V. Preservation and Development of the Cultures of Ethnic Minorities

China's ethnic minorities have formed their unique cultures in the long process of historical development. China respects and preserves the traditional cultures of ethnic minorities, and all of the minority peoples are free to maintain and develop their own cultures.

Respecting the Folkways and Customs of Minority Peoples

The various ethnic minority groups in China differ widely in their folkways and customs. They have different modes of production and life styles, as displayed in dress and adornments, diet, residences, marriage, etiquette and funerals. The minority peoples have the right to retain or change their folkways and customs, which are respected by the state. The government protects such rights in every aspect of social life.

In China, about ten minority peoples have the tradition of eating Muslim food. Taking this into consideration, the state has established Muslim canteens or supplies Muslim food in state organs, schools, enterprises and institutions. In some work units where people eating Muslim food are few, Muslim canteens are jointly established by several units or Muslim food is specially prepared. Muslim food and beverage shops can be found in places where Muslim ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities. In cities, communication hubs, restaurants, hotels and hospitals, and on trains, ships and airplanes, Muslim catering is provided. The state stipulates that ``Muslim food'' must be marked on beef and mutton sold to ethnic minorities which eat Muslim food at all the stages of slaughtering, packaging, transporting, processing and selling. In large and medium-sized cities where there are large numbers of ethnic minority people who eat Muslim food, the relevant state departments have established special beef and mutton wholesale departments or retail shops and given them preferential treatment.

The forms of burial vary among China's ethnic minorities, including cremation, inhumation, ``water burial'' and ``sky burial'' (exposure burial). The government respects minority peoples' burial customs, and has allotted land for cemeteries and established burial services departments specially for Hui, Uygur and other minority peoples that have the tradition of inhumation. Throughout the country, cemeteries can be found in large, medium and small cities where Hui and other minority peoples preferring inhumation live. The burial custom of Tibetans has also been respected; they can choose whatever form of burial they prefer--``sky burial,'' inhumation or ``water burial.''

Ethnic minorities have rich traditions of festivals, including the New Year and Shoton (Yogurt) Festival of the Tibetan people, the Fast-breaking and Corban festivals of the Hui and Uygur peoples, the Nadam Fair of the Mongolian people, the Water Sprinkling Festival of the Dai people and the Torch Festival of the Yi people. The various ethnic minority groups in China are free to celebrate their own traditional festivals, and the state gives them holidays and supplies special food for the holidays.

Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Ethnic Minorities

To preserve the traditional cultures of the ethnic minorities, the state has formulated plans or organized specialists for work involving the collecting, editing, translating and publishing of their cultural heritage and the protecting of their famous historical monuments, scenic spots, rare cultural relics and other important items of the historical and cultural heritage.

A national planning section and office have been established by the state to organize the editing and publishing of ancient books of ethnic minorities. Currently, about 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, 130 autonomous prefectures, prefectures and leagues and other minority areas, and some ethnic colleges and schools have established institutions for the same purpose. By the end of 1998, more than 120,000 titles of ethnic minorities' ancient books have been collected, of which, over 110,000 have been edited and 5,000 published. More than 3,000 experts and scholars organized by the state have finished the editing and publishing of five series on ethnic minority issues, including A Brief History of China's Ethnic Minorities, Brief Records of Ethnic Minorities' Languages, and A General Survey of Autonomous Ethnic Minority Areas, comprising over 400 titles and 90 million words. Now each of the 55 minority ethnic groups has a brief written history.

The Chinese government has set up special institutions for the collection, editing, translation and research of the three major epics of ethnic minorities: Gesar of the Tibetan, Jianggar of the Mongolians and Manas of the Kirgiz. The three epics and treatises concerning them have been published in the appropriate ethnic minority languages, Chinese and foreign languages. The publishing of the Corpus of Gesar Studies in more than three million words brought many distinguished Gesar studies experts to the fore. In recent years, the state has earmarked tens of millions of yuan for the publishing of Zhonghua Dazang Jing, an encyclopedia of Tibetan studies in 150 volumes.

Beginning in the early 1950s, governments at various levels and culture and arts departments have organized tens of thousands of experts in anthropology, sociology and ethnology, and writers and artists to collect and preserve traditional folk cultures and arts in regions where minority peoples live. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Chinese government put in much capital and efforts into the collection and editing of the folk cultural and arts materials of the minority peoples. The compilation of ten collections of literature, music and dance of minority peoples, comprising 450 volumes in 450 million words, including the Collection of Chinese Folk Songs, Collection of   Folk Instrument Tunes of China's Ethnic Minorities, Collection of Chinese Folk Tales, and Collection of Chinese Folk Proverbs have been completed, and 310 volumes have already been published.

In addition, in the past decade the state has invested a great deal of capital in maintaining cultural relics and historical sites, including the Drepung, Sera and Gandan monasteries in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai Province and the Kilzil Thousand-Buddha Cave in Xinjiang. Between 1989 and 1994, the state invested 53 million yuan and 1,000 kg of gold in repairing the famous Potala Palace in Lhasa. In addition, museums and cultural centers have been established in various places for the collection and preservation of cultural relics of ethnic minorities. Among them, the Tibet Museum cost nearly 100 million yuan to construct.

