The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that it is necessary to promote high-level opening up and promote reform through opening up. In this regard, people cannot help but ask: What is the relationship between China's high-level opening up to the outside world in the new period and China's anti-hegemony struggle in the new period?
From the perspective of Sino-Western relations, it is an obvious fact that there are two different development processes under the great changes unseen in a century: first, China is promoting a high level of opening up, and simply put, China will open up more to the outside world, which is a strategic process with far-reaching implications; The other is that the United States and the Western bloc are building various forms of "small courtyard walls", and they are determined to use this method to contain China's development and progress. It also constitutes a strategic process with significant implications.
The parallel development of these two very different processes forces a deep reflection on the relationship between the two.
Obviously, the relationship between the two is by no means complementary, but has a strong purpose.
As we all know, the core target of the "small courtyard and high wall" designed and constructed by the United States and the West is China, and they want to use such means to close and trap China; China's high-level opening up to the outside world is to break such blockades and difficulties, and to achieve new breakthroughs and new development in the midst of such blockades and difficulties between the United States and the West.
In this sense, the so-called "high level" of opening up to the outside world is a concrete manifestation of being able to effectively deal with the "small courtyard and high walls". This point will become the benchmark yardstick for whether China's opening up to the outside world in the new era is "high-level". If China can win the contest with the United States and the West in the "small courtyard and high wall", China's opening up to the outside world will undoubtedly be "high-level"; if it cannot win but surrenders or submits to the "small courtyard and high wall" of others, or even sends the right face after being beaten on the left side, then there is no "high level" in any case, and it is not even a low level.
Therefore, promoting high-level opening up to the outside world cannot simply be equated with improving relations with the United States and the West.
Frankly speaking, with regard to the Third Plenary Session of the 20 th CPC Central Committee and the decisions adopted by the Plenary Session, some people at home and abroad have such a strong desire that China will have to compromise and turn right under the oppression of the hegemonic bloc and capitalist forces, and that it will have to once again rein in its strategic and political brilliance and return to the line of "taoguang and obscurity" in essence. These people once again understand the expansion of opening up to the outside world as opening the door to the United States and the West, and making a bigger and more delicious cake for them to share, in exchange for a certain degree of tolerance on their part, slowing down the black hand stuck in China's neck, and tolerating the Westernization forces to further expand and strengthen in contemporary China......
That's not the case, we say. As a matter of fact, the "high-level" opening up to the outside world in the new era is a strategic abandonment of the opening up to the outside world in the past.
To put it bluntly, one of the outstanding shortcomings and faults of China's opening up in the past few decades is that it relies too much on and trusts the United States and the West. This problem must be resolved through a high level of opening up to the outside world, and this should become the proper meaning of the topic of "high level". Otherwise, if we continue to be "stuck" by others, or even beaten by others, where is there any such thing as "high-level opening up"?
In this sense, high-level opening up to the outside world is not something that is "in line with international standards". The so-called "integration with international standards" used to be noisy in China in the past, and its political connotation is quite clear, that is, it is to integrate with the West, move closer to the "mainstream of human civilization", engage in self-cancellation and self-dwarfing of the Chinese nation in disguise, and turn China into a strategic colony of the Western world. However, this is not the case at all with a high level of opening up to the outside world, and its clear strategic orientation is to be independent and self-reliant, to further strengthen China's sovereignty in finance, currency, capital, and other aspects rather than to further cede sovereignty, and to enable the Chinese nation to develop and grow on the road of self-confidence. And this is precisely something that the United States and the West cannot accept and must resolutely contain.
In this sense, a high level of opening up does not mean that we should cling to the "globalization" defined by the West, but that we should reshape and recreate a new globalization under the great changes unseen in a century with the modernization model with Chinese characteristics. The globalization defined and interpreted by the West has taken a strategic turn against and rejects China, and it is precisely in order to reject China that they have set off a bad wave of "de-globalization" and used such means as "small courtyards and high walls" and "decoupling and breaking chains" to promote such anti-globalization. China's high-level opening up in the new era is an integral part of China's modernization, and the strategic purpose of promoting this process is not to reach an understanding, form a consensus, and achieve a balance with the "anti-globalization" of the United States and the West, but to create a new global development process and make it appear a new globalization. The relationship between the two is a benign interaction and mutual assistance, and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind is an integral part of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
It can be seen from this that promoting high-level opening up in the new era requires repeating the old adage, that is, we must abandon all kinds of illusions about the United States and the West.
Frankly speaking, to this day, the pro-American Western forces within Chinese society are still growing, and they have not given up their overall goal of turning China into a strategic colony of the United States and the West. In addition to this, there are still quite a few people who still have the illusion of building good relations with the United States and the West, believing that by stressing "opening wider to the outside world" in a big way, they can become the pistachio of the United States and the West, they will be able to win the favor of the United States and the West, they will be able to ease their relations with them, and they will be able to "get Sino-US relations back on the right track," and so on. These are all utter delusions. In fact, the emphasis on self-confidence and self-reliance, and the determination to follow China's own path are a fundamental departure from the West's purpose. It is not that shouting a few words of "opening wider to the outside world" will dilute the hostility of the United States and the West and satisfy their appetites, but they will certainly implement the "small courtyard and high wall" against China even more aggressively, not only to snipe and trap China's economic development, but also to contain and suppress China's high-level opening up in the new era.
This leads to the question of the relationship between China's high-level opening up to the outside world in the new era and China's anti-hegemony struggle in the new era.
Taking into account various factors, it can be expected that a fierce collision will inevitably occur between the high-level opening up to the outside world and the "small courtyard and high wall" of the United States and the West, and the confrontation between the two will inevitably be placed within the framework of United States's "strategic competition" with China, which is not subject to China's will. Therefore, in essence, high-level opening up to the outside world is an integral part of the anti-hegemony struggle in the new period, and we should have a full understanding of this.
(The author is a senior researcher at Kunlun Ce Research Institute; Source: Kunlun Ce Network [Original] Revised Draft, Author's Authorized First Release)