I'm Robert Lawrence Kuhn and here's what I'm watching: China's Global Security Initiative, GSI, which China says adapts to profound international changes by addressing traditional and non-traditional security risks and challenges with a win-win mindset — and by creating a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win results over zero-sum games. Anyone remotely sentient will read the implied contrast with American policy.

Applications of the GSI, according to China, include the China-facilitated agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, longtime antagonists, to restore diplomatic relations, and China's 12-point position paper on resolving the Russia-Ukraine war. The former is praised almost universally; the latter remains controversial, perceived, at least in Europe, as tilting toward Russia.

The GSI, China says, is an international public good, reflecting China's increasing awareness of its duty to help maintain world peace and to safeguard global security. As a top-of-mind example, China says it is committed to handling disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests through negotiation and consultation. (To be balanced, some foreign analysts say China prefers to negotiate such contentious matters bilaterally, one on one, not under multilateral rules or in multilateral forums — yet China does engage with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN.)

Exemplifying the GSI, China is the second largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessment. China has dispatched more than 100 naval vessels in 45 task forces to waters off the coast of Somalia to provide escort for over 7,000 Chinese and foreign ships. China says it is committed to fulfilling its role as a responsible major country, pushing to resolve international and regional flash points.

The six GSI resolute commitments: ensuring comprehensive and sustainable security; abiding by the UN Charter, rejecting Cold War mentality, opposing unilateralism, and saying no to bloc politics and camp-based confrontation (with not-so-veiled implications vis-à-vis the U.S.); taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously and upholding the principle of indivisible security (with not-so-veiled implications for Russia-Ukraine); effective, sustainable security architecture; peacefully resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation, and opposing the arbitrary use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction (another U.S. allusion); security in both traditional and non-traditional domains, such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity, and biosecurity.

That's five of the six — the one I left out is most important: respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; upholding non-interference in others'internal affairs; and respecting the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries.

I could write several commentaries on each of those phrases. To some foreign analysts, the GSI is a manifesto for an alternative system of international affairs to the current "rules based"order led by the U.S. and its partners in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. For one, the GSI adopts Russia's concept of "indivisible security," which to China means "taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously," tacitly blaming U.S.-led NATO for Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine.

Though many GSI elements are not new, the GSI forms a coherent whole and emerges as China's grand vision of a new world order for global governance‚which would, over time, enhance Chinese influence and diminish America's.

The world is watching. So am I. I'm Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Script: Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Editors: Xiao Qiong, Yang Yutong, Hao Xinxin

Designer: Qi Haiming

Producer: Wang Ying

Chief Editor: Li Shouen

Supervisors: Xiao Jian, Adam Zhu

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