29
DecThe Premier’s visits reflect the concept of “commonness”
On November 9, Premier Li Keqiang returned to Beijing by special plane after successfully attending the 15th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments (Prime Ministers) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States, the 3rd Regular Meeting of Premiers of China and Kazakhstan, the 5th Summit of China and Central and Eastern European Countries and the 21st Regular Meeting of Premiers of China and Russia. The one-week tight schedule has again played an important role in China’s creating mutually beneficial and win-win public goods and the process of its system platform.
Half a year ago on July 13, 2016, Premier Li Keqiang paid a visit to Mongolia and attended the 11thAsia-Europe Meeting held in the capital Ulan Bator. The visit means that Premier Li Keqiang is the first foreign leader that has paid a visit to Mongolia after the general election in the country; more importantly, it finalized the establishment of several mechanisms between Chinese and Mongolian Governments such as Joint Committee on Economy, Trade and Technology, and Cooperation Committee on Minerals, Energy and Connectivity, an increase in investment in Mongolian infrastructure with respect to the cooperation between China and Mongolia covering economy and trade, energy, infrastructure, finance, climate change, media communication and other fields, promotion of the synergy between China’s “One Belt and One Road” Initiative and Mongolia’s “Prairie Road” Initiative and the plan of achieving a bilateral trade volume of USD 10 billion dollars by 2020.
As we known, since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Mongolia, as an inland country neighboring only China and Russia, has been eager to acquire quality international investment and trade market that tallies with its capacity advantages, and be integrated into the globalized international political, economic and social trend as early as possible. Support from China in terms of economy, transportation and Internet infrastructure has created spatial and temporal possibility for development of Mongolia and greatly relieved Mongolia’s cost pressure from political and economic recovery.
The cooperation between China and Mongolia focuses on enabling Mongolia to achieve its modernized development objectives and solve the problem of structural regional poverty as soon as possible with development dividends of the rise of China. It is based on China’s concept of optimizing and reshaping the surrounding environment and also conveys such a value signal that the international system initiated by China is different from those by great powers in all previous historical periods and China will abandon and refute the thinking paradigm of those great powers of shaping their status by pursuing an order that governs the will, but more emphasize the value idea of “common development, profit sharing, common destiny and common governance”.
Later, in China-Cuba “Old Friends” Visit launched on September 25, China-Kyrgyzstan “Good Neighbors” Exchange on November 2 and the “Join Hands across Asia and Europe” during the Summit of China and Central and Eastern European Countries, Premier Li Keqiang constantly underlined the win-win idea in the bilateral/multi-lateral cooperation and communication.
It is known that in international cooperation, the largest difficulty lies in opaqueness of inter-state cooperation information and unequal national strength, and some countries tend to take political actions seeking unilateral benefits, so as to place the cooperation into dilemma of mutual suspicion.
However, China has proven that the concept is not absolute with its wisdom and in its own way. President Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan gave the comments in a recent speech that China was Kyrgyzstan’s “trustworthy and reliable neighbor who does good to Kyrgyzstan” and “our neighbor China is pleased to see a prosperous Kyrgyzstan and it never poses any political conditions on Kyrgyzstan, nor does it impose its will on Kyrgyzstan”.
Obviously, the concept of “commonness” that China has been adhering to in promoting regional development and cooperation is the principle under which China develops into a regional and even global service-oriented power, creates and supplies international public goods, “a new conception” apart from Hobbes thought of antagonism politics and Machiavelli’s rules of hegemony morality that are popular again worldwide, and a realistic decomposition of western values and discourse system.
Medium-term Planning for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries and Suzhou Outline for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries delivered in “16+1 Cooperation” in Latvia as well as a series of Sino-Russian cooperation in the field of people’s livelihood and energy science and technology proposed in the Joint Communiqué of 21st Regular Meeting of Premiers of China and Russia held in Russia by Premier Li Keqiang indicate that China expects that the people in countries having bilateral/multi-lateral relations with China will feel more gains and the governments will feel more practical.
