New Sinology in the New Era
By staff reporter ZHOU LIN
LAST December, the International Financial Center located in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area was decorated with colorful lights to welcome the upcoming Christmas Day. Standing nearby was the soaring landmark superstructure – the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the newly opened Disney flagship store, and the Shanghai International Conference Center.
Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia and president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, came to participate in the Seventh World Forum on China Studies held in the Shanghai International Conference Center. Called Old Lu by his Chinese friends, Kevin Rudd used the Chinese expression for retired official to describe himself in his keynote speech, which made the audience burst into laughter. He said over the past 30-plus years, he has been to China more than 100 times in different capacities such as the prime minister, foreign minister, parliament member, and businessman.
Pudong’s Dream Came True
Having a special affection for the city of Shanghai, Kevin Rudd started with a story that began 30-plus years ago.
He was then the acting Australian consul-general in Shanghai, and often strolled on the Bund with his wife and children. One day Wang Daohan, then Shanghai’s mayor, invited him to dinner, on which occassion Wang asked all foreign friends to offer ideas and advice for Shanghai’s development. Five years later, when Kevin Rudd came back to Shanghai, the newly appointed city mayor Zhu Rongji also invited him to dinner, at the old HSBC building where the municipal government’s offices were located. Zhu told Kevin Rudd that the Shanghai municipal government was going to announce the establishment of the Pudong Economic Development Zone.
“We looked out of the window and found there was nothing on the other side of the Huangpu River. I then thought, Mayor Zhu must be kidding me and was telling a dream,” Rudd said, he still remembered that day clearly.
Nowadays, standing in the Financial Center in Lujia-zui, Rudd discovered that dream had been realized.
“The 19th CPC National Congress has just closed, and now the whole world is watching China. Barely 35 years ago, only foreign scholars or diplomats would pay attention to the CPC National Congress; however, today almost everyone shows an interest in it. The reason is simple. China is rising up,” said Rudd.
China Is Rejuvenating
With a retrospect of China’s past 30 or 40 years both historically and internationally, we find some real changes.
Rudd explained, in the 1980s, China’s economy was about the same size as that of Australia. Today, measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), China’s economy has become No. 1 in the world; measured by the market rate, it is expected to be the world leader in the next 10 years.
Meanwhile, China’s foreign policy has changed. When he was working in Beijing, policies during the Deng Xiaoping times could be summarized as “keeping a low profile.” However, in the times of President Xi Jinping, the policies have changed into “being aspiring and ambitious to make outstanding achievements.”
Abundant new concepts such as a new type of international relations, a new model of relationships between major countries, reform of the diplomatic system, dispute of the international order, and international system reform, all appeared during the central foreign affairs work meeting held in November 2014.
Rudd recalled, “I was right in Beijing, watching the television in a hotel, and subtly I captured the hint of China’s new foreign policies.” Since then, a series of new concepts came out, for example, new world patterns, new global governance, new framework of major-country relations, Asia-Pacific community, and a community with a shared future for mankind. Most of these new expressions have been discussed in the 19th CPC National Congress report.
Institutional innovations also exerted a huge influence on the international community, such as the successful establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Belt & Road Initiative. There is no doubt that China is a big nation, and also a great power. From a historical perspective, China is now rejuvenating.
Guiding Principles
“Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC in 1978, China has ushered in an astonishing path which led to the country’s successful transformation and great achievements. All these reforms and developments were not easy, and those of us who study history carefully understand there were many twists and turns. Therefore, China’s achievements are remarkable.”
Rudd delivered the first half of his speech in fluent Chinese, for the last part he switched to his native language. He could adeptly quote any term from traditional Chinese culture, policies of domestic and foreign affairs, and Chinese jargons. The audience could strongly feel his mastery of each aspect of China’s politics, economy, and culture.
Talking about foreign interest in China’s future development trends, Rudd said: “China is now entering into the new era, and the whole world is watching China, hoping to know more about its new concepts. It is natural. One thing we should carefully consider is that, the history of Chinese policy development, both domestic and foreign, has usually been laid out with a general strategic direction, or a guiding principle. And the purpose of the strategic direction, based on my understanding of China, is pointing out the broadest possible political direction on where the policy should go. As a result, policy details often emerge much later in the process.”
He then gave several examples, in the times of Deng Xiaoping the guiding principle was focusing on domestic reforms and opening up to the outside world. This policy direction formed the basis of China’s foreign and domestic policies in the following 30 years.
In the times of Jiang Zemin, Chinese enterprises were encouraged to “go global,” which was mentioned in the report to the 14th CPC National Congress in 1992. Then, during the following 25 years, millions of Chinese entrepreneurs and companies went out to every corner of the world.
In the view of Kevin Rudd, top Chinese leaders share two temperaments. First, when facing obstacles and challenges in making and implementing the country’s strategic policies, Chinese leaders show resilience and patience. Second, Chinese leaders are far-sighted, visionary, and adept at making long-term plans, which has been witnessed from the times of Deng to the new era of Xi.
New Sinology
On the topic of China studies, Rudd noted that a new era calls for new sinology that puts emphasis on analyzing and explaining to the world at large what core Chinese concepts actually mean.
He took international relations studies as an example. In the theory of international relations, Western scholars have developed five schools of analyses to understand international political behaviors. But it seems none of them fit neatly with China’s reality. The terms that have been frequently used by Chinese scholars are world order, global governance, international system, and global institutions, all of which are confusing to Westerners and thus hinder the way China tries to express itself to the world. So, the new sinology shoulders a responsibility to let the outside world fully understand the real meaning of China’s international policies and its new political terms.
Therefore, as Rudd suggested, the new sinology should properly perform the task of information synthesis and analysis. “Modern China deserves a much more sophisticated analysis than before. Sinologists have a particularly important role to play in weaving all those complex threads together, and explaining how China’s old traditions preserve and progress towards the future,” Rudd said.
As the world now has a greater desire of knowing China, the new sinology should take the responsibility to better introduce China to the world.
“Seeking harmony but not uniformity is what Chinese traditional culture cherishes. Now the top Chinese leaders proposed a community with a shared future for mankind, but how to understand and explain it in the new era?” Rudd remarked. “One further challenge for a new sinology lies in how we can begin to forge not just common interests, but also common values across the different civilizations and traditions we present.”
