NewsChina: In your book, you say, “The road (to China’s rise) will not necessarily be bloodless.” You also write, “We should even organize our national strength through mobilizing for war, to secure our rise and to fight for it to the last drop of our blood.” Does that mean you are advocating war?
Mo Luo: Of course I support war, when it is necessary. Sometimes, problems between countries have to be solved by war. If I were an Iraqi, I would definitely support the war against America when they invaded Iraq.
NewsChina: But in the past, you criticized the power of the government. Don’t you worry that if the power of the government over-expands while mobilizing for war, it will harm people’s individual rights?
Mo Luo: We will talk about it when it happens.
NewsChina: Why? Mo Luo: Let’s say, when the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s, should we not have answered the call for war ordered by Chiang Kai-shek?
NewsChina: That’s when the Chinese were fighting against aggression though, right? But what if it’s not about fighting against foreign aggression?
Mo Luo: I don’t worry about that. China has been in a weak position and it still is. If China becomes a strong country, its national characteristics are still different from those of Westerners’. Many Western scholars, for example, acknowledge that China has never taken the initiative to launch war against other countries.
NewsChina: You also said Western academics have created a stereotype from the apparently innate weakness of certain Chinese characteristics, leading them to believe that China is more violent than other countries.
Mo Luo: Yes, they said that. The West has more than one voice.
NewsChina: One of your opinions is that the “free market economy” is a trap deliberately designed by Western colonialists to facilitate their expansion and robbery of other nations. But today, China has gradually adopted a market economy, and the economy is becoming ever more integrated into the global economy. If you think it’s a trap, does it need to escape?
Mo Luo: Westerners already control the whole world with this system. If you want to develop, you can’t escape the system. Therefore, Deng Xiaoping chose to cooperate with this system. Zhu Rongji (former Chinese premier) chose to join the WTO. But as we join the system to play with them, we should be aware that this system ultimately serves their interests, and not ours. We are marginalized in this system. We should know where our interests lie, and how to protect our interests. There is no morality in international relations, only interests.
NewsChina: But are there rules?
Mo Luo: The rules today were made by them. We didn’t participate in making these rules. On the one hand, we follow the rules to develop our own strength. On the other hand, we should prepare to change the rules so that they are fair to everyone.
NewsChina: You say in your book that “The human history is a history of colonization.” What then, do you think the next 100 or so years of human history will entail?
Mo Luo: I think today, with increasing international communication and economic integration, there will probably be an increased level of political integration, and in the future a world government will probably appear.
NewsChina: Do you think China will lead this process?
Mo Luo: Quite possibly. I can be sure that it will definitely not be the West. The West is declining now, and the balance of power is changing. The West won’t catch up with this process. Given that the West will still be relatively strong for another 100 years, I don’t think such a political integration will take place in our lifetime.
NewsChina: What are your core values today?
Mo Luo: I hope people in every corner of the world can have a reasonable portion of the world’s resources, and live a decent life, rather than the current system that sees a few nations controlling virtually everything.
April 2010