Every person has a dream, so does every nation. The Chinese people have made the nation's dream their own. The Chinese dream has been enriched by thousands of years of Chinese culture and inspired among other things by the past three decades of reform and opening-up.
The salient features of the Chinese dream include inclusiveness and win-win cooperation. These are the very features that will enable the Chinese dream to expand its global reach and be recognized by people of other nations.
The Chinese dream is the dream of national rejuvenation. It is the dream of building a powerful and prosperous state, a dream of bringing happiness in the lives of the Chinese people. It entails sustaining steady and healthy economic growth, scientifically managing the Chinese society, and effectively responding to the risks and challenges of external development.
These tasks can be accomplished by drawing on the essence of other civilizations and joining hands with other countries to weather storms by sticking to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Any disconnection with the outside world will shut the door on development, a lesson China has learned the hard way. China has to seek development by unswervingly adhering to its basic national policy of opening-up. In response to the new developments in globalization, China must implement a more proactive opening-up strategy, as emphasized at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the only way to realize the Chinese dream.
The world has evolved into a global community, and one country's moves will affect others. The growing intensity of global interconnectedness has consigned the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game to the dustbin of history. This is the age of win-win cooperation and the mutually beneficial mindset.
Conforming to this historical trend, China regards the realization of the Chinese dream as a two-track economic process, in which it optimizes the use of international talent, capital, technologies and markets on the one hand, while on the other, it makes the Chinese economy an integral part of the world economy and creates opportunities for global economic development.
The dream of one nation varies, sometimes immensely, with that of another. Each nation's dream has its distinct features and path to realization - but despite being unique, a nation's dream is neither superior nor inferior to another's.
There are some common elements in the dreams of all nations, though. China and other nations can shelve their differences and seek this common ground to work together and build a world in which they can co-exist harmoniously and complement each other's dreams and overcome their weaknesses.
The Chinese nation is determined to blaze a new development trail, and its painstaking exploration will serve as a reference for other nations and contribute to the progress of humankind. This is where the true greatness of the Chinese dream lies.
If diligence and pragmatism are the forces driving China, then by facilitating further opening-up and win-win cooperation with other nations, it will realize its dream and inspire people of other nations to realize their dreams and maintain lasting peace and prosperity across the globe.
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The author is a Beijing-based scholar of international studies.
(China Daily 08/14/2013 page8)