Providing "China’s Approach" for Global Security Governance:

Providing "China’s Approach" for Global Security Governance:

--Norms Contribution to Global Security Multilateralism Over 70 Years Since the Founding of New China

By Professor Zheng Xianwu , Nanjing University

Security multilateralism is an important part of global multilateral diplomacy of new China over the past 70 years. In the practice of security multilateralism, China has always been an advocate, promoter and contributor of international security common norms. From the perspective of the dominant security concept, China's security multilateral diplomacy has experienced three important stages over the past 70 years, namely, the traditional security concept (1949-1997), the new security concept (1997-2014) and the overall security concept (2014 up to now). At every stage, China has made its own contribution to global multilateralism by advocating and promoting specific security norms.

“The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence": promotion and evolution

The first stage (1949-1997) is the contribution to the security multilateralism norms under the traditional security concept. The most important achievement is the advocacy of "the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" and its multilateral diffusion. This kind of diffusion has gone through the evolution process of bilateralization, regional – trans-regional multilateralism and global multilateralism.

The first is the bilateralization of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In April 1954, the agreement on Tibet signed between China and India first proposed "Five Principles" for dealing with inter-state relations. In June of that year, when Premier Zhou Enlai visited India and Myanmar, he held talks with Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Myanmar Prime Minister U Nu and successively issued joint declarations and joint statements, which reaffirmed these principles, including mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence. This is the famous "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence". These principles have become the guiding principles for China, India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Soviet Union and other countries to handle bilateral and multilateral relations.

The second is the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" featuring regional and trans-regional multilateralism. In April 1955, the Final Communiqué of the First Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, and the subsidiary document Declaration on Promotion of World Peace and Cooperation established the ten principles of Bandung, including: Respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations; Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations; Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small; Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country; Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself, singly or collectively, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations; Abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defense to serve any particular interests of the big powers and abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries; Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country; Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties to choose, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations; Promotion of mutual interests and cooperation; Respect for justice and international obligations. The "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" are integrated into the "Ten Principles of Bandung" as a whole, which are further strengthened and improved, and which helps to support and extend the "universal norms" embodied in the Charter of the United Nations. These principles later become the guiding principles of Southeast Asia and Asia / Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation advocated and promoted by ASEAN. For example, the Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation issued by the third ASEAN + 3 Summit in November 1999 stressed that they would "handle their mutual relations in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and recognized principles of international law"; in July 2001, the 8th ASEAN Regional Forum issued and implemented the Joint Statement on East Asian Cooperation. The ARF Concept and Principles Of Preventive Diplomacy clearly include "respect for sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference in others’ internal affairs, etc." embodied in the "recognized basic principles of international law and relations between countries such as the Charter of the United Nations, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia" as the "core principles " of preventive diplomacy of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Finally, the global multilateralization of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In the 1960s, the Non-Aligned Movement took the "Five Principles" as its guiding principle. The relevant declarations adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the years 1970 and 1974 all accepted the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have been adopted by a series of international organizations and documents in the world today, and have been widely endorsed and followed by the international community. Thus, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have become the basic norms of international relations and basic principles of international law.

New international security norms: the "Shanghai spirit"

The second stage (1997-2014) is the contribution to multilateralism norms under the new security concept. The most important achievement is the formation of the new international security norms and principles with the "Shanghai spirit" as the core, and its regional and trans-regional multilateral diffusion.

The first is the proposal of "new security concept" and the formation of "Shanghai spirit". It was at the ASEAN Regional Forum Confidence Building Measures Workshop held in Beijing in March 1997 that China's "new security concept" was first proposed at the international conference. In March 1999 in his speech at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, former President Jiang Zemin first identified the core of China's "new security concept" as "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation". Subsequently, this security concept was to be practiced and improved in the "Shanghai five countries" mechanism. The Declaration on the Establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) further classifies this "new security concept" as the "Shanghai spirit" with the summary of "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development" as its basic content, and takes it as the criterion for the relations among the member states of the SCO in the new century. Therefore, the Shanghai spirit, which represents the specific core principles of China's foreign policy, has become the "common value and norm" that supports the process of the SCO, and constitutes the distinctive feature of the "new security architecture" that it is building up.

