April 20, 2024

Founding Dean Prof. Allison,

Faculty members,

Students,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

It is a great pleasure to revisit Harvard in this blooming spring and attend the Kennedy School China Conference.

My first visit to Harvard was in 1997. Today, the grass along the Charles River remains lush green, and the campus is still lovely and serene. But a lot has changed in the world around us, and we are now living in a turbulent time.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is again wreaking havoc, while the crisis in Ukraine stays unabated. It seems that everywhere we look, we see powder kegs that can explode anytime. 

The global economic recovery remains sluggish. Energy, food and debt crises keep emerging. More than 100 million people are displaced, and 700 million are grappling with hunger.

Non-traditional security challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI), climate change and biosecurity are on the rise. Worries grow that we may find ourselves in another “Oppenheimer moment”, and the very survival of human civilization is at stake.

The world is again at a crossroads. All countries are in the same boat. Amidst the raging torrents, we need to pull together, not pull apart. China’s choice is clear and firm: At home, we will focus on achieving Chinese modernization; internationally, we will forge a community with a shared future for mankind.  

As always, we will continue to pursue our own development as we safeguard world peace and development, and further uphold world peace and development with what we have achieved. 

— A developing China will keep making contribution to building a world of lasting peace. 

Chinese modernization is for our 1.4 billion people. So far, less than 1 billion in the world have achieved modernization. Once China accomplishes its target, the global modernized population will be more than doubled. This is unprecedented, and will be an important contribution to world peace and development in itself.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially since the launch of reform and opening-up in 1978, China has come a long way. Once a poor and weak nation that could not even make a single iron nail, it is now the world’s second-largest economy and biggest trader in goods.

Meanwhile, though, China’s per capita GDP still ranks after the 60th. Our per capita arable land and water resources are respectively less than half and only one-fourth of the global average. The way toward all-round modernization remains long and arduous, and development will continue to be our top priority. 

Our goal is simple: to deliver a better life for each and every Chinese. Over the past decades, we have revitalized our country through reform and opening-up, and made notable progress within the existing international order. There is simply no reason why we should shut our doors and reinvent the wheel today. Instead, we will open up wider at a higher standard, advance high-quality development, and inject greater stability and positive energy into the world.

— A China where everyone benefits from development will keep creating opportunities for building a world of common prosperity.

Chinese modernization is about common prosperity for all. We will both make the pie bigger and share it more fairly, so as to offer new solutions to the universal challenge of polarization, and ensure the gains of modernization will benefit all people in a more equitable way.

Confucius once said, “Worry not about scarcity, but about inequality”. For thousands of years, common prosperity has been a shared aspiration of the Chinese people. A lot has been done. We have achieved moderate prosperity, and lifted over 800 million people out of poverty. 

While China has a 400-million-strong middle-income group, its per capita GDP has only recently exceeded $12,000. Even so, China contributed one-third of global growth last year with a 5.2% growth rate. Just imagine how much more potential will be unlocked as China’s population in the middle-income bracket reaches 800 million, and as higher-end, diverse consumption further surges!

The world will be better only when all get better. Modernization should not make the rich richer and the poor poorer, in China and globally alike. No country should be left behind in the process of global modernization.

This is why President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI). To date, over 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, and more than 200 cooperation projects are up and running, providing a strong impetus for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a vivid example of seeking common prosperity for the world. Over 3,000 cooperation projects have been launched, and 420,000 jobs created. For participating countries, the BRI is a road to cooperation, opportunity and prosperity.

— A China making constant progress will keep serving as a bridge for building an open and inclusive world.

Chinese modernization is about both material abundance and cultural-ethical enrichment, with the aim of promoting all-round social progress and well-rounded human development.

From day one of its founding, the Communist Party of China has been a champion of democracy. We have written “upholding and protecting human rights” into our Constitution, and incorporated “democracy” and “freedom” into both core socialist values and the common values of humanity. 

China’s democracy is whole-process people’s democracy. It is a democracy in both process and outcome; a combination of both procedural and substantive, and direct and indirect democracy. It is people’s democracy in nature, and at the same time represents the will of the state. The Kennedy School’s decade-long surveys in China showed that over 90% of the Chinese people are satisfied with the central government.

All roads lead to Rome, and a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Democracy is not an ornament or a show. It should be about solving real problems for the people.

Likewise, each civilization is unique in its own way, and none is superior to others. This is why President Xi put forward the Global Civilization Initiative. It advocates respect for the diversity of civilizations, and calls for overcoming estrangement between civilizations with exchanges, preventing their clash with mutual learning, and rejecting a false sense of superiority with coexistence, so that all civilizations will flourish together.

— A green China will keep injecting momentum into building a clean and beautiful world. 

Chinese modernization is about harmony between humanity and Nature. 

Ten years ago, when Beijing hosted the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, President Xi said at the welcome dinner that in the future, people in Beijing would see a blue sky every day. 

