Asia-Pacific Security: Policy Challenges

6 China’s efforts as a responsible power

6 China’s efforts as a responsible power Xia Liping The Chinese economy has been steadily developing in recent years. If China can maintain the trend of its economic development, by the middle of the 21st century China will be among the great powers of the world. Whether China can become a responsible great power or not will depend on both internal and external factors. Those factors can also be sorted into subjective ones and objective ones, among which security mechanisms will play important role. Criteria of a responsible power There are different explanations about the meaning of responsible power. In my opinion, a responsible power should: • Play its role in international society not only according to its national interests, but also in order to benefit regional and world peace, development, stability and prosperity; • Take its international obligations seriously; and • Participate in the formulation of international rules. There has been some dispute in China about what kind of responsible power China should become. Some Chinese scholars hold that China should participate not only in existing international economic mechanisms, but also in existing international political mechanisms led by the United States, because it will be beneficial for China to seek a peaceful environment and in this way, be able to gradually change the existing unreasonable rules of mechanisms in the light of the interests of all countries. Proponents of this theory support the improvement of China-US relations. However, other Chinese scholars have argued that the United States would prevent China from rising, and hinder China from playing an important role in international mechanisms, and even intends to weaken China. Such disputes have some impact on China’s foreign policy. China’s efforts as a responsible power 71 Internal factors affecting China’s international role China’s national development strategy Since the early 1980s, China has been focusing its efforts on internal economic development in order to improve the living standards and educational levels of its people. China will continue to move forward in this way for a long time. The longterm purpose of China’s national development strategy is to make China become a mid-level developed country, which will be strong, democratic and civilized, by 2050.1 To achieve the objective, China will continue to pursue a policy of reform and opening up, and needs a long-term peaceful international environment, especially stable surroundings. This means that China does not want to do anything which may seriously disturb the current international economic and political mechanisms except when its critical national interests are threatened. Even if China can achieve its objectives, it will continue to focus its attention on internal issues because of domestic population and economic issues. At the same time, the more prosperous China is, the more co-operative it will be with other countries, because under the circumstances, China will be influenced more easily from the outside world. The objective of China’s foreign policy China has been pursuing its independent foreign policy of peace since the mid 1980s. The objective of this policy is to strive for a peaceful international environment which will be beneficial to China’s long-term economic and social development. Thus there are two outstanding characteristics in China’s current foreign policy: peace and independence. Peace indicates that China formulates its foreign policy from the viewpoint of whether it is beneficial to international and regional peace and stability, instead of the viewpoint of gaining military superiority. Independence indicates that China formulates its foreign policy according to its national interests and the common interests of peoples of all the countries in the world. To continue to develop its friendly cooperation based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence with all the countries in the world, including the United States, is the core of China’s independent foreign policy. China’s defence policy and military strategy China’s defence policy is purely defensive in nature. The small nuclear arsenal of China is only for the purpose of self-defence. China has unilaterally committed itself to responsibilities not yet taken by other nuclear-weapon states, including the declaration of a no-first-use policy, the commitment not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states and in nuclear weapon-free zones. China has not retained any military presence beyond its own territory. China’s military strategy is ‘Active Defence’, which means that Chinese armed forces assume a self-defensive posture and will not provoke; but if war is ever imposed on China, its military forces...