I. The Proposal of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

1. The External Environment of the Proposal of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

With the end of the Cold War, peace and development have become the major themes of our time and the international situation began to assume certain characteristics inclining to stability and moderation:the collapse of bipolar structure and termination of antagonism between capitalism and socialism have brought a fundamental change to the once intense international relationship; menace from easily-provoked wars does not exist anymore; the possibility of direct clashes between major powers are prominently diminished; instead of fierce confrontation, relationships between countries take the new form of peace and cooperation;furthermore, the aspiration for cooperation between countries has, generally speaking, never been stronger, problems caused by war far outweigh benefits from it. and the cost for major powers to materialize national interest through war is accelerating. Thus, each country is pressing for a peaceful and stable international environment for its economic development.

The accelerating economic globalization affords every country a precious opportunity to develop its economy. Establishment of the worldwide unified market enormously boosts free transnational movement of products, capital, service and workforce, and makes global distribution of resources possible. World trade has achieved unprecedented development and world economy keeps opening up.Meanwhile, international division of labor in commodity production is becoming more complex and the number of multinational corporations is growing rapidly. Development of communication and information technology are strengthening the political and economic relationship between countries and expanding exchanges between cultures and societies. This situation has resulted in much closer contacts between countries in the aspects of production, trade and other sectors, as well as greater interdependence and more prominent mutual sensitivity and vulnerability. Interests of different countries are interwoven together, and the growing joint international interests has put a curb on interests clash between countries. Owing to this, seeking economic cooperation and maintaining common interests have become the major aspect of inter-state relations, taking the place of conflict and confrontation. And the competition over comprehensive national strength rooted in economy, science and technology has become the major competition mode between countries, substituting for arms races.

What's more, with the development of globalization, the world is confronted with ever more prominent global issues in regards to environment ecology, and AIDS, etc., posing serious threat to the survival and development of human beings. Thus, economic globalization not only affords each country the precious opportunity for economic development, but also calls for more cooperation between countries.

Upon entering the 21st century, peace and development as the era theme are gaining more prominence. The international and regional regimes for politics, economy and security have become a significant force in maintaining international peace and promote development. As the largest intergovernmental organization, the United Nations has been actively engaged in resolving international crisis, tackling global issues and aiding developing countries. Through advanced mechanisms such as single currency and common foreign and security policy, EU has become the most highly integrated regional organization, whose peaceful development mode sets an excellent example for the subsequently rising major powers or groups of nations. In addition, another important impetus behind the regional peace and development is the various regional organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation（APEC），the North American Free Trade Agreement（NAFTA），the Association of Southeast Asian Nations（ASEAN），and African Union（AU）；especially Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN“10+3”and ASEAN Regional Forum, in whose establishment and improvement China has played a proactive role. Contributing to the prosperity and stability of Asia and to a favorable environment for China's economic development, these international and regional regimes are“an important platform for the rise of China”. It is against this general background that the conception of peaceful development and a harmonious world gradually took shape in China.

This conception completely overthrows the thinking of colonial expansion and hegemony in modern history and remains an inevitable choice that fits the current international value system. In modern history, even up to the end of the World WarⅡ, and in an international system where the jungle law prevailed, colonial expansion and wars were legitimate policy instruments for states to accumulate wealth or achieve diplomatic goals. This sent those eager-to-rise major powers on the track of wars for hegemony. However, in our world today, fundamental changes have taken place in the international value system and only peaceful approaches can be employed for the rise of the major powers and their legitimacy can only be achieved through the construction of a peaceful national image. Thus, China's conception of peaceful development and harmonious world remains what this era of peace and development calls for and accords with the value principle of the present world.

