By Guo Jiping, The year 2023 was the first year for fully implementing the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and also marked the 10th anniversary of the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Under the personal guidance of Xi, major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has made solid steps. Pursuing the noble goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has created a proactive and favorable external environment for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and made significant contributions to the cause of world peace and development.
The world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, with profound changes occurring in the relationships between major countries. In 2023, China always kept its strategic focus, comprehensively planned its relations with relevant parties, and worked to build major-country relations featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability, and balanced development.
Together, the Chinese and Russian heads of state charted the course for future growth of bilateral relations and cooperation across the board. The meeting between Xi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco achieved important results, identifying the direction for the sound, steady, and sustained development of bilateral ties. Besides, China-EU relations have shown a sound momentum of full recovery and steady progress.
In the past year, China firmly promoted regional peace, stability, and development. The successful China-Central Asia Summit resulted in the signing of seven bilateral and multilateral agreements between China and the five Central Asian countries. Additionally, over 100 cooperation agreements were inked across various fields.
Announcing a new characterization of the relationship between the two parties and two countries, China and Vietnam will work together for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance based on deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two sides.
As a developing country and a member of the Global South, China breathes the same breath as other developing countries and pursues a shared future with them.
Last August, Xi attended the 15th BRICS Summit, promoting the historic expansion of the BRICS mechanism. He joined the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue, where he worked together with relevant parties to pool strength for building a community of shared development.
During his visit to South Africa, Xi and the South African head of state agreed to build a high-level China-South Africa community with a shared future. He also attended the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue and raised new proposals on and assisting in Africa’s integration and modernization.
In 2023, China established diplomatic relations with Honduras, set up or upgraded partnerships with more than 10 countries, and continuously deepened and expanded a global network of partnerships based on equality, openness, and cooperation.
In October 2023, the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was hosted. China worked with all parties involved to deepen Belt and Road partnerships of cooperation, ushered this cooperation into a new stage of high-quality development, and announced eight major steps China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. At present, all the 458 outcomes delivered at the forum are being implemented.
Taking results-oriented actions in implementing the Global Development Initiative, China promoted the establishment of cooperation platforms and partnerships in key areas including poverty reduction, food security, industrialization, and digital-era connectivity, to deepen practical cooperation and strengthen knowledge sharing, which benefited other developing countries.
In 2023, China worked with the international community to actively implement the Global Security Initiative. In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran achieved significant results in their dialogue in Beijing, agreeing to restore diplomatic relations. This highly anticipated diplomatic mediation has inspired a trend of reconciliation in the Middle East and provided an important model for countries to resolve conflicts through dialogue and negotiation.
In the Ukraine crisis, China always stands on the side of peace. What it calls for boils down to supporting talks for peace. After the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China proposed solutions that take into account both the immediate and long-term interests, making arduous efforts to protect civilians, ease the situation, restart negotiations, and achieve peace.
In the face of various non-traditional security threats such as climate change, cybersecurity, and AI security, China has always been committed to promoting international cooperation and strengthening global security governance.
In March 2023, Xi solemnly proposed the Global Civilization Initiative, providing a systematic explanation of China’s approach to promoting tolerance, coexistence, exchanges, and mutual learning among different civilizations. Last year, Xi made personal efforts to promote mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and people in the rest of the world.
The Communist Party of China exchanged with and learned from political parties of other countries, helping all parties understand and comprehend the civilizational foundation and vivid practice of Chinese modernization, and building confidence and consensus in strengthening cooperation and creating a shared future.
Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics will follow the principles of self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, and act with a stronger sense of historical responsibility and a more vibrant spirit of innovation, to make new Chinese contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
