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Positive interaction aids 'global village'

By Wang Fan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-31 08:13

In a year full of profound political and economic changes, China's relationship with the outside world has grown more intense. "Positive interaction" is the phrase that best describes this relationship.

Its role today means that China is both a beneficiary of its exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, and a contributor to a fairer and more inclusive international system.

A good example of this is China's achievement in the development of its high-speed railway. As 2010 draws to an end, the world saw China set an operating speed record of 486.1 kilometers per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

It is fair to say that China's high-speed railway technology owes much to Japan's Shinkansen, France's TGV and Germany's ICE, as China's self-developed railway is mainly based on the Maglev trains originally developed by these companies. However, it is China that bought, absorbed and adapted these countries' technologies to deliver "record-breaking" results.

China and the outside world need to cooperate to achieve win-win results, as cooperation offers benefits to both sides.

Over the past three decades, China's economy has been on a fast track of development thanks to a peaceful and stable world. China has made wide-ranging efforts, from climate change negotiations and economic cooperation, to global governance and nuclear talks, to contribute to a more peaceful, stable and prosperous world.

During the past year, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has given a strong impetus to regional markets, allowing a freer flow of capital, resources, technology and talents. This has provided a platform for trade expansion and investment cooperation in the region.

In the first nine months of the year, when the world was still recovering from the economic crisis, the China-ASEAN trade volume registered an impressive year-on-year increase of 43.7 percent, which benefited Asia as a whole, not just Southeast Asian countries.

China also played a role in restructuring global governance. It was actively involved in the G20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting and has remained committed to steering the global economic and financial system in a more balanced direction.

China has put more emphasis on coordinating and cooperating with other emerging economies, giving developing nations a stronger voice on the world stage.

"We can't ignore the demand for development of developing nations, which account for over 85 percent of all nations," President Hu Jintao said during the fourth G20 summit in Canada in June.

The world economy's long-term and sustainable growth can only be achieved when developing nations realize their full development potential and the South-North gap is narrowed, Hu said.

China has persistently advocated resolving conflicts through peaceful means. This year, as the discord over the Iran nuclear issue grew and tensions on the Korean Peninsula heated up, China's efforts to safeguard regional peace and actively cooperate with all the relevant parties was evident.

In a sense, the world we are living in has become a community held together by common interests. In such a highly interconnected "global village", each nation has been given a dual role - beneficiary and contributor.

For every stakeholder, to give is to receive.

The author is a writer with Xinhua News Agency.