The China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), a specialised research institution directly under China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Centre of CIIS, hosted a launch on November 11 of their latest report, entitled ‘True Multilateralism: Conceptual Development, Core Essence and China’s Practice’.
Held at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House, the meeting was attended by more than 220 people from around 70 countries, including diplomats from 66 embassies in Beijing and representatives from three international organisations. 18 embassies were represented by their Ambassador or Head of Mission. They were joined by Chinese officials, scholars, researchers and students, along with foreign students studying in China.
Friends of Socialist China Co-Editor Keith Bennett attended and spoke at the conference, representing the Institute of Independence Studies and its Xi Jinping Thought Study Group.
Speakers at the event were:
- Chen Bo: Secretary General, Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Centre; and President, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS)
- Miao Deyu: Assistant Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China
- Mauricio Hurtado: Ambassador of Chile to China
- Ahmed Mustafa Fahmy: Head, League of Arab States’ China Representative Office
- Oleg Kopylov: Deputy Secretary General, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
- Ren Hongyan: Special Research Fellow, Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Centre
- Chhem Kieth Rethy: Senior Minister, Royal Government of Cambodia; Chairman, Economic, Social and Cultural Council, Cambodia
- Wu Zhicheng: President, Institute of International Strategy, Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Governance)
- Keith Bennett: Xi Jinping Thought Study Group, Institute for Independence Studies, UK
- Wang Lei: Deputy Director, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
- Gafar Kara Ahmed: Researcher, China-Arab Research Centre on Reform and Development, Shanghai International Studies University; former Sudanese Ambassador to China; and
- Jia Lieying: Dean, School of International Relations & Director, UN Research Centre, Beijing Language and Culture University.
The full text of the Report may be found here.
The following is the text of Keith’s remarks to the meeting.
I welcome the release of your report today. Long ago, Engels, in his preface to ‘The Peasant War in Germany’, stressed the need to constantly “keep in mind that socialism, having become a science, demands the same treatment as every other science – it must be studied.”
This is why the foreign policy of a major socialist country like China, whilst naturally deciding each issue on its merits and specific characteristics, cannot be approached and determined in an ad hoc or impressionistic way but rather on the basis of the most advanced theory, itself based on the summation of long years of practice, which at the present time means the study and application of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy.
President Xi Jinping always reminds us that we are witnessing and experiencing changes unseen in a century. We can see the veracity and profundity of his observation by looking at practically any field of human exploration and endeavour, most recently, for example, the immense opportunities and challenges presented by AI.
But most fundamentally, I believe that the significance of viewing things from this century-long paradigm is that it is just a little over 100 years since socialism graduated from being an ideal to becoming a modern programme of nation building. The concept of changes unseen in a century addresses above all the global ramifications of that historical turning point.
This year we have observed the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which may be taken as the building blocks and guarantor of true multilateralism and a most fundamental reform of a global governance system hitherto dominated by a handful of oppressor nations, almost exclusively in Western Europe and North America.
The creation of the Soviet state meant that there were now countries in the world with fundamentally different political and social systems. The question therefore arose as to what type of relations should exist between those states and how should the relationship between them be handled. Faced with this question, Lenin formulated the policy of peaceful coexistence.
Some three-and-a-half decades later, it was clear that the existence of states with different social systems was no mere transient phenomenon but rather a long-term historical reality. It therefore fell to the Chinese communists to raise the issue beyond a tactical policy or temporary necessity, but rather to place it on a firm theoretical foundation, to elevate it to the level of science.
Today, in the new era, this issue, while losing none of its original cogency and vitality, has to be approached on a new basis and on a new level. If, seventy years ago, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence gave the socialist countries, and the newly independent countries just embarking on the road of building a new society, freedom to breathe and room to manoeuvre, today we face a qualitatively different situation.
As a key component of the changes unseen in a century, we now see the collective rise of the great mass of developing countries, which today we generally refer to as the Global South, with socialist China in the vanguard, as the indispensable nation steadily advancing to the centre of the world stage.
