Ambassador Lu Shaye: If some people feel that China is "arrogant" than before, it may be because they are accustomed to a China that once "did not fight back and scolded and did not return the mouth", and they could not adapt to a stronger China that can better defend national interests and its own image.
On March 5, 2022, Ambassador Lu Shaye was invited to attend the special exchange event "China's Diplomacy in the Face of Major International Challenges" organized by the United Nations Inter-University Committee (CINUP) in Paris at the French École Supérieure des Management (ISG). ISG President Sebag, CINUP President Gioson and more than 100 students from the universities on the committee attended the event. The whole event was broadcast live through the web platform.
Ambassador Lu first delivered a keynote speech, using rich examples, detailed data, and vivid language to explain in depth how to view China, how to look at peace and development in today's world, and how to look at the three major issues of Sino-French-Eu relations, and responded to and refuted the erroneous arguments related to China in a targeted manner. Ambassador Lu said that human society has reached a new crossroads, facing the choice of closure or openness, war or peace. As long as the international community works together under the banner of multilateralism and carries forward the "anti-epidemic spirit" of working together in the same boat and the "Olympic spirit" of peaceful competition, it will certainly be able to overcome the current challenges and jointly move towards a brighter future. Ambassador Lu also sent a message to the young students present, expressing the hope that the young generation will give full play to their own advantages, use an inclusive and objective attitude to discover and introduce the real China to France, build more bridges and pave more roads for Exchanges and Cooperation between China and France and China and Europe, and jointly build a better and united world.
Subsequently, Ambassador Lu interacted with the students and answered questions about the changes in the international order, the situation in Ukraine, China's development and foreign policy, the "Belt and Road", China-Africa cooperation, China-India relations and people-to-people exchanges between China and foreign countries in the context of the epidemic. The atmosphere of the whole event was friendly and warm, and the students listened carefully and asked questions enthusiastically, expressing their benefits and unfinished intentions, and looked forward to the opportunity to continue in-depth exchanges with Ambassador Lu and the Chinese Embassy in France in the future.
The United Nations Intercollegiate Committee in Paris is composed of the Association of Students majoring in Diplomacy and International Relations of well-known universities such as Sciences Po, Paris High Business, Paris II, Paris III, Paris X, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures, etc., and is one of the largest intercollegiate student organizations in France.
The full text of Ambassador Lu Shaye's keynote speech is as follows:
Dear Principal Sebagh,
Students,
Hello everyone! It is a pleasure to be here at the École Supérieure des Managementes in Paris to participate in an exchange event organized by the United Nations Interscholastic Commission in Paris.
Young students are the most dynamic force in society, and your strong interest in international affairs and China reflects the vigorous vitality of young people in actively exploring the outside world. Before the event, the organizers gave me a list of suggested topics, I looked at it, and the issues that everyone was concerned about summed up in actually three categories: how to look at China, how to look at the peace and development of the world today, and how to look at China-France-China-EU relations. Today, I would like to take these three issues as the main line to talk to you about China, the world, and China-France-China-EU relations.
According to the organizer's suggestion, I will first spend 40 minutes to talk about my views, if you have questions, we can continue to communicate in the next interactive session.
The first question is, how do you see China?
For most ordinary French people who have not been to China, they know China mainly through the Internet and the media. If you type China into the Google search bar, Wikipedia will tell you that China is the world's most populous, second-largest economy, and third-largest country, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a member of many international organizations, and is regarded as an important pillar of the world economy. If you pay attention to the Western media, you will see that the news about China appears in the newspaper every day, but it is always "the Chinese government is authoritarian and dictatorial", "China violates human rights", "China's lack of economic growth is dragging down the world", "China's failure to fight the epidemic" and so on, as if China has no cure. If you look at social media, you will see many so-called Western "China experts" who have hardly ever been to China, who have criticized and attacked China, while many foreigners who actually live in China praise China.
So what does the real China look like? Today, I take the just past 2021 as an example, and use some data and examples to introduce you to some real stories that happened in China, hoping to help you form your own judgment.
