News Opinions China Military Foreign Affairs China Business Life&Culture Forum

Home>>Opinion

China's diplomacy needs courage and strategy

By Ding Gang (People's Daily Overseas Edition)

11:00, March 14, 2012

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

China's diplomacy is very active recently to explore the solution to the Syria issue. After Ambassador Li Huaxin, representative of the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, visited Syria, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Ming began to visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France. Some foreign media named China’s move as “turning from the defensive to the offensive”.

Using "offensive" and "defensive" to describe Chinese diplomacy means that what they see are just changes in trend. The more important possibility is China does not only unswervingly safeguard the basic principle of political solutions to similar problems she adheres to, but is trying to find a roadmap of solving similar problems through political approach.

The world situation today is changing dramatically, but paths to solve problems similar to the Syria’s have not changed much. The solution roadmaps are more dominated by the West, who always adopts the old routine of military or economic sanctions. Facts have proved that such routines will not only hurt civilians seriously but also leave the bad results of long-term turmoil and even secession.

Doesn't the West realize that these routines have seen the end of their rope? Of course no. in fact, the ability to maintain the old routines is directly related to the dominant position of the West in the existing international order. This is why some western countries become more and more impatient and more and more reckless on the sanction issues.
　
The intense game that appears during finding the path to solve the Syria issue, in essence, is the problem of who dominates the adjustment direction of the "international rule" in the conversion of the old and new patterns, which is directly related to the international political trend in the future.

A new way to maintain peace of a multi-polar world and solve the local or a country's internal unrest in such a world is necessary and an irresistible trend. China's adhering to her position of peaceful settlement and efforts of seeking for a method to have all sides involved into a conflict sit down at a negotiating table is to conform to the general trend.

【1】【2】

Email|Print|Comments

（Editor：马茜）

Leave your comment7 comments

ysNzKtMFrMSaNszfJP at 2012-05-12192.162.19.*: nzUZ0R Wow, great article.Much thanks again. Keep writing.
AVATAR at 2012-04-08109.149.49.*: It seems that the banker boys do not fully control Russia and China, and regard them as potential threats. They have made the effort to encircle the both powers with bases and satellites. They also have the quiet weapon of the Color Revolution - Russia is currently experiencing one of those.
Liang1a at 2012-03-2198.177.141.*: It is good that China wants to rely on peaceful solutions to resolve the problems of the world. But it is naive to expect that solutions can always be found peacefully to problems that are zero sum equations. If there is a piece of cake and both of us want it then it is impossible to solve. Economically, it is possible for people to cooperate to amke more cakes so to speak. But territorially or racially or religiously, there is simply no possible solutions. Also there is oftentimes so much historical hatred built up that nobody trusts anybody else. Therefore, given such circumstances those who would want to provide solutions must be able to guarantee peace and equal share to both sides. For example, the Israel-Palestine problem is intractable because both sides claim it is their homeland. Nobody will accept dividing it into two parts nor will they accept living together with equal rights to the peoples of both races. Threfore, any outside country that want to negotiate a peace must get both sides to accept sharing by guaranteeing equal rights to both. China can guarantee such conditions only if it is strong both economically and militarily in addition to being fair and impartial. Therefore, it is not enough for China to simply talk about peace but must also be mature enough to understand the need of force. If China simply talk about peace then nobody will trust it looking at it like an idiot child with no knowledge of the world. China should also not be too quick to dismiss the predilection to resort to force by the West because it is often the only solution. Of course, the use of force by the West is often unjustified because they don"t intend to create peace but only advantages for themselves. In the case of Libya there are different factions inside that country. Those who wanted to overthrow Kadaffi talked about democracy. But in the end these rebels don"t care about democracy but only wanted to take over the dictatorial power of Kadaffi for themselves. Therefore, America simply choose the rebels because it is not getting the compliance from Kadaffi and hopes to get it from the rebels. So America helped the rebels to overthrow Kadaffi in the hope of getting more concessions from the rebels after they dominate the Libyan government. Once it controls the new government then it will instigate attacks against China to keep China out of Libya. This is why it was the wrong policy for China to simply allow the two sides in Libya to fight it out and then maintain good relations with whoever became the new government. This is why China cannot solve any problem with diplomacy alone but must combine diplomacy with economics and military which puts it in line with why the West is resorting to economic and military sanctions all the time.In the end, China has to stop talking peace all the time and grow up and understand that the world is not all about peace but about projection of power in terms of economics and military. Peace is noble and humanitarian. But peace must be guaranteed by economics and military power. If Chinese leaders cannot understand this then they are naive and have no place to lead the world. Just stop and think why there are policemen in every country even in China. Obviously it is because criminals will not be deterred by talks of peace and harmony. And the only way to stop is to have the police arrest them and put them in jail.
Harald at 2012-03-16101.5.211.*: Switzerland has long been discussing with all parties, including what other western countries call "terrorists". But Switzerland is small, it can act unseen. For China it will be more difficult. But I have great hope on Chinese diplomacy, and I"m worried the US will start several wars in the future to prevent Chinese negotiation successes. However, once Chinese diplomacy is successful, it will greatly enhance the world"s view of China.
wende at 2012-03-1571.255.83.*: Please, do not treat trade as charity. US importers buy Chinese products because they conform to your standard at much lower prices which lower US inflation. US keeps on harping on human rights. Will you tell me when did US give voting rights to the black? Not too long ago. Edwin, you want everyone to be the same page as you now. Let"s talk about US democracy. At the present time, the rich control US politics. Is that true democracy? Everytime US touches a country, it wants regime change. What if Texas wants to secede and armed rebels fight US govt and China wants to replace US president and ask him to resign. Would you think it is OK? Everytime there is a problem, US always pins it on the govt. Do you think Syrian armed rebels did not kill anyone suspected of siding with the govt and kill innocent civilians as well? Stop telling others to boycott Chinese products. Can you stop buying products yourself. Try it for a month and let me know how it goes.