The G20 Summit in Rome has just come to an end, and the 4th China International Import Expo has arrived as scheduled. The picture shows the national exhibition center overlooking the sky, which is one of the most delicate flowers in Shanghai at night
The G20 Summit in Rome has just come to an end, the fourth China International Import Expo is coming as scheduled, and President Xi Jinping's opening keynote speech mentioned "four unswerving", the first is "China will unswervingly uphold true multilateralism". The Fourth China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "CIIE") will continue to embrace the "home globalization", give the world the opportunity to share the market, and safeguard the common interests of the world, which is the best interpretation of China's practice of multilateralism.
True multilateralism became the strongest voice of the times. But without the cold-war mentality, there can be no real multilateralism.
The Cold War mentality of finding enemies remains haunting
The Five Eyes Alliance, an intelligence-sharing alliance of five English-speaking nations that includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, is still essentially a Cold War mentality in handling today's international relations
2021 marks 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, as well as the 50th anniversary of China's return to its legitimate seat at the United Nations. China's restoration of its legitimate seat in the United Nations is an important watershed in the history of the United Nations and the development of China's relations with the world, and has witnessed China's great practice of constantly moving to the center of the world stage and practicing multilateralism. However, today, 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the current international community, the Cold War mentality, zero-sum mentality, power politics, and alliance diplomacy are constantly impacting the international order, and all kinds of "pseudo-multilateralism" are raging.
US President Joe Biden stated at the 76th session of the Unrelated General Assembly that he would "not seek a new Cold War," but Harvard University professor Joseph Nye recently proposed that Biden's China strategy may indeed be affected by the Cold War mentality, which will only imprison the US China policy. The existence of the Cold War mentality is not only detrimental to the sustained and stable development of Sino-US relations, but also a great obstacle to the development of global governance and multilateralism. There is an urgent need for the international community to emerge from the cold war and to practice genuine multilateralism.
The root cause of the current spread of the Cold War mentality in the international community lies in the fact that the United States and its NATO allies still stubbornly use the Cold War model as the main means of handling international and regional affairs. The end of the Cold War should have ushered in a new era in which the international community abandoned confrontation and developed hand in hand, and it was reasonable to unite and cooperate under the framework of the United Nations as the core, and seek common development and win-win cooperation under the banner of multilateralism. However, the cold war mentality has not completely withdrawn from the stage of history, which mainly reflects the fact that the United States and its NATO allies regard themselves as "victors of the Cold War" and vainly attempt to continue their hegemony and control of world affairs in the Cold War model. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and ITS NATO allies have never been able to walk out of historical inertia, still on the wrong road of finding the enemy, containing the enemy and trying to defeat the enemy, and its foreign policy course has always revolved around this so-called "grand strategy", especially in the context of the relative decline in the strength and influence of american hegemony, and returning to the Cold War model that was once familiar with and victorious has become the first choice. President Biden declared at the United Nations General Assembly that he "will not seek a new Cold War", but his actions are a different set, cobbling together "tripartite security partners", upgrading the "quadrilateral mechanism", and tightening the "Five Eyes Alliance", which is essentially still today's international relations with a Cold War mentality. Although Russian-US relations are communicated and dialogued at different levels, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov, Russian-US relations are "more dangerous than the Cold War."
Bloc confrontation and alliance diplomacy are the biggest obstacles
The fundamental purpose of the "Democratic Alliance" and the "AUKUS" security alliance recently advocated by the United States is to deter and contain China and Russia through group confrontation and alliance diplomacy
As a legacy of the Cold War era, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains the military and political organization of the United States and the West as a military and political organization to ensure its security, and after successive "transformations" in the post-Cold War era, it finally returns to the Cold War model again, and transcends its traditional function to actively seek out enemies, echoing the foreign policy of the United States. The NATO 2021 summit said that China poses a "systemic challenge" to the rules-based international order and areas related to NATO security, which is an unprecedented strategic provocation in NATO history to a country that has no intersection in political and security affairs. Nato's newly adopted new deterrent strategy against Russia emphasizes that it does not rule out the use of nuclear weapons and other unconventional means of attack, taking the lead in expelling Russian diplomats, resulting in Russia's strong countermeasures, the complete suspension of the institutional arrangements for mutual communication between Russia and NATO, and the return of Russia and NATO to the Cold War confrontation model, which has brought serious adverse effects to the security and stability of the Eurasian region.
