ZHANG ZHIZHOU

Professor,the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University

CARRY FORWARD THEORETIC BUILDING OF PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE DIPLOMACY WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

ZHANG ZHIZHOU

Professor,the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University

The checkered history of China’s diplomacy since 1949 shows that people-to-people diplomacy has played a unique role – supplementing government-to-government diplomacy and even going before it sometimes. Since the beginning of the reform and opening up, people-to-people diplomacy has prospered in China, emerging as an essential part of the country’s diplomacy as a whole. China is now entering a new stage of peaceful development and national rejuvenation, which is marked by new themes such as peripheral diplomacy, global governance, building a moderately prosperous society, and the Belt and Road Initiative. This has brought both new opportunities and new challenges for people-to-people diplomacy. Just as President Xi Jinping stressed at the 10th National Advisers Meeting of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) on May 15, 2012, “In the new century, people-to-people diplomacy has a bigger role to play on a bigger stage.” “people-to-people diplomacy has been used for many years in China but theoretical studies in this regard are yet to be pushed forward. More efforts should be made to develop a theory that can be used to guide activities of peopleto-people diplomacy in the future.”Therefore, it is the bounden duty of Chinese diplomacy researchers today to construct a theory of people-to-people diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. This paper seeks to explain three major issues in this regard, namely the concept of, philosophical basis for and institutional demand for “people-to-people diplomacy”.

THE CONCEPT OF PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE DIPLOMACY: THREE DIMENSIONS

Concepts stand at the core of a theory so the first step in the effort to construct a theory of people-to-people diplomacy is to define what “people-to-people diplomacy”is. To fully understand the concept, we need to not only distinguish it from “public diplomacy” – an idea originating from the United States, but also explain it from three dimensions, i.e. history and practice, cultural tradition, and the organizer and expected participant of diplomatic activities.

First, history and practice. Concepts are after all abstractions from history and practice. The concept of people-to-people diplomacy is framed on the basis of its history and practice. Therefore, the first dimension of the concept of people-topeople diplomacy is history and practice. Historically, there were three major tributaries of people-to-people diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. The first was represented by a series of events in the late Qing Dynasty and early 20th century, including the Gongche Shangshu movement and May Fourth Movement as well as intellectuals’ endeavor to abrogate unequal treaties during the National Government period. The second tributary emerged when the newly-founded People’s Republic of China was faced with the opposition and blockade by Western nations and it was inspired by the early form of people-to-people diplomacy in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. The third is the practice of people-to-people diplomacy by the Communist Party of China (CPC) which started in the Yan’an period. In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, labor unions, youth leagues and women’s federations were all involved in the diplomatic activities with other socialist countries. Moreover, the activities organized by CPAFFC, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and other organizations well supplemented government-to-government diplomacy. Before diplomatic relations were established, there had already been people-to-people exchanges between Chi-na and Japan and exchange of visits between Chinese and American table tennis players, which is known as “ping-pong diplomacy”. Despite the government’s influence, these events are well recognized as people-to-people diplomacy. The most recent events of people-to-people diplomacy include the parallel session on “Promoting people-to-people exchanges” during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation as well as the BRICS Political Parties, Think-Tanks and Civil Society Organizations Forum organized by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. Apparently, people-to-people diplomacy does not necessarily refer to the transnational exchanges between nongovernmental organizations or individuals. It actually means that the diplomatic activities do not directly involve the government and all parties concerned would like to recognize the “non-governmental”nature of the activities.

The Civil Society 20 (C20) China 2016 was held in Qingdao, China on 5 and 6 July 2016. Chinese President Xi Jinping, sent a message to extend warm congratulations to C20 conference. The theme of C20 conference is “Poverty Eradication, Green Development, and Innovation: Role of Civil Society”. There were more than 210 participants from 170 NGOs of 54 countries and regions.

Second, cultural tradition. China’s political culture featuring the dynamics between officials and civilians has lasted thousands of years and the concept of people-to-people diplomacy is also deeply rooted in such a culture. Likewise, the idea of “public diplomacy” is derived from the division of the public sphere and the private sphere in Western politics which has gradually assumed significance as legal rights. In other words, China’s concept of people-to-people diplomacy is completely different from the public diplomacy in the West in terms of both cultural roots and theoretical basis.

Third, the organizer and expected participant of diplomatic activities. As the idea of public diplomacy is introduced and promoted, a saying has gained in popularity that everyone can be a diplomat, which means anyone can organize a diplomatic activity. In fact, however, diplomacy has to involve a country’s foreign policy and diplomatic goals. peopleto-people diplomacy or public diplomacy is no exception. Any activity organized by a social group, a civil society organization or some individuals that can be considered people-to-people diplomacy must at least serve the country’s foreign policy and diplomatic goals. An average citizen’s personal travel or networking activities in a foreign country should not be labeled“diplomacy”. The expected participant of a diplomatic activity organized by a social group, a civil society organization or some individuals should be their counterpart social group, civil society organization or individuals. Does it mean that the government cannot be a player in people-topeople diplomacy or participate in the activities of people-to-people diplomacy? Not necessarily. We may understand the concept of people-to-people diplomacy on two levels. In the narrow sense, peopleto-people diplomacy refers to diplomatic activities whose organizer and expected participant are social groups, organizations or individuals with no government affiliations. In the broad sense, as along as the organizer or expected participant is not the government, it is people.

In brief, to understand people-to-people diplomacy, we need to consider at least the three dimensions. History should be respected and there is no need to simply emphasize the “non-governmental” nature. Both similar ideas of the West andthe Chinese culture should be taken into account. We may define the core meaning of people-to-people diplomacy from the organizer and expected participant and also understand it from the broad sense in light of the reality.

PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS FOR PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE DIPLOMACY:“THE PEOPLE HAVE CREATED HISTORY”

The philosophical basis for people-topeople diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is the theory that people have created history. people-to-people diplomacy is an integral part of China’s diplomacy as a whole. Although the core leadership is the CPC, the main organizers of activities are the people or people’s organizations. Although organizations with government affiliations or even government organizations in special cases may be involved if we are looking at people-to-people diplomacy in the broad sense, the essential feature of people-to-people diplomacy is undoubtedly the involvement of social groups, civil society organizations or some individuals in diplomatic activities. Why is it possible that the major players in people-to-people diplomacy in China are average people, social groups or civil society organizations? In other words, why are the people given the role as organizer of diplomatic activities under the foreign policy devised by the CPC? This is a perfect example of historical materialism embodied in people-to-people diplomacy. Only from the perspective of historical materialism can we explain the role of average people as major players in peopleto-people diplomacy.

The core view of historical materialism is that the people have created history. The CPC agrees with Marxist views, including the view about history. Early in 1945, when addressing the opening ceremony of the seventh CPC National Congress, Mao Zedong put forward a famous view that“the people are the only driving force behind the creation of world history”. That is an important signal that the CPC as a proletarian party is guided by the Marxist doctrine of historical materialism. The view about history is translated into the mass line of “everything for the people and by the people, and from the people and to the people”. The CPC has applied the principles of historical materialism in carrying out its work, which is one of the salient features of a Marxist party. The feature embodied in its diplomatic work is people-to-people diplomacy.

INSTITUTIONAL DEMAND FOR PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE DIPLOMACY

The modern world has seen the establishment of an international system in which the basic players are sovereign states. The basic form of diplomacy is the diplomacy between sovereign states, or the governments that represent the sovereign states. Therefore, governmentto-government diplomacy is a rather mature form of diplomacy in which both the organizer and expected participant of diplomatic activities are the government. Over the centuries, such a form of diplomacy has been able to help countries reach their diplomatic goals. However, since diplomatic relations do not come naturally, in some cases there are no diplomatic relations between two sovereign states but they share common interests. Moreover, given the social stratum, diverse interests and more complicated diplomatic issues, the government alone cannot ensure that the country’s interests are well served and its diplomatic goals reached. This is what we call “government failure” in the sphere of diplomacy. According to institutionalism, this is actually inadequate institutional supply or failure of the existing system. People-to-people diplomacy offers a new form of diplomacy and supplements the existing system of diplomacy.

People-to-people diplomacy has also been developing. In particular, with the advent of globalization, organizers and expected participants of diplomatic activities have diversified. As global governance is given more attention and new issues come up, the government finds it harder to address all the problems alone, such as global warming and carbon emissions, non-traditional security issues such as environmental and health issues, religious extremism, the rise and fall of a nation and resources, commodities, floating population, etc. All these call for global governance. The idea of “governance without government” was once very popular. China is also faced with such issues as the people-to-people exchanges between increasingly prosperous countries and the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the government alone cannot address all these issues. People-to-people diplomacy is characterized by flexibility, diversity, professional skills, and low costs so it is playing an increasingly important role in supplementing government-togovernment diplomacy.

The institutional demand for people-topeople diplomacy can be explained from the perspective of “government failure”or “inadequate institutional supply”. This provides stronger support for the development of people-to-people diplomacy. In fact, early in 1974, American economist Burton Weisbrod put forward the theories of “government failure” and “market failure” when analyzing the emergence and development of the “third sector” composed of non-governmental or non-profit organizations. Such a view of institutionalism can well be used to explain the emergence of people-to-people diplomacy.

CONCLUSION

Although theory comes from practice, practice does not produce theory naturally so theory is to be constructed. China is now at a crucial stage of the endeavor to reach the “Two Centenary Goals” so it needs a friendly and stable international environment. In the meantime, the rising China needs to undertake more international responsibilities and use more people-to-people diplomacy. The theory of people-to-people diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is yet to be consolidated and enriched. It is the call of the times and the need of the current system to develop people-to-people diplomacy with Chinese characteristics which is supported by the view that the people have created history, past experiences, traditional Chinese culture, and the frequent interactions between organizers and expected participants of diplomatic activities. Therefore, to construct the theory of people-to-people diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is to construct the Chinese discourse and it is bound to produce fruitful results.

10.19422/j.cnki.cn10-1398/d.2017.03.011