中文
By Josef Gregory Mahoney
China's top leaders and foreign affairs officials gathered at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs in Beijing from Dec. 27 to 28, 2023 to review diplomatic achievements and set the agenda for the nation's foreign affairs in the coming years.
President Xi Jinping reviewed experiences and achievements in developing the major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era and outlined comprehensive plans for future work relating to foreign affairs. In a separate speech, Premier Li Qiang emphasized the importance of using Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy to guide China's foreign affairs.
Since its founding, the People's Republic of China has predominantly focused on domestic development, or what it calls "internal affairs," as opposed to foreign affairs or "external work." This is not to say that foreign affairs were neglected or given inadequate attention in previous generations. Rather, China's rise to major country status has come with new risks and responsibilities, elevating the importance of foreign affairs. It now faces new challenges that impact both Chinese and global well-being, including climate change, pandemics, and malign and malingering hegemons.
As President Xi acknowledged in his New Year message, which primarily focused on domestic affairs, the year 2023 was challenging for China, but significant progress was made. This understanding also guided the conference on foreign affairs. Of course, for those who pay attention, it was already very clear that China, in addition to having successfully emerged from pandemic controls and stabilized the economy, had also made big progress in foreign affairs.
For some, this was symbolized by the summit held by President Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco late in the year, following a slew of ups and downs that were not only characteristic of the past year but were also largely in line with the same trends of several years prior. The general impression was that China-U.S. relations were still veering downward, creating greater uncertainty for regional and global security and development. The fact that the year ended with something like a "mini-détente" between the world's two major countries was not only good news for everyone but also very timely for many, arriving just before potential new flashpoints, including elections in Taiwan and a fractious presidential campaign in the United States. By the way, many scholars and journalists have returned to the well-worn phrase used to describe American politics over the past seven years: "a descent into madness."
Perhaps "great chaos under heaven" can sometimes offer strategic opportunities, and perhaps some tigers are made of paper, but the old or wounded tiger is sometimes the most dangerous. Nevertheless, a dragon never fears a tiger.
In fact, the year ended on a high note. China had held its ground on many fronts and achieved greater strategic autonomy. It also avoided the chaos encountered by others and offered the world peace, security, and development. This was demonstrated by celebrating the 10th anniversary of the world-changing Belt and Road Initiative; and likewise the historic diplomatic reconciliation that Beijing helped broker between Riyadh and Tehran, substantially based on the Chinese foreign policy principle of "seeking common ground while reserving differences."
In fact, among the many achievements and points of guidance highlighted by the meeting, there were two inter-related messages above all others that should attract international attention. First, attendees were reminded to stay confident in the face of global challenges. Despite concerns about high-tech competition, blockades, "decoupling," "de-risking," and other issues potentially devolving into global catastrophes, they were told "the overall direction of human development and progress will not change, the overall dynamics of world history moving forward amid twists and turns will not change, and the overall trend toward a shared future for the international community will not change."
This optimism contrasts with the gloom and pessimism prevalent in other parts of the world. Understandably, societies facing immense suffering have worldviews shaped by their experiences. Discussing optimism for the future with the Palestinians, for example, might be misplaced. Likewise, it’s understandable why many Americans, on the left, right or center, are convinced their country is going to hell in a handbasket. Altogether, such negativity not only normalizes and excuses chaos but also broaches a type of nihilism that can veer from depraved indifference and inaction to apocalyptic militancy, seemingly determined to turn bad to worse.
In many countries worldwide, political dysfunction, polarization, and breakdowns in effective governance have become the norm, leaving people more vulnerable to unmet, intersecting challenges. And yet the view from Beijing is quite the opposite, a perspective that corresponds with China having avoided or at least mitigated many of those same challenges through effective governance in domestic and foreign affairs.
The second major message for international audiences to note here is the conclusion that it's "imperative for China to uphold its principles." As an official report of the meeting noted: "On major issues concerning the future of humanity and the direction of the world, we must take a clear and firm position, hold the international moral high ground, and unite and rally the overwhelming majority in our world. It is imperative to shoulder China's responsibility as a major country. We need to advocate the spirit of independence, champion peaceful development, and promote global stability and prosperity."
This message will strike some anti-China hawks around the world as disingenuous. They will point to unresolved questions related to China's land and maritime borders, where China has asserted sovereignty and security, and likewise point to issues related to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Xizang, which are not international issues at all but entirely internal matters. They will twist China's neutrality regarding the Ukraine crisis or its unwillingness to support unrestrained Israeli military operations in Gaza as somehow being responsible for instability and human suffering. They will claim that standing one's ground, standing against hegemony, and standing with the Global South is provocative and destabilizing.
On such thinking, the conference offered a clear rebuke. China will continue "building a new type of international relations," implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Belt and Road Initiative. China will continue to "call for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization." China will do these things because it "seeks to bring countries together to meet challenges and achieve prosperity for all and usher in a bright future of peace, security, prosperity, and progress for our world."
Who else in the world has offered such a bright and optimistic message? Who else in the world is taking bold steps to make such a vision possible? Only the so-called dragon, with the Year of the Dragon just days away.
Josef Gregory Mahoney is professor of Politics and International Relations at East China Normal University and senior research fellow with the Institute for the Development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at Southeast University and the Hainan CGE Peace Development Foundation.
