China is one of the oldest and most respected civilizations in the world. As President Xi Jinping said, realizing national rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese nation since modern times. Only nations that once achieved greatness could appreciate the meaning of rejuvenation.
Only peoples that survived so many trials and tribulations would yearn for rejuvenation. What China’s rejuvenation is about is achieving the prosperity of the country, revitalization of the nation and happiness of the people. It is about bringing the Chinese civilization back to the forefront of human progress and starting a new era of openness and integration with the world. The assertion that China’s rejuvenation is to remake or conquer the world only reveals a lack of knowledge about Chinese history and the Chinese civilization.
Aggression never flows in the veins of the Chinese nation. For a long time in history, China was one of the world’s most powerful countries, yet it never sought expansion or global dominance. Among the traditional tenets of the Chinese civilization are phrases such as the “paramount importance of peace”, “seeking harmony without uniformity”, “fostering amity with one’s neighbors” and “promoting harmony among all nations”, to name a few.Commitment to peace and harmony is deeply rooted in the mindset of the Chinese. It has also been the cultural inspiration behind China’s active pursuit of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The Chinese civilization has a proud history stretching uninterrupted for several millennia, a rare achievement among the mega civilizations in the world. Today’s China has creatively adapted its ancient civilization to seek new progress. Led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese people have forged ahead against all odds, and embarked on a successful path of development leading toward national rejuvenation. It is the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Following this path, China has achieved leapfrog development and seen continued rise of its comprehensive national strength. Once an impoverished country, China has grown into the world’s second largest economy. Once a shortage economy, China has developed into a manufacturing giant, the only one equipped with a complete range of industries. Once a semi-colonial country subjected to repeated aggression, China has emerged as a major country with a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
China owes its development achievements, first and foremost, to the hard work, wisdom and courage of the Chinese people. It has also benefited from a peaceful and amicable international environment and win-win cooperation with the rest of the world. At the same time, China’s development has not only benefited its own people, but also the whole world.
Given the evolving global environment, we have set out the goal of fostering a new, dual-cycle development architecture with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. Such a development structure draws from the strengths of China’s mega-sized market and the huge potential of domestic demand. China will further tap into its domestic demand, expand opening-up and share more of its development dividends with the rest of the world. We hope our recovery and development will fuel common recovery and development of the world.
China will stay committed to peaceful development. China is not the former Soviet Union, still less will it or can it be another United States. No matter how developed China becomes, it will never seek hegemony or expansion. What China pursues is a new model of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue and partnership, not confrontation or alliance. We hope to forge broader partnerships and further expand our circle of friendship in the world.
China will stay committed to win-win development. China is against the zero-sum or winner-takes-all approach of development. We will never go down the beaten path of grabbing others’ resources or sacrificing others’ interests. We believe that global governance should be based on consultation, cooperation and shared benefits. By following a win-win strategy of opening-up, we will make the pie of cooperation bigger and pursue common development with all countries.
China is committed to inclusive development. We respect the right of other peoples to choose their own development path. We do not seek to export our system or model of development, nor are we interested in ideological confrontation. We will continue to take concrete actions to protect the diversity of civilizations and promote exchanges and mutual learning between development models.
