Op-Ed Contributors

Globalization is not equal to national interest

By Martin Albrow (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-01 07:52

Perhaps the first lesson is that globalization does not in itself provide a national role or mission and cannot be equated with the national interest. And this applies to the most powerful country, even to a hegemonic world power like the US that has failed to understand that globalization is not Americanization. As early as the 19th century, American national poet Walt Whitman called America the "globe of globes".

Fortunately China is prepared by its history to resist the temptation to see the globe in the national image. Always the Middle Kingdom, it has never aspired to rule the world. And the philosophy of the "middle way", a pragmatism that avoids extremes, can serve it well in treating globalization for what it is: a process of social change like any other to be managed to the advantage of a country's citizens and for the welfare of humankind. The more testing challenges for the future will be how China defines its role on global issues. The world awaits its responses with growing anticipation.

The author is a senior visiting fellow at LSE Global Governance and emeritus professor of the University of Wales.

(China Daily 07/01/2010 page9)