China will grow in strength yet not seek hegemony.

 

Viewing China’s rise, some Western analysts and leaders have argued that a country will inevitably become arrogant and seek hegemony when it grows strong. They worry that China will also follow this historical logic and that its rise will become the biggest threat to global stability.

Actually, the logic only applies to the histories of Western powers in the past 500 years. Modern world history has been a series of contests for global hegemony among the Western powers: In the 16th century, Spain and Portugal dominated the seas and began to carve up the world. In the 17th century, the “sea coachman” Netherlands sprung up and gained world hegemony. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain and France vied for power and colonies in the world. In the late 1800s and early 20th century, Germany and Japan industrialized and tried to conquer the world. After World War II, the world became the battlefield for the United States and the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, this logic cannot be applied to China. China’s rise is inevitable, but it will follow a road that diverges from Western historical logic. China will grow in strength yet not seek hegemony. This logic is justifiable in the following aspects.

The first is China’s cultural genetics. In Chinese culture, there is no element of hegemony. The nation loves peace and never conquers by force. In Chinese people’s blood, there is no desire to tyrannically abuse power and become a hegemon. It always pursues harmony while respecting differences. The peaceful path China takes today is just an inevitable choice rooted in Chinese culture. Chinese people do not agree with Western logic. In their mind, bullying is a practice of the weak rather than the strong. 

The second is Chinese history. China does not have a tradition of dominating the world. In history, China was the world’s strongest nation for more than a millennium, yet it never practiced hegemony. In modern times, as its national strength declined, it was plagued by war and invaded by foreign powers. Therefore, it understands better the value of peace. The decision to seek the road of peaceful development is based on the experiences of suffering in modern times.

The third is world history. A country that achieves hegemony will surely decline. This is an inescapable law. Throughout thousands of years of world history, countries that sought to dominate others one by one collapsed. They only invited their own destruction. There are almost too many examples to name but the list includes the Ancient Roman, French, Ottoman, Persian and British empires as well as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the 20th century. Learning from history, one can know the rise and fall. China has the wisdom to avoid the mistakes of its predecessors.

The fourth is the policy of the ruling party. The CPC will never pursue world hegemony. In the beginning, the CPC put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as well as an independent foreign policy of peace. It vowed that China will never engage itself in aggression and territorial expansion, nor will it ever seek hegemony or dominance over other nations. Moreover, the CPC always endeavors to promote democracy in international relations while standing firm against hegemony and power politics. It also opposes unilateralism and advocates a multipolar world. The CPC never violates its word.

The fifth is reality. China does not bully other countries. Ever since the founding of New China, subversive activities by anti-China forces, like military intervention, peaceful evolution and color revolution have never stopped. Having Western powers to back them up, some small neighboring countries also have attempted to challenge China’s baseline. They viciously wish for China’s disorder, trying to break up the peaceful international environment as well as China’s peaceful rise. Despite this, China still remains calm and has maintained the utmost control and patience. It insists on resolving disputes through peaceful negotiation rather than force.

All in all, China’s peaceful rise and development will not threaten world peace. On the contrary, a rising China will form the backbone of world peace and equality among nations.

 

Yang Ting is from the School of Marxism at South China Normal University.