As a big country with characteristics, what are the characteristics of China's diplomacy?

On June 27th, Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech entitled "Exploring the diplomatic road of a big country with China characteristics" at the luncheon of the Second World Peace Forum held in Tsinghua University. As this is the first time that Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expounded China's foreign policy in public since he took office in March this year, his speech has strong policy declaration significance and policy guidance significance, and it is a guide for the outside world to observe China's diplomacy in the next few years. The biggest highlight of this speech is that the basic path of China's diplomacy in the future is to take the road of diplomacy as a big country with China characteristics.

Exploring the diplomatic road of China as a big country with characteristics is to solve the mismatch between China's identity orientation and policy orientation. China has always positioned itself as a big developing country, but it has never proposed to take the road of diplomacy as a big country. This dislocation of identity orientation and policy orientation forces us to explore the road of great power diplomacy with China characteristics. Today, China is a big country with sustained and rapid development, with a population of1300 million. If such a big country doesn't explain clearly what role it plays in global affairs and what policies it pursues abroad, it will really arouse great doubts from the outside world. However, if our foreign policy orientation is inconsistent with China's international status as a big developing country, our doubts about China will be more serious. It is pointed out that diplomacy as a big country with China characteristics can solve the contradiction between foreign policy and international identity.

The basic principles of China's diplomacy as a big country with characteristics can be summarized as "one center and two basic points". A center means that China is still a developing country, which determines that China's diplomacy should focus on serving the country's development and create a good external environment for building a well-off society in an all-round way. Two basic points are that China's diplomacy should safeguard China's legitimate interests in the world and promote mutual benefit and win-win with other countries in the world.

Diplomacy serves national development and is an upgraded version of diplomacy serving economic construction. The meaning of national development is richer than that of economic construction. In addition to economic construction, it also includes social construction, national quality, environmental quality and so on, which is consistent with the needs of comprehensive indicators to evaluate a well-off society. The two basic points are not contradictory. Under the background of globalization, China and the world are interdependent in a deeper degree and influence each other in a wider scope. This requires that China's diplomacy, when safeguarding national interests, should not do things that harm others and benefit others, but should comprehensively consider its own interests and those of other countries, and strive to achieve mutual benefit and common development.

The source of "characteristics" of China's diplomacy as a big country with characteristics is embodied in "three self-confidences", namely, theoretical self-confidence, cultural self-confidence and practical self-confidence. These three self-confidences distinguish China's diplomacy as a great power from that of other great powers in the world (especially that of the United States).

First of all, among all the big countries in the world, only China is a socialist country ruled by the * * * production party. The socialist concept puts forward some unique requirements for China's diplomacy. For example, China is explicitly required to oppose hegemonism, interference in other countries' internal affairs and regime change. Secondly, China's 5,000-year uninterrupted civilization can provide inexhaustible cultural resources for diplomacy. Third, People's Republic of China (PRC) has put forward many policy propositions and strategic ideas that can be regarded as a model of international relations in his diplomatic practice of just over 60 years, and will continue to be the driving force and guide for China's diplomatic progress.

When exploring the diplomatic road of China as a big country with characteristics, we don't want to deliberately ignore the general trend of the world and "start a new stove". The balance of international power is developing in a more balanced direction, and traditional and non-traditional security threats are intertwined. Therefore, the diplomatic road of a big country with China characteristics should make China devote itself to the reform of the international system, promote the evolution of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction with the spirit of pioneering and innovation, and promote the construction of a harmonious world with lasting peace and prosperity. ▲ (The author is an associate researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)