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06 August 2002, Geneva
I. Introduction
Mankind has experienced the scourge of countless wars, particularly, the two
world wars and the four-decade confrontation of cold war in the last century. As
proven by history, force cannot fundamentally resolve disputes and conflicts,
and the security concept and regime based on the use of force and the threat to
use force can hardly bring about lasting peace. It is the common call of people
to discard the old way of thinking and replace it with new concepts and means to
seek and safeguard security. Against this backdrop, the new security concept
featuring dialogue and cooperation has emerged as one of the trends of the
times.
II. Background
The new security concept is, in essence, to rise above one-sided security and
seek common security through mutually beneficial cooperation. It is a concept
established on the basis of common interests and is conducive to social
progress.
After the cold war, the international situation has become characterized by
relaxed international relations and growing world economy. Under the new
historical conditions, the meaning of the security concept has evolved to be
multifold with its contents extending from military and political to economic,
science and technology, environment, culture and many other areas. The means to
seek security are being diversified. Strengthening dialogue and cooperation is
regarded as the fundamental approach to common security. The September 11
incident has glaringly demonstrated that security threats in today’s world tend
to be multi-faceted and global in scope. Countries share greater common security
interests and are more interdependent on one another for security.
An increasing number of countries wish to build national and international
security on the basis of the following principles:
——To conduct cooperation on the basis of the UN Charter, the Five Principles of
Peaceful Coexistence and other widely recognized norms governing international
relations, and give full play to the leading role of the United Nations;
——To peacefully resolve territorial and border disputes and other controversial
issues through negotiations;
——To reform and improve the existing international economic and financial
organizations and promote common prosperity in line with the principle of
reciprocity and mutual benefit and common development;
——To place emphasis on non-traditional security areas such as combating
terrorism and transnational crimes, in addition to the traditional security
areas like preventing foreign invasion and safeguarding territorial integrity;
——To conduct effective disarmament and arms control with broad participation in
line with the principle of justice, comprehensiveness, rationality and balance,
prevent the proliferation of weapons of massive destruction, uphold the current
international arms control and disarmament regime and refrain from arms race.
The formation and development of the foregoing ideas about security represent
progress in human civilization and constitute the basis of the new security
concept.
III. Policy
China is a strong advocate of the new security concept. In 1996, in light of the
trend of the times and the characteristics of the Asia-Pacific region, China put
forward the initiative that countries in the region jointly cultivate a new
concept of security, which focuses on enhancing trust through dialogue and
promoting security through cooperation. Since the Chinese leaders have called
for the establishment of a new security concept on many occasions both at
bilateral meetings and multi-lateral fora in recent years, the new security
concept has become an important component of China’s foreign policies.
In China’s view, the core of such new security concept should include mutual
trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination.
Mutual trust means that all countries should transcend differences in ideology
and social system, discard the mentality of cold war and power politics and
refrain from mutual suspicion and hostility. They should maintain frequent
dialogue and mutual briefings on each other’s security and defense policies and
major operations.
Mutual benefit means that all countries should meet the objective needs of
social development in the era of globalization, respect each other’s security
interests and create conditions for others’ security while ensuring their own
security interests with a view to achieving common security.
Equality means that all countries, big or small, are equal members of the
international community and should respect each other, treat each other as
equals, refrain from interfering in other countries’ internal affairs and
promote the democratization of the international relations.
Coordination means that all countries should seek peaceful settlement of their
disputes through negotiation and carry out wide ranging and deep-going
cooperation on security issues of mutual concern so as to remove any potential
dangers and prevent the outbreak of wars and conflicts.
China maintains that cooperation under the new security concept should be
flexible and diversified in form and model. It could be a multi-lateral security
mechanism of relatively strong binding force or a forum-like multi-lateral
security dialogue. It could also be a confidence-building bilateral security
dialogue or a non-governmental dialogue of an academic nature. The promotion of
greater interaction of economic interests is another effective means of
safeguarding security.
China believes that ours is a world of diversity, and this is particularly true
of the Asia-Pacific region. Given such reality, only mutual-accommodation,
mutual-learning and greater cooperation can serve to achieve common progress and
development of all nations. Therefore, security cooperation is not just
something for countries with similar or identical views and mode of development,
it also includes cooperation between countries whose views and mode of
development differ.
IV. Practice
China is working actively to put the new security concept into practice. Our
experience gives full evidence to the feasibility of the new security concept.
China is vigorously seeking settlement of dispute with its neighbors through
peaceful negotiation. Up to now, China has resolved the land boundary question
with most of its neighboring countries. It has signed a Beibu Bay demarcation
agreement with Viet Nam and is conducting consultations with ASEAN on the code
of conduct in the South China Sea. As for the outstanding disputes and issues,
China has reached consensus with the parties concerned to maintain peace and
stability in the disputed areas and resolve the issues through peaceful means.
Disputes over territorial land and water are no longer an obstacle for China and
its neighbors to develop normal cooperation and good-neighborly relations and
jointly build regional security.
China sees the economic exchange and interaction as an important avenue to a
lasting security in its surrounding area. As an active participant in regional
economic cooperation of various kinds, China is working closely with other
countries in the region for a multi-channel, multi-dimensional and multi-faceted
new economic cooperation in this part of the world. The development of the
regional economic cooperation mechanisms as spearheaded by the 10+3 cooperation
in East Asia have not only brought real and tangible economic benefits to the
countries concerned, but also enhanced the mutual exchange, mutual trust and
cooperation between all parties involved, thus contributing to the security and
stability of the region.
China is working for the establishment and development of a regional security
dialogue and cooperation mechanism. China believes that the key guarantee for
Asian-Pacific security comes from a regional security framework featuring
dialogue instead of confrontation. To this end, China has placed great
importance on and taken an active part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
The SCO is a successful case of the new security concept. Since the launching of
“Shanghai 5” process in 1996, China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz and Kazakhstan
have successively signed The Agreement on Confidence Building Measures in
Military Field along the Border Areas and The Agreement on Mutual Reduction of
Military Forces along the Border Areas, and have properly resolved their border
issues left from history through friendly consultation. The “Shanghai 5” has
taken the lead in making an unequivocal stand and proposition of combating
terrorism, separatism and extremism. Since the founding of SCO, the six member
states have successively signed The Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism,
Separatism and Extremism and The Agreement on Regional Counter-terrorism Agency.
The SCO members have taken an active part in the international and regional
counter-terrorism campaign and worked steadily for greater regional economic
cooperation. And they are strong advocates of the security cooperation model of
non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting at any other countries or
regions
The ARF has made positive progress in promoting confidence building measures and
the preventive diplomacy. The Forum seeks to promote security through dialogue
on an equal footing. Such an approach is in line with the new security concept.
In response to the situation after September 11, the Forum has placed greater
emphasis on non-traditional security issues and has started substantive
discussions on and collaboration in their solution. All this has added to the
vitality of the Forum and helped to promote mutual trust and cooperation.
All Rights Reserved
Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations office
at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the
opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or
its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by
MIIS.
