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In the 21st century, we are undergoing the power shift across the world.This power shift is different from the power shifts among dynasties. And it isalso different from the east-to-west wealth transfer after the Opening of NewSea-Route. It is also different from the First or the Second World War or thecold war. And for this power shift, actually we are paying our attention toChina. It’s believed that China is playing a leading role in this power shift.Then there comes another issue that for China, in this process of power shift,whether we are going to see the duplication of the previous power shift or eventhe previous tragedy. So this is a very big question. A lot of people don’tthink there is an answer. Or some people have given the answer that theybelieve China will follow the example of Germany or Japan or the former SovietUnion, but I can give my answer that China will not return to the old pathway,because China has its own due wisdom that China’s wisdom can help as to preventthe historical tragedy for China as well as the world. So that’s why I wouldlike to give the example of One Belt One Road Initiative. Talking about powershift, it is not just about the military or the economic power shift.Ultimately, it is about your concepts and thoughts and also the institutionaland also the soft power shift. That is the more profound power shift, and ofcourse it is also quite challenging. As a matter of fact, for the China’swisdom, the China’s soft power shift will be more important.
First, let’s take a look at China’s historical experience, and alsoChina’s the Belt and Road Initiative. In fact started quite a long time ago.For example, the Great Wall, and the South-to-North Canal. For the Great Wall,it is also an ancient military base for defense. And for the South-to- NorthCanal, it is also an infrastructure for transportation in the ancient time.These two types of infrastructure have already defined the Chinese structurefor thousands of years. It is very stunning that more than 2000 years ago,China was able to build such a great infrastructure. For the Belt and Road, thisis also one of the greatest projects in the current era. And compared with theancient infrastructure, the Belt and Road Initiative is different. Because inthe history, China was interconnected by these two infrastructure projects. Butby the current Belt and Road, the whole world can be more interconnected. Inthe next hundreds or thousands of years, the whole world will also be changed.Such a huge project. And we can also say that, if you want to be wealthy, youhave to build the road first, according to the Chinese old saying. Soinfrastructure is the precondition for the growth. That’s a matter of fact overthe past two decades in China, and we have already seen the revolution ininfrastructure projects. And since 2002, over the past 15 years, basicallyspeaking, China has already completed a nation-wide infrastructureconstruction. The highway, and also the railway, and also the wireless, andalso the pipelines, and also the airports and the GPS systems, as well as the3-dimentional infrastructure which has been completed within 50 years. Thanksto the completion of infrastructure and network, then it is the foundation forAsia to build its infrastructure. From Mongolia to Vietnam, and from Kazakhstanto ASEAN countries, how can we get connected? If Asian infrastructure networkis in place, and then infrastructure network between Asia and Europe can alsobe in place. It took China 15 years to complete this infrastructure network.And then in Asia and Europe, it may take three times. That means it is going totake forty to fifty years to complete, in order to achieve theinter-connectivity between China and Europe and the world as a whole. Such aproblem is satisfactorily resolved because if you want to become rich, you haveto build a strong network of transportation.
Secondly, talking about Chinese culture, it values a lot upon taking amedium road to trigger a series of objectives before they are fulfilled, aspart of our strategy to go. In other words, we call it to win a major strategyby making full use of small tactics. What we can do is to implement our goalsthrough the orchestration of a series of projects. By no means can the Belt andRoad initiative be accomplished within a short period of time, say three orfive years. Many friends from both home and abroad tend to believe that thisdream can be fulfilled within two or three years. This is by no means true. Ifyou know the so-called gradualism of China, you can easily understand that thisis really a huge project. The so-called modernization and the reform andopening-up are really based on gradualism. We take a systematic manner in agradual profession to fulfill our goal. This is also true for the Chineseculture. We do everything in accordance with own effort and our own strength.And we are really opposed to such a philosophy of dominating the whole world bydepending upon any single party. So whatever the strategy is, it has to becorrelated with the specific goals in a specific project. So if we can put allthese small projects into one systematic whole, which will trigger a hugeamount of benefits to the whole world. Currently we have a series of priorityareas. For example, the Pakistan- China Corridor, the high-speed train linkingJakarta and Barron for Indonesia, and also we have projects in Russia andKazakhstan. All these big projects have been well-implemented. If you take alook at the whole of Belt and Road, it is only a small link. However, eventhose small links can really inspire a huge amount of changes or transformationalong the road. So the success of any small project along the line will mean abig success for the whole.
And also, a series of changes will take place for the human-to-humanrelations or the people-to-people exchanges. Many people tend to worry as towho will take the final say especially when China takes the lead to initiatesuch a big campaign. But talking about people-to-people exchanges, we Chinesepeople value a lot about the so-called willingness on the two parties. Sowhenever the project is done, it has be depended upon willingness expressed byall parties instead of only from one party or two parties. This can help us tobetter understand about the Chinese culture. Do not do onto others what you donot want others to do onto you. Any campaign that we initiate we from theChinese perspective has to be dependent upon the benevolent people-to-peopleexchanges. You can see it is a clear reflection among the Belt and RoadInitiative.
