I express my thanks to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Institute of Political Studies for organizing this important dialogue forum.
The year 2017 marks a particular year for China and Italy having plenty of contacts. At the beginning of this year, President Sergio Mattarella had a state visit to China. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni attended the "Belt and Road" summit on international cooperation in May. The two countries signed the 2017-2020 Action Plan to strengthen the cooperation on economy, trade, culture and science.
It is an honor to be able to attend the Mediterranean Dialogue Forum. Indeed, there is no more suitable places where we can discuss these major issues affecting the world. The Mediterranean is a place where the three ancient civilizations of the world were born. Meanwhile, this region is facing new challenges at present. I would like to share with you my views on China's policies and propositions in the context of globalization.
First of all, in China, many people hold that the most important driving force for economic growth stems from economic globalization in the quarter-century after the Cold War. The world economy has entered a fast lane and the global economy has increased more than tripled in the past 25 years. It is unprecedented and many more people are getting out of poverty. Without the opportunities offered by economic globalization, it is very difficult to achieve such a rapid expansion of world wealth. The developed countries, as the main promoter of globalization, have benefited greatly from this. Many developing countries have also seized the opportunity and China makes the most outstanding achievements. Under the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, China has risen significantly after the arduous reform and opening up. Through the hard work, China viewed the growth into the second largest economy in the world and living standards of people have been significantly improved.
However, globalization is also criticized for its disadvantages. The financial crisis in 2008 led to the shrinking of global wealth, the decline in trade and the increasing opposition to globalization, but it is impossible to go back. In our opinion, the problem is not globalization itself, but some problems with practices and management. Global governance has not kept pace and the old order and system cannot adequately address the more complex and diverse global challenges.
In recent years, the consensus on improving global governance have been constantly strengthened by various countries and they have begun to take action. For example, the establishment of Group 20, the reform of the International Monetary Fund, the design of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the form of Paris Agreement on Climate Change. However, these are not enough. More balanced growth and distribution should be achieved and the innovative thinking should be mastered to reform and improve the existing international order and mechanism.
In October of this year, the CCP successfully held the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is clear that the main contradiction of the Chinese society in the new era is "the contradiction between the growing need for a better life for the people and the uneven unbalanced development". This judgment means that China has entered a new era. The task of domestic construction and the focus of the party and state are no longer just the economic growth, but also settlement of the imbalanced and inadequate development issue and satisfaction of the increasing demand of the people towards good life. As President Xi Jinping put forward, we must achieve the development of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and co-share. China can not pursue its development goals in a vacuum. An overall peaceful external environment is necessary for us and we need to work more extensively with various countries in the world. Therefore, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China advocates building a new type of international relations and building a community of human destiny.
In the field of global governance, China hopes to achieve a win-win situation through business cooperation and common development. For instance, China has proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative with the core word of interconnection. The developed coastal provinces in southern China are linked to the global market by sea. While the western region, which is now enjoying the next wave of growth, can access Europe by land. The "Belt and Road" initiative can give full play to China's unique advantages and make use of accumulated rich experience, technology and funds to contribute to and facilitate new economic and trade exchanges between Asia and Europe and the world. The "Belt and Road" initiative has begun to show its effect. Italy is also one of the earliest countries to participate in this initiative and signed a protocol with China. Both parties are encouraged to seize the opportunity.
People hold different opinions upon the result of globalization acting on other areas. Most people now realize that or so the transformation of the world with Western values and institutional models has not been effective and the old problems have not been solved and more new problems have been created in the past 20 years. Many of the negative effects have exerted a profound impact on some countries so that the displacement of people has aroused. As the Chinese ancestors saying, Orange is orange when it was born in Huainan; while orange is trifoliate when it was born in Huaibei. Similar leaves but different tastes. why is it? Different soil and water. The wisdom of the ancients reminded us how important it is to respect differences and do not impose upon others.
One reason for the lagging cooperation in international security governance is the existence of structural obstacles. As the nation with the most militarily powerful in the world, the United States did not establish an inclusive security framework after the Cold War. Instead, it relied on the military alliance system for world security. However, the system upholds the principle of exclusivity, sometimes at the expense of insecurity of non-member states. For example, the United States emphasizes the interests of its allies in territorial disputes over the East China Sea and South China Sea and it will not admit the security interests of non-allies such as China.
The Korean Peninsula is a more unfortunate case. The U.S. military did not withdraw from the peninsula and formed a long-term military confrontation after the Korean War. The United States and North Korea have shown so little mutual trust that any agreement reached by any bilateral or multilateral diplomacy can not be fully implemented. The United States emphasizes the security of itself and its allies so as to pressure the North Korean military in successive years and advocate more sanctions. While North Korea did not hesitate to threaten regional security and kept testing nuclear tests to create a vicious cycle of mutual stimulation and spiral decline for the purpose of ultimate self-protection. The world is witnessing the increasingly serious situation on the peninsula.
The whole world can only be safe until all countries are not threatened and feel secure. China's concept of community security can be summed up as follows: 1. Common security means that universal security can not be achieved without the security of other countries. 2. Comprehensive security is to co-ordinate and maintain the security of traditional areas and non-traditional areas. 3. Cooperation and security implies to promote the security of all countries, regions and even the world through dialogue and cooperation. 4. Sustainable security means to pay emphasis on both safety and development. Development is an important way to achieve security for many developing countries.
China must continuously enhance its own national defense strength, protect its citizens and state interests, and properly handle relevant security challenges. In the field of international security, China plays a major role within the framework of the United Nations. For example, China is the country that has made the largest contribution to peacekeeping among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Furthermore, the Chinese naval escort formation has taken an active part in the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden since 2008.
International cooperation and the international system must keep pace with the times because this world is constantly changing. If the major powers cling to groups and exclusive concepts and can not get rid of the inertia of geopolitical competition, they will be hard to form a joint force to deal with the new challenges. China advocates the establishment of a community of human destinies. We should build a common roof to maximally accommodate the interests and governance concepts of all parties. What we should do is sharing instead of splitting up.