Promoting Ethnic Minorities' Cultural and Arts Undertakings

The state and relevant departments devote great efforts to fostering literary and artistic talent among the minority peoples, and promoting the creation of literature and art by setting up literature and art organizations, art institutes and schools, cultural centers and mass art centers. In the early 1950s, the national-level Central Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble was established in Beijing. It is composed of performers from various ethnic groups, and performs ethnic songs and dances of its own creation both in China and abroad. To date, in autonomous areas, there are 534 art troupes, 194 sites for art performances, 661 libraries, 82 mass art centers, 679 cultural centers, 7,318 culture-dissemination stations and 155 museums. Furthermore, there are 24 art colleges and secondary-level art schools in the five autonomous regions and Yunnan, Guizhou and Jilin provinces specially for fostering artistically talented people among China's ethnic minorities.

The ``Twelve Mukams'' opera, a classical musical treasure of the Uygur people, which was on the verge of being lost, has been preserved. At the end of the 1940s, only two or three elderly musicians could sing it completely. But now it is flourishing, since the Mukam Art Troupe and Mukam Research Office have been established in Xinjiang. In addition, Tibetan opera, which has a history of over 500 years, is well preserved and flourishing. Every year, it is included in the Shoton Festival, together with other singing, dancing and drama performances.

The state regularly conducts the competition for the ``Peacock Award'' for ethnic minorities' music, dance and drama and the ``Stallion Award'' for films, television programs and literary works dealing with minority peoples. Beginning in 1992, the state started to carry out the ``Long Cultural Corridor Construction in the Nation's Border Areas'' projects in nine autonomous regions and provinces where minority peoples are concentrated, including Guangxi, Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin. In the past few years, governments at various levels have also put large amounts of funds into the construction of many cultural infrastructure facilities, which have improved and enriched the cultural life of more than ten million ethnic minority people.

In the past decade or more, ethnic minority culture and art troupes have extended their exchanges with the outside world, and over 100 of them, national and local, have performed in other countries and regions.

The ranks of ethnic minority writers are continuously growing. A large number of such writers have come to the fore and created a great number of literary works. Nearly 600 writers belonging to ethnic minorities are members of the Chinese Writers' Association, constituting more than 10 percent.

The arts and handicrafts of minority peoples are a splendid legacy. The mural art of the Tibetans is continuously enriched with contents depicting the development history of the Tibetan ethnic group and the new lives of the Tibetan people. The Tibetan art of scroll painting, or Tangka, is well preserved. The carpets and wall hangings made by the Uygur and Mongolian peoples are very popular on the Chinese and overseas markets. The wax-printing art of the Bouyei, Miao, Yao and Gelo ethnic groups is growing in popularity, with great improvement in designs, patterns and varieties. And the brocade technique of the Tujia, Zhuang, Dai, Li and Dong ethnic groups has developed from small-scale family workshops to today's brocade mills, whose production scale has been on the increase.

Preserving and Developing the Traditional Medicine of Ethnic Minorities

The state has made great efforts to foster medical specialists for minority peoples. It has established medical colleges and universities of Tibetan, Mongolian and Uygur medicine in the Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang autonomous regions, respectively, which have trained 2,531 specialists. Of them, more than 500 have been trained by the Tibet College of Tibetan Medicine, founded nearly ten years ago. Nowadays, there are 127 hospitals of ethnic minority medicine all over the country, of which, 52 are Tibetan medicine hospitals, 41 are Mongolian medicine hospitals, 26 are Uygur medicine hospitals and eight specialize in the traditional medicine of other minority groups. Also, the state has provided active support for the development and application of ethnic minority traditional medicine. In 1992, the state gave permission for the setting up of centers for making of Mongolian, Tibetan and Uygur pharmaceutical preparations. They manufacture more than ten kinds of pharmaceutical preparations and over 100 kinds of traditional medicines with the combination of traditional and modern expertise.

Developing the Traditional Sports of Ethnic Minorities

The traditional sports of ethnic minorities originate from the daily life of the people and are rich in content and form, and have distinct characteristics and a long history. They call for skill of a high order, and most of them are accompanied with music, or singing and dancing. They include horse racing, archery, sheep-chasing on horseback, wrestling, swinging, springboard jumping, dragon-boat racing and mountaineering. Physical culture and sports institutions have been established in the various autonomous areas to train people in ethnic sports, develop traditional ethnic and modern sports activities and improve the health of minority peoples. To date, more than 290 kinds of traditional ethnic sports have been revived. In 1953, the first traditional ethnic sports show and competition was held in Tianjin, known as the First National Traditional Ethnic Minority Sports Meet. Beginning in 1982, such meets have been held every four years, and the sixth one was held in Beijing in September 1999, with some contests held in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Throughout the country, there are 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities that hold traditional ethnic minority sports meets every four years.

Fifty years of experience has proved that the policies toward ethnic minorities of the People's Republic of China are successful ones. China has blazed a correct way for handling ethnic problems and realizing the common prosperity of the various ethnic groups in conformity with China's reality. In the meantime, however, the Chinese government is well aware of the fact that, due to the restrictions and influences of history, physical geography and other factors, central and western China, where most ethnic minority people live, lag far behind the eastern coastal areas in development. In some ethnic minority areas, the people are inadequately fed and clothed, and while in some other areas sustained development has been adversely affected by poor production conditions. The Chinese government attaches great importance to these problems, and is taking measures to solve them. The Chinese government is convinced that, as the reform, opening-up and modernization drive develop, the various ethnic groups of China will develop in a still more rapid and healthy way, and the relations between ethnic groups marked by equality, unity and mutual help are certain to be further consolidated and developed in the coming 21st century.

