China, Finland building a bridge of science and hope

The four-day visit of Finnish President Alexander Stubb to China starting Monday offers great opportunities for Finland and a welcoming boost to bilateral scientific and trade ties for China. But perhaps most important, it signals China's continued efforts to build peaceful, constructive relations with the West at a time when international relations, especially between Russia and the United States over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and between Iran and the United States over the Israel-Palestine conflict, have been hostile and dangerous.

The omens are propitious and the historical record encouraging for the Finnish president's visit, during which he held talks with Chinese leaders. China's Foreign Ministry said Finland was among the first Western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China back in 1950 and it confirmed that relations between the two countries "are experiencing sound development".

Finland, with a population of only 5.6 million but impressive natural resources for its size, seeks investment from the vast Chinese economy, which for a quarter century now has enjoyed by far the largest and fastest growing industrial base in the world. China has been Finland's largest trading partner in Asia for many years and the bilateral trade volume reached $8.2 billion in 2023.

Finland, though its own industrial and population base is tiny by comparison, is a world leader in some fields of advanced technology and in developing economically sustainable systems for the 21st century. Helsinki has also signaled its eagerness to rapidly expand cooperation with Beijing in addressing the challenges posed by global climate change.

China now enjoys advanced scientific technologies and has thousands of companies with global investment potential and resources that dwarf those of even the leading European countries. Finland is eager to foster partnerships and to offer its own fresh approaches developed in a very different global environment.

Also, Finnish companies are eager to access and work with Chinese companies that are established global leaders in fields, ranging from sustainability to digital technologies, Finnish Chambers of Commerce China Chairman Juha Tuominen has said.

Finnish companies from other sectors such as healthcare, digitalization and consumer products, too, are optimistic about opportunities for expansion and cooperation in the colossal Chinese marketplace, Juha Tuominen said.

Most of all, Finland has enjoyed good diplomatic relations with China since 1950. The Finnish people and their leaders have never been prone to any of the waves of hysteria and xenophobia that have repeatedly swept the United States and that have now poisoned the relations of the US, the United Kingdom and NATO with Russia at every level.

Finland last year abandoned the historic neutrality that had served it so well since the end of World War II and ensured its continued peace, security and unrivaled prosperity and quality of life for its people. In April 2023, it eventually joined NATO.

The move was clearly made under immense and sustained pressure from the Joe Biden administration and the bipartisan foreign policy and national security consensus in Washington. But far from strengthening Finland's long-term security, it has dragged Helsinki into the cross-hair of the Biden administration's alarming global confrontation with Russia.

Now, ironically, Finland's diplomats and politicians may find themselves asking Beijing to serve as a peace-fostering bridge with Russia even more than they might serve themselves as a bridge between China and the West.

At the very least, however, Finland's long low-key but always positive record or cordial and constructive relations with China should enable it to speak as an important voice of moderation and reason in the councils of NATO, which today are dominated by obsessive confrontation, polarization and unremitting hostility and bias against all rational diplomatic and bilateral relations with both Moscow and Beijing.

Stubb is clearly aware of all these sinister crosscurrents, and his office announced in anticipation of the visit that he will discuss the Ukraine crisis as well as direct Sino-Finnish relations with his hosts.

Chinese officials are also certain to emphasize to Stubb the reckless stupidity of NATO's now repeatedly proclaimed plans to expand its global reach to confront Beijing on the US' side in the Western Pacific. Given the well-documented drainage of NATO's own European arsenals and capabilities in the service of Washington's determination to keep Ukraine armed and fighting in its hopeless conflict with Russia, these loudly proclaimed efforts to alienate and threaten China too can only be regarded as delusional insanity.

The entire history of Finland's global diplomacy and approach to world conflicts over the past three-quarters of a century, however, has been against all extreme and immoral courses of action. Stubb's visit to China, by contrast, should be welcomed as a sensible and constructive effort to build and preserve bridges of communication, cooperation and peace even in the most fraught and dangerous of times.

The author is a senior fellow at the American University in Moscow.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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