II. Main Connotation of the Concept of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

1. Substance of China's Path of Peaceful Development

According to the white paper on China's Peaceful Development, the substance of China's path of peaceful development includes 4 aspects. First, the peaceful development of China is to strive for a peaceful international environment to develop itself and, in turn，contribute to world peace through its development. Second, the peaceful development of China is that it should achieve development with its own efforts and by carrying out reform and innovation. Third, the peaceful development of China is that it should seek mutually beneficial and common development with other countries in keeping with the trend of economic globalization. Fourth, the peaceful development of China is to stick to peace, development and cooperation, and work together with other countries to build a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity.

The substance of these four aspects indicates three basic points. First of all, peaceful development is an inevitable choice for China to achieve its“modernization”. Without peaceful development, China couldn't possibly transform from an economically and socially backward developing country into a strong and prosperous modern country. In spite of the remarkably rapid economic growth, as a densely-populated country with comparatively backward technology, China still has a long way to go before achieving its modernization. Second, peaceful development is the mode of rise that China decides on. Though out of diplomatic and political consideration, “peaceful rise”is replaced by“peaceful development”in China's official document, yet“peaceful rise”, from academic perspective, still applies since it precisely depicts the peculiar development state of China. Rise shouldn't be equated with simple pursuit of economic growth rate, though it is how“rise”is usually understood. “Rise”refers to a process where a big country achieves rapid growth of overall national strength and thus having the capability of exerting significant impact on the world power structure, international order and code of conduct. In this sense, China puts forward the concept of peaceful development to demonstrate the approach it'll adopt to seek the rise—through development rather than war，through peaceful means rather than force of arms, which is a complete negation of seeking rise through military force as some big countries did in the past. Finally, China tries to join other countries to construct a harmonious international order, that is, a harmonious world through mutually beneficial cooperation and common development.

It's obvious that China's path of peaceful development underscores peace and cooperation as China's means of development, namely, China is not going to seek development through invasion, war or the sacrifice of other countries' benefit. On the contrary, China will follow the principles of mutually beneficial cooperation and achieve development with peaceful means. In the report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's path of peaceful development was defined as follows:We connect the interests of the Chinese people with the common interests of all peoples throughout the world, upholding fairness and standing up for justice. We adhere to the principle of equality among all nations, be it big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor. China respects the right of the people of other countries to independently choose their path of development and does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs or impose its own will on others. China is committed to solving international disputes and hotspot issues with peaceful means, promoting international and regional security cooperation and opposing terrorism in all forms. China is committed to pursuing a defense policy which is defensive in nature. China will not engage in arms race with any other country, and it does not pose a military threat to any other country. China opposes hegemony and power politics in all forms, never engages in aggression or expansion and never seeks hegemony. Meanwhile, peaceful development relies on cooperation. Only through the cooperation with other countries on international labor division, trade, economy and technology can China's economy keep to healthy and rapid development. Only through the international and regional security cooperation with other countries can China be guaranteed a peaceful environment necessary for its development. And only through cooperation with all the other countries in tackling global issues, can China realize its harmonious development, the common interests of all countries be ensured and the construction of a harmonious world be pushed forward.

The analysis above reveals the existence of two dialectical relations—the dialectical relation between peace and development and the dialectical relation between China and the world. Regarding the dialectical relation between peace and development, these two components serve as both the end and the means of the other. On the basis of historical experience since modern history, China comes to an important conclusion:in order to guarantee the peace of its own country and to maintain world peace, China needs to realize its own development on the one hand and to promote common development of the whole world on the other, since only by realizing its own development can China guarantee its own peace and security and contribute to the maintenance of world peace. Meanwhile, common development of all countries leads to greater common interests of countries and stronger interdependence among countries. Thus world peace is ensured and China's peace and security is guaranteed. And a peaceful international environment is indispensable for both China's development and common development of all the other nations.