Chairman Mao (1893-1976)

Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong or Mao Tse Tung) is the founder of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and one of the founders of the Chinese Communist party in 1921. He is recognized as one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians. He is also known as a great poet. Here is a brief biography of Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong was a very practical person before 1949. He did many thorough investigations about China and he developed his theories based on his studies. He was so successful in his early years that people worshipped him and everyone loved him.

Things changed after 1949. Mao was a great thinker, but he had no respect to any existing laws. Basically he was the law and he could not allow anybody else to chanllenge him. He challenged and destroyed the traditional Chinese culture, good and bad. He gave woman the same right as man, but destroyed the traditional value of woman. This also made him very unrealistic, as he said in a poem, "Ten thousand years is too long, seize the day." The Great Leap Forward (1958) is a direct result of such thinking.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), everything took a very long pause except constant class struggle and population growth. Inflation was zero and salary freezed for everyone. Education was badly damaged. Mao developed his fighting (or struggling) philosophy in his late years, as he said, "Fighting with heaven, fighting with earth, and fighting with human being, what a great pleasure!" China was isolated from the rest of the world and nobody knew the outside world at all.

Chinese people love Chairman Mao, though many people hate him. He gave himself a 7/3 score, i.e., he thought he had done more good than bad to Chinese people in his lifetime with a ratio of 7 to 3.

Profile of Macao, From a Local Perspective

Location and Geography:

On the South China Sea in Southern China’s Guangdong Province, about 37 miles southwest of Hong Kong. Macao lies in the Pearl River Delta and is made up of the Macao peninsula and two islands to the south, Taipa and Coloane. A man-made isthmus connects the two islands and was named the Cotai Strip. Taipa is connected to Macao by several bridges. Macao has a sub-tropical climate that can range from cold and rainy to hot and humid. It has a yearly temperature range of 50 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Name:

In Chinese, it’s 澳門 or Ao Men. The question of whether it’s spelled Macao or Macau has long frustrated writers. Most of the world uses the Portuguese spelling for the city, which ends in “u”. However in English, the name should end in “o”. Despite the fact that the correct English spelling is Macao, many English-language publications continue to spell it in the Portuguese style.

Portuguese Control:

Macao has been documented as part of Guangdong Province from as early as the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). It first saw large settlement in the later part of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). In later dynasties, many fishermen migrated to the island from the mainland. It’s location made it ideal for trade and Portuguese settlers began arriving in the 1500s. Portugal obtained a lease for Macao in 1557 marking the territory under Portuguese administration and establishing the first foreign presence in China.

Arrival of Casinos:

In the 1800s, the region faced economic decline and a Portuguese governor decided to legalize gambling to spur the economy. That decision would change Macao forever. Since then, Macao has been known for its glittering casinos and active nightlife. Many of its 520,000 residents are employees in the tourism and casino industries. But along with gambling has also come organized crime and prostitution. Today many Mainland Chinese tourists travel to Macao to gamble, as it’s the only place in China where it is legal.

Return to China:

In 1999, Macao returned to Chinese administration, making it the last foreign presence in China. Under China’s “one country, two systems” policy, Macao is known as a Special Administrative Region which promises 50 years of a high degree of autonomy. Unlike Hong Kong, many Macao residents are more receptive towards China.

The Islands:

Casinos had long been relegated to the peninsula, but with the development of the Cotai Strip, casinos have sprouted up in the traditionally residential region. But there are still charming spots in Taipa and Coloane that are casino-free. Taipa has modern high rises and Colonial-style neighborhoods with cobblestone roads. The Taipa Houses Museum is a hit with locals getting their wedding photos done. Coloane is more removed from the bustle and his home to Hac Sa (Black Sand) beach. The seaside area is quaint and has a great small town feel. Coloane is also home to the famed Fernando’s restaurant.

Macanese Cuisine:

Macanese food blends Chinese, European and South and Southeast Asian flavors for a distinct taste. Fernando’s serves up roasted baby pig, which may not sound so nice, but is succulent and delicious. For the sweet tooth, there are delightful almond cookies and thinly layered pancakes with seaweed and shreds of dried pork for a blend of sweet and salty. Finally, the egg custard tarts at Lord Stow’s Bakery in Coloane Village are a tourist attraction in and of itself. The tarts are unique and are unlike other Chinese egg tarts.

Recommendations:

Macao sees about one million tourists each month, so it can get crowded. To have the best comprehensive experience, allow for one day at the casinos and visiting tourist attractions like the Ruins of St. Paul - a former Jesuit school that burned down with only the façade remaining; the Leal Senado or old government area, now turned shopping center. Then spend time experiencing spots less traveled, like Macao’s amazing art museum, or Camoes Garden - a park where many locals congregate including amateur Cantonese opera singers and elderly bird walkers. The beach trails in Coloane also offer spectacular views.

Huawei tells US to shut up

In recent years, concerns on national security have become an excuse some Western countries used to block Huawei's business expansion.

The latest episode is some media reports on July 19, saying the US and the UK blamed Huaweifor security issues again.

In a statement for The Verge, a Manhattan-based technology news website, William Plummer,the vice president responsible for Huawei's external affairs demanded both countries "shut up"if they were unable to put up evidence.

Despite of barriers, Hua wei has left remarkable footprints on the way of its international development.

In 2010, Huawei's nearly $21.8 billion in revenues made it the 397th largest company in the Fortune Global 500 list. In 2013, Huawei ranked 315th in the Fortune 500 with revenue of$34.9 billion. It surpassed Ericsson, which ranked 333th with $33.6 billion in revenue, for the first time.

