The "Threat View” considers China’s rise as a challenge instead of an opportunity for the rest of the world. It mainly includes six aspects, namely, the economic threat—the continuously developing China is competing with the Western powers for limited resources and markets; the military threat—China’s powerful economic strength will in turn make it a formidable military power; the cultural threat—the renaissance of the self-contained Chinese culture is having a serious impact on Western culture; the geopolitical threat—a powerful China puts both visible and invisible pressure on its close neighbors; the political system threat—the Communist regime greatly differs from the mainstream political system of liberty and democracy in the western world; the technological threat—China is committed to scientific and technological innovation, and it is challenging the supremacy of Western science and technology, especially in the Internet area.

In recent years, although these arguments have weakened, they still appear once in a while. For example, recently the United States issued the 2009 National Intelligence Strategy, which exaggerated the viewpoint of China’s military threat, and listed China as one of the countries that challenges the interests of the United States. Some United States National Intelligence officials also absurdly claimed China to be very aggressive in the Internet area. Western public opinion looks at China’s continuously expanding scale of foreign investment and trade as so-called "Oriental Colonialism." Western powers label the "Confucius Institutes" that are set up overseas for normal cultural exchanges as a cultural expansion strategy. All kinds of "threat views" on China, objectively speaking, are making China’s international environment worse and putting constraints on China’s further development.

The "Collapse View” believes that China’s economic growth is at the cost of a widening inequality between the rich and the poor, deteriorating environmental pollution, and official corruption. Thus it is not sustainable. In addition to his recently-published book, Who will feed China, Joe Studwell, editor-in-chief of the U.S. based China Economic Quarterly, wrote a book called The China Dream, published in January 2002. In it, he described China’s economy as "a mansion built on sand.”  He predicted that China would soon have a large-scale political and economic crisis. The most extreme view came from the book The Coming Collapse of China, published in July 2001, by American-Chinese lawyer Gordon G. Chang. In the book he said that "the bad debts of China’s four state-owned banks are so high that they are at the point of not being  sustainable anymore,” and that “instead of considering the 21st century as China’s century, we might as well say that China is falling apart." He asserted, "China’s current political and economic systems can only maintain a maximum of five years." These comments are clearly as reckless as announcing that history has ended. In front of the facts, these arguments, which have a strong Cold War mentality, have collapsed without being attacked.

The "Deviation View" states that China is deviating from Marxism in its ideology, deviating from socialism in its political system, and deviating from the Third World in its foreign relations. There is no clear source or original proponent for this view. It is instead a summary of a variety of scattered comments. We can say that basically the “Deviation View" holds a certain doubt or criticism against China’s reform and opening up policy, and the transformation of its policies and socioeconomic development. This view mostly came from traditional Marxism, neo-Marxism, and some Third World countries. According to this view, as China deepens its reform and opens up, it is getting further away from the original Marxism and socialism, as well as other Third World countries. We see that, in fact, these various negative voices about China’s reform and opening up do not only come from Western countries, but also non-Western countries. The "Deviation View" is a typical example. For this kind of view, we do need to clarify, because China’s reform and opening up is actually truly adhering to Marxism and socialism. It is, in a more fundamental way and in a longer term, benefiting mankind and the Third World.

The "Myth View” holds that the so-called "China Miracle" is nothing but a myth invented by the media. The representative of this view is the book, The Five Great Myths About China and the World, published in May 2002 by Fred Hu, the Managing Direction of Goldman Sachs (in Asia). He said in the book, "China’s economic growth is not unprecedented. With the Asia-Pacific regional standards, it is not necessarily prominent in any particular way.” There are also critics who think that when compared with the rise of other emerging countries, after all China did not break the normal mode of economic growth. The ways that China relied on to make the miracle—cheap labor, appropriate economic policies, a favorable external environment, a stable domestic situation, a national mentality of pursuing wealth, and so forth—also worked and made miracles in Japan and Southeast Asia. In earlier days, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States were all pretty much in the same situation as well. However, this kind of generalization on the modernization of different countries in the world lacks proper knowledge. China has 1.3 billion people and a historic accumulation of other factors and problems. On its way to modernization, both creativity and uniqueness have been demonstrated. This kind of generalization is negating the historic development view of the Monistic Multi-linear Theory.