This therefore places the question of what kind of world should we build and how should we build it not simply as a task on the agenda, but rather as a task taken up for solution, and this is precisely a key question to which Xi Jinping Thought addresses itself.
From when the young People’s Republic of China first began to welcome foreign visitors to the Beijing Hotel they were greeted with the words, “We have friends all over the world.”
Around the time I first visited China, practically the first sight that people encountered as they entered the mainland from Hong Kong was the banner reading, “Long live the great unity of the peoples of the world!”
In the ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’, Marx and Engels wrote that, “the Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality.”
For his part, Confucius famously advocated the great harmony of all under heaven.
Embodying these precepts of both scientific socialism and fine traditional Chinese culture and civilisation, and proceeding from the theory of Two Integrations, Xi Jinping has defined the strategic goal, the task taken up for solution, as being that of the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
President Xi Jinping’s global initiatives on security, development and civilisation are the foundations of humanity’s shared future and the Belt and Road Initiative is a key route to its realisation.
The inexorable progress of globalisation, the desire of human beings for a better life – or “the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life”, as President Xi has described it – as well as the existential threats facing humanity, whether from the looming threat of climate catastrophe, the danger of nuclear war or of zoonotic pandemics, show that a community of shared future for humanity is a worthy goal, one that can be embraced and welcomed by the great majority of humanity. But even more fundamentally it is increasingly becoming the very prerequisite for human survival, and most likely for the survival of many other forms of life on earth as well. No country, no matter how rich or powerful, can solve the problems facing humanity and Mother Earth on their own, let alone with a ‘beggar my neighbour’ attitude. Rather it’s the case that we sink or swim together. United we stand. Divided we fall.
The collective rise of the Global South, and of China in particular, has brought a decisive end to the ‘unipolar moment’ briefly enjoyed by a certain country following the dramatic changes in the international landscape from the end of the 1980s. Multilateralism represents the only viable alternative to this now eclipsed unipolar moment. There is no place for a global hegemon. But to realise multilateralism necessitates reform and modernisation of the global governance system.
The foundations for this were laid in the last century with, inter alia:
- The emergence and growth of socialist countries.
- The victory over fascism, the 80th anniversary of which we will mark next year, and the related founding of the United Nations, “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, as the Preamble to its Charter states; and
- The disintegration of the old colonial empires, signalled not least by the Bandung Conference and the Bandung Principles, whose 70th anniversary we will mark next year, followed by the founding and growth of the Non-Aligned Movement.
These are key foundations and building blocks for a democratic and equitable system of global governance. It has the United Nations at its heart, but the United Nations is also in urgent need of reform. At the time of its formation, there were just two independent countries on the continent of Africa. Today, the 193 UN member states are predominantly comprised of developing countries. But this is far from being reflected in, for example, the permanent membership of the Security Council, where real power resides. The non-representation of Africa and Latin America, in particular, needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. For the last year and more now, the great majority of countries, and the absolute majority of humanity, has looked on with horror at the unspeakable atrocities being committed in Gaza, and now in Lebanon and elsewhere, too. But the Security Council, tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security, has been rendered impotent, largely due to the repeated misuse of the veto power by the country with significant influence over the situation.
A key role in turning this situation around rests with the growing collective self-organisation of the Global South and its creation of new institutions to complement and enhance the role of more long-existing ones. Among the plethora of such bodies now to be found throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, the Eurasian landmass, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and elsewhere, the main role is increasingly played by the BRICS cooperation mechanism of key emerging markets and developing countries. Indeed, since the recent Kazan Summit, with nine full members and 15 new Partner countries, and with dozens more countries showing varying degrees of interest in possible future membership, it may already be said to represent not only a greater economic power than that of the G7, but also the majority of humanity. Bodies such as the BRICS, and its New Development Bank, increasingly pose the challenge to institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank to reform in accordance with changed realities or be superseded.
It is, therefore, the Global South, with China in the forefront, that is the key driver towards true multilateralism and the reform of global governance. The programmatic basis for this key challenge facing humanity at present is at the heart of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy.
Thank you for your attention.
