THE International Dialogue on the Chinese Dream concluded in Shanghai on December 8, 2013. Attended by nearly 100 experts and scholars from 24 countries, the two-day event enacted international and cross-cultural dialogue on the latest research achievements on the Chinese Dream.

The Chinese Dream has strong appeal, as pointed out by Cai Mingzhao, minister of the State Council Information Office, in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony. “The realization of a dream for 1.3 billion people will be a major event in the history of humankind. A new China will take shape and make greater contributions to the world,” Minister Cai said.

Chinese Dream Connotations

Zhang Weiwei, director of the Institute of China Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, lived overseas for a long while. On his way to attend the meeting, he chatted with a taxi driver. Learning the driver had two apartments in Shanghai worth RMB 3 million, but still claimed to be poor, Zhang told him he was better off than 50 percent of European people. 

Over the past decade, the quality of life for most people in the U.S.A. also has declined. The U.S. Household Income Index (HII) tracks monthly changes in real median annual household income over time. Using January 2000 as the starting point, with the HII set as equal to 100.0, the value of the index in each subsequent month shows household income measured as a percentage of the January 2000 base value. The figure in June 2011 was 89.4, which means that real incomes are more than 10 percent lower than they were over a decade ago.

“Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrialized country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity,” said Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph E. Stiglitz in February 2013.

“In comparison, over the past two decades, there’s been an explosive growth of wealth in China,” Zhang Weiwei said.

The Chinese nation was historically powerful and prosperous, but during the Opium War of 1839-42 and before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China suffered tremendously from invasions of Western and Japanese imperialists.

According to Zhang Xin, president of the Shanghai Century Publishing Group, what Chinese people first experienced of Western industrial civilization was the modern weaponry of the Opium War. To fight against invasions from Western colonists, China launched its own industrialization and modernization drive. The ensuing Self-strengthening Movement, Hundred Days’ Reform and the Revolution of 1911 were Chinese people’s attempts to acquire Western technology and institutions. However, due to their inadaptability to China’s real situation, these attempts all ended in failure, leaving the country weak. After many twists and turns in exploration, it was only after the founding of the People’s Republic of China that the country found a suitable road towards development.

In 1949 China’s GDP was RMB 35.8 billion – today, the country can create wealth of over RMB 82 billion in a single day. China has become the world’s second largest economy, with the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves and exports. However, due to its large population, China’s per capita income is still below the world average. As the largest developing country, China still has to confront numerous problems and challenges in its course of modernization. Against this background, President Xi Jinping put forward the idea of the Chinese Dream, which encompasses that of the country, the nation and each individual. The Chinese Dream has evoked Chinese people’s desire and passion to pursue a better life, realize national rejuvenation and construct socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Qi Weiping, professor of the Political Science Department at the East China Normal University, holds that the significance of the Chinese Dream lies in the fact that a country with a population of 1.3 billion has been capable of realizing modernization through an alternative model. The fulfillment of the Chinese Dream will contribute to civilization worldwide.

Fulfilling the Chinese Dream

“The Chinese Dream needs to demonstrate the allure of China’s political system and culture, its values, the cogency of Chinese diplomacy as well as the charm and affinity of Chinese leaders, and the cultural richness of its people. The Chinese Dream will be recognized and respected by the international community only after we have built such a wonderful country,” professor of International Relations, Tsinghua University, Sun Zhe said.

To realize this, we must remove any doubts about China. Sun laid down three ways of achieving this. First, China should refrain from all autocratic practices in its politics and cultural traditions. At the same time, a modern governance system based on the constitution should be set up, as defined by the 18th CPC National Congress. This means China must make big changes in its decision-making process and political system.

Second, democracy in China will certainly have much in common with its Western counterparts. We should unswervingly push forward democratic reforms, starting with basic democratic reforms, including enhancing democratic transparency, promoting rule of law and carrying out judicial reforms. Yet, to achieve genuine democracy, the constitution must be fully respected and the role of National People’s Congress (NPC) – China’s legislative body – reinforced.   

This final element involves democracy in Chinese diplomacy and international relations. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the concept of a “Third World” are products of democratic international relations of a particular period. The key point at present is how to exert the will of the people and determine what role the army should play during peaceful development of China.

According to Qi Weiping, the problems China has encountered are shared by many other countries in the process of development. These include a growing income gap, widespread corruption, severe environmental pollution, and resource constraints. Since China has developed from a low starting point, further worsened by scores of setbacks in its development, it has taken considerable effort to solve the problems caused by a rigid system and mechanisms. In addition, China has achieved remarkable development in a short time. This compressed period has given rise to complex contradictions, issues and conflicts. Therefore, China is confronted with greater growing pains and stresses than any other country. Overcoming these hardships and achieving the Chinese Dream will require the wisdom and skills of the Chinese people. Qi expects China to contribute to the world by creatively resolving such problems. 

Zhou Hong, director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), noted that the nation’s revival is not only reflected in a booming GDP, but also involves many other features such as culture, social organization and the rationalization of politics. China still has a long way to go in this sense. The institutional system and development logic in China is certainly different from that of Western countries because the world is diverse. China rid itself of slavery and oppression, and found a path to develop itself independently while cooperating with the outside world. Its development demonstrates that various ways of governance can be effective, since countries vary in their culture, history and resources. China’s achievements prove that the path it has chosen suits its national conditions. It may inspire the world to become more diversified, going beyond a simply hegemonic mentality.  

