China's sense of responsibility is applauded

As President Xi Jinping concluded his trip to Latin America last week, observers noted that the year 2024 was special because it marks the 10th anniversary of a series of landmark events, such as the welcoming by China from the 2014 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Beijing and the founding of the China Forum and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

After these memorable moments, Thursday also marks the 10th anniversary of another landmark event in China's foreign policy history, Xi's proposition of the idea of ​​big-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.

Many scholars and officials have been impressed by how Beijing has presented distinctive Chinese characteristics, style and ethos in its diplomacy, and how it has worked to build the image of a large, confident country. autonomous, open and inclusive with a global vision. over the last 10 years.

In the eyes of Keith Bennett, a London-based senior international relations analyst and co-editor of the Friends of Socialist China platform, the Chinese characteristics of the country's major-country diplomacy include a number of components, such as country in favor of peace. , dialogue, equality, mutual respect, non-interference and win-win cooperation.

“Chinese policies are not based solely on narrow national interests or interests at the expense of other countries,” but rather have a global vision and “are in the interests of all humanity,” he said. declared.

On November 28, 2014, Xi said in his speech at the Central Conference on Foreign Affairs Work that China “must have major country diplomacy with its own characteristics.”

In March 2016, the concept of major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics was for the first time clearly stated in the annual report on government work.

Analysts said the concept has been developed over the past decade and has seen its theoretical architecture take shape and its pillars built.

The Central Conference on Foreign Affairs held in December last year identified the theme of China's foreign work as building a community with a shared future for mankind, which is also the noble goal pursued by the China in its diplomacy as a big country with Chinese characteristics.

The conference decided that current and future work in foreign affairs should follow the principles of “self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation.” winner”, the guidelines for the diplomacy of major countries with Chinese characteristics.

“This concept helps explain the definition and underlying logic of Chinese diplomacy,” said Chen Xulong, professor of multilateral diplomacy and UN reform studies at the University of International Business and Economics. .

This concept calls on the country to act like a big country, shoulder its duties, address challenges and make its contribution to global governance, he said.

“A series of exceptional and distinct qualities of Chinese culture have been endorsed by this concept, including the constant pursuit of peaceful development, opposition to hegemony and embrace of innovation,” he said. he added.

In an article published in January in the Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrote that “major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era relies on and advances the diplomacy of New China.

“China has become a large, responsible country with greater international influence, greater capacity to lead new projects, and greater moral appeal,” he wrote.

“The diplomacy of heads of state has played an important and irreplaceable role in the diplomacy of major countries with Chinese characteristics in the new era,” he added.

During a bilateral meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, Peru, on November 15, Chilean President Gabriel Boric brought a copy of Xi Jinping's fourth volume: The Governance of China, one of Xi's books. .

Boric presented the book to Xi and invited him to sign it.

Nadia Helmy, associate professor of political science at Beni Suef University in Egypt and an expert on Chinese politics and Asian affairs, said: “We see that China has achieved successful diplomatic results, as demonstrated by the diplomacy of the leader of the Chinese state, Comrade Xi. Jinping played the role of strategic guide. »

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Major-Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics “has led China to make tangible achievements in Beijing's foreign policy and international relations, (and ) has brought China closer to a place at the forefront of the world.” scene,” she wrote in an article published in January.

She listed some key points of Chinese diplomacy, such as “upholding justice while seeking to realize common interests at the political and economic levels”, “sincere and friendly international relations with developing countries” and “the construction of a new type of relations between large countries”.

On his expectations for Chinese diplomacy in the next decade and beyond, Bennett, the London-based international relations analyst, said China should gain more support and more understanding from a wider audience. large number of countries, because there is “a fairly strong contrast”. between “China's worldview and practice and the worldview and practice of most other great powers.”

[email protected]