Safer world requires saying no to hegemony: China Daily editorial

With the hostilities in Ukraine showing no signs of abating and geopolitical tensions increasing on multiple fronts, Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi's keynote speech at the Munich Security Conference expounded on China's remedy for the world's woes saying that: "No matter how complex the issue is, dialogue and consultation should not be abandoned. No matter how sharp the dispute is, we should adhere to political settlement. No matter how difficult the situation is, we should give peace a chance."

Addressing the conference on Saturday, Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China will soon publish a concept paper on its Global Security Initiative, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping last year.

The initiative points out that a safer world can only be achieved through a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security perspective, which recognizes that all countries have legitimate security concerns, and underscores the need for efforts to realize a balanced, effective security mechanism for all.

The concept paper will put more flesh on the bones of that initiative by providing more systematic ideas and more feasible measures to solve global security problems.

How to promote peace and development is the main issue facing humanity. China, which has remained a reliable stabilizer for world peace and security, has put forward the Global Security Initiative and the Global Development Initiative as two starter engines for actions to achieve common security and shared development amid the increasingly complicated and intertwined global challenges and the rapid changes sweeping the world.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that the whole of humanity is inextricably linked and has a shared future. If the Ukraine crisis has proved a point, it is that the security concerns and sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected.

Reaffirming China's consistent stance on Ukraine, Wang said that it can be summed up as: to promote peace and promote talks. To this end, he said that China will release a paper expounding on its position and its suggestions on how to arrive at a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.

Ukraine is just one of the security issues plaguing the world, and still more loom as the United States and its Western allies seek to resolve differences and disputes through power politics and are pursuing "absolute security", or exclusive security for themselves, by forming cliques and promoting bloc confrontation. The world needs more than ever to shore up peace, stability and cooperation and say no to hegemony and confrontation.

As Wang said of China's development path, peaceful development is not an expedient measure, let alone diplomatic rhetoric, but a strategic choice made by China after profound reflection on history.

Likewise to make the world safer, all countries need to make the choice to do so. They should choose dialogue instead of force.