Chapter 20 2. It is not us who should be speechless

The process of promoting universal values ​​should continue to be an interactive process in which different civilizations learn from each other.However, major Western countries always want to monopolize the right to interpret these values ​​and engage in "discourse hegemony" to serve their own strategic interests.For example, they simplified democracy, which should be rich in content, rich in culture, diverse in form, and delicate in operation, into "procedural democracy" with one person, one vote, and fabricated a myth: the democratic system of one person, one vote created the wealth of the West today.In fact, everything in the West today is based on the fact that its per capita resource consumption is more than 30 times that of developing countries.If you don’t believe me, remove the 30-fold difference and see what level of human rights in the West will be?And how much ill-gotten wealth is included in the wealth of the West?According to those unequal treaties alone, the war indemnity that China was forced to pay to Britain was enough to establish a complete pension insurance system in England at that time, while the Western powers imposed more than 1,000 different pensions on China at that time. Treaty of equality!Of course, Jiang Taigong fished, and those who wished to take the bait, there are always some people in the world who willingly accept the monopoly of other people's words, so there was the disintegration of the Soviet Union (and Russia's later epiphany), the collapse of Yugoslavia, and the Lots of shoddy democracies and chaotic unrest in the third world.

When the West promotes its own "freedom, democracy, and human rights" discourse, it rarely mentions the real process of its wealth accumulation: there is a port city in England called Liverpool, which became the wealthiest city in the entire United Kingdom around 1800. Got rich?Relying on the slave trade.At that time, 80% of the slave trade in Britain and 40% of the slave trade in Europe passed through here.European merchants exchanged American cotton, sugar, and tobacco for African "black slaves" and made huge profits.During the century of rapid capital accumulation in the major developed countries, they have pursued brutal colonialism abroad, and the number of people entitled to vote in the country has almost never exceeded 5% of their own population. In 2001, I went to Durban, South Africa, to participate in the World Conference against Racism. Representatives from many African countries spoke and asked Western countries to apologize and compensate for the slave trade. 50 times the amount.I don't know how this figure was calculated, but the claim amount is so large that it cannot be questioned.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Michael Rudd formally apologized in early 2008 to the Australian Aboriginal people who were victimized hundreds of years ago, which is admirable.If the political leaders in the West have such courage and conscience, our world may become a little more just, a little more humane, and a little more harmonious.But things are not that simple. At the United Nations Human Rights Council held in Geneva in March 2008, Egypt, on behalf of the entire African group, proposed a draft resolution entitled "From rhetoric to practical action", which called on all countries in the world to take concrete actions to eliminate racism, Racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.It stated that it welcomes the "epoch-making and historic move" of the Australian government's formal apology, "welcomes the Australian government's formal apology for laws and policies that have caused great pain, suffering and loss to its Aboriginal people in the past", and "urges those who have not yet Governments of countries that have done so have formally apologized to the victims of past and historical injustices and taken all necessary steps to heal and reconcile."This draft resolution was opposed by Western representatives.The EU said that the language of this proposal is inappropriate, and some countries should not be listed separately for criticism.

In fact, what I care about is not that the West must make a formal apology for past mistakes, including the Opium War. History is history after all, and we should look forward. But what I care more about is whether the West can learn from its past mistakes. Learn lessons from it, and change the mentality that is always self-righteous, self-righteous, and that you are always right. "Freedom, democracy, and human rights" are good things, but if you can only define these concepts according to the Western model, and impose your own democratic model on others regardless of time, place, people's conditions, or development level, it is essentially , is no different from the mentality of colonialism and imperialism in the past, resulting in tragedies like Iraq in the world today.

