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China's goal: Peace and development

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-09 07:51

David Shambaugh: Role in global security

China's capacity to contribute to meeting global security challenges is inextricably interlinked with its conceptualization of its growing global role as well as the world's growing expectations from it. In other words, security is simply a subset of the broader question of China's contributions to global governance. In fact, the security sphere is one of the most challenging for China, simply because its capabilities for it are more limited than in other areas.

China possesses greater capacities to contribute to global financial and economic stability and growth, to development assistance in developing countries, to fight climate change through its own industrial and consumer growth, to global public health through its domestic as well as international actions, to global innovation and technological development through its indigenous innovation, and to global energy consumption through its appetite for natural resources and investments in new energy technologies.

In all these areas, China's capacities to influence global patterns and global governance are greater than in the security sphere. Yet, in all of these areas, the degree and intensity of China's global involvement and contributions will be heavily influenced by a combination of external expectations and internal debates.

One thing is certain: the international community, particularly the developed countries in North America and Europe, will expect a continually growing contribution from China to meet global challenges and global governance commensurate with its new power, size and growing role.

China can, of course, help its own case for global multilateral security cooperation by continually enhancing its military transparency, acting in non-provocative ways toward its neighbors, and through continually expanded participation in multilateral and bilateral peacekeeping activities and security forums.

China has, in fact, become quite active in addressing "non-traditional" security threats in recent years, and is making positive contributions to several areas. Increased Chinese contributions to disaster relief, poverty alleviation, public health, and a broad range of other "non-traditional" security challenges/threats will also continue to gain Beijing international prestige. China is already contributing quietly to intelligence sharing and to counter-terrorism, monitoring financial institutions for money laundering, strengthening controls against human and drug trafficking, and cracking down on organized international criminal networks.

China has joined an expanding number of United Nations peacekeeping operations (2,155 peacekeeping troops in 12 countries). This makes it the 14th largest contributor of personnel (out of 119 contributing countries), but first among permanent members of the UN Security Council.

All in all, China's contributions to the peacekeeping operations have been a definite "net plus" for the UN, for China and the recipient countries. It is a tangible, perhaps the most tangible, indication of China's contribution to global governance. China's overseas development assistance is a significant contribution, too.

Thus, China's global security involvement has grown in some (non-traditional) areas, and has been very positive. China has also been active in working with other powers and in the UN Security Council on the Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear issues. But in other areas, China's participation remains quite limited.

In the end, however, all of China's involvement in global security will be shaped by its calculations of its national interests.

The author is a professor and director of the China Policy Program, George Washington University, US.

Zheng Bijian: Development trends

The first 10 years of this century were crucial for China, because it focused on building a better-off society. The next 10 years will be equally crucial for the same reason. China can look back at the first 10 years with some satisfaction. But how will the second decade go?

China will enter the middle stage of industrialization and a period of stimulating domestic demands in the next decade. As a result, it will accelerate the transformation of its social structure, rapidly increase its consumption and expedite the process of transforming itself from a lower-middle income to a higher-middle income country.

China will continue to give full play to its advantages during this period. It will have sufficient workforce and funds, its infrastructure will improve drastically, its material, technical and system foundation will become firmer, the impetus and vigor of its enterprises for competition will grow constantly, and the government's ability to implement macro-adjustment and macro-control and cope with complicated situations will be enhanced remarkably. As a result, its social situation in general will remain steady.

But China's economic and social development faces some difficulties and obstacles, too. For instance, its economic growth faces increasing constraints because of dwindling resources and environmental constraints, unbalanced relationship between investment and consumption, lack of technological innovation , unreasonable industrial structure and still weak agricultural foundation. Other difficulties include unbalanced urban-rural development, disparity in income distribution, pressure of total social employment and structural contradictions, and social conflicts, especially the increase in contradictions of interests among its people.

So, in the second decade, China will still be in the primary stages of socialism, and has to free itself of old ideas, persist with reform and opening-up, advance the development of science and technology, and promote social harmony. By doing so, it will build a better-off society, largely achieve industrialization, increase national strength, and will become a combination of "world factory" and "world market".

In short, it will become a country whose people are better off and have a higher spiritual pursuit.

The author is former executive vice-president, Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC.

Nicholas Platt: Growing together with US

China's economy grew exponentially after its planners embraced globalization. United States-China relations expanded in every way, and became increasingly intertwined. Trade, investment, and technology transfer became the new drivers of their dealings and the sources of cooperation and competition in their ties.

Looking ahead, the choice is clear. The US and China must address vigorously the issues that threaten their economic lives - market access, outsourcing, the growing trade imbalance, exchange rates, and intellectual property. Strategies to rebalance their economies are under way. China's peaceful development creates opportunities for the two countries to grow together. Neither country has anything to gain if the other fails.

As foreign direct investment expands in both directions, interdependence becomes the source of a stable, growing relationship. The two must help each other to address looming problems such as a large enough pension system to cover China's aging population. This can only be based on direct participation in the global financial system.

The greatest looming challenge for China and the US is climate change. They have no choice but to confront it together. The consequences of global warming, described by some as the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, such as rising sea levels, food shortages, mass migrations, widespread disease, droughts, flooding and political unrest already threaten countries across the world. China and the US will be forced to collaborate and concentrate their power even as the competition between them for supply of food, water, and energy intensifies. Ultimately, the fate of our planet depends on cooperation to control carbon emissions and develop clean energy.

Closer contact between peoples and governments of the two countries will be crucial for the future. US nationals know much less about China than the Chinese know about the US. The Internet, travel, student exchanges, and trade, investment, academic and military contacts are teaching the peoples of the two countries more about each other, but they need to increase the pace and the levels of such exchanges.

The author is president emeritus of Asia Society and honorary research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.