China put forward the policy of the regions prospering first and helping other regions become rich later when solving domestic economic development difficulties; now we have applied the experiences and achievements of the theory and practice to central Europe and Asia and other underdeveloped areas while infrastructure industry, as economic pillar of China, trade industry and rapidly developing financial and service industries can also benefit from such pull-type cooperation. Through the five visits paid by Premier Li Keqiang in 2016, China has obtained orders with a total value of nearly USD 140 billion dollars, pushed the brand and scale of Chinese international public goods to the 2.0 age. “Commonness” contained in the spirit of these cooperation and services is not only a rhythm, but also a Chinese value and wisdom.
Synchronization of micro and macro control to optimize macroscopic regional governance
As Premier Li Keqiang put in the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting held in July 2016, Asia and Europe are witnessing overall peace and stability at present, but various traditional and non-traditional security challenges are still prominent, among which terrorist activities are a common challenge. Different countries should work together to strengthen anti-terror cooperation, build a truly open and inclusive society and radically eliminate the breeding grounds for terrorism.
Though European and American countries have carried out in-depth studies on international terrorism and dealt with it for the longest time, in view of how they control terrorism, they have no thorough understanding of the essence of the increasingly severe problem. From North Africa to the Middle East, regions or countries that suffer terrorist activities generally have poor and closed social environment and are susceptible to the corrosion of religious extremism; especially in regions with sluggish economy and high unemployment rate, there are higher risks of political disorder and social instability. Guided bombs, unmanned aerial vehicles and special troops cannot eradicate terrorism; for example, large-scale USA military presence in Afghanistan fails to solve the longstanding treat of terrorism in the region, and even renders it to spread to North Pakistan and Central Asia.
Macroscopic control of non-traditional security problems essentially depends on promoting economic recovery and infrastructure revitalization in underdeveloped regions, realizing efficient circulation and exchange in terms of personnel, culture and information, and making social and cultural structure opener, more modern and inclusive, which requires economic investment and capacity cooperation and connectivity advocated by China; on the other hand, non-traditional security problems, especially cross-border crime and terrorism, remain recurring illness of the international community and should be restrained and integrated by the framework of international organizations and systems, for which different countries should reach a consensus featuring unified standards, joint strike and information sharing. All these pose new challenges and requirements on building of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) functions and in order to satisfy bidirectional demands of “construction” and “breakthrough” for regional security governance as early as possible, SCO should therefore be further improved and developed.
At the Meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments (Prime Ministers) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States held on November 3, 2016, Premier Li Keqiang put forward six suggestions for future development planning of SCO, including deepening security cooperation, accelerating road connectivity, promoting trade and investment facilitation, strengthening financial cooperation, boosting ecological and energy cooperation, and expanding cultural and educational exchanges, reflecting the concept of bidirectional governance, i.e., microscopically curbing and macroscopically eradicating, of cross-border non-traditional security problems in Europe and Asia, such as terrorism, religious extremism, cross-border crime and international drug trafficking.
International public goods are benefits instead of burdens
The 21st century has witnessed continuous deepening of economic globalization and regionalization, accompanied with constant extension of problems such as environmental pollution, financial crisis, territorial disputes, ethnic contradictions, religious conflicts, terrorism and transnational crimes, so that sovereign states and the international community are faced with increasingly complex and diversified challenges globally, regionally and domestically. How to effectively deal with or solve these threats and challenges or bring about more effective international public governance policies is a new demand under the current situation.
Supply of more international public goods has increasingly become the strong demand and general consensus of the international community. In the face of the present situation of insufficient international public goods and the common expectation of the international community, China, as a responsible power, is actively participating in global and regional affairs and plays an important role in maintaining world peace and development, and promoting regional mutual trust and cooperation, fully presenting the undertaking of a responsible world power. Global and regional governance not only helps solve non-traditional security crisis at present, but also represents an opportunity for China to lead the construction of a new international order and value featured by unity in diversity and common destiny, which can deepen the cooperation between China and countries concerned, and allow more Chinese economic and trade, ideas, wisdoms and cultures to go out.
The Netherlands became the most powerful country in Europe at the end of the 16th century by providing and maintaining the international marine trade rules proposed by Hugo Grotius, Britain maintained the power of discourse of “the empire on which the sun never sets”in the world by pursuing complete global trade norms while the USA consolidated its leadership in the 1970s after the hegemony declined through more binding international laws, global systems and value systems; therefore, for China in its rejuvenation, creating more novel and up-to-date international public goods is an important part of the “soft power” and power of discourse and international status cannot simply be measured by wealth.
Opinions