President Xi Jinping, addressing a two-day Central Conference on Foreign Affairs Work, emphasised the need for diplomats and cadres to ‘break new ground,’ unite the majority of the world, and maintain a resilient ‘fighting spirit’
Beijing has vowed to seize “strategic opportunities” and enhancing its “international influence, appeal, and power” in order to shape the swiftly changing global landscape and hopes to achieve this through a reinforced Communist Party control of foreign affairs, steadfast opposition to Western “bullying” and “hegemonism”.
According to a South China Morning Post report, citing a recently-concluded rare closed-door party meeting on China’s future foreign policy, President Xi Jinping, addressing the two-day Central Conference on Foreign Affairs Work, emphasised the need for diplomats and cadres to “break new ground,” unite the majority of the world, and maintain a resilient “fighting spirit.”
The conference, last convened in 2018, drew participation from top party leaders, including Politburo members, senior government officials, and numerous Chinese ambassadors.
The timing of the meeting is deemed significant in light of domestic socio-economic challenges and escalating international scrutiny, despite recent efforts by Beijing to ease tensions with the US-led West.
Xi, in his address, portrayed China as a “responsible” global power that has risen under his leadership since 2012, overcoming “various difficulties and challenges” in the past decade of external engagements.
However, he cautioned about the “high winds and choppy waters” ahead, signaling a new period of turbulence and transformation, likely alluding to the ongoing feud with the US and its allies over ideological and geopolitical differences.
“China has become a responsible major country with enhanced international influence, stronger capacity to steer new endeavours and greater moral appeal,” South China Morning Post quoted Xi as saying, citing a readout by Xinhua.
“We have showcased distinct Chinese characteristics, style and ethos in our diplomacy, and established the image of a confident, self-reliant, open and inclusive major country with a global vision,” he added.
Xi highlighted China’s comprehensive approach to engaging with various parties, emphasising the establishment of a broad and high-quality global network of partnerships.
He praised the Belt and Road Initiative, his prominent foreign policy and investment project, as the world’s most extensive platform for international cooperation. Xi asserted that China has led the way in reforming the international system and order.
This meeting followed Xi’s recent remarks celebrating Mao Zedong’s legacy and expressing his commitment to strengthening China and revitalising the nation through modernisation efforts on all fronts.
Having secured a third leadership term, Xi, now China’s most influential leader since Mao, reiterated on Tuesday his determination that the motherland must be reunited, coinciding with the upcoming presidential election in Taiwan.
“This is part of the CCP’s efforts to further centralise decision making, to highlight Xi’s contribution to China’s diplomacy in the new era, and to elevate Xi’s political status to the level of Mao,” South China Morning report quoted Zhiqun Zhu, an international relations professor from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, as saying.
He said it was clear Xi called the shots on all important matters, raising some concerns about whether the party had completely departed from collective leadership.
“It’s unclear what Chinese diplomats can do to address serious external challenges. The party’s total control over foreign affairs leaves professional diplomats with little room to manoeuvre,” Zhu said.
The readout made no mention of former foreign minister Qin Gang and former defence minister Li Shangfu, whose removal this year grabbed international headlines, while the men are yet to be accounted for.
In the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad, Xi was confident China still faced “new strategic opportunities” and said China’s diplomacy “will enter a new stage where much more can be accomplished”.
“We must unswervingly uphold the CPC central leadership’s ultimate authority over foreign affairs,” he said, while urging governments at all levels to “keep in mind the big picture” and implement Beijing’s decisions “in both letter and spirit”.
“We must focus on the central task of the CPC and the country, seek progress while maintaining stability, break new ground while upholding fundamental principles and firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” he said.
“We will explore new frontiers in China’s diplomatic theory and practice, foster new dynamics in the relations between China and the world and raise China’s international influence, appeal and power to shape events to a new level. We will create a more favourable international environment and provide more solid strategic support for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through the Chinese path to modernisation,” Xi was quoted as saying.
He said Beijing would continue to “hold the international moral high ground and unite and rally the overwhelming majority in our world”, “carry forward our fighting spirit”, reject “all acts of power politics and bullying” and “leverage our institutional strengths” amid external uncertainties.
“An equal and orderly multipolar world is one in which all countries, regardless of size, are treated as equals, hegemonism and power politics are rejected and democracy is truly promoted in international relations,” he said.
“It is important to resolutely oppose the attempt to roll back globalisation and abuse the concept of security, oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism, firmly promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, overcome the structural problems hindering the healthy development of the world economy, and make economic globalisation more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all,” China’s president said.
“Changes of the world, of our times and of historical significance are unfolding like never before,” Xi said.
“Yet the overall direction of human development and progress will not change, the overall dynamics of world history moving forward amid twists and turns will not change, and the overall trend toward a shared future for the international community will not change. We must have full confidence in these trends of historical impact.”
Author
