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Envoy's vision in Die Welt

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-12 07:51

Editor's note: The interview of Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Hongbo published by the German newspaper Die Welt, including on its website, on Sept 22 and Oct 2, has drawn wide attention. Reproduced below is a translation.

Q: Mr Ambassador, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). China, a communist country, is now a world power. As China's ambassador to Germany, how could you articulate the present communism to the German people?

A: I would like to give my view first on what you mentioned as China is a world power. It is better to describe China as big rather than powerful. China, indeed, is a giant country in terms of its population size and vast national territory equivalent to the whole Europe. However, China is not very powerful. Why?

First, according to the United Nations statistics, China's total GDP reached $4.4 trillion in 2008 and Germany, $3.6 trillion. But Germany's per capita GDP was $44,000 then, 10 times more than China's $3,300 per capita. In the past 30 years, China has successfully enabled the emancipation of 200 million people from poverty, which accounted for two thirds of the world's total poverty reduction in the past 25 years according to the UN report. Yet China's poverty line is lower than that of UN. According to the UN poverty threshold of $1 per person, there is still a population of 100 million impoverished in China. Therefore, I call China big, not powerful.

While the PRC celebrates its diamond jubilee anniversary, Germany also marks the 60th birthday of its "Basic Law". Congratulations. Many Chinese scholars are reviewing the past 60 years of New China, and the Germans, too, on their own road. We do not describe China as a communist country as you labeled it, but a "socialist country", according to our definition of the development of the social and political system.

Communism, originated by Karl Marx, is both an ideology and a kind of social form. An ideal communist society should have an egalitarian and classless relation among people based on common ownership and the principle "from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs". Such a society is still very far from us. In current Chinese Communist thinking, the PRC is now in the primary stage of socialism, which is the first of the two stages of communism. Facing the unprecedented financial crisis, many people begin to reread the works of Marx and accept his insight on analyzing the inherent contradiction of capitalism. The practice of Marxism in China has proved to be successful and we should pay high tribute to him for that. Maybe you don't agree with my opinion.

Q: China has been playing a more and more important role in the international arena, so what is China's own value on the world? What is its difference with that of the Western? How does the value affect China's role in dealing with international affairs?

A: This is a very complicated question. First, China advocates the democratization of international relations. International issues should be addressed through dialogue and consultation between all parties concerned. All countries, big and small, rich and poor, should be equal.

Second, different countries should create and maintain win-win cooperation in economic and trade relations. During the inevitable process of economic globalization, the widening gap between the rich and poor should be narrowed through reciprocal cooperation. The achievements of globalization should be made available for all to enjoy.

Third, respect should be given to the diversity of the world, especially to the choice of development modes of people in different countries according to their own national conditions.

Fourth, China proposed a new security concept with trust, mutual benefit, and coordination as its core, and we persist in seeking settlement of international disputes through peaceful negotiation and are against recourse to any kind of war.

All in all, China is willing to join hands with the international community to create a harmonious world.

After 200 years of development, Western countries have managed the splendid achievement of perfecting the social mechanism and improving people's livelihood. Their success stories should not be taken as an excuse for interfering in other countries' internal affairs. China has been engaging in exploring its political system since its reform and opening up 30 years ago. During the period, some Westerners observed China with prejudice, the prejudice that any mechanism not in line with Western standards would be considered as a dictatorship and non-democracy.

We also came to Western countries on fact-finding visits. For example, the separation of powers is an important model for the Western political system, with the division of power into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, such as in the United States. While in the United Kingdom, things are different. The UK Member of Parliament (MP) is a legislator as well as a government official. The administration in France is a unitary semi-presidential system with the executive enjoying high authority in relation to parliament. While in Germany's general election, as I understand, people have two votes, one for legislators and the other for political parties.

Therefore, I come to the conclusion that in Western countries, too, there is no single unified mode of democracy. Each state has established its own political system according to its unique national conditions. The Western political system transplanted to some less developed countries did not result in the expected outcome and in some places even led to social chaos.

So we are more confident that a country's political system must be suited to its special situation in terms of social and economic development. I sincerely hope that Western countries would come out with more observations and fewer dogmatic opinions; be more patient and less impetuous; and carry out more communication and less criticism.

Q: At present, the world is undergoing an unprecedented financial and economic crisis, and China, which has closely integrated into the world economy, contributed a lot to cushion the impact on capitalist countries. Whether this could be deemed as China having saved capitalism?

A: We are living in the same planet and should help each other in pursuing a better life. It is a good sign that capitalist countries and socialist China can co-exist on earth and prove the diversity of the world. We can cooperate and compete fairly, and compare under which system could the people benefit with more happiness and joy. So when we develop relations with capitalist countries, we can go beyond history, background, ideology, development level and culture to cooperate for mankind's better future. History has proved that we can peacefully co-exist with many countries with different social systems and develop side by side.

Q: With regard to the Sino-US trade dispute, there is a rumor that China intends to devalue the US dollar through its huge foreign reserve. What is your comment on this?

A: Sino-US economic and trade relations is very important to both sides. The total bilateral trade volume reached more than $330 billion, three times the Sino-German trade. So it is quite normal if some trade friction occurred. I have never heard the allegation about devaluing of the dollar through China's foreign reserve, and it must be a rumor. We always adhere to fair deal and mutual benefit, and oppose trade and investment protectionism in international commerce. At a time when the world has not completely recovered from the financial crisis, countries all over the world should make joint efforts to overcome the crisis and revitalize the global economy.

(China Daily 10/12/2009 page4)