The US senior China expert Michael Pillsbury published a new book recently, The Hundred-Year Marathon. In this book, he said that he was "aware" of China's long-term strategy: introducing Western technology first, developing a strong economy, and finally replacing the United States as the world's superpower.

It should be said that China is indeed running a one hundred year marathon - a democracy-building and national rejuvenation process that began last century. After any number of difficulties and setbacks, China successfully ejected the invading powers, achieved national independence, adopted its policy of reform and opening-up to the outside world, and engaged in international cooperation.

Today, China has become a moderately prosperous society, and is developing into an emerging world power.

In the process of reform and opening up, promotion of institutional advancement, and improvement of human rights and democracy, China has made progress along with many other countries. Most of them, like China, have dreams of achieving national development and world progress. In this process, China publicly put forward its explicit ideas for international cooperation.

In the era of globalization, the means of production were optimized, which allowed effective cooperation between China's labor resources and Western capital and technology. To a certain extent, China's development strategy has created a successful model for other Asia-Pacific countries and regions.

By introducing advanced foreign technology, China has begun to innovate in such areas as high-speed rail, aerospace and communications. It has also begun to export capital abroad and seek win-win cooperation with the rest of the world.

The core idea of Pillsbury's 'Hundred-Year Marathon' is that China plans "to replace the US as the world's superpower", but the fact is that the Chinese government has never had any such strategy or aspiration.

We are convinced that however powerful it might become, China will never engage in illegal acts such as violating the sovereignty of other countries without UN authorization. China is willing to be a power that makes a strong contribution to maintaining world peace, but is also willing to work with the United States and the rest of the world to live in peace. It has no intention of replacing the United States.

The author is Shen Dingli, a professor and associate dean at the Institute of International Studies of Shanghai-based Fudan University. 

This article was edited and translated from 《取代美国？中国没工夫想这事》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition