How China is building a safe, peaceful country and a more secure world

April 15 marks the 10th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping's proposal for a holistic approach to national security.

Originating the approach in 2014, Xi called for acquiring an accurate understanding of the new developments and trends of the national security situation, adhering to a holistic view and developing national security with Chinese characteristics.

Emphasizing coordination between "self-security" and "common security," the approach promotes establishing a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and building a community with a shared future for mankind featuring universal security.

For a more secure world

Mounting global security challenges now are a constant reminder that the global community faces a momentous and urgent choice between a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and the Cold War-style paradigm that merely caters to the hegemony of one and absolute security of a few.

The Global Security Initiative (GSI) proposed by China has provided a solution to complex security challenges, promoting world peace and stability.

Last April, the foreign ministers of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran shook hands in Beijing, marking significant milestone in Riyadh-Tehran relations. The two countries' resumption of diplomatic ties under China's mediation signaled the possibility that humanity can rise above conflict and achieve reconciliation for the common good.

The historic thaw came almost a year after the GSI proposal, which advocates a new path to security featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win over zero-sum.

China has cooperated with various parties in international peacekeeping, counterterrorism, combating climate change, disaster prevention and combating transnational crime and dispatched multiple batches of peacekeeping troops to Lebanon, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), injecting impetus into world peace and stability.

On November 15, 2023, the first resolution since this round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out was adopted under China's presidency of the UN Security Council, beginning initial steps toward a ceasefire.

China has also released "China's Position on the Afghan Issue" and sought to further consolidate the consensus and synergy among regional countries to stabilize and assist Afghanistan, playing a constructive role in the political settlement of regional hotspot issues.

"Promoting dialogue and consultation, defusing and resolving disputes have become the defining feature of the GSI," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong said on March 28 at a session on the GSI at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024.

For a safe, peaceful country

Over the past decade, China has enacted or revised a series of laws to safeguard national security, including those covering the country's national security, food security, countering foreign sanctions, counter-espionage, anti-terrorism, cyber security, biosecurity, data security, as well as the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The country has also achieved rapid economic development and long-term social stability by insisting on coordinating development and security over the past 10 years.

In 2023, China's grain output rose 1.3 percent year on year to a record high of 695.41 million tonnes, further consolidating the country's foundation of food security.

During the central financial work conference held last November, the prevention and control of financial risks was put in a more important position, aiming to hold the red line of forestalling systemic financial risks.

Solid efforts have been made to ensure stable performance in employment, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and market expectation.