Zhou Wen: Why is the world more and more "looking east" and "seeing" what?
China News Service, Beijing, October 31 Title: Zhou Wen: Why is the world more and more "looking east" and "looking" at what?
China News Service reporter Nie Zhixin
What is the secret of the rise and fall of great powers? Based on reality, why is the world "looking east" more and more today, and how does the catch-up in the East happen? Looking back at history, why is modern China far behind, and why has the West become the center of the world?
Zhou Wen, a distinguished professor at Fudan University, recently pointed out in an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions" that today's rejuvenation of China is an economic catch-up with the West from the phenomenon level, and at the essential level, it is the transcendence of the country's governance ability to the West; historically, the "rise of the West" has benefited from the integration and mutual learning between the East and the West.
Data map: Night view of Lujiazui in Pudong, Shanghai. Photo by Zhang Hengwei, a reporter of China News Service
China News Service: For a long time, world development has been deeply influenced by the "Western-centrism". With the rise of China, Western public opinion has repeatedly mentioned that "it is time to face China squarely." When does the world "look east" phenomenon date back and what are the landmark events?
Zhou Wen: Westerners stand in the Western position and tell the story of the rise and fall of the country from the perspective of Westerners, and it is inevitable to fall into the "Western-centric theory". "Western-centrism" is the use of the wrong method to find answers in the wrong places, resulting in more wrong conclusions.
Since the reform and opening up, China's development has shaken the discourse power of Western economic development and economic governance. At the same time, the uncertainty and downturn in the development of the West have made the world look more eastward. The world's "looking east" phenomenon, from the perspective of time nodes, should start from 2010, China surpassed Japan to become the world's second largest economy. Especially since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China has rapidly controlled the epidemic and restored its economy, which has made the world's attention focus on China.
Shi Jingqian, a well-known American expert on Chinese history, said that one of the conditions for a country to be great is that it can attract the attention of others and maintain this attention. China is already the "China of the world", the China problem has become a world problem, and the Chinese phenomenon is a world phenomenon, so no matter what happens in China, it is of great importance to the world, and even affects the direction of the world.
Data map: Shandong port Qingdao port fully automated terminal. Photo by Zhang Jingang
China News Service: From the logic of political economy, how did the world 'looking east' happen? How to understand China's catch-up with the West at the essential level?
Zhou Wen: Since the history of human civilization, whether it is the rise of the Western world or the catch-up of the Eastern world, economic development has always relied on the state as the main body to promote. The secret of the rich of poor countries lies in the ability of countries to govern and govern the system.
The market economy is a spontaneous exchange economy, but its formation depends on a specific set of political and legal systems, and the ability of national governance is positively correlated with the development of the market economy. Throughout history, there is also a "Tolstoy's Law" in the development of nations, in which successful countries are all similar, and failed countries have their own failures. In most successful countries, governments are better able to play a role.
This explains why China and the West have taken two very different paths in their economic development since the 15th century.
The backwardness of modern China is not that the market economy is underdeveloped, but precisely because there is marketization and there is no strong government, that is, "weak government". Today's rejuvenation in China is economically catching up with the West from the phenomenon level, and at the essential level, it is the transcendence of the country's governance capacity over the West. The success of the Chinese path is based on a series of special and important institutions, and the Chinese government has to some extent found ways to actively play the role of the "helping hand" and try to avoid the influence of the "grabbing hand".
At the same time, the current crisis facing the West is not only a crisis of development, but also a crisis of governance system and governance capacity. Historically, the French statesman Tocqueville, as well as the American school founded by Hamilton, have affirmed the important role of government power. It was the active control of governments, not the free market, that led to the economic rise of Western countries. However, today's liberal economic propositions in the West are far from the policy practices of history, and the state governance is too obsessed with neoliberal economic theory. Human history and reality show that the market is not an "angel" and cannot have such "magic".
Data map: Zhejiang Jinhua to Russia Moscow public train. Photo by Hu Xiaofei
China News Service: The world "looks east" suggests that China's position in the world coordinates has changed. The West is uncomfortable with China's revival and fears that China will challenge the West. How does the West "digest" this discomfort?
Zhou Wen: The West has long been accustomed to a condescending, self-centered perspective and world view, so it has all kinds of discomfort and worry about China's development, and the Sino-US trade friction can be said to be an outbreak.
