Chapter 19 2. Chinese ideas that may affect the world

The political discourse of a country is very important, and the core of political discourse is philosophy.As remarkable as China's rapid rise is, the philosophy behind China's rise does not seem to have received enough attention.Many people even believe that although China has made great economic achievements, China has not yet produced great ideas. Some even think that China is still in a transitional stage and will eventually fully accept Western ideas and integrate into Western civilization.In my opinion, the rise of China as a "civilized power" is a process of constantly generating ideas.

On October 1, 2009, I wrote a commentary titled "Eight Ideas Behind China's Success" for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.When the article was published, the editor of The New York Times specially added a caption: "The West would do well to study the ideas behind China's dramatic rise." ) Although the West still has an inescapable prejudice against China, some people of insight have begun to pay attention to Chinese ideas.Chinese scholars should have a sense of urgency and a sense of mission in the study of Chinese ideas.Without the rise of ideas, a nation cannot really rise.

The eight Chinese concepts I have sorted out are: seeking truth from facts, putting people’s livelihood first, holistic thinking, government is necessary for goodness, good governance and good governance, those who win the hearts of the people win the world and appoint talents, inclusiveness and innovation, harmony and the middle way and harmony without difference.Although there are many more Chinese ideas, I think that if these ideas can be articulated clearly, we can roughly outline the key ideas behind China's rapid rise and their possible impact on the world. The concept of "seeking truth from facts" was first seen in "Han Shu·Hejian Xianwang Zhuan", which refers to an honest attitude towards learning. Later, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "practical learning" was formed, emphasizing the discovery of rules through the exploration of things themselves. English This concept is translated as "finding truth from facts".Mao Zedong defined this concept as the ideological essence of the success of the Chinese revolution. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping put forward this concept again, and established "emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts" as the guiding ideology of China's reform and opening up, emphasizing that practice is the only criterion for testing truth.

This idea freed China from the shackles of Eastern and Western dogmatism, and started the great process of reform and opening up.This idea has something in common with the "rational supremacy" advocated by the European Enlightenment. Both parties got rid of the shackles of rigid ideology, highlighted the rational spirit of human beings, and promoted their respective epoch-making industrial revolutions.But there are also differences between the two: "seeking truth from facts" is the product of the interaction between ancient Chinese civilization and modern civilization. It avoids the historical limitations of racism and self-importance contained in Western rationalism in the past, and emphasizes that all rational activities need to be tested through social practice. The criterion for testing is whether these activities are conducive to the overall interests of the people.Because of this, China's rise under the guidance of "seeking truth from facts" is a peaceful rise. It did not bring war to the world like the rise of Europe, but brought a lot of opportunities for peace and development.This concept has made China one of the countries with the least ideological prejudice in the world, and enabled China to boldly learn from all the experience of other countries in the process of modernization, thus greatly promoting China's progress in all aspects.

The Chinese have discovered from the examination of the facts that the Soviet Union's centralization model and the Western democratic model have not succeeded in realizing the modernization of developing countries, so they decided to boldly explore their own path and reform the various systems and practices that hampered China's development , learning from all the achievements of human civilization, and gradually explored a development path with Chinese characteristics.This path is not perfect, but it has indeed achieved more than other countries in eradicating poverty and achieving modernization.

