Chapter 57 The Practical Significance of the Overall Strategic Thinking

Today's world is in the era of "peace and development". Although "peace and development" is the theme of the era, building real peace faces two challenges from objective facts.One is that the means by which a country obtains interests exist objectively.Since the core of politics is to obtain power and rights and interests, no matter whether the expansion of power or the maintenance of sovereignty, it is inseparable from the use of means.Second, the selfish nature of human beings exists objectively.There has never been real peace in history, and because human greed for power and interests will not disappear, there will continue to be struggles for power and interests.Therefore, competition, confrontation, and conflicts between countries, including wars, cannot be completely avoided.Under the circumstance that it is impossible to completely avoid it, if China wants to develop peacefully, it must study and discuss the ways of competition among countries in the era of globalization.This requires breaking through the thinking mode of studying strategy from war and studying peace from war, and transforming it into a way of thinking that studies strategy from peace and builds true peace from peace research.Because the current era is no longer the era of "revolution and war", but the era of "peace and development". The study of war strategy is the main product of the era of "revolution and war", which does not fully adapt to the reality of the era of "peace and development". The study of research and the way countries compete must be transformed into a way of thinking that builds real peace from peace research strategies and peace research.This change is not only a change in the method of strategic research, but also a new way of thinking about strategic rationality in the new era. A war broke out, and then the rise of China was realized through peaceful competition.

The core of human intelligence is thinking.In today's world, the competition of comprehensive national strength is the competition of economic power, political power, cultural power, and military power, the competition of science and technology and talents, the competition of world outlook and methodology, and in the final analysis, the competition of a nation and a country's theoretical thinking ability .Strategic thinking ability is related to the rise and fall of a country, and maintains the destiny of a country and a nation.As the revolutionary mentor Engels said: "If a nation wants to stand at the highest peak of science, it must not be without theoretical thinking for a moment." In this regard, we must fully understand it from a strategic height that affects the future and destiny of the party and the country.

The fundamental method of the scientific outlook on development is overall consideration, and its premise is scientific thinking.For the survival and development of a country, if there is no scientific strategic thinking and the mastery of scientific strategic thinking methods, scientific decision-making is out of the question.The major powers in the world today are dominated by two kinds of strategic thinking.One is to gradually realize the integration of political management based on the increasingly obvious trend of global economic integration.A prominent example is that in Europe, which has been in conflict for thousands of years, most regions have established a community and achieved unity.It has aroused strong calls for the establishment of regional economic communities in many parts of the world, and people have seen the dawn of the world from regional unity to global unity, which is the way to lasting peace in the world.The other is that the existence of the strategic thinking of great power hegemony still continues the traditional strategic thinking dominated by the "law of the jungle" where the jungle preys on the weak for thousands of years.In the second half of the 20th century, this traditional strategic thinking took the form of the Cold War thinking of the United States and the Soviet Union competing for world hegemony.History proves that this kind of traditional strategic thinking is constantly destroying human peace and triggering wars.In this case, peace is a wish to be won by struggle.This struggle can be peaceful or violent.As Mao Zedong said at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "I ask everyone to pay attention, don't think that everything will be smooth and wonderful in our cause. No, it is not like this. The fact is that there are two possibilities, good and bad, good and bad. There is a future."Today, there are also two possibilities and two prospects, namely: to maintain the rule of power and hegemony, to obstruct and destroy the democratization of international political order, and to maintain the "cold peace" state of hegemony.This is a possibility and a future.Another prospect and another possibility is the path of peaceful development and the idea of ​​building a harmonious world advocated by China.

On May 18, 2006, the British "Financial Times" published an article co-authored by writer Richard Coke and former British Culture Secretary Chris Smith, entitled "Western Civilization Faces a Harsh Choice". At the end of the article, it said: "The West Civilization has come to a crossroads. Down one path is cynicism, aggression, apathy, neoconservatism, and ultra-liberalism. The other path is... building an individual through self-improvement, striving, optimism, rationality, compassion A society cohesive with heart, equality and mutual recognition.” This sentence fully demonstrates that the former path has been proven not to be the best and only choice for human civilization, and this path is precisely what human civilization should gradually abandon.The latter path should be gradually perfected and pursued by human civilization. This path is exactly the path of peaceful development and harmonious world that China is exploring and implementing.As a large oriental country with an ancient civilization, China made such a strategic choice, positioning China's development path as "peaceful" and combining it with the concept of advocating the establishment of a "harmonious" world, based on the relationship between war and peace. Understand and grasp the pulse of the era of peace and development in today's world.The era of globalization is an era of peace and development, and an era of "turning upside down and generosity".If you misread the era and strive to be the "overlord of fame", you will definitely become the "poor bandit" that everyone in the world shouts and beats.The road of China's peaceful development, peaceful rise and harmonious world is the only way to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the bright road of human civilization.However, peace is not a cheap commodity, nor is it easy to maintain peace and peaceful development. So far, we must use superb strategic thinking ability to make accurate judgments on the situation in the development process in real time and implement correct strategies Guide, strive for the initiative, win the victory, and realize the strategic goal of the country's rise and rejuvenation.

