(East-West Question) Special Plan for the Root of Civilization (3) 2: Italian scholar Fabio Pallandi: What is the difference between China and the West's development model?
China News Agency, Beijing, February 22, Question: What is the difference between China's development model and that of the West?
The author is Fabio Massimo Pallandi, associate professor at the Italian Lorenzo de Medici International School, and foreign associate professor at the China Foreign Affairs University
China's development is unprecedented in human history.
In the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, no other country has successfully escaped widespread poverty, or even defeated absolute poverty, like China.
Currently, China has become a key player in the international arena, and its development model (including political, economic and organizational models) is increasingly being studied and studied.
The uniqueness of China's development model
A key word in China's diplomatic tradition is "coexistence," which means rejecting confrontation between political entities and continuing to advocate ideas and practices that oppose international competition and conflict.
In less than 70 years, New China has become the second largest economy in the world, and its economic and social development speed has attracted worldwide attention, but it has also been regarded as a threat by the NATO alliance system led by the United States (at least since the late 1990s). .
The development experience of contemporary China is amazing, not only in the speed of development, but also in the longevity of its civilization.
Xiamen, the frontier of China's opening-up and development, has witnessed the speed of China's development.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Dongming
There is a huge difference between China's development and the rise of Western powers.
China's peaceful development does not harm the interests of third countries, and it has never waged war or exploited its people.
In other words, the "China Miracle" did not fall from the sky, nor did it have colonial and imperialist practices.
On the contrary, this great change was realized through the century-old practice of the Communist Party of China.
My recently published book in Italian, "The Road to China - Challenges to a Common Future" (available in short Chinese and English versions), attempts to analyze the uniqueness of the Chinese model at the national and international levels compared to the Western model.
Although Chinese civilization has been highly modernized and can learn and draw lessons from the advanced culture in the development of Western civilization, the difference is that China has a unique and long history.
A continuum of history, philosophy, and practice pervades contemporary Chinese politics, centered on the Confucian tradition and historically fused with Taoism and Buddhism.
As the British scholar Martin Jacques said, unlike other developing countries, China's political system has not been Westernized.
Knowing the real China is the minimum requirement for building a healthy, peaceful and visionary partnership.
Mutual understanding and mutual respect should be a prerequisite for global governance.
In China's vision, global governance should foster peaceful relations, which require ongoing commitment, discussion, and dialogue.
How to understand China's peaceful development?
There are three main reasons for China's peaceful development.
First, peace has always been the mainstream of China's historical development.
Both Fairbank and Giovanni Arrighi emphasized that China had five centuries of peace from the 14th to the 19th century (with a few exceptions), but Europe had only experienced about a century of sustained peace (1815-1914).
In general, China has never been expansionist since ancient times, nor is it a promoter of an arms race, while Western countries are the opposite.
Second, peace and peaceful development are important characteristics and visions of socialism, as well as a prerequisite for national liberation and development.
In modern history, China has always been an important force against imperialism and the leader of non-aligned third world countries.
Third, peace is the basic principle of contemporary Chinese diplomatic culture.
Since 1954, China's diplomatic culture has always followed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.
The 2021 "Belt and Road" annual Chinese character release event was held in Qufu, Shandong, the hometown of Confucius.
In the end, the word "mutual" came to the fore.
Photo by Liu Jianxin issued by China News Agency
The Belt and Road Initiative is another proof of China's peaceful development
The Belt and Road Initiative builds peaceful relations through exchanges, dialogue, and mutual understanding, not only as a way to strengthen commercial and financial interdependence, but also as an opportunity to strengthen political coordination, people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding between countries.
China fully recognizes the need to solve the problem of inter-regional connectivity, and therefore proposes the “One Belt, One Road” initiative centered on the Eurasian continent and Africa and covering the whole world.
The history of exchanges and cooperation on the ancient Silk Road provides an important cultural basis for the emergence of this initiative today.