The significance of "seeking truth from facts" to the world is that it reminds the world to keep a clear mind, not to copy what others say, not to believe in dogma, but to look at and explore all issues rationally, objectively and accurately.For example, the West has promoted the so-called "democratization" all over the world for so many years. On the surface, there may be problems with "democratization", but when you look at the facts carefully, people have to question: Why did Yugoslavia promote Western "democracy"? "Collapse"?Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate?Why is Gorbachev so favored in the West, but despised by most people in his country?Why did Taiwan transfer to the Western model after its modernization took off? As a result, the economy declined, corruption became more serious, and society was divided?Why is South Korea's situation after "democratization" similar to that of Taiwan, and unfortunately it became the hardest hit area of ​​the two financial crises in 1997 and 2008?Why has Eastern Europe been "democratized" for 20 years, but the quality of its democracy, according to the evaluation of European authorities, is one of the worst regions, and most of its economic lifelines have fallen into the hands of foreign countries.Why can't the entire third world find an example of becoming a modernized power through the democratization of the West?In short, people who believe in "seeking truth from facts" are clear-headed. They know the strengths and weaknesses of the Western system, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their own system. They also know that once someone pushes the Western democratic model to the extreme, it will become democratic fundamentalism Doctrine, the result will only be failure, or even disaster.

As mentioned earlier, the Chinese have an ancient motto that "the people are the foundation of the country, and the foundation of the country is stable", which means that the people are the cornerstone of the country. Determine the future and destiny of a country.The Chinese also say that people's livelihood is the most important thing in everything.An important experience of China's reform and opening up over the past 30 years is that a developing country must make every effort to eliminate poverty and improve people's livelihood. This is a government's top priority.Because of this, China has created miracles in human history in eradicating poverty and improving people's livelihood.

China's concept of "people's livelihood is the most important" has corrected a long-standing deviation in Western human rights concepts, that is, it only pays attention to citizens' political rights and does not pay attention to people's livelihood rights.Tracing back to its historical reasons, I think it is probably because when European Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century proposed human rights such as freedom, equality, and private property rights, they represented the emerging propertied class at that time.In their day, racism, colonialism, and the slave trade were legal, and the worst poverty occurred in the colonies, not in Europe.Today the world has entered the 21st century, but half of the world's population is still living in extreme poverty. It is unreasonable to continue this deviation.

"People's livelihood is the most important" also means that among all human rights, rights related to people's livelihood should be promoted first.The United States has never considered eradicating poverty to be a human rights issue.At best in Europe, the eradication of poverty is seen as the removal of obstacles to the enjoyment of human rights.For China, this is not only a human rights issue, but also a core human rights issue. More importantly, China has already done this in practice and will continue to do so.The performance of the Chinese model in eradicating poverty is much better than that of the Western-led development model. The main reason is the huge difference in cognition between the two sides.

About 3 billion people in the world still suffer from war, extreme poverty, hunger, and lack of basic daily necessities.Most developing countries adopting Western political systems are unable to solve the basic problem of people's livelihood.Against this background, we may be able to better understand the hard-won Chinese model.Over time, I think more and more developing countries will learn from the Chinese model.Frankly speaking, it is not that the Chinese model is very good and has its own costs, but that the performance of the Western model in developing countries is so poor that most ordinary people have no hope of getting rid of poverty.