Regarding the dialectical relation between China and the world, China is inseparable from the world while the world won't be intact without China and mutual development leads to further development on both sides. To take the path of peaceful development, we need to focus on domestic development on the one hand, and stick to the opening-up on the other, to integrate the development of China with the development of world and to integrate the fundamental interest of Chinese people into the common interests of all the people in the world. It's thus obvious that China cannot develop itself in isolation from the rest of the world. Opening-up and mutually beneficial cooperation bring China both advantageous resources and opportunity which are necessary to its development, while the development of the world can't be maintained without China whose development is an important part of the world's development. Since China is a big and populous country whose population accounts for 1/5 of the world's population, China's rapid economic development has become the generator for world economy. Meanwhile, China's peace and development can't be maintained without the world's peace and development, and vice versa. In this sense, the relationship between China and the world is a win-win relationship in which they share common interests. Therefore, instead of leaving a negative impact on or even posing a threat to the world peace, the peaceful development of China will advance the world peace and development.

2. Basic Ideas of the Concept of a Harmonious World

At the United Nations Summit in memory of its 60th anniversary, President Hu Jintao elaborated on the basic ideas of the concept of“endeavoring to build a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity”. These basic ideas are as follows. First, “uphold multilateralism to realize common security”. That is to stick to the new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation and to take advantage of the effective collective security mechanism, the UN, to achieve security cooperation in order to join hands in coping with global security threats and resolve international disputes through peaceful measures. Second, “uphold mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve common prosperity”. That is to establish and improve the international economic regimes such as the international trade and financial regimes, and to vigorously promote South-South cooperation and South-North cooperation so as to eliminate poverty and achieve common development. Third, what's more important is this concept sets the direction for the establishment of a harmonious world by upholding the spirit of inclusiveness. We should respect a country's right to independently choose its own social system and path of development. In this way, countries will go for mutual emulation instead of deliberate exclusion, for mutual learning of respective strong points instead of making fetish a particular model, thus succeeding in their rejuvenation and development in line with their national conditions. We should enhance inter-civilization dialogue and exchanges, allowing cultures to complement one another through competition and comparison, and to develop together by seeking common ground while putting aside differences. We should do away with misgivings and estrangement existing between civilizations and make humanity more harmonious and our world more colorful. We should endeavor to preserve the diversity of civilizations in the spirit of equality and openness, make international relations more democratic and jointly build towards a harmonious world where all civilizations coexist and accommodate each other.

It can be said that the concept of“a harmonious world”, which features common security, common prosperity and mutual inclusiveness, fundamentally conveys China's aspiration for an ideal international order and it's a world order concept rich in content. To be specific, “a harmonious world”primarily features both peace and development—harmonious co-existence of all countries in accordance with the international norms, mutual respect for sovereignty and development mode, peaceful settlement of existing disputes and potential conflicts through negotiations, objection to the use and threat of military force. What's more, all countries uphold the new security concept and engage in cooperation of mutual trust while joining hands in tackling and eliminating potential factors likely to threaten the world peace. Meanwhile, all countries choose their own roads of development in line with their own national conditions, achieve common development through mutually beneficial and winwin cooperation and endeavor to solve the existing issue of poverty and bridge vast wealth gap between the South and the North. Development of each country and common development of the world is the primary goal each country strives for and in turn safeguards the peace of each country. Only through the development based on mutually beneficial cooperation, can each country expect to maintain the ever-expanding common benefit and achieve win-win results.

Secondly, “a harmonious world”features equality and justice. Fairness is the value principle and international moral norm China has always been adhering to. In the harmonious world we are currently striving for, fairness means all countries are equal, be it strong or weak. Major powers have no rights to interfere in internal affairs of weak nations. The one and only reasonable solution to international disputes lies in equal-footed consultation and negotiation instead of power politics of any form based on any excuse. Every country has the right to express their interests appeal which should receive due care. Equality is the fundamental substance of democratization of international relations which China has been persistently advocating.Only by continuously advancing democratization of international relation, can the blatant hegemony and power politics be suppressed. With regard to justice, the justice lying in harmony refers to the justice that every country defends the international order and common interest while getting its due at the same time. This justice is by no means the privilege of a certain country or certain countries. In the present day context, to maintain equality and justice of the international community remains not only the essential requirement for the promoting of peace and development but also a significant factor that pushes the world order towards the direction of“harmony”.