Strategic competition and even rivalry between countries and groups of countries is not only a competition in action, but also a competition in strategic thinking between their strategic decision-making groups and think tanks.The strategic guidance layer is the formulation and implementation of the national strategy, and its strategic thinking is related to the rise and fall of the country, and maintains the destiny of the country and the nation.Superb strategic thinking ability can guide a country to stand forever among the nations of the world. The view of materialist dialectics on universal connection and modern system theory of philosophy believe that system is the way of existence of matter, matter exists as a system, and system is an organic whole composed of interconnected elements and parts within things.This is just as the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said: "The whole is not equal to the sum of the isolated parts. As a whole, it produces new functions." To play the overall function, we must pay attention to the overall situation. If you don’t plan for everything, you can’t plan for a while”, so the relationship between the whole and the part must be properly handled.The whole is made up of parts, and there is no whole without the parts.Likewise, the part is dependent on the whole, and there is no part without the whole.If there is gain on the whole, there can be some loss on the part; if there is progress on the whole, there can be some retreat on the part.The "road of socialism with Chinese characteristics" marked by peaceful development is an organic whole composed of political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military and other parts.What is the overall thinking?What are you doing?It is required that the part cannot be separated from the overall situation and the whole.At the same time, the overall situation and the whole should also care about the parts, so that these parts are full of vitality.So far, when we explore the path of China's survival and development in the future, we must think around the whole and the overall situation of "the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics".

At the same time, we must also think about politics, economy, culture, diplomacy, military and other parts and specifics, so that multiple parts and specific functions can be fully brought into play, forming a new overall powerful function, and laying a solid foundation for the "road of socialism with Chinese characteristics" overall service.So far, in the future development of China, we should grasp the essence of things and the contradictions in complex and diverse international contradictions with overall strategic thinking in accordance with the viewpoint of materialist dialectics on universal connection and the holistic principle of modern system theory of philosophy. The main aspect is to correctly judge scientific decision-making, implement favorable strategic presets, and seek an active position in national development.

Overall strategic thinking is a scientific thinking activity that makes judgments and decisions on the survival and development of the country's politics, economy, culture, diplomacy, military and all social fields from the highest level.This kind of thinking activity requires systematic thinking and planning of various things in the context of the international environment, so that things can be coordinated as a whole to achieve the best effect.This kind of thinking activity also requires that political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military and other resources, means and forces be closely coordinated and mutually supported to play their roles more effectively.This kind of thinking activity is also a kind of realistic and countermeasure thinking activity, and it is a countermeasure to meet the requirements of the country's survival and development.To put it figuratively, it is a kind of bird's-eye view thinking, and it is a countermeasure for the survival and development of the country from the perspective of grand strategy.This is the embodiment of the macroscopic and systematic nature of strategic thinking.

In today's world, mankind has entered the era of informationization and globalization.This is an era of great rise, great development, and great innovation, as well as an era of great competition.From what perspective do we observe and examine the global security environment?From what kind of perspective, observe and examine the competition between countries and nations for survival and development?With the continuous acceleration of the globalization process, what is the development prospect of the world security situation?What will be waiting for us?What threats will we face?How will we respond?These are all questions that require in-depth consideration.In particular, the rapid development of China's comprehensive national strength based on the economy today has greatly changed China's strategic environment and its position in the international strategic pattern.This change makes China's development face the pressure of developed countries' overall superiority in politics, economy, culture, diplomacy, military, science and technology, and the overall security of politics, economy, culture, military, social environment, science and technology, and information. Threats and challenges, and the provocation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity by "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.All of these require us to respond to challenges from the perspective of grand strategy, with overall strategic thinking, and seek an active position in the country's future development in the competition.

