A Call for Peace

A while ago, when visiting different places, people asked me, “Ambassador Wu, will there be a war?”

The deepening crisis in Ukraine since February this year led to a referendum in Crimea and its joining the Russian Federation. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have heated up. Heads of G-7 nations convened discussions on the crisis in Ukraine, and NATO held councils of foreign ministers announcing a pause in all cooperation with Russia, to protest its intention to absorb Crimea. Relations between Western countries and Russia have been at their frostiest since the Cold War.

After the end of the Cold War in 1991, despite continuous regional wars, the world has been generally at peace, and the global economy has seen unprecedented development. But the present public debate on war can be seen as a first since the Cold War.

Where is the world heading to, war or peace? Are peace, development and win-win cooperation still the prevailing trends at present? Will China adhere to its peaceful path of development? These are all major issues confronting the world. People hoped to get some answers to these questions during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe. Europe has been the main battlefield for two world wars, so it is fitting that President Xi Jinping chose this European trip to address these pressing questions.

On Xi’s 10-day trip to Europe, he made many speeches and met many people, the call for peace a constant theme in all his talks. On March 23, he penned a column for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, declaring his visit to Europe was to promote peace.

On March 27, on the 50th anniversary of China and France establishing diplomatic relations, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the Chinese dream is for peace, and the Chinese dream also needs peace to make it a reality. He went on to say that harmony throughout all societies with everyone at peace has been the dream of China over thousands of years. Having gone through so many trials and tribulations throughout history, Chinese people value and long for peace and love to build up and guard a harmonious world together with all peoples in the world.

On March 28, President Xi made a speech in Berlin, stressing that China would remain steadfastly on the peaceful path to development, not only to develop itself via maintaining world peace, but also to apply its own progress toward safeguarding world peace. He indicated that taking this peaceful road of progress has been the country’s response to concerns of the international community regarding China’s development, along with Chinese people’s awareness of and self-confidence in their country’s development goals. He believed that this awareness and confidence originate in the perpetual nurturing of Chinese civilization, and the country’s perception of its own development goals and conditions, as well as an understanding of world trends.

April 1 was the last day of President Xi’s visit to Europe. In a keynote speech to the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, he proclaimed, “We all need peace, multilateralism and dialogue, instead of war, unilateralism and confrontation... China stands ready to work with the EU to let in the sunlight of peace to drive away the shadows of war.”

President Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe provides eloquent proof that China is an unswerving source of strength when it comes to upholding world peace and stability. The call for peace has been the need of the Chinese people as well as that of other peoples in the world.

Since his speech to the College of Europe, many Europeans have commended Xi’s call for peace. They told me how it is most timely, at a moment when the inciting of tense situations and rash talk of war makes this a very dangerous period. President Xi Jinping’s endeavor challenges the dangerous trends and is welcomed by all people. His visit to Europe serves as an important contribution to world peace.