Chinese think-tank asked to handle a delicate challenge

The last challenge is societal: growing income disparities causing social discontent and threatening social stability.

Internationally, the strategy for building communities of interests involves identifying common interests and then building cooperation and interdependence in these areas.

Thus, in the case of the U.S., the think-tank is hoping to work on new areas of complementarity — for example, combining U.S. innovations with Chinese investments. It is with this in mind that the China-U.S. Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation was held last year. As a measure of the seriousness with which Beijing is taking this, Premier Wen met the U.S. delegates to the forum while Vice-Premier Li Keqiang spoke at it.

With China's neighbor and rival, Japan, Mr Wu said that Beijing would seek cooperation on energy efficiency, clean energy and the environment. This would involve technology transfer, but Tokyo would have an incentive to participate in such transfers as Beijing's failure to tackle pollution would also adversely affect Japan. Mr Wu also identified finance as another area for cooperation with Tokyo, possibly in developing an Asian currency unit.

With South-east Asia, Mr Wu suggested the possibility of setting up a fund to build infrastructure — roads, railways, ports and airports, telecommunications — to provide impetus for growth. This is not a new idea. China last year proposed such a fund to the tune of US$10 billion.

To reduce friction from the competition for resources, such as in Africa, China is already looking at cooperation with France for exploitation of resources on the continent.

China has been criticized in recent years for not being proactive enough in taking on a role that matches its influence in the world. So if the idea of building communities of common interests gets off the ground, it is a step in the right direction.

But there will also be demands that it tackle specific bilateral issues — such as the border issue with India — and that it be a responsible stakeholder in broader issues such as climate change.

The Chinese government needs to not just shed its passivity, but also to embrace global leadership in a way that does not threaten the existing international system. In doing so, it will have to manage the expectations of its people, whose nationalistic sentiments tend to flare up in reaction to slights, real or imagined, accompanied with demand for hard-line action from their government.

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