The "Responsibility View” states that, since China is a stakeholder of Western powers, it must assume a corresponding responsibility. On September 21, 2005, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, gave a speech titled Whither China: From Membership to Responsibility? at the National Committee on United States-China Relations. During the speech he clearly proposed this view of China being a "responsible stakeholder."  On March 5, 2007, the famous Harvard professor of economic history, Danny Ferguson, published the article “Buy Chimerican” in the Los Angeles Times, introducing the term “Chimerica” for the first time. In the summer of 2008, the magazine Foreign Affairs published the article “A Partnership of Equals” by Fred Bergsten, director of the U.S. Peterson Institute for International Economics. This article brought up the concept of "G2” for the first time. The above concepts resulted in strong reactions. One of the reasons is that they do, to some extent, reflect the inter-dependencies between the two great economic systems of China and the United States. However, at the same time, we should also note the transition of the United States’ strategy towards China behind these concepts.

The "Replacement View” states that as the Washington Consensus-represented Western democratic model continues to decline, China’s development path, which focuses on independent, innovative, and progressive reform, will become the new universal discourse. The "Beijing Consensus” model is representative of this view. "Beijing Consensus" was first introduced by Joshua Cooper Ramo, a senior advisor for the United States Goldman Sachs, in his article “The Beijing Consensus,” published in May 2004, by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Policy Centre. Ramo thinks that China’s economic development model does not only fit China, but also sets an example for other developing countries that are pursuing economic growth and improvement of people’s lives. "Beijing Consensus" will replace "Washington Consensus,” which is already widely distrusted. From an objective point of view, although the suggestion of "Beijing Consensus" reflects that the international community highly regards China’s successful experience and development path, it is neither our original intention nor a pursuing goal of ours to replace "Washington Consensus" with "Beijing consensus."

The "Stage View" believes that China’s model possesses the universal characters of “countries in the transitional stage." Thus, as China further integrates into the international mainstream, the so-called China model will wither away. Some international public opinions believe that China’s successful disaster relief for the Wenchuan earthquake, its successful hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games, and the outstanding performance in the financial crisis, are not a sufficient basis to say that China’s current social system is superior to the West. Rather, it explains that the political operation way inherited from the planning system is in essence a model for responding to crises, and that from a long-term perspective, the “institutional advantage” that China possesses is very likely a disadvantage. Another foreign public opinion believes that, from a global perspective, China’s development achievements are quite amazing, but it also has many problems. Compared with developed countries, China is merely at a different developmental stage. It is obvious that the "Stage View" is essentially taking "modernization" as "Westernization," and globalization and world historic development as a homogeneous movement, rather than multiple interactions of different historic traces. This is obviously contrary to the facts.

The "Imbalance View" thinks that China’s development is showing a series of imbalances between the export-oriented system and domestic demand, and between economic growth and environmental protection, so the sustainability of the China model is questionable. In early 2009, Kenneth Rogoff, former IMF chief economist, published the article “Can China Avoid the Crisis?” in France’s Les Echos. In the article he said, "Before the global recession started, the sustainability of China’s economic growth model was already under suspicion. The pollution of the environment is very obvious. Besides, economists estimated that if China’s economy continues to grow at this fast speed, the proportion of China’s economy to the world’s economy will expand to the extent that it will not be able to sustain China’s current level. … A better way is to try to make up for the part that resulted from the decrease in the United States’ demand by increasing China’s own domestic demand, but China’s economic system does not appear to be able to move quickly enough to achieve this transition." There is no doubt that in China, in the process of rapid development, there are some imbalances that may need urgent solutions, but it is clearly unfair to deny the overall balance and sustainability of China’s economy solely because of this.

