By Yu Keping

During the past two years, China's foreign policy and global strategy have undergone noticeable shifts, including its emphasis on its conception of a harmonious world.

Officially put forward by President Hu Jintao, the idea of a harmonious world reflects China's basic judgments and value orientations toward current international conditions, global issues, and the fate and ideal objectives of humankind.

At the Asian-African Summit held in Jakarta on April 22, 2005, Hu for the first time declared China's goal to "jointly construct a harmonious world". He went on to elaborate this new idea of "building a harmonious world with sustained peace and common prosperity" at the convention of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations on September 15, 2005.

The idea of a harmonious world expresses a long-coveted dream of humankind. During the age of globalization full of risks, conflicts and fragmentation we should spare no effort in building a new international political and economic order characterized by peace, tranquillity, justice, respect and common prosperity.

This is the eternal mission of humanity. And this new take on the development of the ancient Chinese dream of Tianxie Datong (great harmony of the world) against the backdrop of globalization, is also the ultimate objective of the Chinese strategy for peaceful development.

Diplomacy is usually viewed as an extension of domestic politics. The concept of a harmonious world is to some extent the extension of the domestic conception of a harmonious society. While they are not identical concepts, domestic politics and diplomacy share some common value orientations and political logic.

The value orientation of a harmonious world is the construction of a new order of international politics and economies based on democracy, justice and equity. An ideal harmonious world should be diverse, democratic, just, tolerant, credible, cooperative, accommodating and sustainable.

In my opinion, an additional aspect of this harmonious world should be clarified: constructing a sustainable world and harmonizing the relationship between people and the Earth. In a harmonious world, the understanding that "we share a common earth" should be universal. According to these values, the global ecology and environment should be consciously protected, the resources on the Earth should be reasonably explored and the relationship between people and nature should be friendly.

The objective of constructing a harmonious world is based on China's judgment of international conditions. This judgment is two-pronged. First, it's still an ideal objective for humankind to build a harmonious world. Second, it's possible to construct a harmonious world, because some realistic conditions have been achieved in today's world.

Peace and development are still the two themes of our age, and they are also the main objectives of a harmonious world. During the age of globalization, ties among different nations are being intensified and interests of nations are becoming more complicatedly interlinked. And people now face more common issues and share a common fate.

So, world peace and global cooperation are becoming increasingly important. With the deepening of economic globalization, the differing of interests, political multi-polarization and cultural diversity within different nations will also intensify. Consequently, nations should be "harmonious but different". They should tolerate and respect one another in order to peacefully coexist.

The traditional foreign strategy established by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai was used during the period from 1949 to 1978.

Many principles and guidelines of this traditional foreign strategy are still observed by the Chinese government. Such principles and guidelines include the principle of independence and self-reliance, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence), firmly objecting to imperialism and hegemony and insisting against first nuclear strikes.

The country should also further foster the proactive attitude that "China should contribute a great deal to humanity".

The reform and opening strategy initiated by Deng Xiaoping greatly adjusted and reformed sometimes, even in ways contrary to the traditional socialist system.

China's international strategy also underwent a drastic transformation. First, the Chinese government shifted their basic assessments of the international conditions of today's world. Deng defined "peace" and "development" as the two major themes of the contemporary world. This provided the cornerstones for the concept of a harmonious world. Second, China's foreign policy underwent a dramatic philosophical shift. The theoretical basis of China's current international strategy is cooperation and the principle of "supreme national interests".

Among these shifts in Chinese foreign policy was the about-face from a "closed-door policy" to an "open-door policy". It also replaced struggle with cooperation and substituted win-lose strategies for win-win strategies and went from a mindset of "passive response" to "active engagement".

Both China and the rest of the world have changed a great deal since the 1970s. In China, a reform-oriented ideology replaced a struggle-oriented ideology. With rapid economic growth, China expanded its national power and international standing. On the other hand, the sun has set on the Cold War era and the era of globalization and informatization has dawned.

These tremendous changes have created new issues for China to deal with in its global strategy. Now, China must engage in globalization and establish global norms. It must also stimulate political, economic and cultural cooperation worldwide.

And the country must play a more proactive role in international affairs, sparing no effort to maintain the multi-polar international structure and diversity of ethnic cultures. And it must advocate the democratization of international relations and new orders of international politics and economics, while acting upon multilateralism and multilateral democracy.

The idea of a harmonious world bears much in common with all popular theories of global governance. They all focus on the destiny of humankind, object to unilateralism and hegemonism, insist on strengthening the UN's role, advocate the resolution of global problems through international cooperation and are devoted to establishing international political and economic orders.

China's global strategy at the beginning of 21st century, based on the idea of harmonious world, is no other than harmonious diplomacy. The basic objectives of harmonious diplomacy can be generalized as follows:

First, it aims to realize sustained peace, firmly reject wars of any kind, oppose terrorism, wipe out violent crime and eliminate conflicts among nations and regions through dialogue and cooperation.

Second, it aims to realize common prosperity and development in the world and its countries, narrow the gap between North and South, eliminate poverty, improve human rights and welfare for everyone and make the achievements of human civilization available for all to enjoy.

Third, it aims to advance the democratization of international relations, while establishing democratic, just, and rational international political and economic orders through dialogue, deliberation, negotiation and cooperation. And it aims to ensure that every single nation can equally participate in international affairs.

Fourth, it aims to harmonize relations between humankind and the environment, economize resources, protect ecology, contain pollution and advance sustainable development globally.

Harmonious diplomacy gives much weight to international regimes. It particularly venerates the important role of the UN Charter in maintaining global security and establishing new orders of international politics and economics.

From the perspective of the Chinese government, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the freedom to choose one's own social system and development model should be fully respected.

The authority of the UN Charter and UN resolutions must be respected and strengthened. They provide necessary conduct codes for the international community. And they represent the will of the majority of the international community.

As the cornerstone of the collective security mechanism in the era of globalization, the UN must be strengthened rather than weakened. Any action without the approval of the UN would be unacceptable. As a specialized agent for maintaining world peace and security, the Security Council must be endowed with more authority. But that doesn't mean the UN should remain intact as is. Necessary reforms are needed to improve its efficiency and authority.

The key fields of harmonious diplomacy include:

1. Regional and global security.

2. International cooperation. Only through reciprocal cooperation can the common interests of different countries and common global prosperity be realized.

3. The protection of human rights. It is the responsibility of the international community as a whole to protect such human rights as the right to existence and the right to development.

4. Global ecology. The deterioration of ecology and the environment threatens the existence of humankind.

5. Global risks. Many risks that have posed risks to national, political and economic systems have become globalized.

Countries should cope with global, financial, disease and communication risks through mutual cooperation.

6. Transnational crimes. Such crimes as terrorism, smuggling and drug trafficking have become internationalized.

The author is director of China Center for Comparative Politics & Economics.

(China Daily May 10, 2007)