In the global telecommunication equipment market, Ericsson and Huawei, as each other's majorrival, contest against each other intensely. Nevertheless, with "cold winter" oftelecommunication equipment market at present, the two firms present different trends.

According to the financial reports last year, incomes of the two firms remain the same, but netprofit of Huawei was three times than that of Ericsson. At global analyst conference 2013,Huawei revealed that it would achieve annual revenues of $38.9 billion with compound annualgrowth rate of 10 percent in next five years. It is expected that Huawei would surpass Ericssonto become the world's biggest equipment maker in 2013.

Huawei focuses not only on market share, but also on strategic layout. Enterprise and consumer business will become the main source of motivation in the future according to annual report 2012. The sales revenue of Huawei terminals which include mobile phones, MBB and family terminals was 48.4 yuan in 2012. The production of smartphones which rose by 60 percent was 32 million among these 127 million terminals. What's more, the profit of Huawei experienced a year-on-year growth of 80 percent in 2012.

Obviously, Huawei, which has dominated around half of the mobile broadband market, isdeveloping its mobile phone business through intelligent terminal "east wind".

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group hoped that when saying the word"smartphone", consumers can immediately think of Huawei. He also said that Huawei wasexpected to ascend into one of the top three smartphone brands in 2015.

China-ROK partnership

The four-day visit to China by the President of the Republic of Korea, Park Geun-hye, which starts on Thursday, is expected to inject new vitality into the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, as it presents a good opportunity for the neighbors to deepen their cooperation at both the bilateral and the multilateral levels.

In a written interview with China Daily prior to her visit, Park expressed the hope that the two countries will elevate their relationship to new heights, reaching beyond what they have achieved over the past 20 years.

"To this end, I will work with President Xi Jinping during my visit to outline a new blueprint for the common prosperity of Korea and China looking to the next two decades," she said.

She will find her sentiments well received by Chinese leaders, as Beijing is sincere about deepening mutual trust and raising its interaction with Seoul to a higher level, so that the two neighbors can not only benefit more from their practical cooperation but also contribute more to regional peace and development.

Thanks to the efforts of both countries, bilateral relations have advanced smoothly since they established diplomatic relations in 1992. China is the largest trading partner and investment destination for the ROK, and the latter is one of China's major trading partners. The volume of bilateral trade surpassed $250 billion last year. People-to-people exchanges have also flourished.

With Park leading a sizeable delegation to China, Beijing and Seoul are poised to ink multiple agreements that will further consolidate their reciprocal cooperation in various fields. A bilateral free trade agreement is also expected to feature in Park's meeting with Xi.

It is widely anticipated that the two leaders will also discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and the world will be watching closely to see what consensus the two leaders reach.

Thanks to more contact among the parties concerned and their increased efforts, tensions on the peninsula have been alleviated recently to some degree. There is every reason to continue building on this hard-won momentum.

We believe Beijing and Seoul are ready to contribute more to this positive trend and together will push for more dialogue and contact to stabilize the peninsula.

Strategic Competition between the Major Powers against Changing Global Condition

The world is experiencing complicated and profound changes of historical significance. How to regard and define this situation of immense change remains a question for the international community. Does it signify the formation of a new international strategic structure and world order? The author of this essay believes that there are two indicators for judging the shift in the international strategic structure, namely whether there are fundamental changes taking place in the balance of power between the major international actors, and the regulations that maintain the running of the international order. From these two perspectives, we can see that there are not any fundamental changes to the“one superpower with multiple powers”structure shaped after the end of the Cold War. On the one hand, there is not any single major power or any bloc of nations that could be a match for the U.S. in terms of comprehensive strength; on the other, there is not a new set of international mechanisms or rules that could replace the international regulations dominated by the United States.

However, it is undeniable that since the global financial crisis, the U.S.’s position in the global power structure has declined. Many U.S.-dominated international political and economic regulations have been questioned orhave faced challenges, revealing that the international strategic configuration of“one superpower with multiple powers”has indeed begun to slacken. However, we definitely believe that the shaping of the new international strategic configuration and international order will be slow and gradual. It cannot be formulated in treaty systems such as the Versailles-Washington system or the Yalta system, which were formulated as part of post-war treaty systems after the tragic world wars. The course of formulating the strategic competition between various great global powers will be extremely fierce and will be conducted across many fields, coupled with new sci-tech and industrial revolutions.

In the field of economics, the U.S.-led Western nations are actively racing to take a commanding role in the new round of energy and industrial revolutions, so as to preserve their advantageous positions in the international industrial division. While reducing U.S. dependence on imported energies, the“shale gas revolution”in the United States also lessens its cost in the manufacturing industry, thus creating profound change in the international energy market. Many American companies are transferring their manufacturing bases back to the United States. In the future, this trend will accelerate. This is partly due to the rise in labor costs or the domestic currencies of the new emerging countries such as China, and partly due to the technological progress made in robot technologies, artificial intelligence technologies, 3D printing technologies, and nanotechnologies in developed countries. These new technologies enable these countries to obtain new sources of growth in the manufacturing industry. Although it may seem that their“quantitative advantages”are lessening, the“qualitative advantages”remain extremely powerful in the world economy. While maintaining the technological advantage, the developed countries are also trying to reshape the world economic management system so as to maintain their“institutional hegemony”. Currently, the U.S. is attempting to reshape new regulations in regional and international trade and investment in order to regain its dominant role in the world economy through the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP). This is causing many developing countries and emerging economies who are not involved in the negotiation process to face the risk of“entering the WTO for the second time”. Although many emerging economies have an increasing role to play in the World Bank, the IMF and the G20, they still face many difficulties in adjusting their economic structure, transforming their mode of development, upgrading their innovation abilities and expanding their say in world economic decision-making processes.