Finally, “a harmonious world”also features prosperity and diversity. There are different political and social systems and economic development modes as well as diverse cultures and civilizations in the present international community. That's why the world takes on the look of great prosperity—dynamics of world development lies in the coexistence of diversities. In this world, there can't be only one civilization, one social system, one development mode or one value. Every country and every people has made contribution to the overall human progress. Thus, dialogue and mutual learning of respective strong points between different political systems, different economic modes and different civilizations can not only promote the development of each country but also advance the progress of international community. Such is what a harmonious world is to be like. This new world order allows the coexistence of different ideologies, different social systems and different development modes as well as exchanges between different civilizations.

China's concept of“a harmonious world”is a brand new world order concept which is rich in content. It contains in it the essence of traditional Chinese culture and thoughts, such as“agree to disagree”, “harmony is of the greatest value”, “harmony and cooperation”, “mutual benefit”; at the same time, it also contains in it elements of modern concept of international relations, such as sovereignty equality, national self-determination, common interests and win-win cooperation.It is thus a practicable world order concept with extensive appeal and influence.

3. Significance of Concept of Peaceful Development and a Harmonious World

The concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world not only injects new blood into China's diplomatic thoughts and international relation theory, but also promotes world peace and development as well as fairness and justice as a result of its guiding role in China's diplomatic practice.

On the theoretical level, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world first promotes the further development of China's diplomatic philosophy, integrates China's diplomatic thoughts, and promotes the construction of international relations theory with Chinese characteristics. Before reform and opening-up, specific Cold War background and complicated domestic political situation put“revolution”and“combat”into the central place of China's diplomatic philosophy. After reform and opening-up, against the background of relatively eased international situation and China's rapid development, China came up with peace and development as the theme of the era and these two concepts then entered into China's diplomatic philosophy as a new part of it. In the 21st century, concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world not only marks that China's diplomatic philosophy has taken full shape, but also showcases that it has achieved new development in the respect of international order. Since the Cold War, as fundamental changes have taken place in the international situation, China's diplomatic thoughts have also been gaining vigorous momentum of development with new diplomatic concepts constantly springing up. This new circumstance gave birth to the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world, whose rich content covers all the newly-emerging diplomatic concepts and thus achieving a comprehensive integration of China's past diplomatic thoughts since the end of the Cold War. Apart from this, with the essence of traditional Chinese culture like“agree to disagree”, “harmony is precious”and“mutual benefit”as its fundamental theoretical pillars, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world embodies its outstanding Chinese characteristics. What's more, “a harmonious world”depicts an ideal world order and provides international relations theory a completely new and non-occidentalismcentered perspective. In this sense, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world plays a groundbreaking role in constructing international relations theory with Chinese characteristics and will“advance the study of China's international relations and diplomatic theory”.

Second, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world, together with the peaceful rise which would be made possible only under its guidance, will provide new perspective and unique case for international relations theory currently dominated by occidentalism and consists of three main paradigms—realism, liberalism and constructivism. Though the three paradigms aim to find access to stability of international order and durable peace of the world, their own theoretical limitations restrain them from finding the fundamental approach to stability of international order and durable peace of the world and from taking justice as the value pursuit of international order, while the pursuit of common security, common prosperity and mutual tolerance contained in the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world provides new ways of thinking for the three western international relations theories which are currently trapped in trouble. Meanwhile, under the guidance of the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world, China, as a big country with different social systems and development modes, has overthrown the traditional mode of rise—rise by military force popular with big countries in the past, and aims at achieving its rise by peaceful development. This will undoubtedly provide a unique case for the study of international relations and accelerate the emergence of new interpreting mode and theoretical perspective in international relations theory.