Today, “AEPC blue” has become “Beijing blue” and “China blue”. China has seen the fastest improvement in air quality, is home to the largest afforested area in the world, and is the first country that has achieved land degradation neutrality. 

Giant pandas are no more endangered. Half of the world’s electric vehicles are running on roads in China. We also account for over half of the newly installed capacity of renewable energy globally.

We are living on the same planet. Frequent extreme weather events have again sounded the alarm, warning us that we need to treat Nature with reverence and follow its laws. 

China has not only committed itself to moving from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in the shortest time span in human history, but also actively advanced South-South cooperation on climate change. We have launched hundreds of clean energy and green development projects in Africa, so as to pursue green, low-carbon and sustainable development together.

— A peaceful China will keep fulfilling its responsibilities for building a world of universal security. 

Chinese modernization is about peaceful development. We will also encourage more countries to follow the path of peaceful development together. What the Chinese people long for are peace in every corner of the world, amity with all countries, and harmony without uniformity. The ambition to seek hegemony, dominate the world, and challenge and displace others is not in our DNA. 

Shortly after the founding of New China, we put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Over the past 70-plus years, China has never initiated a war, or occupied an inch of foreign land. It is the only country that has put peaceful development in its Constitution, and the only country among the five nuclear-weapon states to pledge no-first-use. It is also the top contributor of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

We believe no one is safe unless all are safe. This is why President Xi put forward the Global Security Initiative, envisioning a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win over zero-sum.

With China’s active efforts, a historic reconciliation was reached between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Amid the Ukraine crisis, our special envoy traveled back and forth to mediate among different parties, so as to pave the way for peace talks. On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we facilitated the adoption of the first resolution at the Security Council since the outbreak of the conflict, and calls for a more broad-based and effective international peace conference, so as to protect women and children from the scourge of war, and let peace prevail.

Ladies and gentlemen,

For both pursuing Chinese modernization and building a community with a shared future for mankind, a peaceful international environment is necessary, and a stable China-U.S. relationship is vital. 

At present, we are facing grave challenges in China-U.S. relations. Whether our young friends here can continue to enjoy the eight-decade-long peace and development as your parents did largely depends on whether China and the United States can find a right way to get along in the new era. 

China is ready to make joint efforts with the U.S. side, live up to our mission, show good faith and sincerity, and take concrete actions to implement the important consensus reached between our Presidents, so as to turn the “San Francisco vision” into reality, and steer the relationship forward along the track of sound, stable and sustainable development.

— First, we need to jointly develop a right perception toward each other. In Chinese, we have an idiom: 疑邻盗斧 (literally, “suspecting one’s neighbor of stealing the axe”). The story goes like this: A man could not find his axe one day. Suspecting his neighbor’s son of stealing it, he felt the boy looked, sounded and walked all like a thief. But after he found the axe in his own backyard, he no longer saw anything wrong with the boy.

Ralph Emerson said, “Don't waste life in doubts and fears.” Getting the mindset right is the best therapy for misperception. If one always assumes the worst of others and keeps scaring themselves, everything can appear dubious, and trivial problems can be blown out of proportion. 

The U.S. side can stay reassured that China’s goal is to outdo itself, not outcompete others. When one sees others as its primary strategic competitor, the most consequential geopolitical challenge and a pacing threat, it would inevitably be overwhelmed by delusion, anxiety and paranoia. In the end, this would only lead to “self-fulfilling prophesies”.

No one would emerge as a winner from a zero-sum game. Political correctness cannot solve problems of the United States. And the “Anything But China” mentality is a sure recipe for confrontation. 

China never bets against the United States, and never interferes in its internal affairs, including elections. We are willing to be partners and friends with the United States. We hope our two countries will respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation. Is the U.S. side also willing to do the same?

—Second, we need to jointly manage disagreements effectively. There have been and will continue to be differences between China and the United States, which is only natural. The key is to properly manage the differences, and especially, to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.

The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations. The so-called “Taiwan independence” is a dead end, and the one-China principle is a red line not to be crossed. 

To maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the flashpoints must be defused. The fundamental approach is to fully and faithfully abide by the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques and the one-China principle. Of vital importance is to unequivocally oppose separatist attempts. The pressing priority is to curb adventurism and provocation by the separatists, in both words and deeds. 

Applying salami tactics or crossing red lines on issues bearing on others’ core interests is just like racing cars on a cliff’s edge, where a crash is almost inevitable. If the U.S. side keeps interfering with China’s internal affairs and damaging China’s interests on issues related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Xizang and the South China Sea, how could the two sides ever put a floor under the relationship, no matter how many guardrails there may be?

— Third, we need to jointly advance mutually beneficial cooperation. The economies of China and the United States, the world’s two largest, are deeply intertwined. This is a natural outcome of international division of labor, market principles and the law of economics, and also a rational choice out of complementarity. 