As far as the security environment and world public opinion are concerned, China finds itself in a much improved international and regional security environment since the end of the Cold War, especially at the present stage, which ensures the essential condition for the peaceful development of China. Firstly, the relationship between China and the major powers maintains a sound momentum of development. Through the establishment of partnerships and multi-level communication and cooperation mechanism, effective channels have been opened up for prompt communication and closer cooperation with those powers in all aspects. For example, China is sharing more and more joint interests with the US, the hegemonic power in the present international system. After the 9.11 Incident, cooperation between China and the US keeps expanding; in addition, the US has long been concentrating on major international security issues, such as anti-terrorism and the nuclear non-proliferation, so“it's possible that the US will not take China as its standard rival or major rival in quite a long time.” The combination of these two factors results in a comparatively eased-up and relaxed space for China's development. Secondly, there comes a vigorous tendency in the relationship between China and its neighboring countries, good-neighborly and friendly relationship achieving further development. Through the resolution of boundary issues with most of its neighboring countries and under the guideline of“shelving differences and seeking joint development”, China has effectively reduced conflicts and friction with its neighbors; being largely engaged in regional economy and security regimes, China has made great contribution to the regional development, thus earning more approval from its neighboring countries and expanding economic and security cooperation with them. This favorable cooperative atmosphere is undoubtedly conducive to the peaceful development of China. Finally, China finds itself in a better public opinion environment. This is because more and more countries are regarding the development of China as an opportunity rather than a challenge, as China bears increasing amount of international and regional responsibility with continuous development of its economy. For example, being the engine of regional and even world economic development, China has leapt in the front ranks of the world in regard to its contribution to the increase of the world GDP. Another example is that China's constructive contribution to major international issues, such as the Nuclear Issue of Democratic People's Republic of Korea（DPRK）and anti-terrorism, is winning more approval from the international community.

However, we should also be aware that unfavorable elements still exist in the international environment, and the world is not tranquil. For example，in the present international politics, hegemonism still remains a major threat to the world peace. Especially after the 9.11 Incident, there is a stronger tendency towards unilateralism and power politics in the name of antiterrorism on the part of the US to make global deployment for its strategic interests. Meanwhile, some countries still cling to Cold War and mentality and maintain and consolidate their respective military alliance, which brings adverse impact on regional and international peace and stability. What's more, international security is confronted with severe challenge, and the end of the Cold War highlights ethnic conflicts, religious clashes and territory disputes. Hot regional issues keep springing up, while local wars and violent conflicts frequently break out. In addition, there is a growing threat caused by unconventional security problems such as terrorism, transnational crime, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, etc. Global issues in other fields also demand urgent solutions and pose threat to the world's peace and stability. These global issues include environment deterioration, resources shortage, poverty issues, rampant piracy, financial crisis, information security, infectious diseases, natural disasters and so on. Obviously, it is the numerous unharmonious notes in this generally harmonious international environment that constitute the actual basis for the peaceful development and harmonious world conception of China. The conception of a harmonious world is an introspection of the unharmonious world after the Cold War.

Due to these unfavorable factors, the development of China is confronted with pressing interference from international environment. Firstly, China's rapidly growing over-all national strength puts some western countries and neighboring countries into panic, which accounts for the long-held arguments of“China Threat”. These threat arguments are mainly about how China's rapid economic development would lead to its greater military strength and strong ambition for invasion, which would in turn make China to be inclined to achieving its goals through invasion or the use of military force. To put it more specifically, the US, the hegemonic state, is concerned that China would overthrow the present international system for hegemony, while the concern from neighboring countries is that China would possibly solve territorial disputes by resorting to armed force; what's more, some of the countries holding the view of“China Threat”perceive that China's economic development will disturb other countries' economy, since China's economic development would give rise to price hike and scarcity of resources, such as energy, food, minerals and other materials. Even worse, China has become a big socialist country and its unique development mode poses a challenge to the widely accepted American mode. In this sense, in spite of some improvement, the world's pubic opinion still remains unfavorable to China, which imposes great pressure to China's development.