Chinese people have relatively strong overall thinking and dialectical thinking ability, so Chinese people have a more strategic vision in doing things and can prioritize.The Chinese are opposed to treating the head for headaches and treating the feet for foot pains, and advocate overall thinking, syndrome differentiation, and treating both symptoms and root causes.The starting point of holistic thinking is that the whole contains parts, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.Because of this holistic view of thinking, as early as the early 1980s, China formulated a three-step modernization strategy for 70 years, and realized this strategy step by step. The holistic view of the Chinese also involves how to better realize the values ​​of human safety, happiness, freedom, and dignity.These values ​​are almost entirely personal values ​​in the West, but in Chinese culture, these values ​​are often closely linked with the belief in national well-being.China has experienced too many wars in history, and the people regard ensuring "peace in the world" and "safety of the country and the people" as the bounden duty of any competent government.China's thousands of years of family ethics have given rise to the tradition of "sacrificing oneself for the home" and "defending the home and the country", which makes most Chinese people today regard the prosperity of their own country as their own. and dignity, which are inseparable from personal security, happiness, freedom, and dignity. The relative success of China over the past three decades shows that a historically formed tradition, whether it is Eastern or Western, always has advantages and disadvantages. The key is to learn to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.China's concept of viewing the country and the individual as a whole can promote the realization of personal value more effectively than the Western model, as long as it is used properly.Westerners like to start with the individual in everything they do, because it has a tradition of individualism.If we also use this method, we may only be able to crawl behind the West forever.We have played to our own strengths and started from the whole to promote the better realization of personal interests.The Olympic model we created not only enabled us to achieve brilliant Olympic records, but also promoted countless Chinese people to enthusiastically participate in sports, fitness and public welfare undertakings.The way we hold the Paralympic Games has also contributed to the improvement of the individual rights of countless Chinese people with disabilities.The same goes for our model of hosting World Expos.Through our efforts based on the whole as a starting point, we have not only promoted the leap-forward progress of the concept of urban construction, but also enabled countless individuals to better understand what a low-carbon and environmentally friendly urban life is. In short, in terms of promoting the realization of personal value, China's method of starting from the whole and extending to the individual seems to be more effective than the idea and method of individualism in the West.I can even say that the difference in effect between the two methods is probably the difference between Deng Xiaoping's method and Teresa's (Mother Teresa did a lot of good deeds in India for helping the poor and won the Nobel Prize for it) , Deng Xiaoping's method is to start from the whole and gradually benefit the individual; Teresa's method is to start from the individual and gradually move the whole; Deng Xiaoping's method has lifted nearly 400 million people out of extreme poverty and gained more dignity, freedom and happiness. Teresa's method has saved many individuals and touched countless people, but the cause of poverty alleviation in India as a whole has not improved much so far.Developing countries especially need a strong overall thinking ability, because their resources are tight, and it is impossible to achieve all development goals at the same time. Without an overall development strategy that prioritizes priorities, it is difficult for their modernization efforts to succeed. Western philosophy emphasizes the individual, while Chinese philosophy emphasizes the whole. The two can be completely complementary. Just like seeing trees, we must also see the forest, and when we see the forest, we must also see the trees. This can deepen our understanding of things in the world.China has benefited a lot from the West's emphasis on the individual, and the West can actually learn a lot from China's emphasis on the whole, because one of the great challenges facing Western democracies is the short-sightedness of politicians.Western politicians often only care about the short-term interests of some voters, while ignoring the overall interests of the people and the world; they often only care about their own votes and matters within their term of office, while ignoring longer-term issues.If this myopia continues unabated, it will be very difficult to deal with global problems, including the financial crisis.In today's world, there are more and more problems in global governance, and we need more holistic thinking to solve these problems.Chinese people pay attention to overall consideration, to a degree, to dynamic balance, and to the best time and timing for solving problems.These wisdoms are of positive significance for solving many thorny problems facing the West and for solving many difficult problems faced by global governance. In Western history, because strong government has brought about problems such as religious persecution and totalitarianism, many Westerners regard government as a "necessary evil". The situation in China is different. The era of China