East-West development is two parallel development routes. China has continuously promoted economic development through opening up and internal reforms, and has not seen the colonization, war and plunder that the West feared. The West always wants to include China in the "Western schema", and this psychology is not good for China and the West itself.
Montesquieu's "On the Spirit of the Law" mentions that in general, all countries have the same goal, that is, to preserve themselves. However, each country has a special goal. Rome's goal was expansion, Sparta's goal was war, and China's goal was stability.
China's development achievements have shocked the world and influenced the West, but China has no intention of changing the West in the past, present and future. The rise of China only means that the world must rethink whether the current pattern and system are reasonable, and it also means that China has stepped out of the path of "national strength and hegemony" in the West, and it also means the readjustment of global governance.
The world has entered a new century, and there is a formula in the new century, that is, learning to share. The West must learn to share from now on.
China News Service: People habitually think that the West is the center - the edge of the East, the progress of the West - the backwardness of the East, is this really the case? In your new book, you emphasize that the "rise of the West" comes from the convergence and mutual learning of the East and the West. How to understand?
Zhou Wen: Modernization began in the West, which is a historical fact. But modernization is not Westernization. In the past, there was a prejudice that when talking about advanced and modernity, it was often unconsciously equated with the West; when it comes to traditional culture, it is directly equated with the oriental culture, and the oriental culture often becomes synonymous with rigidity, stagnation and backwardness. China's success today effectively breaks such a simplistic mindset and has also shown other developing countries that the relationship between the West and the East is no longer eternal and fixed, center and periphery.
Some countries are in decline, some are rising. The ebb and flow of the tide is normal. No nation can always be at a point in time, and the West has not always been at the forefront of the world in history. The great divergence between China and the West has only occurred in modern times, and the development of the West has also broken through the darkness of the Middle Ages to today, and has realized its own modernization.
The East (500-1800 AD was more advanced than the West) played a major role in promoting the rise of the modern West. For example, after 500 AD, advanced Eastern ideas, systems, and technologies were transmitted to the West and absorbed for them; after 1492, the Western overseas exploration seized various economic resources in the East and promoted the rise of the West. It can be seen that without the contribution of the East, the rise of the West is unimaginable.
Data chart: The 20th China International Equipment Manufacturing Expo offline exhibition. Photographed at sea
China News Service: 100 years ago, Russell said in "The China Question" that China will play its due role in the world and will bring a new hope at a time when mankind is in urgent need. Do you think Russell's prophecy came true?
Zhou Wen: The scene of China's economic development has become the world's largest scene theater, and China's contribution to the world economy needs no words. China is also injecting "eastern power" into the world in terms of values, national governance, modernization roads, and global public goods supply. Whether it is the proposal and practice of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, or the actions in international cooperation against the epidemic, it shows that Russell's prediction 100 years ago is being fulfilled.
China's rejuvenation is not an abrupt accident, but a reflection and progress on the obsolescence of modern times in the long river of history. From the perspective of the grand historical view, this is a major reversal of world history, which not only profoundly changes China, but also means that the voice of emerging countries has increased, making world development more fair and reasonable. As the British political thinker Hobson put it: "History cannot be written as history that belongs merely to a certain group of people." Civilization is built up gradually, sometimes by the contribution of this part of the population, sometimes by the contribution of another. ”
China's world and the world's China are not a conflicting and mutually exclusive relationship, but a relationship of mutual integration and mutual promotion. Western scholars have long proposed that "the rise of China will reshape the meaning and model of modern times", and That China and the West can cooperate for a win-win situation and "light another lamp with one lamp".
China News Service: The world is more and more "looking east", what kind of mentality should Chinese hold in this regard?
Zhou Wen: Today, "China can already look at the world head-on", looking at the world is to emphasize the self-confidence and backbone of Chinese, self-confidence is not equal to complacency. China's development achievements are enormous, but China's development has not yet achieved its strongest. Huntington's assessment is rather objective: "The West is and will remain the most powerful civilization for years to come." However, its power is declining relative to other civilizations. ”
The world is more and more "looking east", but this does not mean that the East has surpassed the West, after all, the modernization and development of the West has experienced more than 200 years and accumulated a foundation for development, and some useful and advanced things are still worth learning from Chinese. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Zhou Wen is a Jiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, a Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Fudan University, and is currently the Vice President of the Institute of Marxism of Fudan University and the Vice President of the Chinese Society of Political Economy. His new book, "Why Nations Rise and Fall: The Chinese Way from a Historical and World Perspective," was published at the end of September this year.
Source: China News Network