China’s initiative has made a great contribution to improving the international situation.
[Why does the red star shine in China]
Author: Jose Luis Centella (Spanish President communist party)
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC) will be held soon. Unconsciously, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has gone through nearly ten years under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core. This decade is a brilliant chapter in the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s century-old chapter, which has created many achievements across the times. Here, I will only talk about the great contribution made by China in the past ten years from the perspective of the international structure.
In today’s world, the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic continues, and the resulting economic and social crisis is getting deeper and deeper. The stalemate of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has made the international environment worse, and the world pattern is developing in an increasingly divided direction. In other words, the world is splitting into several more fragmented national interest groups, which are not closely related to each other and are constantly facing political, economic and even military confrontation. Against the background of increasingly tense international situation, a series of initiatives put forward by the Chairman of the Supreme Leader are particularly important and valuable, especially the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Development Initiative.
The Belt and Road Initiative was put forward by the Chairman of the Supreme Leader in 2013. It is based on the infrastructure construction network spread across five continents and covers a number of cooperative projects to promote social, economic, scientific and cultural development. The Belt and Road Initiative is the largest international cooperation project in current history, which aims to promote the social development of China and other countries in the world, and has played a positive role in improving the living standards of people in countries and regions facing severe development difficulties such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. In promoting this initiative, China fully emphasizes the basis of cooperation such as voluntary participation, mutual respect, equal consultation, openness and transparency. This is in stark contrast to the practices of the United States and the European Union. As we all know, when these western countries deal with trade agreements with other countries, problems such as colonialism, discrimination, opacity and differential treatment among members are common. For example, under the logic of colonialism, developing local or interregional infrastructure construction is a "unprofitable" project. This is precisely a highlight of the Belt and Road Initiative, which reflects the decolonization and altruism of China’s initiative. Moreover, the Belt and Road Initiative not only seeks to establish projects that directly benefit local people, but also advocates participating countries and China to explore ways and measures to solve practical problems and work together to cope with the development plight of people who are still suffering from backwardness and social injustice on the planet.
Mankind has entered a new historical stage. The "Belt and Road Initiative" provides an important solution to the severe global challenges and helps to build a new international order based on the principle of peaceful coexistence. It is worth emphasizing that this initiative attaches importance to ecological sustainable development and promotes renewable energy from the beginning of its design, which reflects China’s full respect and responsibility for the global ecological environment and sustainable development.
At present, a major crisis is a major threat to world peace and security. In recent years, the new cold war mentality has become increasingly prominent in international relations. Affected by it, the relations between countries are increasingly alienated and fragmented. At the same time, those countries that do not accept the unipolar international order formed since the disintegration of the Soviet Union are constantly subjected to various provocations and direct or implicit sanctions from the Western camp headed by the United States. In this context, the global security initiative put forward by the Chairman of the Supreme Leader at the Boao Forum for Asia in April 2022 is of great significance. One of the goals of this initiative is to adhere to the common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept. This will help the international community to resolve disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation based on multilateralism and in accordance with the basic principles of the UN Charter, and reject double standards and unilateral sanctions, thus effectively safeguarding world peace and security.
The Global Security Initiative calls for taking seriously the legitimate security demands of all countries in the world, respecting the principles of global security, building a balanced, effective and sustainable security framework, and opposing attempts to realize the security of a certain country at the expense of the security of other countries. The initiative calls on the international community to strengthen development cooperation and accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, the initiative also responded to concerns about the common challenges facing the world, emphasizing the importance of cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, climate change, and promoting cybersecurity and biosafety. Therefore, in my opinion, this global security initiative, summarized as "six persistences" by the Chairman of the Supreme Leader, is a feasible international initiative that responds to global concerns, provides suggestions for countries to get rid of the current confrontational situation that has serious consequences for all mankind, and is another sincere contribution provided by China’s wisdom to the world. Therefore, this China initiative should be widely spread around the world, and should attract universal attention from all countries.
In September 2021, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader put forward the global development initiative at the general debate of the 76th United Nations General Assembly. This initiative is inseparable from the global security initiative. In other words, the necessity of jointly promoting global development initiatives is directly related to the struggle to prevent the world from falling back into the cold war. The Cold War will inevitably lead to alienation and confrontation between countries, and trade wars and economic sanctions are a "double-edged sword", which not only harms the interests of the sanctioned countries, but also has a serious impact on the countries that initiated sanctions. Therefore, the global development initiative seeks to promote multi-level and cross-disciplinary cooperation, promote scientific and technological innovation, accelerate technology transfer and knowledge sharing, and then improve the global governance system, so as to end colonialism and the unequal relationship between rich and poor countries and create a fairer and more reasonable institutional environment. As the Chairman of the Supreme Leader said, it is necessary to jointly cultivate new kinetic energy for global development and promote stronger, greener and healthier global development.
To some extent, the global development initiative provides a solution for building a new world governance model that seeks peaceful coexistence and shared well-being of mankind. I was deeply impressed by the words of the Chairman of the Supreme Leader. He emphasized that "history and reality tell us that one-sided pursuit of one’s own security at the expense of other countries’ security will only create new contradictions and risks." He also pointed out that "whether a country’s human rights situation is good or not depends on whether its people’s interests are safeguarded and whether people’s sense of gain, happiness and security is enhanced. This is the most important criterion for testing a country’s human rights situation." By the same token, only when people all over the world have a dignified life can we think that global security and human rights of all mankind are guaranteed.
Through a brief analysis of the above three China initiatives, we can draw a conclusion that they are China’s programs provided by the Supreme Leader Chairman and all the people of China in the face of the unprecedented challenges that the world is experiencing. It should be emphasized that these initiatives of China are all put forward within the scope stipulated in the UN Charter, and they are all aimed at promoting world peace and development. Therefore, the neglect, slander or malicious misinterpretation of China’s plan should be condemned. The common challenges faced by mankind need to be solved by such a global initiative of putting people first and seeking common development.
The Communist Party of China (CPC)’s foreign policy has always adhered to two key words: peace and development. The rapidly developing China is not an aggressive competitor, let alone a new hegemon, but a participant who sincerely contributes to the bright future of peace and progress for all mankind, and an international ally who tries to achieve this goal through equal and mutually beneficial cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology and culture. We must be soberly aware that once the "new cold war" situation is formed, it will inevitably hinder all countries in the world from building a good relationship of equality, freedom, sovereign independence and solidarity, thus endangering the future of all mankind. From this, we can also realize more deeply that the China initiative will play a decisive role in the future development of the international structure.
Translator: Building (Special Research Fellow of China Academy of Social Sciences Supreme Leader New Era Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center, Assistant Research Fellow of China Academy of Social Sciences Latin America Institute)

