is often associated with a strong and enlightened government. In Chinese tradition, people often regard the government as an indispensable "goodness".Historically, due to its vast territory and frequent natural disasters, a relatively strong government was needed to coordinate and govern; the vast territory also means that the interests of various localities and departments in China are hundreds of times more complicated than those of ordinary countries, which also requires a relatively neutral central government. government to coordinate. China has implemented the system of prefectures and counties since the time of Qin Shihuang. Officials at all levels are appointed by the government rather than hereditary. The imperial examination system also has a history of thousands of years. These are 1,500 or 1,600 years earlier than Europe. It is undoubtedly the most advanced in the world at that time. advanced political system.China's strong government has its own internal motivation, a heritage of thousands of years of history, and thousands of years of practical experience. It is part of China's political and cultural traditions.Once a tradition is formed, it has its relative stability.The advantages and disadvantages of a strong government are obvious: the advantage is that it can concentrate power to accomplish major tasks, and the disadvantage is that it is easy to lead to arbitrariness. China's Deng Xiaoping is superior to the Soviet Union's Gorbachev in that he believes that it is not necessary to give up the advantages of a strong government, but to reform and transform it. For a government that works to modernize.Practice has proved that this method is much more effective than rebuilding a new political system from scratch.From the establishment to the operation of a new political system, it is easier said than done. Russia paid a heavy price for it. It was not until Putin came to power that he began to figure it out.Even a country like Poland, which has transitioned more smoothly than Russia, has not been able to clearly divide the powers of the president and prime minister today after 20 years of transition.Although China's approach has shortcomings, it is generally a choice with more advantages than disadvantages. China has risen rapidly under the leadership of a strong modernization-oriented government.Under the impact of the financial tsunami, even the United States, a country that has always doubted the role of the government, has begun to implement large-scale government intervention. No wonder some people jokingly say that the United States has begun to take the road of socialism with American characteristics. In a world where the rules of the game are completely set by developed countries, a developing country cannot develop at all without a strong government to promote the economy and participate in international competition. I am afraid that at most it can only crawl behind the developed countries.Some scholars are full of bookishness, talking all day long about the realization of a fully competitive market economy without government intervention in the textbooks.They don't seem to understand that there are countless Western speculators stalking the world today. From oil to food, to all imaginable fields, they are making waves there. How many fields are there "perfectly competitive markets"?If they are not careful, the economy of the entire country may be swallowed by them.The strong government has given China's society and market a relatively effective protective layer. Not long ago, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas admitted when talking about how to deal with climate change: Considering the huge demand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, solving climate change is tantamount to fighting a war , the government must play a greater role.Looking back on the 30 years of China's reform and opening up, the role and actions of the Chinese government are like directing one after another. We fought the battles of agricultural reform, the establishment of special economic zones, the opening of coastal cities, and the Pudong The battle of development, the battle of joining the WTO and related system reform and innovation, the battle of the Olympic Games and the World Expo, and the battle of economic transformation are now being fought. It is the victory of this series of battles that laid the foundation for China's rise today. . Of course, from the perspective of national governance, the reform tasks of governments at all levels in China are not light.On how to solve the problem of integrity and self-discipline, how to further adjust the relationship between the government and enterprises, the government and society, and how to ensure the effective supervision of government work, we still have many problems, and we still need to continue. exploration and innovation.But the significance of the concept of "government is a necessary good" to China and the world, especially to developing countries, is unquestionable. Regarding "good governance" or "good governance and good governance" (good governance in English), the international community has not formed a generally accepted definition.Some western