The proposal of building “a harmonious world” was first put forward by Chinese President Hu Jintao when he addressed the UN Summit marking the 60th anniversary of the world body on September 15, 2005. The idea, elaborated on in his speech titled Building Toward a Harmonious World of Lasting Peace and Common Prosperity, represents the essential requirements of international relations and the shared aspirations of the international community. It is bound to have significant and far-reaching implications.
　　
　　
　　Careful deliberations
　　
　　The idea of a “harmonious world” was put forward for a variety of reasons. First, the world today is faced with increasingly diversified contradictions. While traditional problems that remained covert during the Cold War era have surfaced again, new problems keep cropping up with economic globalization surging ahead. The wealth divide within each country and across the world has deepened. Terrorism has also posed a grave threat. Against this background, the West is forcing “democracy” upon others by taking advantage of its formidable political, economic and military strength. As a result, hegemony, in addition to terrorism, emerges as an explicit challenge to the peace and development of the contemporary world. China’s vow to build world harmony, which is believed to be a brand-new attempt to lessen the tense international situation, has proven welcome in the international community.
　　
　　SYMPATHETIC: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao meets tsunami-ravaged villagers during his official visit to Sri Lanka last April
　　Second, by advocating world harmony, China intends to create a sound external environment for its program of nurturing social harmony at home. At present, there are two major pieces of rhetoric detrimental to China’s development in the international arena. One camp believes that China’s development poses a threat to other countries, while the other warns that China will eventually claim supremacy in Asia. The harmonious world notion is a forceful counterargument to these libels. In order to embrace China’s development, certain countries need to stop casting China in a biased light, and they should in particular abandon the outdated Cold War mentality. At the same time, it is incumbent upon China to demonstrate to the world its determination to develop peacefully. China is expected to inform countries concerned that it will not repeat history and follow in the footsteps of some other past emerging countries that had vied for supreme power. Proposing the idea of a harmonious world marks a great step taken by China to clear up the doubts and queries of the world and win its trust. Aimed at addressing the problem of how a developing China can live in harmony with the world, the concept is a new ideology for the country’s diplomacy.
　　Third, with this new ideology in mind, Beijing has begun to consciously pursue national interests at a higher level. It has realized that economic strength is apparently insufficient for it to develop into a major world power. The supreme manifestation of national interests lies in international recognition. A major yardstick to judge a country’s participation in international affairs is its ability to formulate rules for the international community. In history, major world powers all served as contributors to the international order. In this sense, China is trying to be identified as such a contributor by initiating the new idea of world harmony. It is also eager to strengthen its power to be heard in international affairs and foster an image of a confident, constructive and responsible major global player.
　　
　　Historical legacy
　　
　　AN END TO WAR: Asian parliamentarians celebrate peace at one of their regular gatherings in Thailand
　　The notion of world harmony is rooted in the time-honored Chinese culture. Harmony, as in the age-old saying “harmony in diversity,” is an essential concept in Chinese morality of the past thousands of years. The idea here is that social harmony can be realized by recognizing differences, disparities and varieties. For the Chinese, harmony is the key to self-cultivation and the handling of general affairs. As a cultural and ideological tradition, the concept has always had a profound influence over China’s strategies of dealing with international relations. The cultural integration policy that China practiced in ancient history was an exact embodiment of the idea of harmony.
　　The pledge to build world harmony derives from an invaluable legacy of China’s diplomacy. It is a new development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence―mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence―initiated by China, India and other developing countries in the 1950s. It also marks a continuity of the “new security concept” China advocated in the late 1990s by further consolidating the win-win theory of safeguarding security through dialogue and seeking development through cooperation. In regard to the current international situation and prominent contradictions, the idea stresses the urgency for different regions, ethnic groups and countries to enhance dialogue and deepen understanding, especially the need to preserve the social, political and cultural diversity in the world. Taking into account the grave outcomes resulting from the widening South-North gap, it calls for fairer and more reasonable international trade arrangements. The idea is also conducive to the democratization of international relations by preventing the superpower from dominating the world.
　　The philosophy of world harmony prompts people to question Western theories on international relations, especially political realism that professes “a zero-sum game.” It helps them to look at international relations from a new angle, thus contributing to the sound development of international politics.
