Unlike the initiatives put forward by China, complexity of thought is absent in the zero-sum thinking of Western policy circles
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The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China recently outlined the path for national rejuvenation and modernization that will lead toward the historic national goal of building China into a great modern socialist country by 2049, the year when the country will celebrate the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
This visionary and unprecedented development of China over the past more than 40 years since the launch of reform and opening-up has not been missed by the developing nations of the Global South. As a result, many countries have chosen to join the Belt and Road Initiative launched by China in 2013. China’s all-inclusive BRI proposal for global development and the elimination of poverty is based on the understanding that without modern infrastructure and innovation, development will be constrained. However, there is one crucial problem to recognize. That is: Infrastructure investment is not profitable in the short term. It is a long-term economic investment that lays the foundation for future rapid and successful economic growth. Western economic orientation is now dominated by short-term speculative investments, it leaves no room for long-term investments which are characterized by a moral orientation for the “common good”. For example, the continent of Africa will require trillions of dollars or yuan over 25 to 50-year periods to achieve the necessary level of infrastructure modernization in transport, power and electricity production, and modern water management. China, with the best of intentions, and ongoing BRI projects, in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, etc, cannot manage this alone. Yet the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union refuse to join hands with China to bring about such a long-term historic development for Africa and all mankind. Instead, they use accusations of so-called debt traps, de-risking and overcapacity to attack and criticize China’s role. In point of fact, the great majority of African debt is owned by Western companies in raw material exploitation, and short-term profit margins, not BRI-related projects.
To achieve China’s goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, including win-win economics, will require a fundamental shift in Western economic thinking. The reason for the great failure of Western powers to promote real infrastructure investment is the stubborn insistence on neoliberal short-term economic policies. The Western demonization of China comes as a result of the West’s fear and frustration that it is losing the ability to persuade emerging economies to follow its lead. The use of threats and coercion is no longer working. On the other hand, China is forging ahead with both internal rejuvenation and modernization as well as a clear orientation to focus on investing and improving cooperation and friendship with the Global South and the emerging economies in Asia, Africa and South America. It is time for Western policymaking circles to recognize the shortcomings of their present economic thinking. A shift in their orientation to cooperate with the BRI, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is long past due.
This necessary change requires a much more profound subjective understanding of the role of culture and civilization in the long-term processes of human history. China’s Global Civilization Initiative points in that direction. China has recently urged further efforts to preserve the country’s cultural and natural treasures and renew their glamour in the new era. The inclusion of these heritage items has positive significance for the building of Chinese modernization that features material and cultural-ethical advancement and harmony between humanity and nature, it also adds new luster to world civilizations.
The need to innovate and rejuvenate will not come from information technologies, digital innovation and artificial intelligence alone, it also requires talent and creativity. The emergence of the BRI is the result of the very unique history of Chinese civilization. The nature of human beings is fundamentally good, according to Confucius and Mencius. From this comes the importance of the family and the social factor that orientates society toward the common good.
Western civilization is presently dominated by a Hobbesian law of the jungle mentality. The strong dominate the weak, but even more importantly the nature of human beings is not necessarily good. It is sinful and driven all too often by selfish and egotistical desires. Applied to the larger global context it creates suspicion and mistrust. Your neighbor and fellow man are your adversary and not your friend. Therefore, other nations are ultimately seen as threats. Security and survival can only be assured by being more powerful than them. It is better to control and suppress them than to respect their sovereignty. This is the mentality of a failing civilization. Unfortunately, it runs very deep in the thinking of Western policymakers today.
Yet, there is more sound and very different thinking from certain important Western philosophical and cultural thinkers that can and should be brought back to life. The most important of these is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a Western philosophical thinker with great respect for and understanding of the importance of Chinese civilization. One clear and important step to bring about the basis for a cultural understanding and peaceful harmony among countries is bringing to the table these great thinkers for inspiring new knowledge and creativity.
The author is distinguished research fellow of Guangdong Institute for International Strategies and chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.
