China Announces “Peaceful Development” Strategy

September 7, 2011

China yesterday published an major top level paper on its foreign policy philosophy and plans over the next decades. The paper's title is China's Peaceful Development.

One would assume that the "west" would be interested in such a strategic paper but except for a short BBC notice and an agency report in The Hindu the "western" media have so far nothing about it.

The announcement by Xinhua explains the logic behind the Peaceful Development Strategy:

The white paper, titled "China's Peaceful Development", was released by the State Council Information Office. It introduces the path, objective and foreign policy of the peaceful development and elaborates on what China's peaceful development means to the rest of the world.

"Peaceful development carries forward the Chinese historical and cultural tradition, "it says.

The world has been believed to be a harmonious whole in the Chinese culture ever since the ancient times.
…
The Chinese have a strong collective consciousness and sense of social responsibility. The paper says "we believe that 'you should not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you.'"
…
"China will remain a developing country for a long time to come, which means that China must dedicate itself to advancing its modernization drive, promoting development and improving its people's livelihood. This calls for maintaining a peaceful and stable international environment and conducting international exchanges and cooperation." says the white paper.
…

"The world today is moving towards multipolarity and economic globalization is gaining momentum. There is a growing call for change in the international system and the world is facing more historical challenges. To share opportunities presented by development and jointly ward off risks is the common desire of the people of the world," says the white paper.
…
The international community should reject the zero-sum game which was a product of the old international relations, the dangerous cold and hot war mentality, and all those beaten tracks which repeatedly led mankind to confrontation and war.
…
"We want peace and not war; development and not stagnation; dialogue and not confrontation; understanding and not misunderstanding. This is the general trend of the world and the common aspiration of all people. It is against this historical background that China has chosen the path of peaceful development," says the white paper.

A peaceful mainly economic development in a peaceful multipolar world is what China wants to achieve. It still has quite far to go to reach an average wealth level compareable to "western" states. It rejects warfare as a means of furthering its own position.

I can with agree with those aims. A peaceful development by China can be of great benefit for the rest of the world. The question is if the "west", especially the U.S., will allow for it. The lack of coverage of this paper in the "western" media increases my doubts about that. From the general tone of U.S. papers and reporting on China it seems that the U.S. has chosen China as its next big bogeyman and justification for further wars. China will hopefully take that into account.

The full English text of the paper is here. It is a bit flowery and with nearly 10,000 words quite long but it makes some very serious and at times astonishing points. I recommend to read it and to keep it in mind when judging China's foreign policy and global behavior.

Posted by b on September 7, 2011 at 13:39 UTC | Permalink

Comments

the neocons want a “clash of civilizations”… and they propose to achieve “benevolent global hegemony” by use of “nuclear primacy”, which includes nuke first strikes on china and russia.
given the benevolence we’ve demonstrated so far in our quest to control oil and deny chinese access to oil, you dont need a scorecard to tell sho are the barbarians and who is civilized in this “clash of civilizations”, do you?
if this PNAC project is a valid demonstration of basic judeo-christian philosophy, that philosophy is obsolete.

Posted by: lead.and.lag | Sep 7 2011 14:36 utc | 1

Via: Cryptome

“TSA” indicates Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State, a book by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin.
TSA pp. 111-112: NorthCom and its sister command NORAD maintain subterranean backups at the mountain. And just in case everything goes down — command headquarters, the mountain, the nation’s telephone system, and the electrical grid — NorthCom also operates a fleet of six giant eighty-foot-long eighteen-wheel trucks sittting ready on twenty-four-hour allert in a barricaded compound at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, outside Cheyenne, Wyoming. The trucks, officially called the Mobile Consolidated Command Center, could take to the highways at a moment;snotice in a fifty-vehicle security convoy. A super-secret unit created to survice a full-scale nuclear war, they contain everything required — their own generators, SCIFs, a top secret local area network, satellite dishes, codes, and emergency decision handbooks — to direct a response to multiple terrorist attacks, launch American nuclear weapons, or even take over command of the United States government, if necessary.

Zbigniew Brzezinski and the boys are not interested in Peaceful Development…
Bilderberg vs. the SCO?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 7 2011 15:12 utc | 2

The next notice will be: the China embraces the Pope, and become all good christians.

Posted by: an idiot | Sep 7 2011 15:14 utc | 3

The elephant in the room is that the Chinese development policy, peaceful or not, cannot work.
It is oriented to growing GDP (building ghost towns, high speed trains, and other mal-investment), ignoring physical limits (burning coal for electricity for ex.) as well as controlling their periphery – the poor, outside the legit residents of main towns.
For ex. China destroyed the ‘communist’, ‘local’ health care system and replaced it with nothing. Strategic mistake.
Social protest in China is always on the point of exploding, but not reported, and cracked down on, the repression delivers, for now.
The central Gvmt. is actually very weak (imho), the financial circuits, lending, extracting, borrowing and building are in the hands of local party cadres and ‘banks’ and entrepreneurs.
The center seems reluctant to act for the ‘good’ for ‘all’ the Chinese, as they are concentrated on their own status / money and don’t see a clear way forward. (Or they cannot because of pressure from the periphery..) Mind you, afaik, the central authority is rift by different opinion strands (like Repubs and Dems in the US), with many factions having a voice.
High rise symbols of hubris do not a happy nation make. See Twin towers. Poof! .. Or Dubai.
The 5-year elections (local) are going on right now in China.
Legally, anybody can be a candidate, and many have, they use the internet, prospectuses, sell T shirts, get funding, and do all the modern stuff.
They have been repressed, most have given up. The local electoral committees find reasons to exclude these ‘outside’ candidates. (These are bodies that have legitimacy in law but are biz ppl, banksters, Mafia, defending their own interests, etc.)
Either the Center changes it ways; or the Chinese spring, so to speak, takes off; or parts of the country move towards rumbling or violent civil war. The Center is very aware of these alternatives (imho) but they are trapped in their own contradictions.