Secondly, the complicated surrounding geographical environment has to some extent negative impact on China's peaceful development. China is surrounded by numerous countries, some of which big countries, and there are numerous prominent hot issues. The continuously strengthening US-Japan Military Alliance adds to China's geographical pressure and also makes the Taiwan Problem even more difficult to cope with. Because of this, the Taiwan Problem is becoming more explosive and China's reunification more difficult, which has created a big obstacle on China's road of development and greater prosperity. Other than this, the boundary and territorial disputes between China and some of its neighboring countries remain unsettled; India-Pakistan conflict and the DPRK's nuclear crisis might break out easily. These are all latent dangers on the way of China's development and might impair the stable surrounding environment of China at any time.

Finally, the destructive force of global issues can't be ignored. These global issues include rampant ethnic separatist activities, deteriorated environment, financial crisis, infectious diseases and so on. Under certain conditions, the destructive force of these issues might easily break out, restraining China's peaceful development.

To sum up, the present international situation is generally favorable with peace and development as its era theme, but global issues are still holding prominent position and security threat still exists. It is against this background that China put forward the conception of peaceful development and a harmonious world.

2. I nherent Dynamics for the Conception of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

In regard to domestic conditions, the primary dynamics behind the conception of peaceful development and a harmonious world is that China needs a peaceful and stable international environment for its rapid economic development. Rapid growth of overall national strength reinforces the material basis, which allows China to seek wider international and regional impact and a more significant role on the international stage. Consequently, China has become more aware of its international status as a major power and more eager to shoulder international responsibility and make a contribution that is in line with this status. On the other hand, the tremendous benefit and advantage brought forth by China's rapid development affirms its strong faith in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for development and in seeking peaceful development.

Since the reform and opening-up, an economic miracle rarely seen in human history has taken place in China. According to statistics, from 1978 to 2007, China's Gross Domestic Product has increased from ¥364.5 billion to¥24.95 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 9.8%, three times more than that of world economy over the same period. China's economic aggregate ranked the fourth in the world. By the end of 2010, China's economic aggregate overtook that of German and Japan, ranking the second in the world. Meanwhile, by the end of 2010, China's total export-import volume had leaped to number one in the world. When it comes to foreign exchange reserve, since taking the place of Japan as the largest country by foreign exchange reserve, China is still enjoying an upward trend in its foreign exchange reserve, hitting$2 trillion by now. Apart from this, China has ranked the first in the output of major industrial products such as crude steel, raw coal, cement, chemical fertilizer, mobile phones and computers, becoming the genuine workshop of the world.

Since 2008, in spite of the financial crisis, the severe deterioration of world economic environment and their negative impact on China's economy, China still managed to sustain a comparatively high economic development rate. In 2009, China's GDP reached ¥33.5 trillion, increasing by 8.7% compared with that of 2008; while China's export-import volume reached$2.2 trillion, a remarkable economic achievement when considering the interference of financial crisis, though a small decrease compared with that of other major countries and regions.

However, China's economic development doesn't aim at the blind pursuit of quantity. Based on more than 30 years' of experience in economic develop-ment, China put forward the general idea of scientific outlook on development, endeavoring to transform its economic growth mode.Thus, over recent years, while encouraging the economic development, China has been attaching more importance to environmental and ecological protection. Besides, China's central finance has been allocating more capital for major projects targeting energy saving and environmental protection. What's more, through eliminating outdated production capacities, restricting the development of high energy-consuming and heavily CO2-emitting industries and optimizing energy structure, the Chinese government is taking substantial actions to protect the environment and ecology. China's stronger sense of responsibility is fully revealed in its energy conservation and pollution reduction target, which is to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% from the 2005 level by 2010.

China's rapid economic development has led to greater national defense capabilities and scientific-and-technological strength. Over the recent years, compound development of informatization and mechanization has been holding the central place in China's national defense. This is demonstrated in the military training under informatized conditions, the focus on the invention of high-tech armament and vigorous efforts in building a modernized logistics system. This has led to Chinese army's stronger capability to operate, as well as an more eminent role it plays in tackling public emergency and undertaking international peacekeeping missions.

