Global Times special correspondent Li Xun] Russia and Ukraine are both friendly countries of China. The war between Russia and Ukraine that has not subsided so far is worrying. "China has always decided its position and policy in accordance with the merits of the matter itself, and has always stood on the side of peace and justice." "It is the United States, not China, that has always spread false information and lies. China has always made an independent, objective and fair judgment based on the historical latitude and right and wrong of the Ukrainian issue." "China is the last to see conflict and war. At the same time, it also believes that extreme pressure and sanctions can not solve any problems, but will fuel the fire and intensify contradictions. China is committed to promoting peace and negotiations." Over the past four months since the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, China has repeatedly stressed that it is willing to be a "booster" to promote peace and negotiations. However, the United States, Britain and a few other western countries have repeatedly continued to "arch fire" the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, creating chaos in the world and bringing economic decline and social division to their own countries. Recognizing the essence of these problems can help us straighten out our mentality and have a deeper understanding of the important role China plays in the international community.
China calls for creating a favorable atmosphere and conditions for direct negotiations between the parties
Since the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States, the West and other external forces have always increased their intervention in the economic, military, diplomatic and other fields, which has gradually evolved into a "proxy conflict". In mid June, the United States offered additional security assistance of US $1billion for Ukraine, especially the provision of new artillery, coastal defense weapons and advanced rocket systems, which made it more difficult for the international community to participate in politics to resolve the conflict. According to the statistics of the associated press and other media, together with the largest single amount of military assistance from the United States after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has promised to provide $5.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
The United States provided Ukraine with the "hippocampus" multiple rocket launcher system. Source: IC Photo
Such a "proxy conflict" has the practical possibility of causing a direct military conflict crisis between the United States and Russia or between NATO and Russia. Considering the fact that many NATO countries and Russia have nuclear weapons, if the existing conflict between Russia and Ukraine cannot be alleviated and continues to heat up, the possibility of a greater disaster cannot be completely ruled out in Europe. The urgent task is to return to rationality and calm in dealing with international issues, find out the crux of the problem, and promote peace and negotiation, so that the conflict in the European region can be controlled in time and effectively resolved.
The greatest achievement of the European countries in ending the cold war should have been to create an opportunity to truly bury the division of Europe and realize the maximum reunification of Europe. However, more than 30 years after the cold war, the international structure of Europe ended by completely isolating Russia from the European political and security process, which led to a more divided situation in Europe. The dream of major European countries to build "Pan European security" has also been frustrated by the exclusive and hierarchical security framework created by the United States' stubbornly promoting the expansion and transformation of NATO. Russia's status as a European power and its major and reasonable strategic concerns have been completely deprived and despised, which constitutes a "time bomb" that always exists in the construction of European security. Effectively promoting European Strategic Autonomy and straightening out the original relationship between Russia and Europe have become the fundamental way to resolve the Russian Ukrainian conflict and the European security dilemma once and for all. This is exactly what China stated that it must "completely abandon the Cold War mentality", pay attention to and respect the reasonable security concerns of all countries, and "form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations". Similarly, China's basic position on respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and abiding by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations is consistent and clear, and such a position is now more important and urgent than ever before.
Under the coercion of the United States, more and more European countries have lost the will to build strategic autonomy, and the tragedy of the great European division caused by NATO's "desire to drive Russia out of Europe" will continue to intensify at present. In contrast, China's proposal on the resolution of the Russian Ukrainian conflict and the European security dilemma has no private interests, stands objectively and fairly, and urges the relevant parties to consult and negotiate with each other according to the merits of the issue, so as to solve their disputes constructively.
On February 28, local time, at the emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Ukraine, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said that the dramatic changes in the situation in Ukraine "are something that China does not want to see and do not meet the interests of any party". From the beginning of the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, China stated its position, welcomed the direct dialogue and negotiation between Russia and Ukraine, "Ukraine should become a bridge between the East and the west, rather than the forefront of the confrontation between major powers", and called for "creating a favorable atmosphere and conditions for the direct negotiation between the parties, because this is the fundamental way to solve the problem". China's proposition of "adhering to the peaceful settlement of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation" shows both morally and realistically that China is a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order, and a reliable force to promote the easing rather than expansion of the current Russian Ukrainian conflict.