　　The current endeavor to develop a close rapport between China and the world represents an attempt made to shape a new international political and economic order. It suggests that under the new international order, a country’s harmony should be linked with the world’s harmony, and a nation’s interests should be integrated into those of all human beings. China will link its own development with humankind’s common progress. On the one hand, it will make the most of the opportunities presented by a peaceful world to develop itself, and on the other hand, it will better safeguard world peace and promote common prosperity with its own development. China is determined to make achieving harmony with the world the ultimate goal of its peaceful development. As a rapidly developing country, it aims not only at readjusting its relationship with the United States, a country that tries to maintain supremacy, but also at reshaping the relationship with the rest of the world. The philosophy of world harmony has outperformed Western theories such as “democratic peace” and “clash of civilizations,” pointing to a clear direction for international relations in the 21st century.
　　
　　Major tasks
　　
　　To build a harmonious world is a long-term goal that requires great efforts in a number of aspects.
　　A peaceful, stable, fair and reasonable new international political and economic order should be set in place. The old international order, apparently tinted with hegemony and power politics, is a major cause of social conflicts and international crises. This deficient international order should be reformed before harmony can triumph in the world. The new international order should feature basic principles of international relations, such as sovereign equality, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, a safe and stable international environment of peace, equality and mutual benefit, shared development, freedom of choice, seeking common ground while shelving differences, harmonious cooperation, multi-polarity and democracy.
　　
　　MUTUAL BENEFIT: Business people from around the world take part in the Chinese Export Commodity Fair held in Guangzhou
　　Support should be rendered to developing countries to step up their development with a view to reducing and eradicating poverty. The prime reason for disharmony in the world lies in uneven and slow development. Most developing countries are beset with many difficulties that hinder their economic progress. Quite a few of them are faced with the risk of being further marginalized. At the UN Summit last September, Hu Jintao urged concrete measures be taken to implement the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in the areas of accelerating the development of developing countries, so that the 21st century can truly become a “century of development for all.” He also called for improvements in the world’s financial system and the multilateral trading regime for the benefits of the developing countries. In addition, the rules of international trade should be made more fair and rational, taking into special consideration the concerns of developing countries. A balanced and mutually beneficial global economy with generalized preferences should be nurtured. At the same time, countries with different development modes are expected to have more exchanges of experience in an effort to enhance the capacity to pursue development on their own. The developed countries should shoulder more responsibilities in realizing universal, coordinated and balanced development of the world. They are obligated to take concrete measures in terms of poverty elimination, fund aid and debt relief in the spirit of helping the developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to speed up development. The UN’s role in promoting international cooperation is projected to grow. It should create a sound international environment for the developing countries, while offering strong support to them.
　　
　　HUMAN CHAIN: Representatives from China and the EU join hands after the signing of a biodiversity program in Beijing
　　A new security concept and a collective security mechanism need to be established. History has shown that the old security concept based on military alliance and arms race did not help to safeguard international security, nor did it shape a lasting peace in the world. It is also a harsh reality that peace and security cannot be achieved by means of military force and power politics. “We must abandon the Cold War mentality, cultivate a new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, and build a fair and effective collective security mechanism aimed at jointly preventing war and conflict and safeguarding world peace and security,” said President Hu in his speech. Putting mutual trust first, the new security concept opposes military alliance and arms expansion and calls for common and universal security. It stands for seeking security on an equal footing and enhancing cooperation in the security field. As the core of the collective security mechanism, the UN plays a permanent role in international cooperation to ensure global security. Efforts should be made to maintain the UN’s authority and improve its efficiency. Reasonable reforms aimed at enhancing the organization’s capacity to tackle new challenges should be carried out to enable the UN and its Security Council to play a more active part in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.
　　
　　FIRST AID: Huge loads of disaster relief materials depart from China to earthquake-stricken areas in Pakistan
　　While preserving cultural diversity, different nationalities should be encouraged to coexist with one another. Cultural diversity is a basic feature of human society, as well as an important driving force behind the progress of humanity. Different nations can develop, enrich and improve themselves through dialogue and communication. As is shown by history, international conflicts, in the final analysis, result from the contentions for economic benefits rather than differences among different nationalities. Dialogue, communication and understanding among different peoples and a tolerant and respectful attitude are indispensable to the world’s peace and development. We should respect every country’s right to independently choose its own social system and path of development. The countries should be encouraged to go for mutual emulation instead of deliberate exclusion, for mutual learning of respective strong points instead of a particular model. Inter-civilization dialogue and exchanges should be strengthened, thereby allowing cultures to complement one another through competition and comparison. We should do away with misgivings and estrangement existing between peoples and make humanity more harmonious and the world more colorful.
　　To materialize the ideal of world harmony is a long and uphill battle. However, this idea does reflect the trend of the times and serve the interests of all countries. It is an inevitable course of international relations. The cause of building a harmonious world will be advanced and eventually fulfilled as we work together in solidarity by upholding multilateralism and adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

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