The Chinese army has engaged in numerous emergency rescues in natural catastrophes, serious accidents and public hygiene emergencies, etc. And in 2008, it ensured the success of Beijing Olympics by taking over the safety and security management of the Olympics; meanwhile, The Chinese army continues to expand its exchange and cooperation with other countries on the matter of anti-terrorism, participating in 11 international anti-terrorism accords successively and rising as a major power in maintaining world peace and combating terrorism; with regard to the international peacekeeping, China is among those countries undertaking most peacekeeping missions. In addition, China's development in science and technology is speeding up as a result of its economic development. Under the guideline of constructing“an innovative society”, the Chinese government has increased its investment into science and technology, anticipating that by 2020, the investment in research and development will increase by more than 2.5% of GDP, science and technology contribution rate will rise to 60% or more while the foreign technology dependence rate will fall to less than 30%. China has successfully launched space aircrafts of Shenzhou V, Shenzhou VI, Shenzhou VII and Chang-e, which proves the remarkable progress China has made in science and technology.

Along with China's fast growing economy and science and technology comes the noticeable progress in its“soft power”, which mainly refers to a country's attractiveness and influence conveyed through its ideology, value and so on. China has long been in possession of extraordinary soft power, such as rich and open traditional cultural system, strong national identity, world-wide network of overseas Chinese, and so forth. Recent years have witnessed China's successful use of the soft power and its progress in building the soft power up. A case in point is that in order to promote the“going global”of Chinese culture, China has established numerous Confucius institutes around the world to promote Chinese culture and language abroad. By October, 2010, there have been 322 Confucius institutes and 369 Confucius classrooms in 96 countries and regions. And traditional Chinese culture immediately gained broader influence as a result of the emergence of“Chinese craze”and“Chinese culture craze”in various countries and regions. Meanwhile, holding“Chinese Culture Year”in other countries is another major action the Chinese government has taken in recent years to promote Chinese culture. So far, China has held“Chinese Culture Year”successively in various countries, including France, Russia and Italy, and this act enormously boosts cultural exchanges between China and other countries. In addition, the influence of the“Chinese mode”and its tremendous appeal to developing countries have constituted a significant part of China's soft power in the present era. In other words, China has achieved great success in its economic development and offered other developing countries an appealing alternative of development mode through its own“innovation”, “experiment”and“gradual progress”. Finally, China's extensive engagement in regional and international mechanisms and in the solution of international hot issues has added to its soft power. At the same time, the practical contribution that China makes to the regional stability and the important role China plays in resolving regional and global hot issues have won more international acclaims for China. The events like the success of Beijing Olympic Games and the responsible reaction to the international financial crisis are also conducive to the shaping of China's favorable national image as a peace-loving and responsible major power, which in turn can strengthen China's soft power.

Despite China rapid growing national strength, we should also be aware that we still have a long way to go:the transformation of economic growth mode is not yet completed, the industrial structure wants improvement and the technical innovation needs further strengthening. What's more, as a densely-populated country, China is still a backward country as far as its per capita GDP is concerned and there's still a vast gap between the education level of China and that of the developed countries;deterioration of eco-environment threatens to spread and shortage of energy resources puts constraints on China's economic development; the threat posed by separatist forces such as“pro-Tibet independence”forces and“pro-Xinjiang independence”groups still exists, and the expanding gap between the rich and the poor is curbing China's further economic and social development; corruption and unsound legal system also stand as a barrier to stronger soft power. Though these elements stand in the way of China's development, they strengthen China's aspiration for further development as well, giving rise to China's commitment to peaceful development and its strong determination of honoring this commitment. Sticking to the peaceful development, China tries to guarantee a stable circumstance and ample time necessary for its comprehensive development, while contributing to the harmonious development of the international community and promoting the construction of a harmonious world.

