By: Wang Wen       Source:YQQLM      Published:2020-10-27

In the 2020 Russia Valdai Club Annual Meeting, I was fortunate to be invited to give a keynote speech. On the last day of the annual meeting, President Putin accepted questions from many participants and praised China as a new superpower.”Private Equity” Mr. Ray Dario, who spoke with me in the same group, also talked about the future of China replacing the United States. He recently wrote an article in the Financial Times, explaining in more detail that”Every day we see China succeeding in exceptional ways” (Every day we see China succeeding in exceptional ways).

Under the background that international public opinion on China is biased by the Trump administration, global political and business leaders such as Putin and Ray Dario have affirmed China, of course It is something to be happy about. As a Chinese scholar, I appreciate their support.

But on the other hand, I don’t think that China will become a new superpower like the United States. The United States has more than 600 military bases around the world. The values of American society are still very popular internationally. American universities are the most popular destinations for young people in the world to study abroad. The US dollar accounts for about 50%of global foreign exchange reserves. In the foreseeable future, it will be difficult for China to reach the height of the United States.

If you put The United States is like a dilapidated skyscraper. It must be admitted that this building is very old and may collapse, but it is still the tallest in the world. U.S. hegemony is declining, but no country can replace the United States.

The foreign readers and friends of my English column may not believe that I will be invited to participate in consultation meetings of the Chinese government hundreds of times a year. I have never heard any official talk about China’s Instead of the United States, I have never encountered Chinese officials planning China to become a global superpower. This is really true.

Regardless of the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up, or the 40th anniversary of the construction of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, President Xi Jinping highly affirmed the development achievements of the reform and opening up and the construction of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in his commemorative speech, but he never said it.”China succeeded”. Even in the fight against the epidemic, China basically controlled the spread of the epidemic as early as mid-March, but the Chinese government’s tone was not”success”, but only said that”a staged victory was achieved.”

On the contrary, Xi Jinping often reminds the people of the need to guard against arrogance Restraint. His words impressed me very much.”What we are in now is a time when boats arrive in the middle of the road and wander more quickly, and people arrive at a steeper road in the middle of the mountain. It is a time when it gets harder and harder and more dangerous.

Yes, China’s development in the past 40 years has gone through thousands of miles, but the future still needs to travel through mountains and rivers. Chinese people will not talk about success easily, let alone who to replace.

Of course, the current domestic public opinion in China does indeed have some feelings of arrogance and complacency, and many people think that foreign countries are not good, but China is very good. But that is only part of the complicated public sentiment in China. In recent years, the biggest change in Chinese society lies in the diversified spectrum of understanding of national power. The view that China is strong, strong, average, weak, and very weak has found corresponding supporters among the Chinese people.

I have always advocated evaluating China’s strength by field and industry. As for the overall national strength, in the eyes of the new crown epidemic that is still raging, I hope that China can be more low-key and humble, and I also hope that foreign friends don’t have to regard China as brilliant.

The epidemic has caused more than 1.1 million deaths and tens of millions of families went bankrupt. Quite a few people are deceived by the United States, thinking that the virus was caused by Chinese laboratories or early concealment. Twitter and Facebook are full of voices hating China. Those who hate China do not have to show fire to China.

China is actually not easy. Although relative to most countries, China is the first to recover and achieve positive growth throughout the year. But the other side of the real situation is that the epidemic has also put China in the most difficult internal and external environment in 30 years. The last time the domestic economic growth rate fell below 4%was in 1990 (3.91%), when the West collectively sanctioned China.

Global development is entering a downward period, and holding a group for warmth may be the best choice. As I wrote in the book”Long March to a Powerful Country”, Chinese people on the Long March need to look at the current challenges and opportunities with a protracted war mentality. The Chinese must be more mature, not happy with things, not sad for themselves, solid, modest and prudent, in order to finally achieve the dream of national rejuvenation.

The author is professor and executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

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