国内英语资讯:Enter the Dragon: Xi Jinpings opening address to B&R forum_时事

国内英语资讯:Enter the Dragon: Xi Jinpings opening address to B&R forum

BEIJING, May 14 -- In his opening address to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of the need for harmonious coexistence.

The issue, he said, that presses him most about the modern world is that there is a "deficit" in peace, development and governance which he describes as "a daunting challenge" for humanity.

At important junctures such as this, it serves us well to reflect on how we got here before we think about how to move forward. It is no secret that Western prosperity was built on conflict, plunder, slavery, and war. The result? Conflict, disagreement, and a sense of entitlement.

The prosperity of developed nations, which is celebrated as a characteristic of their "advancement," was built on militarism and colonization. The greed and self-serving agendas of many of today's developed nations have left them as broken societies, fighting among themselves over the most trivial of things.

They are, to paraphrase a Chinese proverb, a group of dragons without a leader. They were, for brief interludes, the greatest dragons of their time, but only because, like Tolkien's Smaug, they descended upon their target countries -- continents, even -- in flames, reaping vast hoards of treasure to use for their own lavish self-interest.

Today, another dragon rising. A dragon that, according to Wang Yiwei, professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, has no interest in driving out the peoples or cultures of the nations it interacts with. This dragon comes to lead, not to conquer.