2021 is a landmark year in Chinese history. In this year, three major events have happened in China.
The first major event, we solemnly celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Last month, the Argentine ambassador to China, after accompanying the Argentine president on a tour of the History Exhibition Hall of the Communist Party of China, sighed: "Without the Communist Party, there would be no new China." Indeed, it is precisely under the leadership of the Communist Party of China that China has been able to undergo tremendous changes in the past century, from an old China with frequent wars and chaos and a lack of livelihood to a vigorous and prosperous new China, from being poor and weak to the world's second largest economy, from having no industrial base to being a big manufacturing country in the world, and from a people's living standard from insufficient food and clothing to a well-off society in an all-round way. Over the past 40 years, we have fed nearly 20% of the world's population with 9% of the world's arable land, lifted more than 850 million people out of poverty, and formed more than 400 million middle-income groups. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and the joint efforts of the Chinese people, China quickly brought the epidemic under control in china. At present, we still have sporadic sporadic cases, but thanks to the precise prevention and control policy, the normal life of the people is basically unaffected. Under the background of the epidemic, China's economic growth rate for the whole year still reached 8.1% last year, continuing to maintain its global leading position.
Many Western media and politicians often say that the Chinese Communist Party is an authoritarian and authoritarian party, and that China is an anti-democratic, human rightsless country. This is illogical. If this is the case, how can the Communist Party of China lead the Chinese people to achieve these achievements? With regard to the political system and democracy, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, once said that the ultimate test of a political system is whether it can improve the living standards of the majority of the people. If you compare a country to a company, if someone tells you that the company is not doing well and is losing money, but the board of directors is particularly regulated, will you buy shares in this company? China's "board of directors" is also doing well, but is that enough? We believe that democracy should be the unity of procedural democracy and substantive democracy, and that in addition to procedures, we should pay more attention to results. In the final analysis, democracy is to ask questions about the needs of the people and benefit the people, not to live in the temple and talk about it. I can give you a set of comparisons. A large number of data show that the living standards of more than half of the people in the United States have not changed much in the past 30 years. In just over 70 years, China has gone from one of the world's poorest countries to a middle-income country. In China, more than 80 percent believe their government serves the majority of the people. In the United States, 52 percent believe the government serves a minority. In China, about 90 percent of senior cadres and civil servants come from ordinary families. In the United States, where social classes are solidified, the richest 1 percent own the vast majority of wealth. Fewer than 5,000 people have died from COVID-19 in China, compared with 940,000 in the United States, and four times as many as the total population in China.
Chinese often say that "one side of the water and soil to support the other side of the people", the same reason, "one side of the water and soil has the other side of democracy". Human society has been able to develop and prosper to this day, relying on diversity. Many Westerners often talk about "cultural diversity", but they are reluctant to accept "democratic diversity". Democracy is also a culture, a political culture. It is not reasonable for Western countries, which account for less than 15% of the world's population, to believe that their systems should be accepted by all mankind. The history and national conditions of various countries are very different, and the harm of forcibly grafting a Western-style political system is endless. In exploring the road of democracy in modern times, China has also suffered a lot and paid a heavy price for simply copying foreign models. Looking at the world today, once any country is forcibly transplanted into Western-style democracy, the result is often catastrophic, and in the end it is innocent people who suffer. Therefore, we believe that whether it is culture or politics, we need to respect and appreciate the strengths of others, so that each country can independently choose its own path, harmony and difference, beauty and commonality.