A Dream of Peace

For Western countries with an expansionist history of over 500 years, weaker countries are targets of colonialism while powerful countries are intent on colonial expansion. Wu Xiaoming points to the discovery by Matteo Ricci, the Italian Jesuit priest who came to China in 1583 and died there in 1610, which proves China is quite different.

After studying China’s 4,000-year history, Ricci concluded that he never found any records of conquest or territorial expansionism. Wu Xiaoming also quotes German philosopher Max Weber as another example. Weber commented that China’s historical trajectory tended towards pacifism. As Wu illustrates, although the development of Chinese culture at the initial stages was accompanied by militarism and there were wars in its early history, China after the Han Dynasty gradually became a peaceful empire. At that time, the emperor of China was considered the guardian of the peasants rather than a monarch of warriors. Alongside civil officials taking power to rule the country, Chinese philosophy gradually transformed toward pacifism.

“China’s peaceful trajectory combines historical significance with worldwide influence. It sublates and transcends modern capitalist development and ushers in the prospect of non-expansionism and non-hegemonism to the world,” Wu Xiaoming said.

Max Weber also said that Confucianism, a state ethic in China, had an essentially pacifist character. Its focus was a fear of spirits, which acted as an “official magna carta of the masses.” For instance, Buddhism became the only Indian religion allowed in China owing to its pacifist character.

Chinese culture is diverse, greatly flexible, inclusive and compatible with different cultures. Matteo Ricci arrived in Beijing in 1600. He came upon a group of Jews in Kaifeng, then a large city in China that gradually started to participate in the competitive imperial examination. They started to read the Four Books and Five Classics of China, and gradually forgot their own ancient classics. As time went by, this group of Jews became part of the local populace.

Lu Jiande, director of the Institute of Literature at CASS, says the New Culture Movement (1915-1917, 1919-1923) can be understood as a movement for cultural exchange between China and foreign countries.

Today, China still imports a large number of Western concepts of politics and economics.

In 1973, the famous English historian Arnold J. Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda – well-known authority on Japanese culture and religion – held a dialogue. They agreed that modern society is facing great challenges. How do we avoid a situation where a nation-state in pursuit of its narrow national interests can lead to the wiping out of humankind? The only way out is to create a world state. However, Western society could not accomplish this task. For, after the Rome Empire collapsed, the political tradition of the Western world was nationalism but not cosmopolitanism. Although Western countries came to lead the world in terms of economy, science and technology, they were unable to build a world society in the common interest of all humankind. Pacifism and cosmopolitanism can only be realized by China, as China has a cultural tradition of universalism.

Professor Wang Yiwei of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China also posited that the paths of the Western world would not work out in China due to its large population and scarce resources. Now China is on a path to sustainable development, with the Chinese government guiding the development of a low-carbon economy. Smoggy weather, engulfing many Chinese cities now and then, is acting as an alarm bell for Chinese government to advance economic transformation, as the suffocating weather is a side product of its old economic development mode. It is noteworthy that China has accomplished development in a few decades that it took the Western world several hundred years to achieve.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee stated that China aims to achieve decisive results in key areas by 2020, with improvements to various systems. That means that in the future China will become more competitive in terms of institutional construction.China will to some extent help the Western world improve its system and maintain the vitality of its countries, just as Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism helped improve the capitalist system in the Western world.

Sharing Chinese Dreams

In early December 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping told members of the 21st Century Council that China adheres to the road of harmony and coexistence with other countries in the world. The development of China has changed the world economic structure and economic division of labor, accelerated the application of many technologies, improved people’s lives throughout the world, enriched the communication of human thought and culture, and promoted exchanges on governance and administration.  

Zhou Mingwei, president of China International Publishing Group, called the Chinese Dream an open and inclusive concept; an idea about interlinking with the world and about the confidence of combining efforts with other countries to develop together.  

Just a day before the forum, Zhou Hong received an invitation from Germany to a seminar on the European Dream, entitled “Europe: Dream and Reality,” to be convened by a group of European scholars in spring 2014. Zhou Hong noted that pursuing a dream is not exclusive to China. In the process of realizing dreams we should adapt to and learn from other countries. With competition, innovation, cooperation and mutual benefit, we can develop and realize our dreams together with other countries. We can then enjoy our dream together, build a beautiful reality, and form a community of interests. 

Patricia Rodriguez Holkemeyer, professor of political science at the University of Costa Rica, noted that the Chinese Dream takes into consideration ancient philosophers’ insistence on the importance of primarily attaining domestic political capability. This is necessary for China to fulfill its aspiration of building a harmonious world, a more important objective than attaining economic or military might.  

Professor Maria Cristina Rosas, with the research center for international relations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, pointed out that the Chinese Dream and the Mexican Dream share the same wish but take different roads. The same wish means that they both address problems arising in their development, such as inequitable income distribution, unbalanced regional development, an aging society, and soaring demands on infrastructure construction and energy. The different roads refer to different measures and approaches taken to solve these problems, as China is committed to a long-term development strategy, while the Mexican government is usually confined to middle or short-term strategies, influenced by the changing terms of the government. The Mexican Dream should absorb the successful experiences of the Chinese Dream, and focus on a long-term development strategy for Mexico.  

Professor Mohammed Selim from the College of Political Science at the Kuwait University said that the national project of the Chinese Dream should be advanced by national leaders and consider the interests of the public. He observed that Arab countries experiencing social turbulence are paying close attention to the development of the Chinese Dream and its influence on Arab countries. China and the Arab countries would probably have ample room for cooperation on anti-terrorism training, bilateral economic relations and safeguarding the Middle East peace, Professor Selim added.