In the military and security fields, the United States and its allies have strengthened their advantageous position in three ways. Technologically, as the owner of the world biggest nuclear arsenal that is undergoing constant upgrade, the United States has sped up its anti-missile system in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region with the excuse of“nuclear threat”from Iran and North Korea. To a great extent this shatters the strategic balance in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and the world as a whole. The U.S. often accuses other countries of launching cyber wars. However, it is the U.S. that has established a“cyber army”and used cyber war in actual attack. The Shockwave and Flame viruses that attacked Iranian nuclear power plants are the first signs of the cyber war launched by the U.S.. Strategically, the decade-long Iraq and Afghan wars brought an abyss of misery and dire poverty to the people of those countries instead of the security, stability and development promised. Under these circumstances, the United States is accelerating its pace of“strategic rebalance”and has reinforced its military deployment in the Asia-Pacific, the region with the fastest economic growth rate. Institutionally, NATO did not disintegrate with the end of the Cold War. Rather, it has played a more significant role. More than once it has interfered with the internal affairs of other countries and it has even overthrown the legitimate governments of other countries in the name of“humanitarian intervention”. As the U.S. strengthens its policy of “strategic rebalance”, it is also reshaping and strengthening its ally system in the Asia-Pacific. There is a big gap between the U.S. act of consolidating its own “absolute security” and China’s new security concept of “comprehensive security”, “common security”, and “cooperative security”. In the future, the competition between these two security concepts and their related policies will influence the prospects for Asia-Pacific security.

In terms of development models, the global financial crisis demonstrates that the neoliberalism featured by the “Washington Consensus” is no longer effective. Since the 1990s, the Washington Consensus has run rampant, characterized by a free market, a floating exchange rate, and free elections. Neoliberalist policies marked by the re-allocation of public expenditure, a reduction in taxes of the high income groups, market deregulation, the liberalization of international trade, the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment, and the privatization of state-owned enterprises and public service industries, have become the most effective tool for transferring the income of the majority of the world’s population and the wealth of poor countries into the pockets of the upper classes and the most wealthy nations. Currently, 90% of global wealth is concentrated in the pockets of 16% of the world population, 60% of which is concentrated in Europe and the United States. Neoliberalist policies have enabled the ruling elites in Europe, the U.S. and Japan to restore power. At the same time, these policies have caused the marginalized economies to be exploited by the core economies at their free will, resulting in global poverty and a polarization between rich and poor. As China’s economy develops rapidly, the Beijing Consensus, characterized by state macro-control, gradual development, opening up to the outside world, and flexibility, has attracted increasing attention among the international community. The 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party proposed the strategic goals for China’s development by the mid-21st century. The Chinese leadership is also aware of the various challenges that China faces in its development. It is true that“every family has its own troubles”, especially as the world enters a period full of historic change. No matter whether a nation is developed or developing, the key to maintaining invincibility in the big power competitions is the ability to recognize one’s own problems, and to make corresponding institutional adjustments, with a view to revealing one’s innovation abilities and flexibility in economic and social management.

China’s National Security Strategy

The danger of large-scale war appears to have subsided, but contingencies of modest-scale armed conflicts still remain, and non-traditional security threats are on the rise. Based on the assumption of the threats that China will face in the coming decade, four goals have been set for the national security strategy. These are focused on safeguarding 1) sovereignty, security and territorial integrity; 2) the socialist system and related core values; 3) development interests by sustaining the current period of strategic opportunity in avoidance of unnecessary distractions; and finally 4) regional and world peace. In order to realize these goals, China should adhere to the path of peaceful development, follow a security policy that is defensive in nature,

and stand by the principles of“active defense, reliance on cooperation for support, appropriate preparedness in advance and comprehensive security.” It should also identify the strategic skills necessary to uphold national security and its respective functions.

Preventing Primacy

We should use all means to prevent and avoid the occurrence of crises, conflicts and even wars that threaten national security, or reduce threats to the minimum in the following ways:

Active participation in shaping a new architecture for international security in preventing head-on confrontation among the major powers.

 Proper handling of big power relations signifies a strategic option for ensuring national security before the fact. China is ready to establish cooperative partnerships with all the major nations including the single superpower and a handful of major powers at a variety of levels, to varying degrees and in a range of sectors towards sharing responsibilities in defense of world peace. In the meantime, it is committed to pressing for the inclusion of the concepts of“equality, mutual trust, inclusiveness, mutual learning and win-win cooperation”into the rules of the game. It also works for squeezing out space for the law of the jungle by replacing armed conflicts with a positive sum game, collision of divergence-based interests with complementary interests based on comparable advantages, and malicious zero-sum competition with parallel common development. Accommodating the legitimate strategic concerns of the major powers and acknowledging each other’s constructive role in international security, we must understand their different behaviors in safeguarding their core interests and welcome their expansion of collaboration with various nations, not targeting the third party.There is space for seeking common ground and a red line in reserving differences, with the latter much more difficult than the former. We need to expand not only the win-win route of the former but also to seek a pathway towards managing differences as well. To do this, it is advisable to follow the sequence of economy first, then politics and then security. This means cooperating vigorously when necessary, adapting to one another with patience when possible, and struggling resolutely when forced to do so. We should build the framework for gradual political mutual trust on the issue of economic interdependency and finally create a structure for mutually assured security.

