Chinese Dream,a Dream Influencing the World
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.