countries want to monopolize the definition of this concept, but the author believes that this concept can be understood by returning to common sense judgment.The "people-oriented" and "striving governance" that the Chinese talk about are actually the "good governance" that the Chinese understand. Every Chinese person understands this concept, and it is not difficult for foreigners to understand. Its basic meaning is to do everything possible Work hard to govern the country well for the benefit of the people. Many people in the West always like to emphasize the so-called opposition between "democracy and autocracy".Many Chinese also like to use this concept to analyze political issues. This concept can explain some phenomena, but at the same time it obviously lacks explanatory power, because this concept obviously oversimplifies the diverse political forms of the world: this world is only The remaining opposition between democracy and autocracy is either democracy or autocracy, democracy is good, autocracy is bad, and the concepts of democracy and autocracy are defined by the West.If the world can be classified in such a simple way, then how should the democratic system choose Hitler?Singapore, which the West considers undemocratic, has a level of governance that far exceeds that of all third-world "democratic" countries. How can we explain it? If we must find a concept that is more neutral, more interpretive, and can simplify world politics into two categories, I think there are only good governance and bad governance.When I was talking about the Chinese model in India in 2008, an Indian scholar asked me: "Are you trying to prove that 'dictatorship' is more efficient than 'democracy'?" I said: "It's not that 'dictatorship' is more efficient than 'democracy', but that 'good governance' is more efficient than 'bad governance'. The relative success of the Chinese model shows that no matter what political system, 'good governance' must be implemented in the end. Only when the Chinese talk about 'people-oriented' and 'governance with all our strength' can be implemented. 'Good governance' can be a Western political system, such as Switzerland, or a non-Western political system, such as Singapore. Although China has shortcomings in this regard, it is far more The vast majority of developing countries are doing well; 'bad governance' can be Western political systems such as Haiti, Iraq, the Philippines, Congo, Georgia, or non-Western political systems such as Myanmar." In other words, starting from their own concept of "seeking truth from facts", the Chinese emphasize judging the quality of a political system from "content" and "results". Discourse is a subversion, a paradigm shift (paradym shift), which is more in line with the reality of our world.The Chinese believe that no matter what the system is, it must ultimately be reflected in whether it can achieve good governance, reflected in the satisfaction and recognition of its own people, and they believe that this is the essence of democracy.The mainstream views in the West often believe that formal justice will automatically produce substantive justice, which does not conform to the facts we have observed.China believes that the best way to achieve democracy is substantive justice derived from procedural justice suitable for each country's specific circumstances.In today's world, as long as we can abandon the Cold War mentality, it is not difficult to find that in most cases, national governance is no longer a simple issue of democracy and autocracy, but more of a dialectical relationship between freedom and centralization.Freedom and centralization, whichever is more and whichever is less, are both means of state governance. The key is how to make the people get more benefits. This concept of the Chinese also negates the very naive "end of history conclusion" in essence.All countries in the world are carrying out various institutional innovations according to their national conditions.The task of system innovation in the third world is arduous, but the task of developed countries is also not light: Iceland and Greece are bankrupt, can political reform work?Such a huge financial system in the United States is full of problems. On the eve of the outbreak of the financial crisis, the U.S. government was almost unaware of it. As a result, it brought huge disasters to the U.S. and the entire world. Is this kind of government and its system not reformable?In short, my point of view is that "good governance" that is "people-oriented" and "strive for governance" should be the goal that all countries in the world, including the United States and China, must strive to achieve. The discussion of the legitimacy of China's "civilized country" is also unique: the legitimacy of the Chinese regime comes from "people's hearts", that is, "the one who wins the people's hearts wins the world, and the one who loses the people's hearts loses the world." "public opinion".The Chinese say that "public opinion is like flowing water", but this is what they mean when they say "the people's hearts are greater than the sky" and "the people's hearts are against each other". "People's will" does not refer to the "public