US would step onto right side of history by acting in conformity with San Francisco vision
Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference was the latest in the series of efforts by the two countries to inject stability and positive energy into their ties.
In what was reportedly a candid, substantive and constructive meeting, the two diplomats held an in-depth exchange of views on strategic and overarching issues critical to the direction of China-US relations and reached important common understandings.
Whether the two sides can find a way to get along with each other will determine whether their relations are defined by cooperation rather than rivalry, which will not only set the trajectory for bilateral ties but also regional and global stability.
The world is in the midst of a highly volatile situation with both traditional and nontraditional security threats prevalent. The ongoing Ukraine crisis, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and other pressing issues all need real cooperation and close coordination between China and the US.
In contrast to the US practice of pursuing bloc confrontation and stoking geopolitical tensions in many parts of the world to suit its own agenda, China remains committed to rallying countries to engage in the common endeavor of building a global community with a shared future.
In his keynote speech during the “China in the World” session at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Wang, citing the attempts to shut China out of world trade in the name of de-risking, cautioned that, as more people have come to realize, “the absence of cooperation is the biggest risk”.
China has repeatedly underscored the competition of major countries is not the defining trait of the times. That explains why Beijing urges major powers to uphold the trend of the times by strengthening coordination and enhancing cooperation.
As Wang said in his speech, on its part China will continue to push for cooperation among major countries. He said that the message he wanted to convey is clear: China’s intent is to be a stabilizing force amid the turbulence and turmoil. To this end, China has proposed the Global Security Initiative, calling for global efforts to tackle the “peace deficit” and urging all peace-desiring countries to jointly work together in pursuit of universal peace and security.
If the US really cares about global security, it should abandon its divisive and destructive approach to global affairs so as to pave the way for practical global efforts to tackle the grave security challenges through international cooperation.
As part of that, as Wang reminded Blinken during their meeting, it is essential that the US should take an objective and rational view of China’s development, pursue a positive and pragmatic China policy, and honor US President Joe Biden’s commitments with concrete actions.