The second is refinement of the norm principles of the "new security concept" and the regional multilateral promotion. By actively participating in the process of interregional cooperation with neighboring countries, China has demonstrated and further disseminated and improved its "new security concept". The ASEAN Regional Forum has become a core multilateral platform. In July 2002, the most systematic official interpretation of China's "new security concept" was the position paper of the Chinese government on the new security concept submitted to the ASEAN Regional Forum. According to the document, the core of this "new security concept" is "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation". "Mutual trust" refers to transcending both the similarities and differences between ideology and social system, abandoning Cold War thinking and power politics mentality, and maintaining neither suspicious nor hostile to each other. Various countries should frequently carry out dialogue and mutual briefing on its own security and defense policies and major actions. "Mutual benefit" refers to meeting the objective requirements of social development in the era of globalization, respecting each other's security interests, creating conditions for each other's security while realizing ones own security interests, and achieving common security. "Equality" refers to the fact that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, are equal members of the international community, should respect each other, treat each other equally, not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and promote the democratization of international relations. "Cooperation" refers to the settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations and extensive and in-depth cooperation on security issues of common concern, so as to eliminate hidden dangers and prevent wars and conflicts. The document stressed that the security cooperation model should be flexible and diverse, including a strong binding multilateral security mechanism, a multilateral security dialogue of forum nature, bilateral security consultations aimed at enhancing trust, and an unofficial security dialogue of academic nature; promoting the integration of economic interests is also one of the effective means to maintain security. In this way, China's "new security concept" has laid a solid norms foundation for effective security cooperation between China and ASEAN as well as Asia- Pacific countries.

Finally, the norms and principles of China's "new security concept" are promoted trans-regions and across the world. In July 2012, the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing adopted the Beijing Declaration of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, which first incorporated China's "new security concept" into the cooperation framework of the forum. The declaration stresses that it advocates the security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, opposes interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and opposes the frequent use or threat of force in international affairs. The conference launched the "China-Africa Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Security", deepened cooperation with the African Union (AU) and African countries in the field of peace and security in Africa, provided financial support for AU peacekeeping operations and standing army-building in Africa, and increased the number of training AU peace and security officials and peacekeepers. The above principles become the guiding norms framework for this initiative. In this way, China's "new security concept" is promoted beyond China's peripheral regions.

Norms contribution under the overall security concept

The third stage (from 2014 up till now), Norms contribution of security multilateralism under the overall security concept. The most important achievement is the advocacy of "Asian security concept" and its multilateral diffusion, till the formation of the concept of "universal security world" and its multilateral practice as the core of the community with a shared future for mankind.

The first is the advocacy of the "Asian security concept" and the regional multilateralization of the overall national security concept. The Asian security concept was put forward by President Xi Jinping in May 2014 at the Fourth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). This security concept actively advocates common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia, innovates security concepts, builds a new framework for regional security and cooperation, and strives to find a path to security in Asia with joint construction, shared benefits and win-win results. The "common security" here is to respect and protect the security of every country, and build a community of a shared future that we stand up to win together, or to lose together as well. "Common security" emphasizes that security should be universal, equal and inclusive. "Universality" means that it does not work if one country has security while other countries do not, or some countries have security while others do not, or still one country seeks its own so-called absolute security at the sacrifice of other countries security. "Equality" means that all countries have equal right to participate in regional security affairs, and also have the responsibility to maintain regional security. "Inclusiveness" means that Asian diversity and differences among various countries should be transformed into vitality and impetus for promoting regional security cooperation, adhering to the basic norms of international relations such as respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, respecting the social system and development path independently chosen by each country, and respecting and taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all parties. The "comprehensive security" here is to comprehensively maintain the security in both traditional and non-traditional fields. This requires not only to focus on solving the current outstanding regional security problems, but also to plan as a whole how to respond to all kinds of potential security threats. The "cooperative security" here is to promote the security of all countries and their corresponding regions through dialogue and cooperation. This not only requires frank and in-depth dialogue and communication, enhancing strategic mutual trust, reducing mutual suspicion, seeking common ground while assimilating differences and living in harmony, but also requires focusing on the common security interests of all countries, actively cultivating the awareness of cooperation in dealing with security challenges, constantly expanding cooperation fields and innovating cooperation modes so as to pursue peace through cooperation, and promote security through cooperation, and still more insisting on peaceful settlement of disputes and opposing the arbitrary use or threat of force. The "sustainable security" here is to attach equal importance to development and security in order to achieve lasting security. It emphasizes that development is the foundation of security, and security is the condition of development; development is the greatest security, and is also the "master key" to solve regional security problems. This requires focusing on the theme of development, actively improving people's livelihood, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, constantly cementing the foundation of security, and promoting sustainable security with sustainable development. This security concept is similar to the overall national security concept in terms of diplomatic concept and security strategy. It can be said that the "Asian security concept" is not only the inheritance and development of "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" and "new security concept", but also a regional extension of China's overall national security concept. As a result, as a kind of promotion of China's overall national security concept, the Asian security concept began to practice the concept of "universal security" needed to build a community with a shared future for mankind at the regional level.

