Notion of zero-sum games should be abandoned: Chinese scholar

BEIJING -- Some people in Western countries should discard the obsolete thinking of zero-sum games and refrain from containing China's development, a leading Chinese scholar on international relations said at the weekend.

"Instead of being stuck in the outdated mindset of zero-sum games and painting others as adversaries, all countries should look at today's world as well as international relations from a new perspective," said Ji Zhiye, president of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a Beijing-based think tank.

With greater technology and infrastructural development, closer people-to-people ties, the interests of nations worldwide are becoming more interlocked, making development the common aspiration, said Ji, also a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body.

Ji pointed out that some Westerners, driven by paranoia about China's rise, are still prone to contain China's development through various means.

"They feel agitated about China's rise because China successfully forges ahead on its own path of development, shattering their illusion that the world should follow their pattern and move forward according to their will," the scholar said.

China advocates win-win cooperation in international relations, Ji said, adding that "it will take time" for them to accept China's inclusive concept on development.

Ji also dismissed the term "sharp power" as attempts to hype up the "China threat" by some Western media and experts.

They use "sharp power" to refer to the competitiveness and attractiveness of Chinese culture and its mode of development while calling the same from their own countries "soft power," Ji said.

At a press conference on Friday, Wang Guoqing, spokesperson for the first session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, also criticized the sinister motives behind the coining of the term.

Westerners accusing China of showing "sharp power" is full of hype and bias, and is a new version of the "China threat" rhetoric in nature, Wang said.

"The international community, especially major countries, should boost cultural exchanges characterized by harmony within diversity and inclusiveness, forge a new form of international relations featuring win-win cooperation, and work together to build a community with a shared future for humanity," Wang said.