PROMOTE NEW TYPE OF PARTY-TO-PARTY RELATIONS IN LINE WITH BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH SHARED FUTURE FOR MANKIND

ZHENG CHANGZHONG

Director of Center for Party Building and State Development Studies, Fudan University

Between November 30 and December 3, 2017, the CPC in Dialogue with the World Political Parties High-Level Meeting was held in Beijing, themed “Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind and Creating a Better World: the Responsibility of Political Parties”. General Secretary Xi Jinping and participating leaders took group photos ahead of the opening ceremony.

Between November 30 and December 3, 2017, the CPC in Dialogue with the World Political Parties High-Level Meeting was held in Beijing, themed “Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind and Creating a Better World: the Responsibility of Political Parties”. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Communist Party of China made a keynote speech at its Opening Ceremony, in which he expounded further on the connotation and thinking of building a community with a shared future for mankind, proposing to establish on top of a new type of international relations a new type of party-to-party relations featuring seeking common ground while shelving differences, mutual respect and mutual learning so as to rally great forces for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Not only will building a new type of party-to-party relations have important bearings on political parties themselves, it will also inject new dynamics for building a new type of international relations.

Concept of Community with Shared Future for Mankind Becomes Point of Departure for Building New Type of International Relations

Traditional international relations are based on nation-states, taking government diplomacy for mainstay, reaching consensus or balance though rigid, direct contest for interest and forming the international system. Such an international system features typical Western characteristics, being an extended version of state-to-state relations in Europe since the beginning of modern times.Subjectively, the point of departure of such a system is to secure a country’s own national interest, behind which there is the logic of contract built on individual interest on the basis of Western values. Such a Western logic has made great contributions to the development of modern states and modern civilization, even though accompanied by numerous war havocs.

To date, such a system remains the foundation for the construction of basic order between states, from which comprehensive international mechanisms and international organizations have derived. However, it is precisely because of its logical point of departure being a country’s own interest that when the United States cannot realize its own interest in the existing system, it tries to reconstruct the system.

In spite its contributions, the Western type of international system has obvious shortcomings. For one, both of the world wars are the outbreak of accumulated energy from the defects. For another, the balance based on nuclear deterrence is clearly fragile. The history will not end there. As people are thinking if there are other alternatives to make up for the shortcomings, China has come up with the concept of paradigm of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which may serve as a new logical point of departure for reshaping international relations.For the arrangement of interest relationship among countries, it has in view the overall development of mankind and global development and entertains a typical Chinese logic, namely the logic of collectivism.

There reside within construction of any communities tensile forces between individual development and collective development, arrangements of which,proceeding either from individuals or the whole, are decided by value options and interests between individualism and collectivism. The change in values guided by the community with a shared value for mankind embodies the logic of socialism and communism and even more so a Chinese traditional concept,namely one should pursue both righteousness and interest but give priority to righteousness. In handling international relations, if one can change from taking sole consideration of one’s own profit and loss and subjecting the weak to power politics to regarding the overall development of mankind and win-win situation between countries as the basis for actions depends on if the change in basic logics can be realized.

Today, with the coming into being of internet society and the intensification of defects of globalization, no country can free its destiny from the limits of changing of the whole. It is necessary to make change on the overall paradigm. It is necessary for such a logical paradigm shift to have an initiator. On political level, China is the initiator for the proposition of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which has been put into practice in China, become the concept and guideline of China’s foreign policy and been taken for China’s important responsibility for common destiny of mankind as the country has reached a certain stage of development. To give priority to righteousness does not mean that one should give up interest but to make sure both parties are benefitted, which alone stands for righteousness. As such, it is necessary to respect special conditions and interest of all countries. Ultimately,it is an important choice that also fits China’s own interest.

Political Parties as Organizing Forces for Building Consensus on Community with Shared Future for Mankind

The 10th U.S.-China Political Party Leaders Dialogue was held on 4-5 December 2017, Beijing.

