Chinese Dream: Harmony for the World

By PATRICIA RODRIGUEZ HOLKEMEYER

The Chinese Dream takes into consideration the ancient wisdom that it is more important to attain the domestic political capability needed to fulfill China’s aspirations towards a harmonious and stable society and to exert a positive influence on the world than it is to strive for economic or military might. The Chinese Dream is based on the concept of seeking individual and collective happiness.

The world needs a new international relations paradigm, different to Western style democracy where political activism orchestrated by organized minorities (NGOs) who want to impose so-called “American Values” on countries with different historical paths, cultures and aspirations is prevalent. The new model should be founded on ethics, wisdom, cooperation and confidence-building, and on the recognition that knowledge is fallible and hypothetical, and that with globalization, world circumstances and interactions are prone to change.

This type of paradigm has already been successfully tested in the 35 years of China’s own economic and institutional reforms. The adaptive and learning-focused attitude of Chinese leaders, even to the point of adapting Western suggestions and institutions when necessary, is the underlying reason for the success of China’s admirable and unique path of development. The West should understand Chinese development and the Chinese Dream pragmatically.

PATRICIA RODRIGUEZ HOLKEMEYER is a professor of politics at the University of Costa Rica