The second is the trans-regional multilateralization of the norm principle of "Asian security concept". In June 2014, at the senior official meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Yangon, Burma, Liu Zhenmin, then Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, comprehensively expounded the "Asian security concept" put forward by President Xi Jinping, and called on Asian countries to work together to gradually improve the existing multilateral mechanism and foster a new security framework in Asia. Then, the "Asian security concept" is incorporated into construction process of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road construction from the standpoint of common security and common prosperity mans to solve the problems faced by Asia so as to achieve sustainable security. According to B. R. Deepak, an Indian sinologist, from the perspective of security, the concept of "Maritime Silk Road" is "just the embodiment of the concept of common security in Asia". In September 2018, President Xi Jinping, at the Johannesburg Summit of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, announced on behalf of the Chinese government that it would jointly implement the "ten major cooperation plans" with Africa and plan a grand blueprint for pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa, and formally launched the Sino-African Union Cooperation in Peace and Security. President Xi Jinping states that China advocates a new concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and firmly supports African countries and African Union and other regional organizations to solve Africa's problems in African ways, and supports African countries to enhance their ability to maintain stability and peace. Therefore, through the construction of various trans-regional multilateral cooperation mechanisms, China is constantly building new international multilateral common norms, which will help to achieve the major goals of democratization, legalization, rationalization of international relations and reform of global governance system jointly promoted with other countries in the world, and further highlight the key role of "China as a participant, builder and contributor of the contemporary international system".

Finally, the global multilateral dissemination of the overall national security concept and the Asian security concept as well as the formation of the concept of "universal security world". In September 2015, President Xi Jinping, in his speech delivered at the General Debate of the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York's UN Headquarters, stressed that we should discard all forms of Cold War thinking and establish new concepts of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; that we should uphold multilateralism and not engage in unilateralism; that we should pursue a new concept of win-win, multi-win and all-win results. To this end, he proposed to build a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core and build a community with a shared future for mankind, i.e., to build a global partnership at the international and regional levels, and to pioneer a new path of state-to-state exchanges featuring "dialogue rather than confrontation, partnership rather than alliance". This requires both major countries to get along with each other characterized by no -conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation, and also big countries to get along with small countries characterized by treating each other equally, practicing the concept of greater good and shared benefits and putting greater good before benefits. In September 2017, President Xi Jinping, in his keynote speech delivered at the Opening Ceremony of the 86th Interpol General Assembly in Beijing, puts forward clearly the important exposition of jointly building a community with a shared future for humankind with universal security. These important expositions include: adhering to cooperation and joint construction to achieve lasting security; adhering to reform and innovation to achieve common governance; adhering to the spirit of the rule of law to achieve fairness and justice; adhering to mutual benefit and win-win results to achieve balanced and inclusive benefits. These point out the path to promote the global security governance system to develop in a more fair, reasonable and effective direction. Thus, the core of "universal security" of the community with a shared future for mankind is finally formed.

Forming a "China’s roadmap" for global security governance

Based on the above security propositions and concepts of President Xi Jinping, Wang Qun, then Director-General of the Arms Control Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, expounded China's "four-point proposition" on strengthening global security governance and safeguarding world peace and security at the UN General Assembly in October 2017. Wang Qun said that the goal of building a community with shared future for mankind is to build a world with lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity, and to create a secure structure with justice, joint construction and shared benefits. At the concept level, the common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security notions should be upheld. In principle, all countries should follow the principles and regulations, earnestly maintain the authority and effectiveness of the current arms control and non-proliferation regimes based on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and not adopt double standards and alternative practices. At mechanism level, all sides should adhere to multilateralism, improve global security governance mechanism at multiple levels, and stabilize frameworks for cooperation among major powers, so as to build a new type of relations among major countries on the basis of the no-conflict, no -confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation, enhance communication and coordination, and actively control and manage disputes, in a bid to achieve common security. These important propositions and concepts point out clearly the future direction and practical path for strengthening global security governance, which can be termed "China’s roadmap" of global security governance.

In conclusion, the 70 years' practice of security multilateralism by New China has gone through the evolution process from traditional security-led orientation to new security-led orientation still to overall security-led orientation. The core framework of the construction of security multilateralism norms in these three stages has its own specific connotation and development continuity, which together constitute "China’s Approach" for global security governance based on "China’s experience" and "Asian experience".

(Edited excerpts of the article in China Social Science Journal, December 3, 2019)

On November 8, 2019, huge protests in the capital of Chile.