The rise of China in modern times is the rise of the unprecedented heterogeneous civilization power in modern times, and there are more factors that need to be considered; it happened in an era of a century -old change, and a new human civilization is yet to be created.China will definitely be different from other countries, especially the dominant Western countries.How to "survive" in the process of seeking the same?
The rapid turn of Sino -US relations since 2018 has brought humans into a turbulent world.The globalization that is in full swing came to an abrupt end, and it quickly inverted; people lamented that the peaceful and red profit after World War II disappeared, and the current situation of the current international situation was increasing the expenses of the situation before the same war.Most people accepted this huge change into reality, and explained its inevitable theory with theory such as "Xiu Xidde Trap".
Image politics
Here, I propose an ideal interpretation, which is not necessarily correct, but it can open another sunroof and examine this huge change from different perspectives. I may find different solutions.From such a judgment: the deterioration of Sino -US relations and the tension of international relations caused by it, there is no reasons, so there is no inevitable.According to the following three: First of all, this change suddenly came. The interests of various countries were cultivated for decades, and it was impossible to become so fast.Secondly, China in 2018 was not essentially different from 2008, even in 1998.
Third, China's external behavior is more provocative and expanded. This western consensus is also lacking: Chinese territorial disputes are decades of old accounts. Most of them are left by the government before the Communist Party.EssenceThe so -called "more aggressive behavior" is just the natural phenomenon of its growth after sea -air power -in the past, there was nothing to do, and now no one makes people feel uncomfortable;The result of the US Navy's step by step.
On the other hand, China and most of the neighbors have resolved border problems peacefully, including Russia, which has a deep historical resentment.The boundaries of thousands of kilometers in China and India are in the uninhabited area of the Snow Mountain Desert. In history, the locals have no concept of boundary. It is not surprising that the rowing world has caused disputes.China does not export revolution and ideology. The contradiction between economic and trade relations with other countries is long -term and will never cause sudden hostility.
If the above are not enough to explain the sharp deterioration of Sino -US relations, the reason can only be found from the ideas of cognition, attitude, and the characteristics of human nature.Big role.International politics is to a large extent around the image.However, the reputation of a country is often very different from reality, because distortions and artificial manipulation in cross -cultural communication.With a good international image, a country can be understood quickly after doing bad things; countries with bad images will be interpreted as bad things when doing good things. This is also the root cause of the international dual standard.What kind of stories will develop in any image. In recent years, China's scores in developed countries have repeatedly reached a record low, because the stories of China have been told.There is no fundamental conflict between China and the United States. The reason for the deterioration of the relationship between the two is that the judgment of the United States on China has become negative, and the more successful the success of China, the greater the threat.
Lack of international identity
If the above promotion is established, we can draw a conclusion: improving the image can revitalize the entire relationship with the West.Recently, the US Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State visited China, and the two countries are gradually returning to normal exchanges.This shows that there is a need for cooperation with each other, and it is also an opportunity for China to change the image.Integrating into the world's mainstream, it is widely recognized, recognized, and accepted -at least not considered heterogeneous.This ordinary identity cognition is extremely important for a large rising country and is related to whether it can rise peacefully.Even if it will become the largest economy and a comprehensive power in the future, there are still questions about how to get along with other countries. These are the basic conditions, which is even more indispensable for building a "community of human destiny".
Many prejudice to China, originated from Western ideological methods and theoretical systems.The "Xiu Xidid Trap" itself is a trap, because after entering this discourse system, it will act according to its logic and close other paths to become a prophecy of self -realization.Western discussion in China often has two assumptions that they never review: one is "the success of China must mean our destruction"; the other is that the success of China will cause conflict to intensify.These two are based on a deeper assumption: China is a bad person. It wants to dominate the world, so steps must be taken to prevent problems before they occur.
There is no tradition of expansion in Chinese history, even if they are not interested in external affairs, and their mentality is self -contained.This mentality is also manifested in modern behaviors. For example, after the Korean War of War, Kim Il Sung issued a statement asking for a foreign army to withdraw from the peninsula. The Chinese Volunteer Army quickly withdrew, but the U.S. military is still stationed in South Korea.Several boundary war in the mainland government was a short attack, and at first sight, the border was quickly withdrawn.During the Mao Zedong era, China also strongly supported the "World Revolution" for the ideology of ideology and anti -emperor's anti -colonial colonization, but this ideological form was disappeared in diplomacy.Of course, China has never been able to project hard power in every corner of the world; once it is used, no one can predict, including the Chinese themselves -although they are now holding sincere peace.
Three Challenges
China has three major challenges in the world's mainstream: human nature, old socialist heritage, and the rise of heterogeneous civilization.Human nature was formed in the 300,000 years of history -that was the era of stone artifacts of Rudao drinking blood.In contrast, the farming era is only 10,000 years, and the modern civilization has been counted from the industrial revolution for less than 300 years.The rules and moral norms of modern civilization often conflict with the same human nature.300,000 years of pairs of 300 years, no wonder there are uncivilized behaviors everywhere in the society. In the turbulent world, the behavior of even the country has returned to primitive human nature.
