area and endowed with rich natural resources, China is capable of achieving such a goal. Two Chinese sayings may help illustrate this process: —“Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you,” and —“He who helps others helps himself.” This is how peaceful rise comes about. The main worry of those who doubt the feasibility of the path for peaceful rise chosen by the Chinese people is that in the first decades of the twenty-first century, China is faced with both opportunities and challenges. How can China handle them all? It is true that we do not face smooth sailing; there will be both predictable and unpredictable challenges, risks, and pressures. Indeed, not only are we soberly aware of this situation, but we have formed a scientific approach to dealing with these opportunities and challenges: —First, experience tells us that there is no free lunch. To seize and create opportunities and open up new perspectives, we have to...