The "Belt and Road" always insists on the priority of the real economy, people's livelihood over interests, and cooperation over competition, replacing alliance groups with partnership (there is no political discrimination between countries), and replacing confrontation with tolerance (no military alliance or investment is required). Therefore, It is another clear proof of China's peaceful development.
Historically, nothing like this has ever been born in the West, not even in its heyday.
In December 2021, as an important part of the "Silk Road Grand Corridor" of the "Belt and Road" initiative, the Xinjiang G575 Highway East Tianshan Special Long Tunnel will enter the final stage of construction and will be opened to traffic soon.
China News Agency issued a photo by Cai Zengle
Other differences between Chinese and Western development models
Capitalist expansion captures and destroys rival assets through commercial, financial or geopolitical competition, leading to increased inter-state rivalry and creating space for “endless accumulation.”
In over-expansion, some overseas economic capital actually grabs profits at extremely low prices through financial or military action (the US model) in the absence of competition and political corruption.
China's approach is the opposite, not through military expansionism, nor by establishing a stifling credit system, negotiating and negotiating with partners to establish sustainable loan lines with no political strings attached (such as non-interference in internal affairs) , firmly support multilateralism and peaceful coexistence.
It can be said that globalization with Chinese characteristics is taking shape.
In August 2018, before the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held, the national flags of China and African countries fluttered in the wind on the lamppost in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jia Tianyong
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a new systemic crisis, and the West has exposed structural flaws that have accumulated over the past few decades, errors and weaknesses that are not unrelated to the political-economic model of neoliberal globalization.
Information chaos, social division, underestimation and politicized manipulation of the epidemic by Western governments are just a few examples.
From neoliberal globalization to globalization with Chinese characteristics?
Neoliberal globalization can be linked to the "counter-revolution to the Keynesian revolution" process that began in the late 1970s.
Over the decades, countries have become increasingly connected, but socioeconomic inequalities, factors of instability have also increased: such as the systemic financial and economic crises of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and the phony “war on terror” In the name of "humanitarian" warfare (actually in support of regional terrorist operations for strategic purposes) and regime change.
Today, the nature of neoliberal globalization is becoming clearer.
The state is increasingly intervening in the economy (promoting the deregulation of the market), the government has become the voice of business groups and their special interests, and Western neoliberalism has exposed profound structural flaws, when compared with the Chinese concept of a community with a shared future for mankind appear particularly prominent.
As mentioned earlier, the history of neoliberal globalization, marked by systemic crises and “humanitarian” wars, has produced the most vicious and destructive outcomes since the 1990s.
On the other hand, China has accelerated the construction of infrastructure such as ports, railways, industries, digital, aviation, etc., and strengthened international cooperative research on global issues such as medical and health care. The "Belt and Road" initiative and China's international influence continue to expand.
In 2018, 60 Nigerian outstanding high school graduates were sent by the Nigerian Ministry of Communications to Chang'an University and Central South University respectively to study in two majors: civil engineering and transportation.
The picture shows Nigerian students visiting and experiencing the Xi'an EMU.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuan
The Western model is aggressive and destructive, and China's peaceful development model is an alternative.
Therefore, the United States and its allies began to create "threats" to hinder China's development: rebuilding and replicating the unipolar world system through joint military, financial, social, and media actions, constantly playing with fire and losing the last remaining credibility.
The United States is placing itself and the world in constant turmoil and chaos, while China is bridging the gap between nations in a constructive, rational, and effective way, for the benefit of all mankind, not a few.
(over)
About the Author:
Fabio Massimo Parenti is an associate professor at the Lorenzo de' Medici International School in Italy and a foreign associate professor of international economic policy at the School of Foreign Affairs (China).
He has been engaged in contemporary China studies for 15 years, teaching courses on global financial markets, Chinese development and global transfer, globalization and social change, warfare and media, and most recently on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
He is the author of many Italian, Chinese, English monograph.