Brzezinski said that the US side should seek help from China
In addition to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, how to solve the Iran nuclear issue and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is also a great test for the international community. In response to these two major events, China's actions also reflect the constructive role of presiding over justice, persuading peace and promoting negotiations.
Since the 1990s, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula has been a major issue perplexing the security of Northeast Asia. The key crux of this problem is the deep hostility between North Korea and the United States and the lack of sufficient security guarantee of North Korea, which is highlighted by the frequent military exercises of the United States and South Korea in the peninsula region, as well as the nuclear weapon tests and missile launches of North Korea, and mutual accusations in the diplomatic field. In view of the difficulties in direct dialogue between the DPRK and the United States, in order to ease tensions, China has coordinated all parties to promote the formation of a six-party (China, North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia) talks mechanism, so as to achieve the goal of resolving hostility or mistrust between the DPRK and the United States and relevant parties on the Peninsula through dialogue and consultation and ensuring that the overall security interests of the region are not damaged. Since August, 2003, in five years, the six parties of North Korea, South Korea, China, the United States, Russia and Japan have held six rounds of talks in China to conduct in-depth exchanges on the core security concerns of all parties. This mechanism has played a positive role in promoting mutual understanding of each other's positions and demonstrated China's good will to promote peace and negotiations. China's diplomatic innovation has also made the "Beijing six party talks" a landmark international political vocabulary.
When the second round of the six-party talks was held in February 2004, the parties worked day and night to finalize a common document for consultation. When talking with US Secretary of State Powell, Li Zhaoxing, then Chinese foreign minister, also said that "you can't be fat with one bite". In July, 2005, the fourth round of the six-party talks held in Diaoyutai, Beijing, was catching up with a continuous high temperature. In order to prevent delegates and journalists from participating in the six-party talks from getting angry, China specially prepared mung bean soup, which Beijing people like to drink. According to the host, "don't underestimate this bowl of secret mung bean soup. It can definitely prevent heatstroke and reduce fire." This gag is full of Metaphors - with China's mediation and efforts, the convening of the six-party talks eased the tension and reduced the possibility of North Korea and the United States going off the hook, and the "defusing" effect of mung bean soup was also recognized by the representatives of the six parties - China facilitated the six-party talks, which set a framework for solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
However, in the past 10 years, the overall Asia Pacific strategy of the United States has undergone a major adjustment focusing on the competition among major powers. It has intensified the tension on the peninsula by strengthening the alliance between the United States, South Korea and the United States and Japan, and gradually promoted the idea of solidifying the strategic dependence of South Korea and Japan on the United States. In 2017, the United States deployed the "THAAD" anti missile system in South Korea, which not only damaged the stability of the peninsula itself, but also directly regarded the Korean Peninsula as a pawn to gain the so-called "advantage" in its strategic competition with China.
The objectives set by the six party talks and the principle of simultaneous, equal and balanced resolution of the concerns of all parties are still of guiding significance. In the face of the continuing complex situation of the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, China calls on all parties concerned to maintain calm and restraint, adhere to the correct direction of dialogue and consultation, and avoid actions that may aggravate tensions and lead to miscarriage of justice. China also calls on the direct parties to the Peninsula issue, namely the United States and North Korea, to restart the process of direct dialogue as soon as possible. Since 2018, the leaders of the United States and North Korea have held many meetings and reached important consensus on improving bilateral relations and promoting the denuclearization of the peninsula. Since then, North Korea has made a commitment to suspend nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, taking an important step towards the denuclearization of the peninsula. When the dialogue between the United States and North Korea continued to reach an impasse in 2021, the denuclearization process stalled and the situation on the peninsula increased again.
