World Peace Discussed at Forum

By staff reporter LI YUAN

For over a century, from the first Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the PRC in 1949, China suffered profoundly under the aggression and bullying of big powers, and has hence come to appreciate independence and peace more than any other country. China will never inflict the agony it endured upon others,” stated State Councilor Yang Jiechi at the opening of the Third World Peace Forum.

Held in Beijing from June 21 to 22, the forum was jointly sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA), and attended by seven former heads of state, nearly 50 foreign ambassadors to China and 110-plus chiefs of Chinese and foreign think tanks.

At the opening ceremony Mr. Yang delivered a speech elaborating on China’s peaceful development. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) later gave a lecture on China’s diplomatic and security policies.

The only unofficial international conference dedicated to global security, the World Peace Forum offers a platform for scholars and officials to speak freely and frankly. This year, it has attracted more attention amid increasingly complicated situations and intensifying international conflicts.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sent a video message to the Third World Peace Forum, indicating his views on maintaining world peace and establishing a new international order.

Asian Security Concept

In recent years, discussions on China, in particular its diplomatic and security policies, have topped the bill at almost all international events. At the Fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in May Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China would work with all parties to advocate a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable Asian security concept. Commentators predicted that this overture would open the door to unprecedented across-the-board security cooperation in Asia, a region with an increasingly fickle and complicated security situation.

“We must not find ourselves in a position where the body has progressed into the 21st century while the mind is stuck in a rut of Cold War thinking and zero-sum games,” the Chinese president said. “Security must be universal, equal and inclusive. We cannot tolerate the security of only one or some countries while leaving the rest insecure; neither should we seek so-called absolute security at the expense of others.”

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was not at the opening ceremony of the World Peace Forum due to health reasons, but he sent a video message in which he proposed that the Asia-Pacific countries are now facing a common challenge – seeking a 21st century international order. He noted that regional mechanisms are still by far shaped by the views of regional powers and their pursuit of national interests, instead of those of all players involved.