Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Enters a New Era

Section 2: Responsibilities and Responsibilities of Great

Power Diplomacy in the New Era

Contemporary China is an emerging developing country and a major country with decisive influence on the world stage. The history, reality and humanistic endowments of major countries determine that every big country is different, each big country has its own characteristics, and every big country must follow a development path that suits its own characteristics. Historical inheritance and historical encounters, national missions, cultural endowments, domestic and international environments, objectively require that China’s diplomacy in the new era must be a major country diplomacy with distinctive Chinese characteristics. Guided by the grand goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China’s diplomacy has vigorously promoted innovation in concepts and methods, fully demonstrated the responsibility and responsibility of major-country diplomacy in the new era, demonstrated the distinctive character of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, and created good external conditions for realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and jointly creating a better future for mankind.

Major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is a global-oriented diplomacy, with a major pattern, vision and layout being a major feature. Major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is based on China’s diplomacy as a major country, which makes greater contributions to human society with the responsibility and responsibility of a major country, not only seeks its own growth and development, but also focuses on promoting the prosperity and development of human society, not diplomacy against major powers, nor diplomacy competing with other major powers in the world for dominance and hegemony.

1. Unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Xi Jinping has emphasized: “Taking the path of peaceful development is a strategic choice made by our Party in accordance with the development trend of the times and the fundamental interests of our country. " 1 China is a country with a long civilization, a country that has experienced great suffering, a country that practices socialism with Chinese characteristics, the largest developing country in the world, and a country that is undergoing profound changes.

“Chinese people have unforgettable memories of the suffering caused by war, have a tireless pursuit of peace, and cherish a peaceful and stable life. What the people are afraid of Chinese is turmoil, what they seek is stability, and what they hope for is peace in the world.1 The socialist system with Chinese characteristics, historical and cultural traditions, basic national conditions, the trend of the times and the fundamental interests of the country all determine that China can only take the path of peaceful development. This road was not easy to come by, and it was gradually formed by the CPC through arduous exploration and continuous practice since the founding of New China, especially in the more than 40 years of reform and opening up. Over the years, with China’s rapid development, some people in the world are worried that China will follow the path of “national strength must be hegemonic”, believing that China’s development must be a “threat”, which is a deep-rooted prejudice. In this regard, Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly pointed out on different occasions that “a strong country must hegemon.” It is not the law of history, the Chinese nation does not have the gene in its blood to invade others and dominate the world, and the Chinese people are willing to live in harmony and develop harmoniously with the peoples of the world, and seek peace, protect peace and share peace. And that’s exactly what happened. The goal of China’s development is to enable Chinese people to live a good life. China’s path and way to achieve development is based on the base point of its own strength, unswervingly follows its own path, persists in exploring its own development path and solutions to problems from the Chinese land, relies on its own continuous development strength to better follow the path of peaceful development, and is committed to promoting open development, cooperative development and win-win development. China’s development will never come at the expense of the interests of other countries, and it will never do anything that harms others and interests itself and beggars its neighbors. No matter how the international situation changes, no matter how it develops, China will never seek hegemony, never expand, and never seek spheres of influence. This has not wavered in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Comrade Xi Jinping declared to the international community China’s firm belief in taking the path of peaceful development, and at the same time deepened and developed the strategic thinking of peace development at a new historical starting point, that is, “two intrinsically unified.” First, it is intrinsically integrated to adhere to the path of peaceful development with resolutely defending the core interests of the country. Comrade Xi Jinping solemnly declared at the meeting to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China:

“China does not covet the rights and interests of other countries and is not jealous of the development of other countries, but it will never give up our legitimate rights and interests.” Chinese people do not believe in evil and are not afraid of evil, do not cause trouble or fear trouble, and no foreign country should expect us to trade with our core interests, and do not expect us to swallow the bitter fruit that harms China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. 1 When discussing the adherence to the overall national security concept, Comrade Xi Jinping stressed that “we must adhere to the supremacy of national interests.” 2 Some countries, some forces, and some public opinion one-sidedly interpret China’s path of peaceful development, believing that China’s decision to take the path of peaceful development as a national strategic choice will constrain its determination, means, and ability to safeguard national interests; that China’s external declaration on taking the path of peaceful development is unwilling or daring to adopt non-peaceful means to defend its core interests; and that China will lower or even give up its principles and bottom line in order to seek development and stability. Constant provocations and even attempts to touch the red line of China’s core interests. This kind of thinking and behavior, which regards China’s restraint and tolerance as weakness and deception, and regards China’s advocacy of resolving disputes through political dialogue and diplomatic channels as an opportunity, is bound to pay a huge price. China will never separate the path of peaceful development from safeguarding national interests; while adhering to the path of peaceful development, it will never sacrifice its core national interests; only by effectively safeguarding its core national interests can it more calmly and confidently adhere to the path of peaceful development; China will adopt all necessary means to resolutely safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and resolutely safeguard national unity and national dignity.

The second is to intrinsically integrate China’s adherence to the path of peaceful development with its active advocacy and promotion of all countries in the world to jointly follow the path of peaceful development. For China to follow the path of peaceful development smoothly, other countries in the world need to follow the path of peaceful development; it needs to transform the world’s opportunities into China’s opportunities and China’s opportunities into world opportunities; it needs to strive for a peaceful international environment to develop China, and use China’s development to maintain and promote world peace. Without peace, neither China nor the world can develop smoothly, and without development, there can be no lasting peace between China and the world. China is unswervingly a practitioner of peaceful development and a promoter of common development, and at the same time calls on, drives and urges other countries to walk shoulder to shoulder and meet each other halfway. If certain countries and forces dare to undermine peace, wantonly provoke, create conflicts or even impose wars, China will resolutely struggle and will not give in.

Only when all countries abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, oppose power politics and hegemonism, and follow the path of peaceful development can they coexist peacefully and develop together.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, China’s struggle practice on a series of issues involving major core interests has not only demonstrated China’s position and conviction in adhering to the path of peaceful development, but also demonstrated its determination and will to defend national sovereignty and security interests, greatly inspired the Party’s heart, the military and the people’s heart, and won the wide respect of the international community. 2. build a more complete global partnership network At the end of November 2014, Comrade Xi Jinping proposed at the Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference that we should make friends and form a global partnership network on the premise of adhering to the principle of non-alignment. Over the past few years, on the basis of the various forms of partnership it has established with many countries in the world, China has comprehensively planned and promoted diplomatic and multilateral cooperation among major countries, neighboring countries and developing countries to build a more inclusive and constructive global partnership. By building a global partnership network, China’s “circle of friends” is getting bigger and bigger, creating a favorable external environment and strategic support for domestic development. It is of great importance to plan the relations between major countries, promote coordination and cooperation among major countries, and build a framework for relations between major countries with overall stability and balanced development. With the United States, we should firmly grasp the general direction of the development of bilateral relations, adhere to the principles of non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, pay attention to strategic communication, strengthen pragmatic cooperation, manage differences in an equal and consultative manner, strive to maintain bilateral relations based on coordination, cooperation and stability, and promote the sustained, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations. Regarding the trade frictions provoked by the United States, China has clearly expressed its position and attitude: China does not want to fight, does not want to fight, and is not afraid of fighting, China will not succumb to any external pressure, and has the determination and ability to defend its legitimate rights and interests. With Russia, we regard each other as the most important and important comprehensive strategic cooperation partner, give priority to the overall diplomatic situation and foreign policy of the two countries, transform the advantages of high-level political relations between the two sides into practical results of practical cooperation, work together to maintain international and regional strategic balance and stability, and set an example for a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation.

With the EU, focusing on the trend of historical change, maintaining strategic dialogue on major international affairs, enhancing strategic mutual trust, coordinating relations with 16 Central and Eastern European countries and Western European powers, actively promoting the construction of the four major partnerships of peace, growth, reform and civilization, transcending ideological differences, making the comprehensive strategic partnership of mutual benefit and win-win achieve greater development and global influence, and at the same time resolutely fighting against the EU’s policies and behaviors that harm China’s core national interests. While resolutely defending core interests, Japan has worked hard to establish a crisis management and control mechanism to avoid unexpected situations, and strive to transform the consensus of “mutual partnership and mutual non- threat” into a broad social consensus, carry out exchanges in various fields, and ensure that bilateral relations develop in the right direction. With India, carry forward the tradition of mutual learning among civilizations, seize opportunities, eliminate interference, strengthen strategic communication, properly handle and manage differences, jointly do a good job in all-round cooperation between the two countries, work together to achieve peaceful development, cooperative development and common development, and promote the strategic cooperative partnership to a new height. With other developed and developing countries, we will actively promote pragmatic cooperation through the frameworks of the G20 and BRICS countries to achieve healthy competition. The surrounding area is the place where China settles down and the foundation for development and prosperity. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out at the October 2013 Peripheral Diplomacy Work Forum that it is necessary to promote peripheral diplomacy from the strategic layout and build a community with a shared future in the surrounding region. Adhere to the principle of good-neighborliness, good- neighborliness and prosperity, highlight the concept of affinity, sincerity, benefit and tolerance, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and interconnection with neighboring countries under the framework of the “Belt and Road” construction, strive to make their own development better benefit neighboring countries, and strive to make political relations between neighboring countries and China more friendly. Economic ties have become stronger, security cooperation has deepened, and people-to-people ties have become a reliable strategic support. At the same time, he stressed that efforts should be made to build new mechanisms and rules for peripheral regional cooperation, focus on deepening the pattern of mutual benefit and win-win results, focus on promoting regional security cooperation, focus on consolidating and expanding the foundation of social public opinion, and let the sense of community of common destiny take root in neighboring countries. The vast number of developing countries are China’s natural allies in international affairs. Comrade Xi Jinping stressed that “we must adhere to the correct concept of righteousness and interests, and do a good job in solidarity and cooperation with developing countries.”1

Politically, we should adhere to justice, fairness and morality; economically, we should adhere to mutual benefit and common development, especially for those countries that have been friendly to China for a long time and have arduous tasks for their own development, we must give more consideration to each other’s interests and provide assistance within our capacity. He personally promoted the establishment of the China-Latin America Cooperation Forum, raised the level of cooperation between China and Africa and China-Arab countries, enabled China-developing countries to achieve global coverage, effectively broadened and strengthened solidarity, cooperation and common development with developing countries, and further consolidated the position of developing countries as the foundation of China’s foreign strategy.