Human characteristics related to international politics are: hegemony, groups, judgment, cognitive bias, and sensitivity to threats.The hegemony is well understood that it is also common in the animal group, and the fair concept of modern civilization conflicts.Qunju is the main form of primitive society. It is almost instinct to distinguish him or internal groups and external groups. Once the inside and outside are distinguished, human nature also uses "good or bad", "good and evil" to judge and corresponding emotions to strengthen this cognition.In the process of organizing, marking, and quantifying the world, the brain habitually divides external affairs into opposite groups: light or dark, happy or sad, facts or fiction, good or evil, right or wrong.Such a binary combination represents a unified concept.For example, if there is no "down", you can't imagine "up". With "I", there will be an urge to find "enemy".So we saw the phenomenon of facialization of others and demonized other countries.
Once the cognitive structure is formed, people will choose to accept new information, and information that does not meet or conflict with the knowledge structure will be rejected naturally.The prejudice in the original structure will be continuously strengthened. After combining moral judgment, it will have passionate support to form political correct pressure.This process has nothing to do with facts, truths, logic, etc. It is a means of cohesion that prehistoric society is used to increase the cohesion of the group.This is why the wolf's diplomacy is not available. Instead, the "evil" is aggressive and a threat. It must be united to deal with it. This is the trap of human nature.
The prehistoric virgin forests and grassland are lurking everywhere, causing people to be sensitive to threats and easy to see negative things.Western media grasped this human characteristics well, and always reported concerns.Modern civilization uses rationality to suppress these characteristics of humanity, but the latter is very tenacious.In which aspect of the behavior, it determines who is a gentleman and who is a villain.
The Western discourse system for China has formed a vicious circle in concept: one -party dictatorship, deprived human rights, suppressing freedom of speech, and forcedHarm religious beliefs, bureaucratic corruption and so on.Most of the Western reports on China are feeding to cognitive structures from this Cold War period, otherwise it will cause cognitive disorders to the audience, scold and reduce ratings.The problem of the mainland government is that there is no thorough liquidation of the heritage of old socialism. It shows new socialism with a new look, and even sediment has gone, giving others a good mouth.
The rise of China has been the rise of unprecedented heteroic civilized powers in modern times, and there are more factors that need to be considered; it occurs in an era of a century -old change, and a brand new human civilization is yet to be created.China will definitely be different from other countries, especially the dominant Western countries.How to "survive" in the process of seeking the same?The "different" must be higher, rather than covering backward.Only China leads human civilization to enter a higher level to truly rise.
How to change the image?
First of all, do not entangle right or wrong, only pay attention to whether there are."War Wolf Diplomacy" is more true to the West, because it does not obey the logic of human nature.If you have a problem, you must find a way to solve it. International politics has not reached the level of domestic civilization, and entanglement, right or wrong, there will be no results.
Secondly, we must move closer to the mainstream.From 2013, the "universal value" of the Great Foundation was aimed at the West, which will be used in the West, used to engage in peaceful evolution or color revolution, rather than these values itself.However, at that time, it could not be more powerful replacement. It adopted a simple, rude, low -level method such as blocking, suppressing and brainwashing, and inadvertently "confirmed" the stigma of the West added.Document No. 9 without talking.Treating the military government of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, etc. in diplomatic relations must be in principle, to avoid being labeled "evil axis".
Third, the soft power of a country comes from the internal affairs, not diplomacy.China's diplomatic style is elegant, but the United States is very domineering, but there are many American allies. Chinese corrupt officials, private companies, senior cadres, stars, and even scolding American intellectuals every day, and they vote for the United States as soon as they have the opportunity.People use the internal affairs to judge the essence of a country, which is the reason why Great Waigon has no effect.
Fourth, liquidate the old heritage and establish a new image.Foreign Diplomacy Mao Zedong Mao Zedong's thoughts were almost disappeared, but the internal affairs retained the basic structure of the original system.The mainland government said that the United States was "seriously misjudged China", but it was unclear to say that the noon was — sometimes the onlookers saw it more clearly.There is a lot of room for reform, especially in democracy and the rule of law, otherwise corruption will never be governed.It is an immature manifestation to refuse to liquidate historical errors and sweep the problem under the carpet. History will eventually settle accounts.Instead of being liquidated by others, it is better to come by yourself. This is not only to master the initiative. It has an explanation of history and yourself. It can also avoid the same mistakes and growth.
Fifth, the rule of law is a world language, with reliable rule of law, the national image will greatly improve, and soft power will grow a lot.There are two major obstacles to the implementation of the rule of law in China: power and humanity.The current system design can easily overwhelm power.There are villains in a human society, and the society in the rule of law is very clear how to improve the level.
The author is a senior researcher at the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore
