Opinion | What the West needs to know about where modern China is headed
- President Xi Jinping has emphasised the importance of ‘learning from history to create a bright future’. This epitomises how China is searching for its own brand of modernity, while keeping the ‘whole-of-nation approach’
China is building a modern socialist state with Chinese characteristics. The paradigm shift of reform and opening is now spearheaded by innovation, while historical Chinese experience is applied in the context of the current global environment.
In recent years, the prevailing Western view of China has undergone a fundamental shift. China is increasingly seen as a challenge to what the West terms the “liberal international order”.
In the heat of rhetoric, this challenge is often cast as an existential threat posed by China with malign intent, which calls for an equally hostile response. This scenario has the potential to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading to possible real conflict. To manage the rivalry, it is important for the West, especially the United States, to understand the goals of China and their underlying drivers.