Creating a new type of neighborhood relations through improving ties across the board by consolidating the geo-political props surrounding the country.

In national defense, neighborhood is a factor that cannot be chosen or circumvented. The traditional saying holds true that“A relative far away isn’t as helpful as a neighbor close by.”Modern sayings also teach“fostering harmonious ties with neighbors while making friends with distant states.”Rising above old scores, China has turned the majority of its neighbors into friends or partners. This has played a crucial role in building a peaceful environment for the country’s economic development, foreign trade and security. Indeed, a harmonious world begins with harmonious surrounds and a stable region with a stable neighborhood. Security planning begins at one’s doorstep. We must seek common denominators with our neighbors and ensure that China’s development will bring more benefits to them. In implementing the strategic thinking of “fostering a harmonious, secure and prosperous neighborly environment”, we anticipate a strategic return in the form of a friendly, reliable and mutually beneficial neighborhood. We should examine our policies toward different neighbors by putting ourselves in their shoes and forging political/military mutual trust through offering each other security pledges and rejecting the use of one’s territory by a third party to threaten the other side, in order to achieve common security in cooperation.

Firmly safeguarding maritime sovereignty through effective solutions to historical territorial disputes.

 Historical disputes over the sovereignty of land and marine territories and islands have plagued many countries including China. These disputes have become all the more irreconcilable after the introduction of a batch of new international conventions that entangle still more national interests. Thus the need to prevent the outbreak of crises or conflicts between nations comes into focus. The difficulty in handling these knotty issues lies in the fact that events have passed and times have changed with the shoe already on the other foot. The value in solving them resides in keeping pace with the times, with successors surpassing their predecessors in wisdom. Each era has its own distinct way of solving similar disputes. Despite the backing of strength, any settlement today should be more just, rational and civilized because the era of globalization presents mankind with novel concepts and ways to handle sovereign disputes that outshine all past historical periods.

This represents an objective law. The settlement awaits our exploration and discovery. However, we cannot terminate our ongoing defense of sovereignty merely because of our search for such a solution. Under the circumstances, the right choice is sovereignty defense amid solution explorations and timely policy readjustments. But attention should be paid to the trap of still“using old methods in solving old issues”and to the

necessary price to be paid for“adopting new ways for old issues.”This generation can only accomplish the tasks that fall on our shoulders, and fulfill them successfully. Therefore, we should face up to our historical   responsibilities and transcend the thinking of our forebears. We should commit to solving sovereign disputee with individual countries without shelving them for any longer. Using the premise of “neither haggling over past scores1 nor creating new troubles” and “not transforming the post-World War II order”, we should take into full consideration the basis of jurisprudence of both statute and customary international laws. Further,  acting on the basis of“separating ownership and exercise of sovereignty”, we should build a broader, enduring and forward-looking strategic framework and security mechanism that tolerates, controls and erodes divisions, elevates the threshold of the critical point, prevents differences from escalating into conflicts and seeks to solve the issues above the redline, both within the framework and inside the mechanism. In the meantime, in light of the nature and location of the sovereignty disputes involved, as well as the attitude of the other side, we should adopt the different tactics of reciprocity of tit-for-tat, maintenance of contacts, and insistence on negotiations, in order to avoid confrontation on two battlefronts.

 Being innovative in the theory and practice of crisis management towards its prevention, control and removal.

We should make accurate assessments of the international security landscape and our security environment by studying new theories of crisis management and international relations and then putting forward a variety of options for crisis/conflict prevention by reexamining closely-related hotspot issues. On this basis, we should work out the basic principles in addressing and containing crises by avoiding clashes in no-win scenarios; defuse conflicts in close contexts; confront clashes in case of confidence in victory; control disputes when a third party is involved and contain escalation with risking a crisis in advance.

Following a national defense policy that is defensive in nature by striking only after the enemy has struck. No matter how much stronger

China becomes, we will stick to the principle of self-defense in safeguarding our territory against foreign invasion.1 we will adhere to our long-term “no first-use” nuclear policy and will never use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries or regions.

Cooperation as the Key

Following an independent foreign policy of peace and rejecting military alliance with any other country, China relies predominantly on its own strength for national security. Nevertheless, we still need support from our friends and partners. Globalization has grouped together not only the interests of different countries but also their security threats, many of which cannot be addressed by a single country alone. As such, security teamwork is a vital necessity. In addition, under the right conditions, common interests could turn any country into a friend or partner, and mishandling seemingly irreconcilable differences may result in suffering for both sides or evolve into a common threat that must be solved through joint effort in the end. So, forestall any possible trouble as opposed to resorting to a remedy, or“mending the fold after a sheep is lost,” as the saying goes. Therefore we should, in the spirit of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and not targeting a third party” work towards bilateral or multilateral security exchanges and handshakes across different fields and to varying extents in Asia and the broader world, including with countries that currently have disputes and troubles with China. Only then can such a country ensure the stability of its surrounds and uphold the security of its overseas interests. Moreover, collaboration reduces conflict. The wider the scope of collaboration, the lesser will there be the possibility of conflict.

Peaceful cooperation.

