Source: Global Times
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Under the leadership of the Party, China's economic development and social governance, including China's roads, theories, systems and culture, have shown an upward trend in the face of major changes unprecedented in the world in a hundred years, and their advantages have become more and more obvious. However, many people are surprised that in the face of these advantages, why is the international public opinion environment in which we live more and more sinister, and we are frequently attacked and smeared by the West, especially the United States?
The stress response is to clarify the truth
In fact, the reason behind it is not difficult to understand. When your internal development has not yet shown obvious advantages, others will not particularly care about you. Therefore, in the context of economic globalization, the past environment was relatively better. Now, our advantages have risen, and the development path we have taken is different from that of the West, and China is not shaping itself according to the Western model, so some countries and some people in the West have irrational psychological reactions. What can shake someone's confidence and vision? It's that you don't follow others, but you go faster. In addition, although our attitude is very clear, we do not sell China's path to developing countries, do not force others to learn from China, and have always believed that countries must confidently follow a development path that suits their own national conditions, some Westerners do not see it that way. They think that if you don't follow the Path of the West and develop, you will definitely have a demonstration effect on developing countries, which is also what they are worried about. In this mentality, they always pick faults with China's "Belt and Road" initiative and practice, and always want to come up with new movements and programs to replace the "Belt and Road" initiative.
In the face of the attacks, smears and rumors on us in public opinion in the United States and some Western countries, many Chinese netizens feel aggrieved in their hearts, so they increasingly choose to reactively go back. This is a very natural reaction, because we want the outside world to hear and see the real situation about China, rather than the distorted "image of China" by the Western media and politicians. It cannot be required that Chinese netizens are all "saints" and can face the state of "being scolded" with tolerance and generosity.
In the long run, as citizens of a big country, after the "stress response", we need to be more calm and highly minded. And this mentality is to go through a process to be more mature and constructed.
The West lacks tolerance for other civilizations
The United States, Europe, and the West, especially the political elite, have difficulty accepting different ideological cultures. For example, the former East Germany and the current Russia have not been accepted by the West in terms of cultural integration and social identity. In the exchange and integration of different civilizations, there are always congenital obstacles. What is civilization and what is culture? Different spatial regions, traditional customs, production and lifestyles, etc., will inevitably form different ways of thinking and values, including the way of looking at and dealing with problems.
In the pre-Qin period, although China was a hundred schools of thought, it eventually moved towards an inclusive cultural mentality. Including the Chinese nation itself, it is also "pluralistic and integrated", which is the result of the integration of different ethnic units. As a result, Chinese eventually formed a very mature mechanism when dealing with different civilizations - that is, tolerance. That is, Mr. Fei Xiaotong said that "each is beautiful, the united states and the united states are together", mutual appreciation, mutual reference. In history, China is very good at learning from foreign civilizations, very good at getting along with different civilizations, and is accustomed to choosing useful things to do creative transformation and innovative development.
The civilization and habits of Europe and the United States, from the beginning of the city-state system in ancient Greece to the Roman Empire, are different from those in China. What they value is competition, confrontation, division in two, only conquest and suppression, and then they can get along, even if they get along, they are condescending. To achieve "pluralism and integration", the obstacles faced in the West are much greater than those in China. Under such circumstances, the West does not view Chinese civilization as tolerant as Chinese view Western civilization. However, the development of practice and history has proved that the pluralistic coexistence, mutual reference and harmonious coexistence of different civilizations is the choice that human beings should make, and it is also a scientific choice, which is in line with the trend of historical development.
Unfortunately, when some in the West believe that China's development advantages have some kind of impact or threat to them, they increasingly attribute these reasons to the clash of civilizations. This is a very realistic attitude in Western political or strategic circles today. For example, Dr. Keeren Skinner, who served as director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State in 2019, said, "The United States is preparing to deal with the clash of civilizations that will occur between the United States and China." The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was "a conflict within the Western family"; the current dispute between the United States and China is "a contest with a completely different civilization and different ideology." Her basis is that "China today is not a product of Western philosophy and history." This view is unscientific, but it reflects the deep-seated reasons why some U.S. and European political elites and intellectuals do not accept China ideologically.
This also shows that the construction of Chinese culture and Chinese institutions, as a heterogeneous civilization different from the West, is a fairly long process to be accepted by the West. In this regard, it is also necessary to understand what is the connotation of the West's "acceptance" of Chinese culture or the Chinese road? As I wrote in the book "Q&A china", we understand the acceptance: the first step is to acknowledge your objective existence, the second step is to admit your rationality, and the third step is the highest, that is, to see which places are useful to you, and then learn from it to develop yourself. It's a "three-step process."
Confidence and patience come from solid development
In the long run, the mentality we should have is: First, no matter whether others accept it or not, we must have self-confidence no matter what step we accept. Since we have walked on our own soil for thousands of years and formed the Chinese road, we must have a cultural and civilized determination to follow our own path.
Second, on the basis of civilization and political determination, we must also pay attention to highlighting the cultural characteristics and value advantages contained in China's road to the world. For example, in China's actual economic exchanges with foreign countries through the "Belt and Road" initiative, no political conditions are attached, which is our value advantage. Unlike some Western countries, economic exchanges are often mixed with political and cultural considerations. Through various ways to manifest these things, to tell the world in the actual situation, Chinese culture and Chinese road have moral highs, and China's image is credible, lovely and respectable.
In this process, we must have confidence and patience, in the final analysis, we must do our own things well, and safeguard the overall situation of the great rejuvenation strategy of the Chinese nation. As long as our development is not delayed, the historical process of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is not delayed or setbacks, and we can move forward in accordance with the prescribed strategic objectives, we will have the greatest basis for embodying our own confidence. The combination of our patience and confidence gives us the drive and ability to achieve our goals.
As long as we take the road well, others will not be able to shake our road, system and civilization, not only can not be shaken, sooner or later we will have to go to the "three steps of acceptance", either to admit that the Chinese road is objectively existing, or to admit that the Chinese road is reasonable, or to feel that there are still many merits in it. Because in the information age, self-media and social media are becoming more and more developed, although some Western traditional elite media are reluctant to report on China's advanced side, but many Western people are looking at it. As long as China develops well, over time, Western people will spontaneously spread China's experience in self-media and social media.
For example, in the face of the epidemic, China first did a good job in dealing with the epidemic, we did provide good epidemic prevention services for the people, and the people also consciously cooperated, plus China has a strong mobilization and organizational ability, which is indeed superior to some Western institutional arrangements. This not only gives us confidence and patience, but also makes many Western people start to pay attention to the "Chinese experience".
China itself is a big book with rich content, a very turbulent story, and a very long span. Moreover, every Chinese is a factor in the content of this book. This raises the question of how we can jump out of the part where we are and read the big book of China from a higher perspective to understand China.
To understand China, we need to understand today's situation, how did today's life come about? Not only must there be vertical thinking, but also horizontal comparison, but also to look at China beyond China itself. When talking about China, some issues may not be clearly seen and thoroughly. When you put China in front of the general trend of the world, in the modern history, in the history of the world, you will find how great the changes in this country, how bumpy the experience of this country is, and how difficult it is to struggle. We will also understand what the people's demands are and why China should embark on its own development path. (The writer is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress and former deputy director of the Central Literature Research Office)