Global cooperation for a Big Harmony

                                                                                                         By LI Xiguang

As a humble student of international studies coming from Beijing to Berlin, I spent most of my time here last two days listening and listening to your wonderful lectures. I believe that I have learned a lot from your provoking lectures and gained a new understanding of how the western elite policy people understand China and how they form their China policy. So I want to extend my warm thanks to the organizers for letting me attend such a meeting and provide me with good food and good hotel. Without such a good meeting environment, good food and good hotel, particularly without the great thoughts and remarks contributed by the participants here, a deep understanding of the triangular relations between EU, US and China cannot be achieved.

This meeting has witnessed that different voices from E.U., U.S. and China are being heard. I believe that if we hear only one-sided voice globally, that is called global tyranny. A global free expression means that people from any parts of the world have their right to set their own agenda and have their independent voices being heard equally and globally. If people with identical ideas come together and speak the same things, it is not genuine free expression.

So please allow me to quote Confucius again, even though some of our colleagues might not be happy with Confucius values. But since we are not empty advocates of free expression, we are down-to-earth practitioners of free speech, we would have the patience to listen to Confucius again who for a long time, particularly in recent decades, has been regarded as a political dissident in the West. It is Confucius who first raised the fantastic concept of globalization and the good concept of free expression.

 What Confucius said exactly is: shi jie da tong – “big harmony in the world”, which means that a lasting global cooperation and a lasting world peace can only be achieved when peoples in the world live in harmony. And Confucius went on to say, “Men of honor live in harmony with differences, men without honor live in conflict without differences.”(jun zi he er bu tong, xiao ren tong er bu he).

How can international cooperation be achieved and improved? What are the ideal forms of global cooperation could be envisaged to facilitate more effective management of security? After listening to the two-day of wonderful lectures and advises by our colleagues here, I found myself almost speechless. I don’t know under whose mindset should I address these issues? Whose mindset is politically correct? And the political correctness is judged by its relevance to which part of the world? To be relevant to European people, to American people, or to Chinese people?

After a second thought, I decided to speak with the mindset representing the interests of the majority of the people of the world. When we address a lasting global cooperation, we should bear in mind the principles of 2005 World Summit Outcome, which aims at a more peaceful, prosperous and just world, calling for a culture of peace and dialogue between all civilizations, as Confucius said that jun zi he er bu tong.(men with honor live in harmony with differences).

In order to achieve a just and lasting peace all over the world, the following consensus has been achieved by the world leaders:

-                Upholding the sovereign equality of all states, respect their territorial integrity and political independence, to manage international relations free from the threat of use of force;

-                Resolving disputes by peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, the right to self-determination;

-                Translating the values of human rights such as freedom, equality and tolerance into concrete actions;

-                Recognizing that all cultures and civilizations contribute to the enrichment of mankind, recognizing the importance of respect and understanding for cultural, political, religious and ideological diversity in the world, encouraging tolerance, respect, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures, civilizations, politics, nations and peoples;

-                In the war against terrorism, various initiatives be taken to promote dialogues, tolerance and understanding among different cultures, religions and civilizations and address the root cause of terrorism;

-                The war on terrorism should be conducted in conformity with international law, in particular human rights law. Special attention should be given to the human rights of women and children in anti-terrorism wars;

-                A consensus should be built on major global threats and challenges and also address the root causes of those threats and challenges which really need a global collective and more determined response;

-                A global cooperation should be sought in the context of human rights, making global cooperation relevant not only to the political agenda of US and EU, but most importantly, relevant to addressing such human rights issues as the right to live in dignity, the right to development, the right to education, the rule of law, gender equality, free from poverty and despair, free from diseases, free from military threats and free from wars, to be more specific and urgent problems as housing, dirty water, sanitation, water shortages, food shortages, crimes, social security and safety;

A lasting global cooperation among EU, US and China could only be built based on mutual interests, mutual trusts and mutual understanding.

We can not discuss China issues with a mindset which sees China through sunglasses ---- stereotyped and empty political slogans or colored ideological lens. Common interests and China’s domestic development agenda will be the basis for a global cooperation between China, EU and Us.

China’s future for a global cooperation in the triangular relations is constrained by the country’s domestic development agenda, which means China would take every effort to avoid any collision with US. Early in October of 2005, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee announced an ambitious list of goals for development, which include:

-                Double per-capita GDP by 2010 from 2000;

-                Decrease energy consumption per dollar of GDP by 20% in the next five years. China whose population makes up 25% of the global total, consumes 12% of the energy global total, consumes 15% freshwater of the global total;

-                Lower poverty level, establishing basic social-security system. People in the west have voiced concern that China’s rise as a global economic power and present a threat to US and as a result, US and China are on their way of colliding. But any economic progress in China deemed as a threat in the West would be nothing when it is divided by the country’s 1.3 billion population. And any problem deemed so small by the Chinese would be claimed as a huge problem if it is multiplied by its 1.3 billion population.

There are no easy remedy to solve these problems, as the case in Latin America and India.

Finally, a word about China Threat. In the long run, China threat does exist. But China Threat does not come from its potential use of military force or consumption of energy resources, it comes from its dying-hard tradition of harmonization, tolerance, benevolence and assimilation of other cultures, religions and people over the past 2,000 years. This harmonizing power has constituted a soft power which has eventually made cultures, religions and lands of other people part of its own, such as the cases of its peaceful assimilation of early Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islamism, Mongolians and Manchurians in the past centuries.

And this could be called a globalization foreseen by Confucius 2,500 years ago, “A Big Harmony of the World”------ “People with honor live in harmony with differences.”

Early this month, I took 15 of my freshman seminar students for a week-long journey to Zhenbao Island bordering a river between China and the Far Eastern region of Russia. Standing on the tiny island whose large part is still littered by mines laid by the Soviet Red Army during the 1969 war, my students and me walked around the peaceful island and remembered the war and talked about historic significance of it.

Chinese winning of the war and taking of the island in 1969 made the US government realize that China could become their strategic partner in its confrontation with the Soviet Union. The war led to the secret visit by Henry Kissinger to China in 1971 and the visit by Richard Nixon to China in 1972. And subsequently the opening of US door to China in 1970s later and which led to the opening of Chinese door to the outside world and the beginning of the Chinese reform, which eventually made China what it is today. 

After talking to the Chinese soldiers and my fellow travelers, I come to the conclusion that a successful international cooperation comes with common interests, not necessarily from common values.