The bloc confrontation and alliance diplomacy promoted by the traditional Cold War mentality are a great obstacle to promoting multilateralism, seriously restrict the unity and cooperation of the international community, damage the international system with the United Nations as the core, and are not conducive to the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind. Driven by the Cold War mentality, the deterrent measures taken against the imaginary enemy must be political confrontation, economic sanctions, diplomatic expulsion, military confrontation, ideological hostility, etc. After the Ukraine crisis, the United States and Western allies sanctioned Russia, as well as the Sino-US trade war since the Trump era, and the deterioration of Sino-US relations, all reflect that the United States and Western allies still use the traditional Cold War mentality to oppose China and Russia.
After the Biden administration came to power, its series of institutional arrangements in politics, economy, diplomacy, and security were all a cobble together of small circles, suppress opponents, and unilaterally practice in the name of multilateralism, using traditional alliance diplomacy, such as the transatlantic alliance, the U.S.-Japan alliance, the U.S.-Australia alliance, plus the newly advocated "Democratic Alliance" and "AUKUS" security alliance, etc. Its fundamental purpose is to deter and contain China and Russia through group confrontation and alliance diplomacy.
However, in contrast, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia has set an example of a new type of major-country relations cooperation in the international community, which has won wide repercussions. In response to the Cold War mentality of the United States and NATO, Putin publicly affirmed at the annual meeting of the 2021 Valdai Forum that there is no closed military bloc between Russia and China, nor the idea of establishing a Russian-Chinese military alliance. From the very beginning, China has advocated non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third countries in Sino-Russian cooperation, taking the lead in stepping out of the historical baggage and lessons of the Cold War period, and vigorously promoting the great practice of a new type of international relations and a new type of major-country relations in the new era.
Break down the deceptiveness of "pseudo-multilateralism"
On October 25, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the 50th Anniversary Of the Restoration of the People's Republic of China's Legitimate Seat in the United Nations in Beijing. Source: Xinhua News Agency
To break the Cold War mentality and practice genuine multilateralism, we must also eliminate the deception of all kinds of "pseudo-multilateralism". Genuine multilateralism must be the cooperation of the international community within the framework of the international order and rules, with the United Nations at its core and based on international law. "Pseudo-multilateralism" often engages in unilateralism and bullying in the name of multilateralism, which is even more deceptive.
In the face of the century-old changes and the superimposed impact of the century epidemic, the international community urgently needs a good solution to the current dilemma, and unites and cooperates to meet the challenges of global public issues under the framework of the United Nations. Stepping out of the Cold War and practicing true multilateralism conforms to the trend of historical development and the urgent need to build a community with a shared future for mankind. If the Cold War mentality is not eliminated, it will be difficult to advance true multilateralism. Breaking the cold-war mentality and practicing genuine multilateralism requires upholding the authority and status of the United Nations and respecting international rules that are jointly formulated and observed by the States Members of the United Nations, without and without exception. Breaking the Cold War mentality and practicing true multilateralism requires cooperation among major powers, especially major countries with conscience to get out of the inertial thinking of the Cold War, conform to the trend of historical development, and base themselves on the common interests of all mankind to cope with various challenges facing mankind and global issues such as terrorism, climate change, network security, and biosecurity.
On November 5th, on the morning of the first day of the opening of the Fourth CIIE, Qingpu West Hongqiao Enterprise Yundu (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. signed a US$700 million purchase intention order with exhibitor Xingyun Logistics Trading (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd
On the first day of the Expo (5th), a Hong Kong company that is deeply engaged in the field of digital chain and a company in Shanghai Qingpu signed the first order worth 700 million US dollars, 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions appeared at the enterprise exhibition, 58 countries and 3 countries organized to participate in the national exhibition, the spillover effect of the Expo is emerging in these days, China's market is becoming the world's market, the shared market, everyone's market. The indisputable facts and rising figures are always a reminder that in the year of the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of China's restoration of its legitimate seat in the United Nations and the 60th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement, standing at a new historical starting point, the international community should unite under the banner of multilateralism and let the torch of multilateralism illuminate the way forward for mankind.
Author: Liu Jun (Vice President of China Association of International Relations, Dean of Institute of International Relations and Regional Development, East China Normal University)
Editor: Qian Yichen