中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumDevelopment Trends of Contemporary World Politics and China’s Global Role
Authors: Wang Jisi
Extract from ” Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), No. 1, 2009, pp. 11-14“
1. The first feature of current world politics is that the negative effects of economic globalisation become increasingly apparent and non-traditional security issues as well as imbalanced development become increasingly prominent.
After the end of the Cold War, economic globalisation was accelerated. It promoted development and prosperity in many countries and regions in the world, made technological progress, improved communication, increased mobility, and also increased government transparency. Economic cooperation between countries reduced the risks of war while raising the threshold of political conflict. However, the negative effects of globalisation have become more and more apparent in recent years. Problems accompanying economic growth and the increase in material wealth include high consumption of energy and other natural resources, the world environmental destruction, the concentration of wealth, the widening gap between rich and poor, and more complicated social contradictions due to the acceleration of capital flows and the human resources flow. Financial instability, food shortages, energy shortage, environmental pollution, climate change, illegal immigration, cross-border crime, terrorism, infectious diseases, product safety and many other non-traditional security issues have become central issues in world politics.
The outstanding contributions China has made in the past to the promotion of world economic growth and poverty eradication are obvious. The new challenges require China to play a new global role which is to promote sustainable developments based on the national condition, act as the locomotive of the global economy, and also make greater contributions to the protection of the world’s resources.
2. The second feature of the current world politics is that religious forces and different forms of ethnic nationalism are recovering all over the world.
Although religion and ethnic nationalism do play a role in strengthening social cohesion, they can also be used to prevent or hinder peace, stability and prosperity. In addition, they may result in the gap and even hatred between different religions, sects, and ethnic groups.
Chinese civilisation is diversified with different cultures, religions and ethnic groups. Chinese people welcome the interaction between civilisation and cultures. We oppose isolation, hatred and ethnic separation. We strongly oppose resolving conflicts between religions, sects and ethnic groups through violent means. China can and should play a role in the interaction and communication between different civilisations and cultures as well as in promoting world harmony.
3. The third feature of the current world politics is the shift in the centre of world power, the centre of world wealth, and the driving forces of development.
The shifting process of the centre of world power, wealth and driving forces from the West to the East would not be smooth, nor would it be without any obstacles or traps. Difficulties, troubles and criticism would also be shifted with the shift in power, wealth and driving forces.
China should evaluate its own strength calmly and objectively in the process of shift. A careful analysis of the growth and decline of international forces should be carried out. We should adhere to the principles of international morality, but avoid unnecessary involvement in the centre of the vortex of the global political conflicts. First of all, China will adhere to the non-alignment policy, opposing the idea of power politics. Second, China will continue the opening-up policy and cooperation with other countries and will not determine the relationship with other countries based on ideology and social systems. Third, China will establish a new model of modern development based on innovation and the expansion of domestic demand, not on material resources. Thus, in the process of the shift in the international situation, China’s development can be a predictable and stable factor.
4. The fourth feature of the current world politics, also the core feature, is that international rules and orders are going through major changes.
There is much evidence that international organisations established after World War II and the existing mechanisms for global cooperation are far behind the process of globalisation, which caused the emergence of a serious “deficit” in the international mechanism. The growing “deficit” in global governance means that the existing international mechanisms can hardly address emerging global issues. There is an urgent need of reform and innovation. Otherwise, some regional conflicts, ethnic and religious conflicts will be out of control, cooperation between the major powers would be difficult to deepen and continue, and the harmony of man and nature has to suffer more serious damage.
As an active participant and beneficiary of economic globalisation, China has been through a process of new understanding of and gradual adaptation to the existing international political and economic order. With this understanding and adaptation China will play a more active role in the maintenance of the reasonable norms and orders among the existing international norms and orders, reform the incomplete and unreasonable old rules, and advocate and participate in the formulation of new rules. Active participation in both the formulation of international rules and the improvement of international political and economic order is one step closer towards the implementation of the principles China has advocated in recent years, which are “to keep to the path of peaceful development” and “to build a harmonious world together”.