In accordance with the overall layout of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must comprehensively promote the comprehensive modernization of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, including national defense construction.From this perspective, China's development strategy should include economic rise, political (diplomatic) development, cultural revival, and military modernization. At present, from an economic point of view, China's "rise" is an economic "rise".Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China has actively promoted economic regionalization and globalization by joining various international and regional economic organizations, and its influence has begun to surpass Asia and reach every corner of the world, including the United States and Europe.The Chinese economy grew by an average of 9.6 percent from 1979 to 2004, and by an average of more than 9.5 percent from 2001 to 2005.In 2006, China's economic aggregate surpassed that of the United Kingdom and jumped to the fourth place in the world.China's foreign exchange reserves exceeded US$1 trillion in 2006, ranking first in the world.In 2006, China's total import and export trade reached US$1.76 trillion, making it the third largest trading nation in the world.Although this is a remarkable achievement, according to the "three-step" strategic deployment, the economic "rise" has only just started.

From a political (diplomatic) point of view, since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it has established its status as a political power. After many major risks, China has come through. This reflects that the Chinese Communist Party can analyze and judge domestic and The international environment, and adopted effective strategies in a timely manner to resolve crises and risks, safeguarding the survival and development of the country.The economic revitalization brought about by China's reform and opening up has further fully demonstrated our party's ability to govern.This is the fundamental guarantee for our career development.In terms of diplomacy, my country uses the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" to manage its neighbors and the world, communicate with everyone, make friends with everyone, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Created a good external environment for China's economic rise.In the foreseeable future, political reform and development will be equally important to China.

In this regard, special attention must be paid to avoiding the traps set by some external people with ulterior motives for China's political reform and development; attention should be paid to preventing some politically naive internal people from becoming fetters consciously or unconsciously due to short-sightedness.I believe that our party can lead the Chinese people to achieve China's political development with a brand-new political civilization. From a military point of view, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea established the important position of our army in the world.Over the past few decades, the modernization of the Chinese military has been developing continuously. Even in the period of "the military must endure", the modernization of the military has also developed to a certain extent, and firmly safeguarded the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In the future development of the military, it is necessary to distinguish between "military modernization" and "military rise". It is a country that tilts the entire country's economy and technology disproportionately towards the military.Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War all had manifestations of this military rise.Engaging in an endless arms race is even more characteristic of the rise of the military.In terms of military affairs, what China wants is military modernization, not the so-called "military rise".The future is to build the military into a new type of people's army that can adapt to the ever-changing international situation and security environment, can face various new threats and challenges, can quickly conduct various military operations, and can win future information wars , making it truly a powerful guarantee for China's peaceful development. Culturally speaking, culture is an important aspect of China's great rejuvenation.Culture, economy, and politics are interconnected and interact with each other, forming an indivisible organic unity.Over the years, especially since the reform and opening up, China has not only paid attention to cultural construction, but also has more practical measures and steps in action.Such as: increasing investment in cultural research and construction, increasing reform of the cultural industry, increasing publicity on cultural safety, and so on.These measures played an important role in China's cultural revival.Ideals, morality, outlook on life, and values ​​are the basic prerequisites for uniting people, building consensus, and organizing powerful collective actions.Therefore, a nation that pursues glory and greatness must have an admirable value system.An exciting social ideal must have a set of moral norms consistent with ideals and values.Therefore, in the future development, the country should make full use of the special power of culture, guide people's thinking, guide cultural work, make the country's cultural strength bigger and stronger, and realize China's cultural renaissance. The great revolutionary teacher once said: "People create their own history, but they create it in a certain environment that restricts them, and on the basis of existing real relationships." The strategy faced from the external environment In terms of pressure, if China wants to follow the path of peaceful development, we must have a clear understanding and accurate judgment of the strategic environment. At present, although the competition of comprehensive national power based on economic and technological strength has become the dominant aspect of international struggle, military means still play an important role.In particular, it is an objective fact that the power and hegemonism of the weak and the strong still exist in international politics. This is a difficult problem and dilemma that China must face in its peaceful development.For example: Western powers use human rights to suppress China politically; economically, they continue to launch trade wars, financial wars, energy wars, and intellectual property wars (in high-tech fields) against China; culturally, they use public opinion tools and cultural products to infiltrate values; in diplomacy, it seized the opportunity to squeeze China; in military affairs, it introduced the "Japan-US Security Treaty", alluding to China; selling arms to Taiwan, emboldening "Taiwan independence"; Hold military exercises and carry out military deterrence from time to time; prevent the EU from lifting the arms embargo on China, and delay the enhancement of China's national defense capabilities.All of these require the use of strategic thinking and actions that integrate politics, economy, culture, diplomacy, and military affairs to continuously expand the strategic space for development and grasp the strategic room for development.