3. The Perfecting Conception of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

The conception of peaceful development and a harmonious world is the outcome of accumulating China's diplomatic thoughts and philosophy in different historical periods. In essence, it reflects China's understanding of its goal and mode of development. And as such, it's actually the extension of China's ambition for further development and greater prosperity harbored since the founding of People's Republic of China.

Back to the very beginning of the founding of People's Republic of China, at the 8th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the goal of striving for a great socialist China was put forward. Although this goal put emphasis on socialism as China's state system, it conveyed China's aspiration of rising to a“great power”.

The 1980s' witnessed the initiation of the open-door policy and the rapid economic and social development brought forth by it, which further confirmed China's confidence in rising to a great power. At the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Deng Xiaoping announced that the development goal of China was to build China into a modern, highly civilized and highly democratic socialist country and that China was against hegemony and in favor of world peace.

In the 1990s, remarks made by Deng Xiaoping during his inspection tour of South China confirmed China's confidence in deepening reform and opening-up. From then on, China's economy began to take off and its social development achieved tremendous progress. Against this background, in the 15th and 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, then General Secretary Jiang Zemin and other Chinese leaders made it an explicit national development goal to achieve the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation. This national development goal conveys no suggestion of China intending to revive its glory in the past as a superpower that dominated the whole world. On the contrary, what it conveys is China's strong faith in achieving progress in all aspects including economy, politics, culture and diplomacy, etc. This development goal unfolds before the world China's vision of promoting its own international status and image and of making more constructive contribution to the world.

Steering into the 21st century and against the background of China's continuous rapid economic development and increasingly stronger national strength, Chinese leaders put forward the new target of“peaceful rise”.“Peaceful rise”was first officially brought up by Premier Wen Jiabao in December,2003, when he delivered a speech entitled“Turning Your Eyes To China”in Harvard University. In this speech, when trying to describe the recent development in China and China's intention for peace, Premier Wen used the phrase“peaceful rise”（which was originally coined by Zheng Bijian, former vice president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, in Boao Forum for Asia），pointing out that China today is a country in reform and opening-up and a rising power dedicated to peace. Shortly after, in the symposium in memory of Chairman Mao's 110th birthday, President Hu Jintao mentioned that China will stick to the path of peaceful rise in his speech, reaffirming peaceful rise as the national development goal; In the press conference after the 2nd session of the 10th People's Congress, Premier Wen elaborated on five important messages in“peaceful rise”. First, in order to rise peacefully, China needs to take advantage of the peaceful international circumstances, striving for further development and greater national strength and in turn contributing to world peace. Second, China will stand up on the foundation of its own strength. With its vast domestic market, abundant labor force, strong foreign exchange reserve and innovative mechanisms brought about by reform, China will take off peacefully. Third, the rise of China wouldn't be possible if China separated itself from the rest of the world. Thus, China will stick to the opening-up policy and strengthen economic and trade exchange and cooperation with all the friendly countries under the principle of equality and mutual benefit. Fourth, it might take a long time and consistent efforts of many generations to achieve China's rise. Fifth, the rise of China won't stand in the way of any other country's development. Nor will it pose a threat to any other country, or make any other country fall victim to it. China doesn't seek hegemony now, and won't in the future（when it grows into a major power），either. The five messages make it clear that what“peaceful rise”emphasizes is China's intention for peace and the peaceful nature underlying China's development. The announcement of“peaceful rise”aims at strengthening trust, ruling out doubt and putting across good intention.

Unfortunately, however, this good intention fails to receive recognition from some of the countries in the international community. These countries tore“rise”out of its original context, overstressing“rise”while ignoring the important premise—“peaceful”, the very means with which China will achieve its rise. This phenomenon brought the heated discussion in China on whether to continue to use the phrase“peaceful rise”. Under this circumstance, after careful consideration, the Chinese administration decides to modify and develop this phrase. At the 10th Chinese Ambassador Meeting held in August,2004, President Hu Jintao explicitly modified the“peaceful rise”into“peaceful development”, pointing out that China would“uphold the principle of peace, development and cooperation, pursue the independent foreign policy of peace, stick to the path of peaceful development...contribute to world peace and common development”. From then on, “peaceful development”has taken the place of“peaceful rise”as China's national development goal, which is officially used on various important international occasions.