This "Opposition View" states that China’s development model and the Western development model are fundamentally opposite. In order to explain the rationality and superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics when reviewing the success of China’s development model, some scholars tend to completely deny the social system and political system of certain Western countries. Moreover, regarding the possibility that the United States’ recession could impact the Chinese economy, some say that China’s economy will not be affected at all and growth will continue. This is the so-called "Decoupling View." In fact, if China did not want to learn from a wide range of human civilizations, especially from developed capitalist countries for all their outstanding achievements, then several decades ago China would have had no need to open up, and would not have achieved today’s success or formed today’s development model. Therefore, viewpoints like the “The “Opposition View,” including the "decoupling," "exceptional," and "particular" views are unconvincing.

The "Leadership View" says that as China’s national power continues to grow, it should adapt a new global perception and shoulder the responsibility to lead the world. Some foreign scholars believe that "China has been a follower and has adopted a policy of merely following the crowd. Therefore it has always been in a passive state.” In order to change this situation, "China can learn from the experience of the rise of other great powers." Since the beginning of the financial crisis, as the United States’ economic leadership position and moral influence sharply declined, some have argued that the international community has to have a new leader. China has 2 trillion dollars in United States’ foreign exchange reserves, its economic growth momentum remains strong, and it is willing to bear international responsibilities. Thus, looking at today’s world, there is no second country that can take this leadership role. Therefore, China should take this advantage to achieve its leadership position in this international political and economic change. It could be said that this idea to some extent does reflect today’s world’s high expectations of the increasingly powerful China, but we should also pay attention to the distinction between reasonable responsibility and leadership in international affairs.

Endnote:
[1] Study Times, November 9, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=3039&bid=3

“Right before establishing the New China (the People’s Republic of China), Comrade Mao Zedong used the analogy of “going to Beijing to take a test” to describe our party’s task of governance. He also said, “We will not be Li Zicheng. [2] We hope to do well in the test.” After sixty years, reality has shown that our party has passed the “test” and the people are satisfied with the party. The achievements of passing the “test” and people being satisfied is fundamentally due to the fact that in the work of governing the nation for the people in the past 60 years the party has made great accomplishments with worldwide attention. These accomplishments mainly consist of three aspects.”

“First of all, our party has led people of all ethnic groups to achieve the transformation from the New Democratic Revolution to Socialist Revolution and Development, from a highly concentrated planned economic system to a dynamic socialist market economic system, and from being completely closed or semi-closed, to fully opening up to the outside world in all domains. We have established a basic socialist system and the guiding role of Marxism in ideology. Through difficult explorations in the practices of the reform and opening up, we have found the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, formed the theoretical system of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and have continuously consolidated, developed, and perfected our socialist system. The establishment of the basic socialist system and the exploring of the socialist path with Chinese characteristics have built a fundamental political premise and institutional base for current China’s development and progress, pioneered an extremely broad, bright, and beautiful prospect for Chinese people, and empowered the Chinese people with unprecedented vitality.

Secondly, on top of an old China of destitution, our party has led the people of all ethnic groups in the whole nation to rely on ourselves to fight through hardships. We have conquered countless difficulties and gradually established an independent and comprehensive industrial system and national economic system. Since the reform and opening up, we have creatively established a socialist market economy, with social productivity growing rapidly. The overall economy has jumped to among the top in the world and the production of the key industrial and agricultural products are also among the top in the world. Our comprehensive national power has been significantly uplifted and people’s living conditions are moving toward the goal of Xiaokang. [3]

“Thirdly, our party has led people of all ethnic groups to insist on safeguarding the sovereignty, unity, and security of the nation. We completely eliminated all the privileges that the imperialist powers were entitled to in China, turned over the humiliating page of history when any country in the world could trample China, and ended the situation that China was divided into pieces. We defeated the foreign forces’ attempts at isolating, blocking, intervening, and provoking our country. We were able to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao, and are successfully maintaining their prosperity and stability. We pursue a foreign policy of independence and peace, insist on walking a path of peaceful development, and insist on an opening-up strategy that promotes win-win situations. We are firmly against hegemonism and power politics and try our best to maintain global peace and promote the joint development of the nations. Our nation’s global position and international influence have been significantly uplifted, and we are playing a more and more important role in international affairs. The national renaissance pursued by Chinese people for the past one hundred years is coming true under the leadership of the CCP.”