China aims to safeguard or restore peace and stability by expanding cooperation in a variety of forms, based on the principles of “mutual respect, consultation on an equal footing and voluntary participation,” and in compliance with the spirit of the UN Charter. People are beginning to understand that there will be no victor in a modern society that is replete with numerous threats. Confrontation harms all sides in the end and if each goes his own way then the only result is disaster. Little wonder that seeking common interests will increasingly become the fundamental option for China when it comes to addressing security issues. Taking an active role in multilateral affairs, China works together with related countries when responding to financial crises, climate change and other global security issues. It does this through different frame works such as the United Nations, the G-20 and BRICS. It is also engaging in extensive cooperation with countries across the world in international peacekeeping operations, emergency rescue and disaster relief work, and humanitarian missions. Win-win cooperation.

On the basis of bilateral or multilateral common interests, China is stepping up collaboration on safety towards the benefit of all sides. The victims of security threats are always ordinary people. The international order is facing all kinds of challenges, and one country’s interests are often threatened as a result of disasters in other countries, some of which may even pose a threat to humanity as a whole.

Therefore, responding to the needs of common security is where the shared interests lie. International security is not only possible and necessary but also in urgent demand. Such cooperation always transcends differences in ideology, religious beliefs, geographical location and even counties that are locked in confrontation. Offering each other a safety guarantee for the legitimate interests of the other country in one’s own territory, concerted efforts in cracking down on transnational crime and joint counter-terrorism in bilateral, multilateral and regional frameworks are all effective forms of mutually beneficial cooperation. A case in point is the participation since 2008 of the Chinese navy in the UN-backed efforts to escort merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia away from the danger of piracy to the safety of sea lines of communication.

Selective cooperation. Aiming at expanded cooperation based on seeking common ground while reserving differences; we should carry out practical and flexible cooperation, contingent on maintaining autonomy.

With specific countries and concrete safety issues in mind, China may make a choice of time and space, level, domain and method when it comes to carrying out safety cooperation with certain countries, so that teamwork in the other areas may not be affected when disputes flare up in one or other domain. A handshake should still be possible first in economic and technological exchanges at non-governmental levels even when conditions are as yet premature for strategic partnership at official levels.

The Way to Post-emptive Strikes

Never firing the first shot does not imply the inability to fire the second retaliatory shot. The world-famous ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Zi teaches that“He who is skilled in war subdues the enemy without fighting”1 and that “invulnerability lies with defense and opportunity of victory with attack.”2 The Chinese military force must catch up with technological advances and doctrinal changes in the new global military revolution, so as to relax in the ability to deter the enemy from easily launching an attack, respond to preemptive attacks, and check or defeat aggression with a second attack. Such counter-attack involves both strategy and tactics for retaliation on a reciprocal basis, at the source of attack and in an indirect manner.

Occupying the high ground of international morality.

 We are committed to defusing or solving disputes through peaceful means by resolutely opposing hegemony or unilateralism, and never provoking other countries into fighting nor invading them on our own initiative under any circumstances. We will never be the first to use force or the threat of force.

Even if the other side uses force first, we will only respond with reciprocity or follow-up measures so as to guard against accidents developing into security crises, which may, in turn, escalate into armed conflicts. China does not engage in arms races with others, nor seek absolute military supremacy. Acting on the concept of“trying to secure whatever others possess”, we are developing a limited number of advanced weapons to be used not to in order to beat others but in order to avoid being the victim.

 Enhancing the deterrence and combat capacity of the armed forces.

 In meeting the need to be capable of engaging in and winning a local war in an information age, China is speeding up its military modernization. In order to adapt to the requirements of the new stage in the new era, it is enriching the dimensions of its active defense, exploring effective ways to respond to attacks from the air or sea, as well as remote precision assaults, and upgrading its theatrical strategy towards safeguarding maritime rights in various directions. We should create flexible tactics and techniques by following the basic pattern of symmetrical defense and asymmetrical counter-attacks. And we should strengthen our capabilities in overall defense and air defense against ballistic missile attacks, enhance our integrated combat capability based on extensive IT application, and enjoy the deterrent as in Sun Zi’s teachings:

“the wisest thing to do is subjugating the enemy without fighting.”

Expanding the scope of open ocean defense.

China, a continental-marine country, has a vast territory and sea area, with a border line of 22,000 km and a coastline of 18,000 km. Furthermore, it has three million-plus sq. km of territorial seas together with some exclusive economic zones, and more than 6,500 islets, the most outlying of which is over 1800 km away, making it far out of the operational radius of China’s fighter planes and the effective defense scope of small and medium ship sand conventional submarines, and so impossible for China’s existing humanitarian aid capacities to cover. The current state of isles being seized resources being plundered and legitimate rights being carved up by other shas exposed China’s severe defense shortcomings, something incommensurate with our aim of constructing a major naval power.

China’s plan for developing a new type of air-sea power does not aim at breaking through the so-called island chains nor at seeking regional hegemony or marine expansion, but at safeguarding its legitimate marine rights and interests and at fulfilling necessary international obligations and humanitarian missions on a still broader scope.

Enhancing the capacity for a second strike.

China is the only country in the world that has been threatened so much with nuclear attack and at the same time the only country that binds itself to the pledge to only use nuclear weapons as a second,retaliate strike. As such, we must enhance the mobile projection capability of the PLA (People’s Liberation

Army) Second Artillery Corps (Strategic Missile Force) and solve a host of other problems such as shortages in the number of strategic nuclear submarines, the short range of these machines, the fact of their having just a single warhead, and the poor quality of their response to surprise attacks.

