BEIJING — A China-style major-country diplomacy has taken shape over the past five years through the overseas trips by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The 29 visits to 58 countries and major international and regional organizations across the five continents have helped win Xi the title of “chief diplomat” of China.
The trips have enhanced a leadership role for China in global peace, security, governance and development, and promoted a better understanding worldwide of a Chinese vision and approach that includes win-win cooperation and efforts towards building a community with a shared future for mankind.
WIN-WIN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Xi’s first foreign trip since he became Chinese president was to Moscow in March 2013, where he debuted his diplomatic approach.
“To keep up with the times, we cannot have ourselves physically living in the 21st century, but with a mindset belonging to the past, stalled in the old days of colonialism, and constrained by zero-sum Cold War mentality,” Xi told an audience at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, while calling for building a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core.
Xi’s six visits to Russia and more than 20 meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin on various occasions have lifted China-Russia ties to their best in history. The two countries together serve as an anchor for global peace and security.
“I believe that the model of bilateral relations that we have created should become one of the examples of civilized interaction between countries in the 21st century,” Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said.
The principles Xi put forward of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation have helped stabilize China-US relations over White House leadership changes and consequent uncertainties.
Xi’s exchanges with US President Donald Trump led to the establishment of new high-level dialogue mechanisms between China and the United States in a bid to promote global peace and security.
China-Europe relations have expanded with each of Xi’s tours to the continent. China seeks a partnership with the European Union based on peace, growth, reform and mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation. China’s excellent relationship with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have largely eased Europeans’ worries about China.
During the past five years, half of Xi’s overseas visits were dedicated to promoting ties with China’s neighbors, including the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, the updated version of the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area, and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor, among others.
Meanwhile, cooperation with developing countries in Africa and Latin America has grown, with China’s involvement in a number of infrastructure and development projects.
STRENGTHENING MULTILATERALISM
Xi’s proposal to build a community with a shared future for mankind is a central pillar of multilateralism. The proposal shines light on China’s diplomatic efforts over the past five years concerning individual states and regional and international organizations.
From the UN General Assembly, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meetings, to the Group of 20 (G20) forum and the BRICS summit which embraces Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Xi has reaffirmed China’s commitment to economic globalization, UN-led multilateralism and global peace.
Globalization is falsely blamed for a sluggish global economy, high unemployment, a rise in trade protectionism, populism and isolationism, terrorism, the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East and the widening gap between rich and poor.
“In the face of both opportunities and challenges of economic globalization, the right thing to do is to seize every opportunity, jointly meet challenges and chart the right course for economic globalization,” Xi said in a keynote WEF speech in January.
He listed an innovation-driven growth, open and win-win cooperation, fairer governance as well as balanced and inclusive development as the way forward for the global economy. Multilateralism is the solution for global problems, and China has been a strong pillar of it.
Building a community with a shared future for mankind is embodied in the Belt and Road Initiative Xi proposed in 2013, which is aimed at building trade and infrastructure networks in countries along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.
Moreover, the initiative’s projects involving new railways, roads, and industrial zones in Asia and Africa are aligned with the development strategies of many countries and are being hashed out with the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals in mind. The Belt and Road Initiative is perhaps the greatest gift China has ever offered to the world.
“In an increasingly interdependent and integrated world where countries form a community of shared interests, openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation are the only viable option,” Xi said at the Dialogue of Emerging Market and Developing Countries during the BRICS summit held in September in Xiamen, China.
“Multilateralism is the solution for the global problems, and China has been a strong pillar of multilateralism,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. His predecessor Ban Ki-moon has called China “an indispensable partner for the UN’s agenda.”
China’s continued support for the Paris climate change accord after the US withdrawal and its significant contributions to UN peacekeeping missions are also among its efforts to make the world a better place.
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