“These 60 years since the establishment of the New China have been the 60 years when, under the leadership of the CCP, people of all ethnic groups in the entire country have worked tirelessly to achieve the nation being prosperous and the people being happy and wealthy. These 60 years have been the 60 years when our nation has achieved great accomplishments in socialist, economic, political, cultural, and societal buildup. These 60 years have been the 60 years when our nation and people’s material and cultural lives have experienced historical changes.” “In these 60 years, (the CCP) has withstood a series of difficulties and risks in politics, the economy, and the natural environment, as well as international challenges. The CCP is leading the people in writing a brilliant chapter in the history of development of the Chinese people and the history of human progress. The CCP deserves to be called a great Marxist ruling party.”

I. The Main Characteristics of the CCP’s Development over the Past 60 Years
In the 60 years that our party has been in power, it has continually strengthened and improved the buildup of the party according to the changes in the historical tasks that the party bears. It has shown several characteristics.
…
i. Scientifically judging and precisely controlling the historic position; strengthening and improving the party’s buildup while achieving the two main transitions. With the establishment of the New China, our party changed from one that led the people to fight to seize power to a ruling party that led the people to achieve the transformation from the New-Democratic Revolution into Socialist Revolution and Development. After the party’s Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, our party began to change from a ruling party that was leading the country’s development while being blocked by outside forces and was employing a planned economy, into a ruling party that leads the country’s development while opening to the outside and implementing a socialist market economy. History and reality both show that the party’s development was much more complex after the party took power and became the ruling party, than before the party became the ruling party; the party’s development has been much more complex since we opened up to the to outside and began to practice a socialist market economy, than the party’s development was during the period of closed and semi-closed conditions under a planned economy. These two major transitions required the entire party to change correspondingly in ideology, organization, working style, leadership system, and ruling methods, in order to accommodate the new situations and tasks.
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ii. Combine advancing the great projects that the party leads and advancing the great project of party buildup, strengthen and improve the party’s development while carrying out the historic mission of governance for the people and for the prosperity of the country. In the past 60 years, our party has integrated the work of changing the external world with the work of changing the subjective world. On one hand we advance the party’s development by advancing the great projects led by the party, and on the other hand, we advance the great projects that the party leads by strengthening and improving the party’s development. The party has been constantly improving its governance capability and the abilities of resisting corruption and decay, making itself a strong core leader of the socialist cause.
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iii. Profoundly summarize and apply positive and negative lessons learned both nationally and globally; strengthen and improve the party’s development while holding onto the truth and correcting mistakes. It was a very difficult and complicated task to develop socialism in a large Oriental country like China, where the economy and culture were backward, and regional development was very imbalanced. It is inevitable that twists and mistakes occurred in the process of development. What is important is that our party is good at learning from mistakes and is able to use our own power and people’s support to hold onto the truth and correct the mistakes. The party has the courage to self criticize and can publicly correct all kinds of mistakes and shortcomings. Through summarizing and self-examination, the party’s ruling ability can improve and the work of the party and the people can progress.
…
In the past 60 years, our party has also attached great importance to summarizing and learning from foreign ruling parties’ lessons. In February of 1956, in the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Stalin was completely negated. This had shocking consequences in the socialist countries and soon after, there were incidents in Poland and Hungary. The imperialist countries seized this chance and started the waves of anti-Soviet Union and anti-socialism. Our party learned historic lessons from the communist parties in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. In our party’s Eighth National Congress, we emphasized adhering to the principle of the party’s collective leadership, perfected the party’s Democratic Centralism, strengthened the supervision of the party’s organizations and party members, developed intra-party democracy, and opposed personal cults. These important ideas were crucial at the time and are crucial in the long term for strengthening party development. In February of 1957, at the Supreme State Conference, Comrade Mao Zedong gave a speech titled, “Correct Handling of Internal Conflicts of the People.” He summarized the historic experiences of the development of the socialist cause, and put forth the theory of strictly differentiating conflicts of two different natures and correctly handling the internal conflicts among the people. [4] At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, dramatic changes took place in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Global socialism suffered great setbacks. Our party learned lessons from the demise of the party in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. We also scientifically summarized the lessons learned from other major parties that had lost power after ruling for decades. From these we have gained and borrowed good experiences to warn ourselves, improve ourselves, and perfect ourselves.

II. Major Accomplishments in Our Party’s Development over the Past 60 Years
In the past 60 years after establishing the new China, our party, as a ruling party, has always continuously strengthened and improved our party’s development. It has made significant accomplishments in all of the following aspects.

(1) Regarding the party’s Political Direction

In the past 60 years, our party has made unremitting efforts to determine and implement correct political base lines. … “The development and evolution of our party’s sixty years’ political direction have demonstrated that whether the political direction is correct or not has a direct impact on the causes of our party, our country and the people. The political base line is the life-line of our party’s entire activities. The foremost task of the party’s development is to define and insist on a correct political base line.”

(2) Regarding the Party’s Guiding Theories

… “Ever since the 16th National Congress of the CCP, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, headed by Comrade Hu Jintao, has persisted in following the important principles of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the “Three Represents” as the guiding ideology, continued to make breakthroughs in theory and practice, and pooled together the wisdom of all party members to propose major strategic ideologies, such as the Concept of Scientific Development. This socialist theory system with Chinese characteristics, which includes Deng Xiaoping’s Theory, the “Three Represents,” and the Concept of Scientific Development, adhere to and further develop Marxism, Leninism, and Mao’s Theory. It is the latest achievement in adapting Marxism to China’s situation. In the theoretical and political aspects, the formation of this scientific theory system is our party’s most significant accomplishment in the past 60 years.

 (3) Regarding the Development of the Party’s Cadre Team

… “In 1964, Comrade Mao Zedong raised the issue of fostering and forging successors for the revolutionary cause. Based on this, the Department of Organization of the Central Committee of the CCP proposed four measures for training and promoting new people. First, send young, educated, and outstanding cadres to the grass-roots level for training; second, send cadres with insufficient theoretical understanding but promising potential to different levels of the Communist Party schools to study; third, help cadres from workers and peasants who are not well educated to improve their education; fourth, party leaders make efforts to train successors by teaching, helping and guiding them. … In the past 60 years, our party, at different historic stages, has trained a cadre team that was, in general, capable of undertaking the tasks required by the situation at that particular historic stage, and has trained a large number of talented leaders to be good at governing the party and the country, as well as commanding the army. This is the key determining factor, which has helped our party to achieve great accomplishments in governance over a long period of time.

(4) Regarding Development of the Party’s Grass-roots Organizations

Emphasizing the development of our party’s grass-roots organizations is an organizational advantage of our party…. In the early 1960s, the Central Committee of the CCP created regulations for the party’s organizational work in three areas – the countryside, and industrial and commercial enterprises. The development of the party’s grass-roots organizations have thus become systemized and standardized. After the implementation of the “reform and opening up policy,” in addressing the new situations and problems arising in the grass-roots organizations, the Central Committee created a guiding policy and measures to comprehensively improve development in the countryside, enterprises, urban communities and organizations, schools, and new economic and social organizations. In the past 60 years, our party has been able to sustain its ruling authority stably over a long period of time, and complete its mission as a ruling party at different historic stages. This is largely attributed to the continual improvement in the development of grass-roots organizations, to the grass-root organizations acting as fortresses, and to the multitude of party members acting like role models in different front lines.
 
