Chinese Foreign Minister Summarizes Success of Year’s Foreign Policy

Dec. 25, 2014 (EIRNS)—Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking yesterday at a symposium sponsored by the China Institute of International Studies and the China Foundation for International Studies, outlined the success of Chinese policy during 2014. Firstly, China had "promoted the Chinese vision of building a new type of international relations," with "win-win cooperation at its heart," Wang said. "As a new approach to managing state-to-state relations in the contemporary world, it will exert a positive and profound impact on the evolution of international relations."

China also issued a call for "building a global network of partnerships," based on a concept that President Xi Jinping had introduced at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs earlier this year. "After the end of the Cold War, which was marked by the confrontation between alliances of nations, we drew on the experience and lessons of history in a timely way, and succeeded in developing a new approach of forming partners instead of allies," Xi said. "China has established 72 partnerships in different forms and at different levels with 67 countries and 5 regions or regional organizations, which cover all the major countries and regions in the world."

Wang went on to describe the nature of this new concept of partnership:

"The partnerships that we are building have three basic features. First, equality. Countries, regardless of their sizes or levels of development, should respect each other’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as well as each other’s choice of development path and values, treat each other as equals, and show mutual understanding for and support each other. Second, peace. What makes such partnership different from military alliance is that it does not have any hypothetical enemy nor is it targeted at any third party, thus keeping relations between countries unaffected by military factors. It aims to handle state-to-state relations with a cooperative rather than confrontational, and a win-win rather than zero-sum approach. Third, inclusiveness. The partnership we have initiated seeks to go beyond differences in social systems and ideologies to maximize common interests and pursue a common goal."

Wang pointed to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as examples of such partnerships. Wang also underlined President Xi’s call for an "Asia-Pacific Dream" at this year’s APEC conference, and that for a new security architecture which he introduced at this year’s Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures.

"China has used the CICA platform to champion security cooperation by rejecting the old mentality of seeking one’s own security at the expense of the security of others, and building an open and inclusive new security architecture in Asia. This shows China’s eagerness to take a more constructive part in Asia’s security affairs and provide public security goods,"

Wang said.

After going through a list of the achievements of the year—the over 500 meetings held between Xi and Prime Minister Li Keqiang and foreign leaders, the creation of the AIIB, and the New Development Bank—Wang characterized the principles of China’s foreign policy as the following: 1) Upholding the social system and development path chosen by China and supported overwhelmingly by the Chinese people; 2) Pursuing peace and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries; 3) promoting justice in an equal-footed way; and 4) Making serving domestic development and reform and opening up a top priority.

Wang concluded with an appeal to his audience to continue on the path laid out by President Xi and the party leadership, and realize "the glorious mission history has bestowed on this generation of ours."