Acting on the Global Security Initiative to Safeguard World Peace and Tranquility

Changes of the world, of our times and of history are unfolding today in ways like never before, posing challenges that must be taken seriously by humanity. At this moment critical to world peace and development, President Xi Jinping made a keynote speech entitled “Rising to Challenges and Building a Bright Future Through Cooperation” at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, and proposed for the first time the Global Security Initiative (GSI). This important Initiative gives explicit answers to questions of our times such as what security concept the world needs and how countries can achieve common security. It fully demonstrates President Xi Jinping’s concerns for world peace and development, his internationalist vision, and his leadership as head of a major country. It contributes China’s wisdom to the efforts of mankind in tackling peace deficit, and offers China’s solution to addressing international security challenges.

I. Understanding deeply GSI’S practical significance and its values to our times

This major Initiative was proposed to meet the pressing need of the international community to maintain world peace and prevent conflicts and wars. Humanity has yet to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic, and the Ukraine crisis is already wreaking havoc. Various traditional and non-traditional security threats keep flaring up. Peace and development, the theme of our times, is faced with severe challenges. President Xi Jinping noted that peace is the ever-lasting wish of our people. Human history has proven time and again that without peace, development will be like water without source; without security, prosperity will be like trees without roots.

The GSI is an effort to stand up to the changes of the world and answer the questions of the times. Building on the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, the GSI seeks to promote the establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture. It thus offers a new approach to eliminating the root causes of international conflicts and achieving durable stability and security in the world.

This major Initiative was proposed to meet the common aspirations of all countries to uphold multilateralism and international solidarity. The world today is facing unprecedented risks of division. Some countries, stubbornly clinging to the outdated mindset of Cold War confrontation, are obsessed with building exclusive, small circles and blocs. They pursue unilateralism in the name of multilateralism, use double standards while touting their own rules, and practice hegemony under the guise of democracy. These acts have seriously undermined the international security order and aggravated the deficit in global security governance.

President Xi Jinping pointed out unequivocally that the Cold War mentality would only wreck the global peace framework, hegemonism and power politics would only endanger world peace, and that bloc confrontation would only exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century. The GSI is rooted in true multilateralism. It calls upon all countries to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and reject the obsolete mentality of zero-sum game and bloc confrontation. It advocates the win-win mindset to address the complex and intertwined security challenges, and champions the spirit of solidarity to adapt to the profoundly changing international landscape. It has provided a new approach for improving global security governance.

This major Initiative was proposed to meet the shared desire of all peoples for working together to overcome difficulties and build a better world beyond the pandemic. At present, global economic recovery remains sluggish, compounded by rising inflationary pressure and multiple crises on the financial, trade, energy, food and industrial- and supplychain fronts. However, certain countries wantonly impose unilateral sanctions, exercise long-arm jurisdiction, insist on building “small yard, high fence” or “parallel systems”. They overstretch the concept of national security to hold back economic and technological advances of other countries.

This has worsened the livelihoods of people all over the world, particularly those in developing countries. President Xi Jinping observed that countries around the world are like passengers aboard the same ship who share the same destiny. For the ship to navigate the storm and sail toward a bright future, all passengers must pull together. The thought of throwing anyone overboard is simply not acceptable. The GSI echoes and reinforces the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by President Xi Jinping last year. It accords with the trend of the times featuring peace, development and win-win cooperation, and represents a coordinated approach to safeguarding traditional and nontraditional security. It aims to seek the biggest common denominator and the widest converging interests in the international community, and to provide new support for countries in boosting livelihoods and development. Getting a good grasp of the logical system and theoretical innovation of the GSI

The GSI is a complete system with rich meaning. It is the important fruit of applying Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy to the field of international security. It also improves and goes beyond the Western theory of geopolitical security. The GSI is underpinned by “six commitments”, namely, staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; staying committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; staying committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; staying committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; staying committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation; and staying committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains. These six commitments are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, including macro thinking of top-level design as well as methods and pathways for addressing practical issues. They form an organic whole of dialectical unity. The vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security serves as a guiding principle for maintaining world peace and tranquility. Since President Xi Jinping outlined this new vision on security at the Shanghai Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) in 2014.