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IMGXYZ3909IMGZYXThe concept of harmony has shaped Chinese culture and politics for centuries. In September 2011, the Chinese State Council Information Office incorporated these values into China’s foreign policy by releasing a white paper entitled "China's Peaceful Development." This report outlines the core values that should define China’s strategic rise to global prominence, with an emphasis on the concept of a “harmonious” culture.
To discuss the concept of harmony and its effect Chinese development and foreign policy, Carnegie-Tsinghua’s Zhang Lihua moderated a roundtable discussion. The panel included Professor Zhou Guidian of Beijing Normal University and Tsinghua University’s Professor Wei Zhengxiang.
The Roots of “Harmonious” Culture
- History: China’s traditional emphasis on a “harmonious” culture dates back to the Qin dynasty, explained Zhang. Over 2,000 years ago, the Qin Emperor avoided an assassination attempt, unified the country, and established hegemony by force. According to Zhou, when Zhenghe, the great Ming Dynasty explorer, commanded his imperial fleet he spread harmonious culture rather than colonialism throughout Southeast Asia.
- Influence of Great Thinkers: Zhang added that Chinese classical philosophers perpetuated the idea of a harmonious culture. Harmony was a central theme in many Chinese classics such as the Confucian Analects, Laozi’s Dao De Jing, and the works of Huangde.
The Conceptual Struggle Between Harmony and Hegemony
- Hegemony: Zhou defined hegemony as the product of a strong economy, military, politics, and culture. In this environment, Zhou continued, the most powerful will emerge and can impose harmony through their hegemony, but this would be a false harmony based on oppression and forced uniformity.
- Terrorism: According to Zhou, one of the greatest threats to harmony is the threat of terrorism. He described terrorism as a weapon of the weak against the powerful and a possible outcome of hegemony. Zhou warned that if a government coerces its people, they will fight against it.
- Lack of Ethics: Zhou further argued that harmony can be achieved through the observation of the Confucian golden ethic, which states that people should not treat others in ways that they would not want to be treated themselves. He argued that society must be grounded in mutual respect and there must be an absence of tyranny and oppression for real harmony to flourish.
Chinese Ethics and Their Impact on Foreign Policy
- East Versus West: Wei suggested that the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western cultures is their perspective on human nature. He added that the Chinese perspective is that human nature is generally good; in the West, the perception is that people are inherently bad.
- Means Can Justify Ends: In a harmonious culture, Wei stated that actions should be judged by their motivations, rather than the result. Explaining that in Chinese history great political or military campaigns are deemed successful only if the motives behind them has been good, Wei made the case that today, though many of the results of Mao’s programs have been deemed poor, his good intentions justify their implementation.
- A Moral Foreign Policy: A harmonious culture lays the foundation for a great common society and benefits all aspects of society, Wei said. China strives to be such a society. As a result, explained Wei, China will not intervene abroad and will only act in self-defense. Such a policy is based on its own domestic harmonious culture, not motivated by profit and is thus moral.
Zhang said that China’s vision of a harmonious world has been met with skepticism around the world. There is a broad misunderstanding of both the terminology and the culture of harmony. Although the current Chinese government has promoted this core value, it needs to be adopted and implemented by society at large to become truly effective and understood by the international community.
