Since its inception in 2006, Beijing Xiangshan Forum has adhered to the concept of equality, openness, inclusiveness and mutual understanding. It is committed to gathering wisdom, expanding consensus, enhancing mutual trust, and continuously improving its hierarchy and scale. It has developed into an important platform for international security and defense dialogue among China and foreign countries.
The 9th Beijing Xiangshan Forum will be held from Oct. 20 to 22, under the theme of “Maintaining International Order and Promoting Peace in the Asia-Pacific". The forum aims to discuss how to maintain an international order with the objectives and principles of the UN Charter at its core, and safeguard lasting prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the global peace and stability in the new situation.
To maintain international order, mutual respect is sure to be advocated. The pattern of international relations since modern times has mainly dominated by Western countries, often reflecting their parochial values and international behavior pattern. Power, alliance, and war have become their tools to implement of national policies. Various unfair and unjust actions, including aggression and expansion, colonization and plundering, bigger or stronger countries bullying smaller or weaker ones, have become the basic content of the international relation pattern since modern times. The consequences must be the inevitable escalation of international conflicts, or even large-scale wars.
The two world wars and the US- Soviet Union Cold War are closely related to this pattern of international relations. The basic principles of the UN Charter, including sovereign equality, peaceful settlement of disputes, and non-interference in internal affairs, constitute the basic norms of contemporary international relations with mutual respect at its core. To create a fair and reasonable international order, we should abandon the law of the jungle featuring bullying, and support every country in following a development path in line with its own national conditions, and respect each other's concerns and bear each other's interests in mind.
To maintain international order, universal security must be sought. With the rapid advancement of the global integration process, today's world has long been a community of common destiny with everyone involved. No country can seek absolute security on its own, and no country can gain stability from the turmoil of other countries.
We must establish an awareness of a community with a shared future for mankind. Prejudice and discrimination, hatred and war will only bring disaster and suffering to achieve universal security. Instead, equal coexistence, peaceful development, and common prosperity are the right paths.
In the face of complex and diversified security threats and global challenges, countries should take into account the legitimate concerns of other countries when pursuing their own interests, promote common development of all countries in their own development, and resort to dialogue and consultation in resolving disputes and differences, with a view to achieving common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security.
To maintain international order, win-win cooperation must be strengthened. The zero-sum game is integral to the theory and practice of Western international relations. Many problems of the international politics and economy in contemporary era include the widening economic gap between developed and developing countries in the context of globalization, the war and disorder in the Middle East, and the intensification of games among big powers. All these are related to the zero-sum mentality held by certain countries.
What is different from the zero-sum mentality is the win-win mentality. Through negotiation and cooperation, we can expand common groundand the convergence of interests, and achieve the “multi-win” result. Practices have proven that win-win cooperation can make the cake bigger and bigger, but zero-sum games can only bring harm to both sides. Only by discarding the old thinking that you win or I win, and pursuing a new concept of win-win and multi-win, can we take a new approach to developing state-to-state relations with communication, not confrontation and partnership, not alliance.
To maintain international order, inclusiveness and mutual understanding must be promoted. The ethnocentrism has brought countless pains and disasters to mankind in history, and civilization clashes are frequently heard at present. In fact, every civilization embodies the wisdom and contribution of a nation. Every civilization has got rooted in its own soil of survival.
There is no difference between civilizations, not to mention superiority or inferiority. Civilizations are supposed to resort to dialogue and exchanges in settling disputes, and advocate inclusiveness instead of confrontation. Only the diversity of human civilizations can contribute to the variety of world. Only when diverse civilizations can be in mutual respect, mutual understanding, and harmonious coexistence, can promote the exchanges and harmony across the world.