And we have to know more about the so-called philosophy on order. What isits reflection on the Belt and Road Initiative? What can we expect from theChina’s philosophy on order, as part of the contemporary international order?If I am supposed to summarize the key features of China’s philosophy of order,I want to put it into two words, which is benevolent governance and the rule oflaw. These two things are the two key features of the Chinese culture. And weare opposed to polar politics. In the Belt and Road initiative, surely we willbuild a strong network based upon confidence that will be easily received andaccepted by all countries around the world. We talk a lot about the globalgovernance. Concerning global governance, there are many differentphilosophies. But for western world, they have to sometimes accept the so-calledwestern-type way of thinking. If you do not come to the western way ofthinking, or this kind of universal way of looking at the world, you cannotachieve the power in the future system. However, China does not put thisphilosophy as our principal. We don’t have such a thing saying that you can’tbe involved into the Belt and Road Initiative unless you accept the certainmechanism or the system of thinking. This is quite unfair. So it has to bewell-connected with the local culture. By no means do we want to change thelocal culture or local tradition using the Belt and Road Initiative. Of course,there are many challenges and opportunities in the future. In China, we alsohave a saying that governance is fulfilled through chaos. Without chaos, therewill be no order of governance. Risks are bound. Culturally speaking,politically speaking, economically speaking, there are too many of them. TheBelt and Road Initiative is by no means an easy job to do. We are faced withthe challenges all day long, however, these challenges have to be resolvedthrough the co-participation of all countries and peoples along the road. Chinawill not do everything single-handedly. For example, anti-terrorism, this is acommon task for all. China-Pakistan Corridor, of course there will be a risk ofterrorism. However, in the whole process, we work together diligently andcollaboratively with our friends from Pakistan for this corridor. The aim ofthis project is to really resolve these problems facing us and meet so manychallenges.
The belt and Road Initiative is also a tolerant and a generous undertakingthat will accomplish all the historical missions, using our good will expectedfrom all parties. The Chinese culture itself is a culture with diversity. Wevalue a lot on the tradition based upon Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. Sowe never say no to any other cultures in the world. Ever since the WarringStates Period and the Spring and Autumn Period where there was a contention ofdifferent schools of thoughts together, we started this tradition already.Indeed, there is a system of the so-called dictatorship at certain stages ofour Chinese history. However, generosity and tolerance has become the keyfeatures of the Chinese culture ever since.
Number six, the universal look on the world. The so-called universality ofChina’s world look is always despised by many others. Many people say that Chinais the center and all the other countries are the subordinates of China. Indeedthis was something in the past. It is already a by-gone saying. Actually, whatI want to say is such a world outlook suggests that we need to put thementality and also the benefits of the whole world in mind always. And thistype of philosophy has virtually transcended the traditional geologicalhistories and theories in the west. It becomes even more advanced than thenarrow-minded way of looking at the world in the past. So through the Belt andRoad Initiative, we can really expand the geographical coverage of thephilosophy to more interested network. By doing so, we can put a lot on thenetwork of different sectors or industries into one systematic whole. All theresources can be well-mobilized and more efficiently allocated. This is notlikely to be achieved in the past under traditional philosophy.
China’s philosophy on profit and morality is also way beyond thenarrow-minded outlook on profit in the west. In China, we have an old famoussaying that if you want to take something from other people, you have to givesomething to others first. Or you can also put it into another manner – givingsomething to somebody else is always better than getting something more fromothers. We have to be away from the mentality where we are only accustomed togetting more instead of giving more to others. For other countries at differentstages of development, we can exercise different strategies. For example,giving more or giving something more at a certain period of time, before we cantake something more from others. So government aid and government investmenthave to take different forms. It does not necessarily mean that the Belt andRoad Initiative is based purely upon our good will. Always we have to bear inmind two things. One is profit, the other is morality. Morality always comesfirst. Profit comes next. These two things have to talk to each other.
Number eight, China is a country with long history. In the whole processof its history evolution, there is a typical culture of competition betweendifferent powers of the world. In China, we have a lot of politicians andstatement capable of combining forces both horizontally and vertically. Theseare the cultures that are quite prevalent and popular in the world. Stillremember we have a classic book called the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.Still, many strategies are relevant in today’s world. We depend a lot on thosemilitary tactics like building a high wall to defend attacks from externalcountries, setting up a pool with a lot of grain and rice before we can sustaina long period of winter or wars, so on and so forth. All these are traditionalsayings in the past. And these sayings are still relevant. If you do not wantto repeat the mistakes in the future, you have to learn a lot from history andalso the historical tactics in China.
Also, we have to reconcile better with the relations of other neighboringcountries. This is also a very complicated issue. In China, we have so manyexperiences and lessons to draw from. It is fair to say that the silk road,either on land or on the sea, is really fulfilled and launched based upon thecorrelation and combination of efforts from different parties. We have a lot offamous political figures like Zheng He, Xuanzang and Wencheng. All these are importantfigures serving as go-between statesmen or diplomats, linking relations ofdifferent countries to form a harmonious world. There are too many examples. Iwon’t go into much detail.
Last but not least, which is also a crystallization of the Chinesetradition and ancient wisdom. That is the philosophical outlook on war andpeace, as shrining in the book called Sunzi Tactics. You need to attend thehearts of others instead of attend the power of others. You can really defeatthe enemies without firing a shot simply by winning the hearts of the otherparties or your enemy. This is the key philosophy of the book. In China, wealways say, unless necessary, we won’t send any troops or any single soldier tothe battlefield. If you can win the war without sending any single soldier ontothe battleground, you are the smartest winner in the war. You have to knowyourself and know your enemy. We need not only to know what others are thinkingabout, but also to let others know what we want others to think about. Thiswill be a philosophy and ideology that can transcend time and space. And thiswill also be a method to get away from the traditional trap where many othercountries have been deeply trapped. So this is also the biggest contribution tothe world and our answer to the problem in the history.
(Thisarticle is edited based on the recording and has not been reviewed by thespeaker.)
