(Josef Gregory Mahoney, Professor of Politics and International Relations at Shanghai’s East China Normal University)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CPLa90xunk
I think China is the only country in the world right now
who can play a decisive leadership role in resisting this dark path.
And, above all, by promoting peace.
By promoting peace, you completely expose the Western narrative.
The West says, “We want peace.”
And yet they’re sending nuclear weapons to Asia.
“This is gonna make Asia safer.”
How is putting more nuclear submarines in the water in Asia making Asia safer?
Because the political system in the United States is no longer able to reform itself,
no longer able to deal with basic governance issues,
it has to find someone else that it can blame to shift the attention to.
We have all these senators [saying,]
“Oh, China, TikTok, it’s a danger.”
No, the real danger is you!
You are a danger to yourself.
And you’re turning that danger into a danger to the world.
But you’re using this as an excuse to become more aggressive to China,
maybe to feed your military-industrial complex.
Maybe your real objective is to try to,
if the dollar collapses, go to war,
because then all we’ll have left is our military.
That’ll be our only event.
I don’t know what the dark story is, but I know that it’s pointing to a dark future.
This is one of the reasons I really, really support and applaud the Global Security Initiative.
This is why I think we have this tremendous accomplishment
of bringing Iran and Saudi Arabia back together.
This is why when [President] Xi Jinping was in Moscow,
I think we should say, “Go man, go, try to bring peace to Ukraine,
and then see where you can bring it; become a global peacemaker.”
This is the only thing you can do right now to stop this dark force
that’s coming out of the United States,
and that risks expanding to other parts of the Western world.
We know that President Xi tends to talk about things, introduce ideas,
but then it takes time for them to mature.
For the last couple of years, he’s been talking about advancing global peace.
We can start that in Asia.
I think the first victory of this effort [Global Security Initiative] is this deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
I think the issue in Ukraine is the obvious next choice.
I think it’s going to be difficult,
But I’m optimistic.
This is the ideal moment for Beijing to enter the picture and say,
“OK, let’s try to resolve this.”
However, one of the things that we have to remember [is that]
the problems of the world are bigger than Ukraine.
In the case of Ukraine,
“Oh, it’s all about Ukraine!”
But no, it’s about a lot of other issues.
Ukraine is merely one symptom of a much bigger problem.
This, again, is something that [Chinese Foreign Minister] Qin Gang was saying.
He says the principal contradiction is that we have some
who are trying to limit and control others,
others who are trying to develop and reach their full potential.
So let’s not be distracted by the symptom of the problem.
Let’s go right to the problem.
It’s really about Western powers trying to control developing powers
or trying to assert this old Cold War mentality.
That’s what’s happening.
Modernization does not equal Westernization
As [Foreign Minister] Qin Gang said, Chinese modernization has proven
that modernization does not equal Westernization,
that you can develop without selling your soul,
without losing yourself,
without resulting in cultural impoverishment.
You don’t have to go out and attack others.
You don’t have to resort to genocide or slavery or these other models.
You don’t have to use colonialism and imperialism,
like the European powers did in the developing world,
directed against Africa, Latin America, Asia, South Asia, all these places.
China says we found a different way. We found a different model.
You might not be able to copy our model precisely.
You have to develop your own way of doing it
based on your local conditions, local situation.
But you don’t have to follow the Western model.
And, in fact, perhaps the Western model is always going to
leave you vulnerable to exploitation.
This was the key message
and this is how Chinese modernization is different from the West,
certainly different from the United States,
and [from] what we see in Europe and Japan.
China is serious about everything it proposes to do
The thing that is difficult for a lot of people to understand about China,
there are a number of things,
but one of the things is that everything that China is doing is logical.
In the case of China, there were tremendous opportunities to improve governance.
On the one hand, we needed to have a party rectification.
We needed to have a state rectification.
He [Xi] leads this very effective anti-corruption campaign.
Not only does this clean up government governance,
it creates these opportunities, these openings for reform,
including the reform of the digital revolution in governance.
The world is in danger and it needs this capable government,
it needs this responsible government,
it needs this government that cares about people,
Now, we see the government moving very assertively
to re-engage at every level as extensively as possible in international affairs
through international organizations,
reinvigorating and expanding international organizations,
like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
but advancing trade treaties like the RCEP, like promoting multilateral reforms.
But at the same time, building new initiatives like the Global Development Initiative,
but putting it in the United Nations
to support the shortfalls in the 2030 UN [Sustainable] Development Goals.
And now advancing the Global Security Initiative
to try to push back against the culture of war.
And we have the new initiative that was recently announced[–the Global Civilizations Initiative].
We don’t yet have a white paper on it, the Global Civilizations Initiative.
So there’s always a lot of talk and always a lot of official discourse
and we can sometimes say, what does this really mean?
But in China, I think we have to take these things seriously.
They are serious. There is logic and there is a purpose.
And overall, it’s a noble purpose.
Even though there might be some shortfalls,
or maybe it doesn’t always work out exactly the way one hopes.
It’s better than the alternative.
Much better.
Company Name: Center for the Americas, China International Communications Group
Contact Person: Tao Zihui
Email: taozihui2020@163.com;
Country: People’s Republic of China