With China putting forward the proposition of building a community with a shared future for mankind, a question follows that this change involves iteration of a series of issues such as paradigm shift, shift on logical point of departure and shift on content arrangements, which makes it difficult for the outside world to accurately understand the meaning behind such a change and its iterating shifts.

Human behaviors always go by certain path dependence. The logic of the whole set of existing international relations has come about from practice and operation for centuries. Evidently, it is difficult for people to reconsider and understand a new logical paradigm.Therefore, it is necessary for communicating on concepts and building consensus on thinking to have the support of corresponding mechanisms.

In fact, the concept of transcending international relations based on national governments has been put forward against the backdrop of global governance, not being initiated by China. However the forces beyond governments as emphasized by global governance are referred more to international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), whereas political parties remain regarded as functioning only within countries. However, such a concept of global governance is still based on the Western logic of separation between state and society. The situation calls for a new consensus building mechanism that functions both for state and society, as can be clearly seen in China, such mechanism being political parties.

Political parties, so called, are political organizations with inherent interest in securing or participating in government, playing the role of linking state and society. In developing countries,political parties concurrently have the function of building the state and constructing the society. By organizing public opinions and influencing popular will, political parties become institutional mechanisms and organizational vehicles, acquiring greater flexibility and influence than ordinary NGOs.Governmental diplomacy is rigid, as there is only one government for every country, whereas political parties are plural, leaving more extensive space for consultation and dialogue.

It is precisely such consultation and dialogue function of political parties that serves the purpose of continued consensus building in the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind. If the international exchange based on nation-states in the past can be called a “vascular system”,then political party cooperation, political party network in the future may become “channel and collateral system”(as in traditional Chinese medical science). Unlike the former with clear interest to be seen between countries,the latter seems shapeless but is able to reach consensus with potential function for reconstructing the whole constitution.

For future international relations,it is more necessary to communicate rather than directly contest for interest.Contest for interest is of cause important, but precedent communication on philosophical level is equally important.As such, party diplomacy will become important complement for diplomacy between governments. Only by allowing the full play of the role of political parties in consultation and dialogue in the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind can more results be achieved in reaching consensus.

High-Level Meeting Marks Coming about of New Formation of Partyto Party Relations

A new type of party-to-party relations as a new mechanism for building a community with a shared future for mankind includes party-to-party dialogue and political party network,giving political parties a new function, namely going global in addition to domestic politics. By going global,political parties go beyond traditional forms of party-to-party cooperation that are either ideological or regional based,resulting in a new type of political party organizational network and marking the coming about of a new formation of party-to-party relations. If the high-level meeting this time around can be institutionalized in the future as a fixed dialogue mechanism to be held on regular basis, it will give rise to a new space of party-to-party relations and a new network for cooperation. It will innovate in an all-round way on traditional partyto-party relations, resulting in a new formation of party-to-party relations, which keeps in view the overall development of mankind rather than special interest based on ideology or regional interest.

In regard to conditions of world political parties, in the Western countries there are signs that the political parties are moving towards decline. Does it mean the decline of political parties for good or the beginning of political party transformation? There are two major functions for political parties:the first is to produce political program or platform and the second, to conduct political mobilization and social reorganization. Under the circumstances of industrialization, such functions need to be fulfilled by relying on the forces of political parties, so as to achieve interaction between state and society where political parties have become the core forces of modern politics.

However, with popularized application of the internet and approaching cyber society, the functions carried by political parties have begun to be gradually replaced by other forces. For instance, the function of putting forward political platform can be fulfilled by think tanks, the media and individual citizens, just like the political platform of Mr. Donald Trump running for US President was put forward by his campaign team. The function of political parties for social mobilization may be replaced in the main by two forces. One is the internet, which has become an important instrumental force in social mobilization and social reorganization.Failing to realize transformation and to adapt to change on the mode of people’s socialization, traditional political parties will necessarily decline, as many politi-cal parties in Europe are suffering from the great impact of the internet. The other is social organizations and NGOs.In fact, many political parties were NGOs to begin with. NGOs have great flexibility and capacity for adapting to new changes whereas it is difficult for old and grand parties to undergo transformation.