In March,2005, Premier Wen further explained in his report on the government work that“the socialist modernization of China is a peaceful process”, stressing the essential characteristics of China's development, namely, aspiration for development and peace but not hegemony. The white paper on China's Peaceful Development in December, 2005 marked the preliminary improvement made on the peaceful development conception. This white paper defines and elaborates on the essential connotation of peace, development and cooperation. What's more, it was an announcement to the world that China's peaceful development strategy has taken full shape and that China will meet its national development goal through peaceful development. In August,2006, at the Convocation of the Central Meeting on Foreign Affairs Work, President Hu Jintao summed up the major messages conveyed in“peaceful development”as“China's endeavor to achieve peaceful development, open development, cooperative development and harmonious development”, which he reaffirmed in his report at the 17th National Congress of Communist Party of China, pointing out that“China will stick fast to the path of peaceful development. This is the strategic choice made by both the Chinese government and Chinese people in light of the general development trend of the world and China's own fundamental interests”. In the following two years after that, “peaceful development”stood out as the most important key words in reports on the government work.“Peaceful development”has undoubtedly become the established goal and fundamental strategy of China's development in the new era.

China's national goal of prosperity and strength also encompasses China's self-defined role that it should play on the international stage. As is previously mentioned, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese government considered it an integral part of its obligation to promote world peace and make due contribution to it while striving for its own prosperity. And“seeking common ground while reserving differences”and“peaceful coexistence of nations”hold a most important position in China's Peace Conception.

Since the reform and opening-up, as peace and development stands out as the era theme, China defines its role on the world stage as to object to hegemony, maintain world peace and establish a new international political and economic order. Immediately after the Cold War, the Chinese government put forward the strategic thought of“keeping a low profile and making positive contributions”. The essential connotation of this strategic thought is that China will never take the lead or seek the commanding position in the world, but it will actively engage in the establishment of a new fair and just international political and economical order.

Since the second half of the 1990s, the Chinese government successively has been putting forward various conceptions such as“a diversified world”, which are the extension and further development of“seeking common ground while reserving differences”. To sum up, China's perspective on international system, namely“a harmonious world”, is founded on the basis of 50 years' continuous development of China's diplomatic conceptions.

In April,2005, President Hu Jintao proposed for the first time to“construct a harmonious world”at the Asia Summit held in Djakarta, advocating“pushing forward amicable coexistence, equal-footed dialogue, common development and prosperity among different civilizations, and promoting joint efforts in constructing a harmonious world”. In July of the same year, during his visit to Moscow, President Hu Jintao, together with his Russian counterpart, wrote“to construct a world of development and harmony”into the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on the International Order of the 21 Century, which conveys these two big countries' common aspiration for the international order. Two months later, at the Summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UN, President Hu Jintao elaborated in his speech on the rich connotation of China's perspective on the international order, namely, “a harmonious world”, and proposed joint efforts of the whole world to construct“a harmonious world”. In the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it was also pointed out that“we appeal to the whole world to join hands for a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity”. This demonstrated that China's concept of“a harmonious world”eventually grew into maturity. From then on, this concept, with its complete and deep connotation, has been serving as the important guidelines for China's diplomatic work. In the following years, Chinese leaders have put forwards the proposal of constructing“a harmonious world”on various occasions and have acted accordingly by taking practical measures to promote the harmonious development of the world, which is best proved in China's constructive efforts to curb the 2008 financial crisis.

Equally important is that based on the concept of“a harmonious world”, another concept was also initiated creatively by the Chinese government, the concept of“harmonious regions”, which is the development of the concept of“a harmonious world”. Obviously, the pursuit of“harmony”has become an important part of China's diplomacy.