First of all, the international community takes the moral level of hegemonic countries as the standard to measure the moral level of rising countries, that is, the relativity of international morality. That is to say, in a given historical period, the foreign policies of the rising country and the hegemonic country have the same expansionism, but as long as the policy moral level of the rising country is higher than that of the hegemonic country, it will be considered moral by the international community; If it is lower, it will be considered immoral. According to the theory of moral realism, rising countries need to adopt more moral diplomatic strategies than hegemonic countries in order to win international political support.
For example, the policy of Shang and Zhou dynasties towards the vassal States was to make them submit, but abused the ministers and vassal States, but not abused them, so the 800 small countries betrayed and United. These small countries think that Zhou Wang is a heartless bad king, while Zhou Wuwang is a holy king. The policies of Qi and Qin towards other small countries are hegemonic, but they rely on alliances with countries such as Lu, Song, Wei, Zheng, Xu and Cao, while Qin, especially after Xiao Gong, relies on large-scale annexation of neighboring countries' land for hegemony. Therefore, other small and medium-sized countries think that Qi is moral, while Qin is a "country of tigers and wolves". The essence of the struggle between the Western Han Dynasty and Xiongnu for the western countries is expansion, but the Western Han Dynasty is political expansion, seeking to establish vassal relations, while Xiongnu is resource expansion, establishing slave relations and plundering the products and manpower of the western countries. Western countries think that the Western Han Dynasty is more moral than the Huns. Emperor Taizong carried out the policy of opening to the outside world and remonstrating at home, and established the rule of Guan Zhen, which is considered to be the most brilliant and moral era in the history of China. Although the expansion of the Yuan Dynasty established the largest territory in China's history, the empire of the Yuan Dynasty lasted only 98 years, and it was regarded as a cruel dynasty.
Secondly, the moral judgment of small and medium-sized countries on which side is a rising country or a hegemonic country is not based on whether to go to war, but on which country's policies have brought them more benefits, especially security interests. If neither brings benefits, it depends on which side's policy hurts them less. According to the theory of moral realism, morality at the international political level refers to the justice of a country's policies and actions, rather than the non-use of force. This is why Britain's appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany during World War II was considered immoral. Britain's policy towards Nazi Germany was peaceful, but it was harmful to other European countries.
All countries don't want other countries to be better than themselves. They don't like hegemonic countries or rising countries. Small and medium-sized countries judge whether hegemonic countries or rising countries are moral according to their interests. According to the principle of interests, they think that the party that brings them more benefits stresses morality; According to the principle of harmlessness, they choose the lesser of two evils, and regard the one that harms their own interests less as morality. For example, European countries don't like America and Russia. However, although European countries do not like American hegemony, they are more worried about Russian foreign policy, so they would rather lose some sovereignty and let the US military establish military bases in their own countries. Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have adopted a two-way strategy, relying on China for economic security and the United States for security. This reality shows that they think they can benefit from China in economy and the United States in security. At the same time, it also shows that they think that China poses a greater threat to their security than the United States. What we need to think about in particular is why the United States has been fighting wars every day since the Cold War, while China has not fought a single war. On the contrary, many Asia-Pacific countries have adopted the policy of relying on the United States for security. Other countries believe that the rise of a country is harmless, which is a necessary condition. When this condition cannot be met, the country will be considered immoral.
Third, the international community judges which relative morality is based on the content of expanding interests of hegemonic countries and rising countries. Whether it is a hegemonic country or a rising country, the process of rising strength is the process of outward expansion of interests. However, in different historical periods, different interest expansion makes a country's moral image different. Generally speaking, expanding interests in emerging fields is easier to form morality than expanding interests in traditional fields. If the rising countries expand their interests in emerging fields, there will be less conflicts of interest, less international resistance and even the support of most members of the international community.
In different historical periods, social development often produces some new areas of interest. In emerging fields, there are relatively few countries with the same interests, so it is less likely that expanding interests will harm other countries. For example, when industrial production created the international trade market, the expansion policy of the United States in China was more moral than that of the European powers occupying the concession in China, which was one of the reasons why the Qing government agreed to open its doors. When industrialization has created an international capital market, it is more ethical to expand capital interests overseas than to expand commodity market interests, which is why the resistance to opening one country's investment market is relatively less than that to opening another country's commodity market. The rise of a great power will inevitably expand its foreign interests, and a country without expanding its foreign interests is certainly not a rising power. However, whether the expansion focuses on traditional fields or emerging fields has different effects on its moral image.
Based on the above discussion about the relativity of international morality, I want to sum up three points.
First, China's diplomatic strategy should take the international community's non-opposition to the rise of China as the primary goal, and then consider winning international support on the basis of achieving this goal. If no one in the world supported or opposed the rise of China, our international environment would be much better than it is now. This means that the introduction of a policy should first consider whether it will arouse opposition, and then consider how to win international support. Take the South China Sea as an example. Now the Foreign Minister is visiting Southeast Asia to win the support of some countries for China's position in the South China Sea. If we had made more efforts to prevent opposition to China's position at an early stage, the situation we are facing now might be different. In order to ensure the success of China's rise, it is very important to sum up the moral lessons of a rising country in history, but the lessons of failure are more important than those of success, because the successful strategies in the past may not be applicable to the present era, but the reasons of the past history will still lead to the failure of repeating history today. It is more practical for us to sum up the lessons that those rising countries failed because of the serious opposition in history today.
Second, the rise of China is in the information age, so the main direction of China's rise strategy should be to expand its interests in the network field rather than the traditional field. Network represents the most advanced economy in this era, and China is already the second largest country in network technology and the largest country in network use. Network capability is an effective tool for China to expand its overseas network interests. Because most countries have a big gap with China in network technology and network use ability, expanding China's overseas network interests will have the characteristics of small conflict of interests, and many countries are willing to take the express train of China's network development. This means that the interests of expanding overseas networks are more easily accepted by the international community than those of expanding traditional fields, and even considered as a relative moral behavior. Blocking China's network and only building it at home instead of expanding it globally may not only make China lose the strategic opportunity for its rise, but may even have a negative impact on the rise of China.
The third is to put forward realistic international commitments and foreign strategic goals based on national strength. Moral realism holds that strategic reputation is the core content of great power morality. The failure to fulfill the commitments and goals beyond national strength will inevitably lead to the damage of international strategic reputation. From the operational point of view, China's strength is the second in the world, not the first, and its comprehensive national strength is about 50% of that of the United States. This means that China's international commitments and strategic goals cannot exceed those of the United States. The international community requires developed countries to give 0.7% of GDP to developing countries every year. In fact, most developed China countries can't do it. China is a developing country, and its promised foreign aid for one year should be at least 0.7% of GDP. However, in 20 15, I promised 60 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Africa, 46 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Pakistan, 20 billion RMB (about 3 billion U.S. dollars) in aid to climate change, and 2 billion U.S. dollars in aid to South-South cooperation, and I also forgave developing countries' outstanding interest-free inter-governmental loan debts by the end of 20 15, totaling about 20/kloc-in China. At present, developing countries hope to get more and more aid from China, and the amount is increasing. If China does not agree, it will use bilateral relations as a threat. The development of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan, the military conflict between India and Pakistan, the war in Afghanistan, and civil unrest are all beyond our power. Therefore, we need to define national interests and strategic objectives according to national strength, prevent the international strategic reputation from being damaged, and strive for the international effect of "getting more help".