In order to remedy these drawbacks, we need to develop new-type viable submarine-launched ballistic missiles of longer range, equipped with powerful warheads with potential multiple independently-targeted re-entry vehicles or multiple re-entry vehicle capabilities, and hone various skills in resisting surprise attacks. In addition, we should enhance our second attack capacity in earnest.

The Essence of Comprehensiveness

Great changes are underway in the content and scope of national security, as situations change with the times. Apart from traditional military defenses, comprehensive national security embraces safety in political, economic, cultural, resource and information fields, as well as overseas property of all the people. What is more, new threats that entail a still wider scope are constantly on the rise. The existence of any threat or potential threat to any field of national interests cannot be termed comprehensive national security in the real sense of the word. Moreover, absence of corresponding strategic instruments and techniques in response to any form of threat would spell loopholes, which can only be remedied with their timely renewal and comprehensive exercise on a sustainable basis.

Therefore, threats to national security should be accurately defined with forward-looking thinking, and priority be given to the ability to discover those hidden, disastrous, sudden threats, which have the potential to evolve into the type of terrible danger that could trigger catastrophic consequences if a state is unprepared. Only early warning can help us to get the upper hand over the enemy.

In the face of a variety of threats, any single instrument has its limitations that make it incapable of responding to comprehensive security issues. The age has come to an end when a strong military force could be transformed into political and economic supremacy in other countries.

Overreliance on diplomatic means and the wanton use of force or the threat of force may turn out to be counterproductive. Security threats at different levels or in divergent fields should be dealt with by diverse means. The more strategic means available, the smaller will be the likelihood of security threats and the calmer they could be addressed if needs be. As such, it is necessary to enrich and upgrade strategic instruments and skills with innovative thinking, with a focus on the study of strategic instruments that involve skill, policies, and the art of strategy. With the characteristics of being adapted and managed with instant results, this is starting to be applied to the fields of culture, finance and networks. The theories of games, cybernetics, contradictions and quantified analysis must be introduced into the strategic field in order to create diversified strategic instruments that can be described with accurate words and integrated into a complete system featuring a combination of hard and soft power that address a range of security threats with preciseness and effectiveness. In so doing, we can safeguard national security with higher proficiency and a greater arena of choice.

With the concept of upholding comprehensive national security through comprehensive means in mind, we should be adept at responding to different threats by first using a single method appropriately, followed

up with multiple means or a combination of these, step by step. In the meantime, we should master the art of safeguarding national security by using a multitude of instruments and skills in a comprehensive manner, with critical thinking, and enhance the ability to relieve the same security threat with different means. Moreover, we should also adopt the ideological and technological means to deduce and examine possible effects in advance of the fact, in order to come up with an overall contingency plan. It has been proved that the more detailed, complicated and arduous the deduction, the greater is the ease with which we are able to handle the contingency. As a result, we should be able to make a correct assessment of the situation, wait for the opportunity with prudence, and take flexible action, thus ensuring constant safety for our comprehensive security.

Viewed from the perspective of national security, the Internet constitutes both the most convenient and rapid vehicle for the stable and normal functioning of our economic, social, and financial and security systems. Unfortunately, it is also the most fragile link in our security chain, the key targets to be attacked at the lowest cost, with the rapidest speed and direst consequences. China has been the victim of cyber hackers and other unknown sources. There is a loud clamoring for the construction of a leading organization to integrate the specialized forces of the military, government and civilian sectors towards boosting cyber security and launching research into cyber attacks and cyber defense in order to ensure the safety, stability and manageability of our cyber systems against attacks, and to enhance constantly our capacity for cyber defense and rapid restoration. Viewed from the perspective of domestic stability and harmony, with over five hundred million netizens, the diversity of cyber information and rapid spread of discussions on hot issues has evolved into a new arena for guiding public opinion, swaying public emotion, transforming social ecology and influencing government decision-making. But the enormous amount of harmful information, the diffusion of cyber rumors, and the spread of extreme views and the deliberate misleading the public by hostile external forces are in fact posing severe challenges to the political and cultural security of the nation. Indeed, networking has evolved into a virtual battlefield for upholding domestic security. As such, we need effective management amid openness, credibility amid inclusiveness, responsibility amid political participation, and fairness amid freedom.

The overall impact of various factors has ushered the country into an era in which there are frequent occurrences of public emergencies whose damage to the people and social harmony by far outweigh other security threats. Therefore, the rapid and effective response in peacetime to public emergencies such as this has evolved into the constant task of defending our national security. We should, in accordance with the Law in Response to Public Emergencies of the PRC, formulate contingency plans, improve the early warning system, and enhance our capabilities by equipping the relevant personnel with advanced equipment, organizing regular training exercises, and raising the awareness of emergency defense among the people as a whole, so that when emergencies do strike, we can protect the lives and property of the people, and ensure social stability with swift action.

With the advance of space technologies, dependence upon it is growing for military, economic and information security around the world.

It serves the common interest to ensure the endurance of peace in outer space over armed conflict and its weaponization. Adhering to the peaceful use of outer space for meeting the needs of economic construction, sci-tech development, national security and social progress, China has been accelerating aerospace activities including moon missions and its Beidou Navigation Satellite System. In addition, in response to possible conflict sin outer space, China has also been conducting relevant experiments in order to raise its capacity for countermeasure.