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 7 2011 16:22 utc | 4

There’s nothing more peaceful than becoming the planet’s number one polluter. The execution vans are a peaceful policy, too. A new take on the Ice Cream Man….he’ll put you on, and in, ice, alright.
http://current.com/community/91663737_mobile-execution-vans-in-china.htm

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Sep 7 2011 16:52 utc | 5

sounds like Confucius to me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
as I remember the Chinese communist party once tried to get rid of his influence.
also see here
http://www.economist.com/node/9202957
problem with Marxism is that Marx analyzed the world without taking his own huge influence into account. A country like China (or Russia) was not supposed to become communist.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 7 2011 18:46 utc | 6

there is also this economic war game where china comes out on top
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21053.html
and there is eric denece on Natos tactical victory and strategic defeat in Libya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=932c-YZXTvI

Posted by: somebody | Sep 7 2011 20:43 utc | 7

I see a lot more Sun Tzu than Confucius in this.
I have been searching for some indication that this is one of b’s ironic postings, but it seems to me that he is taking China’s rhetoric entirely at face value after all. I humbly beg everyone’s forgiveness for my inability to do the same, but this is not the first time I have heard self-proclamations about the “…strong collective consciousness and sense of social responsibility” this or that peace-loving people have.
I will have to read the paper closely when I have the opportunity in order to see what, if any, policy and points are raised. I see nothing in what b has excerpted, however, beyond entirely predictable salesmanship from a chronic abuser of both human rights and the global environment. What is presented here could have been produced as easily by the Chinese Board of Tourism as by the State Council Information Office.

Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 8 2011 2:18 utc | 8

The Peaceful Development paper reminded me of an Obama speech – long on repetition and platitudes and short on substance. It also falls short as a declaration of sincere good intentions. Taiwan and Tibet don’t rate a mention except as an afterthought in the Related Articles.
In the Taiwan related article, Premier Hu is quoted as saying
“We should join hands in opposing and checking separatist activities for Taiwan independence and work for the happiness of compatriots on both sides of the Strait and the future of the Chinese nation,”
This remarks begs the question of whether, in China, there’s a substantial difference in meaning between the word Peaceful and the word Friendly?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 8 2011 3:46 utc | 9

i love the whimpering about china’s sins…
china’s busted some heads, no doubt, but at least they’ve stayed more-or-less at home to do it.
when you compare china’s behavior to the PNAC/NATO lashup, china’s a model of restraint, and there’s not the slightest doubt, based on that comparison, of who the barbarians are.
the tragedy of china is this: china had to industrialize to gain enough knowledge and technique so it would be able to defend itself from the west… and when that industrial system starts collapsing, due to energy shortages, there’s gonna be hell to pay, and china will suffer… i guess they figure self-inflicted suffering is better than suffering at the hands of round-eye barbarians.
anyhow, it’s not as if china hasnt already experienced the benevolence of the west… at least chinese seem to have learned something from their experience, whereas israeli american barbarians and their euro allies seem to be locked in that same old predatory philosophy.

Posted by: lead.and.lag | Sep 8 2011 7:14 utc | 10

who are we?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/opinion/intervening-in-libya-rep-kucinichs-view.html

Posted by: somebody | Sep 8 2011 10:30 utc | 11

As with all marketing schemes, can the actions match the rhetoric?
We’ll see.

Posted by: ben | Sep 8 2011 13:39 utc | 12

It is all about China as a superpower getting its revenge for its loss of world status. They learnt from the West, State Capitalism and Propaganda W-style.
Not that such policy statements are per se hypocritical or lies, the authors probably believe it themselves to some degree, and some of the points made (I only read a bit) are inspiring and even factually correct (China doesn’t intend to nuke anyone.)
To be kind, it should be read as representing an ‘ideal’ which of course conveniently knocks away any analysis of the present situation (method inherited from the Communists) – be it inequality, trade imbalance, worker safety, desertification, massive fraud, energy crunch, education, social unrest, hold of Mafia-like orgs, staggering debt, corrupt ‘banking’, repression of minorities, health system shot, etc. etc. Like other places in the world!
As HoarseWhisperer points out, Obama and the like spout out similar garbage..

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 8 2011 13:56 utc | 13

This vid from Arte, France, is in Chinese with summary F subtitles.
It is about coal extraction in China, and makes no particular point, it is just a lot of film, following ppl.
Afaik, it is available world wide though its hard for me to test (EU docs about sensitive matters, like Iraq, are not visible in the US.)
All the discussions you see on phones or between ppl. are about the spot price of coal, distances, deals, agreements, and shouting matches about quality, etc.
Heh, I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff.
That coal makes underpants, fancy suits, dolls, computers, for US citizens and others.
http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/l_usage_du_monde-4112458.html

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 8 2011 18:45 utc | 14

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