The West is now facing three difficulties in its pursuit of discourse hegemony.One is the dilemma in international politics. Influential countries such as China and Russia resolutely reject the discourse hegemony of the West and actively develop their own discourse power.The second is the dilemma in actual operation. The United States invaded Iraq and promoted the "Great Middle East Democracy Project", but it fell into a quagmire and was unable to get out.The "color revolutions" promoted by the West in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan are also in trouble, making these countries more turbulent.Third, they are at a loss when it comes to global governance.In the face of thorny global challenges, such as poverty, war, terrorism, and clash of civilizations, Western values ​​cannot come up with any effective countermeasures.The international economic order dominated by the West has made most developing countries poorer; the "democracy export" model led by the United States has made the world more turbulent; the threat of terrorism to the United States and the world continues unabated; the West and the Islamic world The "clash of civilizations" intensified.

Behind all these difficulties is the pallor of Western political discourse in the context of globalization.Western civilization has its strengths, which are worth learning from, but it also has its shortcomings, especially too much self-centeredness, too much opposition to philosophy, too much goodness as a teacher, and a lack of "holistic view", "dialectical view" and How can the "view of the world" expect such a narrow political discourse to solve today's complicated worldwide problems?Rather, the rise of China, especially the rise of China's political soft power, has brought some hope for solving world problems.China's unique development model and experience in poverty eradication are widely acclaimed; the concept of "mutual benefit and win-win" pursued by China in its foreign relations has been accepted by more and more countries; Solving the difficult problem of "clash of civilizations" in the world provides valuable ideas.On these issues, it is not a question of China's acceptance of Western discourse, but a question of how the West can overcome the rigidity of its own discourse, and it is a question of how the West will eventually approach or even accept our discourse.

As I said before, universal values ​​are a process of constant evolution and development, because new problems facing human beings emerge in an endless stream, and more values ​​are needed to guide and deal with them. China should make its own contribution to enriching universal values.In today's world, the values ​​of "freedom, democracy, and human rights" are obviously not enough to meet the many challenges facing human beings.Why can't "peace" become a universal value?Without peace, how much "freedom, democracy, and human rights" are left?Why can't "good governance" become a universal value?Democracy is a means, and in the end it should be implemented in good political governance.Why can't "harmony" become a universal value?Can't Western civilization, which is characterized by emphasizing "confrontation", be inspired by Chinese culture that emphasizes "tolerance"?Why can't "poverty eradication" become a universal value?Now that the number of hungry people in the world exceeds the total population of developed countries, "poverty eradication" should become a universal value.In short, there is no end to the exploration and development of universal values. Once we surpass Western discourse, we will have a brighter future.

French political scientist Dominique Moisi wrote an article in the American magazine Foreign Affairs in 2007, saying that there are "three emotions" in the world today: one is the "worriedness" of European and American countries, who are worried about terrorism, Fear of recession, fear of losing competitiveness, fear of losing influence.One is the "sense of humiliation" of the Islamic countries. They feel that they have been bullied too much by Israel and Western countries. This deep sense of humiliation has turned into hatred of the West.The other is the "full self-confidence" of China and other Asian countries.He believes that the characteristics of China today are: avoiding domestic and foreign conflicts, concentrating on developing itself, and rapidly rising comprehensive power.This reminds me of some Western figures who threatened to boycott the Beijing Olympics.In fact, China does not need to worry too much about this. In 2006, a China-Africa summit was held in Beijing, and more than 40 African heads of state came. The Western world exclaimed that they were being marginalized by China.The West is worried about the expansion of China's influence in the third world, because they also realize that today's third world means resources, markets and opportunities.It is not China that is really afraid of a boycott, but the Western countries themselves.

We value our relationship with the West and would like to learn from all its strengths, but we reject Pride and Prejudice.Our attitude towards Western discourse is neither looking down, seeing Western discourse as useless, and denying it completely, nor looking up, regarding it as a golden rule, and accepting it in its entirety. To examine, one part needs to be learned, one part needs to be learned from, one part needs to be rhetorically questioned, and one part needs to be discarded.The Chinese civilization is the only great civilization in the world that has been maintained for thousands of years without interruption. China is a super-large country with a population of 1.3 billion. Its real rise will be the most shocking event in human history.In this historic process, it will not be China that is "aphasia", but "discourse hegemony".