China is also a strong advocate for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Brzezinski, former national security affairs assistant to the president of the United States, wrote in the Houston Chronicle in December 2007 that China strongly advocated that the United States should maintain strategic patience in dealing with Iran. He believed that from China's position, the United States should avoid being dragged into tit for tat confrontation with Iran and should focus on finding a solution to the problem through negotiations. The wise American strategist also said that the efforts and experience of solving the North Korean nuclear issue through negotiation (six-party talks) can be used to solve the Iranian nuclear issue, and suggested that the United States should seek the help of China.
Similar to the fact that the security dilemma on the Korean Peninsula stems from the hostile policy of the United States towards North Korea, the root cause of the Iranian nuclear issue is the U.S. policy of extreme pressure on Iran. On July 14, 2015, after difficult negotiations, Iran and the six countries on the Iranian nuclear issue (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) reached a "landmark" agreement. According to the comprehensive agreement on Iran's nuclear program, Iran promised to limit its nuclear program, and the international community lifted sanctions against Iran accordingly. China, the United Nations, the European Union and other countries or organizations support the plan. However, the trump administration unilaterally abruptly withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and instead imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran. For such a serious agreement, the willful act of the United States of America to "withdraw as soon as it says" has been strongly condemned by the international community.
Facing the dilemma of the Iranian nuclear agreement again, according to the merits of the incident, China adheres to a fair, fair and responsible position, and clearly points out that "the United States unilaterally withdrew from the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue and continued to exert pressure on Iran, which is the initiator of the current Iranian nuclear crisis". The wrong practice of unilateral sanctions and long arm jurisdiction imposed by the United States on Iran has also created obstacles to the political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.
The United States' militarism and external expansion are a dead end
As we all know, the United States has become the largest destructive force in the construction of the international order. It did not make full use of the critical transformation period of the international pattern in the first 10 years after the cold war to promote the establishment of the truly most inclusive regional and global security architecture. On the contrary, it has always been on the wrong path of militarism.
In the first 20 years of this century, such a "super powerful" country was deeply mired in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which made the United States suffer from a rare multi-disciplinary recession and social division in nearly a century. Even after the "Capitol Hill riots" last year, public opinion worried that "the United States is once again on the brink of civil war". This shows that the soft power and hard power advocated by the United States at home and abroad have been seriously weakened due to its improper strategy. However, the United States has never learned a lesson. Instead, it repeatedly advocated the absurd propositions of "defeating Russia" and "fiercely challenging China" at the recent G7 summit and NATO summit.
Militarism and external expansion are a dead end. The United States, which is lazy in self reflection and insists on creating turbulence and division in its own country and other regions, cannot avoid the fate of collapse in the future. When we recognize or study the United States, we should not only see that its strength is still in a certain advantage, but also recognize the tragic reality that its decision-making groups abuse their own strength, leading to self weakening and bringing disasters and turbulence to many countries and regions. Any mentality of "advocating beauty" and "fearing beauty" that deviates from these realistic thoughts is morbid.
At present, it is worth paying attention to that the United States has accelerated the Asia Pacific transformation process of NATO on the grounds of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The new NATO strategic concept paper shows that the organization will strengthen cooperation with Asia Pacific countries in the next few years. The United States is trying to use the so-called "NATO experience" to complete the shaping process of the Asia Pacific regional security architecture. All these actions of the US side are without exception to accelerate the overall strategic confrontation layout against China at the regional and global levels. The bad tradition of the United States that it does not know how to plan its foreign strategy without external rivals or enemies makes it difficult for its resources to be used to resolve domestic problems. On the contrary, it is more difficult for it to persuade other "allies" to sacrifice themselves for the U.S. strategy. How can the United States, which has suffered repeated setbacks and defeats in small and medium-sized countries in the Middle East, win in the competition and confrontation it provoked with China?
Back to the theme, in the context of the critical transformation of the international pattern and the frequent occurrence of international crises, the world needs peace and tranquility more than fierce disputes or even wars. China's diplomatic philosophy and practice have brought more hope to people and more truly beautiful expectations to the world.
