Growth and peace top China’s national security agenda

With win-win cooperation at the core in the new type of international relations, this is the important experience and inspiration of history that China has gained from international cooperation in the past decades. The construction of the new type of international relations is constructive in improving the global governance structure and in jointly coping with global challenges, and has become the fundamental pursuit of China in creating a sound and favorable external security environment.

In a bid to build the new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core, it is a prerequisite to build partnerships in which countries treat each other as equals, engage in mutual consultations and show mutual understanding. Under the new type of international relations, the big, strong and rich should not bully the small, weak and poor. It is necessary to create a security architecture featuring fairness, justice, joint contribution and shared benefits. When one country pursues its own security, it must also give due consideration to the security of other countries, and should never seek absolute security. It is necessary to promote open, innovative and inclusive development that brings benefit to all. It requires openness, mutual assistance and win-win cooperation to achieve the goal of common development. China does not seek solely its own profits, adopts a new vision of seeking win-win outcomes for all, and tries to embrace a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features "dialogue rather than confrontation, partnership rather than alliance".

Fifth, promoting world peace and stability is an important responsibility of national security.

President Xi pointed out that "peace is the common aspiration and lofty goal of the mankind", China's development calls for a peaceful, stable international environment, "no country can achieve stability out of other countries' instability", and China is "committed to making greater effort in defending world peace and promoting common development". He stressed, in seeking political solutions to global and regional hot issues and in addressing global risks and challenges, China has never chosen to stay outside and has played its due role and responsibility. This shows that world peace and stability are closely related to China's security and development. Only when the world peace and stability are guaranteed, could China's national security be achieved.

In promoting world peace and stability, China has stressed that the international community should be committed to multilateralism, should uphold the core role of the United Nations, and should support the Security Council in performing its ultimate responsibility in safeguarding international peace and stability. In addressing international and regional issues, China advocates upholding the principles of equality, equity and justice to seek political solutions through peaceful consultations, opposes intervention into other countries' internal affairs, and promotes the global governance system to be more equitable and reasonable.

China has been active in addressing hot global issues, upholds its position and policy based on the rights and wrongs behind the issues, endeavors to uphold justice, and has been playing an active, constructive role within its capacity. In the past few years, China has played a constructive role in such regional and global issues, including the Iran nuclear issue, the Korean nuclear issue, Afghanistan, Syria and the Palestine-Israel conflict. When the Ebola epidemic outbreak occurred in Africa, China immediately sent medical personnel there to aid the countries. China has recently decided to join the new United Nations peacekeeping capability readiness system, and to take the lead to set up a permanent peacekeeping police squad and build a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops. Xi also pledged that China would provide $100 million in military assistance to the African Union to support the establishment of an African standby force and to boost its capacity for crisis response. With China's development and rise, China will be ready to play a greater, constructive role in maintaining world peace and stability.

Wen Bing is a senior researcher with the National Defense Policy Research Center, Academy of Military Science.

Courtesy: China & US Focus