BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) — In a year full of profound political and economic changes, China’s relationship with the outside world has grown more intense. “Positive interaction” may be the phrase that best describes this relationship.
In its dual role today, China is both a beneficiary of its exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, and a contributor to a fairer and inclusive international system.
A good example of this is China’s leapfrog achievement in the development of its high-speed railway. As 2010 draws to an end, the world saw a new record set by China — the high-speed railway with a speed topping 486.1 km per hour, surpassing Japan, France and Germany.
It is fair to say that China’s high-speed railway technology owes much to Japan’s Shinkansen, France’s TGV and Germany’s ICE, as China’s self-developed railway is mainly based on the Maglev trains developed by these companies.
However, it is China that absorbs and adapts other countries’ technologies to deliver “record-breaking” results.
The example above illustrates that China not only benefits from its cooperation with the world, but also contributes to the development and prosperity of the whole world.
Over the past three decades, China’s economy has been on a fast track to development thanks to a peaceful and stable world. China is also ready to contribute to a more peaceful, stable and prosperous world. Till now, Beijing has made even broader efforts, from climate change negotiations to economic cooperation, from global governance to nuclear talks.
China and the outside world need to cooperate to achieve win-win results. China, along with other nations, devotes itself to building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity as cooperation brings benefits to both sides.
During the past year, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has given a strong impetus to regional markets, allowing a freer flow of capital, resources, technology and talents. This has provided a platform for trade expansion and investment cooperation in this region.
In the first nine months when the world was still recovering from the economic crisis, China-ASEAN trade volume registered an impressive year-on-year increase of 43.7 percent. The benefits generated from bilateral trade could not only be extended to the South Asian countries, but to Asia as a whole as well.
China also played a role in restructuring global governance. Beijing was actively involved in the G-20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. China, joining forces with other major economies, has remained committed to steering the global economic and financial system toward a more balanced direction.
On top of that, China has put more emphasis on coordinating and cooperating with other emerging economies, giving developing nations a stronger voice on the world stage.
“We can’t ignore the demand for development of developing nations, which account for over 85 percent of all nations,” Chinese President Hu Jintao said during the fourth G-20 summit in Canada in June. The world economy’s long-term and sustainable growth can only be achieved when the developing nations realize their full development and the South-North gap is narrowed, Hu said. His remarks have shown that China, as the largest developing country, has shouldered its due responsibility.
With the security threat looming large on the horizon, China has persistently advocated resolving conflicts through peaceful means. This year, as the discord over Iran and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue heated up again, China’s posture to safeguard regional peace and actively cooperate with other relevant parties was evident.
Since communications theorist Herbert Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “global village” in 1962, it has become a defining megatrend reshaping the international landscape in the past three decades. Never before in history has the fate of one nation been so closely linked to another’s.
While the world is getting smaller, the common interests are getting larger. In a sense, the world we are living in has become a community held together by common interests. In such a highly interconnected village, each nation has been given a dual role — beneficiary and contributor. For every stakeholder, to give is to receive.