From Zero-Sum to ‘Hehe’ is a Must for the World

By Bo Wenwen, Wang Zonghan & Xu Huangguan of China News Service (CNS)

In today’s world, zero-sum and “Hehe” (和合), which literally means peace and cooperation, seem to have become two typical ways of thinking and perspectives for dealing with international affairs. How do these two types differ dialectically? What is the root cause of zero-sum thinking? What does China’s “Hehe Culture” mean to the world?

During her participation in the second Wuyi Forum, Tamara Prosic, a senior researcher in philosophy, history, and international studies at Monash University, gave an exclusive interview to “W.E. Talk” of China News Service (CNS). She believes that the world has to break away from zero-sum thinking and move towards the path of “Hehe” development, as we are in a highly interconnected world.

Here are excerpts of the interview:

CNS: Dialectics is the theme of your speech. What are the similarities and differences in the core values of Chinese and Western civilizations from a dialectical perspective?

Tamara Prosic: In a general sense, there are many similarities between Western and Chinese culture. We all think about the same questions. We try to find answers to those same questions. For example: What is the world? What it consists of? How does it function? These are all general questions which humans ask. So in a sense, we do have similarities, but we also differ from each other.

For example, both West and China share that dialectical principle of struggle and unity of opposites. But what is the more important part in that? The Western world put more attention on the struggle of opposites. While China places more attention on the unity of the opposites. Therefore, the answers towards solution to a problem differs significantly between Western and Chinese culture.

One of my favorite Chinese characters is “Ren” (仁). It has the sign for humans, but then also has those two lines on the side, which means in China, when you think of yourself, you think of yourself in relation to others.

CNS: You analyze international relations through dialectics, arguing that Western countries adopt “antagonistic dialectics” while China practices “inclusivist dialectics”. What is their fundamental distinction?

Tamara Prosic: The dialectic principle has two parts: there is a struggle of opposites; then there is a unity of opposites. The West places much more on this first part, which is antagonistic. In the West, an unbalanced struggle means one opposite always must overcome the other. That is what we encounter in international relations when it comes to the Western world. Actually, my son told me that, “it’s my way or highway“. That’s the exclusive kind of view that you have to do the way I want.

China, on the other hand, places more attention on complementarity, of on unity of opposites. We cannot make the difference between the black and white unless we have them together like “yin yang” exactly. Black cannot be black without white, white cannot be white without black. So Chinese culture understands that dynamism between the opposites and they are interlocked, not necessarily always in a struggle to cancel each other, and that they cannot exist without each other. They do make a whole as in union.

CNS: Could you provide some concrete examples?

Tamara Prosic: The emphasis on “opposition” thinking in Western culture is directly reflected in international relations. Facing developing countries, Western countries always choose to makes copies of themselves, regardless of whether, for example, that these developing countries have a different history, have a different development, have different cultural values, which might not really be suited for implementation of Western systems. That’s the antagonistic directives: you have to do what I want you to do.

While China doesn’t pose any conditions when helping other developing countries: all the developing countries will decide how they are going to develop based on their needs, like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

On April 25, 2024, workers were busy loading a batch of domestically made construction vehicles for export to Belt and Road countries at the Zhangjiagang Port in Jiangsu Province. (Photo: China News Service/Shi Bairong)

CNS: What is the root of the “zero-sum game” thinking in international relations?

Tamara Prosic: Historically speaking, I believe that the “zero-sum game” is a uniquely Western product, which is a combination of Western culture with colonialism. For Westerners, Capitalism means competitiveness. It’s something that’s deeply ingrained in Western culture that “zero-sum game” or “win or lose”. Therefore, in the West, they don’t always say win-win, which is also a very Chinese term. But we’ll have to move towards that, because otherwise we’re not gonna move anywhere.

CNS: You describe China’s approach as “Hehe Culture”. How do you interpret this concept?

Tamara Prosic: What is “HeHe” (和合)? It’s unity, cooperation, convergence, peace, harmony, and balance in the simple terms. It is unity without uniformity, or unity to diversity. That’s how I understand the term. I hope that we move towards a world that is united without being uniform in that negative sense of being just having one culture or one system, and let thousand flowers flower.

On June 24, 2024, the 2nd Belt and Road International Skills Competition kicked off in Chongqing, bringing together 590 top-skilled professionals from 61 countries and regions across five continents. (Photo: China News Service/Zhou Yi)

CNS: Amid global transformations, do you believe the world can transition from “zero-sum” to “Hehe” development?

Tamara Prosic: It has to break away from that. But it’s gonna take time, for you cannot make the West think differently since they’ve been thinking like this in those antagonistic terms for the past 400 years since the colonial expansion.

However, the rest of the world, I think, is already thinking that way: the Belt and Road Initiative is certainly proof of that. So the only way forward is partnership, because this is truly a very interconnected world. We should take care of each other in a way that’s not antagonistic. So we have to move towards that.

Tamara Prosic, a senior researcher in philosophy, history, and international studies at Monash University. (Photo: China News Service/Lyu Ming)