Weiwei Zhang - The China Horizon

GLORY AND DREAM OF A CIVILIZATIONAL STATE

ZHANG WEIWEI

Fudan University & Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Published by

World Century Publishing Corporation

27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Zhang, Wei-Wei, 1957

Title: The China horizon : glory and dream of a civilizational state / Weiwei Zhang
(Fudan University, China & Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China).

Other titles: Zhongguo chao yue. English

Description: Hoboken, N.J. : World Century, 2016. | Translation of: Zhongguo chao yue. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015050068| ISBN 9781938134722 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781938134739 (pbk : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: China--Politics and government--2002 | China--Economic policy--2000 | China--Foreign relations--21st century. | National characteristics, Chinese.

Classification: LCC DS779.47 .Z422813 2016 | DDC 951.06/12--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050068

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Originally published in Chinese by Horizon Media Co. Ltd., 2014

Copyright 2016 by World Century Publishing Corporation Published by arrangement with Shanghai Century Publishing Co. Ltd.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.

For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher.

Desk Editors: Chandrima Maitra/Qi Xiao

Typeset by Stallion Press

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Printed in Singapore

This book is a product of my intellectual journey over the past 20 or so years and the last book of my China Trilogy, the other two being The China Ripple (zhongguo chudong) in Chinese and The China Wave (zhongguo zhenhan) in Chinese as well as English (published also by the World Century). The China Wave is a bestseller in China since its publication in 2011, and this book, The China Horizon (zhongguo chaoyue), continues and expands the theme of The China Wave to discuss Chinas dramatic rise, the China model of development and Chinas political narrative, but with particular focus on Chinas efforts and achievements in catching-up with and surpassing the West, especially the United States, in various areas and in moving beyond the Western political, economic and social models.

Like the other two books of the China Trilogy, The China Horizon was written in Chinese and meant for Chinese readers, rather than the international audience. As huge linguistic and cultural differences exist between the Chinese and English languages, the English edition of The China Horizon requires unusual effort beyond mere translation. I wrote four years ago while working on the English edition of The China Wave: I was courageous enough to undertake the difficult task of translating the book myself, as I thought this might ensure a more accurate rendition of my ideas contained in the book, but it soon occurred to me that this was indeed a daunting challenge: in addition to the due date set by my publisher, it was also an uphill struggle to render a book essentially for a Chinese audience into one for an international audience. These are exactly the same challenges to me now as four years ago.

I have therefore adopted the same 70/30 approach as last time, i.e. roughly 70% of the work is to translate the original, and the remaining 30% essentially to revise or even rewrite in order to make the book more accessible to non-Chinese readers whose cultural background and topics of interest often differ widely from their Chinese counterparts, and in the same vein, I have highlighted those topics of particular interest to the international audience, such as Chinas political system, the Chinese perception of the Western institutions as well as how the Chinese Dream compares with the American Dream.

I owe an intellectual debt to many people, and it is impossible to mention all of them, but I should still thank particularly those individuals who have shared their perspectives with me on various issues discussed at length in the book. They include Eric Li and Jin Zhongwei of the Chunqiu Institute, Shi Zhengfu, Chen Ping and Su Changhe of Fudan University, Pan Wei of Peking University, Hu Angang of Tsinghua University, Wang Shaoguang of Hong Kong Chinese University, Wang Zhan and Huang Renwei of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Rana Mittar of Oxford University, Robert Kuhn, the author of How Chinas Leaders Think, Martin Jacques, the author of When China Rules the World, Nathan Gardels of the Worldpost, as well as Stephen Rachter of the Globalist online magazine.

I would also like to express my particular gratitude to Qi Xiao and Chandrima Maitra at World Scientific and World Century for their conscientious effort in editing and publishing this book. My sincere thanks also go to Chen Xin, Shi Hongjun, Cai Xin and Yuan Xiaolin of Shanghai Century Publishing for their publication of the book in Chinese. I should thank warmly Pan Xiaoli for her linguistic counsel, Zhang Xueying for compiling the books index and Chen Kangling for his administrative and other assistance. My heartfelt thanks, as always, go to my wife Hui-Hui and my son Marco Yi-Zhou for their unfailing understanding and support.

I am alone, however, responsible for any errors that may appear in this book.

Zhang Weiwei
Shanghai, October 1, 2015

ZHANG Weiwei is a distinguished professor of International Relations and Dean of the China Institute, Fudan University, and he is concurrently Director of the Institute of China Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, a board member of Chinas National Think Tanks Council and a senior fellow at the Chunqiu Institute.

He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Geneva University.

A former visiting fellow at Oxford, he was professor of International Relations at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and senior research fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies, Geneva University.

He had worked as a senior English interpreter for Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders in the mid-1980s. He has traveled to over 100 countries.

He is the author of the best-selling and award-winning China Trilogy (published by the Shanghai Peoples Press) of Zhongguo Chudong