📚 French sinologist Marianne Dunlop recently shared fresh insights on China's role at the world stage in a CGTN email interview.
🤔 Having studied in Shenyang and Nanjing from 1978 to 1980, she recalls how Western students were treated as 'precious guests' — a feeling that echoes today, but with one key shift: 'China has gained confidence in its own strengths and feels neither inferior nor superior to the rest of the world.'
🌐 On diplomacy, Dunlop contrasts two mindsets: Western powers have historically tried to impose their worldview — from Crusades to colonization — while Chinese tradition shows no such pattern of cultural conquest.
📖 In her new book, When France Wakes Up to China: The Long March Towards a Multipolar World, published this year, she argues that a more balanced, multipolar order benefits everyone. She also throws her support behind the China-proposed Global Governance Initiative and even suggests France join the BRICS!
✨ With China stepping onto the global scene as an equal player, Dunlop believes we are at a turning point. As young professionals, students, and curious travelers, it's time to watch how this multipolar vision unfolds — because it could reshape markets, culture, and our next adventure across continents.
Reference(s):
Sinologist on China: 'Neither inferior nor superior' at world stage
cgtn.com