opinion" of the moment, but refers to the realization of the overall and long-term interests of the people.This cross-length historical vision and overall thinking ability are unique products of Chinese civilization.Because there is such a legal discourse different from that of the West, it is difficult for the vast majority of Chinese to accept the so-called multi-party democratic politics that originated from the West, which changes the central government every four to five years.Chinese people put the country's long-term stability and prosperity in a more prominent position, and one of the main sources of this political and cultural tradition is the long-term practice of the imperial examination system in Chinese history to select officials through examinations and "being an official, benefiting Party" political tradition. In Chinese history, the change of dynasties is often a violent process, and each change of the central government often brings huge losses of life and property to the Chinese society. Therefore, ordinary people do not want to see frequent regime changes, and people generally hate turmoil. I hope that the country will enjoy long-term stability and prosperity.Regime change generally occurs when the central government completely loses "popular support".Otherwise, it is always the mainstream of public opinion to expect long-term stability and gradual improvement in the country. This is related to the national cultural inheritance formed by our "civilized country" with a vast territory, a large population, and relatively tight per capita resources. This also enables us to completely surpass the Western model today. It has laid a good political and cultural foundation. Some people believe that the long-term stability of the country can be guaranteed only by adopting the Western political system, which is not in line with historical facts.The continuation of the central government for two to three hundred years in Chinese history is a common phenomenon, but how many ups and downs has Western civilization experienced in the past two to three hundred years?From countless colonial wars to the large-scale slave trade to the extermination of the Indians, from the French Revolution to the "Chart Movement" to the American Civil War, to the two world wars that almost destroyed Western civilization, this has been illustrated.In addition, we also have the tradition of "the people can carry a boat, but they can also overturn it" to warn the rulers. Only by being diligent and respectful can the rulers maintain the legitimacy of their rule. This political tradition that warns the rulers is also a part of Chinese civilization invaluable political resources. Scholar Pan Wei has a good exposition: In Chinese history, an enlightened emperor represented a dynasty, and a Confucian ruling group did things specifically. A good dynasty lasted for hundreds of years, far exceeding the entire history of the United States. Dynasties and their Confucian ruling groups represent the "Mandate of Heaven." If they degenerate and lose popular support, the common people rise up, dynasties change, and then there is a new dynasty and a new Confucian ruling group, the time span of the Mandate of Heaven is generally hundreds of years.Today's ruling party in China is also the "Mandate of Heaven" ruling group whose mission is to revive China.The Communist Party of China is not the Republican Party or the Democratic Party in the United States, nor the Conservative Party or the Labor Party in the United Kingdom. The ruling party in China still inherits the Confucian political tradition of representing the overall interests of the people in ancient China, rather than a political party in the Western sense that represents the interests of a certain part of the people.In Chinese political culture, it is generally disgusted to form cliques for self-interest, but it is believed that "a gentleman does not have a party", and a gentleman does not form cliques. The concept of "people's will" in China is a huge challenge to the so-called democratization model promoted by the West.Western countries have greatly simplified democracy, which should be rich in content, profound in culture, and exquisite in operation. Even the basic elements of high-quality democracy such as economic development, education level, society ruled by law, civic culture, and talent quality have become dispensable things. However, only the "procedural democracy" of multi-party system and one person, one vote can represent real democracy and give a regime legitimacy, and it doesn't matter who is elected.This approach directly led to the emergence of inferior governments in the third world, and their countries were frequently caught in turmoil and even wars, their economies were depressed, and their people were in dire straits. In 2006, I participated in a seminar on political reform in China held at the EU headquarters in Brussels.A European scholar asked me bluntly, how could the Chinese government have legitimacy if it was not formed through multi-party competition and universal suffrage?I asked him back: "If your words can also be established, then do the founding fathers of the United States have