The second big thing is that last year China celebrated the 20th anniversary of its accession to the WTO. In the past 20 years, China has actively fulfilled its WTO accession commitments. As early as the 10th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO, Hmé, Director General of the WTO, said that China has fulfilled its WTO accession commitments by more than 100 percent. For example, in terms of opening up the market, the overall level of China's import tariffs has been reduced to 7.4 percent, lower than the 9.8 percent pledged to join the WTO, lower than all developing members, and close to the level of developed members. The service sector has opened 120 subsectors, much higher than the 100 required for WTO accession. In terms of laws and regulations, in order to "integrate" with the WTO rules, the central government has cleaned up more than 2,000 regulations and departmental rules, and local governments have cleaned up more than 190,000 local policies and regulations. In order to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, China has set up intellectual property courts in Beijing and other places, and has set up intellectual property courts in various provinces and cities. China respects WTO rules and has implemented case-specific rulings previously made by the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, even if China has different opinions. In the past 20 years, China has achieved common development with the world through continuous reform and opening up. The total economic volume rose from 6th in the world to 2nd place, and the global share of GDP increased from 4% in 2001 to 18% in 2021; trade in goods rose from 6th in the world to 1st place, and the scale of foreign direct investment in China increased by an average annual rate of 6.1%; the global top 500 enterprises increased from 11 in 2002 to 143; and outward direct investment rose from 26th in the world to 1st.
A few Western countries claim that the benefits of China's accession to the WTO do not match the contributions made, and even say that China has "robbed its own domestic workers of their jobs." Such accusations are baseless. In fact, China has made important contributions to promoting global sustainable development, and its average annual contribution rate to global economic growth has been close to 30% for many years, and it is the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries and regions, becoming an important engine of world economic growth. Any country has gains and losses in international competition, but you can't compare your own damaged sector with China's beneficiary sector, that is, you have suffered a loss. So what about the beneficiary sectors in your country? Moreover, the root cause of the domestic economic problems of these countries lies in themselves, not in other countries. In addition, China is one of only a few major developing countries in the WTO that has committed to zero tariff treatment for 97 per cent of the exports of LDCs. Since 2008, China has been a major export destination for LDCs, absorbing more than a quarter of their exports. It can be said that the world, especially developing countries, has benefited a lot from China's development.
Some media have questioned China's "double cycle" to decouple, saying that China has closed its doors because of the epidemic and is even more "closed". Facts speak louder than words. In 2021, China's foreign trade grew by 22% against the background of the epidemic, and the annual foreign trade scale continuously crossed the two major steps of 5 trillion yuan and 6 trillion US dollars. At the fourth China International Import Expo last year, nearly 3,000 companies from 127 countries and regions participated in the exhibition, and the number of countries and enterprises exceeded the previous session, and the intended turnover exceeded 70 billion US dollars. Last year, China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Earlier this year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), to which China is a party, entered into force. All this shows China's firm determination to expand opening up and promote regional economic cooperation.
Third, last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the rightful seat in the United Nations. 50 years ago, New China restored its legitimate seat in the United Nations, marking the true representation of the Chinese people, who account for nearly a quarter of the world's population, in the United Nations. Over the past 50 years, China has firmly safeguarded world peace and security, adhered to international fairness and justice, never provoked a single war, and has always been committed to politically resolving hotspot issues. Over the past 50 years, China has vigorously promoted global development. We have achieved a miracle of poverty reduction, contributing more than 70% to global poverty reduction. We attach great importance to the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, provide the international community with important public products and cooperation platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, and make unremitting efforts to promote global cooperation on climate change and protect biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, China has continuously promoted the construction of the international rule of law. It has acceded to almost all universal intergovernmental international organizations and participated in more than 600 international conventions and amendments. Over the past 50 years, China has fully supported the United Nations in playing a central role in international affairs. We firmly stand that there is only one system in the world, that is, an international system with the United Nations at its core; that there is only one order, that is, an international order based on international law; and that there is only one set of rules, which is the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. Over the past 50 years, China has actively participated in the work of the United Nations in the fields of science, education, culture, health, women and youth, and has continuously contributed to the improvement of human health. It can be said that as the world's largest developing country and a permanent member of the Security Council, China is playing an increasingly important, even mainstay, role in promoting world peace and development.