(5) Regarding the Development of the Party’s Working Style

During the revolutionary war time, our party formed three major working styles – theories to be connected with practice, a close relationship with the people, and criticism and self-criticism. They became the resource of power and the magical weapons to conquer the enemy. These are our party’s precious assets as a governing party. The practice in the past 60 years has proven that the party’s working style has an impact on the party’s image and on popular support for the party, which, in turn, has an impact on the livelihood of the party. It is a lasting and important task for the development of our party as a ruling party over a long period of time to enhance the development of the party’s working style with emphasis on maintaining a close connection with the people.

(6) Regarding the Development of the Party’s System

A (good) system is the guarantee of the long-term stability of the party and the country, because the system has the nature of being fundamental, comprehensive, stable, and enduring.… We have established the fundamental political system, including the People’s Democratic Dictatorship, the People’s Congress system, the CCP-led multi-party collaboration and political consultative system, and the ethnic autonomous region system.
…

III. The Inspiration from the 60 Years of Practical Experience of Party Development

In light of the great journey our party and country have taken over the past 60 years since the founding of the new China, we can draw many great inspirations from the practices during the party’s development.

First, we must adhere to combining the fundamental principles of Marxism and the specific characteristics of China during a specific historic period, and firmly walk on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. 

The socialist path with China’s own characteristics is a path under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, based on the specific circumstances of our country. It is a path centering around economic development, adhering to the four fundamental principles, and the reform and opening up policy. It is a path of liberating and developing social productivity and reinforcing and perfecting the socialist system. It is also a path of developing a socialist market economy, socialist democratic politics, socialist advanced culture, a socialist harmonious society, and a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modernized country.

The most important thing in holding onto the socialist path with Chinese characteristics is to… combine the adhering to the four fundamental principles with the reform and opening up policy. The four fundamental principles are the foundation of our country, and the political cornerstone of our party and our country’s survival and development; reform and opening up is the path to a prosperous country, and is the energy source for the development of our party and our country.

Secondly, we must make sure the party’s focal task is, especially, to develop our party as a governing party so as to rejuvenate the country. One must make sure this is the foremost priority when building up our party. One must also ensure the party’s development is always meant to serve social and economic development. The party’s development has always been closely tied to and for the realization of the party’s central task.

Thirdly, we must hold onto our fundamental mission, direction, and goal of developing the party. That is, the party is for the public and for the people. It is for safeguarding and maximizing the people’s fundamental interests. We must keep a close relationship with the people. The principal mission for the party is to serve the people whole-heartedly. This is the fundamental distinction between our party and other political parties.

Fourthly, we must hold onto and perfect the Democratic Centralism system, develop inner-party democracy, maintain the authority of the Central Committee, and continuously invigorate the party and bring it under unity. Democratic Centralism is the basic organizational system and leadership system of the party. … The 60 years’ history has proven that in order to adhere to and improve Democratic Centralism, on one hand, we must fully promote inner-party democracy by respecting the dominant position of massive party members and ensuring their democratic rights stipulated by the charter; on the other hand, we must firmly maintain the authority of the Central Committee and safeguard the unity of our party.

Finally, we must take the development of the party’s governance and its advanced nature as the main theme. Reform and renovation being the driving force, we need to further advance the ideological, organizational, working style system, and anti-corruption development, so as to improve the development of the party holistically. The advanced nature of the party is the inherent nature of a Marxist political party; it is also where the life and the power of our party lie. When our party is the ruling party, the advanced nature is manifested in our governing activities.

Endnotes:
[1] The website of Study Times, September 28, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=2937&bid=1
[2] Li Zicheng was one of the major figures in the rebellion that brought down the Ming Dynasty of China. He was declared Emperor of the Shun Dynasty in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in January 1644. However his empire lasted for less than a year. He was killed in 1645.
[3] Xiaokang is a term from ancient Chinese literature. The current Chinese government uses this word to refer to a society with various socioeconomic characteristics, one major measure being that people are moderately well-off, with, a per capita GDP of over 3,000 US dollars.
[4] The term “conflicts of two different natures” often appears in Chinese communist literature. One type of conflict is internal to the people and thus not subject to the “Proletariat Dictatorship,” the other being the conflicts between the people and the enemy, in which the enemy is subject to the “Proletariat Dictatorship.”