no legitimacy? Because they claimed to represent the American people without any elections. Thailand adopted a Western democratic system, but the elections Come and go, the prestige of the elected person has never surpassed that of the King of Thailand. Where does the legitimacy of the King of Thailand come from? Who is the least trusted politician in the United States? They are members of the US Congress, but they are elected. The whole Universal suffrage was implemented in the West after the realization of modernization. Can we infer that the governments of Western countries before modernization have no legitimacy? The rights of blacks and women in the United States were not obtained through the democratic system, but in the powerful civil rights movement Pushed, and finally determined by judicial judgment. From a historical point of view, if one person, one vote, the United States could not abolish slavery at all. Slavery was abolished through war. Your EU is not elected, so why did you have it? Legal?" He was speechless. The political tradition of "selecting the best and appointing the best" and the "people's will" governance concept formed in China for thousands of years are the core competitiveness of today's Chinese model surpassing the Western model.French sinologist Cyrille JD Javary once said: "China has been led by a single political party for more than two thousand years." In the past, China's leadership was selected through "literati and Confucian officials". Now The leadership of the CCP is produced through selection.China has combined "selection" and "election" in its exploration of political reform, which is a good idea.Over the past 30 years, we have implemented a system of "selecting the best and appointing talents" based on the legitimacy of political performance throughout the system, roughly forming an elite team and echelon that can devote itself to the long-term and overall interests of the nation.Although from a national perspective, there are still many deviations and deficiencies in the implementation of the legitimacy of political achievements, which need to be continuously improved, but on the whole, China has listed indicators such as poverty alleviation and environmental protection (now becoming more and more important) as the criteria for official promotion. key criteria, which is an important reason for China's great success. Some people think that the dilemma of the legitimacy of political performance is that if the political performance is not good, for example, there is an economic crisis, the legitimacy will be lost.In fact, things are not that simple.The mainstream of the Chinese people is fair. You have achieved political achievements in the past, and you are doing things seriously now. The people understand you, and even if you make mistakes, you can correct them.In fact, the process of trying to overcome various crises is itself part of the legitimacy of political achievements, and even the best time to consolidate the legitimacy of the regime.From this point of view, the Chinese people’s concept of legitimacy has significantly higher requirements on their leaders than Westerners’ concept, because it is characterized by the fact that both procedures and achievements are important, and compared with the two, achievements are more important. It is most important, and it also reflects the highly pragmatic cultural characteristics of Chinese civilization. Putting the legality of the program at the highest level is very similar to the fact that students are good students when they report to class, and it does not matter whether their academic performance is good or bad.But the idea of ​​the legitimacy of China's political performance requires that the student register for classes and must pass the exams with high scores, otherwise he will have to drop out of school.In the long run, a political system that only understands "public opinion" will not be able to compete with a political system that understands both "public opinion" and "people's will"; a country that only knows "election" will not be able to compete with a political system that can "select" country combined with "election".This is also the international significance of China's "people's support" concept and the concept of "selecting talents and appointing talents". The Chinese nation is a nation that loves to learn, because we have the thousand-year-old motto "Threesomes must have my teacher", and we have countless legends and allusions such as Chengmen Lixue, Hanging Liang Cigu, and Nangying Yedu.But at certain stages of our history, due to some special reasons, we closed our doors and closed our doors, resulting in the country's backwardness and decline.But since 1978, we have reopened the country and embarked on the road of all-round opening up. The Chinese people have quickly shown the world their great learning ability and ability to adapt to challenges. China's slogan is to build a learning society and an innovative country.From the regular study system of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to the countless staff who are busy "recharging" themselves, they all demonstrate the Chinese people's tireless learning spirit.The Chinese are eclectic and follow the good, and I have to learn all the good things.China has selectively learned from others' experience in almost all areas: from the construction of special economic zones to the formation of a market economy, from enterprise management to government operations, from the stock market to the securities market, from technological research and development to cultural industries, from expressways As for the high-speed railway, it can be said that in all our industries, all fields, and all departments, we have borrowed good experiences and good methods from other countries, and combined them with China's actual situation to digest and innovate. All these have promoted China's development in all aspects progress. What's more valuable is that we don't lose ourselves in the process of learning from others, but use our own perspective to judge, learn from others' strong points, absorb everything, and bring forth the new.For example, in the field of financial reform, we have learned a lot from Western experience, but we have maintained the state's holdings in major banks, and we have adopted a cautious attitude in opening up the capital market. As a result, we have successfully carried out state-owned banks. System reform, while avoiding international financial catastrophe.We have embraced the information technology revolution and become leaders in it.We have turned the process of joining the WTO into a large-scale process of learning, adapting and innovating, and the scale of China's economy and trade has quickly reached a new level. In contrast, the West is complacent.Many people in the West really think that everything about themselves represents the end of history. As a result, pride makes people fall behind, especially the United States, whose national fortunes have plummeted for eight consecutive years and have fallen into the worst financial crisis since World War II.Most European countries also face problems such as institutional rigidity and serious lack of vitality.Many developing countries do not have the ability to learn and innovate, and only know how to follow the Western discourse, resulting in various political, economic and social crises, from the Philippines to Thailand, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Ukraine to Georgia.In today's world of unprecedented competition, a nation can only remain invincible if it keeps learning, absorbing and absorbing, and bringing forth the new.This is the enlightenment of Chinese ideas to the world today. "Harmony in the middle way" and "harmony without diversity" are also important Chinese concepts.The concept of "middle way" was first put forward in the ancient Chinese book "Book of Changes", and "harmony" was derived from the concept of "middle way". "Harmony in the middle way" is not a passive compromise, but a principled "seeking common ground while reserving minor differences" to achieve the realm of "harmony without diversity".This philosophy has enabled China to avoid Europe's millennia of continuous religious wars that nearly destroyed Western civilization.The biggest feature of China's development path in the past 30 years is that it does not go to extremes or go to extremes, but takes a road of steady reform that says goodbye to tossing. China has also risen rapidly because of this, and its rise has of course produced new contradictions and problems. These contradictions No matter how many problems there are, most Chinese people think that it is better to use the concepts of "harmony in the middle" and "harmony without diversity".This is also the philosophy that the Chinese believed in when governing a huge and intricate society in history. China rejects the confrontational politics of the West, and places great emphasis on the common ground between different interests, trying to resolve various contradictions brought about by rapid social changes.The Western model emphasizes the game of different social interests, and likes the philosophy of struggle; while China has experienced a century of turmoil, it now emphasizes the symbiosis of different social interests, likes the philosophy of harmony, and finally depends on the actual effect of solving problems.西方模式在第三世界成功率极低，而中国模式在中国的效果还不错，所以中国会继续坚持自己“和谐中道”、“和而不同”的理念，当然也会汲取其他国家的一切好经验。 “和谐中道”、“和而不同”的理念无疑具有国际意义。随着全球化的发展，全球治理的难题日益增多，从反恐到全球变暖，从环境治理到消除贫困，从防止流行性疾病到国际金融体制改革等，惟有世界各国以和为贵，通力合作，取长补短，才能应对这些挑战。柏林墙虽然倒了，但世界穷国富国之间的墙、强国弱国之间的墙、不同宗教之间的墙、不同文明之间的墙却越来越高了。这很大程度上是由于西方民主与市场原教旨主义话语造成的，但是随着伊拉克战争困境和美国经济危机的深化，人们也日益了解了这种原教旨主义的不智。中国人今天要做的就是通过“和谐中道”、“和而不同”等理念去影响这个世界，揭示“唯我独尊”思维可能会给人类带来的灾难，点破意识形态偏执狂的愚昧，给西方话语霸权画上一个句号，从而为世界赢得更多的公正、繁荣与和平。 如果不走这条道路，而是走西方喜欢的“价值观外交”之路，能解决问题吗？我看很难。这样做的话，西方和伊斯兰的文明冲突的问题就解决不了，世界贫困问题也解决不了，全球环境问题也解决不了。西方以基督教传教士的精神来改造其他文明已被证明是一条只会引来更多文明对抗的道路。另外，在西方民主制度下，一个政客只对本国的部分选民负责，而不对其他国家的人民负责，为消除世界贫困而主张减少本国农业补贴的政客在自己国家里得不到选票；为世界环保而推动给本国汽油加税的政客也得不到选票，靠这种过分的以自我为中心的价值观和制度安排，怎么可能解决治理世界的这么多难题呢？解决这些难题需要中国智慧。中国从全世界，包括从西方，汲取 了大量的智慧，所以才有中国今日之崛起，才会有明天更多的辉煌。但同时我也认为今天任何一个全球问题的解决，光靠西方理念已经不够了，坦率地说，造成今天诸多全球问题的主要原因往往就是西方的一些理念和实践，从全球变暖到文明冲突，再到金融危机，都是这样。这是西方需要认真反省的，否则西方自己的前途、整个世界的前途都不容乐观。13亿中国人通过三十多年实践证明的理念是站得住的，对于解决当今世界的许多棘手问题也是有帮助的，对于西方自己认定要进行的那些改革也有参考意义。中国理念丰富了世界的智慧，构成中国政治软实力的重要组成部分，而中国政治软实力的崛起，对中国和世界实在是件非常好的事情。