As China's influence in international affairs has grown, so have the voices critical of China. Some people say that China has become stronger, so it is becoming more and more "arrogant", and some people say that we are engaged in "wolf diplomacy". But if you pay attention to the speeches of Chinese leaders to the outside world, you will find that China has always been humble and tolerant, and has never made condescending and aggressive remarks. Chinese culture has always been kind to others, will not take the initiative to provoke trouble, but also will not let others bully. Over the past few years, the United States and other individual countries have continuously poured dirty water on us and slandered, smeared, and even demonized China internationally. The Western media are greatly influenced by the United States, and their reports on China are becoming more and more negative and distorted, full of prejudice and misunderstanding. Although the Chinese government has clarified and expounded the truth countless times, individual countries and Western media have simply turned a blind eye and listened to it. In desperation, our diplomats had to have some slightly "tough" responses, but they were also all facts, reasoning, and convincing people with reason rather than making things out of nothing. If some people feel that China is "arrogant" than before, it may be because they are accustomed to a China that once "could not fight back and scolded and did not return the mouth", and could not adapt to a stronger China that could better defend its national interests and its own image. I suggest that students can check the website of the Chinese Embassy in France or the article on Twitter, you may feel something.
After talking about China, let's talk about the world again.
I don't know how my classmates think about the world today. However, judging from the Reports of the French media on the international situation, "chaos", "epidemic", "war" and "challenge" are the most frequent high-frequency words, reflecting everyone's general confusion and concern about today's world. I believe that the development of the world situation should be viewed dialectically. On the one hand, we are in a century of changes, there are natural disasters and man-made disasters, and we are indeed facing the risk of chaos, disorder, and separatist confrontation again. But at the same time, negative forces are also constrained by positive forces, and opportunities and challenges always coexist. For example, although we are in the epidemic of the century, we quickly developed a vaccine, and through joint cooperation we have seen the dawn of victory over the epidemic; for example, some people are keen to build walls and advocate closure and decoupling, but more people advocate openness and cooperation and common development; for example, some big countries advocate hegemony and bullying, creating camp confrontation, but more countries oppose the "new Cold War" and look forward to peace. Human society has reached a new crossroads, closed or open, war or peace, how to choose?
Chinese is an optimistic activist, always believing that chaos arises in the changes of the past century, but there are also opportunities in the chaos, whether it is a "clash of civilizations" or a "Thucydides trap" is not fate, as long as the international community works together under the banner of multilateralism, it will certainly be able to overcome the current challenges and move towards a brighter future together. I feel that in this process, the two "spirits" are very important and I would like to share them with you.
The first is the "anti-epidemic spirit" of working together in the same boat. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has made us realize as never before that the fate of mankind is intertwined, and no one can stand alone in the face of global challenges. As Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out at the World Economic Forum at the beginning of the year, "In the turbulent waves of global crisis, countries are not riding in more than 190 small boats, but in a big boat with a shared destiny." Last July, the IOC voted unanimously to add "more solidarity" after the Olympic motto "faster, higher and stronger", which is the first revision of the Olympic motto in more than 100 years, fully demonstrating that "unity" is the common voice of the international community.
President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that big countries should have a big look. As a major country, China has set an example in promoting global solidarity. Taking the COVID-19 vaccine cooperation as an example, China was the first country to start providing vaccines to countries in need, and it is also the country that provides the most vaccines to the outside world. In terms of total, we have supplied more than 2.1 billion doses of vaccine to more than 120 countries and international organizations to date. One dose of every two doses of vaccines used worldwide is "Made in China." From a country perspective, more than 60 countries around the world have mainly used Chinese vaccines to respond to the epidemic, and half of the top 10 countries in the global total number of vaccinations and the top 10 countries in terms of per capita vaccination volume have taken Chinese vaccines as the main force. Developing countries are the biggest beneficiaries of China's vaccines. Many developing countries received the first vaccines from China, and most of the vaccines received so far have also come from China. Of the 1 billion doses of vaccines distributed in the COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan, China's vaccine deliveries accounted for nearly one-fifth. At present, a production network of "Chinese vaccines, multinational manufacturing, and global service" has been initially formed in the world, and the vaccine production projects cooperated with China have been officially put into production or entered the trial production stage in 12 countries, 8 countries have signed cooperation agreements with Chinese enterprises, and many countries are in contact with Chinese enterprises for negotiations. Almost all of these countries are also developing countries. From the earliest commitment to vaccines as a global public good, to the earliest support for vaccine intellectual property exemptions, to the earliest cooperation in vaccine production with developing countries, China has always adhered to the concept of a community of human health, improved the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries, and contributed real Chinese strength to cracking the "distribution deficit" and bridging the "immunization gap".
