Editor's note: John Gong is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIIBE) and VP-Research and Strategy at the UIBE-Israel. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang's speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023 on March 30 may be rightfully characterized as essentially a peace speech. He began his speech by invoking the notion of "a community of a shared future for mankind" proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and urged efforts to jointly safeguard a peaceful and stable environment for development and inject more certainty into the volatile global environment.

He said the following, apparently with respect to Asia in particular, "The more turbulent the world situation is, the more we must cherish the hard-won precious wealth and resolutely safeguard the hard-won peace. We must adhere to good-neighborliness and friendship, share weal and woe, and share destiny, and ensure lasting peace and stability in Asia. We must also adhere to global security initiatives, oppose unilateral sanctions, long-arm jurisdiction, and choosing sides, blocs, and the new Cold War, and resolutely resolve national differences and disputes through peaceful means, to jointly safeguard world peace and tranquility."

Later on, Premier Li spoke about the vision of "a community of shared future for Asia." 

Peace is a lasting theme in international relations, and it is particularly relevant against the backdrop of a major ongoing conflict in Europe. China's 12-point peace position on the Ukraine crisis has been widely recognized by the international community for its fairness and constructiveness. But some Western countries are unhappy with China's proposal and promote false narratives that attempt to undermine China's neutral position.

China has no plan or any intention for war and treasures peace, and particularly peace in Asia, whole-heartedly, and will safeguard peace together with its Asian neighbors and partners. Li stressed that in the past decade, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has maintained steady economic development and played the role of "ballast stone" and "power source" of the world economy, injecting more certainty into world peace and development.

In the speech, Li mentioned "the Bandung Spirit," the consensus coming out of the Bandung conference in 1955 attended by representatives from 29 newly independent Asian and African countries. A defining moment of the Bandung conference was when then Indonesian President Sukarno famously said the following: "It is a new departure in the history of the world that leaders of Asian and African peoples can meet together in their own countries to discuss and deliberate upon matters of common concern. Only a few decades ago it was frequently necessary to travel to other countries and even other continents before the spokesmen of our peoples could confer."

That statement marked the beginning of a long journey that led to the vision that matters in the developing world, matters in the Global South, and particularly matters in Asia, which would have to be addressed and resolved by ourselves as Asians, as people of the developing world and the Global South. Regarding peace, we don't need the so-called security architecture imposed on us by some Western powers. We Asians understand the importance of peace and know how to safeguard that peace ourselves.

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