As such the most important functions of political parties are being replaced and deconstructed, which is the underlying cause for the signs of decline of political parties. It will lead to increasing fragmentation of Western society and such social conditions play into the hand of rising populism. It is worth noting that the continued development of populism as a deconstructing force and the continued decline and iteration of political parties by emerging forces can only lead to further fragmentation of Western society which is based on emphasis on individualism. If the political party system is over fragmentized and when polarization of multi-party system crops up, the state system as a whole may collapse.

The only irreplaceable parties are ones like the CPC, since its mission is to construct the whole constitution rather than function just to express interest.Neither is it an electioneering machine like political parties in the West. If a political party exists only as a force for contest, it will surely be replaced by other forces for contest, whereas the CPC achieves the integration of national construction and social construction by a unified party system.

If after this round of high-level meeting, political parties come out of domestic politics, go global and play their role in the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind, then such a new mechanism may rescue political parties in the West from decline.Because only political parties have both the function to link state and society on domestic level and that to relate to other countries on international level.All else, be it the internet, think tanks or NGOs, can function both ways. When political parties have multiple functions,its value cannot be replaced. Once the political party mechanism for building a community with a shared future for mankind comes into being, it will mean a new political function for political parties is in place and thereby political parties will be saved from the horns of a dilemma of moving toward domestic decline.

party diplomacy will become important complement for diplomacy between governments.

To come back to the issue of internal building of political parties, transcendental development does not equal to an alternative change. The issues that need to be dealt with by political parties in the first place remain at the issue, the creation of new mechanism only producing a new function for political parties. Therefore, issues concerning selfdevelopment of political parties such as connecting to the general public and fighting corruption still need to be handled by concerned parties themselves whereas the creation of the new mechanism will help political parties to compare notes with one another. If political parties fail to deal with issues relating to their own development, they will necessarily be replaced by emerging parties.Although the new mechanism created by this round of high-level meeting can rescue political parties from decline in general, it cannot rescue concrete, individual parties.

Institutionalized Party-to-Party Dialogue Helps China Moving toward Outside World

In determining whether consensus can or cannot be built internationally on the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind and whether it can or cannot be accepted by more and more countries, the form of party dialogue meeting is crucial. Not only does the high-level meeting this time around contribute to the concept and paradigm development of building a community with a shared future for mankind, it will also directly serve China in building bilateral community of shared destiny with other countries.During his visits overseas, General Secretary Xi Jinping has time and again proposed to build a community of shared destiny with concerned countries, which helps construct bilateral ties, namely to achieve logic and paradigm shift in bilateral ties through the acceptance of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.

In order to do this work well, it is necessary in the first place to do a good job at party-to-party communication and exchange. It is necessary for the CPC to help build such international influence,advancing the construction of dialogue mechanisms including high-level meeting and multi-level and multi-platform dialogues. In so doing, it is necessary to allow the full play to forces of various quarters like people’s organizations in the country, local party organizations,educational and research institutions so as to create a new pattern of omnibearing diplomacy.

The high-level meeting this time around also influences China’s domestic development in several aspects. First,it will help use the forces of political parties to reorganize resources for international relations. Second, it effectively promotes various types of domestic players centering on the platform of the high-level meeting to “go global”.Unlike the platforms for “going global”built by the government in the past, the mechanisms created by the high-level meeting are more flexible and can play greater role. Third, it will help promote the transformation and development of Party organizations, people’s organizations, social organizations, state-owned enterprises, workers for the Party and people’s organization, adapting to the requirement of internationalization and development of the times and enhancing in an all-round way their own capacities.