Just now I mentioned that human society is "in the same boat", since it is in the same boat, it should be paddled in one direction, rather than restraining each other and attacking each other. But the differences, differences and even competitions between countries are indeed objective and difficult to avoid, how to deal with the relationship? From this I would like to speak of the second spirit, the "Olympic spirit" of peaceful competition. I believe that everyone has paid attention to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which just ended not long ago. This world-renowned sports event has injected warm power into a world of epidemic winter and turmoil. In fact, the essence of sports competition is also competition, but why can the most fiercely competitive opponents in the Olympic arena compete peacefully and encourage each other? I think we can learn at least three things from this: First, seek common ground while reserving differences and respect differences. Athletes of different skin colors, different countries and different faiths should be allowed to compete on the same field and show their own style. Second, the purpose of competition should not be to simply defeat each other, but to use the opponent as an incentive to surpass oneself and make progress together. Third, competition must follow the rules. As far as international relations are concerned, the authority of the United Nations must be upheld and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations must be upheld. No country, not even a superpower, can replace international rules with its own will, let alone override them.
There are also some misunderstandings and lies about the relationship between China and the world.
One of the most famous fallacies is the "China threat theory", and the most popular one is the so-called "Thucydides Trap". In fact, China has never wanted to dominate, and it doesn't even care whether the total economic volume can surpass that of the United States. How to let the 1.4 billion Chinese live a good life and meet the people's yearning for a better life is our goal. We still have a lot to do in our country. You know, China is still a developing country, our per capita GDP is a quarter of France, one-sixth of the United States, there are 1 billion people have not flown, Chinese only 15.4% of the population with university education, which is what we attach great importance to and strive to change. The United States has spent $2.3 trillion on fighting in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, while in China, we have spent $250 billion on poverty alleviation in the past decade, lifting nearly 100 million people out of poverty. Rather than competing with the United States for hegemony, we are more willing to devote our resources and energies to the cause of the welfare of the people. But if the United States wants to list China as an imaginary enemy and carry out comprehensive containment and suppression of China, we also have to fight back. All countries in the world are equal, China also has the right to development, and the Chinese people also have the right to live a good life. We also hope that the first developing countries such as the United States and Europe can more inclusively view the development and progress of developing countries, including China.
Recently, the situation in Ukraine has changed suddenly, which is actually a matter between Europe, the United States and Russia, but China has accidentally "laid down its gun". The US State Department spokesman recently said that the direction of development of Sino-Russian relations is worrying, suggesting that Russia has China's support behind it before it dares to act. This is pure nonsense. In less than 250 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the United States has not launched military operations abroad for only 20 years, and since the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has never taken the initiative to launch a war with the outside world. Our understanding of peace is clearly different from that of the United States. China has played a constructive role in promoting the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian issue. We firmly advocate respecting and safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, and the legitimate concerns of all countries should be taken seriously and properly resolved. We support all diplomatic efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, including the Normandy mechanism. And what has the United States done? If it were not for the continuous delivery of weapons to Ukraine by the United States, the escalation of tensions, and the exaggeration of war, would the situation in Ukraine have come to this day? I'm afraid I'm going to put a question mark. The U.S. criticism of China on the Ukraine issue is like a person who adds fuel to the fire, and it is irresponsible to criticize a person who has not succeeded in fighting the fire. As for Sino-Russian relations, they are based on "non-alignment, non-confrontation, and no targeting of third parties." This is essentially different from the US side's use of ideological lines to draw gangs and gangs to engage in group politics and create confrontation and division.