The trade war started by the U.S. side has lasted six years. But instead of declining, the U.S. trade deficit has further widened by $200 billion, and surging prices have driven up inflation. Ultimately, American consumers paid the cost, American businesses suffered losses, the international economic and trade order and global industrial and supply chains were rattled, and the global recovery was dragged down.

Attempts to shut China out in the name of de-risking, overstretch and abuse the concept of “national security”, and wage tariff war, trade war, industrial war and tech war would serve no one’s interests. Nor can they hold back China’s development in any way.

The Earth is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States. Competition between us should be fair and rules-abiding. It should be like competing for excellence in a racing field, not beating one another down in a wrestling ring. 

Some people, however, are just uneasy with the idea of losing. When they get the upper hand, they stress the importance of a free market. But when they are outperformed, they resort to protectionism. Is this fair?

China-U.S. relations cannot be simply defined by competition. Containing and suppressing others on the pretext of competition would only lead to a lose-lose scenario, with the whole world suffering.

If China and the United States had focused solely on differences and competition half a century ago, how could we have broken the ice amid the Cold War and reopened our doors to each other? And how could this relationship have brought huge peace and development dividends to both countries and the world over the past 45 years?

— Fourth, we need to jointly shoulder responsibilities as major countries. Bearing special obligations for maintaining global strategic stability, major countries should rise to the occasion and uphold the common good. The more turbulent the international landscape is, the greater need for major countries to cooperate. 

From global challenges such as climate change and AI, to regional hotspots including the Middle East and the Ukraine crisis, cooperation between China and the United States can create incredible synergy. 

To combat climate change, resources across the world should be fully mobilized. Globally, green capacity is not excessive, but in dire scarcity. The problem now is not “overcapacity”, but “over-anxiety”. Calling for stronger climate response on one hand but erecting green trade barriers on the other would only raise the costs for one’s own low-carbon transition, and also slow down the global development of clean energy.

The era of AI, a double-edged sword, is here. How China and the United States interact on this issue bears on human future. The two sides already agreed to hold the first round of government talks on AI this spring. We should check the brake before hitting the road. Likewise, we should bring AI well under control and ensure it will be a blessing for humanity.

Global public goods offered by China, including the BRI, are open to all sides. We are willing to coordinate with the United States, and jointly explore third-party market cooperation. Will the U.S. side also welcome China to be part of its multilateral initiatives?

— Fifth, we need to jointly promote people-to-people exchanges. Our two peoples share a natural affinity for each other. Before the pandemic, More than 300 flights flew between China and the United States every week. Over 5 million mutual visits were made every year. Among them, 3 million Chinese travelers visited the United States annually, contributing more than $30 billion to the U.S. economy. With nearly 290,000 students studying here, China has been the largest source of international students in the United States for 15 consecutive years.

Unfortunately, in the past few years, a number of mutually beneficial cooperation mechanisms were halted, including the China-U.S. Governors Forum, the Forum on the Arts and Culture, the Social and Cultural Dialogue, the State & Provincial Education Leaders Dialogue, the Innovation Dialogue, and the Young Scientist Forum.

In the recent three years, the U.S. side has harassed and deported nearly 300 Chinese citizens without just cause. The China travel advisory has deterred many American students from visiting our country. American experts and scholars have become more reticent under the chilling effect of the so-called “political correctness”.  

Now that our leaders have agreed to increase people-to-people exchanges, why should all these barriers in travel, visa and border policies still be there? During the era of mutual estrangement and antagonism from 1949 to 1971, trade between China and the United States was almost zero, and our citizens had to get stapled visas to visit each other’s country. In a globalized world today, why should we backpedal and return to the past? 

Ladies and gentlemen,

China-U.S. relations have never been smooth sailing. But whenever challenges abound, there are always some who would come forward and speak up for the relationship. 

Harvard is a pioneer in people-to-people exchanges between our two countries. It is one of the first American universities to admit Chinese students, offer Chinese courses, and carry out in-depth study on China. 

In the 1960s, undaunted by McCarthyism, Professor John Fairbank called for dealing with China as it really is, not as the U.S. might wish it to be, and actively facilitated the establishment of diplomatic ties between our two countries. As a towering China expert, Professor Ezra Vogel dedicated his life to understanding China at a closer distance and presenting a real picture of China to more people in the world, and advocated a rational China policy till the last moment.

The China-U.S. relationship cannot go back to the old days, but we can jointly usher in a brighter future for it. The hope lies in you, my young friends. The youth are known for vitality, creativity, and the will to act. You dream big, think independently, and take on your responsibilities fearlessly. 

Last November, President Xi announced that China will invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs in the next five years. For this, China has set up a YES program — the Young Envoys Scholarship. You are most welcome to be part of it.

As an ancient Chinese saying goes, “Do not just read 10,000 books, but also travel 10,000 miles.” I encourage you to travel the expanse of our country with your own feet, and see a true, dynamic and panoramic China; to put your heads together, and contribute wisdom to how our two countries can get along well on this planet; and to spring into action, promote exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States, so as to create a future of lasting peace and prosperity for all.

Thank you.