On the practice level, the first and foremost direct effect of this concept is that it helps China to gain more development space and remove the barriers standing on its way of development, since it effectively counterattacks the arguments of“China Threat”and improves the world public opinion on China. By emphasizing the peaceful approach to achieving development and the good intention of achieving common development and common prosperity, the concept conveys to the international community, especially to China's neighboring countries, that what China's development will bring about is not security threat but development opportunity and that China's development will not snatch away others' development interests, rather, it will strengthen common interest. Little by little, the negative influence of“China Threat”arguments in the world public opinion gradually gives way to the positive influence of the“opportunity in China”argument, which leads to a more relaxed world public opinion for China's development.

Second, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world is conducive to the growth of China's soft power. China's rapid economic development brings with it increasingly stronger“hard power”represented by its military force, while the“soft power”represented by its cultural attractiveness grows at a comparatively slower pace, which lays restraints on China's development to some extent. However, Chinese government creatively puts forward a new world order concept—“a harmonious world”, which enhances the attractiveness of Chinese value and strengthens China's diplomatic power. What's more, the traditional Chinese culture as well as its rich diplomatic thoughts contained in this concept displays the contributing power of Chinese culture. Besides that, this concept's unswerving emphasis on peaceful development demonstrates China's firm determination on never seeking hegemony, its solemn commitment to it, and the responsibility awareness in line with its status as a newly emerging big country. Meanwhile, China's peaceful and cooperative posture revealed in this concept also helps to enhance China's national image. All these factors are conducive to the growth of China's soft power.

Finally, through its guiding of China's diplomatic practice, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world will accelerate the process of China's peaceful development. As one of China's core diplomatic concepts, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world has become the important guiding concept for China's diplomacy. Chinese leaders have expressed on various important occasions China's firm determination on sticking to the path of peaceful development and China's intention for pushing forward the construction of a harmonious word of durable peace and common prosperity. Therefore, in its diplomatic practice, China undoubtedly upholds the principle of peace, development, cooperation and harmony, sticks to the new security concept and actively engages in nonproliferation and anti-terrorism. China makes contribution to regional and international economic development through mutually beneficial cooperation. Through increasing cultural interactions, China establishes friendly relationship with other nations, which fundamentally promotes the process of China's peaceful development and construction of a harmonious world.

China's concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world is also of great practical significance to the world. First, China's peaceful development under the guidance of this concept will contribute to world harmony and progress. China's rapid economic development will bring opportunity and benefit to the economic development of its surrounding areas and even the whole world. As the generator for world economy, the contribution rate of China's economy in regional and world economy comes out on top. In the 2008 global financial crisis, China's economy became the first to pick up, making it the important driving force behind the recovery of world economy. Meanwhile, China's development which is under the guidance of the peace and harmony concept will push forward the construction of a harmonious world, since it'll further strengthen the power for the safeguarding of world peace and justice and further promote democracy in international relations.

Second, the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world will become a most significant contribution China makes to the international value system. “Economic growth”, “freedom”, “social justice”and“ecological protection”have always been the core content of modern value. However, none of them are China's value innovation. As a big rising country, China must contribute value innovation to the international community. This is because in modern history, all the major powers made value innovation of international and historical significance in the course of development, which is, without any exception, the fundamental reason behind their successful rise. The concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world fills the gap in China's value innovation. In line with the international value system, the construction of a harmonious world remains the core socialist value that China is adhering to. This international value contains in it various concepts such as common security, common development, cultural diversity and a harmonious world. It starts from the traditional Chinese culture and thoughts, the essence of which is“agree to disagree”, and finds an approach to fulfilling the fundamental requirement of human society—peace and harmony. Therefore, it is of enormous innovative significance and supplements the international value system.

Finally, China's rise under the guidance of the concept of peaceful development and a harmonious world sets an example for other big rising countries. China is rising against the historical background of globalization and it seeks its rise by peaceful means instead of military force. Therefore, its successful rise in the future will undoubtedly become an entirely new case in the history of international relations. And other big rising countries will certainly be inspired by China's diplomatic thoughts, guiding ideology, development path and rise mode.