Finally, I would like to talk to you about China-EU-France relations.
In the past two years, the international situation has changed rapidly, and Sino-European relations have also undergone some changes. Last year, a series of new developments were made in China-EU relations. Economic and trade cooperation bucked the trend, with the annual trade volume reaching 828.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 27.5% year-on-year. The China-EU Agreement on Geographical Indications has officially entered into force, the high-level dialogue mechanism in the field of environment, climate and digital has been officially launched, and the number of China-EU express trains has reached a new high. China and the EU have broad consensus on safeguarding multilateralism and strengthening global governance, and have achieved positive results in addressing climate change and jointly fighting the epidemic. But at the same time, China-EU relations have also experienced twists and turns. In March last year, the European Union imposed unilateral sanctions on China based on lies and disinformation, which had an impact on bilateral relations. The Eu-China investment pact, which had been painstakingly negotiated for a long time, was shelved by the European Parliament. At the same time, the EU has continuously strengthened and expanded a series of economic and trade toolboxes, resulting in Chinese enterprises worrying about the EU investment business environment and losing confidence in European investment.
Many students are concerned about where China-EU relations will go in the future. I think that whether China-EU relations can get out of the current difficulties or the future direction of development, to a large extent depends on how the European side views China. Since march 2019, the EU has proposed a "triple positioning" of relations with China, and in the past three years, the development of China-EU relations has been seriously disrupted. China has always believed that it is normal for China and the EU to have different historical, cultural, social systems and stages of development, and that it is normal to have different views on some issues, but the two sides complement each other's advantages, have extensive common interests and huge needs for cooperation, have far more consensus than differences, and cooperate far more than competition. Cooperation is the right way, confrontation has no winners. As the two major forces, two major markets and two major civilizations in the world, it will be a blessing for the world and a blessing for mankind if we can learn from each other's strong points and complement each other's weaknesses and form a joint force on the basis of mutual respect.
Sino-French relations are one of the most stable sets of relations in China-EU relations and in the relations of major powers. President Xi Jinping has said that China and France can change the world together. Looking back at history, Sino-French relations have set many firsts: France was the first Western power to establish diplomatic relations with New China, President Pompidou was the first Western head of state to visit China, France was the first Western country officially visited by a Chinese leader, and it was also the first Western power to carry out civil nuclear energy cooperation and establish partnership with China. In recent years, the two sides have worked closely together in international affairs to promote the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, and play a constructive role in hot issues such as the Iranian nuclear issue and Africa. After President Macron took office, Sino-French relations continued to develop steadily. The two heads of state have exchanged visits, and since the epidemic, they have maintained close communication and have made eight phone calls. Last month, the two heads of state spoke again to exchange views on a series of major international issues, clarifying the direction of China-France pragmatic cooperation in the next stage. Under the guidance of the head of state's diplomacy, China and France have moved in the same direction and made joint efforts, and bilateral cooperation has achieved a series of groundbreaking results. Last year, the trade volume between China and France exceeded US$80 billion for the first time, a record high; agricultural cooperation achieved remarkable results, and China's total imports of agricultural products from France increased by 40% year-on-year. This is particularly valuable in the context of repeated epidemics and slow economic recovery. China attaches great importance to China-France relations and France's leadership within the EU, and looks forward to France playing a more active leading role in China-EU relations.
All of you here today are young students studying international politics or who are concerned about international issues, and you are the backbone of future French diplomacy. I hope that you can give full play to the advantages of the young generation, use an inclusive and objective attitude to discover and introduce the real China to France, and use the wisdom and strength of your generation to build more bridges and pave more roads for Sino-French and China-Europe exchanges and cooperation, and jointly build a better and united world.
Thank you! That concludes my remarks, and I would like to share with you below.