Taking a Second Look at China

    China has experienced tremendous change since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, and the profundity and magnitude of the change turned out to be beyond our own expectations. Meanwhile, Western perceptions of China have also progressed – from skepticism to the prophecy of her "collapse," from the notion of a "China threat" to that of "China's responsibility." All these fluctuations in attitude and viewpoints arise from China's rapid development over the past three decades.

    The skeptical phase ran from 1978 to 1989, when the cold war was still under way. The Western world perceived China mostly from a perspective of the old East-West antagonism. They did not believe that China could achieve modernization, and their general view was one of skepticism. Foreign capital entering China during that 12-year period amounted to US $15 billion, which is trivial compared to the current figure of US $800 billion.

    Then the theory of "China's collapse" prevailed in the West from 1989 to 1996. Following the political disturbance of 1989, Western countries aligned to bring sanctions against China. It was also during this period that Eastern Europe underwent radical changes and the Soviet Union fell apart. Mainstream Western opinions held that China could not withstand the worldwide convulsions and would inevitably collapse.

    Between January 1989 and December 1990, I was political counselor of the Chinese embassy in Belgium and the Chinese mission to the European Community. After I got to Brussels in January 1989, I visited high officials in Belgium and within the Commission of the European Community. Then their doors were open to me, but things changed after the political incident in 1989. Suddenly I could meet officials no higher than head of the Asian department of the Belgian Foreign Ministry and the head of the China office under the Foreign Relations department of the Commission of the European Community. By early 1990 I had served for half a year as charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy and the mission to the EC. On one occasion, vice chairman of the Commission in charge of foreign relations had a luncheon with Asian diplomats, and I was invited along. There were cocktails before the luncheon, where the vice chairman acknowledged participating Asian diplomats with a handshake. He shook my hand too, but as our hands touched, I knew instantly that he had no intention of talking to me.

    During the luncheon, the vice chairman's office director did chat with me however, asking certain questions about China. Seeing his interest, I offered to have a lunch with him sometime later when it was convenient for him, so I could acquaint him with more stories of China. Unexpectedly, he sank his face and squinted at me, saying, "I'm not sure if in three months' time your government will be still there." Though I felt angry, as a diplomat I could not retort harshly. I calmly replied, "You Europeans have a proverb, 'He who laughs last, laughs best'. Let's wait and see."

    The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis on July 2, 1997 resulted in great pressure to devalue the RMB. The Chinese government stood firm against depreciation. The wave of tumbling Asian currencies was stopped when it came to China, saving them from a second massive depreciation of their currencies, and buying precious time for them to regain their footing and get out of the mess. At the same time, the Chinese government also implemented effective measures to stimulate domestic demand. As a result, the Chinese economy not only continued its stable and rapid growth, but also propelled economic recovery all over Asia.

    After the Asian financial crisis, the Western world acknowledged the irreversible upward momentum of China's growth, and the theory of the China 'threat" replaced that of "collapse." This one had quite large a number of adherents in the West. Their reasoning was simple: the communist-led Soviet Union embarked on invasion and expansion after it grew strong, so would communist-led China once it became powerful enough.

    Then on September 21, 2005, Robert B. Zoellik, then U.S. deputy secretary of state, gave a speech entitled "Whither China: From Membership to Responsibility?" at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' gala dinner. He advocated that China should become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system. His speech reflects the progress of Western perceptions of China. Unlike the previous three prejudices –skepticism, "collapse" and "threat" – that paint China as either irrelevant or evil, Zoellik's view admits the possibility that China could do something positive for the world, and this was a big change. Of course, China and the West diverge on the definition of "responsibilities." We define our responsibilities first from what benefits the Chinese people and the people of the world and whether these responsibilities comply with China's status, not what the West says.

    The appearance of the "responsibility" theory is not accidental; it is collateral to China's momentum of growth. The annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is a place to feel the pulse of the world. In 2007, discussions swirled around "what kind of world China wants." I was present, so were Vice Chairman Cheng Siwei of the National People's Congress Standing Committee and many European and American celebrities. I attended many international meetings in my decades as a career diplomat, but never one on such a topic. In the more than a century that followed the 1840 Opium War, when did the world ever care enough to ask what kind of world China wanted? Never! Because China was its prey, and the predators of the world need not "consult" their prey. But today, the world wonders, and asks.

    The world situation is undergoing profound changes, so is the international balance of power. A group of developing countries, or half of the world's population, is on the ascendant, a situation unprecedented in world history. This is meaningful background for the current financial crisis. Down the road, a new configuration will gradually emerge and frame our world – one that is more multilateral, rich with the voices of developing countries, and free from domination by Western countries. As Chinese President Hu Jintao says, "China's development cannot be detached from the world at large, nor can the world's prosperity and stability be detached from China." President Obama also declared that the U.S. needs the world and the world needs the U.S. It appears no one can go against the tide of history.