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President Hu deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
By Abel Lee (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-28 07:25
The Nobel Committee awarded US President Barack Obama a Peace Prize for inspiring the world with hope and steering the US back to multilateralism and re-engagement with the global community. This decision stirred up a wave of debates both in and outside of the US. If the objective of the award was to incentivize good policies, another potentially controversial but perhaps more compelling recipient of the award is the leader of another large country that is rapidly evolving in a positive direction - China's President Hu Jintao. Under Hu's leadership in the past seven years, China has successfully transformed itself into a new global powerhouse with significant influence economically, strategically, politically and culturally. Against all odds, it appears that Hu is directing China to assume this new role with a great deal of dignity and conscience. A lot of Hu's efforts have gone unnoticed or have been brushed aside for ideological reasons. Let's review some of his accomplishments and contributions to date. On climate change, China has taken a big step forward towards complying and potentially leading the world's efforts on carbon reduction. Hu had told nearly 100 leaders at a UN summit on climate change in New York recently that China would cut carbon dioxide emissions by a notable margin by 2020. The country will "vigorously develop" renewable and nuclear energy, try to increase the share of non-fossil fuels to 15 percent by 2020 and plant 40 million hectares of forest to absorb carbon emissions. Hu is determined to make the "Green Movement" not just a slogan, but also virtually a reality in a country that has so far upheld economic growth above all else. In fact, the State Council announced on Thursday that China is going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with the level of 2005. On crisis leadership, Hu and his highly technocratic team have managed to keep China's economy growing at a remarkable pace during the financial crisis and global economic recession without incurring severe job losses and institutional failures domestically. This has helped inject a shot of stability into the global economy. Hu has succeeded in feeding a population of 1.3 billion during this period without suffering from otherwise unimaginable social unrest and instability. His administration has also called for global governance reforms, including stronger support for international institutions such as the IMF and the G20 process. Since even before the economic crisis, Hu has pledged to shore up efforts to revamp China's growth in a more sustainable fashion, rebalance investment and consumption, and embrace the concept of Green GDP. On global security issues, with the rise of China's economic might, Hu's government is arguably the first Chinese administration, since Deng Xiaoping's initiation of the reform policy in 1979, to more actively tiptoe into the global geopolitical arena. Hu openly called for building a harmonious world based on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in September. China's potential influence over Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Sudan, Venezuela and the likes should not be underestimated. It is reasonable to expect China to play a bigger role as the world's diplomat. A Nobel Peace Prize would certainly win the hearts and minds of the Chinese people in shouldering bigger international responsibilities. On humanitarian aid, President Hu has offered China's help in numerous rescue missions and relief assistance amidst natural disasters and catastrophes. This was evidenced in the emergency relief assistance to the tsunami-affected countries in 2004, disaster relief assistance to the Philippines after Typhoon Ondoy, relief assistance for victims in China's Taiwan province affected by Typhoon Morakot, and many others. On an ongoing basis, Hu's administration has dramatically increased foreign assistance to Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa from under $1 billion in 2002 to over $25 billion in 2007. Domestically, Hu's team led the relief efforts in a remarkable fashion with international admiration in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 and showed the world the loving-care of the Chinese people. On cultural exchange, Beijing has in the meantime managed to offer the world a stellar experience of the 2008 Summer Olympics, showcasing China's reform results, friendship, peaceful intentions, and embracing the rest of the world with open arms. Many other such events are still in the pipeline, including the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and hosting the World Economic Forum's Summer Annual Meetings. On democratic and human rights reforms, Hu's administration has been modernizing the rigid judicial system and communicating more with international media. Short of abolishing the death penalty, all death rulings have now been subject to strict review of the Supreme People's Court since 2007. Execution cases have reduced from 1,770 in 2005 to 470 in 2007 while the government pledges to reduce that even further. China has also opened up more to the press. If one has the chance to interact with today's "Communist" government officials, they impress more as personable human beings and technocrats rather than demonized or corrupt monsters. Thousands of fora on all kinds of social, cultural, economic, and industrial issues take place all over China on a daily basis. President Hu and his administration can do far more still, but to give the Nobel Peace Prize to him would be of such high emotional value and inspiration. It would be a huge recognition of China's achievements so far, encouraging the country to embark on further reforms and become a new global power that better embraces multilateralism and global cooperation. Well, perhaps next year. The author is a senior manager of the World Economic Forum.
(China Daily 11/28/2009 page4) |
