The Viewpoint of Righteousness and Benefit in China's Diplomacy:Learning from the Traditional and Building the Contemporary

The contemporary viewpoint of righteousness and benefit,proposed by President Xi Jinping of China in 2013,initially originated from the traditional concept during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period over 2000 years ago.On the evolution,traditional views are usually individual-and domestic-level based;feudal kings were assumed the subject(dominant stakeholder)of practice with the people objects(passive takers);the subject and object enjoyed a hierarchical relationship in the domestic society.The contemporary concept focuses fully on the international level,viewing Chinese state as the subject and its neighbors(as well as some developing countries)as objects;they maintain an equal relationship in the international community.The upgraded analysis level and the changed subject and object as well as the altered relationship between them drive China's diplomacy to practice the contemporary righteousness-benefit viewpoint.Nowadays,the group of subject players expanded to include not only Chinese government but also Chinese enterprises,whose responsibilities still need additional clarification.For China case,the government is assumed to take the major responsibility in practicing righteousness,with enterprises for benefit.Subjects and objects enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with each other;China,as the subject of practicing righteousness,naturally has the expectations to get righteousness in return from the objects.The contemporary viewpoint of righteousness and benefit will work as a practicing guidance to China's diplomacy,entailing a working mechanism to put it into practice.If implementation of such viewpoint fails to take route,correction mechanism from economic side will be needed as war is not always considered the ideal way.