Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
 
It is my great pleasure and honor to attend Third China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium. On behalf of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), I would like to convey my warm welcome to and heartfelt congratulations on our Chinese and Nordic states colleagues. Thanks foryour great effort.
 
Perhaps I am the only one in this room who knows little about Arctic stuff. My very limited knowledge of Arctic area is largely given by my SIIS colleagues, who from time to time tired to update me about how Arctic oscillation in recent years directly influences China’s natural environment and how the shipping lanes and development of relevant institutions have affect China’s trade and shipping interests.
 
However you must agree with me the research of Arctic area and its governance has moved from the peripheryto the quite center of academic and strategic studies in China in less than ten years. Think thanks in China like SIIS and Polar ResearchInstitute of China, as well as number of prestigious Chinese universities, like Tong Ji University, Jiao Tong University and Ocean University, etc., have all set up programs and task forces on Artic studies, carrying out various international exchanges and producing bigliterature of academic works and policy-oriented reports, making government officials and general public moreknowledgeable about the Arctic area.
 
Growing attention to Arctic governance by both Chinese governments as well as general public is just one part of big picture of China’s ever expanding and active engagement of the world affairs and global governance. I will Just take SIIS again as an example, just in the May this year, we have held another four international conferences, covering wide spectrum of topics from the Middle East, to Global Economic Governance like AIIB and BRICS’ New Development Bank, from US-China relations, to Asia regional securityArchitecture, from conventional geo-strategic relations between Russia and the Europe and US to non-traditional security threats. All those topics that Chinese Think Tanks are followingare closely related to and on higher agenda of China’s broad diplomatic picture today.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Based myhumble observation, for China’s Diplomacy since the second decade of new Millennium, a new normal has been ushered in. This new normal is manifested in four dimensions:
 
First and foremost, China has stepped into the center of global arena. Whether we aware it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we are prepared or not, China has to, or been expected to play a major role, and sometimes key role on global stage. China as whole is adapting to this ongoing transformation. The rest of international community is also adjusting to China’s new role, including its new vision and mission as well as its new mode of behavior. This mutual adaptation, for good or bad,largely defines the new relationship between China and the rest of world in the years ahead.
 
Second, China’s diplomacy is undergoing significant change. Among them, proactivity is the most prominent feature. China is more engaged with the global affairs than in the past by, for instance, initiating more reform roadmapsand action plans to improve the efficacy of existing international institutions, proposing more workable solutions to the regional and global disputes, providing more substantial assistance, both financial and human resources to the endeavor of global poverty reduction and international peace keeping.
 
Innovative thinking is another key feature of China’s new diplomacy. In the past few years, Chinese government has initiated a number of new diplomatic concepts, including“New Type of Major Power Relationship”, “The Belt and Road Initiative”, “New Type of International Relations”, etc. The objective of those new thinking is to manage some of the key challenges facing China’s foreign policy today, among them, to go beyond “Thucydides Trap” with established powers, and to mitigate the rising “security dilemma” with some of neighboring countries, and to promote a win-win cooperation with the members of international community.
 
Third, China’s diplomatic agenda has attached greater importance to global governance. Today, those challenges posed by geopolitical and civilization conflicts, financial and economic crises, food and water safety, energy security, environmental degradation, climate change and global immigration are put into sharp relief. The fast pace of change is so dazzling that the world is becoming “a global village” with complexproblems multiplying and crossing geographical boundaries, sectors and space. No country can handle those global issues single-handedly. We are witnessing financial and economic crises, terrorist attacks, energy security and infectious diseasesone after another. Even natural disasters seem to get more severe and frequent. As China has grown to be a global power riding waves of globalization in the last few decades, global governance has coalesced into an issue gaining attraction from top leaders down to man-on-the-street.
 
Meanwhile, as the world moves from “governance by the west” to “co-governance by both the west and east”, the inherent deficiency in current global governance architecture becomes obvious to all of us.The deficit of leadership and shortage of global public goods pose both the opportunity and challenges for China to play a more significant role in global governance at this critical juncture. This has come to my fourth point.
 
Fourth, China’s diplomatic effort in global governance focuses onthe synthesis of reform, inclusiveness and collaboration.No. 1, China’s global governance policy should leverage the mutual enforcement by reforming the existing international institutions and tapping the potential of new multilateral mechanisms.Safeguarding global governance system while improving it through forward-looking reforms shall be China’s priority in foreign policy as well as for the international community.No.2, China’s successful story of domestic governance and development policy based upon more than 30 odd years of reform and opening-up provides rich resources for improving the global governance. No.3 empowerment of the individuals and NGOsin today’s global information age will make the synergies of states and non-state actors more indispensable for efficient global governance. China is still on the learning curve in this regard but has to pay greater attention to it.The last but not least, building global partnerships network with a win-win approach through cooperation while trying to construct new type of big power relation between China and the US.
 
Distinguished colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
Arctic governance is part and parcel of global governance. Good Artic governance will not only help safeguard the environment, natural resources and aboriginals’ way of life of this area, but also laid down the foundation for a sustainable development of all human being. Arctic governance is manifested by its multiple-disciplinary, multiple-actors/stakeholders andmultifacetedfeatures. Therefore, the synergy is a must. We are very happy to see that The China-Nordic Research Center (CNARC), since its launching, has been playing an important and active role in the Arctic Governance’s networking, providing a platform for academic cooperation, understanding and knowledge of Arctic, and to promote cooperation for sustainable development of the Nordic Arctic and coherent development of China in a global context.
 
My colleagues and I are very honored the SIIS is the part of this network. We will definitely continue to commit ourselves to this dynamic process. Finally, I wish you all a pleasant stay in SH and wish a fruitful and stimulating discussion of the symposium. Thanks.

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