It aims to spread the lessons learned from 40 years of reform and opening-up to aid other developing countries
The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s opening-up and reform. In that period, the country has gone through dramatic changes to become the world’s second-largest economy. China is the world’s largest manufacturer and trader of goods and has the largest foreign exchange reserve. China’s destiny has never been tied so closely with the world’s fate.
However, China’s huge development over the past four decades has been the achievement of the country’s 1.3 billion people, rather than a gracious gift. What the president and vice-president of the United States have said in terms of China being transformed only by its engagement with the West and following its model is just not true. You could say the transformation has been partly brought about by economic globalization.
President Xi Jinping expressed the view of anti-protectionism in his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2017. Xi’s strong defense of globalization and free trade is vastly supported around the world. This is just one example to prove that China’s development and changes help maintain and boost economic globalization.
What happened 40 years ago was the Third Plenary Session of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which took place in December 1978. Soon after, in January 1979, China and the United States established diplomatic relations. This is not only a very significant milestone for Chinese diplomacy, but also one of the essential external conditions for China’s opening up and reform. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing last month to renormalize the relationship between China and Japan.
China’s adjustment of its foreign policy created a beneficial external environment for the country’s reform and opening-up. In 1978, for example, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan and traveled to many parts of the country on the bullet train. Impressed by Japan’s remarkable modernization, Deng said, “It was just right for us,” which was later interpreted to imply his determination and ambition to lead China on a path of reform and opening-up.
China rejoined the International Monetary Fund in 1980 and joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The past 40 years have proved that reform and opening-up is the only path that China should have traveled. Now the second decade of the century is almost over and China is already capable of helping other developing countries in the world, which is the very embodiment of economic globalization and its cultural significance.
Chinese people value both righteousness and interest. Before China’s reform and opening-up, Chinese people used to put righteousness before economic interests. Ideology came first. But since China’s reform and opening-up, we became more practical. We have learned that we need to first develop ourselves and improve living standards before thinking about other things. Today, this new era has raised another question: How can we find a balance between righteousness and interest under the current historical circumstances? We cannot think about self-interest all the time.
A voice in the world said that China should be a responsible stakeholder years ago. This is the requirement or the expectation for China from the outside world. China is a responsible big country by any standard. We are taking the global responsibilities and aiding other developing countries based on our own development standard and competence.
China has taken a series of steps trying to help other developing countries boost their economies. China also helps maintain the reputation and influence of the United Nations. For example, China pays the second most membership dues to the UN, sends the largest peacekeeping force and established a UN peace and development fund.
China continues to increase its foreign aid. At the FOCAC Beijing summit in September, China announced it would extend $60 billion (52.5 billion euros; ￡45.8 billion) of financing to Africa in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies. Some people wonder why we spend so much money on foreign aid. China’s foreign aid divides into three parts – grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans. What we need to further study is how we can better combine China’s development, technology and human resources with the actual needs of other developing countries so that we can realize mutual development.
Mutual development is a very important expression here. Now we have a new administration running under the State Council, the China International Development Cooperation Agency. The task of the agency is to use foreign aid to bolster major-country diplomacy, enhance strategic planning and coordination of foreign aid, and better serve the country’s overall diplomatic layout involving the Belt and Road Initiative.
China’s development and success are based on the trend of economic globalization and will reinforce the trend as well.
The author is professor of international relations and director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Foreign Policy at Fudan University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
(China Daily European Weekly 11/09/2018 page11)